Beef and Mushroom Chop Suey

A recent trip to a Chinese restaurant, where I enjoyed this dish as part of a combination meal for three, led me to make my own version of beef and mushroom chop suey. It was tasty in the restaurant but the pieces of beef were few and far between. The dish was mostly bean sprouts. My version was much more generous on the beef front with about half a pound of steak divided among two portions.

The only change I made to this recipe was to ‘velvet’ the beef by marinating the sliced beef with one teaspoon of baking soda, for half an hour, before the beef was thoroughly rinsed in cold water, patted dry and then marinated.

Tourtiere (Version 1)

About thirty years ago, I made an attempt at a tourtiere, a French-Canadian meat pie, but the pastry was so hard that I ended up tossing the whole thing. I finally decided to try again using a recipe I found on line. The crust was a great success, but the filling was a bit on the bland side. I’ll try again one day. In the mean time, this was the result.

Beef Rissoles with Zucchini

My neighbour gifted me with a giant zucchini (seedless) and after making a chocolate zucchini loaf, I still had about 75 % of the zucchini left so I did some googling and found this recipe for beef rissoles with grated zucchini in the meat mixture. Here are some pretty pictures taken during the process of assembling the rissoles.

Pictorial recipe

 

 

Lazy Lasagna Casserole

I had some ricotta and provolone in the fridge and thought of making a lasagna but I didn’t have any lasagna noodles and was too lazy to make my own from scratch so I hunted down a recipe that used penne, ziti or medium shells for a casserole type dish. I had penne rigate so that’s what I went with. And, in place of the doctored marinara the recipe called for, I used a jar of mushroom and green pepper pasta sauce. The results were pretty good. And I now have enough pasta for five more meals.

Hawaiian Loco Moco Redux

Too lazy to make a real cooking post but I thought I’d share today’s lunch, a Hawaiian loco moco.

This version features a bowl of left over basmati rice (long grain, jasmine or sushi rice works too, as does couscous, quinoa or cauliflower rice), topped with a hamburger patty and canned Swiss Chalet beef gravy.

Add a fried sunny side up egg (white is set but the yolk is still runny). A little green onion for garnish.

Dig in.

Fast, easy and delicious.

PS: In Hawaii, a dinner plate also adds macaroni salad and coleslaw.

Menchi Katsu (Japanese Fried Hamburgers)

Some years ago, I made the Hungarian fried burgers/patties/balls called “fasirt”. These panko breaded and fried Japanese hamburgers, or “menchi katsu”, reminded me of them. They’re flavourful and the coating seals in the moisture making for a juicy patty.

I found the idea and basic recipe for these burgers on my favourite Japanese Youtube channel, TabiEats. I’ll post my rewritten version of the recipe at the bottom of the page.

Menchi Katsu – serves 2-3
from TabiEats

Meat patties
150 gm onion, diced, sauteed and cooled
300 gm ground beef, pork or a mixture of the two
1/3 tsp salt
1 tbsp Worchestershire sauce
1 tbsp ketchup
pinch nutmeg, reduces smell of pork
couple of pinches of black pepper
1 egg

Coating
flour
1 egg, beaten
Panko

Side dish
thinly shredded cabbage
rice
sliced tomatoes

Combine ground beef with everything, except the sauteed onion, by hand until sticky. It will be a very soft mixture. Add the onions. Mix again for 3-5 minutes. If it seems too wet, you can add a bit of bread crumb but it shouldn’t be necessary.

Shape into 4-6 evenly sized patties. If the meat mixture is very sticky, you may oil your hands lightly to prevent that. Throw the meat patty from one hand to the other to firm up the patty by eliminating excess air.

Coat with flour (be gentle so the patty doesn’t fall apart), dip into beaten egg to coat and then generously roll in the Panko bread crumbs.

Shallow fry at 350 deg F about 2 1/2 min on each side.

(Strain and reuse the oil for stir frying.)

Serve with tonkatsu sauce, as part of a complete meal or “set”, or include in a bento lunch.

Delicious with a bowl of miso soup, a side of ramen noodles and steamed broccoli.

Sushi Rice Burger a la Mos Burger

NEWSFLASH: The Japanese fast food chain, Mos Burger, serves a hamburger on a rice bun.

I first heard about this dish on the Youtube channel, TabiEats, and was intrigued enough to give it a try. Especially after seeing a similar dish that they made, a grilled cheese sandwich, using a rice bun in place of sandwich bread. Searching Youtube revealed many other people who had the same idea. The Tasty channel, for example, presented four different versions of such a burger including, chicken karaage, shrimp tempura, teriyaki salmon and shrimp cake. I hope to give some of them a try in the future.

The following recipe was inspired by the TabiEats channel and is a written account of how I made it.

Japanese Rice Burger a la Mos Burger – serves 1

Additional ingredients

cooked hamburger patty
slice of cheese
mayonnaise (Kewpie or Hellman’s or Miracle Whip salad dressing)
thinly shredded lettuce
ketchup
mustard
crispy bacon (optional)
sliced pickle (optional)

Rice Burger Buns – makes 2 x ~4-inch rice patties

1 1/2 cups hot/freshly cooked Japanese sushi rice
2 tbsp cornstarch, sifted to eliminate lumps
salt, to taste (~1/8 tsp)

In a medium bowl, add the freshly cooked sushi rice and sift the cornstarch over the top. Cut the cornstarch in with a wet wooden or silicone spatula so as not to mash the rice grains. Season with salt to taste.

Line a 1 cup ramekin with a sheet of plastic food wrap leaving a generous amount of overhang to be able to fold over the plastic wrap around the rice bun. Add half the rice to the ramekin, pressing down firmly to form into an even patty. Remove the rice patty from the ramekin using the pastic wrap as a sling. Wrap the excess plastic around the patty. Repeat with a fresh sheet of plastic wrap and the remaining rice. Refrigerate the two rice patties for at least 30 minutes or overnight.

Preheat a large saute pan over medium heat and add a tsp or so of vegetable oil to the pan. With a folded paper towel wipe the oil over the pan, leaving just a thin coating behind.

Remove the rice patties from the refrigerator, remove the plastic wrap and toast the patties in the preheated saute pan until golden brown on both sides. Transfer the patties to a plate and assemble.

Brush the inside of both rice patties with a bit of mayonnaise. Top one of the patties with shredded lettuce, slice of cheese, bacon, the hamburger patty, ketchup, mustard and pickles.

Place the second patty, mayonnaise side down, on top, and serve.

Salisbury Steak a la Graham

When you make a recipe within a day of it being posted on a blog and love it enough to share the link, it must be a pretty good recipe.

And it IS.

I didn’t use any Kitchen Bouquet cause I didn’t have any but it’s just a matter of aesthetics anyway. Everything else is (mostly) the same. You might want to make three patties not two, unless you’re a very hearty eater.

 

REVIEW: Make it as soon as you can. You probably already have all the ingredients on hand. A few fresh mushrooms are a nice touch. I had some white button mushrooms so I diced a couple and added them to the Salisbury steak meat mixture. And a couple more to the mushroom-onion gravy. By the way, you’ll have a LOT of gravy. Enjoy it.

 

Beef Bulgogi Redux

I’ve made a half-hearted version of beef bulgogi in the past but this time, I made it as authentically as I could. I bought a nice piece of sirloin steak, par froze it and cut it as thinly as possible. I also bought an Asian pear. And watched several videos before I chose the one which produced this dish.

PS: I only used half the pear in this dish so I sliced up and ate the rest on its own. It LOOKS like an apple but tastes like a pear with a finer granular texture. It is delicious.

Sweet and salty though it COULD be hotter. Next time … more gochujang. Or I’ll buy a hotter version of the Korean chili paste. I used the this recipe, but I added shaved carrots for added colour and nutrition.

Still, it’s a tasty and relatively inexpensive home made bulgogi. Served over sushi rice but rice noodles are delicious too.

Mise en place – the meat was marinated overnight.

After cooking

Beef Chow Fun ala Frugal Hausfrau

Last post today … I promise. I was on a roll.

I get my ideas/recipes from ‘only the best’ people.

Like this beef chow fun (beef and rice noodles) which came from the blog, “The Frugal Hausfrau”. I followed the recipe exactly and didn’t have to make any substitutions because I HAD all the ingredients. (So proud of my pantry.)

The wide rice noodles (the red package) took 5 minutes to cook. Then I drained, ice shocked and drained them well and set them aside just before assembly.

I blanched the bean sprouts by placing them into a stand drainer and pouring the boiling water from cooking the noodles over them. They were still crunchy after being added to the beef and sauce along with the noodles and tossing together just long enough to coat the noodles and warm everything through.

REVIEW: An amazing dish. Easy to make and cook with some judicious planning/prepping. Make it. You won’t be disappointed.