Gyudon (Japanese Beef Bowl) - Recipe

RECIPE VERDICT - Make this Japanese staple at home.

I lived in Japan for a couple of years and gyudon is a staple there.  Yoshinoya (now with locations in the United States) was the place to go for a delicious, fast lunch.  The Yoshinoya here in Las Vegas is pretty darn close to its Japanese counterpart, but I live nowhere near one.

Ingredients:
Thinly sliced beef (read below)
1 medium onion
Dashi (read below)
Rice (Nishiki is my house preference)
Shichimi togarashi (red pepper mix) (optional)
Pickled ginger (cut) (optional)

Boil dashi.  Dashi is a very important part of any gyudon.  Dashi is basically a flavorful fish stock even though the final product does not taste fishy.  In my search for dashi, I went to my local Japanese market and asked.  They pointed out a rather expensive bottle that needed to be mixed with sake and mirin.  This is probably what I should have done for the best flavor.  However, I'm cheap and I bought a box of dashi powder.

This box came with 5 packets and no instructions in English or Japanese. 

I'm rather shy when it comes to fish flavored food.  I really did not want to eat fishy beef.  I used 1 packet in 6 cups of water, which might be weaker than it needed to be, but err on the side of caution, I say.  Salt the water.

Bring to a boil and add the onion, cut in half and sliced.  Boil for three minutes and add beef.

The beef has to be sliced super thin (seriously thinner than you are thinking).  Many American butchers can't do it.  Sometimes you can teach them, just have them freeze the beef for an hour or more before slicing and then slice it thinner than they think is possible.  The other option is finding an Asian market.  The beef used for shabu shabu is perfect.  This time I used beef brisket point which is flavorful, but not as delicate.  In the case of gyudon, fatty, marbled meat is a plus.

I have never understood the green plastic garnish.  It's everywhere in Japan. 

Put the beef, slice by slice, into the water.  Cook for 5 minutes.  Serve over rice right away if you are hungry.  If you want more flavor, put in the refrigerator for a couple of hours and reheat.

Traditionally, top gyudon with shichimi togarashi and sliced pickled ginger.  However, these are totally optional and acquired tastes.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Depression Spoons - Recipe

RECIPE VERDICT: A quick, easy dessert to make when making an effort drains you of energy.  Perfect for Golden Girl marathons.

This is all you need....in life.

INGREDIENTS:

Chocolate or chocolate/hazelnut spread
Peanut butter
Spoon
Goat (optional)
Golden Girls marathon

This recipe is a perfect last minute creation that you make as you eat it, just like fondue or teppanyaki.

DIRECTIONS:
Put a desirable amount of peanut butter on spoon.  Dip spoon into chocolate spread.  Enjoy.

Hummus - Recipe

RECIPE VERDICT:  This recipe has built in flexibility, so every time you make it, it gets better.

I was so overwhelmingly disappointed with hummus recipes online.  They always end up disappointing, but what was I to do?  All I had to go off of is the recipes I find.  They usually don't offer much in the way of variation.  Sometimes the comment section provides different tips, but alas, even those proved fruitless. I even read a comment where someone was upset that their hummus didn't taste like store-bought.  What?????!?!?!?  Store-bought hummus is not the goal!  Store-bought hummus is the hummus you buy because you can't find real hummus.  It's the frozen pizza of hummus.  You don't make pizza at home and then lament when it isn't as good as frozen.  That's crazy.

I was in search of restaurant style hummus or home style hummus (if your home happened to be in the Middle East).  I had given up hope....until...I was in home of a female chef from Israel and saw how she made it.  The secret?  Lots of tahini!  I've only found recipes that have such a minuscule amount of tahini.  I've read comments where people have stated that they put in less tahini, because it overpowered the hummus.  Bah!!!  Bah, I say!!!  Tahini is delicious.  It is the ingredient that makes hummus so addictive.  It is also one of the more expensive ingredients and therefore often omitted from store bought products.

In any case, this chef was making hummus.  She tasted it and decided it needed a little more tahini and proceeded to dump half a large jar of tahini into a large batch of hummus.  The result was undeniable.  I didn't get to see the first part of the recipe, so I don't know if she used canned or fresh garbanzo beans, but I did see everything else that went into it.  I came up with my smaller batch canned version.

This was a thick batch.  Subsequent batches were thinner and to my liking.

 Ingredients:

1 can garbanzo beans and ALL of the liquid in the can (that's right....ALL!)
1 medium sized clove of garlic (I love garlic and honestly, this is all you need)
The juice of one lemon (I don't want lemony hummus.  One is more than enough.  I even might try without.)
A ton of tahini
Olive oil
More olive oil and paprika on top
Sour salt (citric acid)  I don't have this, but the chef used it.  I think it is fine without it.

Put it all in a medium sized food processor and voila.

I prefer my hummus thin.  That's the first hummus I tried and has always been my favorite.  Most recipes call for the a small amount of liquid from the garbanzo bean can.  Nope, put it all in.

For a recipe this size, online recipes call for 1/3 cup tahini.  While I learned from the chef not to measure, I would say that I put about 1 cup of tahini per batch and would feel comfortable adding more.  Tahini is delicious by itself.  I don't mind if a little garbanzo bean gets mixed in with it.  I don't recommend tahini that comes in a can.  It can be notoriously hard to mix once separated and the canned variety separates a lot.  Sometimes, that's all you can find though.  You make do with what you get.

I find that olive oil tastes good by itself.  Using that logic, I drizzle a lot of olive oil into the food processor while blending.  I just make sure that the hummus is a smooth consistency and forms the equivalent of soft peaks.

Lemon and Mint Marinated Chicken Thighs - Recipe

Very flavorful, cheap and easy.  Even pleases people who don't usually like chicken thighs.

Mix marinade of
4 large smashed garlic cloves ground into paste with 1 1/2 tsp of kosher salt
1/2 cup packed chopped fresh mint or other fresh herb (flat leaf parsley if you are poor)
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
Juice of one lemon (about 3 tbs.)
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 cup olive oil drizzled in while wisking

Put salt rubbed chicken thighs (about 4 or 5) into marinade for 1/2 hour to overnight in fridge.  You can use with skin or without, with bone or without, just adjust cooking time.

Cook on medium heat with heavy weight on top (eg. another frying pan with heavy things in it) for five minutes.  Remove weight and cook for another 5 minutes.  Turn over, replace weight and cook until done, 4-6 minutes.

Gobi Jhalfrazie - Recipe

OK, this is a basic Indian vegetarian dish, with cauliflower and carrots that tastes great over rice.  As is normal with Indian food, it is spice heavy.  If you like Indian food, you must invest in some garam masala.  You usually can find it cheap in import stores.  It tends to be overpriced in supermarkets.  You can make your own, by combining a lot of different spices (pictured below).

I like this recipe because it is made with things that I almost always have at home (I've included possible substitutions that I've used).  The only odd item is the cauliflower, which can be substituted with any vegetable.  This recipe tastes good as is, but tastes better the next day reheated.

3 tbs. canola oil (or olive oil)
5 cloves coarsely chopped garlic (or if you prefer a 2-inch piece of chopped ginger or garlic and ginger!)
2 large yellow onions coarsely chopped
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbs. ground coriander
5 or 6 large peeled and thinly sliced carrots
1 head of cauliflower, cut into medium sized florets
1 Serrano chile (with or without all of the seeds depending on how hot you want it)
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 cup ketchup to add sweet flavor if desired
1 can of tomato sauce (or preferably two ripe tomatoes cut into medium dice) (whichever you choose will dramatically alter the recipe, so essentially this is like two recipes in one)
1 1/4 cup frozen peas
1 cup water

In a dutch oven, cook garlic (and ginger) over medium-high heat for 30 seconds in oil.

Add the onions and 1 tsp salt.  Cook until edges are brown, about 5 minutes.  Add coriander and stir for 1 minute.  Add carrots, cauliflower, and chile.  Cook, stirring often for 15 minutes.

Add garam masala, cayenne, ketchup, tomato sauce (or tomatoes), peas, 1 tsp salt, and the water.  Simmer and cover for 5 minutes.

Midwestern Guacamole - Recipe

RECIPE VERDICT: They'll all come a runnin' for this fancied up version of avocados.

One thing that I can make well is what I call Midwestern guacamole.  This is actually how I grew up making guacamole and for some reason it really upsets guacamole enthusiasts.  At least, it upsets them until they try it.  After they try it, it's like crack and they can't get it in their fat, little mouths fast enough.  The first taste is free, but after that you need to pay!

Anyway, the secret to making anything Midwestern is to add mayonnaise (Ironically, that makes it more French, too.  Ironic in that people in the Midwest tend to despise France.)  I start with however many avocados I have and cut them in half and remove the pit using the cut and twist method.  Greg constantly thinks that I'm going to cut off my hand doing this, but this is how Martha Stewart taught me and I still have all of my fingers.  I score the inside of the avocado and use a spoon to scoop it into a bowl.  I take a regular spoon from the drawer and eyeball the amount of mayonnaise to put in.  I say about a tablespoon for every two avocados.  I then pour in my favorite salsa in an equal amount.  Add lemon juice if you got it to prevent it from turning brown and mash it all together until almost smooth.  Add salsa or mayo to your liking.  You've just made crack there...it's got high street value.

 

I learned something about avocados being stringy.  Stringy avocados are taken out of the maturation process at the wrong time or sometimes they are a certain strain of avocado that has string.  California avocados are rarely stringy, unlike avocados from other countries, so BUY AMERICAN when making your Midwestern guacamole. 

Japanese Curry - Recipe

RECIPE VERDICT - Fast, easy and delicious, who could ask for anything more.

OK, I know now someone is going to say something about how this is a restaurant blog and not a recipe blog...blah, blah, blah, we get it, Dad.  But what is better than going out, but making it at home.  If you don't live on the strip than I think that this fits into my blog.

I can't cook.  Or rather, I can cook, but I need a recipe and complicated instructions.  It becomes a frustrating, throw-yourself-on-the-couch hassle.  So, I generally try to do recipes that are easy to make and frustration free.  Think spaghetti without sides.  Think grilled cheese sandwiches.  Think one knife and one pot.  You get the picture.

I lived in Japan and always got the Curry packets that they have in Japan.  Just boil the whole thing, add rice and voilà, dinner is served.  In America, because of health concerns, you can only get the packets without meat and only one brand.  Luckily, I had a Japanese roommate when I returned to the States.  She made Japanese curry for Greg and I twice.  It took hours and always ended up with a pot so burned on the bottom that we would have to throw it away.  It came out perfectly both times.

The thought of slaving away for hours over a meal and having to throw away cookware never appealed to me.  I started to think about it and decided, my old roommate always did things in the most difficult way.  One time she ate all the cheese in the house.  Greg said, "Did you eat all the cheese?"  She said that she did and she wanted to know if 7-11 had cheese, because she couldn't drive.  We said not to worry about it and that 7-11 didn't carry cheese.  She then said she was going for a walk at about 7:00 PM.  Four hours later she returned from walking to the nearest supermarket miles and miles away.  She bought cheese.  She gave it to us and promptly went to sleep.  She did things a little oddly, perhaps just maybe I should try making Japanese curry.  Oh and we found out later that 7-11 does have cheese.


First, you start with curry seasoning.  This is easy to do as they come in convenient packets.  I decided on Vermont Curry, because it seems like such a funny name for Japanese curry.  I do have to admit that when in Japan I always drank Georgia coffee, produced by Coca-Cola.

 

A touch of apple and honey?  I couldn't taste it, which is a good thing.

The recipe is right on the box.  I cut up 1 and a half onions into strips (it asked for 2), 2 medium potatoes into small chunks, and 2 carrots into slices (it asked for 1), and half a pound of pork into small chunks.  I threw that all into a Dutch oven on the stove and cooked it on medium.  If you don't have a dutch oven you can certainly use a large pot, but I highly recommend a Dutch oven.  We got ours at Costco for $50 and it makes you feel like Julia Child.

I stirred pretty regularly and I didn't think that everything would get cooked.  About 14 minutes later, all the pork was cooked through and the onions were translucent.  I added 3 1/2 cups of water and brought to a boil.  Then you add the chunks of curry mix and simmer it on medium/low for 20 minutes.  Ta dah!

 

I stole this pic off of the web.  My curry looked similar.

Just serve it over medium grain rice.  I really suggest a rice cooker.  It makes cooking rice hassle free and keeps the rice warm until you want it.  I use calrose rice only because I can never find Japanese varieties in Las Vegas.  Calrose rice is a California rice and is close enough.  UPDATE:  Nishiki rice is now the household favorite and is, by far, better than Calrose.

 

The results were amazing.  It tasted great, took little time, and did not create much of a mess.  It is going into my normal rotation of recipes.