Bear Cuisine

Beef Gyudon

BEEF GYUDON

 

Sue Ellen's Beef Bowl looked so good that I searched around for a recipe after we returned home. i found one in Zhizuo Tsuji's Japanese Cooking, A Simple Art. He identifies this as an item served at Japan's fast-food chains. Our fast-food should be half this good.

BEEF BOWL

(4 servings)

• 6-8 cups hot cooked rice
• 1/2 pound thin-sliced beef
• 1 medium round onion
• 3 Tablespoons sald oil

Sauce

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup dark soy sauce
• 1/3 cup mirin
• 2 Tablespoons fresh ginger juice*

To Prepare: Boil plain white rice.

Have the butcher cut the beef into paper-thin slices. Cut slice into 2-inch lengths.

Slice the round onion.

To Cook: In a large frying pan or wok, heat about 3 tablespoons vegetable oil over high heat. Stir fry the onion for a few minutes until soft Add beef slices and continue stir-frying for another minute or so until the meat is no longer red. Add sauce and continue stir frying for another minutes. Remove from heat and stir in ginger juice.

To assemble and serve: Put portions of hot rice, 1 1/2 to  2 cups per serving, into individual deep large soup bowls. Cover rice with stir-fried beef and onion. Moisten with a few tablespoons sauce. Serve immediately.

*Choose ginger that is firm and tight. Avoid pieces hat are flabby or have soft spots, as well as those having shriveled skin Pare away skin of the amount you will use just before using. Obtain juice by squeezing finely grated root.

Turkey Neck Sugo

One of the great pleausres of visiting our friends Tina and David is that Tina and I get to cook together. We always have a lot of fun--sipping wine, chatting about the state of the world and our smaller worlds and we get to make something that tastes great into the bargain. On this visit we concentrated on trying recipes from the most recent volume of Canal House Cooking: The Good Life. I wanted to try this recipe for a sauce made from turkey necks. So, we did. It has wonderful flavor and you can use it on any number of pastas or as they suggest and we did, on gnocchi. The original recipe doesn't add the meat back into the sauce, but when we finished cooking the meat it still had a lot of flavor left. So, I decided to shred the meat and add it back into the sauce, making it more like a ragu. However you decide to cook this, you can't go wrong.

TURKEY NECK SUGO

(makes 3-4 cups)

1. 5 pounds turkey necks
2. Salt and Pepper
3. 1/4 cup olive oil
4. 2 yellow onions, finely chopped
5. 1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
6. 1/4 whole nutmeg, grated
7. Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
8. 2 bay leaves
9. 1 cup whole milk
10. 1 cup white wine
11. 1 can Italian San Marzano plum tomatoes, 28-ounce

Season the turney necks with salt and pepper. Heat the olve oil in a large, heavy ovenproof pot with a lid over medium-high heat. Put the necks in the pot and brown on all sides, about 20 minutes.

Remove the necks from the pot and set them aside.

Reduce heat to medium. Put the onions and carrots into the pot and cook until softened, about 15 minutes. Stir in the nutmeg, red pepper flakes and bay leaves and season with salt and pepper. Cook for about a minute.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Increase heat under the pan to high and add the milk to the pot.Cook, stirring occasionally until the milk has reduced and been absorbed by the onions and carrots, 5-10 minutes. Add the wine and cook until it has also reduced and been absorbed by the vegetables, 5-10 minutes.

Return the necks to the pot, add the tomatoes, crushing them with your hand and  add 4 cups of water. Cover the pot and cook in the oven for about 3 hours. Remove the pot from the oven. Remove and discard the necks from the sauce. If the sauce needs further reduction, coo over medum heat, stirring from time to time with a wooden spoon, until it is the consistency that you like. Serve with gnocchi and sprinkle with parmigianao-regianno.

 

 

 

Corned Beef Hash

One of the best things about having corned beef in the fridge is that you can make hash. This happens to be one of my favorite special breakfasts (or supper for that matter), but it is rare that you can get good Corned Beef Hash in a restaurant. Most of the time you get tinned meat and frozen potatoes. Yuck! But when you make it at home from corned beef that you have made, you have a splendid dish. This recipe from from David Rosengarten.

 CORNED BEEF HASH

(4 servings)

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
  
• 2 cups diced onion
  
• 3 tablespoons flour
  
• 2 cups dicd, peeled, cooked potato
  
• 3 cups diced, leftover corned beef
  

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Melt butter in a 10 1/2-inch  cast-iron skillet over low heat. Add onion to skillet and cook, stirring occasionally until the onion is transparent.

Sprinkle flour over the onions and stir to blend well. Cook for 2 minutes more, stirring occasionally. Increase heat to medium. Add potato and corned beef. Continue to cook for another minute, stirring constantly. Cover skillet and place in preheated oven. Bake for 30 minutes.

 Serve with a poached egg on top. 

Corned Beef

St. Patrick's Day has come and gone, but this year it was memorable for us because I corned our beef brisket myself. This was the first time I attempted it and I have to say it was surprisingly easy and possibly the best corned beef we had ever tasted. I was inspired to try by The City Cook who took her cue from Julia Child and The Best Recipe by the editors of Cook's Illustrated Magazine.

CORNED BEEF

1. 1/2 cup kosher salt
2. 1 tablespoon black peppercorns, crusted into big pieces
3. 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4. 3/4 teaspoon ground allspice
5. 1 tablespoon dried thyme
6. 1/2 teaspoon hot paprika
7. 2 bay leaves, crumbled
8. 1/2 center cut beef brisket, about 2 to 4 pounds, trimmed of excess fat but with a thin layer of fate left on the meat; rinse and patted dry with paper towels

1. In a small bowl combine the salt, peppercorns, ground pepper, allspice, thyme, paprika and crumbled bay leaves.

2. With a sharp serving fork or the tip of a skewer, pierce the surface of the brisket about 25 to 30 times on both sides. This will help the salt rub penetrate the meat.

3. Place the brisket inside a large plastic bag that can be tightly sealed; a one gallon zipper-lock bag works well. Add all of the salt mixture and use your hands to rub it on all surfaces of the brisket.

4. Seal the plastic bag, pressing out any air as you do, and place it in a shallow baking pan or small sheet pan. Place on top of it one or two other baking dishes or other heavy objects like cans  of tomatoes, weighing it down.

5. Refrigerate 5 days, turning the brisket, still in its sealed bag, over once day. Don't marinate for more than 5 days. Any longer than that and the meat will be excessively salty.

6. When you're ready to cook the brisket, remove it from the refrigerator Take it out of its plastic bag and rinse it completely.

7. Place the brisket in a large pot, fill the pot with cool water so as to cover the beef by about an inch and bring to a boil. Scum is likely to come to the surface and this should be skimmed off. Once the scum seems to have been completely removed, cover the pan, reduce to a simmer and cook for 2 to 3 hours or until the meat is completely tender and be easily pierced with a skewer.

8. Drain completely and cut in thin 1/2-inch slice, cutting across the grain.

9. Serve with steamed potatoes, roasted Brussels sprouts, buttered carrots and sour cream horseradish sauce.

Sour Cream Horseradish Sauce

• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons grated horseradish
• 1 small minced onion

Combine ingredients and mix well. Refrigerate for a few hours before serving.

The Perfect Hamburger?

Burgers are popular in this house-- especially burgers served on Moomie's Famous Hamburger Rolls.(see post of October 9, 2008) I have become a bit bored with the usual; so this time round I tried to boost the flavor and give some zip to our hamburger.

My secret ingredients were dijon mustard and Worcestershire Sauce. To one pound of ground beef I added salt, pepper, a generous dollop of Lea and Perrins , approximately 1/4 cup of mustard and 1 egg to help hold it together. Mix everything together and shape into patties. Try to handle the meat as little as possible. This will help to keep the meat tender.

Add whatever condiments you like and voila, you have great tasting--maybe a perfect--hamburger.