Grilled Beef with Japanese BBQ Sauce (Yakiniku)

At the Asian supermarket I saw some thinly sliced beef tongue too! I love beef tongue… it might sound gross, but it really tastes great if you lightly grill (yakiniku) with seasoning (salt&pepper) and eat with lemon juice. I will buy it next time

• 200g thinly sliced beef
• steamed rice

• 1 clove garlic – minced
• 2.5 tbs soy sauce
• 1.5 tbs sugar
• 1 tbs sake (cooking wine)
• 1 tbs sesame oil

Baked Scotch Egg

I don’t eat meat so often.  It’s not that I don’t like or can not eat, I just don’t feel like eating them.  For me, hearty vegetable soup or grilled seafood make me more excited than bacon or saucy steak. … lots of people must be thinking that i’m so weird :p

However, my partner can’t survive without meat, so I need to cook meat often at home.  Now, thanks to him, I eat steak quite often.  I actually like Australian beef than Japanese beef.  Japanese beef usually is fat marbled, which means that it contains various amounts of intramuscular fat and has an appearance similar to a marble pattern.  This marbled meat gives tender texture and it melts on the tongue, and it is considered as high quality meat in Japan and usually expensive.  But, I like tough red meat here.  Australian beef is called “oz beef” in Japan and quite well-known there too.

When I was a kid I liked eating hamburg, and my mum sometimes put boiled egg in the middle.  (or cheese)  This is kind of my childhood food, and I make it here too for myself (and partner :p)

Using a pound cake mold…

• 600g beef mince
• 1/2 onion
• 1 egg
• 2 tbs breadcrumbs
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tbs tomato sauce
• 4 boiled eggs

* Preheat oven to 200

1. Mix all the ingredients, except boiled eggs, in a bowl until the mixture become sticky.  Season well.
2. Cove the bottom and sides of a pound cake mold with mince mixture, and place boiled eggs.  Top up the mold with the rest of mince.  Pad the top lightly to make sure there is no gap or hollow inside.
3. Spread another 1 tbs of tomato sauce on the top, and cook in the oven.

Any left over can be used to make a gourmet beef burger.  Toast 2 slices of bread (or a roll) and sandwich sliced scotch egg, cheese, lettuce, tomato and any sauce.  Easy meal, no waste of food!

Japanese Beef Curry

You don’t need to go out for a delicious Japanese curry.  You can simply cook it at home.

•   1 pack Japanese curry roux
• 500g casserole beef 
• 1 onion
• 1 carrot
• 1 potato
• steamed rice to serve

Finger Size Meatballs

Great items for luch, and tapas party!  They are small enough for kids to grab and eat too.

• 500g beef mince
• 1/2 onion
• 1 tbs bread crumbs
• 1 egg
• chopped herbs
• salt & pepper

1. Chop onion fine.
2. Place mince, chopped onion, bread crumbs, egg and chopped herbs in a bowl.  Season.  Using a hand, mix it through until the mixture become little sticky.  Move hand as if you are squeezing a wet sponge.
3. Shape the mixture into little balls.
4. Heat little amount of oil in a frying pan, and grill meatballs.
5. Enjoy with your favorite dipping.

You can simply use pasta sauce for dipping sauce, or make home made tomato sauce for your guests ♪

Japanese Style Garlic Steak

I try to eat red meat often as I have very law blood pressure and need to eat iron rich food.  I seldom ate beef when I was in Japan, but now I eat them a lot as they are pretty cheap in Australia (oz beef) and healthy.  (Japanese beef got marbled fat, so they are high in calorie and fat)  Some people say that red meat is very dry and tough, but I actually like it.  When you eat tough food, you need to chew and it strengthen your jaw.  You can cook meat medium or medium-rare if you like it moist.

If you go to Japanese restaurant here you might find a menu “teriyaki beef”.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, there is no such food “teriyaki beef” in Japan.  In Japan we’d call it “steak” or “yakiniku”, maybe.  Japanese steak is often eaten with steamed rice.  The sauce is soy sauce based, and most of the time it’s flavored with garlic.

It’s very easy to cook.  Well, it’s a steak: you basically just need to grill the meat.  What you can do to make it Japanese style (wafu) is the sauce.  It’s also easy to make too.

<Garlic Steak>

• 2 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tbs sake (cooking wine)
• 1 clove garlic