A wonderful melody of classic jazz music in combination of birds calling on one another, peppered in with the city's traffic embraces my surroundings. For just a moment, with the seamless blue skies before me, I can't help but feel .....content. In a whirlwind of activities, unavoidable chores and the constant necessity to keep busy, these quiet, peaceful moments are rare. When you get these moments, embrace it. It's good for the heart. :) but please, get right back on the horse wagon afterwards. Those terrifying stack of bills on your desk aren't going to pay themselves. :)
This new spring season has kept my fridge bottom heavy with nature's best for weeks, denying my body with much needed, substantial meat. The ones the sqwack, moo and oink....( I wonder what sort of sound a rainbow trout makes? bubble bubble pop?) Anyhow, let's just say, I got happy drunk on the sudden bountiful of fruits, tomatoes, sweet peppers, avocado's and my only source of protein was an egg a day. So my body had a mind of its own and decided to teach me a lesson. A painful lesson. High dosage of Tylenol with CAFFEINE (who knew Tylenol had caffeine?!) pumped into the veins just to keep my nose above water kinda lesson.
After what felt like a century, the bottle of tylenol moved its way to the back of the cupboard and I decided to turn to my favorite, trusty Japanese dish - Gyudon - Beef rice bowl. The typical Gyudon - beef and rice with an egg on top, garnished with green onion and pickled ginger. While that is great, my stubborn nature insisted on having a medley of vegetables with it hence, the "Modernize" version of this Gyudon. I had written a post on this dish previously but this time around, I decide to cook it differently. So I hope you will enjoy it! Because I certainly prefer this version:)
Below are my ingredients. Replace whatever ingredients of your choice to your liking. Just don't replace the beef, ginger and onion :)
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| Spinach, green onion, king oyster mushrooms, onion, garlic, ginger, rib-eye beef slices, sweet orange pepper. |
Directions:
1. In sauce pan, add approximately 2 cups of green tea or water,
2 tbsp each of mirin, soy sauce
1 tbsp each of rice vinegar or apple vinegar and chicken paste
2 - 3 white portion of the green onion stalks, cloves of garlic
3 finger size ginger, more or less to your taste
3 tbsp brown sugar, more or less to your taste
4. Add a approx 5 slices of rib-eye beef to stock, infusing the stock with natural beef flavours. Simmer for 20 minutes. Strain this yummy stock, discarding the stalks, garlic and beef slices. Keep the ginger :) Set aside.
5. As the stock simmers, prep your vegetables. The key ingredients to a good Gyudon is; good beef slices, ginger, sugar and onion. Thinly slice a whole onion.
6. Prep green onion. Slice green onion at an angle for better presentation. Soak in ice cold water. This will extract the bitterness of the green onion and maintain its crispiness. Drain and set aside. To keep in the fridge at this stage, place sliced onion on a bed of paper towel in a tuberware. Cover. This will last for at least a week.
7. To top this dish, I used spinach, sweet orange pepper and king oyster mushrooms. With the spinach, I simply boiled for 1 min, drain, squeezing out all excess water and marinated with a touch of sesame oil, salt, white pepper, soy sauce and chili powder. Sweet pepper and king oyster mushrooms were pan-fried until golden brown separately. Set all cooked vegetables aside until plating time.
8. In a heavy bottom pan, turn to medium high heat, coat with olive oil. Add 1 tbsp of diced garlic and ginger and fried until fragrant. Add in sliced onion. Cook until almost golden brown, adding a bit of the cooked stock when necessary.
9. Once the onion is cooked, add slice beef and cook halfway. Then add in cooked stock. Stir. Turn the heat down to medium heat and allow to cook for 5-8mins. The beef will absorb all the wonderful gingery flavours from the stock. Personally, I prefer a more ginger flavour over the sweetness unlike most people which is why I say to adjust the ginger - sugar ratio to your taste for this particular dish.
10. Because of the sauce for this dish, it will taste significantly better the next day, allowing the beef to marinate in its juices overnight but my body insist I feed it, so here it goes!
11. Cook short grain Japanese rice according to package. In a bowl, place cooked rice on the bottom and top with cooked vegetables and beef. :)
12. Like so. :) The combination of the spice from the ginger, sweetness from the onion and sugar is what makes this beef dish so comforting. Enjoy!
A couple weeks ago, I had taken my new toy out for an adventure at Royal Botanical Gardens. First time taking amateur photos outside so I leave you with the results. New found beauty in rotten magnolia flowers:)
