Korean style-pickled and fried beef

Hello!
It has been raining for the last few days and a little cold here. I heard that in Hokkaido people already started using their heaters. It seems like the autumn came by so quickly and is hurrying into the next season.

I think some people have already become excited at Christmas. I don't really understand the feeling of waiting for Christmas as I don't have the cultural background. But it seems fun.

Actually I was really excited and happy when I was in Germany and saw the happy people in the Christmas markets. That made the cold and dark winter so much cozier.

Ingredients:

sliced beef

garlic

onion

(eggplant)

sesame oil

sesame

soy sauce (3tbsps)

sugar (1tsp)

sake (2tbsps)

gochujang (korean chilli paste) (1~2tbsps)

1- Mix the soy sauce, sesame oil, grazed garlic, grazed sesame, sugar, sake and gochujang in a bowl.

2- Cut the onion and eggplant.

3- Put the beef and 2 into 1. Mix all together well and wait for a little.

4- Stir fry 3 on a pan.

You can also cook other vegetables like capsicum instead of eggplant.
Itadakimasu!

Hamburg and Vietnamese food report 2

One of the world-famous Vietnamese foods is pho noodles.  Of course I ate many types of pho in Vietnam. There are many outdoor restaurants with small plastic chairs and tables on the streets where local people eat meals daily. A lot of them provide pho.

I especially like 'pho ga' (rice noodle soup with beef) and 'pho bo' (rice noodle soup with chicken) with bunch of herbs. It's rate to use herbs for Japanese food so I was very happy to taste the different aromatic combination.

Photo: left- pho near Saigon, right- pho near Ha Long.

Let's cook 'hanba-gu (hamburg)' that is popular in Japan.

Ingredients:

minced pork and beef

onion

ginger

nutmeg

egg

bread crumb

canned tomato

dried oregano

salt/pepper

1- Mix the finely cut onion, minced meat, mixed egg, grazed ginger, nutmeg, bread crumb, salt and pepper. Make a shape like a flat ball after hitting in hands a few times to get rid of the air.

2- Fry 1 on a heated frying pan. Make sure it's 'well-done' and put it aside.

3- Fry some canned tomato into the same pan and adjust the taste with dried oregano, salt and pepper.

4- Put 2 into 3 and heat together quickly.

The green vegetable next to the hamburg (in the top photo) is called 'ice plant'. I got this in northern Japan last week. It's originally from South Africa and tastes very refreshing and a little salty.

Itadakimasu!

Nikujaga for the family

Hello, how are you??
Today I read the news about a Japanese politician giving a speech to object against two-name system. Married couples are not allowed to have two family names in Japan, so the current government is planing to change it. However, many conservative politicians are still against the idea. They said that the system would break the family relationship.

I personally think that having two names in a family is not a issue in the relationship. Other issues are killing the family system clearly, for example adults are pushed to work longer and kids are forced to study at cram schools till night time. It can be seen sometimes small kids eating fast-food on the train on the way to cram school. Naturally, they have no conversation at home.

So today I will introduce this typical homemade taste 'nikujaga'. It is simple, but it makes Japanese people feel home. 'Niku' means meat and 'jaga' means potato. Yes, nikujaga is a cooking of meat and potatoes!

Ingredients:
potato (4)
onion (1)
carrot (1)

meat (sliced or minced pork or beef)

soy sauce (2tbsp)
sugar (2tbsps)

sake (2tbsps)

salt
mirin -sweet rice wine (2tbsps)

1- Peel and cut potatoes, carrot and onion.

2- Stir fry the meat, potatoes, carrot and onion.

3- When the meat is cooked, add 2 cups of soup (any stock) and boil until the potatoes get soft.

4- Add sugar, mirin, salt and soy sauce and boil until less soup.

If you add boiled green peas in the end, it'll look nicer.

Itadakimasu.