beef butter

I'd always heard about how awesome bone marrow is, and they were on sale at the market, so I picked some up to see what the hype was about.

roasted marrow bones with cilantro salad
Very rich, very beefy, and almost too much for us. It was nice to try once, but I don't think we'll be having them anytime soon again. Parsley is the more traditional accompaniment, but we both prefer cilantro to parsley, so I made a cilantro, lemon, garlic salad to go with it. That is probably what makes the dish - the freshness of the herb and lemon really counteracts the unctuousness of the marrow..
[beef marrow bones, salt, pepper, cilantro, garlic, lemon]

variations on a theme

This is a variation on this.

beef with eggplant
Again, the eggplant is deep fried first, and then pan fried with the aromatics, beef, and sauce. I made this a little spicier than normal by accident.
[eggplant, beef, onions, garlic, ginger, chiles, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar]

guest chef series #10: good home cooking

I love that my mom can whip up a 4-course Chinese meal in no time. We went over for dinner, and had hamachi, miso soup with hamachi (not shown), shrimp and snow peas, and beef and spinach.

mom's cooking
What's even more awesome is that she grew the snow peas herself. Everything was really good, as always. She's always embarrassed by her plating, but I think it looks great. She keeps such good color in her veggies, and of course, how it tastes is really what counts.


Beef with Sa-cha Sauce and Spinach
INGREDIENTS
- 1/2 lb beef, cut into strips (any tender cut will do—ribeye, skirt steak)
- 3 tbsp sa-cha sauce (a Chinese sauce labeled as bbq sauce, but is nothing like American bbq sauce. It contains brill shrimp.)
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 large clove garlic, minced
- 2–3 slices ginger
- 1 lb spinach
- 1 tsp cornstarch plus 1/4 cup water (optional)

Combine beef, soy sauce, sa-cha sauce, garlic, and ginger in a large bowl. Let marinate 30 minutes. Heat a wok on high heat. Add oil, swirl until hot. Add the meat, and stir fry until cooked. Add the spinach, and stir fry together until spinach is wilted. Add the cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce, if desired. Serve with rice.
[hamachi; soup: hamachi, miso, tofu, green onions, water; shrimp and snow peas: snow peas, shrimp, yellow peppers, garlic, oil; beef and spinach: beef, spinach, sa-cha sauce, soy sauce, pepper]

freaky veggies

I have no idea what this vegetable is. The final cooked texture was sort of melon/cucumber-like. The outside was really prickly. It had a mild, greenish taste, sort of like wintermelon.

stir-fried beef and vegetables
I marinated the beef in sa cha sauce, soy sauce and garlic, and then stir fried it together with onions and the mystery vegetable.
[beef, mystery vegetable, onions, sa cha sauce, soy sauce, garlic, ginger]

kalbi

We had D's clan over for a group birthday celebration, and I made up a huge batch of kalbi. This was my first time making it, and I'm pretty pleased with the results.

kalbi
The meat was tenderized by the kiwi I threw into the marinade (or so the theory goes). I let it marinate overnight, with a few rotations so it was evenly marinated. It grilled up beautifully and we served it with rice, kimchi, and lettuce leaves.
[short ribs, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, kiwis, sugar, rice vinegar, scallions]

vietnamese-ish beef spring rolls

My mom was out of town, so we invited my dad over for some grilling and, it turns out, extremely tricky spring roll wrapping. Flavor-wise, let's just say the intent is more important than authenticity in this case.

beef spring rolls
This is an extremely blurry and ugly picture, but it's the best I had. We had a hard time keeping the very thin and sticky rice paper wrappers from sticking to itself and tearing. Aside from the poor aesthetics, the rolls were quite tasty, and it made for a light, yet filling meal.
[flank steak, marinade: soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, garlic, oil; lettuce, rice paper, carrots, cucumber, cilantro; dipping sauce: nam pla, rice wine vinegar, water, sugar, chili]