牛肉の八幡焼き― Gyu-niku no Hachiman-Yaki ―

Today is January 29th, my Birthday ^-^)ﾉ☆.｡･:*:･ﾟ`☆､｡･:*:･ﾟ`★.｡･:*:･ﾟ`☆.｡･:☆♪


I sincerely appreciate my mum for giving me a birth!!!!!


It's my birthday PLUS Saturday, but darling works today..
So I am at home alone and updating the blog!! 
What a nice way to spend the Birthday!? (*￣￣￣￣ー￣￣￣￣)


My Birthday is 'いい(ii)肉(niku)の(no)日(hi)', which means 'Nice meat day'!!
I'm a meat lover.  This can be, no!, MUST BE my destiny!!  ヾ( ￣▽)ゞ


Oh, well..


Today's dish is 牛肉の八幡焼き― Gyu-niku no Hachiman-Yaki―.


'Gyu-niku' means 'Beef'.  
  It can sound familiar to you because I wrote the recipe of 'Gyu-Don' before.
'Hachiman' means....  Hum... I'm not quite sure  (￣□￣;)
                              But I'm sure it has something to do with some region in Japan and 
                              also 'ごぼう-burdock root'.
'Yaki' means 'Grill'.

I felt like eating this 'Hachiman-Yaki' and cooked somehow here in Australia!!


*I decided to insert a photo of the dish here because I noticed  that the first photo on the blog appears when you post the link on facebook! lol




Popular Ingredients are:                                                      

 *Beef ― Again, usually use thin sliced beef.  
 *Burdock Root ― As the name of the dish 
                           shown, this is a kind 
                           of main ingredient.  
                           But I don't think this is easy 
                           to get them in Australia!?
                           I've seen them only once in 
                                                     a Japanese grocery store before.
 *Carrots
 *Beans
 *Potatoes


As always, thin sliced beef is not easy to get and also expensive here, so I used 
Beef Mince (＾▽＾)/




Now, let's cook!!

Firstly, boil vegetables briefly so they can cook fast later.


Then, knead the mince so they do not separate later. 


Spread the mince and shape like thin sliced beef.
                              



Put vegetables on the mince and roll them with mince.

(I used carrots and beans only this time.)








Pour flour on meat and grill them on the pan.


While you grill them, prepare the sauce.


It's easy, 
Mix half a table spoonful of sugar, a table spoonful of soy sauce and a table spoonful of SAKE(Link) in a small ball.


When the meat is cooked, pour the sauce into the pan and dress the meat with the sauce.




   Tadaaaann!!!! 


   Here's Gyu-niku no Hachiman Yaki!!! 
     
  Usually cut into half when serving so people can see the inside.

I did not cut all but only one to show you here how it looks like:-p


I cooked potato as a side dish this time.


Everything is brown again...
Oh, well...


♪いただきま～すっ♪


Mmm..
This was the first attempt to cook this with mince but YUM!!!


You can use thin sliced pork for this dish as well.
I assume pork mince will work all right too!


I used about 2/3 pack of mince this time, so it cost only $2.50 for two to three adults!!
(We are a big eater so ate them all easily though lol)




Just in case that you are interested in this potato dish..


This is called 'きんぴら ―KINPIRA―'.
KINPIRA is usually a burdock root dish but you can use carrots, celeries, potatoes and so on.


I cooked potatoes in a bit unusual way for KINPIRA this time. 
(I'll introduce KINPIRA  cooked in a common way another time.)


I refereed this recipe:http://cookpad.com/recipe/559362


It's easy to cook.


Cut potatoes into stripes.  
Wash them and drain water well.


Heat sesame oil over the medium heat and stir fly potatoes with grated garlic.


When it's almost cooked, pour SAKE, salt and pepper and cook until water extracted.


That's it.


It was yummm!!  
I bet this goes well with beer (≧ω≦)ｂ




♪ごちそうさまでした～っ♪




ヾ(≧▽≦)ﾉ

牛丼―GYU-DON―

Did you see the moon last night??
It was GORGEOUS!! Absolutely gorgeous!!
When I woke up to go to toilet in the middle of night, outside was super bright like daytime because of the moon light!!
I wanted to bathe in the moon but it was a bit too early so I went straight back to the bed..(^-ω-^)Zzz


Oh, well...


Today's menu is 牛丼―GYU-DON―


'DON' is short for 'DONBURI'. 
'DONBURI' means a big rice bowl literary.  
But when it comes after some food like 'GYU-DON', this 'DON' means 'rice bowl dishes'.


'GYU' means 'Beef'.
Yes, today's menu is 'a bowl rice of topped with beef'.


There are several 'DONBURI' such as 'KATSU-DON', 'OYAKO-DON'...
I'll introduce them here eventually.


There are several franchised GYU-DON restaurants in Japan and their GYU-DON costs only $3.50 and Yum!!!  So I'm not willing to pay more than that for GYU-DON..
Oh well...

Ingredients are:  

   *Beef ― 'usually' use thin                     sliced beef.       
   *Onion ― Sliced one.  


This is it usually.


But I want to eat as much vegetable as possible, so I add carrots and green peppers.




And of course, thin sliced beef is expensive in Australia, I use beef mince instead. 
Why not?!
This time, it was about 250g mince, I think...






Now, let's cook!!


Firstly cook beef in a pot with oil.  Add about a table spoon of sugar and cook.


When beef is almost cooked, add vegetables and cook more.

Toss about two pinches of HONDASHI and about a half glass of water.

Pour about a table spoonful of soy sauce, about half a table spoon of SAKE and MIRIN.


Stew until ingredients are all cooked.  


When it is ready, serve it on the top of rice!




Tadaaaan!!


Here's GYU-DON!!!
(But actually, this is not quite Gyu-don, so I usually call it 'Pinga Special'.)


Now...
♪いただきま～す♪


Please note that this is my way to cook.


When I worked at a Japanese take way shop, they served GYU-DON but they cooked it in a total different way.
Still, mine is as yummy as theirs or maybe better (*ﾉ▽ﾉ) Kekekeke

At least, mine doesn't cost $8.80/serving but only $3.00 for three servings!!!  


Also please note that the amount of condiments is rough because I usually do not scale them!! lol
So you should taste while cooking and adjust the taste as you like (*'-')b


In addition, you can add a raw egg (of course, fresh one!!) on the top of GYU-DON or add an egg in a pot and stew before you serve if you like.


I cooked pasta salad as well this time.
It is easy so I do not think I need write a recipe of it.  

I usually use.. 
  *Cucumber
  *Carrot ― Microwave before you chop so it is cooked a bit
  *Onion ― Thin sliced and wash with cold water to get rid of the bitter taste.  And of course squeeze water. 
  *Corn or boiled egg ― For the color of yellow
  *Ham


The important point is 'Use Japanese mayonnaise'!!!!
Also I pour a bit of AJI-SHIO-KOSYO and a little bit soy sauce to give a hidden taste.


My pasta salad is always popular!!


Ooops, now, darling can cook MY pasta salad...(　 ﾟ ▽ ﾟ ;)


♪ごちそうさまでした～♪




o(〃＾▽＾〃)o




Please refer the blog of Basic for condiments that I uses today.

焼きそば―YAKISOBA―

Brrr...
It's chilly today here in Melbourne..(Ｔ＿Ｔ）
What season are we in??  Summer??  
              No way!!  It shouldn't be summer!! This is autumn like!!


Anyway..


I heard that someone who read this blog is about to try OKONOMI-YAKI.
I'm so happy to hear that Ｏ(≧▽≦)Ｏ
I hope it goes well (o^-')o


Today's menu is 焼きそば―YAKISOBA―.


Some people might have heard it before.
This is another popular Japanese dish♪
When I worked at a Japanese take away shop, one customer asked me whether we had YAKISOBA or not.  Unfortunately we did not.  
But you can cook it yourself easily!!
If you buy it at shop, it costs at around $10!!  
This is way too expensive for YAKISOBA because you can cook it at reasonable price (*'-')b


'YAKI' means 'pan fried', and 'SOBA' means 'noodle'.
This is kinda similar to OKONOMI-YAKI.

Popular toppings are:

    *Meat ― Again, we usually use thin sliced meat. Usually pork.

    *Seafood ― Prawns, Squids are popular. 

    *Cabbage ― This is important.  I usually chop roughly, maybe 1-2cm square.
    *Carrot― I usually cut it intto ginkgo shape (Refer the picture on left) or half 
                 moon shape(Right photo))

    *Bean sprout ―This is expensive in Australia!!  Especially if you buy it at a super 
                           market, it is really expensive.  A bag of bean sprouts costs $2.00 
                           or so and they are usually not fresh at all!! (It costs only $0.30/bag 
                           in Japan!!)
                           However if you buy them at a market or an Asian grocery, they are 
                           fresh and cost nothing!!  $0.30 for about 300g!!!  Not bad at all!!!
     *Green pepper― It's not necessary to be GREEN but green color usually goes
                            well with this dish:)
  
We usually use all toppings except for seafood (you know why?! :-p).
And of course, we use mince instead of thin sliced meat because thin sliced one is difficult to get here in Australia and expensive..
Any mince is fine.  Pork, beef, pork and veal..


About noodle, if you go to an Asian grocery shop, YAKISOBA noodle is available.
But they are EXPENSIVE （￣□￣；）
Again, they cost only $0.30/serving in Japan!!

We usually use HOKKIEN noodle which is available at even a supermarket.
But they are not so cheap!! They might cost up to $3.00 at Coles!!


However, if you buy them at an Asian grocery, they are only $1.20 and fresh and yum!!!
They are really thick compared to real ones, but why not?!
BUT
Please check them out closely!!!
I found some of them had mold even though its expire day was one month ahead!!




Now let's cook!!

Firstly, stir fly meat and vegetable and add salt and pepper for seasonings.  
If you have AJI-AHIO-KOSYOU(BASIC), let's use it! It's yum yum!!
When meat and vegetable are almost cooked, toss noodle into them!!
Add some water while you cook noodle otherwise they are too sticky!!


We cooked on BBQ because our pan is too small but of course you can cook over a pan or wok.




All right, it's almost done!

Lastly pour YAKISOBA sauce (As I mentioned in OKONOMI-YAKI blog, you may use TONKATSU sauce, OKONOMIYAKI sauce or Worcester sauce.)


And Tadaan!!!


A bag noodle is big enough for three servings.
We eat it for only two of us easily though:-p

Now...

♪いただきま～す♪

This dish costs only $2.50 in total!!  Yai!!

Mmmm..  Yum Yum!!

♪ごちそうさまでした～♪

o(〃＾▽＾〃)o