beef

Jap Chae

- Alex Leave a comment

Jap Chae

I spotted a recipe for this Korean noodle dish which was featured on the UK’s Market Kitchen. What I’ve had of Korean food I’ve loved (yes, I do really think that kim chi and rice makes a fantastic breakfast) so I was keen to try it out.

Since making it, I’ve done a little research and it appears that this is not a dish that has a particularly rigid list of ingredients. The important themes seem to be vegetables (the chae) and the use of sesame seed oil.

As usual, I departed from the recipe a little. In a couple of places the original calls for sesame seeds which we didn’t have, so they were omitted, but next time I’ll make the effort to include them. I omitted the mushrooms, as Andy doesn’t like them, and added some crushed chilli. Sliced fresh chilli would have been better but our chilli crop is not all it could be this year … I also messed around with quantities which has left me wondering how the original recipe can claim to feed 6.

I started with just over 300g of rump steak, which I sliced finely and then mixed with a heaped tsp of sugar (the demerara was first out of the cupboard), 2 tbsp of soy sauce, 3 tsp of mirin and 2 tsp of dark (toasted) sesame oil. This mix went in the fridge for a marinate.

Next I made a very simple omelette using 3 eggs, cooked in a little vegetable oil in a non stick pan. This was then finely sliced and set aside.

I soaked 125g of rice vermicelli in warm water until soft, then drained them and refreshed in cold water, before mixing well with 3 tbsp of soy sauce. The original recipe uses less meat than I did but DOUBLE the amount of noodles. Personally, I think that would make your dish pretty lopsided – we had a ton of noodles and certainly didn’t feel like we needed any more to balance out the beef or vegetables.

When you’re ready to eat heat some oil in a wok and add two sliced onions and garlic to taste. Fry over a low-ish heat so that you soften the onions and garlic but don’t colour them.

Increase the heat and add the beef (and any juices from the marinade) and cook quickly. Stir in 4 or 5 sliced spring onions, a finely sliced (think julienned) carrot and 100g of spinach. Stick the lid on the wok (if you have a lid) to allow the spinach to wilt, and cook until the vegetables are tender.

Finally, add the noodles and omelette and stir fry until the noodles are hot through and tender. Mix in 4 tbsp of sesame oil and 3 tbsp of soy sauce.

At this point I added my crushed chilli and plenty of black pepper. With the soy sauce you won’t need salt.

The original recipe says to serve immediately – which I wasn’t able to do and the dish did not suffer for it. In fact, I think that a bit of time sitting on the stove on a very low heat helped the flavours mature quite a bit.

If you want to make your dishes look pretty, sprinkle with some toasted sesame seeds.

Steak and Ale Pie

- Alex Leave a comment

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One of the things I miss about England is the monthly magazine that almost every supermarket produces. Mostly, these magazines are free (although the ones you pay for are usually well worth it – quite a few Waitrose Food Illustrateds and Sainsbury magazines are still in my collection): they consist of a lot of advertising in various guises but almost always have a good selection of recipes.

This recipe for steak and ale pie is based on one that originally appeared in such a magazine, produced by the now defunct supermarket, Safeway. It’s really easy (so don’t be frightened if you’ve never made a pie before!) but very tasty – make extra and any that doesn’t fit in pie dishes works just as well with some mash as a stew.

The only thing you can’t do here is rush. You want to simmer the mixture for at least an hour and a half so you may prefer to make the filling one day and construct the pie the next …

This take on things produces enough filling to make two (generous) one person pies as well as a more normal sized two person pie.

Start with 750g of diced beef (I used blade), toss it in seasoned flour and brown, in batches, in olive oil over a moderate to high heat. Set the beef to one side, reduce the heat and then add two onions cut into wedges, two peeled, sliced carrots and some whole, but peeled, garlic cloves. I say ‘some’ because you know how much garlic you do or don’t like. Because it’s braised along with the beef it’s not a super strong flavour.

Allow this mix to soften for a few minutes, before adding 375mL of real ale (I used Black Sheep, bought at vast expense from a local bottle shop – but you do need to use a good quality beer with plenty of flavour), 200mL water and 2 tbsp of tomato paste. Bring this to the boil, then add some thyme and bayleaves before covering and simmering for at least 1 &func12; hours. After this time, when the meat is tender, you may wish to increase the heat and remove the lid to thicken up the sauce.

And that, with just a handful of ingredients and hardly any effort, is your pie filling.

Allow the filling to cool and, if necessary, reserve some of the gravy. If you like lots of pastry (and yes, we do!), grease your pie dish(es) and line with shortcrust pastry. Brush the edges of the pastry with egg, add the filling and top with puff pastry, sealing the edges well. Finish by ensuring there’s an air vent (if you have a pie funnel, even better) and glaze with beaten egg.

Bake at 200°C (non-fan) for a good 45 mins (longer if you’ve made one massive pie), until the pie is golden and you can’t wait any longer.

You may wish to serve with vegetables or salad on the side or you may wish to just scoff the rich, warm, pastry goodness!