Gyudon (Beef Bowl)

First and foremost, Gyu is a japanese word which means beef. Don is.. I don't know.. Anyway, I love Gyudon!! My sister also love it too so I used it as a reward when she did some series of favors for me. I so love Gyudon that I even eat it twice a day and everyday. It was then P65 but now.. it turned P110 with very few beef strips unlike before and even the bed of rice is dry sometimes. So I decided to make my own.

Ingridients:

• 1/2 kilo steamed rice
• 1/2 kilo breakfast steak cut into strips
• 1 large white onion, thinly sliced
• 1 1/3 cup water
• 1 dashi powder mix derived from Bonito fish (I bought one in SM supermarket)
• 5 Tbsp Kikkoman soy sauce
• 3 Tbsp mirin
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 pc of calamansi
• 3 dashes of 7 spices (some call it chili powder)

Preparation:

1. Put the water in a pan and let it boil a bit. Then add the dashi powder. (Follow the instruction in the box.)
2. Add soy sauce, calamansi juice, sugar, and mirin and bring to a boil on medium heat.
3. Add onion slices and simmer for a few minutes or until softened. 
4. Add beef in the pan and simmer for a few minutes. 
5. Serve hot steamed rice into individual deep rice bowls. 
6. Put simmered beef on top of the rice. Top with dashes of 7 spices.

My version of Gyudon is a bit sweeter than what they serve at Yoshinoya's.

Grilled Steak

Everybody loves steak. Steak is the staple of every carnivorous guys out there. They love it and it is best paired with a glass of red wine.. Hmm.. delicious! I love mine with 2 cups of rice!

So how can we cook it?

First, here are the ingredients:

1/2 kilo any steak-sliced beef, I would suggest a tender loin but it is expensive.. so just try other beef part.

1 tbsp ground pepper

1 tbsp salt

1/4 cup banana ketchup

1/2 cup soy sauce or until the soy sauce drenched all the meat

5 pcs of calamansi

Procedures:

1. Just combine everything except for the meat into a container. Mix it.Put the meat inside the container and mix it well inside. Be sure that the meat is drenched over our marinade.
2. Marinade the meat and put it in the ref for at least an hour so the flavors will stuck in.
3. Prepare the charcoal and make sure that it is hot already and you can see those smoke coming out and the coals glow. I prefer heating them by a piece of burning paper instead of adding kerosene to prevent your food from smelling like kerosene.
4. Fill in a small cup of the marinade mixture and add 3 tbsp of banana ketchup and mix it again.The mixture should come thick.
5. Put the meat in the grilling iron and brush each side of the meat while still grilling.
6. Turn each side every 5 minutes until the meat is cooked.

Note: If you don't have a brush for grilling, you can improvise by attaching a piece of banana leaf (cut a small portion) and wrapped it up at the end of a piece of barbecue stick.This will act as your brush.

Beef Burger Patty!

Grilling burgers are tough at times. Like you really need to be meticulous enough to choose the right beef for you. Remember that more fat is burned when you grill. Like for example, choosing ground beef from sirloin is pretty lean, so when you grill it, you'll end up having a dry burger. We don't want that of course!

On the other hand, choosing a ground beef that has lots of fat in it will give you a shrink burger and we still don't want that. So choose carefully, I recommend choosing a ground beef that is 85% lean. This will give you a burger that will stay moist but does not shrink too much.

So here's the list for the engridients:

• 1kilo 85% lean ground beef
• 6 gloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 bulb of onion, finely chopped
• 4 dashes of salt
• 5 dashes of pepper
• 2 whole eggs
• 1/2 cup of tomato ketchup
• 1/2 cup of beer
• a dash of Ajinomoto seasoning (optional)

Procedure:

1. First, I like to beat the eggs then I add the garlic and onion with it.
2. Then I put them to the ground beef which is inside a mixing container. An empty ice cream plastic container will do ^_^.
3. Then I mix the egg mixture with the ground beef.
4. Next is I add the salt and pepper.
5. Then the tomato ketchup and the beer. If you got some seasonings to add then add it now.
6. Next is I mix it thoroughly with my hands. I ensure that everything is mixed up and I won't see clumps of tomato ketchup in it nor egg yolks.
7. Once done, I now mold it each in my hands then wrapped them individually.

Grilling:

1. Ensure that the grill is already hot before putting the burger patty. Paint some cooking oil on the patty so the meat won't stuck in the grill.
2. Turn the patty 2-3 minutes each side until it is cooked.
3. You'll get a moist burger.

Frying:

1. Ensure that the oil in the cooking pan is hot.
2. Get the patty and dip it in a bowl of beaten egg.
3. Then smothered it with Japanese bread crumbs (those bread crumbs they used for frying tempura).
4. Dip the patty in the cooking pan and turn it over every 3-4 minutes each side until it is cooked.
5. You'll now get a crispy burger.