Saturday, October 22, 2011

Cook with Ken: Japanese Dinner - How to Cook a Nice Steak

Date:  Oct 22, 2011A

All I heard from outside the room is "You all have to wake up already!"  I look at the clock, it's 6PM, and me and the kids have slept more than 3 hours on a cool Saturday afternoon.  Nice!

My Wife cycling witht he kids, and she said ... "you cook!"

So, since we are at MeDiya in the afternoon, we shall cook Japanese food tonight!   I told her to cycle 2 rounds and then come back, the food shall be ready!

How to Cook a Steak

1.  Hunt for a good beef.  If you cannot afford a real Kobe Beef, get the U.S.A Clone.  :)

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2.  As usual, you have to marinate it.  So that the taste went into the heart of the meat.  So, what I used today is Olive Oil, follow by Sea Salt, Black Pepper and then something Chinese - the Red Yeast think sauce.  Let it marinate for at least 2 hours.

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The Red Yeast thick sauce is my secret FuChow ingredient.  :)  I bought it from the Firefly Organic Farm @ Lim Chu Kang.

3. After you take it out, you will need to clean it up.  Using the kitchen tower, wipe off the sauce.  You do not need those sauce when you cook it.  Wipe it dry and clean.

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4.  Re-apply some Olive oil.  For me, I used the one that Boon Ching bought from the Farmer's Market today.  With strong basil smells.  Apply on both side.

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5.  of course, re-sprinkle some sea salt and black pepper on it.

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6.  You got to have this Steak Pan or Grill Pan.  This is very handy to cook the Steak.  Why?  Look at the stripe, that is how it is going to make the Checker pattern on your steak.  Apply Olive Pil on the Steak Pan.

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7.  Heat the Steak Pan up!  High Fire!

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8.  Now, after the Steak Pan is heated up, you put your belove Steak in.  :)  Remember, YOU DO NOT NEED TO TURN THE STEAK MANY TIME.  YOU ONLY TURN IT ONCE. So, leave it there to be cooked or grill for 4-5 minutes.  Until you see the side has curl up.  That means the surface it cooked belowed.

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9.  At the 2-3 minute mark, you may want to TURN your steak side way.  Means, ROTATE your steak 90 degrees.  This will give you a nice Checker pattern on your steak.  :)

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10.  Precisely 4-5 minute mark, you turn your steak over.  Remember, you ONLY NEED TO TURN THE STEAK OVER ONCE! See... Did you see the nice Checker pattern?

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Jay Jay just came back, and he saw the Steak.  He said "Nice!"

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11.  Don't forget to ROTATE the steak 90 degrees for the nice Checker pattern.  Don't worry about the little blood came out from the surface, later we will SAUNA the steak and it will fix those blood.

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12.  Now, go find Aluminium Foil fast.

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13.  Quickly put the Steak on the Alumnimium Foil, and wrap it.

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14.  We have to let the Steak REST.  While it REST, the heat within the Steak will slowly continuing to cook the Steak.  And all the Juice will now return back into the steak so that the inner part of the steak will stay juicy.  Which is important!

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15.  As you know, Aluminium will lose heat very fast when expose to cooler temperature.  So, what you do, you need to wrap it up with some cloths.

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16.  Leave it there for 5 minutes or more.  Depending on what you want.  We want Medium Rare.  So, I think 5 minutes may be enough.  Go cook some other food while waiting.

Oh, I forgot to tell you that the last time I cook a steak is 17-18 years ago while I was in Canada?  hahahahahaha Let's pray that the Steak will be nice, and I have not lose my skill as a Steak cook.  HaHaHaHa

After 5 minutes, you open up the Steak.  And see the blood all gone.  :)

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17.  Use a very sharp knife to cut it.

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18.  You are done!  Look at the pink color of the meat, that is medium rare in my definition.  Lookm at the oily part... Those are the yummy parts.  This USA Kobe is not as fatty than the Japanese or Australia one.  But it is good to have it already.

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19.  There are some oily sauce on the Aluminium Foil.  Do not throw away those fatty sauce.  It is the perfect sauce to place it on top of your Steak on the serving plate.

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20.  It is done!  U.S.A Kobe Beef Steak!

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The Rest of Our Japanese Dinner

1.  Japanese Curry

I used this brand.  Nice.  S&B brand.

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Boiled a pot of boiling water.  Dump the packege in there to heat it up.  As simple as that.

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After 5 minutes... take it out.  Open it.

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And serve it this way.  This is your Japanese Curry for the Curry Rice.

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2.  Baby Brocolli

The best way to cook it is to boil it and eat it with some Abalone sauce.

Prepare some baby brocolli.  Usually you buy it from high end super market.  i.e. Mediya @ Liang Court.  No need to get the Japanese one.  Use the local one, can already.

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Boil a pot of water.  Put some Olive oil in it.  Sprinkle some sea salt in it.

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Boil the veggie for 3-4 minutes.  DO NOT OVER BOIL IT.  You will need the crunchiness of the veggie.  So, I think boil for 3-4 minutes is enough.

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Take it out and lay nicely on a plate.

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Put some Abalone sauce at the stalk there.

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Now, you sprinkle some Red Yeast Soya Sauce on the leaf of the Brocolli.  So, the stalk has the Abalone sauce taste and the leaf has the Red Yeast soya sauce sweetness.  Different layer of taste.

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And there you go.  The Steam Baby Brocolli.  The difference between a brocolli and a baby brocolli is that the stem or the stalk is very long for baby brocolli.  Jay loves it, and he ate 5-6 stalks.

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3.  The Unagi

Just buy this from a well known Japanese Super Market.  After unwrap it.  Put in a microwave for 20 seconds only.

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Then, take it out, arrange it on a serving plate.  Put the soya sauce on it.  And Sprinkle the dry basil leaves that comes with it.

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Put on a serving plate.  And then, put in the mircowave for another 20 seconds.  Do not over cook it in the microwave.

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4.  The Salmon Sashimi

You also can get it from the Japanese Super Market.  Just put everything on the serving plate.

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5.  The Japanese Rice

OK.  We must have a Japanese Rice.  This although has a Japanese Name on it.  But it is from Vietnam.  Good enough.

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Don't forget to use a simple Japanese rice cooker to cook your Japanese Rice.

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Here is my pearl rice.

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So, once you finish all the cooking, which will take you about 30 minutes...  You have a simple Japanese Dinner or meal.

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Next, open a nice wine for it.  The main course is the fatty Kobe Meat.  Usually, I will open a red for it.  But since we have salmon sashimi, curry, and Unagi.  I will opt for a white.  Let's open the white wine I just bought this morning from Little Provence.

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Fruity, a bit of acidic, fresh crisp.  I think it will go perfect with the beef.

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The wine is 12.5% alcohol.  If you dare, let your kid try it.  Start training them about wine.  Let them smell the aroma of the fruity wine.

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Let them use their finger to touch the wine.

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It's OK for them to have a sip.

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OK.  Since I have 2 son.  So, repeat the same process.

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Now the finger.

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And follow by the taste.  Wow. Kay sure looks happy!

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Look at my beef.  It is pink and juicy inside, and outside is the olive coated burnt taste of a steak.  OK, this is the first time in 16 years my wife has tasted my steak, and she said "好吃" .  I think it is quite good too.

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Always remember, when you cook, think of who you are cooking for, and put in your heart to cook the dish for them.  This is how you can cook a nice meal.

And all the dish is gone within 20 minutes.  Kay Kay surprisely finish one big plate of rice and Unagi fish.  And we finished every single bit of the Japanese rice as well as the last drop of the wine.

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Lastly, we had this "蜜枣".  It is very crunchy and very sweet and very nice.  The last time I had this was 1998 when I was in Hong Kong for a year.

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This is the description of the wine I had.

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The olive oil I used for today's meal...

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OK... This is the 冬枣。

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