This week has accidentally turned into a Japanese food fiesta. This didn’t last for the whole week though because I went out of town for the second half of the week. Anyways, my Japanese week started when I realized that I still had a pack of shabu-shabu cut beef in the freezer. As the days have been quite hot and humid, making it into shabu-shabu wouldn’t be a good idea. At the same time I had been wanting to eat HokBen’s cabbage & carrot salad. After some recipes flicking on the web, I decided to go with Beef Teriyaki because I have all the ingredients and it’s one of the simplest to cook.

Of course, when I cook I always try my best not to use canned/bottled sauces. So the same principle goes in cooking this beef teriyaki. Instead of using bottled teriyaki sauce, I mixed some ingredients available in the pantry to make the sauce. The result? Tasty and yummy for a quick 30 minutes spent in the kitchen. Awesome! And don’t forget to cook fluffy white rice to go with this dish.

P.S. For the carrot and cabbage salad, I used bottled mayonnaise instead of homemade mayo because currently I’m not allowed to eat fresh mayo.

Beef Teriyaki with Carrot & Cabbage Salad

Beef Teriyaki

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup mirin (Japanese rice wine)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
• 500 gram beef (I used my leftover shabu-shabu slices)
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon oil
• Green onion, thinly sliced

Instructions

1. Pour soy, mirin, sugar, honey, sesame oil, garlic and ginger in a saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat. Once boiled, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Let cool.
2. Prepare the washed and dried beef in a shallow bowl and pour the mixture in. Cover and let it marinate for 15 minutes.
3. Heat oil in a pan and stir fry onion until translucent. Do not overcook (brown) the onion.
4. Add beef and cook it to your liking. A thin slice would only require around 2-3 minutes and the dish is done!
5. Transfer the dish into a serving plate and garnish with green onion.

Carrot and Cabbage Salad

• 1 carrot, julienned
• 1/2 cabbage, thinly sliced using mandolin
• mayonnaise

Instructions

1. Mix carrot and cabbage in a bowl, and mix with mayonnaise to your liking.

Due to my loooong holiday during the Christmas and new year period, I found it hard to get back into my cooking routine *supersigh* The last couple of weeks we’ve been eating out, justifying it with “i-miss-Bandung-food”, but I just can’t handle that much MSG anymore. And to be honest, there’s nothing exciting about food in Bandung, let alone me missing it. Meh.

So few days ago, I decided to start cooking again. To warm up the kitchen, something easy and one pan kinda meal is a must. Otherwise I might get lazy – again. Here it is, Tofu with Minced Meat! Hooray!

Tofu with Minced Meat

• 100 grams minced meat (I used pork)
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon tauco / salted soya beans
• 1 tablespoon fermented black beans
• 1-2 chilli, thinly sliced
• cornstarch, mix 1 tablespoon water with 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch
• 250 grams tofu (I used egg tofu)

To marinade meat:

• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• a pinch of pepper

Seasoning, mix well:

• 3/4 cup of water
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil

Instructions

1. In a bowl, marinade meat for about 10 minutes
2. In a pan, heat oil and stir fry garlic, tauco, black beans and chilli for about 1 minute or until fragrant.
3. Add marinated meat and stir fry ensuring it’s cooking through (no longer pink).
4. Add seasoning, bring to boil.
5. Carefully add tofu into the pan, turn the heat to low. Let it simmer for about 3-4 minutes. Be careful to not break the tofu.
6. Thicken with cornstarch solution, mix well.
7. Take off the heat and dish is ready to serve!

Oxtail Soup (Sup Buntut Sapi) has been a favourite in my mom’s family for years. When my grandma was still healthy, she used to cook this during the Christmas period or any other special events. I remember that as a child I would intentionally walked past the kitchen just to smell the fragrant broth from the simmering pan. My grandma’s oxtail soup was everyone’s favourite and we would fight to get the last bone.

The tradition continues on to my mom, who cooks this when my brother or I come home for holiday. Few years ago, she even brought this dish to Kuala Lumpur, where we met up for our family holiday. Oxtail Soup has become a special occasion meal for our family. Now that I have my own family, I’m so keen to  master the dish. Like any other heritage recipe, there’s no exact measurement because they heavily rely on their taste buds. This recipe is an approximate that could be adjusted to taste.

On this recipe, I’m using my trusted slow cooker to achieve the desired tenderness while extracting the yummy juice. I prefer this method because I enjoy a super tender meat. I usually leave the meat to cook overnight before transferring it to a saucepan for an hour to cook my potatoes and carrots. Sometimes I also cook this in the morning and leave it cook for 4 hours in slow cooker before adding carrots and potatoes into the slow cooker and let it cook for another 3 hours. It will then be ready in time for dinner. You could also use a conventional saucepan (like my grandma) or a pressure cooker (like my mom) if time is an issue.

Grandma’s Oxtail Soup / Sop Buntut Sapi

• 1 kg oxtail
• 4 cloves garlic
• 4 shallots, thinly sliced
• 2 stalks celery
• 2 stalks of spring onion
• 8-10 cloves, take out the round bit at the top (or 2 tablespoon of ground clove)
• 5 nutmeg seed (or 2 tablespoon of ground nutmeg)
• 3-4 carrots, cut into 3 (or depending on size)
• 2-3 potatoes, peeled and cut into 4 (or depending on size)
• Water
• Oil, to stir fry

Instructions

1. Heat oil in a pan to lightly stir fry garlic and shallot until fragrant.
2. Place cleaned oxtail, garlic, shallot, celery, spring onion, clove and nutmeg into the slow cooker.
3. Add water until all the ingredients is covered. Set the slow cooker heat to low and leave overnight.
4. In the morning, turn off the slow cooker and carefully skim the top layer of the soup to reduce the fat.
5. Transfer soup into a saucepan, add potato and carrot into the saucepan.
6. Set heat to medium, cover the saucepan and let it simmer for an hour.
7. Once potato and carrot are cooked, turn off heat. Discard celery stalk and spring onion from the cooker.
8. Transfer soup to a serving bowl and serve with warm rice.

Selat Solo or Javanese Bistik is an European influenced dish originated from Solo, Central Java. Solo is mom’s home town and we still visit Solo every Christmas to visit my grands, so this dish is my once-a-year kinda meal. Selat Solo might not be as popular as nasi liwet, gudeg ceker or timlo but this delicacies is my second favourite dish from Solo, with nasi liwet being the first. I still haven’t found the answer of why this dish is named Selat Solo (Eng: Solo Channel) as Solo is located inland and has no channel but I have found the answer of making this simple delicious dish.

I have to admit though that I cheated this recipe by using frozen vegetables mix instead of fresh carrots and green beans. I also used bottled mayonnaise instead of making it from scratch. One other thing to note, it is quite common to use beef tongue as the main ingredients in Selat Solo but I used beef tenderloin instead of beef tongue to make this recipe more reader friendly. To be more honest with you, I think I don’t have the guts to handle raw beef tongue.

Also, as I used local beef which is famous for being chewy, I put the complete soup (after step 4 below)  in my trusted slow cooker for 2 hours to tenderized the meat. I think you could use tenderizer powder or hammer to make it quicker but I prefer using a slow cooker as the process would infused the flavours longer and make the dish more delicious.

Selat Solo / Bistik Jawa

To soak the meat:

• 500 grams beef tendeloin, sliced
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon clove
• 2 tablespoon vinegar
• 4 tablespoon sweet soy sauce
• 3 shallots, thinly sliced

For soup:

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 200 ml water
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• a pinch of salt, to taste
• a pinch of pepper, to taste

To complete the dish:

• carrots, steamed
• green beans, steamed
• corns, steamed
• lettuce, washed
• eggs, hard boiled
• potatoes, fried / steamed
• mayonnaise
• any other vegetables that you like

Instructions

1. Wash meat and put it in a bowl. Combine all ingredients for soaking and pour the mix over the meat. Leave it covered in the fridge for at least an hour.
2. Heat oil in a pan and cook onion until it’s translucent.
3. Lower the heat and pour in meat mix into the pan. Cook the meat for 2-3 minutes on each side and flip over. Cooking time will depend on the thickness of your slices.
4. Pour in water and the rest of the ingredients, let it cook covered for 10-15 minutes. Check if the meat is tender and soft.
5. Prepare your serving plate: start with layering lettuces and top it with vegetables and egg. Don’t forget to add potatoes and mayonnaise on the side.
6. Once the meat is tender, add 3-4 slices of the meat unto the plate and pour some soup over the meat. The dish is now complete and ready to be served.