Justin's first Korean BBQ

I've been planning on having a go at making Korean BBQ since going to Seoul on a business trip in November, and today I finally got around to it.

We went to H-Mart off Lougheed Highway in Burnaby, which is a Korean grocery store and picked up a pot of Kimchi, some Beef ribs and Pork belly cuts (both already sliced for BBQ) and a couple of marinades.

So I barbecued the pork first out on the deck on a small butane grill, half of it in the spicy marinade and half without. The pork belly was quite fatty, and as it cooked the BBQ was pretty wild, I was in a fireball at one point wondering whether to pull the plug, but eventually the meat looked ready and once off the grill everything calmed down.

I served the meat as it was ready, with bowls of Kimchi, sea salt, sliced fresh garlic and chopped spring onions. As I suspected it was a bit too spicy for Jamie, but he loved the non-marinated meat. He liked the Kimchi though, and even drank the juice from the bottom of the pot.

Next up the Beef ribs. This was a lot better behaved on the BBQ as it was a lot more lean. The marinade I had for the beef was dark and sweet flavour, with no spice, so Jamie loved that and probably ate almost a pound of the grilled meat.

My verdict ... it's pretty easy to make Korean BBQ and Jamie quite happily will eat spicy Kimchiand raw garlic when there is grilled meat involved.

From Justin's first Korean BBQ

Easter Cooking

Having watched the first couple of episodes of Jamie Olivers' new TV show, Food Revolution, it's a good job I cooked a couple of healthy meals yesterday and planned to do the same today. That makes me wonder if perhaps most of the people watching this show will already be interested in healthy cooking and that the person that eats mostly fat and frozen food will be watching the other channel.

Anyway, this Italian tomato pasta dish I made yesterday turned out really good so I wanted to write it down.

From Easter weekend cooking

Ingredients

Can of chopped tomatoes

About 1tsp of fresh basil

Handful of Cilantro

3-4 cloves of garlic thinly sliced and chopped

Whole white onion coarsely chopped

1/2 cup of red wine

Oregano

Ground black pepper

One tin Tuna broken up

1/2 tsp of chilli powder

1oz cooked pasta (fusili or whatever)

Method

I chopped the onion quite thickly then fry it on medium eat in large lumps, which seems to leave more of the flavour in. After 5-6 minutes I added the garlic and cook that through without browning. At about ten minutes add the wine, maybe a bit of water too, and stir in the onions and the rest of the ingredients. Cook through and serve with the pasta.

From Easter weekend cooking

On Friday evening we had a selection of cooked meats, blue cheese and crackers, and a quick salad with Asian Sesame seed dressing. Does that count as cooking? Not really but it was good.

On Saturday morning Jamie insisted on Macaroni and cheese for lunch, so I made him some from a recipe I found on the internet (see link at the bottom of the post).

From Easter weekend cooking

This is pretty much the same as packet mac and cheese which he loves so much, but it's a lot lower in sodium man-made chemical nonsense. It's also got fresh vegetables in it and almonds also add a lot of good nutrients. According to the recipe it's a good source of vitamin A and D, as well as calcium.

Unfortunately, he didn't like it. In the end we had to stir hot dog in it to get him to eat any at all, which is a shame, but I tried.

http://healthycooking.suite101.com/article.cfm/healthy_macaroni_and_cheese