Saturday, May 14, 2011

Beef Bulgogi

My nephew Jay-jay and Ashley ambushed us again and invited themselves over for the weekend. Not that I'm complaining. I'm kinda liking the mommy role:-)

Anyway, I think the kids are too dependent on computer games and the X Box to entertain themselves. I do my best to ply them off those computer games and encourage them to do other stuff. I'm making a bit of progress by letting them help me cook, bake and I make them practice writing and some coloring activities for Ashley. Jay-jay loves to read Science books, so that's a plus. I also read them stories before going to bed.

Both kids enjoy helping me in the kitchen. We've made cookies, cupcakes, and both have eagerly helped me make family lunches and dinner.

Today, both kids helped me make the marinade for the Beef Bulgogi. I let them "chop" the Korean pear with a dull table knife. They helped me measure the ingredients and tenderize the meat (by pounding the beef with a dull knife). The kids took turns turning on the food processor. My kitchen was a mess but we had fun making the marinade. I didn't have my camera while we were doing this, that's why there are no pictures :-(

For the vegetables, the kids helped cut them with kitchen scissors and I carefully let them cut some of the vegetables with a real knife. They had fun arranging the vegetables and tofu in the paellera. It makes a pretty presentation, don't you think? :-)



Ashley started crying when her kuya Jay-jay wouldn't let her stir the pot.



She eventually gets her way anyway. Here she is happily posing while stirring the pot.



My niece Ashley, so pretty :-)



It's our first time to make Beef Bulgogi soup. My housekeeper had forgotten to add salt the homemade beef broth (the original recipe called for canned beef broth) so our Bulgogi turned out a just a tad bland, but it can be easily adjusted next time.

If you're making Beef Bulgogi, I suggest you get the sukiyaki cut so that the meat will be very tender. The sirloin that I got from the supermarket was a bit tough, despite the pounding that we gave it.

Your kitchen will smell really nice when you are cooking this. As my nephew Jay-jay commented:

"What's that good smell? It's like perfume" :-)



Hubby liked this dish very much. The kids didn't like it as much since it had a lot of vegetables in it but they did manage to eat a substantial amount, so I'm happy with that.

I'm excited to improve this recipe next time I make it. I'll post the recipe once it's worthy :-)

2 comments:

mrslovey said...

your niece Ashley is soo cute. the look on her face when she was crying was priceless. hehe

Btw, may I ask for the location and direction where you bought the cheesepie on your previous post? thank you in advance :)

Leica said...

Thanks, Ashley's a hoot too! She says the funniest things.

The cheesepie can be bought at Pack-away Multi Sales, at the side of the BF Palengke. Coming from South super highway, take Sucat exit, the turn left at the BF entrance (there's a 711 and a BPI at the corner). Go straight past Caltex. when you see Hapchan, turn right. You can see the Palengke there. Go straight and turn left on the second street, then tun left again and park on that street (essentially you are making a big u-turn since the streets are one way). Pack-away Multi Sales should be on your right (it's a small stall overflowing with assorted merchandise). The bakery suppliers are on that side. You can't miss it. It's just a short street. Sorry, I don't know the street names. Hope you won't have a hard time finding it.

The palengke in BF is one of the cleanest wet markets I've seen, that's why I like to shop there for seafood.