as-salaam aleikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,
ok, I need to get updated here so I don’t fall behind. I have been busying myself and then too tired to post at night…
so, on Thursday, my best friend from Abu Dhabi came down to Dubai. Her husband had a wedding to go to so they stayed at a hotel and I decided to cook.
I cooked a healthy dish and a couple of non-healthy stuff and some white rice. I was supposed to make brown rice but I was too busy and ran out of time.
I didn’t eat breakfast or lunch…except for the nibbles I took to taste the marinade and such I was making—so I ended up eating everything… but I didn’t over-do it so inshallah I was alright. I know its bad to skip meals but I was running around to several stores to get all the ingredients and all the preparation time…I just didn’t have any time to eat. I also forgot to take photos!! but I have a couple of photos of the same dishes I made previously for a forum I wanted to post the recipes on…
I made Japanese potato salad:
OMG this is sooo yummy. but FATTENING!! now, this photo, the potatoes are cubed, and they stayed cubed only because it was leftover sauteed potatoes I made the salad with. normally you boil the potatoes and I just cannot keep it in cubes. it always turns to mash, but I like the salad mashed anyways. so basically, you peel and boil potatoes, then let cool. slice cucumber and onion paper thin, then soak in a bowl of water with salt added. then remove the slices and squeeze, squeeze, squeeze until you have removed as much water as you can and set aside.
once the potatoes are cold, add the cucumbers and onions, and mayo… this you go by eye, I don’t have a measured recipe for this. keep adding mayo until its creamy enough for you, then season with salt and pepper. YUMM!!
next I made Bulgogi which is a Korean beef dish:
mmmmm this one is yummy too!! the recipe for this (afterwards I will post how to make this healthier—without sugar—but the original recipe first)
serves 4
2 lb steak, thinly sliced (easiest if you slightly freeze them first)
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp blk pepper
1 tsp sesame seeds
1-2 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp juice of ginger
1/2 onion, grind in a food processor
*** if you are using a cheap cut of steak add 1-2 tsp of white vinegar or rice vinegar to tenderize the meat.
after slicing the steaks and onion, set aside. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a big bowl.
Marinade beef and vegetables in this marinade for at least 30 minutes.
1-2 hours is the best, after more than several hours it will be too salty. I have never marinated it for more than an hour.
heat up a pan on a med-high to high heat and add the onions and beef in batches, it cooks…10-20 seconds on each side at the most-and remove from pan. you will get a lot of smoke and the marinade does burn to the pan so use a non-stick pan or else cleaning will be a pain.
If you are like my hubby and likes lots of sauce for the rice then add all the marinade sauce to a new clean pan with about half a cup of water and let the sauce boil and reduce a couple minutes. Then you can pour it over the rice 
oh, and garnish with fresh green onion slices. it goes well with the beef
******************************* to make this healthier:
my Korean friend where I used to work made this dish for me one day and she said she didn’t use any sugar—she used crushed pears instead. I just don’t know how much crushed pears to use with the soy sauce so this will something to experiment around with. maybe add some crushed pairs, and put a small piece of beef in for a minute, and fry it and taste. then add more as necessary.
It tasted just like the versions that have sugar in them. als0, for a healthier way..perhaps chicken or shrimp instead of beef…. but ohhh its perfect with beef!!
I then made a healthier version of Yakitori, which are Japanese chicken skewers, with or without onions/green onions with a teriyaki marinade (similar to the bulgogi marinade actually):
this photo is for a grill that is sold for this in Japan—not mine… this dish is best grilled over charcoal but I made this on a really high heat in the oven instead.
for the skewers, its basically just cubed chicken breasts and chicken thigh meat. you can make this with beef as well. in Japan they make it with all parts of the chicken.. the gizzards, the liver etc.. but I can’t eat those parts:
here is the recipe I used for the marinade:
Orange Teriyaki Glazed Chicken
I say its healthier because it is made with honey instead of sugar. I know most food experts will tell you honey and sugar are practically the exact same thing, but I say honey is better than sugar, so as long as you don’t over-do it (and most of it is marinade anyways, you won’t drink the leftover marinade), I think it is healthy enough.
the whole dinner was yummy Mashallah…
oh…oops… I forgot to add….. I did eat some lemon shortbread cookies that my friend served us… bad I know but was it oh so gooooood!
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