WCS: Last night's dinner at home is today's lunch at work...but with an upgrade

03 MARCH 2011. I don't know what time the idea exactly hit me. I got up (with a bit of struggle) to get hubby’s breakfast in order, which is—tada: rice topped with a fried egg. OK, I’m really dismayed at myself. I can do better than that. But hubby didn’t want sardines or anything else with his meal, and apparently enjoyed his breakfast (I would never have finished all that rice with just a bland, fried egg).

We still had a lot of rice from the night before. Hubby said I bring some for our lunch para hindi masayang. Lately, rice spoils easily at home. We don’t understand the phenomenon. We used to have leftover rice survive until the next evening, at times, even the day after. There was still leftover pork chop, the thin kind you buy from the grocery already breaded, from the previous night. It was mom who cooked it last night so there were pieces that were too brown (in other words, sunog! LOL). I said I’ll heat it and put it over the rice.

I put hubby’s baon together—which was composed of Spanish bread and ensaymada we brought from the plaza last night, a bag of steamed peanuts and a pack of Hansel cookies—and went upstairs to get a few more minutes of sleep. I leave the house for work an hour later than hubby does so he encourages me to sleep some more. I’ve been having a toothache that has been waking me and keeping me up at night the last few days, robbing me of precious winks.

So I really don’t know what time the idea hit me—just before I took a nap or when I woke up again. I do remember remembering the bottle of mirin—Japanese sweet rice wine—in the refrigerator, the one I used for the gyudon-ish beef dish a few weekends ago. Then the cold leftover porkchop on the kitchen table…


And katsudon. I want katsudon.


Wait…maybe I can make katsudon, ne?


The last katusdon meal I had was the one served at Sizzling Plate at SM Southmall food court (OK, it’s not even authentic, hahaha!) before the total renovation. The sudden craving is understandable.

No sooner had I made up my mind to it, I was in the kitchen once more. I didn’t check a recipe online—honestly, it didn’t occur to me as I was just so focused to get at it. =) All I did was try to remember what was in a Sizzling Plate Katsudon bowl (gosh, it isn’t even authentic)…

I beat an egg in a bowl and added thinly sliced onions and a pinch of salt. There were no veggies in the refrigerator. Was looking if we had at least a small carrot (to make for a “healthy” dish). But I had to make do with the onions. Anyway, I think that’s what the recipe just calls for…and green onions, which I do not have.

Shortcut of all shortcuts, LOL

In a small bowl, I mixed a small bit of mirin with soy sauce. I didn’t put anything more, as the breaded porkchop already had this sweet taste that little bro—Mr. Plain Dry Food Please—complained about last night. I bought it thinking it was plain (it looked plain), and not knowing it had some kind of marinade. Malay ko ba.

Soy sauce and mirin only. It just happened

that my leftover breaded pork chop already
had this light sweet flavour. On normal
occasions, sugar will be needed.

I dipped a porkchop in the egg mixture and fried it, constantly turning the porkchop over so the egg will coat it, dripping a bit more egg and onions as needed. As the egg was cooking, I drizzled the soy sauce-mirin mix on it. I wasn’t able to do this quite evenly though. I also made some more of the sauce to put on the rice, but too little, fearing it would already be too salty.

I know this isn’t the correct procedure,

but I don’t want to be late for work!

It was done in almost a flash. It is after all a shortcut. I put rice in a big Lock-n-Lock, put the katsu-daw (katsudon daw) on top, slipped in fried sweet potato slices (leftovers also) and locked it up.

OK, so it isn’t very attractive (with mom

burning the meat last night), but hubby
and I had a rather enjoyable lunch today. ^_^

All packed up!

I immediately made a disclaimer, just as hubby and I got seated for lunch, that I did something with our ulam. So he was no longer shocked when he saw the egg-y thing I bought. And he liked it. Enough to finish all that rice I brought. ^_^

Katsu-daw

Makes 2 pieces

2 pieces leftover breaded porkchop

1 small egg, beaten

1 tbsp onion, sliced thinly lengthwise

Pinch of salt

Katsu-daw sauce*

2 tbsps soy sauce

1 tsp mirin

*I used store-bought breaded porkchop that has been flavored. If yours is plain (or you make it from scratch), a few more ingredients need to go into the sauce like sugar. For the real recipe, you may refer to this one I found this afternoon, long after I swallowed the last bite of my cheap shot lunch. =)

*BB*

SQF: Gyudon-ish beef dish

30 JANUARY 2011. I had it all planned out. I was going to cook gyudon. I don't know why, I was just craving for something Asian, I suppose. Due to the major renovation going on at SM Southmall, Tokyo Tokyo is closed and it was only during the wedding night that I was able to eat there again, but at the ATC food court (yes, hubby and I were out gallivanting at ATC on our wedding night. LOL). And there's that unopened bottle of mirin which has been glaring at me from the shelf for months already. I decided that it was finally its time.
On Saturday morning, it happened mom was going to the plaza to buy fresh meat. I was just about to start doing some laundry. I quickly dressed and went with her.

I bought over a kilo of thinly sliced beef for the gyudon and about a kilo of beef round which I requested to be ground for that suddenly-I-want-pasta moments. The meat easily cost me P500. O_O Good thing I bought the other ingredients way in advance.

It turned out I had to slice the beef some more. The beef was still on the thick side. But even after I had worked on it some more, it wasn't still gyudon-thin. How do they get it so thin in the restaurant? =( I tried to get it as thin as possible. The result looked more like beef stirfry strips. Hahaha! Well anyway, I proceeded with the cooking.

I'm not very familiar with beef, as I'm a chicken person and my only relationship with beef goes as far as pasta sauce. I discovered that cooking it to the right tenderness, or at least to an acceptable level, takes quite a long time. Hubby and I got a pressure cooker as a wedding gift, but I'm just as much scared of it as I am of the oven. =| So I let the beef cook away in the pot.

After carving for Asian for so long, I had a delicious meal. Ate more than I should have. LOL. Hubby enjoyed eating (the leftovers survived for a couple more meals the day after). Mom said it was something like lomo because of the ginger. Too bad I didn't have that sweet red ginger stuff they have at Japanese restaurants. That would've completed the look. Plus thinner-cut meat.

My gyudon-ish dish topped on rice

Little bro came home late from a PC repair service (rumaraket na ang kapatid ko). Mom instructed him not to eat at his client's (because he usually does), so he was able to try out the beef. He was asking me about it before he left, saying he didn't know what gyudon was. When I saw him later that evening, he said, "Your beef is good."

I'll cook this again another time. When I find a way to have the meat cut thinner.

Gyudon-ish
Serves 5 or more
recipe to follow (based on several versions I found online)

*BB*