This is a succulent dish of prime beef, cooked in Asian style, which I think you will find makes your mouth water.
As with all cooking involving heat, care must be taken. But, as this involves barbecuing in the open, take particular care and do not allow children anywhere near a lit barbeque.
Korean Style Grilled Beef – The Recipe (serves four)
450g (1 Ib) chuck steak
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
3 tablespoons pineapple juice
2 tablespoons sweet rice wine or dry sherry
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
3 tablespoons finely chopped spring onions
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
1 tea spoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
Four bamboo skewers
Cut the chuck steak into 100 mm X 5 mm (4 inches X 1/4 inch) pieces.
Put the soy sauce, pineapple juice, rice wine (or sherry), garlic, spring onions, sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds, salt and pepper into a dish.
Let the beef marinate in this mix for one hour.
Meanwhile, soak the bamboo skewers in cold water for about 30 minutes, so they don’t catch fire on the barbeque.
Skewer the beef on the bamboo skewers.
Before lighting the barbeque, arrange the charcoal pieces so they are closer together at one end of the container, gradually thinning out to less at the other. This will give you a graduation of heat: very hot for searing meat and fish to seal in the juice and less hot on the other half for a slower, more thorough, cooking. This is very important for chicken and other meat, which might be burnt on the outside, yet still dangerously undercooked in the center, when cooked on too fierce a heat.
Light the barbeque and allow to burn until all the flames have died down. The charcoal should appear dead, with a brown or whitish appearance, yet very hot when a hand is held some distance away.
Quickly sear the beef on both sides on the hottest part of the barbeque to seal in the juices. Because this marinade contains very little oil, you can safely baste the seared beef with it. Paint a generous layer of marinate on both sides with a pastry brush.
Once the beef has been seared and basted with marinade, move to a medium heat on the barbeque and cook for 15 minutes, turning occasionally to ensure even cooking.
Serve on a bed of baby spinach leaves, peppers and red onions.
Korean Style Grilled Beef — the health benefits
Although beef contains valuable nutrients, such as iron and several B vitamins, it should not form a massive part of a healthy diet.
You can get a measure of the nature of meat by reflecting that the longest living nations, such as the Japanese, make fish, rather than meat their main source of animal protein.
The prime difference between the two is fish contains valuable Omega 3 oil, which has been shown to be a of great benefit to the heat and cardiovascular system, whilst meat contains saturated fat, which is blamed for having the reverse effect.
However, provided lean meat is eaten in moderation, it makes a valuable contribution to a balanced diet.
The real saving grace of this dish is the choice of salad. Spinach is the classic vegetable advocated by Popeye The Sailor and how right he was! It is one of the super foods and one eaten by the people who appear most immune to cancer. It is particularly beneficial when eaten raw in a salad, as here, because cooking destroys some of its antioxidants.
Bell peppers — particularly the red ones — are crammed with vitamin C, which is one vitamin than cannot be stored in the body and should be taken daily. They also contain a substance called capsaicin, which has the ability to stop cell changes that can lead to cancer.
Red onions is a better choice to eat raw in a salad that the white ones, as they are sweeter and without the strong flavor of the white onion. It also contains valuable amounts of quercetin — a potent antioxidant — not found in white onions. In common with all of the onion and garlic family they may protect against stomach cancer by decreasing the conversion of nitrates (used to preserve food, such as sausages) into cancer triggering nitrites in the stomach.
I hope you enjoy your Korean style grilled beef.
