Our entree is a simple version of a Korean dish called Bulgogi. There are a lot of fancy ways to make this dish but this is the most simple and it is easy enough to make, throw in a cooler and take to grill on a camping trip which we did many times before The Marines injury. You can stir fry this in the house but the most wonderful way to enjoy it is to cook straight over a hot charcoal grill.
The roll recipe makes 48 rolls. You can search the internet to find all kinds of ways to freeze and store them. This is a great recipe to make for holidays as it serves a large crowd and takes about 3 hours from start to finish and most of that time is letting the dough rise. The recipe is also a no knead bread which I like. The dough is great to make Cinnamon rolls as well. Make half of it into rolls and half into Cinnamon Rolls for a breakfast treat. I made the rolls a few days ago, bagged them up and put them in the freezer. We are taking out a few at a time, thawing and heating in the microwave. They taste just as fresh as the day I made them.
With our Bulgogi and rolls we are having a simple salad with lettuce, tomatoes, green onions and bell peppers to accompany our meal.
Our wine is a bottle of Moscato by Sutter Home . We don't necessary go by what red or white goes with what meal. We drink the wines we like and it is usually in the evening and not really with a meal but for today we are enjoying a glass with our meal.
Make your Bulgogi at least 4 hours ahead of time. I like to make it in the evening and let it marinate in the refrigerator overnight. The marinating sauce will marinate up to 4 or 5 pounds of meat so feel free to use smaller portions of the cooking wine and soy sauce but keep the same amount for the remaining ingredients.
Bulgogi
2 to 5 pounds of a cheap roast such as a chuck roast.
Have the butcher slice it into strips like a thick sliced bacon. If you can't get it sliced; place the roast into the freezer just until it begins to freeze. It will make slicing much easier with a meat slicer or sharp knife.
1 cup of red cooking wine we like Holland House the best if you can find it
1 cup of soy sauce use the lite if you would like to reduce the sodium
6 green onions trimmed and sliced use the white portion and the green
3 or 4 cloves of garlic peeled and crushed
1/4 cup of sesame seeds toast if desired but not necessary
3/4 cup of sugar white granulated
Black Pepper to taste I used a little under 1 tablespoon. This will make a sweet and spicy meat
Method
Assemble all the ingredients
In a large bowl or container you are going to marinate in. Mix the soy sauce, cooking wine and sugar. Stir to melt the sugar
Stir in black pepper
add the sesame seed
the chopped green onion
and the crushed garlic...my garlic press broke so I minced mine
add your meat. Really get in there with your hands to make sure every slice of meat is getting covered.
I transferred my mixture to a leak proof container so I could flip it back and forth a few times while it marinated in the refrigerator overnight.
After marinating your meat 4 hours or overnight. Start your grill . Let your coals get good and hot.
Pray that those clouds don't dump any rain until you have finished cooking. I did not move the grill underneath the pole barn and it did begin to rain. Papa Bear grabbed the patio umbrella and gallantly held it over me and the grill until I finished!
Lay out the meat over the hot coals. My meat is usually sliced a bit thinner than shown. I have to break in a new butcher at our new grocery store!
By the time you get the meat laid out on the grill, it is just about time to flip the meat. It does not take but a couple of minutes on each side if your meat is sliced thin.
This is really good. I can't wait for you to try it and tell me what you think!
Homemade No-Knead Buttery Rolls for a Crowd
1 1/2 cups of milk
3/4 cup + 1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 egg
1 Tablespoon salt
2 Tablespoons yeast
2 cups of warm water
about 9-10 cups of all purpose flour
at least 1 cup of butter
Method
Scald 1 1/2 cups of milk, 3/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup of
butter, in a microwave safe bowl, for about 2 minutes. I cut my butter into small pieces to help melt. It is OK if there are a few little pieces still floating
While your mixture is heating measure out 10 cups of flour in a separate bowl.. You can omit this step if you are good at remembering how much you add to a recipe! I suffer from CRS these days and need all the help I can get!
Stir in 1 or 2 cups of flour to you scalded milk mixture(counts as part of the 10 cups) add one egg slightly beaten and
1 Tablespoon of salt. Set this aside to cool.
In another small bowl or measuring cup dissolve 2 Tablespoons of yeast and 1 Tablespoon of Sugar in 2 cups of warm water. (110-115 degrees) Let this mixture sit a few minutes until it is bubbly.
Pour your scalded milk mixture into a large mixing bowl. Check to see if it is just barely warm and then add your bubbly yeast mixture. If it is too hot you will kill your yeast.
With a wooden spoon stir in the flour about 2 cups at a time.
When it gets to hard to stir with the spoon, work the remaining flour in with your hands. the dough will be very dense and sticky. I ended up using a little bit over 9 cups of flour and not the full 10.
Work the dough together to form a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm place until double in bulk
This batch took about an hour to rise
Butter 2 large cookie sheets
dump dough out on a floured surface and divide into 4 balls
If you are a little anal....you can measure the balls with a kitchen scale to get them more even.
Roll or pat each ball into a circle. I found it easy to pat mine out to about 1/4 inch thick
Spread about 2 tablespoons of butter onto each flattened round
of dough
Using a pizza cutter or knife. Slice each flattened ball of dough into quarters and then slice each quarter into 3 pieces for a total of 12 pieces for each ball of dough
Starting at the wide end roll the dough and tuck the small in under and place down on the cookie sheet
Set rolls aside and let rise in a warm place about 30 minutes
Just as the rolls begin to touch and look somewhat full preheat oven to 350 degrees
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and rub butter over the hot rolls.
This makes a buttery glaze over the rolls that will help them stay nice and soft.
Bread Heaven!
We got in our shipment of 23 hens and 3 roosters of Dominiques. This label was on top of the shipping container. I peeled it off and stuck it on The Marines door. I told The Marine they were blessed chickens if they were packaged by Israel!
They are very cute and were very verbal before they settled in. The Post Office called before 8AM and asked if I wanted to come pick them up!
We gave each one a drink and turned them loose in the little pen with a heat lamp.
It doesn't take them long to find the food. Hopefully in four to five months we'll have a new group of egg layers.
Of course we will for these little chicks are blessed!
I caught her with a chicken this morning.
She had dug into the side of the chicken tractor. A few escaped from the hole and were running loose. She grabbed one and killed it. I am waiting on animal control to come pick her up. My heart is heavy and I have a serious lump in my throat. I really wanted her to be a part of our family but we can't have an animal here who kills our livestock. I have found dug out places where she has tried to dig under the gate where I have an injured baby goat but was not really concerned. I guess I should have been. It could have just as easily been a baby goat than a chicken.
My blog buddies are having a Blog Cook Off just for fun. Show off your recipes and share some great food at the same time. The rules are simple. Read all about it on K's blog Planning and Foresight...It's gonna be fun!
I have to buy eggs. My chickens have not laid one egg in 3 weeks now. I know most are molting as the chicken house is loaded with feathers I have to get out. Usually when they molt a few still lay but not this time. I do have a few older hens but we've done pretty good at keeping new hens coming along so I don't know what is the problem. We've had White Rocks all this time.
I just ordered some Dominiques. I am going to try them and phase out the White Rocks. I was really leaning towards Rhode Island Reds but after I read that the roosters can be aggressive I decided on the Dominiques. Nothing makes me madder than to have a rooster spur the backs of my legs.
A long time ago we raised chickens when the kids were young. We got a free "exotic" chicken with a shipment of day old chicks. It turned out to be an Egyptian rooster. That was the meanest chicken I have ever dealt with. He wouldn't stay in a pen no matter how much you trimmed a wing. We always had to be on the lookout for that mean rooster. It never failed if I had my back turned he was going to get me or my younger son. We seemed to be the only two he lived to spur. I came in from work one day and saw him lying dead in the horse pen. Our mare Goldie had stomped him to death. I guess he spurred the wrong animal that day. That was one time I was not sorry to lose a barnyard animal!
I was looking on the internet for more cheese recipes when I stumbled across this recipe for Homemade Velveeta. I followed her recipe exactly for the first batch and found it way too salty. I now use only one teaspoon of salt and it is just right.
It only takes a few minutes to make the finished product. The longest times is letting your milk ripen and then letting it drain which is a total of 24 hours but you are not doing anything during this time. I have not tried this with raw milk. I pasteurize my goat milk to have a longer shelf life so this is what I use. A gallon of milk from the grocery store will work fine if you don't have fresh milk from the farm.
Begin by making a batch of Lactic Cheese.
Heat one gallon of milk to 86 degrees. I use a big pot with water and canning rings in the bottom to hold another pot my milk goes into.
Remove from heat and add 1 packet of mesophilic starter.
I am out of this so I use 1/2 cup of buttermilk. It works exactly the same. Stir the starter or buttermilk in good and then add 1 teaspoon of diluted rennet which is 3 drops of rennet diluted in 1/3 cup of cool water. Stir this in with an up and down motion for one minute. Place lid on pot and let it sit undisturbed for 12 hours.
After 12 hours you will have a pot of one solid curd that looks like thick yogurt
In the sink, pour or ladle your curd into a colander lined with butter muslin or an old clean pillowcase will work. I use the flour sack towels cut in half that I get from Sam's Club. Don't use regular cheesecloth or you will pour your curds down the drain!
Tie the ends together and hang it to drain the whey for 12 hours. Put something under your bag to catch the whey.
After 12 hours, take down your bag of drained curds and put them in a bowl. Add 3 teaspoons of baking soda and 1 teaspoon of salt. Mix with an electric mixer for 2 or 3 minutes until it is fluffy looking. Let this set for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet.
Add your fluffy curds and stir until melted.
You can add 12 or so drops of cheese coloring if you like. I happen to have some but it is not necessary. If you don't add the coloring your cheese will be white instead of orange and there's nothing wrong with that.
It looks like this when it is all melted and the dye worked in. This takes about 3 or 4 minutes tops.
Pour it into your mold or molds that you will be using. Any type of plastic container works fine. Have them ready before you start melting the curds. This recipe makes about 2 pounds of homemade Velveeta. Place Velveeta in the refrigerator. It will not take long to set up to start using in your recipes.I let mine cool off in the refrigerator before i put a lid on it to avoid condensation.
You can run a case knife around the edge of the mold and remove the cheese for slicing.
Makes a great grilled cheese
and Nacho's!
I've also made homemade mac & cheese with it. It is great. You'll never buy the boxed stuff again!
Enjoy!
