Recipe time - Korean Beef Skewers & Ramen Noodle Salad

We love to try new dishes at our local Asian restaurants - and on the road, of course - but we also have a lot of fun making favorites at home, too. Our recent Mid-Autumn Festival meal featured a couple of company-pleasers I'd like to share with you today:

Clockwise from top: steamed rice (from our Zojirushi rice-cooker), deep-fried sesame-red-bean balls, the Ramen Noodle Salad, carrots and edamame, grilled pork tenderloin marinated in Cha Siu sauce, Korean beef skewers, and a lazy-susan of various fruits.

My wife suggested I try making Korean beef skewers based on a recipe from Oprah's magazine. I compared it to several other recipes I found on the internet and ended up borrowing some of this, some of that...  The pear is the special ingredient, and it adds sweetness to the slightly spicy sauce. You'll want to prepare this the day before you grill; the marinade works best if you let it soak in overnight.

Ingredients:
About 2 lbs. beef - a sirloin or similar grilling steak - cut into large cubes, about 1.5" to 2".

1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons of sriracha (a common Asian hot sauce)
4 teaspoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil (check your Asian market for this)
2 cans of sliced pears - drain the juice
1 teaspoon five-spice powder (the ultimate Asian staple seasoning)

Preparation:
Everything goes in the mixer (except the steak... ) for a quick and rough blend.  Pour the mixture into a gallon Ziploc bag, add the beef cubes, and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight.

Grill these on bamboo skewers that you've soaked in water for about 20 minutes.  Rotate the skewers for even heating - I find about 15-20 minutes total cooking time is sufficient.

The marinade is a nice rich orange color going on.

This Ramen Noodle Salad has been a consistent winner at potlucks, and packed with all sorts of good nutritious things. You'll want to use your largest mixing bowl, as it makes enough for a full office party...

Ingredients:
1 bag of pre-chopped coleslaw salad mix (or you could do it the hard way with a head of Napa cabbage, carrots, red cabbage...)
5 green onions, sliced (I like to cut them on the diagonal instead of straight down; this is a Cantonese cooking trick that brings out more of the oniony flavor)
1/2 cup sesame seeds (most recipes have you sautee them in butter; not worth the time & trouble)
1/2 cup roasted almonds
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup sunflower seeds (pumpkin seeds make a nice seasonal touch, you could use pine nuts too)
1 small head broccoli
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon five-spice powder
1/2 cup salad oil (canola or something very light, I keep cutting back on the oil)=
1/4 cup toasted sesame oil (this adds unique nuttiness)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 cup cider vinegar (I've tried xiaoxing wine but haven't been happy with the results)
2 packages dried Ramen noodles, crushed

Preparation:
Thoroughly mix the sugar, five-spice, and liquid ingredients in a smaller bowl and set aside.

Place the coleslaw mix, ramen noodles (take out the seasoning packets...), and all the fruits, nuts, and vegetables in your large bowl. Toss these ingredients a couple times.

Whisk the liquid mixture again - you're wanting the oil, vinegar, and sugar to be well-blended - and pour over the dry ingredients.

Again toss the salad - thoroughly distribute the dressing and make sure the smaller pieces are evenly spread through the bowl.  Cover this with clear wrap and let sit in the fridge for several hours / overnight before serving.

Tonkatsu Ramen, a new family favorite!

My wife tried something new at the always-awesome United Noodles here in Minneapolis this weekend: tonkatsu ramen.  It's now one of her "happy foods"- and likely one she'll ask for when cold & flu season rolls around!

Look at that wonderful milky broth (it's not cream, but part of it's pork fat) - the bright red pickled ginger, the beautiful chunk of pork...  This bowl is HUGE - the same size you'd get a serving of pho in!

There's a tea egg in there too - nice rich flavor.  When you stir the ginger into the steaming broth, the whole bowl becomes sweetly aromatic. Plenty of bean sprouts and bok choy are mixed in with the chewy ramen noodles - this was easily a two-person serving.

Urban wildlife likes the Zen Garden, too

It's been dry here in the Twin Cities, so I've been giving the trees a good soak before winter sets in. Over the past week or so, when I set the lawn sprinkler up to cover our Japan-inspired garden, we get dozens of these cute (and fairly tame) fuzzy gray birds who perform aerobatics in the spray and perch themselves on the pine boughs for a long soaking shower.

We get robins, blue jays, chickadees and more alongside this flock, but none are so darn cute or seem to take such enjoyment in what I'm giving them.  My wife says after they're done, they probably fly to a neighbor's yard to hang up her laundry, and then go tie bows on squirrels...

Wish I knew what species these guys are ... they have black eyebands and a bright yellow stripe at the tip of their tails.

Our Mid-Autumn Festival Meal!

We had some old friends over last night as an excuse to have a Mid-Autumn Festival (Moon Festival) meal!

Clockwise from left: Deep-fried sesame balls with red-bean filling (usually a breakfast snack, but good for noshing at anytime); Ramen-noodle salad with broccoli, and green onion & cilantro on the side; carrots and edamame; grilled pork tenderloin that had been marinated in Cha Siu sauce; beef skewers using a Korean pear sauce recipe; a lazy-susan with various lucky fruits; dipping sauces; and jasmine rice

Chocolate and pumpkin-spice cupcakes with white frosting (because it's the Moon) ... instead of mooncakes.  If I'd had more time I'd have tried making a shortcake cupcake with strawberry jam filling, for something that looked more traditional

And right on cue, the moon came up and filled our backyard with brilliant light all night long!

Additions to my Japan-inspired garden

I've recently added two new elements to my "Zen garden" ... the senses of sight, smell, and touch have been taken care of, but now we can add soothing sound:

And today I strung up LED lights under the pine tree canopy, allowing us to enjoy the garden's beauty day or night, summer or winter. It complements the brilliant moonlight we're experiencing with today's Mid-Autumn Festival...

My Japan-inspired garden

This year we bought a house in the heart of the Twin Cities and moved in from an outer-ring suburb, primarily to be closer to our daughter's Chinese immersion school - and to cut the exhaustive commute my wife and I were burdened with.

With various projects needing to be done with the property, we had neither the time nor spare cash to take a trip to Asia this summer. However, we know travel works two ways - going out to explore the world, and reflecting in to apply what you've learned...

Our design tastes lean both Scandinavian and Asian ("Scandinasian" I call it), and we try to subtly incorporate pieces of Asian culture into our everyday lives to help our daughter grow up to be someone who can easily work in Eastern and Western societies. So we'd kicked around ideas of what someday we'd like to do with our nice fenced backyard (once we'd gotten the invasive buckthorn and half-dead yet overgrown shrubs ripped out) and we both thought a "Zen Garden" would make sense somewhere.

July was brutally hot in Minneapolis this year so not much happened with garden projects, but then fate intervened, as my mother wanted to divide her hostas.  I ended up with about 50 plants to transplant into my yard, and no plan...

Here's the corner (under the big pine tree on the left) where I'd end up placing most of those hostas. The area was already heavily mulched and pretty acidic due to all the pine needles that had fallen over the years.

The grass kind of stopped growing under the pine tree, so that's where I started putting hostas in, and it ended up forming a nice straight line.

Inspiration from travel

Once I'd committed to making something out of that corner in the yard after planting all those perennials, I figured I'd need more of a plan ... inspiration at least to improvise.  And as I scanned through our travel photo files, I found that inspiration in our trip to Tokyo in June 2009:

The Meiji Jingu shrine, next to Harajuku, is an immense stretch of forest and temples - all completely rebuilt after WWII.  This was a royal getaway, but today used for all sorts of public activities. A vast oasis of calm, shade, and restfulness surrounded by skyscrapers, trains, and highways - but when inside you don't notice the outside world at all. No flashy colors or heaps of colorful flowers here - just wood, stone, shadows and light, and all sorts of green.

The roadways are a thick layer of gravel that is sturdy yet giving; it makes you walk a little more slowly and concentrate on what you are doing and feeling. The paths are maintained by monks who you'll see carefully sweeping leaves and pine needles.

In the center of the complex is the main shrine area, with lovely trees and  cut-stone pavers.  We visited early on a weekday and had the whole complex largely to ourselves - a nice effect of jetlag in a city that likes to get started a little later in the morning.

We also visited the gardens next to the Imperial Palace,  which are also very large and right next to downtown Tokyo. They limit the number of people who can be inside at any given time, but again we arrived early and had no trouble. There's more of a "classical" feel to this place than Meiji Jingu, with dedicated flower beds and a carefully managed calendar of blooms. (Which we completely missed.)

The canopy over this part of the path not only gives some shelter from rain and hot sun, but it also frames up a "borrowed view" to the pond as well as the shrubbery and flowers beyond.

Even without seeing these beds in full bloom, it was still amazing to look at all the different textures and shapes of the plants.  Again, stone and green colors in all their shades were the dominant colors

A big swathe of river rock creates visual interest to this pond scene - in a usual garden there'd be vegetation right up to the edge, but here they're trying to evoke the way that mountain streams can change course in a valley and leave berms of pebbles.

The paths in the Imperial Garden are hard-surfaced, but with pea gravel as part of the mixture, which gives a similar look to the paths in Meiji Jingu.

So lessons learned from Tokyo that I could apply to this project:

• There don't HAVE to be masses of flowers blooming every day. It makes you look more at the leaves and other structures of the plants and notice the conversation they have with the scene around them.
• Large groupings of one kind of plant are preferable to a little bit of this, a little bit of that.
• The borders and pathways are just as important as what's inside them.
• Think about all the senses a visitor will use in the garden - the texture of the ground beneath them, the sounds around them, not just sights and smells.
• Colors - green, brown, and stone can be very pleasing ... and with pines and yews on our lot, give year-round interest.
• "Borrowed space" - making a small garden much bigger

 Getting to work

I spent most of August pulling weeds and leveling out the ground where the walking path would go. Multiple trips to the home-improvement stores were made (a stop at Lowe's for bullet edgers became our "Saturday date night"...)

Fieldstones already on our property serve as visual markers for the main approach.

The path works behind the hostas and through the mulch area.  I planted yews along the back fence for color and texture - and so I don't have to look at the fence in a few years.  The pathway is leveled dirt, with a layer of sand over it, then landscape fabric. Bullet edgers along each side hold in about 3" of pea gravel.

The existing pine needles and chips blend in nicely with the mulch I've applied around the hostas.

Last week I finally completed the gravel pathway - and planted about 100 Japanese Iris bulbs, plus a couple dozen Asiatic lilies and tulips, and transplanted a trunkload of sedum from my mom's place.  This area used to be farmland, and the soil looks pretty rich!

Our dog approves of my work. So do the honeybees from the University of Minnesota nearby.

Detail on the pea gravel and pavers

Like at Meiji Jingu, there's texture and visual interest even in shadow. Plus, using the view into the yard to expand the perceived size of the garden.

 Enjoying the view, and continuing to work

The space under the pine tree is sheltered from the sun - and I hope the snow in winter as well. It is also perfectly situated to watch fireworks from the Minnesota State Fair, just a few blocks south of us:

Flowers of a different kind!

How's this for "borrowed space"?

We ordered up a pallet of bullet edgers, and they were delivered Tuesday. I've laid out how they'll divide the garden area from the lawn ... still need to put them in...

Hosta flowers in bloom give a nice purple accent and complement the pink-purple of the sedum at this time of year.

I'm looking forward to installing a stone bench under the tree here and stringing up lights for the long dark nights to come. What a peaceful space here in the heart of the Twin Cities.

Riding the Dragon

Sometimes we need to stretch to find cultural relevance. Sometimes it's just around the corner in a place you don't expect.

OK, this is clearly not in China much less Asia. In Minneapolis / St. Paul we have two zoos - the older / smaller / free one is in St. Paul and is located in Como Park.  Lots to do there - swimming, concerts, a lake to walk around, good golf course, picnic grounds, and a small amusement park.

Como is only a few blocks away from the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, which start in a couple weeks. My daughter wanted to use up her ride-pass card before the Fair and the start of school.

There's actually a decent array of rides there for younger kids -  nothing for teenagers.  I was pleasantly surprised to see this metal-track kiddie coaster!

Nice work with a Chinese dragon head. St. Paul has a big Asian population & it's becoming a cultural hub because of that. So you know people on staff cared to get it right...

Very impressive styling work - it looks like a Dragonboat!

The ride was not really designed for someone of my size - I had to hold on tight to keep from falling out in a couple places - but my daughter had a blast!