Today and yesterday, I've felt like total crap. Bad enough, even, to call off of work. My only solution to not feeling physically well is, of course, to spend the whole day on the couch watching TV or in bed watching something on my laptop. The only exceptions I will make to this are food-related. Yesterday, since I was basically useless, I figured I could at least throw together some food.
I'd gotten out ground beef to make Korean beef, so I pretty much had to use it since I'd already thawed it. The good thing about that recipe was that it was pretty easy. I wanted something else to suit my Asian theme, though. So I also handmade some potstickers, which were not as easy but not as hard as I thought they would be. The Korean beef I made just before serving it. The potstickers were made a few hours in advance, and over half of the recipe was frozen for future Asian nights--Tony and I just really don't need that many potstickers in one sitting. I made the potstickers while sitting on the couch and watching bad 80's movies on HBO Go, so I didn't really completely give up on my couch TV routine.
I should also apologize in advance for the lack of pictures for this post. Since I felt so awful, I didn't really manage to take any pictures of the food I made. Probably we should all just take a moment to be impressed with the fact that I made any food at all. I could have just had Tony pick something up on his way home, but I felt somewhat bad that I hadn't really done anything all day. Since Tony and I had kind of been fighting, I wanted to do something a little bit better and create a sort of date night atmosphere. We ruined that a little bit with our choice of movie, which both of us disliked and did not finish, but at least the food was good.
The only thing I ended up leaving out of the Korean beef was the red pepper flake, but only because we didn't have any. The potstickers only had one omission, and that was Sriracha, again because we just didn't have it. I also substituted white mushrooms for Shiitake just because I hadn't been able to find fresh Shiitake mushrooms when I'd done my grocery shopping. White mushrooms were on sale, so I bought white mushrooms.
I found myself surprised at the quickness with which this meal came together. The making of the potstickers was the most labor intensive part, and I did that while sitting on my butt! They fried surprisingly quickly, and the meat inside cooked more quickly than I had thought that it would. I think next time I might include the Sriracha for a little extra kick. The website I got the recipe from suggested serving them with soy sauce, which Tony and I both found necessary. We both agreed that next time we would put garlic and ginger in the soy sauce for dipping to give it a little more dimension.
The Korean beef was another dish that Tony said he would be pissed if we didn't make again. It had a really great flavor. In retrospect, I think adding the red pepper flake would have added a little element of heat to this dish that would have been incredible. I'll be picking up some red pepper flake before we make this again. I would also consider amping up the ginger, since that flavor got a little bit lost in the soy sauce at the end of the cooking process.
The green onions are really what make the dish complete. The pop of freshness and flavor of the green onion added to the sweetness from the brown sugar and the umami of the soy sauce just brought everything together. The crunchiness of the scallion adds the perfect element to the texture of the dish as well. This dish was fantastic, easy, and cheap. It's a great go-to for busy people because it cooks so quickly. And if you pair it with Minute Rice, like we did, it makes for a dinner that's ready in under a half an hour. It's a no-excuses, real food kind of meal, which is the embodiment of everything I've been looking for lately.
It's nights like last night that really embody what I want out of a cooking experience lately: something fast and easy that doesn't disrupt my life. It want it to be quick so that I'm not wasting my life away in the kitchen, and I want it to be real food. I don't want hamburger helper and canned vegetables. I want to create a real meal. I don't want any excuses to keep from providing actual nourishing food to myself and the people I love. Last night's food was exactly that! If only everything could be so simple!
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