Japanese-Style Beef With Marinated Cucumber And Carrots

The idea for this Japanese-style beef came after I had been to a couple of Japanese restaurants. I felt an urge to cook Japanese food afterwards. Everything I’d eaten – from sushi to salads and hot main courses - had been so incredibly tasty.

So I started to look at recipes for Japanese food and goodness me, what an amazing amount of sugar they use in a lot of dishes!

It seems counter-productive to me when you add 3 tablespoons of sugar to a marinade and then pour it over otherwise healthy vegetables. I can’t see the need for the sugar when there are so many other tasty ingredients in the marinade.

I used a recipe I had for Japanese-style beef with marinated cucumber and carrots and swapped the sugar in the vegetable marinade and stock for the beef for a bit of honey, and cut down on the amount of soya in the stock. It tasted amazing!

For 4 people:

Vegetable marinade

3 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 heaped teaspoon honey (I use raw Manuka honey)

A good pinch of salt and pepper

½ cucumber, sliced really thinly

1 medium-sized carrot, cut into thin ribbons (use a potato peeler)

Stock:

½ green pepper (bell pepper), diced

½ green apple, diced

½ yellow onion, diced

1 fat garlic clove, sliced

Thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, sliced

200ml, 7floz, 0.9 cup water

4 tablespoons soya sauce (I use organic gluten-free Tamari soy sauce)

1 tablespoon mirin (you can find this in most well-stocked supermarkets)

3 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 teaspoon honey

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1-2 tablespoons vegetable or groundnut oil

500g, 1lb2oz, sirloin or fillet of beef, sliced very thinly

Salt and pepper

Basmati rice - or use quinoa (healthier and better for your weight)

1.    Using a whisk, mix together the ingredients for the marinade in a bowl. Add the thinly sliced cucumber and carrot ribbons to the bowl, mix well, cover the bowl and place it in the fridge. Leave to marinate for 1 hour (give the vegetables a stir half-way through).

2.    Once the vegetables have been marinating for 30 minutes, place all the ingredients for the stock in a pot and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 30 minutes before straining the stock through a sieve into a clean pot.

3.    While the stock is simmering, cook the rice or quinoa according to pack instructions.

4.    Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok over quite a high heat. Once the oil is sizzling, quickly stir-fry the sliced beef - until browned - and season with salt and pepper. Transfer the beef to the pot with the stock and bring to a simmer for 1 minute.

5.    Place a portion of rice/quinoa in 4 bowls or deep plates, divide the Japanese-style beef and stock between the bowls and top with the marinated vegetables.

“So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.” Franz Kafka

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