chanpi beef salad + extras...

Last night, I re-tried making nasudengaku. This time, I cut the eggplant, soaked it in water and then "pan fried" it in a non-stick pan. Then I drizzled the dengaku miso sauce onto the eggplant and put it into the oven for 10 minutes. It was good and at least the eggplant was juicy this time.

Satoshi's mom gave us this umaki (unagi (eel) wrapped (maki) around gobo (burdock)). I don't particularly like unagi, but it is one of Satoshi's favorite foods. I was quite surprised that it didn't taste too much like eel, I think the smoky flavor helped.

Tonight's dinner was a recipe that I've been wanting to try called "chanpinyurou" or beef salad flavored with orange peel. There is a Szechuan restaurant in Tokyo called Tenyu that makes this dish. The owner/chef, Shima Norio has a cookbook, it shows how to make most Szechuan sauces from scratch. I have never eaten here, but the photos in the book sure look delicious! I didn't have a lot of the Chinese ingredients, so I used what I had and tried it. I think it came out pretty good. Although the sesame flavor is quite strong, you can also taste some orange and there is a little kick from the chilies.

Beef salad flavored with orange peel from "Tenyu" by Shima Norio
Serves 2 or 3
100g thinly sliced beef roast cut
1/4 lettuce
20g mizuna (potherb mustard greens)
10g carrot

Sauce
2 T chanpijan *
100cc soup or hot water
2 chili peppers
1 T Shao Hsing (chinese cooking wine)
1 T sugar
1 T vinegar
1.5 T shoyu (soy sauce)
1 grind of pepper
1 T cornstarch

1. Cut the lettuce to 1 cm pieces, mizuna to 5 cm pieces and julienne the carrots.
Place all veggies into cold water to crispen them up.
2. Put all the sauce ingredients into the pan and heat.
3. Add the beef and cook for about 3-4 minutes.
4. Lastly, add the cornstarch mixed with some water to thicken sauce.
5. Put veggies onto a plate and then the beef onto the veggies.

* to make Chanpijan
50g chanpi (orange peel)
100cc white sesame oil

Soak the dried orange peel in water for 6 hours to rehydrate.
Scrape the white part of the peel so that there is hardly any (this is to take away the bitterness), julienne the peel.
Add the peel to the sesame oil and steam for 30 minutes.
This sauce makes 120g and will last for 2 weeks in an airtight container.