This recipe is actually a combination of two different Korean soups, Yukgaejang and Kimchi jjigae; the reason for this is that one of the traditional main ingredients of Yukgaejang, Fernbrake, doesn’t seem to be available near me, so I have substituted it with something completely different, kimchi. I think it’s pretty amazing, and I often cook it for lunch, served with a bowl of rice.

Ingredients

• 500 g beef brisket
• 1 onion, sliced into thin crescents
• 1.5 cups beef stock
• 5 scallions, cut into 1 inch lengths
• 2 tbsp minced garlic
• 2 tbsp red pepper powder
• 2 tbsp red pepper paste
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup kimchi
• 1 egg, lightly whisked
• rice, to serve

Instructions

Start by getting rid of some of the scum from the beef. In a large stock pot, cover beef brisket with water, bring to the boil, and then drain. To cook and tenderise the beef, and create the broth, simmer beef covered with water, beef stock, and onion for one hour, adding more water if required to keep the beef covered.

From the stock remove the beef and add the kimchi, continue simmering the stock on a very low heat. Separate the good meat from the fat and bones and then shred the beef using two forks, creating thin strips or small chunks. Add the beef to a large mixing bowl, along with the scallions, minced garlic, red pepper powder, red pepper paste, rice vinegar, sesame oil, dark soy sauce, black pepper and salt. This should marinate for around 15 minutes and is a good time to cook the rice, if you’re having it.

Add the mixture back to the stock and bring to the boil. Add water until you have the desired strength and quantity. Begin stirring the soup and slowly pour in the whisked egg so that you end up with swirls of egg rather than a lump.

Share and enjoy.

Related posts:

1. Spicy Korean Beef Bulgogi
2. Slow-cooked Coconut Beef Madras Recipe

This is one of my favourite all time dishes but I don’t know many people that have heard of it. It’s a fairly dry dish of super thin beef slices marinated in a spicy sweet soy and sesame sauce. I never thought I could make it as good as the Korean restaurants, but I was really surprised at how well it turned out.

Ingredients

• 350 g good quality steak, sliced against the grain as thinly as possible. I used beef eye fillet whole as the grain went down the length of the meat and it was thick so after partially freezing it was simple to slice.
• 2 green onion, chopped into 5 mm lengths
• 1/2 brown onion, sliced into 5 mm wide semi circles
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 3 tbsp white sugar
• 2 tbsp minced garlic
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 tbsp chilli powder (or to taste)

Method

Mix everything together and marinate overnight. Place thin strips onto a hot lightly oiled grill plate so they receive full contact. Cook in batches if required. Serve with rice and kimchi.

Share and enjoy

Related posts:

1. Spicy Korean Beef Soup (Yukgaejang)
2. Slow-cooked Coconut Beef Madras Recipe
3. Amazingly Delicious Sweet and Spicy Pork Spare Ribs

Inspired by the Pizza Capers dish of the same name and tastes just as good!

Ingredients

• Don Hot Hungarian Salami, thinly sliced with skin removed
• Kalamata Olives, pitted and sliced
• Feta Cheese, cubed approx. 1.5cm
• Small Onion, thinly sliced
• Tin whole Roma tomatoes
• Olive Oil
• Crushed Garlic
• Basil
• Oregano
• Salt
• Pepper
• Chilli Flakes
• Cooked Fettucini
• Optional: Anchovies

Method

Fry onions and garlic in olive oil over medium heat. Add sliced salami and cook for a minute. Add tinned whole tomatoes, olives, basil, oregano, salt, pepper and chilli flakes and (optional) anchovies – cook until bubbling. Add cooked fettucini and stir through, finally turn the heat off and stir through the feta cubes.

Quantities are intentionally not mentioned here, just make it to required quantity and desired taste.

Share and enjoy!

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2. Slow-cooked Coconut Beef Madras Recipe
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#!/bin/sh
while [ 1 ]
do
    mv /var/log/topwatch.log /var/log/topwatch.log.1
    top -b -n1 > /var/log/topwatch.log
    sleep 5
done

This will log the output of a single iteration of top to the file /var/log/topwatch.log every 5 seconds and will also keep the previous log (incase the server is under so much load that it hangs half way through saving the log)

Just save it somewhere like /root/topwatch.sh and then run the following command as root to run the script in the background and prevent it from stopping even if you logoff or get disconnected from the shell. (Thanks to Matt for the nohup suggestion)

nohup sh /root/topwatch.sh &

The next time your server is rebooted after hanging, just check the contents of /var/log/topwatch.log (or /var/log/topwatch.log.1 if the first file is empty). The good thing about starting the script manually is that it won’t overwrite the evidence when the server comes back up from a reboot and as it only saves the last 2 outputs of top so you don’t have to trawl through lengthy log files working out where things went wrong.

Share and Enjoy

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Ingredients

• 400g slow-cook beef in bite sized cubes
• 1 large potato cut to your preferred potato cube size (large is good)
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 tbsp minced ginger
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1/4 cup madras paste (I used Pataks but am going to make my own next time, promise!)
• 1 beef stock cube (or 1 cup liquid) beef stock
• 160ml coconut milk

Method

On high heat, fry beef until brown and then add half of the madras paste and stir for a further minute. Place into the slow-cooker on low heat.

Fry onion, garlic and ginger in the pan until soft and lightly browned and then add the remainder of the madras paste and stir for one minute. Add the stock cube and 1 cup of water (or liquid stock instead) and then the coconut milk, stirring until bubbling.

Add the onion mixture to the slow-cooker with the beef and cook for 6 hours, stirring (and tasting) occasionally.

Serve with rice and pappadums or naan bread.

Related posts:

1. Spicy Korean Beef Soup (Yukgaejang)
2. Spicy Korean Beef Bulgogi

Ingredients

• 500g beef mince
• 2 aubergines, sliced approx. 1cm thick
• 1 cup diced parsley
• 1 jar béchamel sauce
• 1 zucchini, diced into small cubes
• 1 handful of mushrooms, diced
• 1 tin diced tomatoes
• 1 sachet tomato paste
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 2 tbsp garlic
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 1 tbsp tumeric
• 2 tbsp kecap manis (ABC sauce)
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 cups finely grated cheese
• Tabasco
• chilli flakes
• olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste

Method

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Fry aubergines on high heat in the largest available pan you have, adding oil as required until they are soft and brown. Place to the side on absorbent paper towel to remove excess oil.

Fry onions, garlic, mince and zucchini until browned. Then add the tomatoes, parsley, mushrooms, tomato paste, kecap manis and spices. Add salt, pepper, Tabasco and chilli flakes to taste.

Place half the mince mixture into a large baking tray, and then layer half of the aubergines, followed by half of the béchamel sauce. Repeat once more.

Cover the top with grated cheese and cook until cheese is browned.

Enjoy!

Related posts:

1. Amazingly Delicious Sweet and Spicy Pork Spare Ribs
2. Spicy Korean Beef Bulgogi

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 2 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tbsp powdered ginger (fresh would be better, but this is all we had)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Something spicy, whatever quantity you like (I used a few shakes of “Louisiana Style Hot Sauce”)
• 2 racks of spare ribs (1 per person)

Method

Cut the spare ribs into separate pieces, being careful to leave an even amount of meat on each rib and place in a baking tray. Stir together all other ingredients to create a marinade and cover the ribs. Cover and place in the fridge until ready to be used. (Suggest at least one hour)

Place baking tray into a 180 degree oven for an hour, turning and basting the ribs regularly.

Once finished, if the sauce is too runny for your liking, pour into a saucepan and boil while stiring until it thickens. Add honey or tomato sauce to taste plus additional chili if desired.

All done, yum yum.

Related posts:

1. My “Jessie’s Moussaka!”
2. Spicy Korean Beef Bulgogi

function slug($string) {
    $string = trim($string);
    $string = strtolower($string);
    $string = str_replace('&', 'and', $string);
    $string = preg_replace('/[^a-z0-9-]/', '-', $string);
    $string = preg_replace('/-+/', "-", $string);
    return $string;
}

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My latest personal project – a dating website!

Domains: purchased
Database structure: structured
Logo(s): designed

Lets just say I have some experience using various dating websites, and I think by now I know what works and what doesn’t. The plan is to build the ultimate gay dating website combining the best aspects of various other sites, as well as a few of my own ideas thrown in. At this stage the plan is to be a completely free website until the cost of maintaining it becomes too much and then I’ll look at my options.

Stay tuned for more!

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function force_ssl() {
    if ($_SERVER['HTTPS'] != 'on') {
        header("Location: https://{$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']}{$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']}");
        exit();
    }
}

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