Where's the Beef? It's In My Freezer!

I try to take advantage and stock up on specials at the grocery store. I do not buy many pre-packaged brand name type of foods. I tend to purchase staples and fresh produce and meat to prepare my own meals. To conserve time, energy, and save money, I often cook like I have a family of four even though it is mostly just myself. Usually I eat one portion after cooking a meal, save one in the frig as a "leftover" to eat in a day or two, and freeze the other two portions. Using a rotation like this I only cook from scratch a couple times a week, yet have delicious and healthy meals at my beck and call all of the time.

This week was great for a deal on top sirloin beef in my area. One store had top sirloin trimmed of almost all fat and cut into about 1" thick slabs they were selling as "London Broil" for just $1.85/pound. The steaks ran about 2 lbs and I bought 3 of them. While digging through the pile I came across the short end, front end, piece of the whole roast, where it connects to the tenderloin (filet) and striploin (KC or NY Strip). It was a large thick chunk that is irregularly shaped and could not be sliced down further for more of the London Broil steaks. It weighed in at 3 1/2 lbs and was perfect for my crockpot!

I crocked the big chunk as soon as I got home. While it was simmering I broiled one of the big steaks out on the deck for dinner. I cut off a serving and then portioned and froze the rest of that steak. Overnight I marinated another of the big steaks in my teriyaki recipe and broiled it on the barbie that night for dinner, again enjoying a fresh serving and freezing the rest. The third steak I just cut into three nice size steaks, each will be dinner for two or two meals for just me, and froze them. The third night I made pulled beef burritos from some of that big roast I had crocked. I put a couple servings of pulled beef in the frig and portioned and froze the remainder.

I wish I would have found another of the big chunks of sirloin to cook in the crockpot. I like to use "pulled beef" instead of "ground beef" in a lot of my recipes. When using the pulled beef instead of hamburger in a recipe you have the option of leaving it in longer strings for a change in texture or it can be chopped to a consistency of ground beef with just a few slices of your chef's knife and then quickly browned in the skillet. The pulled beef I make is much leaner, tastier, and when I find it on sale like last week, it is also cheaper, about half the price of ground chuck.

So now I am set for the next couple or three months for beef with this sale purchase. Total was around 17 dollars for a lot of top quality, tender and tasty lean beef. Now I need to find a sale on pork loins as I just pulled out my last package of roast pork out of the freezer for dinner tonight. I am also watching for a special on chicken breasts as I only have four whole breasts left in reserve. Good deals on fish have been few and far between the past few months at my stores, so I may have to go catch my own. However, with Memorial Weekend and summer BBQ time coming up, there should be some good deals coming soon on both pork and chicken, and probably more beef specials too, so keep your eye out for them!

What's For Dinner? Bibim Neang Myun

Bibim Neang Myun is a mouthful just to call out, and a wonderful tasty mouthful to eat! Bibim Neang Myun is a Korean dish based on buckwheat noodles. What with all the noise North Korea has been making the past few days I got a hankering for a little cold-war cuisine, or maybe we should call it Seoul Food! I am a huge fan of Asian cuisine, be it North Korean or South Vietnamese, or somewhere between or nearby.

Bibim Myun noodles are similar to lo mein or ramen. In Korea the noodles are served in both hot and cold soups or as the base of pasta-like dishes. The Bibim Neang Myun dish is a cold serving of noodles with the Neang being a spicy hot & sweet chili sauce. A pile of cooked and chilled noodles are covered with the chili sauce and traditionally garnished with thinly sliced cold beef or pork and juliennes of fresh vegetables such as cucumber, carrots, scallions and sesame seeds. Sometimes with slices of boiled egg or Asian pear. Bibim Neang Myun comes packaged similar to Top Ramen - along with the noodles there is a sauce pack, but instead of being a powder the chili sauce is liquid and added to the noodles after cooking.

I have found the chili sauce to be a wonderful compliment to lightly boiled shrimp. So when I boil my Bibim Myun noodles I will toss in a handful of peeled and deveined shrimp about half way through and then quickly rinse-drain-chill both of them. Both the noodles and shrimp cook very quickly so don't over-cook them. Nothing worse than mushy noodles and rubbery shrimp!

Allow the noodles and shrimp to chill while you slice and dice some matchstick sized juliennes of cucumber, carrot, and scallions. I don't have any scallions (green onions) so I will use some yellow onion. The noodles come packaged in a nest and retain that shape during cooking and the shrimp will stay separate from the noodles which makes it easy for assembling the plate. Place the nest of Bibim Myun on a plate. Cover the noodles with most of the chili sauce, saving a little to drizzle on top. Then arrange shrimp and vegetables on the nest of noodles and drizzle remaining chili sauce to finish.

Try Bibim Neang Myun with your choice of pork, beef, or shrimp as a cool and refreshing summer lunch or dinner. You can find Bibim Myun noodles at most Asian markets and in some supermarket's Ethnic Food aisle, and also find various chili sauces. You can substitute Lo Mein or Ramen noodles (just skip the powdered broth packet). To my taste the chili sauce that comes with the Bibim Neang Myun I buy is mild, which might be medium hot to many other people.