Soboro (Meat and Egg Japanese Style)

I love this dish. It is the typical Japanese comfort food. The combination of ginger with the teriyaki in the meat and the slight sweetness in the egg is delicious. You can use any meat: beef, chicken, pork, turkey. I used organic turkey. The eggs were super fresh from the CSA box that I've got on the same day. I am assuming you know by now that everything I use is organic. Well, maybe 99%...

Soboro (Meat and Egg Japanese Style)

4 Servings

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon sesame oil

16 ounces ground chicken or turkey (or any other meat)

2 tablespoons mirin

2 teaspoons sugar

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon grated ginger

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

4 eggs

2 teaspoons sugar

½ tablespoon mirin

pinch of salt

2 cups cooked short grain brown or white rice

2 tablespoons thinly chopped green onions

1 nori seaweed sheet cut in thin strips

Directions:

Heat oil in a skillet. Add the meat, mirin, sugar, ginger and in a medium to low heat, break the meat.  After the meat is cooked, about 15 minutes, add the soy sauce. If there is too much liquid, turn up the heat until the meat looks moist but there is no excess liquid.

While meat is cooking, beat eggs in a medium bowl and add sugar, mirin, and salt. Heat a skillet with vegetable oil, add the eggs, and scramble until cooked. Don’t overcook the eggs.

Serve ½ cup of short brown or white rice into four bowls. Top with soboro, then the egg, green onions and nori. You can optionally add hot green tea to this dish. Serve immediately.

Kibbeh

Brazil has a large community of Middle Eastern immigrants/descedants (mostly Lebanese and Syrians) and their cuisine is big part of our daily lives. Some of their foods, such as sfiha and kibeh are so popular that they are sold in fast food chains.

The seasonings for kibbeh varies and the recipe here is my own. You can check the web for traditional. The original recipe calls for frying. I bake it. Some versions add stuffing to it, which I think is delicious, but adds more meat to it.

Today I made this dish with ground turkey, not traditional at all. Because turkey is a drier meat, I added an additional ½ grated onion. I am serving the kibbeh with tabbouleh, and a fresh salad.

Kibbeh

8 Servings

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs finely ground beef or lamb, lean

2/3 cup bulgur

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 cup fresh mint, chopped

1 pinch of cinnamon and ground clove, or a pinch of allspice

1 medium onion, finely chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven 375 F.

Soak bulgur for 1 to 3 hours in cold water. Drain. Place in a large bowl and combine with ground meat, chopped onion, salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, mint, cinnamon.

Combine well. You can use a food processor if you like. Press the mixture into a baking pan, smooth the surface with a knife. Cut into diamond shape pieces. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Bake for 40 minutes, until it starts browning. Garnish with mint leaves and lime wedges upon serving (optional).

Turkey Meatloaf Stuffed with Spinach, Carrots and Shiitake

This meatloaf is a total crowd pleaser. One of its secrets is the colors, the dark of the meat, the green from the spinach, the orange from the carrots, and the white from the egg whites. I am using the spinach, parsley, celery, onion and eggs from the farm. Shiitake comes with the CSA delivery but they are Colorado’s local Hazel Dell organic mushrooms. Many vegetables work well in this dish, just get creative! Corn, zucchini, bell peppers, broccoli. For richer taste and additional fiber, add grated celery to the meat dough.

I found this recipe in a magazine maybe 30 years ago and I stick to it. The original recipe calls for beef and regular mushrooms. Today I used turkey and shiitake mushrooms. Just because I have shiitakes.  Meat would be too strong with them, so turkey was today’s choice. I also used whole wheat bread, soaked in chicken broth, instead of white bread and milk, as stated in the original recipe. Making this delicious dish is easier than it looks, I assure you.

Turkey Meatloaf Stuffed with Spinach, Carrots and Shiitake

8 servings

Ingredients

Meat Dough

1 1/2 lb ground turkey

1 whole wheat bun or breadcrumbs, soaked in broth (chicken or vegetable), then drained

1 large thinly chopped onion

4 garlic cloves, very thinly chopped or garlic powder

1.5 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce

A pinch of cinnamon

Kosher salt, pepper

optional: thinly chopped celery, fresh parsley, green onions

Stuffing

1 big bunch of spinach steamed and drained or 1 pack of frozen spinach (16oz), defrosted, drained

1/2 cup of shredded carrots

¼ cup of chopped onion (optional)

6 large shiitake mushrooms, sliced

3 eggs, boiled and cut ½” slices

2 slices of bacon, cut in ½ across

Sauce

1.5 cup of chicken or vegetable broth

1/4 cup of half and half

1 or more tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce

¼ cup of minced Italian parsley

1/2 cup of sliced mushrooms

1 tablespoon of cornstarch

Kosher salt, pepper

Topping

1 slice of bacon, cut in ½ lengthwise and then cut in ½ across

Directions

Preheat oven to 400.

Meatloaf

Combine meat dough ingredients in a bowl.

Place ½ of the dough into a loaf pan coated with cooking spray., forming a bed for the stuffing. Layer the spinach, carrots, onions, mushrooms and eggs over the meat mix. Top with the bacon slice halves.

Pat small amounts of remaining meat mixture over the stuffing and patch over the stuffing, until it’s all covered. Top with the loaf with the 4 pieces of bacon, diagonally.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until browned. Remove from pan and cut into 8 slices.

Sauce

While the loaf is baking, prepare the sauce:

Combine all sauce ingredients, except the cornstarch, in a pan and cook in medium heat.

Bring to a boil. Lower the heat.

Add the cornstarch, dissolved in ¼ cup of broth.

Stir constantly until the mixture gets thick.