Serving one another

One morning while I was cooking a meal for a family, many fond memories floated up. Everyone has some days that simply need a helping hand. During graduate school, there was a time that I was too occupied to even feed myself. For 10 days, I was working non-stop on a paper. Amazingly, throughout that whole week, every day there was some friend stopping by my office to provide me dinner. Sometimes, it was an classmate who was on his way to buy his own dinner; other times it was a friend or housemate with fresh homemade food. I never asked them to, nor did they coordinate among themselves. By divine providence, I simply did not starve a single day. Therefore, now it's such a joy for me to join the ladies in church to arrange a meal plan for a family who just added a newborn member. This family are Korean, so I thought about something Asian for them. What came to mind was a beef rice dish I made that many have liked. This recipe uses a rice cooker. In this recipe, the raw beef is cooked in the heat and the steam of the rice, so it is very tender when served right off the cooker.


Recipe: Douchi beef with jasmine rice (for 2-3)


Ingredients:
- 12 oz lean beef, cut to thin 1" long strips
- 2 tablespoon (TB) oil
- 2 teaspoon (tp) sesame oil
- 1.5 TB Garlic black bean paste (douchi sauce)
- 1/4 tp sugar
- 1 TB dark soy sauce
- 1 clove garlic, chopped
- 1 spring onions chopped
- 1 TB cooking wine (optional)
- 1.5 cup jasmine rice uncooked
- water


Procedure:
1. Marinate lean beef with oil, sugar, cooking wine, garlic and douchi sauce for 20 minutes.
2. Cook 1.5 cup jasmine rice in equal amount (1.5 cup) water. When the rice cooker is still on "cooking" but water in the rice has mostly evaporated, add in the marinated beef and mix with rice. Let cooking continue until cooker automatically jumps to "keep-warm". Sprinkle dark soy sauce and sesame oil on rice. Replace cover and let it keep warm for 15-30 minute, during which the aroma of sesame oil will fill out the kitchen and announce to everyone that food is ready. Serve with fresh chopped spring onion on top.
Note: If half the portion size is cooked, then add beef immediately after rice cooker has jumped to "keep-warm". Cut short the keep-warm period to about 15 minutes.