Cricket Masterchef - New Program

You've seen Masterchef Australia. You've watched, but not necessarily understood, Iron Chef. You've been amazed by Junior Masterchef Australia. Now prepare for the latest culinary and gastronomic tv series - Cricket Masterchef.

Cricket Masterchef stars the Australian Test Cricket team but you'd have to say that the variety of dishes is sadly lacking. There's very little spice and not much zest included in the ingredients. Let's have a look at some of the dishes forthcoming from the second Ashes test match being held in Adelaide.

Simon Katich - he's prepared a duck, the platinum (or diamond) version after being out without facing a ball.
Ricky Ponting - he's also prepared a duck, a golden duck, after departing first ball.
Michael Clarke - his speciality is goose, of which he's made himself out to be, after only making two runs. It could be said that his preparation was unassisted and that he has cooked his own goose.
Ryan Harris - another golden duck. So litte imagination in the kitchen these Aussies.
Doug Bollinger - he's a bunny.

I'd like to have seen a batsmen score zero and play at his best. That would be a Peking (peaking) duck. You'd have to say that it was a pressure cooker situation for the Australians in the middle at the Adelaide Oval today. And didn't they get a basting from the Poms? Mind you, the Poms aren't very imaginative when it comes to cooking either. They just had the Aussies on toast.

The Australians didn't get to enjoy their dishes today and the only cooking that they've tasted for a while is humble pie. Well Ricky, revenge is a dish best served cold and we can see that the Aussies are not cooking with gas. With the Aussies' cooking skills it will probably end up as Ashes anyway.

Bulgogi Recipe - Sunday Night Is Bulgogi Night

Pretty much every Sunday night we have bulgogi. It's a Korean beef dish and, surprisingly enough, it isn't too difficult to make. So I'm going to give you a step by step recipe tutorial. Aren't I such a nice bloke? This recipe was provided by Miky, my wife. I am but a humble servant [who has taken three days to put this post together].

Bulgogi Ingredients for Three People
½ kilo of meat
1 Onion
3-4 Tb spoons soy sauce
2½ Tb spoons sugar
1 Carrot
Dang myeon noodles (당 면)
1 Spring onion
4-5 Mushrooms
Salt
Pepper
2 Tb spoons Sesame oil
3-4 Cloves of garlic
1½ Cups of rice

Salad Ingredients
Salad mix
2 Tomatoes
½ Cucumber
Dollop Salad dressing

Don't forget the onion!!

Bulgogi meat.

Grab your thinly sliced beef from your local friendly Korean butcher. Usually comes frozen in a one kilogram pack. Allow to thaw for a short time. Don't buy the meat with sauce.

Wash rice.

Wash your rice thoroughly to remove all the gluggy excess. It will take about three or four washes until it is clean enough to cook.

Soak the rice.

Soak the rice in one and a half cups of water for an hour or two. Usually your rice cooker will provide you with a water level measurement but, if not, add one cup of water per cup of rice.

Slice your carrots and mushrooms.

If you slice then thinly they will cook much more quickly.

Crush the garlic.

Make it nice and fine as this is part of the marinate for the meat.

Add soy sauce.

Five tablespoons of soy sauce should be just about enough for the marinate.

Add sugar.

Two and a half tablespoons of sugar for the marinate is oodles.

Add pepper.

About half a teaspoon of pepper will be plenty.

Add sesame oil and spring onion.

About a tablespoon of sesame oil and one finely chopped spring onion is all that's required for the marinate.

Mix marinate.

Mix the marinate well or won't work effectively with the meat. Ensure that it is liquid enough to soak into the meat.

Add marinate to meat.

You'll need to mix the meat with the marinate well making sure that the meat isn't frozen anymore. Every 10-15 minutes you need to stir the meat mixture to allow the marinate to do its job well.

Grab some dang myeon noodles (당 면).

You can pick up dang myeon noodles (당 면) from your local, friendly Korean shop. Or you can go to Korea to buy them. Either way it's not too difficult.

Soak the dang myeon noodles (당 면).

The 당 면 need to be soaked for about an hour, if you have the time. The more water they soak up the more flexible they become.

Soak the salad mix.

Soaking the salad cleans the greeblies that you'll get from food stored in the open air in the market. You don't know whose hands have touched it or whether it dropped on the ground. Remember to cook hygienically people.

Slice tomatoes.

Whilst salad is soaking you can slice your tomatoes for the salad.>BR>

Spin the salad mix.

Spin your salad mix to remove excess water.

Spinning the salad mix.

And here we have the act of spinning the salad mix.

Spun salad mix.

Voila! Spun salad mix. Much less expensive than using the washing machine on the spin cycle. Easily powered by one small child.

Slice the cucumber.

Don't forget to slice the cucumber for the salad.

Mix the salad.

Mix the salad but don't add the dressing until the meal is ready to serve. Nothing worse than a flat dressing with a limp salad.

Heat the fry pan.

Heat the fry pan and use a little bit of olive oil.

Fry carrots and meat.

This is the point where you fry the onion first, unless you, like me, have forgotten to include it, until it is lightly brown. Then add the carrots (harder, takes more time to cook) and meat. Stir regularly.

Fry mushrooms.

Add the mushrooms to the pan. They will add lots of flavour [Gee, I'm even starting to think I know what I'm talking about now - getting dangerous].

Fry 당 면.

당 면 can be added to the fry pan early in the peace. It is possible that some extra soy sauce is added to them prior to popping them in the pan - up to your taste.

Serve bulgogi and salad.

Serve your bulgogi, after 10-15 minutes of cooking, and salad (no cooking time required) nicely on the plate. Presentation is everything people, remember that. Then start chomping away.

Clean your plate.

Eat everything on your plate and leave it clean. It is, after all, rather rude to leave food on your plate. And you don't wish to upset the cook.