beef

Shepherd’s Pie

~ nancyruth ~ 8 Comments

This is another food item that does not require a recipe, in my opinion. You may have a family recipe tradition with particular herbs and spices or quantities but I do not. I did not grow up eating this dish although Mom served us a lot of casseroles. I have seen a variety of recipes for this and I know that I have Americanized this dish as I do not use lamb. I have made this vegetarian using lentils but Hubby does not like that much. At a restaurant in Boston recently the chef made this with a tomato based meat mixture. My step-daughter and I thought that was odd, or at least, rather unique. That chef also put a piece of puff pastry atop the mashed potatoes for an interesting presentation.

The church I attend has a rotation of serving a weekend meal at our local soup kitchen. For simplicity they serve Shepherd’s Pie as the main dish and not have a potluck by the parishioners. The recipe suggested is as follows:

  • 2 pounds ground beef, browned
  • 1 large onion, chopped and sautéed with the meat
  • 2 cans creamed corn
  • 2 cans green beans, drained
  • Mashed potatoes to cover, instant or real (about a 2 /1/2 pound bag)
  • Salt and pepper to taste

The meat and onion is put in a 9 x 13-inch pan. Spread vegetables over meat and mashed potatoes on top. Bake at 375 degrees F for 25-30 minutes.

I indulge in a delivery service of locally sourced meat and I receive a pound of ground beef each month. This month I made a Shepherd’s pie, pictured below. I do not use the above recipe although it does make a tasty dish. Mine is a mixture of ground beef with sautéed vegetables in gravy. This is topped with mashed potatoes and baked until the top is crusty but not brown. The insides will be bubbling. Cool for a short while, serve, and eat.

The type of vegetables can vary. For me it depends on what I have around but mostly consists of a bag of frozen mixed vegetables added to sautéed chopped onion. This is cooked with the browning of the meat. I then add a half cup of broth and then another half cup mixed with a tablespoon of cornstarch. This makes a moist but not loose meat mixture under the mashed potatoes. Cheese and sour cream can be added to the mashed potatoes as desired. Although it is a hardy meal Hubby and I usual have two serving each! We won’t be losing weight this way!

When there are dietary changes…

~ nancyruth ~ Leave a comment

Admittedly my dietary changes are temporary and thus make them easier to endure than something permanent.

First up, a ketotic diet was prescribed to supposedly reduce some belly fat prior to abdominal surgery. It was a high protein, moderate fat, and low carbohydrate diet. Step one: receive Ketotic, pre- and post-op diets in the mail. Panic over the idea of only 20 g of carbs per day. Step two: Buy every non-starchy vegetable in the freezer section of the grocery store. Reread diet over and over and find it is actually 40g carbs per day. Step three: Obsess over food choices. Wake up thinking about food and menu for the day. Get out scale and weigh breakfast foods. Plan Salmon for dinner.

Thoughts on day one: I spent a great deal of my mind’s time thinking about food. I think I missed on one serving of protein not having a cheese stick with my dinner. I was not hungry throughout the day much to my surprise. I saved my celery and peanut butter for my watching TV at night snack. Drinking 64 fluid ounces of water/liquid was simpler than I thought it would be.

This was my eating plan for two weeks. Luckily it came with four sample daily menus. Although I was to keep track of carbs and proteins, I figured if I did not eat the off-limit foods I would be in compliance. Giving up sugar and restless eating was the hard part as well as eating all those eggs for breakfast every day! I did enjoy having deli roast beef wrapped in lettuce and eating cottage cheese. The best meal other than grilled salmon was the beef stir-fry.

  • 5 ounces lean beef (I used steak-ums cut in strips)
  • 2 cups peppers, onion, and mushrooms
  • 2 tsp sesame oil, a bit of garlic, and 1 ½ Tab soy sauce

The meat and vegetables were cooked with the oil and garlic in the cast iron skillet with the soy sauce stirred in for serving. I supposed this could have been served over cauliflower rice but it was plenty to eat on its own.

I was often not hungry but missed the mindless eating of anything desired. This Keto diet was making me evaluate my eating choices of what, when, and how much. That is probably a good thing regarding one’s relationship with food.

Hubby went along with this eating plan to be supportive. What a guy! For one meal we saved up our Carb allotment to have a bun with our grilled hamburgers. Overall this experience has reduced our reliance on carb heavy foods for meals and snacks.

Ginger Beef

~ nancyruth ~ Leave a comment

Well I seemed to have lost momentum for writing. So I’ll try again. It’s not like I don’t have time. My time is my own as I am retired. There are some demands on my time such as Stepdaughter’s wedding, Easter celebrations with grandkids complete with burnt cinnamon rolls, attempts to keep an exercise routine going, various healthcare appointments, etc.

And I am cooking and baking just not writing about it partly because I don’t always make something new and I try other bloggers’ recipes. And some of those are very worthwhile to make over and over again!

I was gifted by a friend several (actually a lot) packages of frozen meats. I have ground pork from which I will be trying to make younger Stepdaughter’s pork pie. But what to do with ground beef? There is just so much chili my aging stomach can tolerate. Hubby will be making his fancy meatloaf at some point, and we have preformed burger patties ready and waiting already. So I perused a few of my many cookbooks, looked at the NYTimes Cooking app, and decided to make Stir-Fried Beef with Onions and Ginger from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything but with ground sirloin instead of flank steak. My ingredients are as follows:

  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • Olive oil for sauteing the onion, and then some more for the pan to brown the meat
  • 1 inch ginger root, minced
  • 1 pound ground sirloin beef
  • 1/2 cup vegetable broth, homemade
  • 1 Tablespoon soy sauce

First, brown the onion on high heat until beginning to char, then I added the garlic just at the end. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and remove from pan. Add more oil, most of the ginger and the beef. Stir cooking this until the beef is no longer pink. Add the rest of the ginger, the broth, and the soy sauce. Cook and stir until most of the liquid is gone, but leave some. This process took less than 20 minutes with the ingredients prepped already.

I served this with rice and a cucumber/carrot salad with sesame dressing.

Thoughts: the fat in the ground sirloin (90/10) and the onion overpowered the ginger. The sesame dressing on the salad had more flavor. It also needed a sauce. Very thinly sliced flank steak would be the choice of meat as in the original recipe. For the leftovers I will douse this with teriyaki sauce. It could then be served over more rice or in a wrap.

Until next time…thanks for reading!

The best beef bourguignon ever

~ nancyruth ~ 6 Comments

This does not follow my theme for the year but I just had to share/brag/boast/whatever!

In a Dutch Oven sauté a handful of bacon ends and pieces with a teaspoon of jarred minced garlic. Add 2 small onions chopped in large chunks and continue cooking until onions are semi-tender. Set aside in a bowl. Dredge 1-2 pounds of beef stew meat chunks (from a Top Butt) in ½ cup flour with some salt and pepper. Add a bit more oil to the pot and brown the beef, turning once. Set this aside in the bowl with the bacon/onion mixture. Add one cup of red wine to the pot and deglaze the pan scraping the brown bits on the bottom. Add the beef, bacon, and onion mixture back into the pot along with 2 small potatoes chopped in large chunks and 2 small carrots which have been peeled and cut into one-inch chunks. Cover this with 2 cups of beef broth and 1-2 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce. Add more broth if necessary to just cover the goodies in the pot but not to drown them. Stir and bring to boil. Reduce heat and let simmer. This was allowed to simmer for the two risings of the home-made bread dough. Meanwhile in separate skillet place 2 tablespoons of butter and sauté 4 large baby bella mushrooms which have been sliced. Cook just until mushrooms are slightly softened and browned. Add a splash of Worcestershire sauce and set aside. When ready to put the bread in the oven, or after two hours, stir the mushrooms into the pot along with the reserved flour from the dredging of the beef. Continue to simmer the pot for the duration of the bread baking or 30-35 minutes.

We ate most of this before taking a picture. Here is what the leftover in the pot looks like. But no, the pic is not appetizing so I am not posting it, and this stew was fantastic. I do not generally rave about my own cooking but this was aromatic, flavorful, and rich-tasting. I served this with a homemade loaf of bread which is essential to clean the bowl to get every last drop!

Dry-aged steaks

~ nancyruth ~ 1 Comment

I was reading, again, my various Cook’s Illustrated magazines looking for seasonal recipes to try. A magazine reader had written in about dry-aged steaks and wondered if this could be done at home. (Reference the March-April 2010 edition of the magazine). The editors replied about their efforts and I decided to give it a try.

  • 2 top sirloin steaks (about 6 ounces each?)

Wrap thoroughly with cheesecloth and place on a rack in the back of the refrigerator (where it is coldest) for four days. Pan sear and enjoy. Supposedly these are tender and intensely flavorful like the more expensive dry-aged steaks. Cook’s used 2 rib-eye and 2 strip steaks.

  • I put mine in the fridge on a Monday and we cooked them on a Saturday so that was a bit longer than the magazine.
  • I wrapped mine while they were still frozen.

  • They had a nice flavor but were not particularly moist or tender.
  • Hubby says the verdict is still out as these were some of the leftover pieces from a top sirloin butt that he had cut up earlier this year.
  • He would like to try this with rib-eyes.

 

Bah Humbug!

~ nancyruth ~ 4 Comments

Happy holidays to all! And I celebrate Christmas but you may not. So happy to you what you celebrate. Many people celebrating happiness and family and togetherness.

It’s been awhile. I thought I would make myself write. I have not been in a pleasant mood.

For our pre-thanksgiving feast I made a boxed cake and used tubs of store-bought frosting. Does it matter? I did not even read the ingredients. There could be high fructose corn syrup and unnatural colors and flavors in there! Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! I did make the pie crust from scratch and the traditional “Betty Crocker” pumpkin pie. Didn’t buy whipped cream though! I bought a nice little package of pearl onions to make creamed onions but did not do that either. And no homemade rolls. Cinderella was feeling lonely and tired. Everyone enjoyed the meal anyway. We had grilled Ribeyes, baked sweet and russet potatoes, green salad with lime dressing, cornbread (made earlier for lunch with homemade soup which no one ate), layered rainbow sprinkle cake and pumpkin pie. And granddaughter put two candles on the cake, one for her (3) and one for her daddy (33).

So now Hubby is making a Stroganoff with the leftovers from the Rib eye steaks. My idea but he is doing the work. He had the day off; I went to work.

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Mise en place: 

  • leftover ribeye, cut from bone, 8-10 ounces
  • one onion, chopped fine
  • one half green pepper, chopped fine
  • 8 ounces mushrooms, diced
  • 1/4 stick butter
  • 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire, divided
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 1/4 cup yogurt
  • 1/2 package egg noodles, cooked

Melt butter and saute onions until translucent. Add peppers and then mushrooms. Gave it a stir and then threw in the meat. Another stir and then add a dash or two of Worcestershire Sauce. Add the sour cream and yogurt. Mix and add Worcestershire all over low heat. Stir in cooked noodles. Serve in bowls. Enjoy!

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Yummy dinner and all I had to do was type the instructions.

Note to cook: take a healthy sip of wine between each ingredient!

Also Hubby says  to add fresh snap peas when dish is hot for additional favors. ANd what is weird is that he dreamed all of this last night!

Beef Goulash

~ nancyruth ~ 7 Comments

And then there was a recipe that looked interesting and people to feed.

Not sure why I got out The Best Recipe Book from Cook’s Illustrated (1999) but I did. I was looking through soup recipes originally thinking about a lentil soup. I came across Beef Goulash (page 278) and as luck would have it, I had all the ingredients or a reasonable proximity thereof. Making this used up the remainder of my Hungarian Paprika from Soulard Market Spice Shop but it was worth it. Here is my version.

  • top sirloin butt or other beef steak cut into cubes, lean; Hubby estimates this as 10 ounces. It might be closer to 2 pounds. The original recipe called for 3 pounds,
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • bacon, 3-4 ounces
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 5 red mini-peppers, de-seeded and chopped
  • 6 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 tablespoons paprika
  • 1/2 cup white wine
  • 1 cup chicken stock
  • 1 cup homemade vegetable stock
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • bunch of baby carrots, halved; I think I used at least a dozen
  • 1/4 cup freshly minced parsley
  • 1/2 cup sour cream

I am not sure the weight of this beef. But it was plenty. Hubby had cut it into stew meat when he cut up a huge hunk of meat a while back. These were the bits and ends leftover from steaks.

I modified the recipe by cooking it in the crockpot. I do not usually have 3-4 hours to cook a stew on a weeknight. Goulash is good served over egg noodles and Hubby loves egg noodles. One girl was coming over as she is home from college for the summer. We like to feed her meat since her mom is vegetarian and this is her opportunity to be an omnivore. (I like meatless meals every so often but this evening was not the night for lentil soup.)

This took me 30 minutes in the morning to prep since I did take the time to brown the meat and cook the bacon. I freeze entire packages of bacon and hack off the ends as I need. This way the bacon is already diced. I also chopped up the vegetables and then just threw everything in the crockpot. The vegetables filled a four cup measure.

The aroma was marvelous as I walked in the door after work. Now for the chopping of the parsley. I love fresh herbs. And there are the plantings I just bought in the background to grow my own.20160519_214041540_iOS

I served this over egg noodles after stirring in the parsley and sour cream. For the future I would stir in some flour or cornstarch to thicken the broth, but it was fine. I also had leftovers for lunches. It was a hit with the family diners that evening. I served it with a small salad with blueberries and pecans.

 

 

Boeuf Bourguignonne “on the fly”

~ nancyruth ~ 6 Comments

According to Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Boeuf Bourguignon is “Beef Stew in Red Wine, with Bacon, Onions, and Mushrooms” (page 315). And then on page 326, a variation is Saute de Boeuf a la Bourguignonne which is how “to entertain important guests in a hurry”. Well I have the ingredients and I had been thinking about making this. So one evening, I am barely motivated to cook dinner when it occurs to me that I could jump up from the sofa, walk into the kitchen, and make this before Hubby comes home. I even have half of a baguette to soak up the juices.

beef stew 001

I start pulling stuff together and decide I don’t like the looks of the mushrooms, so I don’t add them. I don’t follow the recipe directions at all. I use garlic powder instead of mincing up garlic cloves, but I do use the red wine, beef steak, onions, and bacon. Her recipe calls for a bit of tomato paste (I’ll use tomato sauce) and beef stock which I do not have. The bit of thyme I do. I do not use as much wine or as much butter either. Here are my ingredients. Adjust the seasonings as you see fit.

  • pound of beef steak, roughly cut into pieces
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 2 onions, chopped
  • 1 large carrot, sliced
  • 2 medium potatoes, diced
  • 2-3 ounces bacon
  • butter, 1 Tab
  • 1-2 tablespoon olive oil
  • hefty sprinkle of garlic powder
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 4 ounces tomato sauce
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth plus 1/2 cup water
  • good hearty splash of red wine

I put the cut beef in a bowl, add the flour, and mix it up to coat. Throw this into a pot with olive oil to sear. Remove to a bowl. Chop the onion and bacon and put in the skillet with a little more olive oil and the butter. I added the garlic powder and let that cook while chopping up the potatoes and carrot. I add those to the pot along with the broth, water, tomato sauce and thyme. Don’t forget the hearty dose of red wine! Add the beef back in and let simmer until the vegetables are tender. Without the potatoes and onions this stew takes about 25 minutes. With root vegetables it takes just a little longer.

Meanwhile I wrap the baguette in tinfoil and put it in the oven at 350 F to warm. I’ve got butter in my Butter Bell and wait for Hubby. I suppose I should set the table at this point, but I don’t. Energy and motivation fade again. Hubby must be caught in rush hour traffic as he is a bit later getting home than anticipated.Unless he took my suggestion to stop and get himself some “real beer” since there is only one chocolate stout “dessert beer” left in the fridge. And this is St Patty’s Day. Although he’s a Scot, I’m the Irish!

beef stew 006

So this is my version without mushrooms. I have made this exactly according to the Julia Child recipe in the past and the notation says  “fabulous!” Hubby says this meal is hearty and very good with nice thick gravy. He liked it a lot! Me too.

 

Easy dinner: leftover beef stir fry

~ nancyruth ~ 4 Comments

I wanted to make something light for dinner. The scale keeps telling me I am gaining weight. I’m sure Girl Scout cookies have something to do with that. One can not have just one or two or three of those Thin Mints! So I am thinking “bunches of vegetables” but something for meat as well. Taking a peek into the freezer finds a bit of leftover steak and a stir-fry frozen vegetable package. That’s the start.

stir fry dinner 001The package of frozen veg is not going to be enough if I want this meal to be mostly vegetables. So I add a package of mushrooms and an onion. And then I decide I will cook some brown rice after all, thinking that I have a package of “instant” brown rice that will cook in 10 minutes. Nope! So I put regular brown rice on and figure that will give me time to prep the vegetables and cook the stir fry.

I cook the beef strips briefly and then remove them from the pan to cook the vegetables. I add the Teriyaki sauce to the meat and when vegetables are mostly tender I put it all back together with more Teriyaki. The best guess I have for this throw together meal is:

  • about a pound or a little less of beef steak, cut into strips
  • 1 package frozen stir-fry vegetable mix, this one is a sugar snap pea combination
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 8 ounces of mushrooms, roughly chopped
  • 1/4 cup of Teriyaki sauce, more or less to taste
  • 1 cup uncooked brown rice, cook per package directions

This is a super simple dinner to prepare. Technically one could just cook the meat and throw it in with the frozen package, douse it with Teriyaki or Soy Sauce and the meal would be ready in 15 minutes. I chose to do a little bit more work that than. Note: brown rice takes twice as long to cook as white rice. My timing was a bit off but it’s all good!

stir fry dinner 009
served over rice

Seems to me I’ve been serving most of our dinners in bowls lately. Just works out that way I guess…and it saves on serving dishes to set around the table…and then to wash. There seems to always be dishes to wash!

 

Quinoa 2

~ nancyruth ~ 1 Comment

Continuing on my quest to use interesting ingredients and healthy ones I have made another quinoa dish. This one I found on food.com: http://www.food.com/recipe/southwestern-quinoa-vegetable-casserole-304705

This is an easy to prepare recipe as it is mostly assembly. I added ground beef and an onion so that had to be browned before putting it all in the dish to bake. I actually followed the directions exactly but for that. Sort of.

  • 1/2 pound ground beef, browned
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 1 14 ounce can diced tomatoes with green chilies (I used the store brand; the name brand is Rotel.)
  • 1 15 ounce can black beans, drained (I forgot to buy black beans most recently so I substituted a can of pinto beans, drained.)
  • 1/4 cup sliced jalapeno
  • 1/2 can vegetable broth (I used chicken broth because that is what I had on hand.)
  • 3/4 cup quinoa
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 cup cheddar cheese
  • sour cream for serving

I had only whole cumin seeds and whole coriander in my spice cabinet so I got to use the mortar and pestle that my son brought back from his international travels. I believe he brought this from Morocco. So these are “roughly ground”!

Preheat oven to 400 F. After browning the onion and beef, all the ingredients except the cheese and sour cream are mixed together in a 2 quart casserole.

quinoa 2 007Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove and stir. (I was not sure if this meant to remove the foil for the next cooking segment, so I covered the dish again. Bake for another 20 minutes until liquid is absorbed and quinoa is tender.

At the 30 minute mark the quinoa still looks quite small and raw. But the next 20 minutes finished cooking it perfectly.

After the 20 minutes remove the foil, cover with cheese and broil until cheese is melted about 1-2 minutes only. Serve with sour cream.

quinoa 2 008

I served this with tortilla chips to add some crunch. This makes four servings so I will have leftovers. I’ll serve the leftovers with a big salad and freshly baked cornbread or rolls.

Note: This dish has heat. It is very spicy. I might leave out the jalapeno next time or use a can of regular diced tomatoes without the chilies.