goulash

You can do this same recipe in a slow cooker.

• 3 lbs beef cut into 1″ cubes (I used bottom round – wanted to use top round chuck – any kind of stew appropriate beef works, even hamburger)
• 1/4 lb bacon
• 1 massive onion or 2 large ones or 4 medium – chop
• 1 lb carrots, cut into 1/2″ cubes or approximation thereof
• 1 lb sauerkraut (sold here in bags in the meat section, next to the pork. Canned is fine. Amt is approx.)
• 1/4 cup hot Hungarian paprika
• 1/4 cup sweet Hungarian paprika
• salt and pepper

1. Cook the bacon, brown the beef in the bacon with some salt & pepper, maybe some other spices as you choose (I used a little homemade “Montreal Steak Seasoning”)
2. Remove beef, soften the onion with high heat (add oil if needed), then stir in paprika. add beef back in, with carrots and sauerkraut (with the liquid). Simmer for a couple hours. Done!
3. Serve over what you like – I used wide egg noodles tossed with a little olive oil and poppy seeds. Also served with some sour cream on the side. This recipe will help keep your sinuses clear. You can use all sweet paprika, or adjust the ratio as you like.

ground pork patties

We got a meat grinder as a wedding gift, and today I tried it out. We don’t have any sausage casings (though 100 yds is in the mail), so I simply made some patties. We started with 3 lbs of pork shoulder and 3 lbs of pork sirloin, and I made six different kinds of 1 lb each:

• 8 oz pork shoulder, 2 oz onion, 3/4 tsp BBQ 3000
• 4 oz pork shoulder, 4 oz pork sirloin, 2 oz onion, 3/4 tsp BBQ 3000
• 8 oz pork sirloin, 2 oz onion, 3/4 tsp BBQ 3000
• 8 oz pork shoulder, 3/4 tsp BBQ 3000
• 4 oz pork shoulder, 4 oz pork sirloin, 3/4 tsp BBQ 3000
• 8 oz pork sirloin, 3/4 tsp BBQ 3000

kaddo bowrani (Afghani pumpkin)

I got a recipe for kaddo bowrani from a Chowhound forum post by Allstonian. I never did find the original recipe that they referenced. Because it was so delicious and I want to be able to replicate it in the future, I will duplicate the post exactly below.

This dish came up on the Boston board – it’s one of the standouts on the menu at the Helmand. I adapted my recipe from one I found on boston.com – don’t know if it came from an article about the restaurant or not, but that’s where I found it.

We eat it a lot in the fall and early winter when sugar pumpkins are available. I’ve done it with other winter squashes such as acorn or butternut – it works, but it’s best with pumpkin. Butternut, especially, makes for a notably wimpier dish. (Nonetheless, we’ve been known to do it with butternut squash after the fresh pumpkins disappear from shops.)

One 2 to 2.5 pound sugar pumpkin
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup plain yogurt
1 clove garlic, crushed
Salt & pepper to taste

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 medium onions, chopped
1 pound lean ground beef
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup water

Set the oven at 350.

Cut the pumpkin into quarters. Remove seeds and strings, peel the skin with a vegetable peeler, and cut down into about 2-inch chunks. [DH, who usually gets this job, points out that a harp-style (or "Y-style") peeler works best on the hard pumpkin - the straight vegetable peeler is much more difficult to use.]

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a skillet [I actually use a cast iron dutch oven, which saves transferring to a different pan later on.] Brown the pumpkin pieces, turning frequently, until golden brown (about 5 minutes.) [I brown the pumpkin pretty aggressively in this step, while taking care not to scorch it.]

Transfer pumpkin to a roasting pan. [Since I use the dutch oven, I don't do this!] Mix sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle over pumpkin. Cover [with foil if using a roasting pan] and bake for 30 minutes, or until tender.

[This seems like an awful lot of sugar, but go with it - the dish doesn't really come out sweet in the end, and it just isn't as tasty if you cut down on the sugar.]

While the pumpkin is baking, make the yogurt sauce and the meat sauce.

Yogurt sauce: mix together yogurt with one clove of crushed garlic in a bowl; season to taste with salt and pepper.

Meat sauce: in a skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of oil and cook the onions until lightly browned. Add ground beef, the second clove of crushed garlic, and salt and pepper. Mix well and cook until beef is browned. Add tomato sauce and water, mix thoroughly and bring to a simmer, lower heat, and cook about 20 minutes until it cooks down to a thick sauce.

To serve: spoon yogurt sauce onto dinner plates, add a portion of the cooked pumpkin, and top with meat sauce. Serves 4.

This is so tasty, and really easy. It’s one of those meals where the different steps fit together really well – knocking out the yogurt sauce and the meat sauce fits just perfectly into the time that the pumpkin takes to cook in the oven.

portobellos and pork chops on the BGE

pork chops

rubbed 2 chops w/ mustard and curry powder paste, seasoned other 2 with only salt and pepper

350F
• 2m, flip
• 2m, flip
• 1m, rest

portobellos

broke off stems and put them on skewers. cut each in half. rubbed all of it with olive oil and garlic.

400F
• 3m, flip
• 5m, flip
• 5m, flip
• 3m

a trio of chopped beef dishes

We often end up with a lot of steak (probably too much). Yesterday I cut up 54 oz of steak and cooked it into three different sauces to have for lunch. It should make at least 12 meals.

chopped steak with red wine pan sauce

4 slices bacon, chopped
1 onion, diced
20 oz rib eye steak, chopped

red wine pan sauce

2 c merlot
1 c chicken broth
5 tbsp butter
3 tbsp shallot

Sauteed the onions. Browned the bacon. Cooked the steak. Mixed the steak with the onion and removed from heat. Added all the pan sauce ingredients to the pan and reduced.

chopped steak with korma sauce

4 slices bacon, chopped
2 onions, diced
20 oz rib eye steak, chopped
1 jar (15 oz) Trader Joe’s Korma Simmer Sauce

Sauteed the onions. Browned the bacon. Browned the steak. Mixed the steak with the onion, added sauce, and simmered.

chopped steak with enchilada sauce

2 onions, diced
1 can (12 oz) whole tomatoes
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
14 oz flat iron steak, chopped
1 c enchilada sauce

Sauteed the onions. Cooked the steak. Mixed the steak with the onion and removed from heat. Added all the tomatoes and enchilada sauce and simmered. Added the steak and onions and simmered.

The flavor of tomato paste is a little heavy. Next time I’ll use less or none at all. It could also use more chili flavor, so I’ll either use more enchilada sauce, add some fresh or dried chilis, or both.

beef with orange flavor

HCE, p 719

The recipe is actually called “super-spicy beef with orange flavor”, but I left out the entire complement of chilis, because I didn’t want to send Juliana into palate shock.

We used 1 lb of sirloin steak sliced into bite-sized pieces, which worked well.

The orange-ness of the recipe is pretty powerful; that combined with the fish sauce and lime juice makes for a extremely flavorful dish. Imagine how strong it would be with all the chilis…

Anyway, the dish came out spectacularly–it truly reminded me of a beef dish at a Southeast Asian restaurant, though sans vegetables (e.g. peas, onions), like I typically see.

Guinness beef stew

CCM, Feb 07, p 8

changes from recipe:

• no potatoes
• 3 c chicken broth (instead of 4 c)
• 2 lbs boneless short ribs cut into 1/4 lb steaks (instead of 4 lbs chuck cut into cubes)

We cooked it for 7 hrs at high in slow cooker.

I thought that the final result was a bit sweet. This could be because of the sugar, the chocolate, or even the parsnips. Next time, I think we should leave the sugar out and see if that tones it down noticeably.

Also, this Guinness beef stew is a bit different than the one I’m used to, which has no parsnips but lots of mushrooms. I think I’m partial to the mushroom one (found in Bake it Like a Man), but I’ll have to make that one again to be sure.

steak night

Last November we ate steak. Of course, that’s not strange, considering how much steak we get from Juliana’s family. What made this steak special was that it was pan-seared as described by America’s Test Kitchen, not grilled on the BGE. Also, we made two sauces for it: teriyaki and butter-shallot. Both were rather tasty.

In summary:

• pan-seared filet mignon (NBR p 396-397)
• shallot-butter sauce (NBR 391-392); no parsley, a little bit of paprika, a little bit of rosemary, a little bit of mustard
• teriyaki (BRW p 360); used dry sherry and little sugar instead of sake

beef tenderloin in caramelized sugar

Last night, Juliana took a turn in kitchen. She made beef tenderloin in caramelized sugar (Vietnam, BRW, p 359). She is amazing at following recipes—sticks to them like gum on a shoe—and it really pays off. To go with it, I made some coconut rice (I just mixed some lite coconut milk into reheated cooked rice) and stir-fried broccoli with dried shiitakes (CEV, p 270-271).

We also opened a bottle of Woot Cellars Tøøthstejnn. I didn’t expect it to go very well with the meal, to be honest; a Central Coast Sangiovese isn’t what I immediately think of to go with Southeast Asian cuisine. However, something about the wine really balanced the sauce’s heavy nam pla sweetness.

how to cook a cheap roast

I just got this over the telephone from Mom. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to try it out.

Mom used a 4 lb eye roast.

1. Salt the meat, and let it rest for 12-24 hrs.
2. Brush off the salt and sear all sides of the roast
3. Bake the roast just below 225F (Mom recalls something about not letting the oven get above 223F, but doesn’t remember why) until the center reaches 115F
4. Let the roast sit (in the oven, if I understood properly) until the center reaches 130F

It took Mom 2.5 hrs to finish a 4 lb roast. I don’t remember how long with the oven on and how much with the meat resting in the oven.