Salpicon – Mexican Beef Salad

A couple of weeks ago I made a Thai beef salad and it was delicious.   It made me want to eat beef salad again, and again, and, well, you get the picture.   This time I went for a Mexican version, which meant I could keep the chillies, the lime juice and the coriander, which I love so much.   In fact, just like the Thai salad, I could eat this again and again and not get bored.  However, before I risk repeating myself AGAIN, I’ll move straight on to the recipe.

I am linking this to My Kitchen My World, which this month goes to Mexico.

Ingredients – serves 2

300g steak thinly sliced or shredded beef

200g cherry tomatoes

Large handful of coriander (cilantro)

1/4 red onion

1 chilli pepper

1 avocado

3 radishes

1 clove garlic

Juice of 1/2 a lime

Olive oil

Salt

Black pepper

How to Make Salpicon

1. Ideally use shredded beef but if not then cook the steak on both sides on a high heat in a frying pan.  Remove from the pan and leave to rest.

2. Prepare all the vegetables. Quarter the cherry tomatoes, dice the onion finely, roughly chop the coriander, slice the radishes thinly, crush the garlic, finely slice the chilli pepper and chop the avocado.   Put in a bowl and squeeze over the lime juice, add the salt and black pepper and a little olive oil.    Mix together and leave to stand for a short while.

3. If using steak, slice as thinly as possible and mix into the salad.    If using shredded beef, also mix in.

4. Serve with tortilla wraps.

 

Tepsi Baytinijan

So soon after making moussaka, I was quite surprised to find myself making another baked dish involving aubergines, although that is about where the similarities end between that dish and this one.   As you know, I like to enter the My Kitchen My World event each month and this month the country was Iraq.  Now, I don’t know much about Iraqi food and I imagine it to be similar to other Middle Eastern cuisines.   Even so, I wanted to try and find something that was distinctly Iraqi, at least in my mind.   As I researched I came across lots of information saying that other well-known dishes such as tabouleh and falafel are widely eaten in Iraq.  The only problem is, Iraq is not the first country that I would associate them with.  I came across the dish, tepsi baytinijan on Wikipedia, described as a very popular Iraqi casserole and decided to research it further.   It’s a dish of sliced fried aubergines,layered with fried onions and garlic, and usually potatoes,although I found one recipe which said carrots could be used instead of potatoes and so that’s what I did – I wanted to avoid it being too similar to moussaka. Chunks of fresh tomato are then placed on top and small meatballs are placed between the tomatoes.   It is then baked in the oven and served with rice and salad.   Or in my case, jacket potatoes, which admittedly is not very Iraqi.

Ingredients – serves 2

1 aubergine

2 medium-sized  carrots

1 onion

2 tomatoes

250g minced beef

2 garlic cloves

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tbsp tomato puree

How to make Tepsi Baytinijan

1. Cut the aubergines into slices about 1cm wide.  Slice the carrots about 1-2 mm wide and slice the onions.

2. Lightly fry the aubergines for about 5 minutes on each side. Put to the side and then in the same pan fry the onions and carrots until softened.  Add one crushed garlic clove a few minutes before they are ready.

3. While cooking the vegetables, make the meatballs.   Mix 1/2 a tsp of each spice and 1 crushed garlic clove into the mince.   Make into small meatballs.

4. Lightly oil an ovenproof dish.  Place the aubergines on the bottom of the dish.   Layer the carrots and onions on top.  Slice the tomatoes into wide chunks and put on top.   Put the meat balls between the chunks of tomato.

5. Put the rest of the spices and the tomato puree into  a cup.   Add 200ml of boiling water and stir till the puree has dissolved.

6. Pour the water over the dish and cover with tinfoil.  Bake in the oven  for 45 minutes at about 180C.

 

Bulgogi

Korean food has always been one of those cuisines that I’ve never really got to know.   Most recipes seem to call for pastes and ingredients that I just don’t have and as much as I have often wanted to get to know it, I’ve ended up opting to make Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese or other similar cuisines instead.   I’ve only ever been to one Korean restaurant in my life, and that was about 8 or 9 years ago.    I remember the other people around the table cooked beef and vegetables on a hotplate in the centre of the table, but in those days I didn’t really eat red meat and so ordered my own salmon dish instead.   Only now do I think, how I missed out.

Anyway, over the past few months I had been thinking I needed to learn more about Korean food.   A few months ago I borrowed a Korean recipe book from the library, and was intending for a long time to experiment by making kimchi, but after renewing it a few times the book expired and I had to take it back, having enjoyed looking at some lovely pictures but no nearer to trying out the food.    And then, I noticed that this month’s My Kitchen My World was going to Korea.   It seemed I was running out of excuses not to make a Korean dish.   If only I still had that book.    Never mind,   I turned to the internet and after doing a little research I decided upon bulgogi, Korean marinated and barbecued ribeye steak.   I looked at quite a few recipes and eventually decided upon the one here at Slash Food and only adapted it very slightly.  It sounded authentic.  The ingredients were ones I already had in, the only thing I needed to get was the steak.   The dipping sauce was my own invention, but inspired by various online versions which were all quite different.

The finished result was delicious.    I don’t like sweet savoury dishes and was worried the sugar would make it too sweet but it didn’t.   Definitely a dish to make again.

Ingredients for Bulgogi

300g ribeye steak

2 tsp sugar

2 tsp rice vinegar

1.5  tbsp sesame oil

2 tbsp soy sauce (korean if possible)

1 tsp crushed chillies

1/4 tsp ground ginger (use fresh if possible but I’d run out)

Pinch of pepper

1/2 onion

To serve: rice and lettuce leaves

How to make Bulgogi

1. Slice the beef as thinly as you can against the grain.    If you put it in the freezer for half an hour first it apparently makes it easier to slice, but I didn’t bother.  Also slice the onions.

2. Make the marinade by mixing all the other ingredients together until the sugar dissolves.

3. Pour the marinade over the beef and onions and mix in well so the beef is coated all over in the marinade.

4. Put in the fridge overnight or for at least an hour.

5. It should really be barbecued or grilled but I decided it would be easier to use a griddle pan.   It will cook quickly over a high heat.

6. Serve with rice, lettuce leaves and dipping sauce.   To eat put some rice and meat in a lettuce leaf.  Wrap it up a little and dip in the sauce.

Ingredients for Dipping Sauce

4 tbsp soy sauce

1.5 tbsp rice vinegar

2 tbsp sesame oil

2 chillies

How to make the Dipping Sauce

Slice the chillies finely. Add the other ingredients.    Mix well and serve in small individual bowls alongside the bulgogi.

 

Spiced Beef

With my previous recipe in the 365 challenge,  I got the dates wrong and made it a month early.    With this dish, I almost forgot about it altogether.   Luckily I remembered in time as it turned out to be delicious, very tender meat, lightly spiced and lemony, possibly quite different from the original recipe, but an interpretation I was quite happy with and would do again.   The original recipe said to slice the steak thinly before putting in the marinade and then barbecuing.   I don’t do a lot of barbecuing, but I would have thought if you kept the steaks whole and marinated them, you could then barbecue them, but if you slice them thinly before marinating, then griddling or stir frying is more appropriate.    I decided to stir fry, and in less than 5 minutes, the meal was ready.  I just served it with a little bread, but rice would be good too.

Apart from the method of cooking, I did make one or two other changes.   I don’t often cook with wine and the use of lemongrass and wine seemed a little odd and so I just added extra lemon juice as I felt this would add a more complementary flavour to the dish.    The final result was very lemony, which I loved, but if you’re not such a fan of lemon, you could just add the juice of one lemon and maybe a little white wine, as Reynaud suggests.

This dish is part of the 365 Challenge which is run by Murdoch Books.  The team are cooking their way through each dish in Stephane Reynaud’s 365 Good Reasons to Sit Down to Eat.  This dish has been adapted from his recipe for spiced Beef.

Ingredients – Serves 2

350g steak

3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

½ onion, sliced

2 birds eye chillies, finely sliced

1 red pepper, finely sliced

Dash olive oil

Juice of 2 lemons

½ tbsp honey

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp thyme

Salt

Pepper

How to Make Spiced Beef

1. Slice the beef very thinly.

2. Combine all the other ingredients.   Add the beef and stir so the beef is thoroughly coated in the marinade.   Cover and put in the fridge for 24 hours.

3. Heat a wok with a little oil then, when it is very hot, add the beef and marinade.   Stir as it cooks.   It will be ready in about 2 minutes.

 

Beef Rendang

I just love a good curry and am always trying out new recipes, both at home, in restaurants and as takeaways.   This is one that I will definitely be making again.   It’s very rich and so so delicious.   My new favourite curry.   And also my new favourite dish to make in the slowcooker.

Beef rendang is a dish I’ve wanted to make for a long time but I needed a push from My Kitchen My World to finally get around to making it.    When I saw that the destination for June was Indonesia I was delighted and immediately knew that this was what I was going to make. Well, I had all of June to make it but typically did not manage to make it until nearly the end of June.   In fact, I was almost too late.   The end of June crept up on me and I still had a few recipes I wanted to make before the end of the month.   Fortunately, this was one of the lucky ones.

Ingredients – Serves 2

400g braising steak

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

Small knob of ginger

1 tsp ground coriander

1/4 tsp turmeric

2 red chilli peppers

1 tsp dried lemongrass

1 tbsp toasted coconut flakes

1 bay leaf

2 tsp soft brown sugar

1 tbsp soy sauce

200ml coconut milk

How to make Beef Rendang

1. Put the onion, ginger, garlic, chillies, lemongrass, coriander, turmeric and coconut flakes into a food processor.   Add a little water if necessary.    Blend till you get a rough paste.

2. Put the beef in the bottom of the slow cooker.   Spoon the paste over the top.   Add the soy sauce, bay leaf and sugar. Top with coconut milk.   Add a little extra water if necessary.   Stir and leave to cook for 8 hours.

3. Take the rendang out of the slow cooker and put in a saucepan on the hob.   Simmer for about an hour till the sauce reduces.

4. Serve with rice.

 

Beef Wellington

If you’re a vegetarian, today is not the day to be reading my blog.  Beef Wellington is one dish I really wanted to make this year and I finally made it last Sunday for Mother’s Day.   It’s not a dish that I grew up with or that has any special significance to me at all except that last year I had it for the first time and absolutely fell in love with it.    The beef was so tender the knife just slid through it, and it was a uniform pink, not just in the centre but from side to side, top to bottom.   I had never had beef of that quality before and a little spark of love was born for this dish.

So, on Saturday morning I skipped out of the flat to our neighbourhood butcher’s, prepared to spend a bit of money on some beef fillet.   And wandered back in a daze, shocked at quite how much I’d had to spend and with the butcher’s words, ‘Don’t ruin it,’ ringing in my ears.   Did I give the impression of someone who had never cooked beef fillet before?   Well, certainly someone who had never bought it before anyway.

I hid it in the fridge and tried not to think about it till the next day.    Not about the beef.   I thought about the mushroom duxelle instead.   I could have used paté.   But Gordon Ramsay makes his own duxelles and I couldn’t possibly now pair the beef with shop bought paté.   Only the best from now on for this dish.

The rest of the dish was prepared in the morning before our guests arrived.   It looked good.   Rather like it should have done, but then I’m sure any Wellington looks good before it’s cooked.   It’s after it’s cooked that it counts.   And that was what I was worried about.    It was now me against the butcher.   He thinks I’m going to ruin it.   He may not be the one coming to dinner and he has in all probability completely forgotten about me and I may not even see him again, but I am not going to let him win.   It would be so easy for him to win.  The difficulty is that with a wellington, it is is not so easy to check that it is ready.   You just have to know your oven and make a judgement on when to take it out and and let it rest.   After it’s rested for about 15 minutes, then you cut into it, hoping and praying that it will not be either brown or red all the way through and that instead it will be a tender pink.   When this happens, you then congratulate yourself on what an excellent cook you are, as you had known all along that you could do it.

So, I have now eaten 2 fantastic beef wellingtons and have found a new thing to worry about.   Will I ever  be able to experience it again without taking out a second mortgate?   Of course.   It may be expensive but you can’t put a price on love.

I more or less followed the recipe from Gordon Ramsay’s Sunday Lunch.

Ingredients – Serves 4

800g beef fillet

1 pack of puff pastry

6 large slices of parma ham

400g mushrooms

1 tbsp English mustard

1 egg yolk

Salt

Black pepper

How to Make Beef Wellington

1.Prepare the mushroom duxelles.   Put the mushrooms in a food processor and blitz.   Then put into a frying pan, season and cook over a high heat, stirring, till all the moisture evaporates.  It should take about 10-15 minutes.   Spread them out on a plate and leave to cool.

2.Heat a little oil in a frying pan and sear the beef for about 30 seconds on all sides.   Leave to cool.

3. Lay a large piece of cling film on the work surface.   Lay the slices of parma ham in the middle, overlapping slightly. Spread the mushroom duxelle over the parma ham.

4. Spread the mustard over all sides of the beef fillet.  Lay the beef in the middle of the parma ham and wrap the ham around the beef, by pulling the cling film up at each side.   Put in the fridge, wrapped in the clingfilm for about 20 minutes.

5. Roll out the puff pastry.    Take the cling film off and put the beef in the centre of the pastry. Brush egg onto the sides of pastry that will stick together and then wrap the pastry around.  Put back in the fridge for another 20 minutes.

6. Score the  top of the pastry and brush the remaining egg onto the top of the Wellington.  Put in the oven at 200C for 20 minutes.   Then lower the temperature to 180 for another 15 minutes (I left it in for another 25 minutes as my oven usually takes longer than a recipe says).

7.Take out of the oven and leave to rest for 15 minutes before serving

 

Slow Cooked Juniper Beef Stew

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been wondering how to use my juniper berries from Healthy Supplies.  I really wanted to use them in a stew but as I hadn’t used them before I was a bit unsure about what exactly they would go well with.   I knew they were often used with game but I didn’t  know much else.   After a little research I was soon reading about  the bittersweet freshness of Scandinavian and Central European stews using wild birds, deer  and wild boar.   Well, I didn’t have any pigeon or venison handy, so I decided beef would do and as it was my first use of juniper berries, I decided to take inspiration from another blogger and so this is adapted from a dish found at Recipe, Interrupted.

Another good reason to make this dish was that it gave me a chance to use my slowcooker again.   I got it last year and used it at least once a week last winter but this year I’ve only used it a couple of times.   I’ve discovered through using the slow cooker that although you can brown the meat and cook the vegetables a little bit first, this really defeats the whole purpose of slowcooking, which is to make things quicker, easier and produce less washing up.   Therefore I always just put everything in the slow cooker in the morning at about 8 o’clock before I leave for work and then when I get home at 6:30 it’s ready.  If there’s too much liquid or it’s too watery I then simmer it or add some cornflour as a thickener.   Because it’s been slow cooked I always find the meat is incredibly tender and falls apart as you eat it.   Delicious!   Anyway,  I’d love to hear your comments about whether the stages are important before setting off the slow cooker or whether, like me, you just throw everything in.

Ingredients – Serves 2

300g stewing steak

2 carrots, thinly sliced

1 celery stick, finely diced

About 5 mushrooms, sliced

1 onion, sliced

1 clove of garlic, crushed

1 tsp juniper berries

4 cloves

1/2 tsp ground allspice berries

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 bay leaf

1 tbsp tomato puree

200ml beef stock

How to make Slow Cooked Juniper Beef Stew

1. Chop the steak into bitesize pieces and put in the bottom of the slow cooker.

2. Lightly crush the juniper berries and sprinkle on top of the beef, along with the other herbs, spices and garlic.

3. Then put all the vegetables on top.

4. Dissolve the tomato puree in a little hot water and pour on top, then add the beef stock.  The beef should be covered by the liquid but it doesn’t mater if the vegetables are above the liquid.

5. Slow cook for about 8-10 hours.

6. If the stew is too watery, transfer to the oven top and simmer to reduce the liquid.  You can also thicken it by dissolving some cornflour in a little cold water and stirring into the stew.

 

Asian Beef and Pak Choi

In our house,  I do all the cooking.   I would not have it any other way.  I love to be in charge of the kitchen and usually I make all the decisions about what we’re going to eat.   But sometimes, I do ask my husband what he’d like for dinner this week, and I can almost guarantee that this is the dish he’ll request.   He loves strong flavours and as the sauce in this recipe is not cooked, it packs a really strong punch.  Raw chillis, garlic and ginger.   Mmmm. I love it too.   If you aren’t such a chilli fiend you can remove the seeds but in our house the seeds are there to stay.   This recipe is adapted from Jamie Oliver

Ingredients – serves 2

2 steaks

1 lime

1 red chilli, thinly sliced

1 knob of ginger, finely diced

1 clove of garlic, finely sliced

1 pak choi or spinach

5 tbsp soy sauce

Groundnut oil

How to make Asian Beef and Pak Choi

1. Make the sauce by squeezing the lime, adding it to a bowl with the chilli, ginger, garlic, soy sauce and approx 2 tbsp oil.  Mix well. Taste and adjust as necessary.

2. Heat a griddle pan.  Season the steaks with salt and pepper.  Cooking time depends on the thickness of the steaks and how you like it done.    Cook on each side then remove from the heat and leave to rest for a few minutes.

3. Boil  some water in a pan and then when it is bubbling, add the pak choi.   Cook briefly then remove.

4. Slice the steak thinly.   Put the pak choi on the plates.   Arrange the slices of steak on top of the pak choi.  Spoon the sauce over the top.  Serve with rice.

 

Need to be more prepared

So, after months of reading other people’s blogs I’ve decided to start my own.  I realised I would need to take photos of the food I was making and so I carefully charged my camera batteries so it would be ready to take the first pictures.

I was making Hungarian goulash in my new slow cooker.  This morning I’d browned cubes of beef and fried some chopped onions, garlic and a chilli pepper with some paprika and a little chilli powder.  I put them in the slow cooker along with potatoes, chopped mushrooms and  yellow pepper.  I’d wanted to use a green one but had to use what was available in my fridge.  See the post title.

I dissolved some tomato puree in some beef stock and poured in it on top.  Set the timer for 8 hours and went off to enjoy my day.

8 hours later I served it up and polished it off.   It was good.  Perhaps not the most authentic goulash but very tasty.  Half-way through I remembered the camera.  A half-eaten plate of goulash does not look quite so appetising as a full plate and besides, I was enjoying eating it too much to stop to take a photo.

Never mind, I could always start this  blog with dessert – chocolate fondant!  I rarely make desserts and have never made a fondant before.   Just one of my new year resolutions is to try to make a dessert once a month.  Last year I managed one dessert in the whole year – a chocolate, cashew and chilli mouse on Valentines Day.  This year I plan to improve on that.  It can’t be so difficult.  Indeed, I’ve already equalled last year’s record today.  I decided to copy an expert and picked the Gordon Ramsey recipe from Gordon Ramsey Makes it Easy.    It was pretty easy to put together.  I cooked it for exactly the right amount of time, took it out of the oven and saw it still looked fairly underdone.  I put it in again for about two minutes.  Now, I’ve seen so many Masterchef shows where the worst that can be done is to overcook a fondant – they never undercook it, do they? So, even with the extra time I was worried about overcooking it.   I became preoccupied worrying about avoiding overcooking it.  And so, I took it out, served it, put my spoon in, delighted it wasn’t overcooked.   There was plenty of liquid goo in the middle, in fact, except for around the very edges it was almost all goo.  Perhaps not a perfect fondant but a delicious hot chocolate moose.

But where are the photos?  Yet again I was so preoccupied I forgot to take a photo until it was too late.  I could just start this blog next week I thought.  Then again, I could write it all down as a reminder of how to do things better next time.   So, here’s to next time.