Beef Stew with Bacon & Vegetables

I’ve known for a few days that it was going to be cold today. And by cold, I don’t mean “Waaahhh, a coat ruins this outfit,” I mean “I am legitimately concerned for my extremities.”

As much as I complain about the cold, I can’t help but love the excuse to spend a day next to the stove. Yesterday, when the weather wasn’t so frostbitey, I planned in advance and bought the ingredients I needed to make a lovely slow-cooked beef stew.

This recipe makes a lot—and by “a lot,” I mean “Hey, East Coast, I’ve got enough for all of you!” Nah, just kidding—but this recipe definitely yields enough for 8-10 cold, hungry people! And it has plenty of healthy vegetables, which I think makes up for the fact that bacon fat is the key to the best flavor.


Beef Stew with Bacon & Vegetables

4-5 slices of thick-cut streaky bacon, sliced into ½” pieces
1.5 lbs. chuck steak, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 large onion, diced
3 leafy stalks celery, diced, leaves set aside
3-4 carrots, diced
3 juicy tomatoes, diced
2-3 c. dry red wine
1 32-oz. box organic low-sodium beef broth*
1-2 turnips, diced
3-4 red potatoes, diced
1 large bunch kale, ribs removed, leaves torn into pieces
1 t. dried thyme (or half the amount fresh)
1 t. crumbled dried sage leaves (or 3 fresh leaves, minced)
½ t. ground ginger
½ t. garlic powder
1 lb. green beans, sliced into 1-inch lengths
Smoked sea salt, to taste
Cracked black pepper, to taste


Before you even start chopping, make sure you have a huge pot (I used my 6.75 quart Le Creuset risotto pot). Otherwise, you’re screwed.

Just before adding the liquid

Once your pot is ready, add the bacon over medium heat and cook it until the fat is melted away and the meaty bits are cooked but not burnt. Then, add the beef chunks and cook, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes until the beef chunks are mostly browned. Then, add the onion, carrots, and celery stalk (make sure to keep the leaves separate and set them aside—they will be added later). Cook for about 5 more minutes, stirring frequently, until the onion has softened a bit.

Next, add the tomatoes (I added a few yellow cherry tomatoes, as you can see in the photo) and 1 cup of the wine. Turn the heat to high, and cook until the wine has reduced and most of the liquid has evaporated.

Now, add one more cup of wine and the beef broth, the turnips, potatoes, and kale, and the thyme, sage, ginger, and garlic. Reduce heat to medium-low and cover. Cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Once the kale is completely wilted, add the green beans. If it seems dry, add the remaining wine (if you don’t need to add it, you should probably drink it). Cook for about 5 minutes until the green beans are cooked, then add the smoked sea salt and the cracked pepper. Give it a few good stirs until it is well-blended, then serve piping hot. This dish will stick to your bones!


* If you use pre-made beef broth, make sure to use low-sodium, and preferably organic. Of course, if you have your own beef broth, even better!

Not the prettiest, but it's wicked good!

Restaurant Replica Recipe: Gourmet Dumpling House’s Beef with Longhorn Peppers

Longhorn Peppers

Readers, I must apologize for not posting much lately. Before my vacation, I found out that I needed to search for another apartment, so I spent the greater part of July seeing dozens of apartments, subsisting on Chinatown takeaway and frozen toaster waffles. Now that I know where I’ll be living in September, I’m back in the swing of actually cooking meals for myself, but I still find myself craving certain dishes that I fell in love with during my “no time to cook” period. One of those is Gourmet Dumpling House’s Beef with Longhorn Peppers! This is not their exact recipe, but I did my best to duplicate it. I found longhorn peppers at C-Mart in Chinatown, but if you cannot find these, you can substitute poblanos. Try this if you’re looking for something quick and easy!


Gourmet Dumpling House’s Beef with Longhorn Peppers

1 T. toasted sesame oil
1 lb. top round steak, sliced into thin strips
8 long horn peppers
1 T. garlic and ginger paste*
2 T. soy sauce
2 green onions, sliced
Cooked rice, to serve

Heat a large frying pan or wok over high heat. Add the sesame oil, shake the pan to coat. Add the steak, peppers, and garlic and ginger paste. Stir-fry until the beef is cooked through. Finally, add the soy sauce and green onions, stir fry for about 30 seconds until well-blended. Serve over cooked rice.

* Garlic and ginger paste can be found in most Indian or Asian markets
Nutritional information: Serves four. 355 calories, 7.9 g fat, 42.4 g. carbohydrates, 28.5 g protein.

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Around the World in Eighty Bites - Uganda

As my loyal readers know, I keep track of the countries around the world that read this blog. While it’s fun to watch my numbers increase, the main reason I track my international readership is because I want to try as many different cuisines as possible, and knowing that I’m reaching real people across the globe keeps me inspired to create many new variations of traditional ethnic and national recipes. I also like being able to share the recipes with people who, like me, travel vicariously through their taste buds.
 

from nationsonline.org

The 97th country to hop on the www.baconbutterbooze.com bandwagon was Uganda. Like many countries that have been prone to invasion, Ugandan food features mainly native ingredients while reflecting the influences of invading countries’ cuisines. European, Arab, and Indian traders and explorers brought with them ingredients that have been incorporated into traditional Ugandan cuisine, but traditional dishes rely on native staples such as bananas, yams, and smoked or dried fish.

Cooking Ugandan food was a bit intimidating to me, because with the exceptions of Morocco and Ethiopia, most African nations’ cuisines haven’t become trendy yet, and I feared that finding enough information about the cuisine and its ingredients and cooking techniques would be difficult. However, when I’m intimidated by a kitchen project, I always accept the challenge and step up to the plate, so with a little bit of web research and a basket of fresh ingredients, I was ready to cook. After browsing through about a dozen Ugandan recipes, I selected Oluwombo. Oluwombo is a traditional Ugandan dish featuring meat and smoked fish cooked with tomatoes, peanuts, and mushrooms. I chose this dish because it was so different from the dishes I’ve cooked in the past.

While researching, I found several variations of the meat used in the dish - some used beef, some used chicken, and pork and goat were also featured in a few recipes. The other ingredients had no significant variation from recipe to recipe. Oluwombo is traditionally steamed in banana leaves for almost two hours, but to save time, I’ve varied the cooking method to create a stew that captures the flavors, but requires less preparation and cooking time. My first reaction? “How did I live without this for 30 years?”

Try this when you’re seeking something different from your typical beef stew!


Oluwombo-Inspired Stew

1 T. coconut oil
12 oz. sirloin, cut into ½” cubes
1 small onion, minced
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 c. peanuts, crushed
3 oz. Tomato paste
1 cup beef stock or bouillon
4 oz. Fresh button mushrooms, finely chopped
2 chipotles in adobo, minced, plus 2 T. adobo sauce
½ t. toasted cumin seeds, ground
¼ t. ginger
¼ t. turmeric
6 oz. Smoked whitefish, skin and bones removed and flaked

4 baked plantains (instructions below), sliced
Crushed peanuts, to garnish

In a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat 1 T. of the coconut oil over medium-high heat until it has melted. Add the sirloin and cook for several minutes until the meat has browned. Remove the meat with a slotted spoon and set aside, and if a lot of liquid and fat has been released from the meat, drain it. Add more coconut oil if necessary, then add the onion and cook for 3-5 minutes, or until the onion has softened.

Add all the remaining ingredients and the browned sirloin. Stir, reduce the heat to low, and cook for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once cooked, serve over slices of baked plantain and garnish with crushed peanuts.

Serves four.  Nutrition facts per serving: 790 calories, 68g carbohydrates, 35g fat, 56 g protein


Baked Plantains

4 plantains

Start with plantains that are in their medium stage of ripeness - beginning to blacken, but with a fair amount of yellow still showing. Preheat the oven to 425, and in the meantime, slice the ends off of each plantain, then halve lengthwise. Place the plantains skin side down on a baking sheet, and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, and once the plantain halves are cool enough to touch, peel the skins off and slice the plantain halves into half-inch chunks.

Serves four.  Nutrition facts per serving: 180 calories, 48g carbohydrates, 0.3g fat, 1.2g protein

Cooking for a Cause

The food I cook, the posts I write, and the general tone of this site is intended to be a celebration, a gastronomic gala, a tip of the hat to unapologetic hedonism.  And that is fine - this isn't a newspaper, and it isn't a political forum.  However, I would be remiss if I did not mention this week's tragedy in Japan.  We can definitely put down our forks, knives, and wine goblets for a moment and acknowledge that people are suffering.  As human beings, one of our more appealing qualities is our compassion, our instinctive drive to alleviate the suffering of our brothers and sisters.  So I write this post today with a bit more purpose than usual.  Enjoy the photos, enjoy the recipes, but don't stop there.  Starting tonight, for every re-post or re-tweet, I will donate 50 cents to the Red Cross's relief efforts in Japan.* 

tamarind pods

When I came up with this idea, the devastation was still unfolding and nobody knew who would be affected.  Because this site has readers in at least 10 Pacific Rim countries, I decided to make this weekend's recipes using ingredients native to areas that either were, or could have been, affected by this tragedy.  My readers mean the world to me, and if I can cook for a cause and do something to help, I will gladly do so.  With that, I bring you two recipes - Marinated Salmon with Coconut, and Spiced Beef with Tamarind. 

If you live in a city with a great supermarket and/or a large Asian/Pacific Islander population, most of the ingredients I use should be fairly easy to locate.  If you cannot find tamarind pods, you can buy whole tamarind pods online, or you can substitute prepared tamarind pulp.  If you cannot find serrano chiles, 1/2 t. crushed red pepper flakes is pretty close to the heat level of one serrano chile. 


Marinated Salmon with Coconut

1 lb. very fresh salmon, sliced into 1/3" strips
juice of 2 limes
1 T. fresh ginger, grated or very finely minced
1-2 shallots, sliced thin
1 serrano chile, seeded and thinly sliced
2 tomatoes, diced
2/3 c. coconut milk
splash sesame oil
salt and cracked black peppercorns

In a glass or ceramic bowl, combine all ingredients except the coconut milk, sesame oil, salt and pepper.  Mix well, cover, and refrigerate for 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally. 

Once the dish has chilled for at least two hours and the salmon looks "cooked" due to the lime juice, add the coconut milk, sesame oil, salt and pepper.  Toss and serve.  A few extra chile slices or a lime wedge would make a nice garnish. 


Spiced Beef with Tamarind

4 oz. tamarind pods (or substitute 2 T. tamarind paste)
1 T. coconut oil
1 3-inch cinnamon stick
2 shallots, minced
2 serrano chiles (red or green), minced
2 T. fresh ginger, minced
1 lb. beef sirloin, sliced into thin strips
1/4" light rum
1 cup coconut milk
splash sesame oil
salt and pepper to taste
cooked rice (when you cook the rice, add a cinnamon stick to the water for additional flavor)
ground cinnamon, for garnish


If you are using fresh tamarind, the pulp must first be extracted from the pods.  This is not a difficult process, but it does take a bit of time and effort and produces a product far superior to the concentrated paste you'll find in jars. 

In the photo collage below, from left to right, you'll see the result of each of the numbered steps below:

1)  Remove the papery husk from each pod.  This will give you a sticky fruit that bears the shape of what you'd see after walking a 25-35 pound dog. 
2)  Remove the fibrous veins from the pods.  These fibers look frighteningly like centipedes. 
3)  Pour boiling water over the prepared pods.  Let soak for 20-30 minutes, or until the pulp is softened and looks even more like dog crap. 
4)  Using a wide-meshed strainer, drain the soaked tamarind pods.  Discard the water.  Holding the strainer over a bowl, press the pods into the mesh using a large spoon.  The seeds should pop out; they look kind of like black chicklets.  Discard the seeds.
5)  Continue to press the pulp through the mesh until all the soft pulp has been extracted.  Any pulp that comes through the mesh but does not drop into the bowl can be scraped off the outside of the strainer with your spoon. 

Once you've extracted the tamarind pulp, set aside and continue with the recipe. 

Heat the coconut oil over medium-high heat in a large frying pan until it has melted.  Next, add the cinnamon stick, shallots, chiles, and ginger.  Cook for a minute or two, stirring frequently, then add the beef strips.  Cook for a few minutes, stirring frequently, until the beef is mostly brown on the outside. 

Next, add the rum and the reserved tamarind pulp.  Cook, stirring constantly, until the tamarind pulp is completely blended with the rum.  Now, add the coconut milk, sesame oil, salt, and pepper.  Cook, stirring frequently, until the sauce thickens and the coconut milk begins to bubble.  Remove from heat, and remove the cinnamon stick. 

To serve, fill a greased measuring cup with cooked rice.  Invert the cup in the middle of a bowl or plate.  Spoon the beef and its sauce around the inverted rice mold, then sprinkle the rice with a dusting of ground cinnamon. 

*  Because money doesn't grow on trees, this is not without limits - but I'm going to do what I can!

Ingredient Spotlight - Thai Eggplant

What is Thai Eggplant?  From what I determined, it's a cuter version of common purple eggplant!

I stumbled across a bag of Thai Eggplant in the produce department of my grocery store. Each no larger than a tangerine, some as small as a golf ball, these shamrock green spheres speckled with white aroused my curiosity. Do they they taste any different from regular eggplant? Is their texture the same? What color is the flesh inside?  I stopped staring at them and threw them into my basket, mentally shuffling my shopping list to include the ingredients for a traditional Thai green curry with beef.

While slicing the Thai Eggplant, I noticed that they contained more seeds than regular purple eggplant. This could be due to their small size. The flavor is exactly the same as purple eggplant, and so is the texture. My conclusion? Unless you want to add visual interest to a dish, there is no need to seek out these eggplants when you could simply use the easier to locate and easier to prepare common purple eggplant. That being said, here is the recipe I created with my Thai Eggplant.

Thai Eggplants in Beef Curry

1 T. coconut oil (can substitute vegetable oil)
1 lb. beef sirloin, sliced into 1/4" strips (also known as "stir-fry beef")
1 shallot or small onion, minced
2 lb. Thai eggplants, quartered or cut into eighths (or substitute diced purple eggplant)
1 can coconut milk
1t - 2T. Thai green curry paste (depends on how spicy you like it)
1t. grated fresh ginger
2 T. soy sauce
1 T. fish sauce
black pepper to taste
generous handful shredded basil leaves
red chile flakes (optional)

cooked rice noodles

Heat the coconut oil over medium-high heat in a large, heavy-bottomed pan. When heated through, add the beef strips and brown for 2-3 minutes. Add the shallot or onion and saute for another minute or so, or until the shallot is translucent. Now, add the eggplant and stir a few times to combine.

Add the coconut milk, curry paste, ginger, soy sauce, fish sauce, and pepper. Stir to combine, reduce heat to low, and simmer for about 10 minutes, or until the eggplant has softened and the sauce has thickened up a bit.

Spoon the curry over cooked rice noodles, and garnish each dish with shredded basil, and chile flakes if you prefer a little extra heat.