Stir-fried vegies with beef

Stir-fried Veggies with beef

Easy and healthy.

Ingredients:

½ K. Lean beef

Cabbage (sliced in strips)

2 Carrots (sliced)

1 Red sweet pepper

1 Green sweet pepper

1 Onion (sliced thinly)

3 cloves garlic (chopped thinly)

2 T olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

I am a fan of Ken, Chinese cook in BBC Food and I always watch him stir frying vegetables but haven’t done really at home. The secret is to add stock or water little by little like 1 tablespoon at a time this will give a good steam cooked vegetables, which is really makes a difference. Different from what I’ve done before I knew the technique coz I used to stir-fry veggies all in one bang to the pan and add water or stock.. some veggies are not cooked and some are over cooked. So here, I perfected for once!

Slice beef in strips and set aside. In very hot pan, add 2 T. olive oil add beef and stir-fry until sides turn brown. (Do not be tempted to add water, otherwise the meat would be tough). Remove the beef and set aside. With the same pan, add oil and salt, sauté onion and garlic with olive oil, add first the hardest veggie then the leafy lastly. Carrots goes in first, add 1 T. of stock or water, stir fry and cover for 1 minute, add the red and green peppers, add another tablespoon of stock, cover and stir-fry for another minute, add the cabbage lastly, again cover and stir-fry for another minute. Add in the stir-fried beef and toss! Done! Every veggie has its own distinctive taste which gives every bite a worthwhile withd different tastes and textures.

Quickie Pasta

Quickie Pasta

All time favorite quickie pasta. Lazy and hungry?? The quickest meal I could do is this! Just boil pasta and while doing that, sauté onions, mushrooms, ham or bacon and through in some cooked pasta. Add the cooked pasta to pan and add lots of cheese. Toss until cheese melts, season with salt and pepper. Done!

Bacon,mushroom and cheese on Toast

Breakfast Devine

Got this from Sophie Grigson’s show, but substituted some ingredients.

Ingredients :

3 Eggs

2 Tbsp. Butter

2 Tbsp. olive oil

2 slices bacon (thinly sliced)

2 slices ham (thinly slized)

200 g mushrooms (thinly slized)

1 pc. white onion (thinly slized)

200 g. flamengo cheese (grated)

100 g. parmesan cheese (grated)

salt & pepper to taste

How to:

Preheat oven into 180 degrees C. Separate egg white from yolk and set aside.Heat olive oil and butter in a pan, add bacon & ham and fry just quickly until done. Remove from pan. With the same pan (with the remaining oil & butter used with frying the bacon, this really adds flavor) add mushrooms and continue frying, add onions and stir-fry until mushrooms turn golden brown at the sides. Add the cooked bacon & ham stir and remove from heat and set aside.Add the yolks into the cooked ingredients, season with salt & pepper and set aside.Beat egg whites with an electric beater until stiff. Slowly fold-in the yolk mixture into the stiffly beaten eggwhite. Return the whole mixture into the pan, continue cooking with low fire. Remove from fire and bake for 5 minutes or until cheese melts. Serve immediately with toasted bread.

Note: Make sure to use oven proof handle of your pan otherwise, transfer the whole mixture to an oven-proof dish before putting it in the oven.

Roasted Chicken

Roasted Chicken

There maybe a hundred ways of roasting chicken but this one is quicker than usual roasted whole chicken! Tender and juicy!

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken

1 lemon

5 cloves garlic

salt and pepper

Fresh Mint

Gravy

Preheat oven to 250 degrees C. Butterfly the chicken (Literally cutting the chicken in half starting from the breast down to the bottom of the chicken but not cutting the back bones) like a butterfly. Crush 5 cloves of garlic, fresh mint, salt and pepper.Work the skin starting with your fingers, insert the garlim in between the skin and the flesh working from bottom part of the chicken forming a pocket. Separate the tissues by pushing further your hand into the leg part, breasts and wings. Insert Spices into the just formed pocket and rub the spices to the flesh.Add slices of lemon in it.Squeeze the rest of the lemon over the whole chicken and season the other side with salt and pepper. Pan-fry the chicken skin side down with olive oil until golden. This would take around 6 – 8 minutes each side. Transfer to oven proof dish and straight to the hot oven for 45 minutes. Done!

Serve while still hot.

To make the gravy:

With the meat drippings in the pan (where the chicken was fried) add ½ cup of water, chicken cube (stock), 1 tsp. cornstarch, and season with pepper.Note: The herbs doesn’t really matter particularly mint. I just used mint because I have it fresh from the garden. Parsley, Corriander, lemon grass would be great as well, I think. I just found out that mint and garlic are good friends! The mint refreshes the garlicky flavor and broken by the lemon.. Really works well.

Beef Sausage

Beef Sausage

Ingredients:

½ kilo ground beef

4 pieces sausages

1 red pepper (finely chopped)

1 carrot (finely grated)

1 cup fresh bread crumbs

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon beef seasoning

Salt and pepper

Procedure:

In a large mixing bowl, mix ground beef with red pepper, carrot, bread crumbs, chili powder, beef seasoning, salt and pepper. Combine all the ingredients together by tossing and squeezing the meat with hands until all the flavors are well distributed.Place aluminum foil on a flat working surface. Place a handful of meat mixture on the foil and flatten the mixture evenly. Place 1 sausage at the center and start rolling the meat. Wrap the meat with the foil. Bake for 30 minutes at 350o C.When meat is done, allow to cool at room temperature. Remove the foil and slice into 1 inch thick.

Serve with mashed potato and garnish with parsley.

Beef Shawarma

Beef shawarma

This meal reminds me of Abu Dhabi where shawarma is very popular sandwich. It’s also becoming popular in SM nowadays where you can see people lining up for shawarma. Since hubby and I both have Middle Eastern influence in food, we often have shawarma at home, once in a while.

Ingredients:

Flat bread

Beef steak (sliced thinly)

Cucumber (sliced thinly)

Tomatoes (sliced thinly)

Onion (caramelized)

Hummus sauce

To make flat bread:

1 cup flour (sifted)

1 tsp. salt

¼ cup water

Mix salt and flour in a mixing bowl. Add 1 Tablespoon water at a time while mixing until it forms rough dough. Add water if it’s too dry, this depends of the strength of the flour you are using, add more water if necessary. Knead the dough in a floured flat surface for about 3 minutes or until dough becomes smooth and elastic. Form dough into sausage shape and cut 1 inch thick. Form each into a small ball and flatten with a rolling pin. Cook over a hot pan until dark spots start to form. Flip over to cook the other side of the flat bread.

To make hummus sauce

1 can chickpeas

¼ cup olive oil

2 teaspoons ground cumin seeds

Pinch of ground cinnamon

3 teaspoons lemon juice

Salt & pepper

Place all the ingredients in a food processor or blender except olive oil. Blitz and slowly add olive oil in a thin stream while machine is running. Keep the machine running until mixture becomes smooth.

To assemble the sandwich, spread hummus sauce on flatbread, add meat, cucumber and cooked onion according to liking.

Beef Steak

Beef Steak

Its been a while I’ve been trying to get a perfect medium rare steak, for once and for all, I finally made it. At first I thought it was the way of cutting, or maybe the cut of the meat itself, or the pan is not hot enough, or I cooked the meat too long..etc. But lately, I got a perfect cut of beef without sinew and without fat. Afraid of having the same mistakes again like cutting the meat into thin slices before cooking, I cooked the whole piece of meat. I succeeded finally! Medium rare, crisp on the outside and pink inside! This beef really made me happy for lunch! Served with vegetable rice.

Beef Steak with Onion

Beef Steak with onion

Simple, easy and quickie!

Ingredients:

Beef (sliced thinly)

2 Pcs.White onion (sliced thinly)

1 Tablespoons lemon juice

3 Tablespoons water

2 Tablespoons olive oil

Preparation:

In a hot heavy bottomed pan, add oil and swirl the pan to spread the oil evenly. Carefully add thinly sliced beef, keeping a flat thin form. 2 minutes each side until done or according to liking like rare, medium rare or well done and set aside to rest.In the same pan, add thinly sliced onion, cook in medium fire until transparent, add lemon juice, stirring all the while, and add water 1 tablespoon at a time. Continue cooking until all the liquid has evaporated and place on top of the beef upon serving.Here, I served with mashed potatoes. It could be served with rice. The trick is to serve it while still hot otherwise the meat would turn tough.

Beef Burger Patties

Beef Burger Patties

Ingredients:

¼ kilo ground beef

2 slices of bread

Salt and pepper

Procedure:

Mix beef, seasoning, salt and pepper and set aside. Cut the sides of the bread and discard. Slice the bread into cubes and blitz in a blender or food processor until it becomes find crumbs. Mix the bread crumbs with the beef mixture. This will absorb moisture from the meat. In a flat board, spread plastic cling wrap and spread the beef over half of the plastic and cover the other half of the plastic over the beef mixture. The plastic will prevent the meat from sticking to the board and rolling pin, achieving a smooth finish of the meat. Flatten the meat with a rolling pin enabling the meat to spread evenly. Remove the plastic cover over the mixture. With a round cookie cutter or chef’s ring, mold a circle with the meat. If necessary, cut the sides off of the circle using a pair of scissors to have a perfect circle. Gather the side cuts and roll again with a rolling pin. Place the circles of meat in a plate lined with plastic and chill 10 minutes. This will allow the mixture to stick together harder before cooking, to achieve a perfect shape.In a preheated pan, light oil the pan and cook the burger through 2 minutes on each side. There u got a home made burger patties. It can be served for sandwich or burger meal. For burger meal, make a mushroom sauce or beef sauce and spread over the patties. Serve with plain rice.

Grilled Mussels with Apricot Sauce

Grilled mussels with apricot sauce

Ingredients:

12 Large Mussels

1 Teaspoon olive oil

Apricot sauce

Fresh Parsley (finely chopped)

Apricot sauce:

8 Pieces Dried Apricot (cut in half)

Juice of 1 lemon

2 Teaspoons Syrup

1 White Onion (sliced thinly)

1 Teaspoon Chili sauce

1 ½ Cup Water

1 Piece mussel

Preparation:

Prepare the mussels by steaming until they open up and take out the meats. Set aside.

To make apricot sauce:

In sauce pan, mix all ingredients and bring to boil. Simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and pass through a fine sift. Take out the mussel and apricots then return back to the sauce. Blitz in a blender until the mussel and apricot are fine. Pass through a fine sift again to get rid of solids. Set aside.

Meanwhile, coat the mussels thoroughly with olive oil by tossing 2 ingredients together. Lay the mussels flat and cook in a very hot heavy-based pan or grill 2 minutes each side.Arrange mussels and garnish with finely chopped parsley around the sauce. Place 1 dried apricot at the center. Sprinkle mussels with freshly ground sea salt and black pepper.

Choucroute

This is one of my unforgettable dish when we visited a friend in France. Choucroute is a typical Alsatian dish. It is made up of salted cuts of pork,bacon, sausages, potatoes and fermented cabbage.

Steak Tartar

Steak Tartar

One of the most unforgettable dish that I love in Paris. At first I was quite hesitant to have it because it is fresh ground meat, fresh as in raw meat! But then I was quiet relieved when hubby explained to me how strict the Department of Health in France is when it comes to meat products. He convinced me about sanitary issues so I did try.

The steak tartar was prepared in corner of the restaurant where it is visible to the diners. On top of a small table were the ingredients, namely; capers, finely chopped onion, egg yolk, worcestershire sauce, dijon mustard,yellow mustard, raw minced beef, freshly ground black pepper and salt. The waiter just simply mixed all ingredients in the bowl by making a well at the center of the minced meat, add the yolk, capers and mustard and mixed it vigorously with 2 forks and folding in the meat. With the pepper grinder,the waiter added pepper and salt every now and then to season the meat nicely and finally, added a splash of cognac. In 3 minutes, the steak tartare was ready infront of me! That was quick and easy! It tastes delicious! I'm surprized how fresh the meat was. It doesnt smell like meat at all but the taste was great! The sharp taste of the dijon mustard and other mild flavors in it is just so nice. Well, I ended up loving it and in fact I made it the point to be the last meal I had before I left Paris.

It is something I couldn't have in Philippines unless I grow my own cow and be there the moment it is butchered and make the tartare right away! You know what I mean? The tropical temperature in Philippines makes meat rancid quicker than in cooler countries.

Sorries

OOOps! loads of sorries! why? coz I've been out of the blogging world for quite sometime because I've been moving a lot! Where? Off from Angola, back to Philippines, then Paris, then back to Philippines, then finally... I landed in India! Currently I'm in Mumbai, though we havent settled yet in an apartment which I can't wait to have a new kitchen... (new laboratory!) :-) Well, to be in the "SPICE LAND" is quite interesting. Challenging to my tastebuds and my stomach! Everything is spicyyyyy! Well, am still in the stage of culture shock for the timebeing, as well as my tastebuds are. The things is, I've been staying in the hotel which has been a month now, desperately waiting for "negotiations" with the flat to be over and move in, but it seems like it will take ages!

Anyways, lots of spices and herbs to explore on. I don't know yet how much is the safron, but its quite interesting because it seems like an ordinary spice in the hotel.. I assume it must be cheaper than in other countries. As far as my exposure to safron is concern, I treat them like "GOLD" in my kitchen before.

Well, for the time being, I can't post something I cooked as I am not settled yet, but I'll be posting some of my unforgettable dishes that I had.

I'm glad I'm back to blogging world! I hope to keep on posting!