Thai Beef Salad

We had a couple of lovely rib eye steaks in the freezer, and had them as an increasingly rare red meat treat this evening.  I cut the thawed meat into chunky cubes, removing as much visible fat as possible.  Marinade them in a mixture of grated garlic and fresh ginger, a chopped red chilli, the juice of half a lime and a tablespoon of coconut cream, along with half-a-teaspoon each of ground cumin, turmeric and coriander (use the rest in a vegetable stir-fry).  Let it sit for at least an hour, overnight if possible.  Thread onto skewers - if using wooden ones, make sure you soak them well in warm water.  Grill, either on a chargrill or under a hot overhead grill - if the barbie is on, even better.  Brush with the marinade and turn until done to your liking.  Drizzle over sweet chilli sauce, chopped roasted peanuts and chopped coriander leaf, and serve the remaining half of lime on the side.  Serve with a leafy green salad with cucumber and we also had a big dish of stir-fried peppers, tomatoes and sugarsnap peas in a green curry coconut sauce.

Aubergine and Beef Stacks with Lemon Yoghurt Dressing

I love a well-made moussaka, but it is NOT low-fat!  All that olive oil and (usually) fatty lamb, which of course gives flavour but pushes the fat content sky high.  Add to that, the rich eggy, yoghurty, cheesy custard topping, and it is a no-go zone.  So, this revamped and deconstructed version from the marvellous Australian Women's Weekly 21-Day Wonder Diet is a God-send.  It consists of a base of slices of sliced, baked aubergine, courgette and red pepper (very lightly spritzed with olive-oil spray and laid on baking parchment, then baked for around 20 minutes).  Meanwhile, dry-fry 250g of lean (5% fat) organic beef in a non-stick pan until browned, breaking up with a wooden spoon.  Add a very finely chopped onion and clove of garlic, a quarter teaspoon of ground cinnamon, a teaspoon of tomato puree, two peeled, chopped tomatoes, and 200mls of beef stock.  Cover and simmer gently until the beef is tender and the liquid has reduced.  You can add other veg too - I added some sweetcorn and chopped, roasted pepper.  Right at the end, add some chopped fresh basil.  Now, layer the roasted veg on a warm plate, top with the mince and a spoonful or two of 0% Greek youghuret mixed with lemon juice and sumac (if you have any), and add some salad leaves or watercress on the side.  We added a few baby new potatoes for carbs.  Delicious - all the flavours of moussaka, and virtually none of the fat.  Without the potatoes, this comes in at around 320 cals per portion, which can't be bad!  Just make sure you are mean with the oil when roasting the veg.

Low-Fat Chilli Con Carne

Chilli responds very well to the low-fat treatment - use the leanest mince you can get (mine was less than 5% Hereford Beef Mince from Waitrose) and use as little oil as possible in the initial saute.  By bulking it out with a red pepper and lots of kidney beans you can keep the calorie count to around 250 per person, 450 with 60g of rice each (dry weight).  So, simply saute an onion and couple of cloves of garlic in a teaspoon of oil in a non-stick pan for 5 minutes until beginning to soften and tuen golden.  Add a chopped red pepper and 200g of minced beef.  Stir until the meat is no longer pink.  Now add a teaspoon of chilli powder, or to taste, 3 teaspoons of Hungarian paprika (not the smoked Spanish stuff), 2 teaspoons ground cumin and a teaspoon of dried oregano.  Stir in 200mls of beef stock and half a tin of tomatoes, along with a good splodge of puree and a drained rinsed tin of kidney beans - small or large, depending on appetite.  Cover, and simmer for a good hour until tender, removing the lid for the last 10 minutes to reduce the liquid a bit.  Just before serving, throw in a square of dark chocolate - the higher the cocoa content the better, and allow to melt before stirring through.  This transforms things, mellowing and smoothing proceedings and adding a dark gloss to the dish.  Enjoy!

Italian Potroast Brisket

Or Stracotto di Manzo, to give it the full Italian glory.  This is never going to win prizes for looks, but it tastes wonderful, and leftovers make the best ragu for pasta the next day.  This takes the cheap and lean cut of rolled brisket and turns it into a melting, tender treat.  Simply brown a boned, rolled joint of brisket in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and a knob of butter - do this gently, on all sides, until well-coloured.  Add a large chopped onion, and 4 or 5 chopped celery stalks, along with a couple of sliced carrots and 3 cloves of garlic - I used a whole head of 'wet' garlic.  Add a jar of passata or a tin of good tomatoes, pureed in a blender, along with half a bottle of good Italian red wine - if you wouldn't drink it, please don't cook with it!  A couple of bayleaves and some sprigs of thyme, along with some salt and pepper, and there you have it.  Cover the casserole tightly and braise in a lowish oven (130C fan) for three to four hours.  Carve and serve with the sauce, which I like to blend beforehand.  For the ragu, simply shred or chop the meat and mix with remaining sauce, reheat and stir through chunky rigatoni pasta.  It also makes a great lasagne.

Potroast Beef Brisket

The cold weather continues, and so it is a good time to capitalise on long, slow cooking of cheaper cuts of meat, which provide flavour.  Last week it was pork belly, this week, rolled beef brisket.  Simply brown it well in an oven-proof casserole (I love my trusty Le Creuset), then add big chunks of winter veg - carrots, onions and swede for me, but you can add celeriac, celery, turnips - you can also do potatoes and pumpkin, but I would add them half way through so they don't break up.  A bay leaf or two, and some fresh thyme, then pour in some beef stock, red wine and tomato puree, not enough to cover the meat but enough to come a good half-way up the side of the dish.  Put a tight fitting lid on, using foil underneath if in doubt, bring to the boil on the hob, then put into the oven at around 140C for a minimum of 3 hours, longer if possible.  As brisket is so lean, you shouldn't need to skim the sauce.  Thicken with a little cornflour at the end if liked.  This has given us masses of leftovers, and I'll probably shred some of the meat with the sauce to dress some pasta for Hubby's supper tomorrow (I'm off out with the Laydees for an early Xmas do).  NB the leftovers made great Beefy Beany Broth, one of my most favourite soups

Beefy Bean and Tomato Soup

Earlier in the week, I looked at the lifecycle of a roasted beef topside and how to eke out the leftovers.  After a mammoth Cottage Pie, yesterday I made a huge pot of this soup.  It is a bit of a storecupboard standby as it uses tinned items too, but I think good tinned tomatoes and pulses are essential!  Anyway, I sweated a couple of good sized onions (use leeks instead if you have them) in a little olive oil, with a couple of diced carrots and couple of sticks of celery.  After a few minutes, I tipped in a tin of chopped tomatoes, a tin of borlotti beans and a tin of green lentils - the pulses having been drained and rinsed.   Then, a litre and a half of beef stock (go ahead, use good old Oxo for this) along with two potatoes, peeled and chopped fine, and a couple of handfuls of frozen peas.  Bring to the boil, then simmer gently for an hour, stirring occasionally.  The potatoes break up and thicken the soup deliciously.  A few minutes before serving, chop up your remaining beef, removing any fat, gristle etc, into small chunks and add to the soup.  You can also add some finely shredded cabbage if liked - which we do.  Allow to heat through thoroughly, add some fresh parsley and dish up in big steaming bowls.  With crusty bread and some cheese, this is my idea of heaven on a cold night.

The Lifecycle of a Joint of Roast Beef

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the lifecycle of a leg of roast lamb, and how, as just two people, we don't eschew a large joint of roasted meat.  This weekend, we roasted a lovely topside of Aberdeen Angus Beef, around 1.5 kilos in weight, which we had with the usual accompaniments for Sunday dinner.  Tonight, we have just demolished a proper Cottage Pie, made with half of the remaining beef, minced, sauteed carrots, onions, mushrooms and peas, with the last of the gravy.  I commented to Hubby that the dish was big enough to feed a hungry family of four, and his response was, "Well, it will feed a hungry family of two instead" and he proceeded to have two huge platefuls.  He truly has hollow legs.  The remaining third is being turned into another favourite, our Big Beefy Beany Broth, which I'll blog tomorrow.  This will feed us for supper and a couple of work lunches, with lots of crusty bread, some cheese and an apple.  All for an initial outlay of twelve quid.

Paprika Steak Kebabs

Yum! A rare treat of red meat - we are eating much less these days, but when we do, it is a treat indeed. These were cubes of 21-day aged beef rump, marinated in paprika, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil, then threaded onto wooden skewers with cherry toms and sizzled on a chargrill. Served with fat oven-baked chips and some local asparagus, it was very nice and a quick supper.

Retro Chilli con Carne [#227]

Alastair Hendy's Chilli is fairly similar to my own 'house' chilli, but he intrigued me by mixing the paprika powder with a tablespoon of vinegar. He also used LOTS of tomato puree as well as tinned tomatoes, which I decided not to do! The end result was a good, trad chilli con carne with an intriguing back note from the vinegar. I also added the grated mozzarella touch that he suggested, which made a nice change. Not sure whether I would forego my own recipe in the future, though. I used kosher minced beef steak, which I mistakenly ordered from Ocado, and the taste was similar to lamb - I wonder why?

Seared Beef with Mint and Mustard Dressing [#132]

We just got paid, so fillet steak it was! (Not the whole piece of fillet Nigel suggests in the recipe - too expensive and too much meat) The dressing was really the star here - a light, creamy mayonnaise flavoured with lemon, mustard and mint. As we had started the meal with tomato and fresh pesto bruschettas and will finish with pear and blueberry cake, we needed no potatoes with the steak, making do with a mound of green and runner beans, carrots and courgettes. Yummy with a bottle of Aussie Cabernet Sauvignon from the Margaret River (and classic mojitos to start). Hope you don't think we are lushes........

Vietnamese Beef Salad [#95]

Now, I have to confess I took some liberties with this! We wanted carbs, so instead of serving this cold as a salad, I quickly stir-fried the ingredients with some rice noodles and added the sauce, then topped it with sliced strips of lovely Aberdeen Angus fillet steak - well, we were paid a couple of days ago! The flavours were delicious - all hot, sour and sweet with bags of chilli, lime, nam pla, kaffir lime, mint and coriander. I'm sure Nigel would let me off and say it was within the spirit of the recipe :o)

Braised Oxtail with Mustard and Mash

With a face that only your mother could love, oxtail will never win any beauty contests, but it tastes and smells fantastic! Cooked Nigel's recipe with a whole bottle of claret last night. Will reheat it tonight with the mustard and some parsley added at the last minute, and will spoon it over billowing heaps of mash, with some Brussels Sprouts to add a green counterpoint of flavour and appearance. Such a chilly day, that I know this will warm the cockles. Got the organic oxtail from Feller's Butchers in Oxford's Covered Market - not cheap, but fantastic quality. PS: Eating notes - very rich and unctuous. We cooked it for a further one and a half hours today, and it probably needed it to fully tenderise the meat. The remains will make a nice Cottage Pie tomorrow. Served it tonight with a Hunter Valley Shiraz, whose rich, spicy notes matched the casserole perfectly

A Really Good Bolognese Sauce

I agree! It was a really good Bolognese sauce. Having made my own Bolognese, or ragu, for many years, I wondered if Nigel could really inject anything different into it, so I followed his recipe to the letter. It was very good, although not hugely authentic - no veal or pork mince with the beef, no chicken livers, perhaps too much tomato and the idea of adding two big chopped flat mushrooms would probably be anathema to the average bod from Bologna. However, it was deeply flavoured and rich and just the thing served with potato gnocchi. I particularly liked the bay leaves and nutmeg which I'd use again. Is it better than my own recipe? Different, perhaps!