Category Archives: Beef

Food Bloggers Conference & Red, Red, Red Beef

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I spent last Saturday at New Zealand’s first annual food bloggers conference. It was such a great day! It was nice to meet lots of the other food bloggers, and come away with heaps of new ideas and enthusiasm. Other bloggers have done great write-ups (see accounts from Pease Pudding, At Down Under, Alessandra Zecchini, Easy Food Hacks and Toast.

Thanks to Alli of Pease Pudding for putting the day together, and also to the sponsors:

Cook the Books – Kohu Road -  Gü - Teza - I Love Pies - Mad Millie – Pacific Harvest - Whittakers - Kokako - Gravity - Bell Tea - Annies - Photo & Video International - Coopers Creek - Loaf - Cuisine - Hubbards - New Holland Publisher

The conference got me thinking about why I started my blog in the first place. There were a variety of reasons – including to meet new people (after Saturday, tick!), to try new things in the kitchen (tick), and to have a way of sharing favourite recipes (well, obviously, tick). I set out with a plan to focus on tasty, healthy, not-prohibitively-expensive, every day food. Because while I love cooking fancy food and putting dinner party menus together, I take great pleasure in rustling up simple but delicious food on weeknights. I also find that a lot of my friends want to cook this kind of food, but don’t have a lot of recipes to start with.

I’ve posted a few of these kind of recipes on the blog, but not as many as I’d like. The thing is, baking and sweet treats are a lot easier to photograph and blog about! When I’m cooking on a weeknight, we’re hungry and tired from work, and just want to eat, rather than set up a photo shoot while our dinner gets cold! Plus, the natural light’s dim by then, and photographing gets a bit trickier. You get the… picture.

But I’m setting these concerns aside. I’m going to try and focus back on these weeknight meal recipes, and so to start as I mean to go on, here is what we had for dinner tonight! It has red meat, red wine, red curry paste, and red lentils. And tomato paste. Which is also red. Yeah.

Red, Red, Red Beef

600g beef (I used rump steak; chuck or blade would also be good)
cooking oil spray
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
1 large carrot, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 courgette, sliced
1 cup red wine
2 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp red curry paste
1 Tbsp tomato paste
2 cups beef stock
1 Tbsp dried rosemary, or a couple of sprigs fresh
1/2 cup red lentils*

*You got me here, I actually meant to use red lentils, but discovered we had run out. Turns out brown lentils work too.

Preheat oven to 170º(C). If you’ve got a casserole dish that works on both stove top and in the oven, use that; if not, use a large frypan. Spray chosen vessel with cooking spray, and place over medium-high heat. Brown beef in two batches, and set aside.

Spray the pan with a little more oil, turn the heat down a little, and cook the onion, garlic, carrot, celery and courgette until softened. Add the red wine and simmer until the liquid reduces – by about a half. Then stir in the flour, curry paste and tomato paste until smooth. Add the beef stock and rosemary, and bring to the boil.

If you’re using a frypan, now is the time to transfer the mixture to an oven-proof casserole dish. Tip: I put my casserole dish in the oven while it preheats, so that you’re not putting your nice hot beef casserole into a cold dish and then waiting for it to heat up.

Place the casserole in the preheated oven and cook for an hour. Then add the lentils, cover again and cook for a further 30 minutes, until the lentils are tender. Season to taste and serve. I had mine plain but would be yummy with mashed potatoes or couscous, and some steamed greens.

Burritos!

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I looooove Mexican food. I still haven’t been to La Boca Loca in Miramar, but everyone tells me I should. I will obey this ‘everyone’ as soon as I can. In the meantime, there’s cooking Mexican food at home to tide me over. And next week I’m going to a Mexican cooking class at Social Cooking (which will be my first visit there, anyone else been yet?).

I’m worried my future experiences at La Boca Loca and Social Cooking will result in learning that all my Mexican cooking thus far is a dismal Speedy Gonzalez Americanized Tex Mexing of authentic Mexican food. I’m worried because I really like my fudged home Mexican cooking. But one can’t be close minded about these things. I might find a whole new world of authentic Mexican cooking that is even better. I’ll keep y’all posted.

We occasionally have these burritos at home. Most people probably do. I soften onions and garlic, and add prime beef mince, and get that cooking with cumin, chilli (fresh, powder, flakes or minced from a jar, depending how energetic I feel), oregano, paprika, tomato paste, a can of kidney beans, and whatever else seems like a good idea at the time. While that cooks, I prepare all the veges and fillings – this day we had avocado, baby spinach, capsicum, cucumber, spring onions. Always essential is grated cheese (I like reduced-fat stuff, Bega do a good ready-grated one) and lots of coriander. And I make my tomato salsa (recipe below).

Then when the mince is cooked Mr J. and I get our tortillas ready. He insists on microwaving them to separate them nicely. I respond that that’s a myth and you just need to know how to do it right. I proceed with trying to split them myself. I ruin two tortillas by tearing them to shreds before Mr J. takes the pile off me and microwaves it. The remaining tortillas are saved and Mr J. smugly puts one or two on my plate. We assemble our dinners at the table, debating about how full to fill tortillas, and how best to fold them up.

This happens every time we have burritos. It’s the rituals that keep us strong.

Fresh Tomato Salsa
Enough for two people with plenty left over for bruschetta lunch the next day. 

2 tomatoes, or a bunch of cherry tomatoes, or a combination
½ red onion
½ red capsicum
a few peppadew peppers, if you like them
good handful of fresh coriander and mint
1 lime, zest and juice (or lemon works, too)
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp sugar
splash of hot chilli sauce (optional)
salt and pepper, to taste

Chop the tomatoes, red onion, capsicum, peppadews and herbs, as coarsely or as finely as you like. I like mine at a medium chop – fine enough that you can pick up a spoonful or forkful of salsa and not just get a lonely chunk of tomato, but not so tiny that it’s like gazpacho to eat.

Then just toss everything together in a bowl and season to taste. You can use up lots of fridge lurkers in salsa too – I had the last 2-3 Tbsp of a tin of tomatoes that ended up in there. You might also like to add garlic, or even finely grated ginger.  The salsa is good with burritos, on bruschetta, as a dip, in salads, or alongside bbq’d fish or chicken.

Beef Empanada Crumble & Pork and Almond Meatballs

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I wanted a couple of meat tapas dishes as the main attraction at my spanish tapas night. These pork and almond meatballs were A. Mazing. You should definitely try them. As for the planned beef empanadas… well, that dough wasn’t my friend. The details are below, but long story short, they … evolved… into a savoury crumble. Actually, it was pretty good. And I was pleased with my resourceful cooking. Who knows, maybe I’ll make this savoury crumble again one day, this time intentionally.

Beef Empanadas, or in my case, Beef Empanada Crumble

Dough:
1 cup plain flour
½ cup polenta (coarse or instant)
1 Tbsp sugar
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ cup rice bran oil
a third to a half cup cold water or dry white wine

I made this dough recipe up from several sources – one of my guests was dairy and soy free, so couldn’t use any butter. And I don’t do deep frying. So I wanted something I could bake. I was careful to keep quantities in the same proportions of other recipes, but as you’ll see, the Empanada Dough God wasn’t smiling on me.

Blend the flour, polenta, sugar, baking powder and salt in a food processor. Add oil and a little of the water/wine gradually until the mixture becomes crumbly. Take off the food processor and knead with extra water/wine if needed, until the dough comes together. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least an hour before using.

I got this far. I must admit I wasn’t entirely convinced it had ‘come together’, although it did feel ok. I put it in the fridge. After an hour, took it from the fridge. I dusted the bench with a little polenta. I turned the dough onto said bench. It was in no state to be rolled out. The plan had been to roll it out to 3mm thick, and cut out 8-10 circles, brush egg glaze around the edge of each circle, place a bit of filling in the centre (recipe below), and fold the circle in half, crimping the edges with a fork, brush the circle with egg glaze, and bake for about an hour.

But that dough wasn’t going anywhere. So I pressed it into a greased brownie pan. Not sure why, really. I baked that at about 175° for about 20 minutes I think, until it looked appropriately firm. Meanwhile, I made the delicious filling.

Beef & Spinach Filling: adapted from this Lauraine Jacobs recipe

150g beef mince
¼ a small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
½ tsp allspice
½ tsp grated fresh nutmeg
½ tomato, chopped
1½ Tbsp tomato paste
¼ cup dry sherry
½ long red chilli, chopped
300g packet frozen spinach portions, microwaved (3 mins on high) and chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Heat a large frying pan and cook the mince for about ten minutes, until crumbly and lightly browned. Add the onion, garlic and spices, and cook a little longer until the onion softens. Add tomato, tomato paste, sherry and chilli and cook over a high heat until the juices start to evaporate, and the mince is cooked through. Stir in the spinach and adjust the seasoning. I served the hot beef mixture with the still-hot polenta dough crumbled on top. The crumble had a great polenta taste and ‘grit’ to it – the dish was pretty tasty despite its deconstructed state.

Pork & Almond Meatballs

These were so good. The meatball recipe was adapted from a Taste magazine recipe I found here, and the dipping sauce is a variation on my basic pasta sauce.

Meatballs
150g pork mince
½ Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
finely grated zest of ½ a lemon
½ Tbsp chopped Italian parsley
15g finely chopped blanched almonds
1 small egg, lightly beaten
¼ tsp salt

Mix the mince, vinegar, garlic, lemon zest, parsley and almonds together. Add the eggs and salt. With damp hands, roll into small meatballs (canapé or cocktail size – edible in one bite). Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour, bringing back to room temperature before baking at 200°, for about 15 minutes, or until cooked through.

Tomato Sauce
1 tsp olive oil
½ a small onion, very finely chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
¼ tsp smoked paprika
1 Tbsp tomato paste
4-5 fresh tomatoes, chopped (or use half a tin)
¼ tsp dried oregano
½ Tbsp red wine vinegar

Heat the oil in a frypan over medium heat. Add onion and cook until softened, then add garlic and paprika. Stir in tomato paste and cook for a minute or so, then add tomatoes and oregano. Simmer gently for 10 minutes or so, then add the vinegar and adjust seasoning to taste.

Serve the meatballs with cocktail sticks and sauce on the side.

On top of spaghetti, all covered in cheese

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Who doesn’t love spaghetti and meatballs?

I realise I’m getting into the habit of blogging about classics that seem to have lost their appeal along the way. Meatballs are a prime (mince) example. Beef mince, pasta and a good tomato pasta sauce – what’s not to like? It seems unfair that lasagne should claim all the status points in this category. So I’m standing up and fighting for meatballs. Kia Kaha!

This meatball recipe has been around our family for ages – I’m pretty sure I used to eat it when my brother and I were at primary school. I like baked meatballs better than fried, and these ones have a really nice flavour. The recipe title has always been ’spicy meatballs’, but they’re really not spicy, so I’ve taken the liberty of renaming them.

My tomato pasta sauce recipe is very back to basics; I sometimes add extra things depending on what’s in the fridge and what I’m using the sauce for, but it’s a good base recipe. Put together, you have simple, good food. 


Bring Back Meatballs & Basic Pasta Sauce
Serves 2

250g beef mince
1 onion, very finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp mustard powder
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
1 egg
chopped fresh Italian parsley
about 200g spaghetti (I used wholemeal, in case you were wondering about the colour)
½ Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp tomato paste
tomatoes*
2 Tbsp chopped fresh herbs (e.g. basil, italian parsley, oregano)
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp minced chilli
1 tsp brown sugar
parmesan and fresh herbs, to serve

*I used a tin of chopped tomatoes, plus 4-5 fresh ones (red gold!). In times of plenty, you could use all fresh tomatoes (imagine that!), or all tinned. Whatever you fancy and have on hand.

Preheat oven to 200(c). Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Combine the mince, half the onion, the first clove garlic, the ginger, mustard powder, breadcrumbs, egg and parsley, and mix until all ingredients are well combined. Shape into golf-ball sized meatballs. Place on the lined tray and bake for about 15 minutes or until cooked through.

While they bake, cook the spaghetti in salted boiling water, according to packet directions, and prepare the pasta sauce:

Heat olive oil in a frypan over medium heat. Add the garlic and remaining onion, and cook until softened (about 5 minutes). Stir in tomato paste and cook for 1-2 minutes, then add tomatoes, herbs, salt, chilli and brown sugar. Let that simmer away gently for 10-15 minutes, while the meatballs finish cooking. Check seasonings and adjust with salt, pepper and/or brown sugar.

 To serve, place the spaghetti on plates, then top with ½ the sauce (as in, 1/4 of the sauce on each plate), then add the meatballs, then the remaining sauce. Top with shaved or grated parmesan, and some extra fresh herbs.

The ultimate verdict on whether this dish is good or not:

Pumpkin & Pastrami Tartlets

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These little filo tart cases are really good for cocktail parties, or you can use them as a dinner party first course. They are waaay healthier than shortcrust or flaky pastry, too. I used a warming pumpkin and pastrami filling, but you can fill them with whatever you want!

Pumpkin & Pastrami Tartlets (makes 24)

3 sheets filo pastry
cooking oil spray
300g pumpkin, diced
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp chilli powder
salt and pepper, to taste
6 slices pastrami, cut into quarters
approx 1/2 cup light sour cream

Preheat the oven to 180 (c). Spray 2x 12-hole mini-muffin tins lightly.

Place the first filo sheet on a clean, dry surface and spray lightly with oil. Place the second sheet on top, and spray again. Place the third sheet on top. Mark a grid pattern and cut the stack into 24 squares, each 6cmx6cm (so eight squares across the long side and three across the short side).

Carefully place each little square into the muffin holes and lightly spray the cases again. Bake for about 5 minutes, until golden. Remove from the oven and let them cool in the tin until you’re ready to fill them. You can do this in advance.

Meanwhile, microwave the pumpkin for about 3 minutes, or until tender. Mash with a fork and mix in the nutmeg and chilli powder, and season to taste. Spoon a little of this mixture into each tartlet case, with a little piece of pastrami. Top with a small teaspoonful of sour cream. Garnish with fresh herb sprigs if you have some handy.