Beef Burgundy

I first had a version of this dish at McGuire's Irish Pub (beware of the bathroom signs, read carefully!) in Destin, Florida while I was visiting a friend earlier this year. It was amazing...I'm pretty sure I got food drunk off of this dish instead of regular drunk off of the beers I was drinking. I was hell bent on recreating this when I got home and succeeded the first time about a month after my trip but it definitely needed some tweaking and finesse. This time I nailed it. You can easily make this in a dutch oven but I did a lot of the cooking head of time and put everything in a crock pot on low the morning of the day I wanted to serve it. Don't get hung up with what type of wine to use, I had a Merlot on hand so I used that, you could easily use a Cabernet Sauvignon or a Pinot Noir.


Ingredients
1-1/2 pounds of stew meat
1 package of bacon, sliced in 1 inch sections
1 pound of sliced mushrooms
1 yellow onion, rough chopped
8 oz of beef broth
8 oz of red wine
2 tbsp tomato paste
3 tsp dried thyme
2 tbsp flour

Directions
This first portion can be done up to a day ahead of time and placed in the refrigerator. In a large skillet, cook bacon pieces until crispy. Remove from pan and let drain on paper towels. Drain oil from pan. Place pan back over medium high heat, add meat and brown on all sides. Remove from pan. Add onions and mushrooms, cook until onions are golden brown and mushrooms have released their juices, about 12 minutes. Remove from pan and mix with beef and bacon.

In crock pot, whisk beef broth, wine, tomato paste and thyme together. Add in beef, bacon, onions and mushrooms to broth mixture. Cover and cook on low heat for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-6 hours.

Once cooking cycle is complete, remove all beef, bacon and vegetables from the crock pot. Pour remaining sauce in a sauce pan and heat over medium high heat. Let reduce by half. Mix flour with 4 tbsp of sauce and pour back into sauce pan, continue to cook until thickened slightly.

Prior to serving, bake a piece of puff pastry large enough to cover serving dish(es) at 400 degrees until golden brown. Serve beef with sauce in casserole dish or individual ramekins and top with puff pastry. (I cooked the pasty over top the casserole but the dish was too big to support the pasty...that explains the concave crust in the picture above. It still tastes delicious though!)

Meatballs Stroganoff

I didn't even know what stroganoff was until I was about 21 and the first taste I had was of the Hamburger Helper variety. I was hell bent on having a homemade version of it. I had some frozen meatballs that I substituted from the normal ground beef (HH style) or sliced beef strips from original recipes.

Ingredients

10 meatballs
10 oz of sour cream
1 medium yellow onion
2 tbsp onion powder
2 tsp olive oil
1lb egg noodles
salt
pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large and deep skillet, heat 1 tsp olive oil over medium high heat. Brown meatballs on all sides. While meatballs are browning, bring a pot of water to a boil. Transfer meatballs to an oven safe pan and finish cooking in oven, about 15 minutes. Add egg noodles to boil water, cook until tender about seven minutes. Drain thoroughly and do not rinse. Heat remaining tsp of oil in pan and add onion. Cook until golden and translucent, about 7-10 minutes. Turn heat to low, add sour cream and onion powder. Stir frequently to keep cream from burning.

Add meatballs and coat with sauce. Serve meatballs and sauce over egg noodles.

Beef and Noodles

When it comes to Asian food, I love sushi. The husband on the other hand does not like any form of fish or seafood and much prefers beef and chicken Chinese dishes. (It makes me so sad that he doesn't like fish but he does at least try everything once.) We've been trying to stop eating out or getting take out recently so I wanted to give the husband a homemade version of the Chinese food he loves so much. We both really liked this dish and it was a quick and easy meal to make, it would be great for a weekday meal.



Ingredients

1 lb of beef, cut into thin strips (London Broil would be great for this dish)
1 package of Udon noodles
1 small bell pepper, sliced
1/4 lb of snow peas or broccoli
Marinade
1tsp of garlic, minced
1 tsp of sesame oil
3 tsp of soy sauce
1tsp of Worcestershire sauce
salt
pepper
Sauce
4tsp of soy sauce
2 tsp of sesame oil
1 tsp of chili powder

Directions

Combined marinade ingredients in a 9 x9 dish. Add beef slices, cover and refrigerator for at least 4 hours, best if over night.



Heat a large skillet or wok over medium high heat, add beef to hot skillet. Do not add the marinade. Cook until no longer pink, about 7-9 minutes. Remove beef and keep warm. Add peppers, snow peas and/or broccoli to hot pan, cook until tender. While vegetables are cooking bring a pot of water to a boil. Add noodles. The noodles will cook in about 5-7 minutes. Drain, do not rinse. Once vegetables are tender, add all ingredients for sauce. Add beef and noodles and mix until coated with sauce.

Serve immediately.

Smokey Steak and Mushroom Gouda Risotto

I am absolutely infatuated with Gouda cheese recently. I just realized how versatile it is. Inspired by the recent Mushroom and Gouda soup I made, I adapted the recipe for my and Tim’s favorite side dish…risotto. Tim came up with the rub for the steaks and I have to say…it was fabulous! Not overpowering…just the right amount of seasoning.

Smokey Steak

Ingredients

2 – 1 inch strip steaks

2 tbsp McCormick’s Montreal Seasoning

2 tsp chili powder

Directions

Heat grill to medium high heat. While grill is heating, season both sides of steaks with seasoning and chili powder. Place steaks on hot grill and do not move. After about 7 minutes, turn each steak 90 degrees. (This will make those beautiful grill marks.) Cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. Flip steaks over and repeat for other side. Use a meat thermometer to make sure the inside is at least 160°F (medium).

Mushroom Gouda Risotto

Ingredients

2 cups risotto

32 oz. chicken broth

3/4 cup of white wine (use whatever you drink)

5 oz. smoked gouda, shredded

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 small yellow onion, diced

3 gloves, minced

16 oz. sliced baby portobello mushrooms

Directions

Place a large stock pot or dutch oven over medium high heat. Add olive oil and onion to pot, cook onion 5-7 minutes or just until onion turns golden brown. Add garlic and mushrooms and stir to coat with oil. Cook the mushrooms until they release most of their moisture, about 7-10 minutes. Add risotto and toast, 3-5 minutes. Pour the wine in; this will help deglaze the pan, make sure you scrape up any bits that are stuck to the bottom. Continue to stir the risotto. Once most of the wine is absorbed, add 2/3 cup to 1 cup of broth. Reduce heat to medium. Continue to stir the risotto, approximately every 2 minutes. Once the broth is absorbed (usually about 5-7 minutes), add another 2/3 cup. Repeat until all of the broth is used and the risotto is creamy and tender. (About 25-30 minutes.) Slowly stir in the gouda. (Stir is figure 8′s, it will prevent the cheese from balling up.) Once all of the cheese is incorporated add salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately.

(Pardon the dark picture, it was taken with the hubby’s cell phone.)

Home Style Pot Roast

Pot roast as a whole is very easy to make, you can customize it as much as you want. I was going to make some bacon with this but just didn’t feel like cutting up the bacon, frying it and dealing with the unused portion of the package…maybe when I’m a little more motivated I’ll revisit the bacon idea. For now, here is my home style pot roast recipe (just like mom made it, had she been a decent cook). (I kid!! Well sorta.)

Ingredients

1 – 2lb beef roast (I prefer top round)

2 – 14 oz. cans of beef broth or stock

2lbs Yukon Gold Potatoes or Red Skinned Golden Potatoes, cut into quarters

1lb baby carrots

1 large yellow onion, sliced

2 envelopes of Lipton Onion Soup Mix

Salt

Pepper

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Directions

In a large stock pot or dutch oven, add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pot (about 2 tbsp). Add the onions and place the pot over medium high heat. Caramelize the onions (about ten minutes).

Meanwhile, liberally season the roast with salt and pepper. Once the onions have begun to caramelized add the roast to the pot, seasoned side down. Be sure to season the other side. Brown the roast on both sides (about 5-7 minutes per side).

Once the roast is browned add the beef broth and soup mix, be sure to stir well to incorporate the ingredients. Then add the potatoes.

Bring the pot to a vigorous boil and then add the carrots.

Reduce the heat to low to medium low, cover the pot and let simmer for an hour to an hour and a half. Check the internal temperature of the roast with a meat thermometer, you’re shooting for 145-160°F. Remove roast and veggies and let rest on a large platter for 10 minutes before slicing.

This is optional but I love a thick pan gravy, especially when I have warm crusty bread to soak it up with.

While the meat is resting, bring the liquid in the pot to a boil, skim off any fat that has foamed to the top. While the liquid is boiling, mix 4 tbsp cornstarch or flour with 2 tbsp warm water. After about ten minute the liquid in the pot should reduce. Add the cornstarch mixture to the liquid in the pot. Stir and continue to heat for an additional 2 minutes. The gravy will thicken slightly. If you’d like a thicker gravy, repeat the cornstarch and water mixture until you’ve achieved your desired consistency. Pour over meat and veggies.