Source it, cook it, eat it
Because if you do it three times a day, you might as well get it right!Archive for Beef
The Best Chilli Con Carne Recipe
I’ve seen a lot of recipes for chilli, some more elaborate and some very simple. Many are very good and most people to be fair have very different preferences. Here’s what I think is important for the presentation of chilli and my recipe. Chilli should…
- be cooked for a long time to ensure the meat is soft
- have a good consistency – not too runny
- have a strong but deep flavour, i.e. it should be hot, but not knock your socks off so you can taste the different flavours
- be a nice deep dark red colour
Ingredients (a la Robin)
- 500g beef mince (although I’m assured by my American chilli-quaffing friend that the best way is to use chuck steak, finely diced, which I’m going to try out in due course)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 medium onions
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 tin kidney beans
- 2 tins chopped tomatos
- 1 tsp corriander
- 2 tsp cumin (personal preference)
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp paprika (hot hungarian)
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 2-3 tbsp i.e. long squirts of tomato puree
- Salt n pepper
- 2 hot chillis or 1 tbsp chilli flakes
- 1 glass of red wine
- Shake of worcestorshire sauce
- Seasoning
To cook it:
- Get the pan hot and keep it hot, while frying the beef mince in the olive oil. The aim is to brown it, but no need to go overboard and it’ll probably just cook as there will be a lot fat coming off the meat
- Use a slotted spoon to remove the meat and add the onioins. Once these are starting to brown, turn the heat down to medium and start adding the garlic and spices. Cook for a few minutes, then add the meat back in
- Add the glass of wine and allow it to absorb/reduce into the meat for a few minutes, before adding the worcestorshire sauce and the tomato puree. Stir that in, then add the tins of tomato
- Season and then leave to cook for a few hours, checking it frequently. It should be bubbling gently. Use the lid for the first hour unless it’s going mental, then lid-off for an hour. The longer you can cook it the better really
- Add the kidney beans shortly before serving (like 15 mins before) Serve with rice or crusty bread, a baked potato, mash or whatever you like. It’s another great dish to freeze and use at your convenience
Recipe: Beef goulash
Here’s a nice beef caserole dish I used this evening which ended up in a very decent sauce and very tender meat. It’s exceedingly easy and leaves very little room for mucking up. Great for begginners.
Ingredients (for 2 with leftovers):
- 40g butter
- 400g beef – braising steak diced
- 2 onions, one finely diced, one finely chopped
- 2 large carrots, sliced into thin discs
- 2 tablespoons good paprika
- 1 tablespoon plain flour
- 1 pint + beef stock
- 1 decent glug of red wine
- generous seasoning of salt and pepper
To cook it:
- Brown the meat in the butter – if you can’t get it hot enough to brown beyond lightly searing the meat, it’s not a problem
- Spoon out the meat with a slotted spoon, which should hopefully leave a fair bit of meat juice and butter, if not, or to be on the safe side, add some more butter
- Fry the onions and carrots in the butter for 5-7 mins, then add the paprika and flour
- Now add some of the stock and stir in thoroughly – keep adding stock until you have a thick-ish sauce, then add the gluggage of wine
- Season and bung in the oven for a few hours on a low heat of 150 degrees or gas mk 2. Serve with rice
Learning: What is Braising?
It’s been a while since my last post because things have been busy and I’ve not been cooking as much; I’ve even missed Saturday Kitchen for two weeks running…thank goodness for iPlayer 
.On the plus side, it does mean I’ve been more cooked-fo than have-been-cooking.
Last weekend I got some braising steak (or Chuck steak) from Smithfield and took it home to my parents and Mum turned it into a great bit of beef in beer, a Delia Smith classic.
One of my reasons for writing this blog was to learn more about cooking and do a bit of research on things to better understand how to improve my results, so when I write posts about things I’m learning from now on, I’m going to prefix them with ‘Learning:’ so I can search them. Maybe it’ll be useful for visitors too.
So, I didn’t really know what braising was, though I have sort-of done it before in various dishes. Indeed, I’ve done beef in beer before, but it’s never been as good as when good old Mum does it. So, why?
Wikipedia says braising is:
a combination cooking method using both moist and dry heat; typically the food is first seared at a high temperature and then finished in a covered pot with a variable amount of liquid, resulting in a particular flavour.
Let’s ignore the word particular… which isn’t particularly helpful, to be absolutely fair to the author. Ultimately the best way to describe the taste, is by pointing to the role fat plays in the taste of meat. A few examples (and I realise I’m stating the bleeding obvious): many people like rib-eye steak because of the marbly fat which makes the steak very sweet; and bacon relies heavily on the fat to deliver the flavour. By browning the meat and fat before cooking, the fat begins to impact the flavour of the meat and the browned-flavour of the meat too, obviously. I noticed this with lancashire hot-pot; unless you’re brave enough to really brown the meat mahogany, the flavour isn’t nearly as good.
So, the browning ’sets the agenda’ for the deep flavour of the meat and the sauce, while the slow-cooking in some liquid makes the meat as soft and tender as mash. That’s why stews use more faty meats than other dishes.
By not covering the dish entirely, you can make some of the meat crisp and introduce a mix of textures, which adds to the dish. You can then serve the dish with al-dente veg to accentuate the crunch factor and make the dish a ‘whole’ one.
So that’s me making sense of braising; have I got that right, on-the-whole? Comments welcome.
