Beef Stew v1.0

I’ve made lots of beef stew, and it’s always been ok. This last batch was pretty good and I’m going to use it as a basis for improvement:

Ingredients

• 1.5lbs potatoes
• 3 cups cabbage
• 1 cup baby carrots
• 1kg beef (used sirloin tip roast)
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 med cooking onions
• 300g (1 package pre-sliced) white mushrooms
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 tsp thyme
• 2 tsp parsley
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 dashes worcester sauce.
• 1.5 tbsp of tomato paste
• 2 cups beef stock

Directions:

1. Trimmed the beef of excess fat and cut up beef into cubes. Sprinkled with salt, pepper, flour. Let sit briefly.
2. Put oil and meat into pan. Seared meat, leaving It sit without stirring to get some browning.
3. Stirred meat and added garlic and onions. Sautéed.
4. Transferred contents to a crockpot.
5. Added all vegetables to crockpot, but reserved ½ of the mushrooms for later.
6. Added 1.5 tbsp of tomato paste to crockpot.
7. Deglazed pan with 2/3cup of red wine vinegar. Transferred into crockpot.
8. Added beef stock and extra water to the crockpot to get the liquid level right.
9. Cooked for 5+ hours on crock-pot high. Didn’t need nearly this long, but doesn’t hurt.
10. In the last 45 mintutes to 1hr, added the remaining mushrooms, more vinegar, salt, pepper to taste.

It was very good. Next Time:

Skip the potates

Add rutabagas?

Use chicken or veal stock instead of beef – a little too rich.

Consider some black olives – is that too weird?

Nihari Masala Cook Off

Ok, so today is like superbowl-Sunday for Nihari.

The last batch of Nihari I made was made from a mix. I’m pretty sure it was Laziza brand. I couldn’t find them at the store this time, so I tried two different brands:  National, and Shan.

Other than ginger paste (National says to use at the beginning, Shan doesn’t use at all) the procedure is the same. The spices in each mix are a little different (and in a different order).

I didn’t use all the Shan nihari masala, instead I held some back and substituted garam masala (as suggested by luckyfatima in a comment on my first nihari).

For meat, I used regular stewing beef (who knows what the cut was) and I also threw in two beef side-ribs – the masalas suggested beef shin and beef bones, but side ribs was the closest I could get (I didn’t try very hard).

Other than the above, I followed the instructions exactly.  Here are the two batches cooking away – this is after all the prep/browning, etc…, but before adding water and letting simmer for 5+ hours.

The results?

The National brand nihari mix I found to be richer than the Shan. But National has MSG, so I’ll probably go with Shan in the future. There really wasn’t a big difference. My wife found the Shan spicier (i.e., hot) but I didn’t notice much difference.

Next time, I’ll remember to trim the meat a bit better (way too much fat that I had to scoop out). Other than that, a little lime juice would be nice.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with the mixes. I do think my last nihari made from scratch was better than the mix, but it was also A LOT more work and I’m usually not up for it.

Beef Nihari

So, I’ve made and refined my nihari recipe. Last two versions were made with beef. It’s way better with beef than it is with chicken. Here’s the recipe I last used:

Ingredient Group #1:

• Some Beef. Any kind. Some fat required. Approx 1-2lbs?
• 2 Bay Leaves
• Cinnamon bark. Approx 5″ worth.
• 1 tbsp. of Garam Masala Powder
• 3 tsp. Red Chilli Powder
• ½ tsp. Turmeric Powder
• 5 cloves garlic, diced and turned into paste with salt.
• 1″ of ginger, turned into paste.
• 3/4 cup Plain Yogurt (one single-serve container)
• Lots of oil and butter (I didn’t bother to clarify it).
• 1/4 cup Japanese sushi rice vinegar (I know – trust me!)

Ingredient Group #2:

• 2 pinches of Nutmeg
• 2 Small green Cardamom pods, 1 black cardamom pod
• 2 tbsp. of Fennel Seeds
• 2 tsp black salt powder.

Other:

• 2 tbsp. of All-Purpose Flour
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced.

Instructions:

1. Add all of ingredient group #1 into a pan. Fry until meat is browned, and yogurt oil has started to separate. Steal some sliced onions and fry them in here as well.
2. Add all of ingredient group #2 into pan. Fry a bit. Add enough water to cover meat.
3. Simmer for 1-3 hours on low heat until the meat is tender.
4. Meanwhile: Fry the onions slowly in oil and butter until crispy and browned. Set aside.
5. Once the meat is cooked and tender, uncover and heat until sauce has thickened some.
6. Thicken with flour.
7. Throw fried onions in on top.
8. Eat!

I know using the rice vinegar is weird, but it makes it taste great. It adds a little sweetness, but more importantly adds a little vinegar. It’s great.

Grandma’s Antipasto Recipe

My Grandmother has always made delicious antipasto. This is kind of antipasto you see in jars, made of mixed vegetables and olives. You generally eat it on bread or crackers. Really terriffic.

Everyone loves her antipasto, but nobody knows how to make it. So, for Christmas I asked her to teach me. We just finished making it (approx 40 liters of the stuff). Turns out that it’s very easy to make.

Basically, the quantities listed here are guidelines. You can adjust to add more or less of what you like. The goal is to achieve a balance. All the veggies should be cut up so they are small and manageable (think small enough to go on a cracker). My grandma uses a serrator to cut the carrots, to get that corrugated pattern.

Approx:

• 7 cups fresh string beans, chopped.
• 7 cups diced onions, chopped.
• 7 cups carrot, diced a corrugated-serrator (you know, do create the wavey pattern).
• 7 cups celery, chopped. Use all of it, including the little root-bits.
• 1 head of cauliflower, chopped.
• 4 cups red peppers, diced.
• 2 cups green peppers, diced.
• 2 cups dill pickels, diced.

And:

• 5 x 10oz cans of sliced mushrooms in water.
• 2 jars sliced pitted, black kamamata olives.
• 2 jars pitted, whole green olives with pimentos.
• 5 cans tuna – can in oil or water. In oil will taste best. We used 3 cans with oil, and 2 with water (I think).
• 1 large/giant tin of anchovies. I think it was a 13oz can.
• 1 2lb bag of frozen peas.
• 3 jars of small pickled pearl onions (e.g., cocktail onions – make sure they are in salt with no sugar added).
• 4 tins of tomato paste.
• 1 hand-full of salt.
• 1 hand-full of pepper.
• 1 L of Corn Oil
• 1 L of white vinegar

Directions:

1. Clean and peel (where applicable) all the veggies the night before so they can dry.
2. Add oil, salt, pepper, and vinegar into a gigantic pot. Bring to a boil.
3. Add carrots. Let the boil recover, then boil for a few minutes.
4. Add celery and beans. Cover and let boil for a few minutes.
5. Add red peppers, green peppers. Cover and let boil for a few minutes.
6. Add cauliflower. Let boil a very short time.
7. Add the Tuna and Anchovy — add the liquid (water or oil) that they were packed in as well.
8. Add everything else: pearl onions, mushrooms, olives, tomato paste. At this stage you need to monitor the amount of liquid in the pot. The liquid level should be the same as the solids level. If not, then add some of the liquid that came with the olives or onions.
9. Cook for 1/2 hour, stirring constantly. Check to see if more salt or pepper is required.

The antipasto is now ready for bottling. Keep the mixture cooking on a low heat while you bottle. The antipasto has to go into the bottles hot, and then should be sealed up right away.

Wrap all the bottles up and keep them warm. As they cool they’ll seal (hopefully!).

Delicious!

Indian Chili Chicken

• Chicken whole (cleaned and cut into pieces) 1 Kg – [I used dark meat]
• Green chilli 10 – [I skipped it]
• Red chilli powder 1/2 tsp – [I used twice as much]
• White pepper powder 1/4 tsp
• Black pepper powder 1/4 tsp
• Yogurt (curd) 1/2 cup – [I skipped it]
• Turmeric Powder 1/4 tsp.
• Soya sauce 2 tbsp.
• Cornflour 2 tbsp – [I used "instant" corn masa mix, it was handy]
• Ginger 1/2 inch
• Garlic 4 cloves – [I used more]
• Onion 1
• Tomato 1
• Salt to taste
• Vegetable oil as required
• Green chilli and green coriander leaves for decoration – [I skipped both of these]

Instructions:

1. Cut onion, tomato into small pieces. Add ginger, garlic and make paste. [I used the blender]
2. Cut thin slices of green chilli. [skipped]
3. Mix red chilli powder, salt, turmeric powder, yogurt, 1 tbsp. soya sauce, 1 tbsp cornflour and 2 tbsp oil. Marinate the chicken with this mixture for half an hour. [skipped yogurt]
4. Then apply onion-tomato paste to the chicken and again marinate for half an hour.
5. Heat oil in a pan. Add green chillis, white pepper powder and black pepper powder and fry for 30 secs.
6. Add chicken marinade and fry until half cooked. Stir ocassionally.
7. Mix rest of the cornflour and soya sauce in water and add to the chicken. Add little water (about 2-3 cups) to make thick gravy and bring it to boil.
8. Cover and cook for 8-10 mins on low flame. keep a constant watch.

This turned out really well. The chicken I used was dark meat, organic, free-range and had a very, very strong poultry flavour which was both good and bad. I’d use beef next time. Quite happy with it, all it all.

Recipe came from: http://www.recipedelights.com/recipes/nonvegdishes/chillichicken.htm

Chef John’s Chicken D’Arduini

I made a variation of this recipe yesterday. Really good, and not a lot of work:

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken, quartered (original recipe says 8 chicken thighs (bone-in, no skin), and 8 chicken legs 8
• 6 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup chopped Italian parsley (I skipped this)
• 1/4 cup chopped basil
• 1 tbl dried rosemary (I used a little more)
• 1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes (I used a lot more)
• 2 oz anchovy fillets (I used nearly 2 cans — I had some left over from the Red Clam Sauce)
• 1/2 plus 1/3 cup red wine
• 1/4 cup vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar).
  
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 can black pitted olives.
• mushrooms (I used mushrooms that had been stored in oil — fresh mushrooms would be better. This hearty, woodsy mushrooms (like portobello).

Link back to Chef John’s Blog

Basically, I did the following:

1. Browned the chicken in olive oil. Removed it.
2. Let the pan of oil + chicken fat cool to where it wouldn’t brown the garlic.
3. Threw in the garlic and anchovy. Cooked over low heat until anchovy had dissolved and garlic was cooked but not browned.
4. Added the chicken back in, along with the basil, rosmary, salt, hot pepper, vinegar, and 1/3 cup of wine.
5. Covered and cooked on low for ~30 minutes.
6. Uncovered and cooked on low/med for awhile (~30 minute) until chicken was falling off the bone.
7. Threw in a can of black olives and the mushrooms. Covered and simmered for 10 minutes.
8. Removed the lid, and heated on high. This had an amazing affect, not only did it reduce the sauce but (according to Chef John) it emulsified the chicken fat. All I know is the sauce instantly thickened when I turned the heat up, so reduction alone doesn’t explain it.
9. Threw is some fresh sage and chopped basil.
10. Finished the dish with 1/2 cup red wine . Cooked for 5-8 minutes to boil off alcohol.
11. Covered and let rest. I let it rest for 45 minutes until it was dinner time (I started cooking this early). That is obviously longer than a “rest” but it’s the sort of food that you can let sit.

It was very good. Some of the rosemary was still firm (doesn’t it soften?) but the taste was very good. I’d go a little more easy with the olive oil next time, use more and larger mushrooms, and definitely use some artichokes. Mmmm.

The result is a stew that reminds me of my Grandmother’s cooking — I’d like to try this with Rabbit some day.

Chef John says you can’t use chicken breast for this, and he’s mostly right. The dark meat is certainly better because the light meat dries out. Using a whole chicken was economical (chicken legs/thighs were overpriced at the grocery store that day) and I’d do it again — the dish was overall juicy even if some of the breast was slightly dry. I might throw the olives in earlier and/or chop them up so you get more olive flavour across the dish. Also, this would probably go well over polenta, but you would need to make sure there is much more sauce than the standard recipe generates.

Really good, all in all — another winner for Chef John.

Spaghetti in a Red Clam Sauce – Quick and Easy

Here is the recipe from Chef John’s site:

Ingredients:

1 pound pasta
2 cans (6.5 oz) chopped clams in juice
3 cups tomato sauce (plus 1/4 cup water to rinse jar)
1 cup good white wine
1 tbl anchovy paste or 2 fillets
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tbl capers
2 tbl olive oil
Parmesan to taste
salt and pepper to taste
fresh herb to taste, basil or Italian parsley

Add garlic, anchovy, red pepper, capers and oil to a cold skillet. Heat on medium until the garlic is cooked, but not browned. Add the white wine. Cook for a few minutes, then add the liquid from the canned clams. Cook for 5 minutes or so (I let it reduce a bit). Add the tomato sauce (I used a tomato basil sauce, and I added some fresh basil as well). Let simmer and reduce to your desired thickness while you make your pasta.

When the pasta is nearly ready, add the clams to the sauce and stir. Drain the pasta and place in the sauce pan. Cover and let the pasta finish in the sauce.

Really good! Really easy! Really quick!

The link is here.

Bookmark: Pasta with clams in a red sauce

I intend to make this at some point:

Link: Food Wishes Chef John’s Red Clam Sauce

Recipe: Chicken Nihari with Paratha (…actually Buss-Up-Shot)

So, I’m on south-Asian food kick lately. Basically, Indian and Pakistani food. There is a take-out place not too far from me (King’s Palace Restaurant) that serves loads of Pakistani food. It’s all delicious, and reasonably priced, but still not cheap ($10 for portion of curry and 2 naan, salad and pop).

So I decided to give it a try myself. I started with Chicken Nihari basically becaue I knew I liked it, and it was about the only thing I knew the name of.

Here is the recipe I started with:

• 3/4 of a chicken, bone and skin on, cut into 4 pieces (recipe said 1kg beef with bones)
• 3 medium Onions (thinly sliced)
• 2 tbsp. of All-Purpose Flour
• 2 Small green Cardamom pods (recipe said white cardamom)
• 2 Bay Leaves
• 1 Cinnamon Stick (I used about 3″, I would use more next time)
• 2 tsp. of Garam Masala Powder (I doubled this in the end after tasting the mix)
• 2 tbsp. of Aniseeds/Fennel Seeds (recipe recommended ground, but I could only find whole)
• 1 tsp. Red Chilli Powder (I used way more. I like spicy).
• 2 pinches of Nutmeg
• ½ tsp. Turmeric Powder
• 1 small piece of Black Salt (Couldn’t find this. Somewhere I found a suggestion that sea-salt would be the closest sub, so that is what I used. I added about 1 tbsp and then adjusted the salt level at the end).
• 2 tbsp. Garlic Paste (recipe said 1 tbsp — I like garlic and don’t like ginger so I upped the garlic. Next time, though, I’ll also up the ginger)
• 1 tbsp. Ginger Paste (I used fresh ginger and garlic. I minced it, salted it, and smoshed it around).
• ½ cup Plain Yogurt
• ½ cup Clarified Butter (Ghee) or Cooking Oil

Instructions:

1. In a pot, heat the clarified butter or cooking oil. Once the oil gets hot add in the 3 sliced onions. Turn the stove down to medium. Fry the onions to golden brown. Remove from oil and put the onions on a paper towel to absorb any excess oil. Crush the onions.
2. Add the meat and garam masala powder, plain yogurt , ginger paste, garlic paste, salt, red chilli powder, bay leaves, cinnamon and turmeric powder, continuously fry by stirring until the oil separates.
3. Add in the nutmeg, cardamoms, aniseeds and black salt. Stir, add in enough water to cover meat and cook on low heat covered for 2 to 3 hrs.
4. Once the meat is cooked and tender, add in the flour and cook on low heat for about another 10 minutes.
5. Garnish with coriander leaves, fried onions, green chillies and ginger strips.

I wasn’t paying attention, otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered with all of the onions. I thought they were going to stay in the pan. Next time, I’ll maybe use 1.5 onions, or one large one. They probably added a lot of flavour to the ghee. I let the chicken fry a little before adding the other ingrediets, just to sear the skin.

After simmering for about an hour, I pulled the chicken out and let it cool while the sauce continued to simmer. Once cool, I removed all the skin and roughly shredded the chicken. I put the chicken meat back into the sauce and simmered it down considerably before thickening with flour as per the recipe.

I ate this with Trinidad style paratha (or Buss-Up-Shot). Basically, I followed a naan recipe:

• ~4 cups all purpose flour
• ~1 tbsp Kosher Salt
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp vegetable shortening
• 1/4 cup plain yogourt
• 2/3 cup water
• 1/2 packet dry active yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder

Instructions:

• Warm the water, add sugar and yeast. Stir. Let foam a few minutes.
• Mix flour, baking powder, salt.
• Make a well. Add all other ingredients into the well and stir into dry ingredients making a dough. Kneed it a bit, form a ball, then rub some olive oil on the outside of the ball. Cover and let rest for ~1 hour.
• Kneed it again. Then make small balls and roll them out on into rounds on a well-floured board. I like mine a little thick (1/4″) but you may think otherwise. At this point, you can take the round and throw it in a super-hot oven or BBQ to make naan, or onto a hot oiled skillet to make buss-up-shot. So, I threw mine on the oiled skillet. While one side was cooking, I drizzled olive oil on the other side. I only let them cook 35-40 seconds a side before flipped. After the first flip, you smash the thing up a bit (I poked it with a spatula, scrunched it up, etc…).

Once cooked and, you know, busted-up, remove it from the skillet and let cool for 30 seconds or so, then throw into a ziplock bag. Make the next one. I use the ziplock bag so they stay warm and basically steam themselves — that way they stay soft and a bit doughy.

That’s it. The Nihari was delicious but in the end I added a slight bit too much salt. That’s because I salted it before I let it boil down — rookie mistake but I was anxious. Still, quite yummy. Next time, more cinnamon, more ginger. I’ll probably also try it with beef (I used chicken because I knew I wouldn’t be able to simmer for very long — I was in a rush).

I’m looking forward to eating the leftovers for lunch today, just 3 hours away.