Category Archives: beef

shepherd’s pie

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Shepherd’s pie is a good weekend dinner during the winter (at least, as much winter as we get in Northern California). It’s a bit too involved and time-consuming for a weeknight dinner, but it’s got a lot of time built in where you can do other things like tidy up the kitchen or whip up a batch of banana bread or marmalade cookies. (Or, all of the above.) It leaves enough leftovers for dinner another night, and I usually end up with a couple of lunch-sized portions too (which fit perfectly in the freezer). I adapted this from The Dean & Deluca Cookbook by David Rosengarten by adding more vegetables and broth.  I keep on meaning to try an all-vegetable version of this, but haven’t quite gotten around to it yet.

Ingredients

  • 2 large baking potatoes (about 1 pound), peeled
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/2 stick butter, divided
  • 1-1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic
  • 1 pound ground lamb or beef
  • 1 cup chopped mushrooms
  • 1 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary
  • 1-1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 4 teaspoons flour, divided
  • 1 cup minced onion
  • 1 cup diced carrot
  • 4 cups beef stock
  • 1 cup frozen corn kernels
  • 1 cup frozen peas

Make the mashed potatoes

Put potatoes in a large saucepan, cover them with water. Bring to a boil and cook for about 40 minutes, until potatoes are cooked through. Drain potatoes and place in bowl. Mash them with the milk and 2 tablespoons of the butter. Season with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt. Set aside.

(This makes about 3 cups of mashed potatoes. If you were planning ahead, you could make the mashed potatoes in advance.)

Brown the meat

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over moderate heat. Add the garlic, ground meat, and mushrooms.  Cook, stirring frequently, for 5-7 minutes until the meat is well-browned. Season with the rosemary, Worcestershire sauce, and the remaining 1 teaspoon salt. Stir well and then sprinkle mixture with 2 teaspoons of the flour. Stir again and cook for an additional five minutes. Remove meat with a slotted spoon and set aside. Pour excess grease out of the pan.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Prepare the vegetables

Add the onion and carrot to the pan and cook over moderate heat for 5-7 minutes, until onion is translucent. Sprinkle with the remaining 2 teaspoons of flour and stir. Increase heat slightly, and add the beef stock, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to release any caramelized bits. Cook for another 7-10 minutes, or until the liquid is reduced by half.

Combine the casserole ingredients

Add meat mixture, corn, and peas. Stir well and cook another 3-4 minutes. Enough of the liquid should have evaporated so that the mixture is held together by a nice thick gravy.

Bake

Butter a 9″ square casserole dish well and spread the meat mixture over the bottom. Cover the meat with the mashed potatoes and smooth the top. Bake casserole, uncovered, in the oven for 40 minutes, until heated through.

beef tacos

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I love tacos.  How can you not?  They’re small, eaten by hand, and infinitely customizable.  When I was growing up, I thought tacos weren’t very exciting.  My parents would use some kind of pre-made taco seasoning in a packet, and the resulting tacos were just what you’d expect: bland and bland, with a side of bland.  On moving to California, I learned that tacos didn’t have to be like that.  I set out to make great tacos at home, and came to this.  It takes more time than I expected after all those years of quick-but-tasteless tacos, but it’s not a lot of effort, and the end product is definitely worth the wait.

Ingredients

  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 4-5 white mushrooms, diced (optional)
  • 5 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons chili powder
  • 2 teaspoons cumin
  • 3 tablespoons paprika
  • 1/2 onion, chopped finely (reserve other half for another use, or chop it finely for serving)
  • 1/2 bell pepper, chopped finely (reserve other half for another use, or chop it finely for serving)
  • shredded cheese (for serving)
  • chopped tomato (for serving)
  • sour cream (for serving)
  • guacamole (for serving)
  • tortillas or taco shells (for serving)

Directions

Place ground beef, mushrooms, and spices in medium saucepan.  Cover with water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer meat for an hour, breaking up meat into small pieces with a potato masher — the final product should not be lumpy. Add water during the hour if needed. Add the onion and bell pepper to the saucepan, and simmer for another half hour.

Optionally, to lower the fat content, pour into strainer, reserving liquid. Let liquid cool and skim fat off. Stir 1 teaspoon cornstarch into 1/4 cup cold water. In a small saucepan, bring liquid to a boil, then pour in cornstarch. Let simmer for five minutes, then fold into meat.

Serve with tortillas, cheese, and all of the other yumminess.

black bean beef

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ingredients for black bean beefBlack bean beef is one of our regular dinners.  Most of the ingredients are ones that we get at the farmers’ market.  It’s flexible, a great way to use whatever vegetables are on hand.  It freezes well, so I make enough to have a couple of lunches later.

I know that the ingredients list looks long.  I’ve broken it into sections for ease of putting it together.  It’s really pretty quick.

Ingredients

Beef and marinade

  • 1 pound beef roast, sliced into thin strips
  • 2 tbsp beef broth
  • 2 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
  • 1 tsp cornstarch

Sauce

  • 1/2 cup beef broth
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp black bean paste
  • 1 tbsp garlic-chili paste (optional)
  • 1 tsp cornstarch

Vegetables

  • 1 large onion, cut into 1″ chunks
  • 2 carrots, thinly sliced
  • 2 bell peppers, cut into 1″ chunks

Aromatics for stir-frying

  • 3 tbsp peanut oil, divided
  • 4 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 bunch green onions, white parts only, sliced thinly (save the green parts and chop them for garnish, if desired)
  • 8 oz white mushrooms, sliced

Directions

First, make the marinade.  In a small bowl, combine the beef and marinade ingredients, adding the cornstarch last.  Let marinate for 20 minutes.

Then, make the sauce.  In a small bowl, combine the broth, soy sauce, black bean paste, and optional garlic-chili paste.  Set it aside.

Next, stir-fry the vegetables.  Pour 2 tbsp of peanut oil into the wok.  Add the onion, bell peppers, and carrots.  Stir-fry 2-3 minutes, until crisp-tender.  Remove the vegetables from the wok and set aside.

black bean beef, in the wokStir-fry the beef.  Pour 1 tbsp of peanut oil into the wok.  When hot, add the garlic and green onions, and stir-fry 30 seconds until fragrant.  Add the beef and stir-fry until mostly cooked, about 4-5 minutes.  Add the mushrooms and cook for another 1-2 minutes, until the beef is fully cooked.  Create a space in the middle of the wok and add the sauce, then stir together.  Bring the sauce to a boil, then add the reserved vegetables.  Mix well and remove from heat.

Serve with steamed rice, and garnish with scallions (if desired).

Notes

This comes together pretty quickly.  My steps, in order:

  1. Start the rice cooking in the rice cooker.
  2. Slice the beef, put it in a bowl, pour over the marinade ingredients, stir it together, toss it in the fridge.
  3. Make the sauce, set it aside.
  4. Chop the veggies, set them aside.
  5. Check on the rice.  My rice cooker gives me a time-remaining indication about 10 minutes before it’s done.  Usually, by the time I’ve gotten to this point, the rice is close to done.  If not, then I’ve got a few extra minutes to do something else.  This is also the point that I make sure that we’re actually ready for dinner (that is, is everyone home?).  Since the actual cooking time is so short, and since the rice can stay happily in its rice cooker after it’s done for hours and hours, and since the beef can continue marinating, it’s not a problem if I’m ahead of the game.
  6. Cook the veggies, then cook the beef and mushrooms, and finally stir it all together.

black bean beefLiving in Silicon Valley means that it’s pretty easy to get Asian ingredients.  Black bean paste and chili-garlic paste (sometimes called sambol olek, but it’s got other names too) are available at Whole Foods.

My wok came from the Wok Shop in San Francisco, and it’s so immensely useful.  You can do this in a large skillet, but it takes longer and doesn’t quite taste the same.

I love my rice cooker more than anything.  I’m generally not a fan of special-purpose kitchen appliances, but this is awesome: rinse the rice, put it in the rice-cooker’s bowl, add the water, and hit start.  Nothing more is necessary, and you get absolutely perfect rice every time.  It will keep the rice perfectly steamed if you accidentally start your rice too early, and it’s got a timer too in case you want to set it up to cook in advance.