Check out our current e-mail newsletter! Don't miss the February/March 2010 issue, it's coming soon! Subscribe now.

Slow roasting at low temperatures is the best way to tame a not-so-tender cut of beef. The chuck is the best ‘cheaper’ cut for this recipe, but I’ve tested it even on a bottom round cut roast and achieved great results. So have some good, homemade roast beef any day of the week without blowing your budget!

Busy weekend here. I’ve some spillover work, and Gourmeted-related things to finish (aka The Newsletter), plus I’m helping out a friend with her wedding invitations. You’ll know just how busy I am just by the scarcity of my tweets.

Before I disappear into the haze, I’d like to leave you with this must-keep-on-hand recipe for slow-roasted beef. Pick up some beef and get cooking!

It tasted even better than it looks. It was so juicy and yummy!

Have a great weekend!

SLOW-ROASTED BEEF WITH RED WINE SAUCE
adapted from the September 1996 issue of Cook’s Illustrated magazine

Ingredients

• 3-4 pounds chuck eye roast, boneless, tied crosswise an inch apart and tied lengthwise once or twice [Alternatives: chuck blade, chuck fillet/chuck tender, chuck shoulder, chuck under blade, top round, eye of round, bottom round, top sirloin and bottom round rump roast]
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/3 cup red wine, preferably full-flavored
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken or beef broth

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 250°F. Heat oil over medium-high heat in a Dutch oven or large, heavy ovenproof pot.
2. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the meat and sear in the pot with oil until brown, about 4 minutes each side.
3. Quickly transfer the pot into the oven, uncovered. When a thermometer registers 110°F when inserted into the thickest part of the meat (after about 45 minutes to 1 hour in the oven), increase the oven temperature to 500°F. Cook until internal temperature goes up to 130°F, after about 15 minutes. Cooking times vary depending on the size and shape of the roast. Remove meat from the pot, and let stand on a cutting board for 20 minutes before carving.
4. For red wine pan juice: Set the same pot on the stove over medium-high heat. Spoon out fat from pot and leave about 1 tablespoon of it. Add wine. Stir pan bottom with a wooden spoon to loosen the brown bits. Add broth. Simmer until the sauce reduces by a third of the original volume, and is slightly thickened. For additional thickening, add a mixture of 1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon water. Thinly slice roast and add the juices to the pot.
5. Serve immediately, with the sliced meat and sauce separate.

Could it be that my brain is now part-rhubarb? I wouldn’t doubt it really. I have to admit that although I’ve made many dishes with rhubarb by now, they are all savory. I can’t help it if that sour stalk is so good.

Had I been more prepared, I really would have loved to make the filling with pork and shrimp, but I wasn’t. In fact, I was late for the Daring Cooks’ Challenge deadline last Sunday. After all the talk about it online, I built up a gargantuan craving for it, hence, this:

I’ve made potstickers before but failed miserably with the pleating. Now…thanks to Jen’s recipe with detailed photos, they now closely resemble the real thing! I love it! I couldn’t help but admire my handiwork. Haha.

I did follow our challenge’s dough recipe proportions and the rest are all mine. It was very, very good. If you don’t have rhubarb, just add a little more meat and 1 tbsp lemon juice.

I’ll post a more organized recipe tomorrow, including the PDF download. I just wanted to share this quickly for those of you who have been waiting for it since I posted a mobile photo. :-)

Potsticker Wrappers

Ingredients:

• 250 g all purpose flour (I used unbleached)
• 113 g warm water

Preparation (How I made it)

1. In a medium bowl, place the flour and add half of the water. Stir with a spoon. Continue to add the remaining water little by little, probably by teaspoons.
2. Continue to mix into a cohesive ball by hand. Place on your clean counter that’s been sprinkled with flour to prevent sticking, and knead for 10 minutes.
3. Place back inside the bowl and cover with a damp cloth for 15 minutes.
4. After 15 minutes, shape dough into a shallow dome and cut into 1 1/2-inch thick slices. Leave one slice on the counter and place the others back into the bowl and cover with the damp towel. Slice the strip into 3/4 inch pieces and shape and flatten down with your palm into small discs. Place each disk on the counter and flatten further with your rolling pin. Continue with the rest of the dough. Be careful about putting the dough on top of each other. I made the time-consuming mistake of not putting enough flour between wrappers and my hard work went back to square one of being one big dough.

Filling the wrappers

1. Put a wrapper on the palm of your hand and drop a tablespoon of filling at the center. Fold the wrapper in half and press firmly to attach the top-center portion.
2. From the center, start pleating the single side of the wrapper (not both) but scrunching farther side on top of the previous pleat. Continue until you almost reach the end and you get a small teardrop-shaped hole. Simply tuck in the bottom of the ‘teardrop’ into the pointed top end of the teardrop. Each dumpling will look like the semi-circular women’s purses.

Beef Rhubarb Filling

• 200 g ground beef (or other meat/s of your choice)
• 1/3 cup yellow onion, chopped
• 1/3 cup rhubarb, chopped
• 1/3 cup button mushrooms, chopped (sauted in med heat for 2 mins to let the juices out
• 1/3 cup celery, chopped
• 1/3 cup carrot, chopped
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
• 4 stalks of green onion, chopped

Preparation

In a small saucepan, saute onion, rhubarb and celery for 3 minutes in medium-high heat. Set aside and let it cool before mixing with all the other ingredients.

Pan-Frying

On a frying pan with vegetable oil in high heat, cook the dumplings until the bottoms are golden brown in color. Add 1/2 cup water and cover. Let it cook until the water is almost gone. Remove the lid and let it cook for another 2 minutes.

Optional Dip: You can mix soy sauce, white vinegar with a smashed garlic. Very simple.

Even before the show, “Chopped“, was conceived in the offices of the Food Network, millions of us all over the world were already facing and battling own versions of the show–right in our own kitchens–you, me, and all the other home cooks in the world. Unless you’re a complete meal planner, making each homemade meal is like a Chopped episode. It’s all up to us to make the most of what’s available and rock it, right?

I had  fresh flank steak one evening that I didn’t want to freeze and ginger roots that begged to be saved before they go to waste, so it just makes sense to use them both. I was inspired to make a beef steak with the flavors of the beef and broccoli dish I love to order at Chinese restaurants. We always make steaks with wine and some herb as a combination, but I’ve never tried it with ginger …so why not?

Oh…and how my experiment delivered! The ginger-garlic flavor seeped into the meat in 30 minutes. It was so good! At first I wanted to make sauce from the drippings, but the flavors in the meat were already intense so I didn’t find the need to.

The photo above is left over from dinner. I didn’t want to take photos at night and waited the next day to get decent daylight photos. It still looked good the 2nd day, huh? :) It still tasted amazing, too.

I like using flank steaks. They’re easy to find and they’re cheap. And with dishes like the one I made, it’s easy to create something nice without breaking the bank. The other ingredients I used are wallet-friendly as well and what’s more, the whole recipe is just made of 6 ingredients. I like simple. I like tasty. I like dishes that look like they took a lot of effort and worth a lot more than they do. Recessionista extraordinaire dish right there.

Asian Ginger Garlic Steak

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1.5 tbsp ginger, chopped
• 1 tbsp garlic, chopped
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• 400 g flank steak

Preparation

1. Mix the oil and sauces with the chopped ingredients. Soak meat in this mixture and marinate for 30 minutes in the fridge. You can marinate it in a small bowl covered with plastic wrap or in a ziploc bag. If in a bowl, turn meat after 15 minutes.
2. Preheat your oven to 350°F then take the meat from the fridge.
3. Roll the steak lengthwise, as if rolling like a log cake, with ends meeting at the bottom. Place on an oven-safe wire rack on a cookie sheet to catch the drippings. Bake for 20-30 minutes depending on your preferred doneness.
4. Take the meat out of the oven and tent it with aluminum foil for about 10 minutes. Slice and serve warm with rice and steamed broccoli.

Is it really May already? My, my where did the past 4 months go? I guess the important thing is that we enjoy the time that passes by. I’ve certainly been having a grand time with the sunshine here in the Pacific Northwest. It’s nice to DO things outside of the house, basque in the sun and cool breeze in sandals and just be. There’s nothing quite like it.

In other news, my Canadian kitchen has been a-buzz with cooking and baking that I’ve forgotten the other recipes that I still have to post about from months ago. I try to have some variation around here. So after all the sweet stuff and experiments, let’s go back to the good ol’ recipe proper today. But what does that mean? That means I actually follow the recipe to the dot, which takes a lot of effort for me to do. I blame it on my inner rebel and artist. Haha. On rare occasions I would challenge myself to stick with the program and just do as the instructions say. One brain-dead night, as it wont to be after working 12 hours, is enough to seal the deal. I’m glad I did (the cooking, not working that long).

It’s a bonus that I actually picked a good recipe. Taste-wise, this could be the fancier version of the Filipino Bistek I shared with you before.

This is a must-try recipe–very simple and packs a punch of flavor. It goes so well with rice, so rice-eaters will enjoy this treat. I imagine this would go well with roasted potatoes, too.

I find that I cook more from Gourmet magazine than Bon Appetit these days. Do you? Either way is good because we’re getting value from our subscriptions. I usually peruse them for inspiration on what to cook as well as for flavor profiles. I would crave certain foods from all the food porn and that translates to several trips to the store. Hah.

Anyway, here’s the recipe if you’d like to give it a spin in your kitchen.

Sautéed Beef with White Wine and Rosemary
Adapted from a January 2009 Gourmet magazine recipe

• 1/2 lb boneless sirloin steak (about 1 inch thick, top butt recommended)
• 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 4 tbsp olive oil, divided
• 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 1/2 tbsp chopped rosemary
• 2/3 cup dry white wine
• kosher salt
• ground pepper

1. Clean the steak of excess fat and slice thinly. Mix the flour, 3/4 tsp kosher salt, and 1/2 tsp ground pepper. Toss the meat in the mixture.
2. Place 1 1/2 tbsp oil in a 12″ heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté steak until the slices are no longer pink on the outside, about 2 minutes per batch (takes 2-3 batches). Add 1 1/2 tbsp oil as needed. Transfer to a plate once cooked.
3. Using the remaining tablesppon of oil, sauté garlic and rosemary until golden brown, about 1 to 2 minutes. Pour wine and sprinkle 1/2 tsp each of salt and pepper. Scrape the brown bits from the pan as it boils. Cook until it reduces to half the amount of the original liquid. Return beef with juices to skillet to warm it up before serving.

It’s no secret that I’m impressionable when it comes to food. I’m the poster child for culinary autosuggestion. Mention some kind of food, save for monkey brain, and chances are I just might develop a hankering for it in a few minutes. It has been a lifelong crux, there’s nothing a voracious eater can do.

Early last week I saw Martha make Minestra Maritata with Chef Nate Appleman (whose A16: Food + Wine book was given to me last Christmas) and at that instant I wanted to make some meatball soup. That’s the power of Martha. Or it could just because her show is right before lunch.

We bought a family pack of ground beef from Whole Foods last Sunday and you bet I was going to make full use of it. This is the first of many dishes I’ve made from it. It might be fitting to call it Recession Meat because if I was to track our consumption of it, it  it might actually suffice for a week’s worth of dinners (and my lunches). Perhaps we should start a Recession/Depression series as Denise and Lenny have on their site, seeing that we both go to WF for our groceries. Yes, you could still save and survive during these times while eating and shopping organic, you just need to be more aware of what you buy and planning your meals.

Having said that, planning a whole week’s menu is unheard of in my family. The only ones I remember doing that was our household help, and then I end up ruining them sometimes because of my last-minute food cravings (haha). I’m trying to start a semi-planning kind of thing last week. Kind of. I find cooking inspiration and suggestion from cooking books or magazines, Twitter friends, Food Network or Martha and tweak recipes to accommodate the ingredients that we have.

I made this dish the night that Obama had his 8pm ET speech last week, so I forgot to turn the meatballs halfway through the baking process. They still turned out perfect, thank goodness. I was able to make 49 meatballs out of a 750 grams of meat mixture using a tablespoon to measure each, so they would look fairly uniform. I only used 30 meatballs for the soup and froze the rest for some spaghetti and meatballs.

These meatballs made our kitchen smell like a weekend breakfast of Italian sausages. Yummy. You can eat them with gravy or ketchup, too.

The soup base is a combination of parmesan cheese broth (from boiled parmesan rinds) and beef broth. You can save your rinds from cheese blocks or you can find them at the supermarket (we found ours at Whole Foods).

I added a celery slices and stalk of rosemary in the soup while it was cooking. And then wilted some spinach leaves before serving.

This turned out so delicious. It was just what we needed that chilly evening.

Add some brown rice and it’s even better!

Here’s the recipe if you want to try it: Continue Reading

Just a couple of things first:

• Please take a second to glance at our banner up there ^. I hope this will put to rest the confusion over the pronunciation of our website’s name. It’s goo r-meyd.
• A poll regarding the step-by-step photos. We need your feedback!
  

  n

  How would you like the step-by-step photos to be presented?

  • Individually posted (as we have it in the Pineapple Ham post)
  • Doesn't matter to me as long as I see it!
  • As a slideshow (like below)

  View Results

  Thank you!

Here is a vegetable that goes by several name variations: kai-lan, gai-lan, Chinese broccoli, Chinese kale. This is the same leafy greens that I had kept asking my friend Alice for its name about but she didn’t know what it was in English. It’s kind of sad that I only found out about it when I went to the Chinese supermarket. I’m so good at this food-thing, you know? [grins]

According to Wikipedia, Gai-lan (English) is a “slightly bitter leaf vegetable featuring thick, flat, glossy blue-green leaves with thick stems and a small number of tiny, almost vestigial flower heads similar to those of broccoli”, as seen here in Exhibit A:

It is of the same species as broccoli and kale, hence it’s either Chinese broccoli OR kale. Its flavor is very similar to that of broccoli, but a bit sweeter. Gai-lan is widely eaten in Chinese cuisine — stir-fried with ginger and garlic or boiled served with oyster sauce, both of which I’ve tried. Unlike broccoli, where only the flowering parts are normally eaten,  the leaves and stems of the Chinese broccoli are eaten. For us Asians, the lesser the amount that needs to be thrown away, the better. We are, after all, from a culture where parents are bound to finish their kids leftovers because it would be such a waste not to.

When I cooked Gai-lan, I opted to experiment as usual, instead. Around the time that I made this, I felt like I was on the Iron Chef (for Dummies, mind you) with the “secret ingredient”: shiitake mushrooms. I bought a big bag of it and they ended up being cooked with : soy bean sprouts, chow mein (a concoction which will never make it to this site because if recipes were comedies, this would be the really bad slaptstick version), and with gai-lan and ground beef:

A la cuisine! Haha…sorry. I get carried away.

I really loved how this last-minute concoction turned out. The slight bitterness of the Chinese broccoli was counteracted by the ginger-y ground beef and soft mushrooms. Rice topped with this is perfection. Here is a simple balanced meal that is tasty and offers a lot of different textures, without an overpowering taste.

I’m not one to advocate deprivation, only moderation: a little meat, some veggies, and rice. That’s my eating logic, and I’m sticking to it. :)

If you’d like to try this, here is the recipe with step-by-step photo slideshow. Nom, nom,nom… Continue Reading

I’m up so late because I have too much excess energy today, plus I can’t wait for Obama’s inauguration. I’m not American [Dan is, so we have a healthy dose of jokes between us about our countries], but I still share the excitement, hope, and pride in this moment — as I’m sure a lot of my fellow Canadians do. Today marks a day that inspires the rest of the world, as we all witness and celebrate a momentous occasion.

Back to the food…”Bistek” is a Filipino bastardized word of a concoction for “Beef Steak”. I’m not kidding, even though it sounds so silly. It’s made from thin and flat beef strips that’s cooked in soy sauce, calamansi (or lemon) and onions. It is another favorite of mine. It conjures up such good memories.

I still remember the first time I cooked this after watching and bugging our household help on how to cook it. I’m serious, it was memorable. It was a magical moment because I know this oh so well, I can taste it right now.

As with all simple dishes from childhood, it holds a special place in my heart. *sniff, sniff*

As an option, you can also add fried potato slices or chunks, or other veggies. I cooked mung bean sprouts in the same pan so you get the flavor without needing more salt or pepper.

Every little addition of healthy counts, right?
E
If you want to give this dish a try, here’s the recipe with step-by-step photos. Let us know how it goes. Enjoy!

Continue Reading