Sunday Nite Dinner » beef

Garlic Beef with Asparagus and Shiitakes

Chuck — Tue, 20 May 2008 05:08:23 +0000

Yesterday, I wanted something Asian for dinner... Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai, whatever. I just needed something comforting over rice. Hungry Bear suggested making a stir-fry with flank steak and I reminded her about the asparagus in the fridge. So, she whipped up garlic beef with asparagus and shiitake mushrooms.

The key to any stir-fry with thin slices of beef is not to over cook the meat. Hungry Bear made it perfectly as it remained tender and moist. The stir-fry was really flavorful from the oyster sauce, soy, garlic and shiitakes.

Although I wanted rice, Hungry Bear made me eat it over noodles... something about my birthday and long life. I don't believe in that type of stuff, but I obliged. Sadly, the fresh Asian egg noodles we had in the fridge weren't so fresh anymore and had grown a little "hairy." We searched the pantry for a suitable substitute and could only muster up spaghetti noodles. Maybe I should have told you that we wanted to make an East meats West dish!?!

The garlic beef stir-fry was so delicious, it didn't matter if it was served on spaghetti, egg noodles or rice. But maybe I added a few extra years to my life by eating noodles on my birthday!

Garlic Beef with Asparagus and Shiitakes Recipe

SND Note: Any mushroom can be substituted for shiitakes. And asparagus can be replaced with any green vegetable, such as snow peas, broccoli or Chinese broccoli. If you like a lot of sauce, increase the quantity of stock or water to 1 1/2 cups and add additional corn starch slurry to thicken.

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds flank steak or sirloin steak
5 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine (shaohsing)
1 1/2 tablespoons of corn starch
4 1/2 tablespoons of garlic, minced
1 pound fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and sliced
2 bunches asparagus, trimmed and sliced
4 tablespoons canola oil
5 tablespoons oyster sauce
1-2 tablespoons chili garlic sauce (optional)
1 cup chicken stock or water

Directions

Trim excess fat and gristle from flank steak and thinly slice against the grain. In a medium bowl, combine 4 tablespoons soy sauce, rice wine, corn starch and 2 1/2 tablespoons of garlic. Add beef and toss to coat with marinade.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok over high heat. Add flank steak and stir-fry until just browned, but still medium rare. Remove immediately and set aside.
Add 2 tablespoons of oil to the wok and 2 tablespoons of garlic. Stir-fry until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add mushrooms and sauté until soft, 3-4 minutes. Add asparagus and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes. Asparagus should still be crisp.
Mix in oyster sauce, chili garlic sauce and 1 tablespoon soy sauce to mushroom/asparagus mixture. Stir in chicken stock. Add the beef and toss gently in the sauce. Adjust seasonings to taste and additional slurry of corn starch to the sauce if necessary. Serve over jasmine rice or noodles.

Makes 6 servings

Tags: asparagus, beef, chinese, flank steak, mushrooms, shiitake, stir fry

Veal Chops with Morel Mushrooms

Chuck — Tue, 06 May 2008 05:22:13 +0000

The SND kitchen is officially open again. We just cooked our first big meal in the new digs. To christen the place, Hungry Bear and I wanted to make a decadent multi-course dinner to celebrate the end of our moving process. We tossed around a few ideas for the main course, including braised pork belly, but went with veal chops with morel mushrooms. I couldn't pass up making the fantastic morel sauce. So, we created the menu as...

Chicken and Duck Mousse with Peppercorns
with a sweet French baguette and cornichons

Red Butter Lettuce with Baby Vegetables
carrots, radishes, cherry tomatoes, avocados and lemon Dijon vinaigrette

Veal Chops with Morel Mushrooms
served with roasted parsnips purée and sautéed asparagus

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting
topped with mini M&Ms, chocolate nibs or crushed pistachios

We picked up the liver mousse last week at the Serramonte Farmers' Market and saved it for this occasion. And this past Saturday, we bought the baby vegetables and some fresh morels at the Ferry Building Farmer's Market. In our first SND post, we made the chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting, so I thought it was fitting to make the dessert again.

The veal chops on their own are really good, but they're even better with a morel sauce made with cognac, dijon mustard and coconut cream. Yes, I ~~said~~ wrote coconut cream. Eric Ripert's recipe calls for crème fraîche, but we substituted coconut cream for two reasons. First, we have many cans of coconut milk in our pantry. Second, one of the SNDsters is a little lactose intolerant, so we try to minimize dairy products whenever possible.

Dinner was fabulous and fun. The liver mousse was a great starter and the salad with baby vegetables was much needed with this heavy meal. The veal chops and morels were delicious and no one missed the crème fraîche. The sweet parsnips purée paired well with the rich morel sauce. All in all, it was a very successful Sunday nite dinner. However, we're still getting a feel for the new stove and figuring out where the the best lighting is for photos.

Next up on SND is the recipe for these chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting.

SNDsters: Garry, Karen, Jane, Mark, Hungry Bear, Chuck

Veal Chops with Morel Sauce Recipe

SND Note: The original recipe calls for 1/2 cup of crème fraîche. We substituted it with coconut cream because our pantry was full of cans of coconut milk. Coconut cream is the thicker top layer when the cream and coconut liquid separates in the can. In the original recipe, the veal was also served with an herb butter sauce. We felt the morel sauce was rich enough for the dish.

Ingredients

6 tablespoons of canola oil
1 pound morel mushrooms, cleaned, halved if large
2 tablespoons shallots, minced
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 tablespoon flat-leaf parsley, chopped
6 thick-cut veal chops
1/2 cup Cognac
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
3-4 tablespoons unsweetened coconut cream
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large ovenproof sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the morels and sauté until they are tender and give up their liquid, about 5 minutes. Add the shallots, garlic and parsley and sauté until softened, about 3 minutes. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 400°F (204°C). Generously season veal chops with salt and pepper on both sides. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in two large ovenproof sauté pans over high heat. Add 3 chops to each pan and sear until golden brown on both sides, about 3-4 minutes per side. Place the pans into the oven to finish cooking the veal, about 5-6 minutes, or until desired doneness. Transfer the chops to a plate.
Deglaze the pans with Cognac, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan, then combine the liquid into one pan. Add Dijon mustard and stir to incorporate. Add the coconut cream, mushrooms, and any juices from the resting chops and bring to a boil. Adjust seasons to taste. To serve, place one chop on each plate and spoon the morels over the veal chops.

Makes 6 servings

[Adapted from A Return to Cooking by Eric Ripert | Michael Ruhlman]

Tags: beef, chops, coconut, cognac, dijon, morels, mushrooms, mustard, veal

Chinese Beef Chow Fun with Broccoli

Chuck — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 07:27:56 +0000

Over the last few months, we've been cooking a lot of Vietnamese food. And the word, "vietnamese", in the tag/ingredient cloud (below on the right side) has grown larger, dwarfing the "chinese" tag. That's fine with me, but Hungry Bear wants to end this trend and make sure her peeps' food is more represented on SND. So yesterday, she made beef and broccoli chow fun (chao fen).

We both love chow fun, but rarely order it at restaurants because it's just too damn oily. If you have access to a good Chinese/Asian supermarket and can get your hands on fresh rice noodles (he fen or haw fun), beef chow fun is best made at home. Prepared with fresh ingredients, minimal oil and Chinese broccoli, dare I say chow fun can be a healthy, balanced meal. It's sad Chinese food prepared in most restaurants is greasy, salty and generally bad for you, whereas traditional Chinese cooking can be healthy and flavorful.

To prepare the chow fun, Hungry Bear referenced two Grace Young cookbooks. We love Grace Young's recipes, but our biggest pet peeve is that her recipes are always proportioned to serve 4 to 6 as part of a multi-course meal. Hey, that's great if you have time to cook multi-course meals, but it's no good for people like us who cook in mass quantities. So, we always end up doubling or quadrupling her recipes, hoping it's enough as the main entrée.

This time Hungry Bear only doubled the recipe, reduced the oil and added Chinese broccoli to the beef chow fun recipe found in The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen. With fresh ingredients and perfectly cooked flank steak, this was no doubt the best chow fun I've ever had. After adding a dash of chili garlic sauce, I was one happy, chow-fun-eating camper. Now I'm looking forward to the next Chinese dish, as Hungry Bear attempts to restore the Chinese/Vietnamese balance on SND.

Chinese Beef and Broccoli Chow Fun (Chao Fen) Recipe

SND Note: The key ingredient in this recipe is the fresh broad rice noodle (he fen or haw fun). The rice noodles are sold unrefrigerated in 1 pound sheets that are folded over like a large cloth napkin. Normally, chow fun is made with a lot of oil to prevent the noodles from sticking to the wok. Because we use less oil, some of the noodles stick to the wok and break apart. The sticky layer should be scraped from the wok and eaten as "rice crisps", which are crusty and delicious.

Ingredients:
8 ounces mung bean sprouts, about 4 cups, rinsed and drained well
1 pound Chinese broccoli
1 pound flank steak, well trimmed
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 teaspoons cornstarch
3 teaspoons Shao Hsing rice cooking wine
2 tablespoons Chinese dried black beans (dul see)
2 pounds fresh broad rice noodles (he fen or haw fun)
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
5 slices of ginger
1 1/2 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
4 scallions, cut into 2-inch sections
3-4 tablespoons oyster sauce

Directions:
1) Cut the broccoli stalks in half lengthwise if more than 1/2 inch in diameter. Cut the stalks and leaves into 2 inch-long pieces, keeping the stalks separate from the leaves.

2) Halve the flank steak with the grain into 2 strips. Cut each strip across the grain into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Place in a shallow bowl, add the soy sauce, cornstarch, and rice wine, and stir to combine; set aside.

3) Rinse the black beans in several changes of cold water and drain. In a small bowl, mash the black beans with the back of a wooden spoon. Leaving the noodles as a slab, cut noodles crosswise into 3/4-inch-wide strips.

4) Heat a large wok or skillet over high heat. Add 1 tablespoon oil, ginger and garlic to wok, and stir-fry about 15 to 30 seconds, until fragrant. Add the beef, spreading it in the wok. Cook, undisturbed, 30 seconds to 1 minute, letting the beef begin to brown. Add the mashed black beans and stir-fry 1 to 2 minutes, or until beef is browned but still slightly rare. Transfer to a plate and set aside. Add 1 tablespoon oil into the wok and stir-fry the broccoli stalks for 30 seconds. Add the leaves and 1 teaspoon salt, stir-fry 1 to 2 minutes until the stalks are bright green and the leaves are limp. Transfer to a plate and set aside. Rinse wok and dry it thoroughly.

5) Re-heat wok over high heat, add 2 tablespoons oil to the wok with the noodles, spreading them in the wok. Cook undisturbed for 1 minute, or until slightly crusty. Add the bean sprouts and stir-fry 1 to 2 minutes. Return the broccoli and beef with any juices that have accumulated to the wok, add the oyster sauce and scallions, and stir-fry 1 to 2 minutes, or until heated through and well combined. Adjust seasonings to taste and serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings

[Adapted from The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen by Grace Young]

Tags: beef, broccoli, chinese, chow fun, flank steak, ginger, grace young, noodles, stir fry