Steak and Guinness Pie

With Pi day falling so close to St. Patrick's day, it seemed a shame not to make a very Irish pie for our festivities. Steak and Guinness Pie was the perfect savory main dish for the evening. It's also perfect for a potluck. The filling of the pie is essentially a Guinness beef stew, braised for about 3 hours. It can easily be made the night before and refrigerated. Then the next day, all you have to do is heat it up, and bake it before serving to your guests or bringing to a friend's house. Best of all, if you made too much filling to fit in your pie pan, it goes great with pies and rice the following day.


Steak and Guinness Pie

Ingredients

• 2 lbs chuck roast or brisket, cut into 1 inch cubes. I used brisket
• 1 onion, large dice
• 2 carrots, large dice
• 2 celery ribs, large dice
• 2 parsnips, large dice
• 8 oz mushrooms, sliced
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1 bottle of Guinness
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 1 lb box puff pastry, thawed
• large handful sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 beaten egg + water

Directions

1. Generously flour the meat, making sure to shake off the excess. Brown the meat in a heavy bottom saucepan with melted butter and remove from the pot. Repeat with as many patches as necessary. Use bacon grease if desired.
2. Reserve the fat, adding more butter if necessary, and sautee the onions, carrots, celery and parsnips until slightly softened. Add mushrooms, garlic and herbs. Cook for another couple minutes.
3. De-glaze the pan with the beef broth, making sure to scrape off all the delicious burnt bits. Put the beer and beef into the pot. Cover and simmer for 2 hours or until beef is fork tender. Adjust seasoning and add more beef/stock as necessary. Add the cheddar cheese to the stew when finished.
4. During the last 10 minutes of the stew, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Roll out enough puff pastry to cover the bottom of a 9 inch cast iron skillet or pie pan with some overhang. Cut a slit in the bottom to prevent it from puffing and bake 8 minutes (this will keep the bottom crust from getting soggy.)
5. Pour beef stew into the crust and top with another sheet of puff pastry. Brush the top with egg and bake for 40 minutes or until golden and puffed. Serve immediately with peas or green beans

With Pi day falling so close to St. Patrick's day, it seemed a shame not to make a very Irish pie for our festivities. Steak and Guinness Pie was the perfect savory main dish for the evening. It's also perfect for a potluck. The filling of the pie is essentially a Guinness beef stew, braised for about 3 hours. It can easily be made the night before and refrigerated. Then the next day, all you have to do is heat it up, and bake it before serving to your guests or bringing to a friend's house. Best of all, if you made too much filling to fit in your pie pan, it goes great with pies and rice the following day.


Steak and Guinness Pie

Ingredients

• 2 lbs chuck roast or brisket, cut into 1 inch cubes. I used brisket
• 1 onion, large dice
• 2 carrots, large dice
• 2 celery ribs, large dice
• 2 parsnips, large dice
• 8 oz mushrooms, sliced
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1 bottle of Guinness
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 1 lb box puff pastry, thawed
• large handful sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 beaten egg + water

Directions

1. Generously flour the meat, making sure to shake off the excess. Brown the meat in a heavy bottom saucepan with melted butter and remove from the pot. Repeat with as many patches as necessary. Use bacon grease if desired.
2. Reserve the fat, adding more butter if necessary, and sautee the onions, carrots, celery and parsnips until slightly softened. Add mushrooms, garlic and herbs. Cook for another couple minutes.
3. De-glaze the pan with the beef broth, making sure to scrape off all the delicious burnt bits. Put the beer and beef into the pot. Cover and simmer for 2 hours or until beef is fork tender. Adjust seasoning and add more beef/stock as necessary. Add the cheddar cheese to the stew when finished.
4. During the last 10 minutes of the stew, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Roll out enough puff pastry to cover the bottom of a 9 inch cast iron skillet or pie pan with some overhang. Cut a slit in the bottom to prevent it from puffing and bake 8 minutes (this will keep the bottom crust from getting soggy.)
5. Pour beef stew into the crust and top with another sheet of puff pastry. Brush the top with egg and bake for 40 minutes or until golden and puffed. Serve immediately with peas or green beans

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Ozoni (Japanese New Years Soup)

I know the picture of this soup isn't great. I had to take it with the camera on my laptop because I did not bring my legit camera home with me for Christmas. I made this soup the day after Christmas because I wasn't going to be with my family for New Years day. Since my grandmother passed away last year, that was the first year we did not do new years soup at her house. We wanted to bring that tradition back so I made it this year for them, and it was almost as good as my grandmother made it.

Ozoni is unique. No two soups will ever be the same because every region of Japan and every individual family has their own way of making it. In Tokyo region, clear both is more common whereas in Osaka, most people use miso broth. In contemporary Japan, they use a lot of chicken, shrimp, scallops or other more expensive ingredients. Our family came to the United States in the 1950s from a poor region, so we never got meat or anything like that in our soup. Ours was strictly vegetarian (except for dashi) because that's what you eat when you're poor. The shrimp and chicken came in at lunch.

More than that, our family was a family of farmers, not fishermen. It makes sense that our soup then uses more root vegetables than anything else. But no matter what, it seems like all soups have mochi, daikon radish, carrots and gobo (burdock root). I used lotus root instead because I could not find burdock root at the asian market that day, and my father likes lotus root better anyway. I made sure to do mochi exactly like my grandmother used to. She always did "age-mochi" where she put the mochi in a fried tofu pouch instead of boiling it directly in the soup. This was largely so she would not have to wash the sticky rice off the bottom of the pot, but now it's our family tradition.

There were a few things my grandmother did that I no longer do. I no longer use kamaboko (these horrible pink processed fish cakes) and I no longer use konnyaku (really gross laxative yam jelly). Of course, I'm biased. I'm sure some people like them...

Feel free to ignore the amounts of ingredients. It changes depending on your family (for example, my father really likes taro root and I really like lotus root, so there is always lots and lots of lotus root in our soup

Ozoni (my new recipe and tradition) serves 5ish.

Ingredients

• 8 shiitake mushrooms, stems removed
• 1 4 inch piece of daikon radish, peeled and cut into circles
• 1 4 inch piece of lotus root, peeled and cut into circles
• 10 pieces of age (fried tofu skin)
• 10 pieces of mochi
• carrots, cut into circles
• 1 bag frozen satoimo (baby taro root)
• 1 pack tied kombu (they come tied like bowties from the asian market)
• 1/4 head of of a large napa cabbage
• Dashi
• soy sauce, sugar, salt to taste

Directions

1. Boil the fried tofu skin in a large pot for about 5 minutes to remove the oil. Cool the tofu in ice water and reserve the boiling liquid.
2. Add dashi to your tofu water. If preferred, add instant dashi (can be purchased from the asian market) and extra water. Season with a little soy as desired (and I love MSG, but I understand if you don't). This is more of stew than a liquid soup, so just need enough liquid to boil your vegetables.
3. Begin simmering the lotus root, daikon, taro root and mushrooms in your soup base. Cover with a lid for about 10 minutes
4. While simmering, squeeze the liquid out of your tofu pouches and make a slit in one side. Slip a small piece of mochi into your tofu pouch and tie off with kampyo or close with small kushiyaki skewers. Add the mochi pouches to the soup.
5. Add your carrots and kombu to the soup. The kombu is simmered in soy and sugar already, so it will give the soup a great sweetness. Adjust seasoning to taste
6. At the very end, add your napa cabbage on top of everything else so it can steam for 5 minutes before serving. Simmer until all vegetables are tender.

Happy New Year everyone!

I know the picture of this soup isn't great. I had to take it with the camera on my laptop because I did not bring my legit camera home with me for Christmas. I made this soup the day after Christmas because I wasn't going to be with my family for New Years day. Since my grandmother passed away last year, that was the first year we did not do new years soup at her house. We wanted to bring that tradition back so I made it this year for them, and it was almost as good as my grandmother made it.

Ozoni is unique. No two soups will ever be the same because every region of Japan and every individual family has their own way of making it. In Tokyo region, clear both is more common whereas in Osaka, most people use miso broth. In contemporary Japan, they use a lot of chicken, shrimp, scallops or other more expensive ingredients. Our family came to the United States in the 1950s from a poor region, so we never got meat or anything like that in our soup. Ours was strictly vegetarian (except for dashi) because that's what you eat when you're poor. The shrimp and chicken came in at lunch.

More than that, our family was a family of farmers, not fishermen. It makes sense that our soup then uses more root vegetables than anything else. But no matter what, it seems like all soups have mochi, daikon radish, carrots and gobo (burdock root). I used lotus root instead because I could not find burdock root at the asian market that day, and my father likes lotus root better anyway. I made sure to do mochi exactly like my grandmother used to. She always did "age-mochi" where she put the mochi in a fried tofu pouch instead of boiling it directly in the soup. This was largely so she would not have to wash the sticky rice off the bottom of the pot, but now it's our family tradition.

There were a few things my grandmother did that I no longer do. I no longer use kamaboko (these horrible pink processed fish cakes) and I no longer use konnyaku (really gross laxative yam jelly). Of course, I'm biased. I'm sure some people like them...

Feel free to ignore the amounts of ingredients. It changes depending on your family (for example, my father really likes taro root and I really like lotus root, so there is always lots and lots of lotus root in our soup

Ozoni (my new recipe and tradition) serves 5ish.

Ingredients

• 8 shiitake mushrooms, stems removed
• 1 4 inch piece of daikon radish, peeled and cut into circles
• 1 4 inch piece of lotus root, peeled and cut into circles
• 10 pieces of age (fried tofu skin)
• 10 pieces of mochi
• carrots, cut into circles
• 1 bag frozen satoimo (baby taro root)
• 1 pack tied kombu (they come tied like bowties from the asian market)
• 1/4 head of of a large napa cabbage
• Dashi
• soy sauce, sugar, salt to taste

Directions

1. Boil the fried tofu skin in a large pot for about 5 minutes to remove the oil. Cool the tofu in ice water and reserve the boiling liquid.
2. Add dashi to your tofu water. If preferred, add instant dashi (can be purchased from the asian market) and extra water. Season with a little soy as desired (and I love MSG, but I understand if you don't). This is more of stew than a liquid soup, so just need enough liquid to boil your vegetables.
3. Begin simmering the lotus root, daikon, taro root and mushrooms in your soup base. Cover with a lid for about 10 minutes
4. While simmering, squeeze the liquid out of your tofu pouches and make a slit in one side. Slip a small piece of mochi into your tofu pouch and tie off with kampyo or close with small kushiyaki skewers. Add the mochi pouches to the soup.
5. Add your carrots and kombu to the soup. The kombu is simmered in soy and sugar already, so it will give the soup a great sweetness. Adjust seasoning to taste
6. At the very end, add your napa cabbage on top of everything else so it can steam for 5 minutes before serving. Simmer until all vegetables are tender.

Happy New Year everyone!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Ethiopian Red Lentils

For a side dish to the Sik Sik Wat in the last post, I made these Ethiopian spiced red lentils. Red lentils are not as good for you as green lentils, being only 11% fiber as opposed to 31%, but they still have plenty of protein and are one of the healthiest foods.

These lentils are spicy and can act as a main dish as opposed to a side dish like I used them. If you prefer a thinner lentil stew, leave the water at 4 cups, but if you prefer a thicker paste, reduce the water to 3 1/2 cups. Either way, this dish is healthy and has great flavors of chili, onion, turmeric and cloves.

Note: you can find recipes for both the niter kibbeh and berbere spice in this post

Ethiopian Red Lentil Stew

Ingredients

• 1 cup red lentils
• 4 Tbsp niter kibbeh or clarified butter
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp berber seasoning
• 4 cups water
• salt to taste

Directions

1. Melt clarified butter in a large pot. Wash lentils
2. Add onion and garlic to butter, sautee until soft
3. Add 1 tbsp of berber seasoning, lentils and water. Simmer for 45 minutes or until walter is almost all evaporated and lentils are soft
4. Add remaining berber seasoning and salt to taste. Serve immediately.

For a side dish to the Sik Sik Wat in the last post, I made these Ethiopian spiced red lentils. Red lentils are not as good for you as green lentils, being only 11% fiber as opposed to 31%, but they still have plenty of protein and are one of the healthiest foods.

These lentils are spicy and can act as a main dish as opposed to a side dish like I used them. If you prefer a thinner lentil stew, leave the water at 4 cups, but if you prefer a thicker paste, reduce the water to 3 1/2 cups. Either way, this dish is healthy and has great flavors of chili, onion, turmeric and cloves.

Note: you can find recipes for both the niter kibbeh and berbere spice in this post

Ethiopian Red Lentil Stew

Ingredients

• 1 cup red lentils
• 4 Tbsp niter kibbeh or clarified butter
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp berber seasoning
• 4 cups water
• salt to taste

Directions

1. Melt clarified butter in a large pot. Wash lentils
2. Add onion and garlic to butter, sautee until soft
3. Add 1 tbsp of berber seasoning, lentils and water. Simmer for 45 minutes or until walter is almost all evaporated and lentils are soft
4. Add remaining berber seasoning and salt to taste. Serve immediately.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad