Cumin Fatty Beef

Tis the season for hotpot...and sometimes we forget we can't eat as much as we used to in our youth. In this case, we had an extra pound of fatty sliced beef leftover. It can't be refrozen...so what to do? This:

Fatty sliced beef
Onion
Cumin
Caraway seeds
Chili pepper 

Soy sauce
Sesame oil
Salt
Green onion garnish

Sauté the onions with the spices, add the beef. Continue sautéing with the rest of the seasoning until all the liquid is evaporated. Then garnish with green onions for color. Goes great with rice! (What's even better is to do this with sliced lamb.) Enjoy!

Beef stew

 

Another stew...cuz it's still cold out. =)

I used veal brisket as stewing meat...and these ingredients:

 

Tomatoes
Onions
Caraway seeds
Paprika
Cumin
Ketchup
Srirracha   

Rice wine

S&P to taste

Onions were softened first with the herbs. Then the brisket pieces were browned with the onions. Then a dash of rice wine (I didn't have red wine in the house.) The tomatoes went in after that along with ketchup (I didn't have tomato paste in the house) and srirracha. Heat was turned low for a nice simmer. And the consistency turned out just fine with the tomatoes releasing the water it had. I didn't have to add any more liquid surprisingly.

The only down side was that I only had about 40 minutes to stew the meat before it was served. While it was cooked through, it remained on the chewy side. It tasted great though.

My husband made a variation of this recently but it got to sit in a thermal cooker overnight. OMG. The brisket was melt in your mouth. I just need to plan a little further in advance....like I would need to for the ox tail stew. =)

Rosemary Lamb Chops

I love lamb....rack of lamp, lamb shank, lamb chops. This is a super simple marinade I used for a pack of chops we had:

Rosemary
Balsamic vinegar
Garlic
Caraway seeds
Olive Oil



Crowding seven chops onto a pan isn't the greatest idea. It traps moisture and kind of prevents the meat from searing very well to keep the juices in. I probably should've also used the cast iron pan instead...but was too lazy to have to also work with an oven mitt since the handle would get too hot on a gas range stove. But you can see a nice char on the chops. Yums!