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. =)

Ox-tail Stew

 

Winter is stew season....love! Hence this will be the Valentines post....though oxtail doesn't sound romantic. I'm non-cliche like that.

This is my first try at ox tail stew. Actually, I bought the ox-tail for soup, but since I didn't have any other meat defrosted, I used it for dinner instead. 

 

Ox tail

Tomatoes
Carrots
Veggie stock
Onion
Garlic
Wine
Ketchup (decent substitute for color when you don't have tomato paste)
S&p

Stews need to simmer for a while to get the meat fall-off-the-bone soft. I started cooking it at 5:30pm and we ate at 7pm. While it tasted very good, especially on rice, it was chewy. In this case, ox tail also has some tendon/cartilage that adds to the chewiness if not cooked long enough. I should've started the stew after lunch and then let it stew away in a slow cooker or thermal cooker for the afternoon before consuming at dinner. Ah well, lesson learned. Still tasty. =)

Green Chives & Eggs

A super easy dish to make when lacking ingredients and/or inspiration. And it tastes good.

Eggs
Green Chives
Tomatos
Ketchup squirt
S&p to taste

Pot Braised Ribs

I love eating ribs...the meat is especially tasty and tender. Probably because of all the fat...but whatevs. If you're going to eat ribs, it better be fatty and good. Just don't eat it often. I cut up the ribs into two's and then boiled it in water for ten minutes to get rid of some of the fat and scuz. Then I drained the ribs and in another pot, started the marinade in which I'll eventually braise the ribs in:

Onion - sauteed until almost carmelized
Tomatoes
Paprika
Bbq sauce
Ketchup
Sirracha
Honey
Chicken stock
Apple cider vinegar

The ribs simmered in that sauce for...I dunno....40 minutes? Until the meat was soft and everything smelled heavenly. Then it was served and paired with the Beet and Brussel Sprouts salad.

I liked the sauce with onions and tomatoes more than I liked the ribs...but I think that's account my pregnancy tastebuds still throwing off the taste of meat. One day...in five months or so...this will taste as good as it smelled.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

I was venturing into making my own pizzas from scratch. It seemed so easy whenever I watch it on TV. Or even when I watch people make it from scratch at restaurants. Restaurants charge some $17 for a simple thin crust pizza and I'm SURE the raw supplies cost $4 tops. Anyways...so this is my first attempt:



I mixed BBQ sauce, ketchup and sriracha for my base sauce. Topped it with sauteed chicken slices, mushrooms, peppers, sauteed onions and some smokey gouda. (I would've used mozzarella but I didn't plan ahead and again, didn't have any.)



End result was really tasty actually! THOUGH....you know how I don't like baking? Well the dough for the crust (I don't remember which site I got the recipe from...I just ran a search for "thin crust pizza dough") didn't turn out as well as I'd like. I think I killed the yeast mixture or maybe I didn't pour it into the flour right. It's just not my thing. The dough didn't bubble and was pretty hard. Almost like a soft cracker. BUT, it still tasted really good!

Veal Flank Stew and Spring Salad

I bought some veal flank meat and thought a stew would be nice....but as Spring is here, pairing it with a fresh salad would be even nicer.

Stew:
Tomatoes
Mushrooms
Veal flank
Onion
Garlic
Cumin
Paprika
Sugar
Sriracha
BBQ Sauce
Ketchup
Tomato Paste
Various herbs that seemed to smell good together

Salad:
Spring Greens
Naval Orange cut to bite sizes
Chopped Almonds

Dressing:
Olive Oil
Grainy mustard
Honey
Lemon Juice

Three Color Stir Fry

After the pork rib and beans dish, I was reminded about all the stir fries I used to cook though my university years. Meat and veggies into the frying pan or wok, make some kind of sauce and voila...your one-dish dinner is ready to go. There was always enough to pack for lunch the next day as well. After, oh, seven years of various stir fry combos, despite all the different meat/veggie/sauce combos you can get out of it, I got tired of it. I stuck to separate meat and veggie meals for a while.

So on a day I forgot to defrost meat, but had eggs, and had some remaining beans now on the brink of decay, I decided to give the stir fry another go.

Green beans
Tomatoes
Eggs (fry ahead of time and add it back in when you add the sauce)

For the sauce:
Cornstarch
Sugar
Soy sauce
==============> The above three ingedients look familiar? Not only are they the base meat marinade, they're also the base to any Asian sauce. Make a slurry with cornstarch and water, add the sugar and soy sauce, then you can either just use that or add additional condiments for different flavor combos. I added:

Ketchup
Fermented Chili Bean paste



I think my husband misses the heartier meat and veggie meals, but the stir fry with rice was tasty. =)

Pork Rib Stew & Braised Purple Cabbage

It's getting cold out...and as such, my mind is starting to think of hearty soups and stews. And cooked veggies. This recent experiment turned out decently though I think the pork rib stew flavors could be stronger.

Pork stew:
Pork riblets
Onion
Lime juice
Oregano
Sugar
Chili powder
Soy sauce
Ketchup

Braised Purple Cabbage:
Purple cabbage
Apple
Raisins
Honey
Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Salt to taste

And the cooked cabbage turned out pretty decently too. My husband had gotten tired of the slaw over the summer so to change the texture I tried this. The apples add a nice sweet/tartness to the mix.

All the above was served with brown basmati rice mixed with red quinoa.

Quick BBQ Marinade

I've only made BBQ sauce from scratch once. It's a lot of work. It takes a lot of time. And like most people, we don't have that kind of time. So this is my quick BBQ marinade:

Store bought BBQ sauce
Ketchup
Sriracha

In whatever combination you find tasty.
So far...it works every time to produce tasty wings or ribs.