Strelnikov's Kitchen Corner - Part 1

[Strelnikov]

Strelnikov's Kitchen Corner

Belgian Beef Stew

This one is hard to screw up, even for the culinary-challenged.

Ingredients:
1 lb boneless stew beef
1 lb whole mushrooms
6 medium onions
1/4 stick butter
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp coarse ground black pepper
4 cloves fresh garlic (optional)
12 oz dark beer

Cut mushrooms in half lengthwise. Peel onions and slice thinly - about 1/8 inch. Peel garlic (if used) and dice finely. Set these items aside.

Cut beef up into bite-size pieces. Put flour and beef in a paper lunch bag or bread sack and shake until beef is thoroughly coated. Remove beef from bag and set aside. Discard flour.

In a large dutch oven, melt butter on stove top. When butter is melted, brown the floured beef completely, stirring constantly to prevent scorching. (If beef starts to stick, add more butter.)

When beef is browned, add mushrooms, onions, spices and beer. Cover and simmer on stovetop, stirring often, for about 2 hours. At the end of the time, if the sauce (gravy) is too thin, uncover and simmer for another 15-20 minutes.

Serve with buttered new potatoes, buttered dumpling egg noodles, or rice. Add a green salad and a fresh baguette. You can serve a red table wine with this meal, but dark beer works better. Serves 4-6, depending on degree of hunger and gluttony.


NOTES:
-Instead of simmering on stove top, you can cook covered in a 350 deg oven for 2 hrs, which avoids the need for stirring; rest of instructions are the same. (Preheat the oven to 350 deg first.)
-For the beer, I prefer Beck's dark, but any decent European, Australian or Mexican beer will serve - for example, Corona works just fine. (DON'T use American, Canadian or British beer.)
-Instead of fresh garlic, you can use prepared crushed garlic in water. Substitute quantity per the instructions on the jar.
-I've been conservative with the quantities of spices. After the first time, you may want to adjust these to your taste. Go ahead, you won't hurt my feelings.


Sorry, Q, but I don't have an eggplant recipe. Never use the stuff myself. Bon appetit!

Strelnikov

 

[qjakal]

Stuck!

I'm still working on cutting the mushrooms...no time for chit chat now...lol! Q

 

[Haltickling]

Hal's (Hell's?) Kitchen corner

The stew sounds delicious, Strelnikov. I feel tempted to add one of my own favorite recipes:

I am a hobby-cook as well, and I have a tendency towards the traditional Mediterranean cuisine, especially 'Provencale'-style. One of their best dishes is Ratatouille. The preparation is less difficult than the pronunciation…

Ingredients:
- 1 eggplant
- 2 zucchinis
- 2 large, white, fist-sized onions
- 3 mild bell peppers (green, red, yellow, not the hot Mexican variety)
- 2 cans of 'Pizza Tomatoes' (skinless small chunks)
- several garlic cloves
- herbs (fresh or dried): thyme, basilicum, origano,
- salt, pepper

Chop the vegetables into bite-sized chunks. That's the biggest part of the work; the fun part begins with the famous words: "Take a large pot". Let some small-cut parts of the onions become glassy in ordinary, neutral vegetable oil, then add the eggplants first. Next are the Zucchini and the big onions after about 5 minutes. Stir well. Then add the canned tomatoes, the bell peppers, the herbs, salt, and freshly ground black pepper from the pepper-mill. Press the garlic into the pot. Then let everything cook on low flame for about half an hour, in the open pot, frequently stirring it. About five minutes before it's ready, add a dash of really first-class olive oil (Extra-Vergine).

I like to eat it as a light vegetarian dish, with some crusty French bread alongside, and a glass of excellent red wine. The amount is for 3-4 people, but you can easily freeze the rest in portion size bags, to nuke them in the microwave whenever you like.

It also gives an excellent side dish to lamb-cutlets provencale (with a crust of Dijon mustard, herbs, and a few breadcrumbs), with rice or French style potatoes (Pommes Croquettes or Pommes Dauphine, some kind of oven-baked mashed potatoes), or along with freshly grilled fish. Bon appétit!

 

[Strelnikov]

Cooking Times

I've adjusted the cooking times given in my Belgian Beef Stew recipe. Nothing else is changed. No real harm done, anyone who had tried it would have figured out the need for additional cooking time for themself. Sorry everyone - I generally don't cook from recipes, had to reconstruct this one from memory.

Trust Hal to have an eggplant recipe. I'll have to give it a try.

Strelnikov

 

[qjakal]

Nice Hal!

I skipped the zukes(used more eggplant)...used fresh tomatoes and doubled up on the garlic (hey..it's an Italian thing 🙂 )....came out VERY well! And I don't know what 3-4 people you're hanging out with, but there were NO leftovers to freeze here...lol!

And I tried to use Corona ,Strel, but it was a hot day and the darn stuff kept evaporating into my neckhole! Q

 

[Strelnikov]

RESET

Since the lady asked - I'll bump this one back up to the top.

Strelnikov

 

[Strelnikov]

Here's a variation on Hal's Ratatouille recipe, from the north of Italy.

1/2 lb Italian sausage
1/2 lb whole mushrooms
2 large bell peppers
4 medium onions
12 Italian tomatoes
4 cloves fresh garlic
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp coarse ground black pepper

Prepare the vegetables first. Scald, peel and dice the tomatoes. Cut the mushrooms in half, lengthwise. Cut the bell peppers up into strips about 1/2 in wide and 3-4 in long. Peel and slice the onions about 1/4 in thick. Peel and chop the garlic. Set aside.

Skin the sausage and crumble into a large skillet. Cook on medium heat until browned. Pour off the grease, break meat into small chunks, then add olive oil, garlic and onions. Cook on medium heat until onions are glassy, then add remaining ingredients. Simmer on low heat for 30 minutes, stirring often. Feeds 4.

Serve with pasta or with crusty Italian bread (I like to serve both.) Add a caesar salad if desired. Goes well with full bodied red table wines like Chianti. And like Hal's recipe, it freezes well if you've made too much.


NOTES:
-Ground beef can be substituted for Italian sausage if a pork-free meal is desired. Use 1/2 lb ground chuck and add 1 tsp Fennel Seed and one additional clove of garlic (total of 5 cloves for the recipe.)
-If you don't want to fool with fresh tomatoes, or they are out of season, substitute two 12 oz cans of plain diced tomatoes in juice.
-Instead of fresh garlic, you can use prepared crushed garlic in water. Substitute for fresh garlic per the instructions on the bottle.
-As previously, I've ben conservative with the spices. Adjust to taste - personally, I like a lot more garlic.

Strelnikov