Beef and Butternut Squash Stew

I found a few recipes for a beef and butternut squash stew so decided I would combine them and make my own. Turned out pretty delicious if you ask me! What I learned from making this on a whim is have everything chopped and ready to go. Steps move fast once you start adding things and there isn't necessarily enough time to chop in between. Next time, I might add some green beans to the stew - which is not mentioned below. It would add some color to the dish and a nice crunch. You would just need to add them to the stew in the last 10 minutes of cooking.


Ingredients: 
1 lb stewing beef
1 tbs all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 pepper
2 tbs olive oil, divided
1 small onion, diced
5 cremini mushrooms, thick cut bit sized pieces
3 garlic clove, small chop
2 cups butternut squash, bite sized cubes
1 1/2 tsp fresh rosemary
2 tsp fresh thyme
1/4 cup of dry white wine (i.e, pinot grigio)
1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes
2 1/2 cups of beef broth
1 tbs cornstarch

In a large zip lock bag, add the stewing beef (bite sized pieces - might have to cut some down depending on how big they come from the store), flour and salt and pepper. Close and shake the bag until the beef is well coated. Set aside.

Dice onion and set aside. Cut mushrooms and set aside. Chop garlic and set aside. Peel and cube butternut squash into bite sized pieces (or do what I did and get the pre-cut stuff from the grocery store because it is hard to peel butternut squash) and set aside. Finely dice the rosemary and thyme, set aside.

In a large pot, heat 1 tbs of olive oil over medium heat.  Add the diced onions and cook for about 2 minutes until they begin to soften. Add the mushrooms, garlic, thyme and rosemary. Cook for another 2 minutes. Remove everything from the pot into a bowl on the side. Increase the heat to medium-high. Add 1 tbs of olive oil. Add half the meat. Cook until the meat is brown and golden. Set aside in the same bowl as the onions etc. Meat does not need to be fully cooked - just going for browning on the outside. If needed, add more olive oil and cook the rest of the meat. When the second batch of meat is done, add the onions and first batch back in.  Add the butternut squash and mix together. Deglaze the pan with wine wine. Scrape up any of the little brown bits that might have formed on the bottom of the pan. Add diced tomatoes and stir (continue scraping the bottom of the pan using the tomato liquid). Add 2 and a 1/2 cups of beef broth (Want to just cover everything in the pot) and give it a good stir. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce to low heat. Cook for 1 hour. After the hour, carefully give it a taste - you may want to add some salt and pepper - maybe a little more thyme or rosemary if you wish. To thicken it up at this point, in a small bowl ladle in one big spoonful of the stew broth. Add 1 tbs of cornstarch. Whisk until smooth and no lumps. Pour this back into the pot and stir. Allow a few minutes for it to boil and thicken.

Stews are great served with rice or above we served it with couscous which was quite good.

Thai Basil Beef Bowls

Well these were DELICIOUS. Nice flavour. Easy to make. Not much else to say here. Followed the recipe at every step. 

Thai Basil Beef Bowls 

Serves 4

• Ingredients:
  1 1/2 cups jasmine rice or long-grain white rice for serving

• 1 lb flank steak, sliced against the grain into thin strips

• 1 tsp cornstarch

• 2 Tbsp + 1 tsp vegetable oil

• 1 red bell pepper, cored and seeded, diced into 2-inch strips

• 1/2 large yellow onion, thinly sliced

• 1 1/2 Tbsp minced garlic

• 1 cup matchstick carrots

• 1 cup fresh basil leaves (roughly chop larger leaves), plus more for garnish
• 
  

Sauce:

• 3 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce

• 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch

• 1/3 cup water

• 1 1/2 Tbsp fish sauce

• 1 Tbsp oyster sauce

• 2 Tbsp packed brown sugar

• 1 Tbsp fresh lime juice

• 1 Tbsp Sambal Oelek, or more to taste (optional)
• 
  Directions: 
• Cook rice according to directions listed on package.

• For the sauce: In a small mixing bowl whisk together soy sauce and cornstarch until smooth. Stir in water, fish sauce, oyster sauce, brown sugar, lime juice and Sambal Oelek, set aside.

• For the beef and veggies: Toss beef with 1 tsp oil and 1 tsp cornstarch. Heat 2 Tbsp oil in a large skillet or wok over moderately high heat. Add beef and cook until browned on both sides but still slightly under-cooked in the centre. Transfer beef to a plate while leaving oil in skillet. Reduce heat slightly, add bell pepper, onions and garlic and sauté until crisp tender, about 2 - 3 minutes (if needed you can add another 1 tsp of oil to the skillet). Add carrots, whisk sauce mixture once more then pour into skillet and allow to simmer, stirring frequently, until thickened, about 1 minute. Return beef to skillet along with basil leaves, toss until basil has just wilted. Serve immediately over cooked rice garnished with small basil leaves and sesame seeds if desired.

Potato & Cheese Pierogies and Braised Red Wine Beef Short Ribs

Braised Red Wine Beef Short Ribs

Serves 5-6

Ingredients: 

- 2 tablespoons olive oil

- 3-4 pounds bone in beef short ribs

- salt & pepper

- 1 sweet onion, chopped

- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed

- 2 carrots, peeled and chopped

- 1 (6 ounce can) tomato paste

- 2 cups mushrooms (we used cremini, original recipe uses button), chunked or sliced

- 2 cups red wine (plus more for drinking)

- 1 cup beef broth

- 1 bay leaves

- 2 sprigs fresh thyme

- pinch of red pepper flakes

- 1/2 cup fresh chopped parsley

This recipe can be done in a crockpot, if you've got the time, or there is a "faster" method that still takes a few hours that is done in the oven. My cooking partner, Jessica,  was off to a little bit of a slow start this morning so we opted for the "shorter" oven method. 

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 325. Heat olive oil in a large dutch oven on the stove over medium-high heat. Add the ribs to the skillet and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sear the ribs on all sides for about 1 minute per side. Remove dutch oven from heat. Add the chopped onion, garlic, carrots, mushrooms, tomato paste, red wine, broth, bay leaves, thyme and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Cover the pot and place in the oven. cook for 2/12 to 3 hours or until the meat shreds easily and falls off the bones. Check on it once or twice while the ribs are cooking to make sure enough liquid remains in the pot. 

Original blogger served with frozen store bought pierogies (that she cooked obviously...). We thought that'd be delicious, but then we also thought why use frozen store bought pierogies when you can make them yourself?! Especially with all that cooking time where you're doing nothing. 

Homemade Potato and Cheese Pierogies 

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1/2 cup water

1 egg

1/2 tsp salt

3 large potatoes

8 ounces sharp-tasting cheese (we used extra old white cheddar - the expensive stuff!!), grated

1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped

1/2 tsp pepper

splash heavy cream 

Instructions:

Mix flour, water, egg and salt together in a bowl. On a lightly floured surface, knead dough until smooth. Cover dough with the bowl and let rest for 30 minutes. 

Peel and chop potatoes. Boil in water until soft (like you're making mashed potatoes). Drain and put back in pot. Mash the potatoes. Add cheese, thyme, pepper and splash of cream. Mix together. Set aside. There is a lot of cheese in these. Do not be afraid.

Roll out dough about 1/8-inch thick. Using a glass (or a circular cookie cutter... if you have that) that is about 3inches in diameter, cut out little circles. Repeat until all the dough is used. After you do the initial cuts, you can role the extra dough up and flatten it out again to make more. We got about 30 pierogies. Place about 1 tsp of potato cheese mixture in the middle of each circle. Fold in half and pinch the ends together. Using a fork press the edges down. Boil another pot of water. Drop the piergoies in batches into the water and simmer for about 4-8 minutes (until the pierogies float). Drain and fry in butter for a few minutes for a nice golden brown color.  

Chili Con Carne

MM this was good. I severely burnt my mouth however because I was super excited and it was really really hot. So be careful. This is basically just chili... but with a little bit of mexican influence and on a whole other level.

Ingredients:
2 cloves of garlic
2-3 medium carrots
2-3 stick of celery
2 red peppers
olive oil
1 heaped tsp chili powder
1 heaped tsp ground cumin
1 heaped tsp ground cinnamon
salt & pepper
1 can of chickpeas
1 can of red kidney beans
1 can of tomatoes
1 lb ground beef
1 small bunch fresh coriander
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Serve with basmati rice, yogurt, guacamole & lime wedge

Directions:
1. Peel and chop onions, garlic, carrots and celery into very small pieces. The original instructions said "finely chop", but that seemed like a lot of work so I just cut them all very small. No need to be exact, just chop away.
2. Halve red peppers, remove seeds and stock. Roughly chop into bite site pieces.
3. Heat a pot (or deep dish pan) on medium-high heat. Add in about 1 tbs of olive oil and all the chopped veggies. Stir occasionally. When the vegetable begin to soften (5 or so minutes), add chili powder, cumin, cinnamon, a good pinch of salt and pepper. Stir every 30 seconds or so for a few more minutes.
4. Once the vegetables have softened and gained a little bit of color, add the drained chickpeas, drained kidney beans and tomatoes and mix. (At this point I was ready to eat it because it looked and smelled delicious).
5. Add in the raw ground beef and break any larger chunks up with a wooden spoon. Mix around. Fill the empty can of tomatoes half full of water. Add to pot. Mix. Add finely chopped coriander stocks, and put leaves aside.
6. Add balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low and simmer with a lid slightly askew for an hour. Stirring occasionally to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pot.
7. Serve a top Basmati rice, with a dollop of plain greek yogurt, guacamole and coriander leaves.

Guacamole
Don't know how to make guacamole? SUPER easy. I find guacamole is different (but the same) almost anywhere you try it. It is almost always the same ingredients, but they change up the amount they use. Some places it super lime-y, some places it spicy, some places its garlicy. It is really all about taste. What you'll need:

ripe avocado
lime juice
salt & pepper
purple onion, chopped
hot sauce (Valentina, tabasco, sriracha - whatever you like... but preferably mexican) -
garlic powder (or real garlic chopped... but I was lazy)

Halve avocado, carefully remove the pit from one side. Scoop out the insides of both halves into a bowl. Begin to mush with a fork (or masher). If the avocado is ripe enough, a fork should be just fine. Add lime juice. Continue to mash or stir. Add the rest of the ingredients. Mix. Tada!

As I mentioned, it is completely what you prefer which determines how much to put in. I like mine lime-y and garlic-y with a liiiiittle bit of a kick. Tonight I used 1/2 lime, 1/4 purple onion, 1/4 tsp Valentina hot sauce, 1/8th tsp garlic powder. Pinch of salt and pepper.

Beef and Bean Burritos

Happy Cinco de Mayo! We had burritos planned for Tuesday until I realized today was Cinco de Mayo and thought it be more appropriate today. These were muy delicioso!! I was full after one but craving more and my brother helped himself to a second one.

Recipe below makes 4-5 burritos.

1 lb lean ground beef
1 white onion, chopped
1 can (246 ml) red enchilada sauce
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 can refried beans
3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese (plus extra for sprinkling)
1 package mexican rice (its a thing... from old el paso)
1 avocado (either made into guacamole or chopped if not ready for guac)
Shredded (chopped) lettuce
Source cream
Cilantro
Flour tortillas

Start the rice and follow the instructions on the box. The rice takes approximately 20 minutes to cook. Brown the beef in a frying pan over medium high heat. Once the meat begins to brown, add chopped onions. Cook for a few minutes and then add the cumin, oregano, chili and garlic powder. Cook for a minute. Add 1/2 the can of sauce. Reduce heat to low. Heat up refried beans in a pot. Add 1/3 of the cheese to the beans. Prepare your burrito... I did mine in this order: refried beans, rice, beef, cheese, avocado, lettuce. Fold the burrito closed and place in a baking pan, seam side down. Once you've prepared the 4-5 burritos, pour the remained on the enchilada sauce over top and sprinkle the remaining cheese. Cook under the broiler until the cheese is melted and bubbling. Top with sour cream and cilantro.

Shepherd's Pie II

 Shepherd's pie take two! I made a sweet potato shepherd's pie a few months back. This is different twist. I made enough to serve 8 people.

Ingredients:

• 7 medium sized potatoes 
• 1/2 cup milk (approximately)
• 2 tbs butter (approximately)
• pinch of salt and big pinch of pepper
• pinch of garlic powder
• 1 1/2 (small) packs of lean ground beef
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/4-1/2 purple onion
• 3 sprigs of fresh thyme
• sprinkle of salt and pepper
• 1/4-1/3 of a cup each (approximate) of spicy gourmet BBQ, chicken/ribs bbq sauce/ ketchup
• 1 tbs worcestershire sauce 
• 1 cup of frozen corn
• 1-2 stocks of celery
• 6 baby carrots

Directions: 

• Preheat oven to 350. 
• Peel and cut potatoes. Place in pot of water. Bring to a boil until potatoes allow a fork to pierce easily. Drain water. Mash potatoes with a masher. Add butter, milk, salt, pepper and garlic powder. I also used a hand mixer to try and get them smooth. 
• While potatoes are boiling, put ground beef in a pan. Brown meat. Depending on how much grease there is, you may have to strain the beef or scoop some out. There was only a light coating so I used it. 
• Add chopped onion and garlic to the beef. Stir and let onions soften a bit. Add chopped celery and carrots. Add chopped fresh thyme, salt, pepper. Add BBQ sauce/ketchup/worcestershire sauce. Add frozen corn. 
• Line a baking dish (slightly greased, especially on the sides) with the meat/veg mixture. Top with a smooth layer of potatoes. 
• Bake for 30 minutes at 350 or until bubbling. Then broil for a few minutes to crisp up the top. 

You can add grated cheese on top of the potato, or even in the meat mixture, which would be super delicious. But my sister's boyfriend doesn't like cheese (you're weird Ryan) so I only added it on top to part of the finished product! 

Spicy Thai Beef

I found a Thai restaurant on Queen Street recently that had very good food and an amazing patio. Conor got a Spicy Thai Beef dish and it was SO good. I then wanted to learn how to recreate it so I looked for a few recipes. This was the best (looking) recipe I found, however I didn't follow it entirely.

Changes to the ingredients:

• no green bell peppers - red and yellow only. 
• extra garlic (approximately 3 cloves). 
• lots more red curry paste (approximately 4-5 tablespoons).
• an entire can of coconut milk
• zest of an entire lime and juice of 2 limes. 
• no bamboo shoot because I forgot to buy it.
• Around 4 tablespoons of fish sauce. 
• Green onions for a garnish. 

Changes to directions: 

• Cooked the beef first. Then put to the side. 
• Cooked the vegetables second. 
• Added lime juice when lime zest was added.

That's about it! My family really enjoyed it, but I think I was too critical because of the spicy beef I'd had recently at the restaurant. I wanted the sauce to be thicker, sort of like the thai soup I made this summer. Maybe less of the coconut water and more of the thick part of the coconut. I'm not sure. A good start though! 

Shepherd's Pie with Sweet Potato

I'm pretty broke so I didn't want to go to the grocery store... plus I'm pretty lazy. However, I was lucky enough to have all the ingredients for Shepherd's Pie... sort of. I only had sweet potato, not normal potatoes. But sweet potato being my new found love, I didn't see why it wouldn't work for a Shepherd's Pie.

My dad has always made Shepherd's Pie for the family. And a good Shepherd's Pie at that. His recipe is very simple and delicious, but I jazzed it up a bit because I was feeling fancy.

I don't have measurements because I buy meat in bulk and then freeze it in different portion sizes. Then I guess for the rest of the ingredients depending on how much meat I'm using. Any questions on how much of what to put in it though, I'd be happy to hazard a guess!

Ingredients:
for the meat part...
ground beef
onions
garlic
BBQ Sauce (this is me being fancy)
Oregano
S & P

for the potatoes...

sweet potatoes (or normal potatoes if you have them)
milk

butter

S & P

garlic (this is me being fancy)

extra...

frozen corn

cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Fry up ground beef in a pan. While the beef is frying, dice up onions and garlic. Also chop up potatoes and put into a pot of water. Bring to a boil.

3. When cooked, drain the grease from the ground beef. Add the onions, garlic, oregano, s & p, and BBQ to the meat. Mix around. 

4. When the potatoes have cooked, drain and mash. Add milk, butter, s & p, and garlic.

5. Transfer the meat into an oven safe baking dish. Add a layer of frozen corn and then a layer of mashed potatoes on top of the ground beef. Cover with shredded cheddar cheese.

6. Bake for 40 minutes. You can also put it under the broiler for a couple of minutes (keep an eye on it!) to crisp up the top a little more.

I really liked the addition of the BBQ sauce. It made the meat part really yummy. My only criticism for this dish was there wasn't enough meat (because I didn't defrost enough)!

Beef Pockets

Working from the Chicken Pocket recipe from the other night, I made a beef version. I can't decide which I liked better. I think the chicken one. Maybe if I had put more cheese in the beef pocket, it would have been better.

Before you start, make sure your puff pastry has 'defrosted' for 2 hours in the fridge or overnight.

1. Preheat the oven to 400.
2. Fry up some ground beef, put aside.
3. Fry up onions and peppers (I used red, yellow and orange) in some butter (in the ground beef pan). Add some garlic and continue to fry.
4. Add the beef back to the pan and add some taco seasoning to taste. (I had some left over from when I made tacos a while ago - maybe 1/2 a package).
5. Unfold your pastry sheet (onto a floured surface - or keep it on the parchment paper it came with)
6. Spread softened cream cheese evenly over pastry sheet leaving about 1/2 inch space along the edges.
7. Evenly spread fresh spinach over 1/2 the puff pastry sheet, again leaving 1/2 inch space along the edges.
8. Evenly spread the beef/vegetable mixture on top of the spinach, again leaving 1/2 inch space along the edges.
9. Top with desired amount of cheese. (I used mozzarella because I had it. Cheddar would have been good too. Or both. Maybe do both).
10. Bake for 20 minutes and enjoy! Be careful, the insides get very hot!

I think these puff pastry things are going to be my new thing. I'm going to try making a dessert. I'm thinking raspberry, strawberry and cream cheese filled or something. We shall see!

My sister made her own 'vegetarian' version of this tonight as well. She filled it with caramelized onions, roasted butternut squash (bite sized pieces tossed with olive oil, salt & pepper, and hot pepper flakes and bake for 30-40 minutes at 400), spinach, parmesan, cream cheese and mozzarella. She said it was super tasty... and it sounds like it to me!

She also folded it differently, but it looks kind of cool this way. Perhaps I will do my dessert like this!

Guinness Beef Stew

I got together with my friend Nate to cook dinner the other night. He suggested something 'wintery' due to the cold weather and stew popped in my head. My dad makes a very good stew which I'd made before but I wanted to make something different. My housemate, Heather, told me about a stew her family makes that used Guinness, so I asked her for the recipe. It had very few ingredients and was very easy to make.

Below is the recipe and directions with my input.

Ingredients: 
1 kg rump steak (I just used normal stewing beef)
2 tablespoons drippings (I used some bacon fat that I had lying around)
2 large brown onions (I just noticed the recipe calls for two, I only used one!)
2 cloves of garlic (I through in a little extra, because why not?)
1/4 plain flour
1 cup beef stock (definitely did not seem like enough liquid, I ended up using 2 cups)
1 cup Guinness (I used a whole 'tall can')
2 large carrots, sliced
2 bay leaves,
1 sprig fresh thyme (I through in a couple)
ground pepper

Additions this time:
Salt
Potatoes

Additions next time:
Green beans

Directions: 
1. If not already, cut beef into 1 inch cubes or bite size pieces. Set aside. Heat 1 tablespoon of drippings in a pot (which you will use to cook your stew in) and cook onions until pale golden. Add garlic. Cook for another minute. Remove from pan, set aside.
2. In the same pan, heat the remaining drippings and add meat. Cook quickly until the meat is brown on all sides. Reduce the heat and stir in the flour until the meat is coated.
3. Pour in beef stock and stir - should turn into a thick smooth sauce. Add the Guinness and stir. Let the mixture simmer and then add in the onions, carrots and herbs (I also add some bite sized potato pieces at this point).
4. Simmer gently for 1 and 1/2 hours uncovered, stirring occasionally. Sauce will reduce and thicken.

The stew was good, but I think it was missing a green vegetable. Hence my suggestion for green beans! I'm also really glad I added the potatoes. The meat was perfectly tender and the vegetables were cooked at an hour and we were bored of waiting so we ate it!

Great mix up from traditional stew. The Guinness provides an interesting taste!

Goat's Cheese Burger on a Everything Bagel

YUMMY! Look at that goat's cheese just drip out of the burger! So good.

Burger instructions: mix ground beef, ketchup, egg, breadcrumbs, onions, garlic, thyme, s & p. The measurements all depend on how much ground beef you're using.

Separate the mixture into the amount of patties you want to have. Split each patty in two and insert goat's cheese in the middle and put it back together, reshaping if necessary. Place on hot grill and cook for the desired amount of time. I think mine took about 5-8 minutes. I wasn't really paying attention.

I put my burger on an everything bagel because I needed to use it up and didn't have any burger buns. I topped it with fried mushrooms and red peppers, spinach and arugula and a garlic mayo. The garlic mayo was just a little bit of mayo, garlic and thyme.

Chili

Tonight I made chili. I looked at a few websites for recipe ideas, but didn't really use a recipe when I made it. I also didn't measure any of my ingredients because I did it by taste. The ingredients were: ground beef, onions, garlic, yellow bell peppers, mushrooms, diced tomatoes, kidney beans, corn, beer, chili powder, cumin, oregano, salt and pepper.
First I cooked the beef and once that was basically done I added the onions, peppers, mushrooms and garlic. Once those cooked for a bit I added chili powder, cumin, oregano and mixed it around. Then I tossed in about 2/3 of a beer that I found in my fridge and let that boil down a bit. Then I tossed in the beans (which were drained and rinsed first) and diced tomatoes. There was too much liquid at this point, so before adding the corn (which only needs to be heated up) I let it boil down for approximately 30 minutes. I tasted it and then added a little more of each of the spices to taste. I topped it off with some sour cream and some shredded cheddar cheese. It was pretty good! My housemate took a bite and then asked to have some herself! Definitely will make this again.