Beef and Corn Quesadillas

I have had a meeting after work every night this week except last night.  I wanted to make something that did not require pulling it from a plastic bag and putting it in the microwave.  The problem is that I did not think ahead at all and did not want to leave my apartment once I was in it, so whatever the recipe was, I had to have all the ingredients.  I pulled out the cookbooks and binder of recipes in search of something.
I kept finding things that I could make minus one ingredient that was not that random, I just didn't have them on hand, like peanuts. I ended up flipping through my latest Real Simple and finding a recipe for Beef Quesadillas. I didn't have all the ingredients, but it gave me some inspiration for my own recipe.  I mixed up some of the veggies I had on hand and needed to use before they went bad and added extra spices.  They turned out to be really good and I have enough for lunch tomorrow.  I think the measurements below are close to what I mixed in, but I didn't measure anything.

 Beef and Corn Quesadillas

• 1/4 Red Onion, diced
• 1/4 Red Bell Pepper, diced
• 1/2 Box (about 5 oz) Frozen Corn
• 12 oz Ground Beef
• Cayenne Pepper
• Salt & Black Pepper
• Mike's Dried Chili Mix 
• lots of Cheese
• Taco Shells

1. Warm about a tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet and add onion, pepper and corn.  Mix over medium heat for about 5 minutes. 
2. Add the beef, about a 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper, and 1/2 tsp chili mix. Cook, breaking up the beef with a spoon, until no longer pink, 3 to 5 minutes more. 
3. In a clean skillet warm about a 1/2 tablespoon of oil on medium low heat. Toss in a taco shell and spin it around to oil one side, then flip it over to oil the other.  Allow one side of the sides to slightly brown.  
4. Flip over the shell and add in about a 1 cup of the beef mixture and 1/4 cup of cheese on half of the shell.  Fold the other half of the shell over. Allow the shell to brown on one side before carefully flipping it over to brown the other. Once the cheese is melted remove it from the pan and cut into quarters. 

Enjoy!

Coconut & Beef Curry with Noodles

Monday night was time to cook with something completely new that I had not tried ever in any form.  I had two new ingredients in this recipe, coconut milk and Vermicelli.  The recipe came from my new cookbook Fresh Flavor Fast from Everyday Food.

It was really easy and quick to make once I sliced everything up.  I have to be annoyed here for a moment: all recipes these days have the amount of time it takes to cook, but they don't account for the time it takes to cut, dice, mice, slice, etc before you get to "thinly sliced lengthwise."  All that cutting takes much longer than 25 minutes.  Returning to your normal blog post: It was totally worth the time.  It was really good, the only change I would have made was adding some of my brothers dried chili mixture.  I also screwed up, as usual, I thought I had curry paste, but I had roasted red chili paste instead, so I guess it wasn't really curry.  I will have to try it with actual curry sometime. 

Since I didn't feel like cutting the recipe in half or quarter, I made the full 4 servings and saved it for lunches this week.  I am picky about my leftovers, I hate it when things start to fall apart, will not eat leftover burgers or hot dogs, the list continues. I was worried that the peppers might be kinda gross soggy, but they were fine and the flavor was still great. 

Coconut & Beef Curry with Noodles

• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 8 oz. vermicelli (rice noodles) 
• 2 Tbsp. corn oil
• 1 lb. beef sirloin, cut into thin 2-inch strips
• 1 red onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 2 red bell peppers, thinly sliced lengthwise
• 1 Tbsp. Thai red curry paste ( I used roasted red chili paste)
• 1 can (14 oz.) coconut milk
• 1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add a generous amount of salt. Cook noodles until tender according to package instructions. 
2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat 1 Tbsp. oil over medium-high. Season beef with salt and pepper; add half the beef to the skillet. Cook, without stirring, until browned on one side, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate, and repeat with remaining beef. Set beef aside, you will cook it more later.
3. Add onion, bell peppers, and ¼ c. water to skillet; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are crisp-tender, 3 to 4 minutes. Add curry paste stirring and  scraping bottom of skillet, until fragrant and combined, about 1 minute.
4. Return beef to skillet, with any accumulated juices, and add coconut milk. Simmer until sauce thickens slightly, 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in lime juice (f you have fresh basil some of it in too), and season curry with salt and pepper.
5. Serve beef curry over pasta.

I really need to get better at making food look more appealing like they do in the books...

 Enjoy!  

Winter Warm-up: Stew

I have arrived back in Brooklyn in one piece and have spent most of the week eating out or eating things like ramen noodles because I was too busy to get to the grocery store the first few days and too lazy to actually cook anything the rest of the week.  Yesterday it was snowing and pretty cold.  I was sitting by the window of my favorite coffee shop freezing, and decided I wanted something delicious, hearty, and warm and my recent craving for beef vegetable stew cropped up.
So, with many other things to do, I set home to find a recipe and head to the grocery store instead.  I couldn't find a recipe that had everything I wanted in my fantasy stew in my cookbooks or online. I started with this Irish Beef Stew recipe from Simple Recipes and added extra veggies from a Beef-Vegetable Soup recipe in my Betty Crocker cookbook that had similar proportions of other ingredients.
The result was two or three hours of cooking and some yummy stew. It was really flavorful and full of vegetables like I was hoping. I still feel like it was missing something... maybe it need to have barley in it, or maybe just salt and pepper cooked in.  I haven't figured it out yet.  Even so, I guess my first attempt at mashing up recipes was a success.

Vegetable Beef Stew

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 1/2 pounds chuck beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 6 large garlic cloves, minced
• 6 cups beef broth ( I made mine with bullion cubes and boiling water)
• I cup of Guinness beer
• 1 cup of red wine
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 3 bay leaves
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 5 russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 5 cups)
• 1 bag of pearl onions (about 1-2 pound bag- I forgot to look before throwing the label away)- make sure to follow the package instructions to peel the little guys
• 2 cups (about 4 medium) carrots, cut in 1/2 pieces
• 2 celery stalks, cut in 1/2 pieces
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels
• 1 cup frozen cut green beans 
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Heat olive oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Lightly salt the beef pieces. Working in batches if necessary, add the beef (do not crowd the pan, or the meat will steam and not brown) and cook. Continue to cook until all sides are browned, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and sauté 1 minute. Add beef stock, Guinness, red wine, tomato paste, sugar, thyme, Worcestershire sauce and bay leaves. Stir to combine. Bring mixture to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, then cover and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
2. 2 While the meat and stock is simmering, melt 2 Tbsp butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add 1/2 of the potatoes, onion and carrots. Sauté vegetables until golden, about 20 minutes. Set aside and melt remain butter and repeat with remaining potatoes, onions, and carrots. (if you have a large pot or skillet and can do this all at once, go for it, I am utensil challenged in that area)
3. Once the beef mixture is finished simmering, add the potatoes, onions, carrots, corn, celery, peas and beans. Simmer uncovered until vegetables and beef are very tender, about 40 minutes. Discard bay leaves. Tilt pan and spoon off fat. 
4. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I realize that this doesn't look that appetizing but it is!

                                    

Enjoy!