Beef Stir Fry

So the other night I decided to make myself some stir fry. I know, I know. It's nothing new and why is he posting this? Well, this time I changed it up a little bit.

Ingredients:
1 lb Stir Fry Beef
1 can Cut Baby Corn
1 can Bean Sprouts
1 cup Frozen Peas
1 cup Frozen Cut Green Beans
Sesame Seeds
Spicy Brown Mustard
Sesame Seed Oil
Sweet & Sour Sauce
Stir Fry Sauce
Teriyaki Sauce
Garlic Salt
Vegetable Oil

Alright, first step of course is to assemble your ingredients.

Now I chose to cut up the stir fry meat first. You don't have to do this but you would be left with huge strips of meat instead of size appropriate pieces. Cutting them smaller solves that issue.

Using a wok, pour in a spoonful of Vegetable Oil and turn the heat to MEDIUM. Add in your cut up Stir Fry Beef. Add in a few dashes of Sesame Seed Oil.

Add in some Lime Juice, Spicy Brown Mustard, Sesame Seeds, Teriyaki Sauce, and Garlic Salt. I used a good squirt of the Lime Juice bottle. Maybe a spoonful of Spicy Brown Mustard. A dusting of Garlic Salt. Go crazy with the Teriyaki Sauce, because why not!?

Once the meat is done cooking, which should be right when it turns that grayish brown color of being cooked. Strain the meat out of the wok and place in a bowl to the side. I put mine in the microwave to retain heat better.

In your wok you still have the liquid mixture. Add in your Frozen Peas and Frozen Cut Green Beans.

Some more Spicy Brown Mustard? I think so.

Add in a good sized amount of Sweet & Sour Sauce. About the same amount of Stir Fry Sauce.

Now mix it around. Get your can of Cut Baby Corns and Bean Sprouts. Open them up and drain them of all liquid. I chose to put the Baby Corns in first, then the Bean Sprouts.

Mix them around and let them cook for awhile. You can check when they are done by tasting a piece of the Baby Corns. Once those are done, everything else should be too.

Now that it's done, you get the Stir Fry Beef out and throw that back in the wok.

Mix.

Now give it a minute or two of cooking. Turn off heat and serve. Enjoy.

Simple Burritos

So I wanted something quick and easy to eat this weekend and I came up with Burritos. In the area I live there is a large influence of TexMex/Mexican/Latino cooking, which makes me very happy. So much good food around here that I have to try my hand at it quite often.

Ingredients:
1 lb Ground Beef
1 can Black Beans
1 Green Bell Pepper
1 Jalapeno Pepper
Lime Juice
Tortillas
Garlic Salt
Shredded Cheese

I began by gathering my ingredients. This is a pretty cheap dinner to make, so keep that in mind for during the week when you want something tasty, cheap, and quick.

I then diced up the Peppers.

Now I opened the can of black beans and put them in sauce pot and turned the heat to MEDIUM so they are nice and hot.

Time to cook up the Ground Beef. Very simple process, make sure to dice it up finely while cooking if you can. I added Garlic Salt to the meat, along with a healthy dash of Lime Juice. Makes the meat tasty and unique!

Alright, now get your Tortillas. I put some Gruyere cheese down first. I know an odd cheese choice for this, however I like the twist on flavor that it does in a Mexican themed dish.

Now I have everything ready to go.

I put it together quite simply, all lined up next to each other. Topped off with a Monterey Colby Jack Cheese mix. The second one I made was not so pretty looking, and did not last long enough to take a picture. Enjoy.

Beef Yakiniku

So sometimes I end up at these Sushi restaurants, and I have to find something that I want to eat. Mind you, I am not the biggest fan of seafood or raw meat. I know, I'm weird like that. However there are always a few dishes listed that involve grilling/fire. Most places have something called Beef Tenderloin in Teriyaki Sauce or something like it. That's generally Japanese inspired, whereas I went for more of a Korean twist. Edohana Hibachi does an amazing one involving a few more ingredients than I had on hand, however I do know it was tasty!

Ingredients:
1 lb Beef Stew Meat
2 Poblano Peppers, diced
Teriyaki Sauce
Sweet Sour Sauce
Stir Fry Sauce
Lime Juice
Garlic Salt
Paprika
Ground Black Pepper
Butter
Sesame Seed Oil

Tonight I was unsure of what to do for dinner, so I delved into my fridge. I knew I didn't have it packed full of goodies, but was confident something in there would work. Lo and behold, Beef Stew Meat. I originally was going to make another beef stew since I love making it and of course devouring it really fast. Well, I looked at the Beef Stew Meat and noticed the Teriyaki Sauce. Well, an idea was born.

Now I haven't gone out to a Sushi or Asian style restaurant in some time, not including Ghengis Grill(mongolian stir fry), but I still remember Yakiniku. So I gathered my ingredients by searching through my kitchen.

Now that I had a solid group of ingredients to work with, I diced up the Poblano Peppers. I sprinkled the Sesame Seed Oil and Lime Juice in with them.

In a large saucepan I added about a 1/4 stick of Butter. Turned the heat to MEDIUM-HIGH. Now once it began to melt, I added the Beef Stew Meat in.

After about 1 minute, I added in Teriyaki Sauce. A lot of it as you can tell by the amount in the saucepan.

I let that cook for about another minute, then added in a healthy dose of Ground Black Pepper and Garlic Salt. After this part I also added in about 1 spoonful of Stir Fry Sauce and Sweet/Sour Sauce.

Once I mixed it up, I covered and let cook for about 2 minutes. I then uncovered the saucepan and mixed the meat up again. Then added the diced Poblano Peppers in.

Mix.

Let cook until Peppers are tender. Then serve.

I thought this was good but I think some more Pepper was needed.

Homemade Beef Jerky

Alright, so this is a very simple thing to do provided one thing. You must have a food dehydrator. I got mine at Cabella's I believe. Chances are I'll put more food dehydrating things up here in the future as they are simple and tasty.

Ingredients:
2 lbs Stir Fry Beef
1 package McCormick Grill Mates Zesty Herb Marinade
1 package McCormick Grill Mates Spiced Brandy & Herb Marinade
Vegetable Oil
White Vinegar
Water

I began this by getting the materials together.

I then followed the marinade instructions on the packages.

I mixed them up in Ziploc plastic bags and added the Stir Fry Beef.

After refrigerating overnight, I placed them on the food dehydrator's racks.

Seeing as though I was to be at work this past Friday when I decided to cook these, I used a timer. Just set the time and off to work I went. I had to do this because my workday is 8 hours long and this takes anywhere from 6 to 10 hours to dehydrate properly.

When I got home from work, they were done. So I took them out and put them on paper towels to blot away the leftover oils/grease. Enjoy.

The Chef's Beef Stew

I love Beef Stew. I don't know any other way of putting it that even comes close to my obsession with this delectable dish. Everyone should make their own version of it. I have several versions of it, and so far this is my favorite version. It is subject to review and change, so suggestions are welcome. I'm sorry it took so long to get on here in it's truest form.

Ingredients:
1 lb Beef Stew Meat
1 cup Pearl Barley
6 stalks Celery, sliced
Carrots, diced
Russet Potatoes, diced
1 bottle Cabernet Sauvignon
1 qt Beef Stock
Garlic Salt
Lawry's Seasoned Salt
Smoked Sweet Paprika
Sea Salt
Fennel Powder
Fenugreek Powder
Ground Turmeric
Ground Black Pepper
Ground Aleppo Pepper
Dill

I began by gathering the main ingredients. I diced the Potatoes, Carrots, and Celery up. You can decide how much you want to use, although the rough ratio seen here is what I find to be a good mix.

I plug in my slow cooker and set the heat to HIGH. I dust the bottom with Lawry's Seasoned Salt first followed by the Garlic Salt.

In goes the Beef Stew Meat.

On top of the meat I added some spices because I like the meat part of this dish to be extra seasoned. It's optional since you can just add spices to the top of everything and it will still be pretty good. I just go the extra mile. I used the Smoked Sweet Paprika, Fennel Powder, Fenugreek Powder, and Ground Aleppo Peppers.

On top of that went the diced Carrots. They tend to take longer to cook so in the middle I think is a good place for them to absorb the liquid and heat involved here.

On top of that the diced Potatoes. Pay no attention to the Brandy in the corner of the picture, it was out for something that did not make the Blog. Maybe once I perfect that recipe, you all will get to see what it is!

Then the sliced Celery.

On top of the Celery I added about 2 pinches of Dill. Then the Pearl Barley went into the slow cooker. I listed it as 1 cup, however it is probably closer to 1.5 cups. I love barley.

Now that I have everything in the slow cooker, it's the main serving of spices. Ground Turmeric, Garlic Salt, Smoked Sweet Paprika, Fennel Powder, Ground Black Pepper, Sea Salt, and Ground Aleppo Peppers rounded this mix out.

Now locate your wine. Spare no expense...I spared $3.00 USD. I know, I have expensive tastes in wine.

I put in the entire bottle. I noticed it wasn't high enough, so I added in about half of the Beef Stock container I had. It was one of those pre-made containers that has about 2 quarts in it. There was some left over, so I rounded my usage to 1 quart.

When pouring in the Cabernet Sauvignon, make sure to pour it directly onto the spices you have on top of everything. If you don't, you run the risk of the spices cooking directly into just a portion of your dish. This causes some parts to be really spicy and flavorful while the rest tastes like nothing at all/red wine.

I left the heat on HIGH for the duration of this recipe since I am very impatient. If you have the time, like 10 hours, then bring it to a boil, stir, and put on LOW for the duration. It will cause the meat to be more tender, oh well. This picture is about 1 hour in.

2 hours later the color drastically changes to a muddy brown. It smells amazing and permeates everything in it's vicinity.

About 2 hours after that making it a total of around 5 hours, this is what it should look like.

Make sure to taste test each part to make sure everything is cooked properly. I checked everything about 4 times each. Yes, I'm a little piggy but I had to make sure.

If it isn't done, then just let it cook longer until it is. Mine was done so I plated it quite readily. Enjoy!