Boiled Corned Beef

Pretty simple!  It comes with a packet of seasonings, and easy directions which are accurate, as it turns out.

Cook corned brisket of beef according to directions on the package.  Cover with water, bring to a boil, then simmer for 2 to 3 hours.  Adding the packet of spices is up to you - I always do.  You can individualize by using other spices instead, or by adding more of something than the amount provided.

When the meat is fork tender,  remove it, cool, and put away.  Before serving slice it against the grain.  If you want thin slices, be careful not to overcook, or it will fall apart as you slice it!

Boiled corned brisket of beef

The liquid, seasoned and salty already, is the start for "New England boiled dinner".  It will flavor all the vegetables cooked in it.

Corned beef is great in boiled dinner, salad with cold cuts, and reuben sandwiches.

To see a full set of photographs showing how this dish was made, go to this set on flickr.   (It will open in a new tab or window; to return to this page, just close it.) The small pictures are thumbnails; click on each one to see it full-size, and to read the comments under it.  If you prefer to use the slideshow feature, you won't see the captions unless you click on "show info" (top right).

Easy Beef Stew

We had a still-slightly-frozen boneless beef chuck roast, and we wanted a substantial but bother-free dinner by evening.

Easy Beef Stew in a Slow Cooker

Recipe

Cut the roast into 4 pieces and push them all into a 2-quart crockpot with no other ingredients.  Meat in a crockpot normally produces so much liquid that water is not needed.

Start cooking on "high", and when it is bubbling, turn it to low.  Allow to simmer through the day.

About an hour before dinner, start some rice.

Then remove 1/3 of the cooked beef and drippings from the slow cooker to save for another use.  Cut the remainder of the beef into bite-sized chunks and returned to the pot. Turn it up to "high".

Add:

2 small cans of mushrooms with their juice
1 onion, chopped and sauteed

Then saute in a pan:

1 Tb oil
1 Tb rice flour

When it is honey-colored, stir in:

1 tsp paprika

and immediately begin to spoon liquid from the crockpot into the pan, stirring out the lumps.  When you have a thick, bubbling sauce, scrape it into the crockpot and gently stir.  Allow it to simmer on "low" for 15 minutes or more.

Optionally, a small amount of vegetables can be added, primarily for color.  Green peas, carrot shreds, or mini-peppers in red or gold would work well.  We added 1/4 cup of fried okra that we happened to have on hand.  Okra adds a unique slippery kind of thickening most familiar to us in gumbo.

Easy beef stew served over rice

Note that this stew has a reddish color that in most cuisines is produced by tomatoes.  However what we have here is not tomato but paprika, a Hungarian - Balkan technique that produces an entirely different and characteristic flavor.

Season to taste.  Served over medium-grain white rice.

To see a full set of photographs showing how this dish was made, go to this set on flickr.   (It will open in a new tab or window; to return to this page, just close it.) The small pictures are thumbnails; click on each one to see it full-size, and to read the comments under it.  If you prefer to use the slideshow feature, you won't see the captions unless you click on "show info" (top right).

This recipe is #79 in the Baker's Dozen Challenge Countdown.

Penne with Meatballs and Mushrooms

A quick lunch made from sauteed fresh ingredients, leftover rice pasta, and frozen meatballs.  Gluten free.

Meatballs (pre-made)
Mushrooms
Peppers
Steamed kale
Rice Penne (gluten free)

Heat and oil a pan.  Slide in sliced peppers and mushrooms, allow them to saute.  When they are done, add the meatballs.

Meanwhile, heat leftover penne separately with a bit of butter.

When everything is hot, add the steamed kale, warm for another minute or two, and serve.

To see a full set of photographs showing how this dish was made, go to this set on flickr.  (It will open in a new tab or window; to return to this page, just close it.) The small pictures are thumbnails; click on each one to see it full-size, and to read the comments under it.  If you prefer to use the slideshow feature, you won't see the captions unless you click on "show info" (top right).

This recipe is #90 in the Baker's Dozen Challenge Countdown.

Red Sauce with Carne Picada

Red sauce with carne picada beef over gluten free penne

A simple pasta and meat sauce recipe using ordinary spaghetti sauce from a jar, some dried spicy spaghetti seasonings, and carne picada, small bits of sliced beef, rather than hamburger.

Modify to suit your household's preferences!  What is featured here is use of beef in a form other than hamburger. It doesn't really change the taste, but the difference in texture and appearance of this everyday food makes it interesting.

2 pounds carne picada beef
1- 24 ounce jar prepared sauce for pasta
Dry spaghetti seasoning blend, to taste

Brown meat in a pan in small batches, then put the browned meat into a 2-quart slow cooker. Skim off fat and add meat juices to the cooker.  Pour in the sauce, and cook on "low" until the meat is very tender. (Several hours.)  Stir in seasonings and turn off the heat, leaving sauce in the hot pot.

Bring a large potful of water to a boil and add gluten-free pasta.  Watch the pasta carefully because it will go very quickly from uncooked to overcooked!  Drain.  Serve sauce over pasta with some simple sides.

To see a full set of photographs showing how this dish was made, go to this set on flickr.   (It will open in a new tab or window; to return to this page, just close it.) The small pictures are thumbnails; click on each one to see it full-size, and to read the comments under it.  If you prefer to use the slideshow feature, you won't see the captions unless you click on "show info" (top right).

This dish is #94 in the Baker's Dozen Challenge Countdown!

Stir-Fry Beef

Marinade

2 lb lean beef, sliced thin
1/4 c. oil
Juice of 1 lemon
3 or 4 cloves of garlic roughly chopped

Mix, pack into a ziplock bag or other sealed container, and refrigerate for a few days. Turn or shake every day to stir the juices around.


Stir Fry

Gather vegetables for stir fry. Almost any vegetable is good, just use what you have.  Some examples could be:

ginger, red and green peppers, onion, yellow squash

onion
bell pepper
carrot
mushrooms
sweet potato
broccoli
squash
cabbage
water chestnuts
celery
fresh ginger
small hot peppers
(don't eat these last two! They're there to flavor the juices.)

A variety of colors is more pleasing.

Prepare vegetables for stir-frying and set aside in separate bowls.  Slice or, where that isn't suitable, as for example broccoli florets, break into bite-size pieces.

Heat a large pan.

Add 2 Tb. oil.  Peanut oil is best for stir-fry.

Stir-fry the meat in small batches, 1 or 2 minutes on each side.   Replenish oil as needed.  Don't crowd the pan; meat should fry, not boil in marinating juices!  As the pieces get done move them from the pan to a large bowl.  Drizzle in soy sauce, if you are using it, after the food is taken from the pan because the sauce will scorch and burn.

beef stir-fried in peanut oil

Next stir-fry the vegetables one by one, hot and fast and not too long, as you want them to be still colorful and not too soft. Layer the vegetables over the meat in a bowl.   Allow pan to heat back up between batches, adding more oil as needed.

Sauce

No sauce is needed for stir-fry but if you want it, mix a spoonful of cornstarch or white rice flour into a cupful of cold water until it is well blended, no lumps, then pour it into the emptied pan.  Scrub the bottom of the pan vigorously with a spatula  while the water is heating to get up all the stuck good bits.  (If anything has scorched, obviously you won't be able to do this.  Clean the pan first!)  Have more liquid handy because your sauce will thicken rapidly once it's hot.

In stir-fry, some sort of sweet and sour blend works best.  Believe it or not, that familiar red sauce is made from water, vinegar, sugar and ketchup.  I like lemon or lime, orange or pineapple juice, just enough sugar to overcome the tartness, and soy sauce.

Toss stir fry layers together (with sauce if you have any) and serve over rice.

Stir fried beef with vegetables over rice

 To see a full set of photographs showing how this dish was made, go to this set on flickr.  (It will open in a new tab or window; to return to this page, just close it.)  The small pictures are thumbnails; click on each one to see it full-size, and to read the comments under it.  If you prefer to use the slideshow feature, you won't see the captions unless you click on "show info" (top right).

This is #98 in the Baker's Dozen Challenge Coundown.

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce (gluten-free)

Gluten-free spaghetti with meat sauce, parmesan cheese, and cold okra

 Spaghetti Sauce

This doesn't bear much discussion - it's just ordinary
every-kid-likes-it American spaghetti sauce.

1 lb hamburger, browned in a pan
1/2 chopped sweet onion added to the burger in the pan
Spoonful of jarred garlic bits
Brown some more, turn out into 2-qt. crockpot.
Add 1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
Generous spoonful light brown sugar
Some kind of spaghetti seasoning
Water to fill pot (not too much)

Cook on "high" until it's boiling, then turn to low and cook a couple of hours.

Serve over pasta.

Optional additives: any vegetables chopped up fine
parsley
dry red wine
mushrooms
other meats

Gluten-free Spaghetti

16 ounces (2 boxes) gluten-free spaghetti.  There are choices; I used rice pasta.

Potful of boiling water.  Directions on the box want 4 quarts for each 8 ounces of pasta.  Who has a pot that large, and who wants to heat that much water?  Do your best with what you've got.

Put the pasta into the boiling water, stirring carefully so the strands don't get stuck together.  (Rice pasta produces a lot of starch in the water.)  Observe timing directions on the box, and watch and test frequently.  Rice pasta is easily overcooked and then it falls apart.

Drain, rinse in cold water to stop the cooking process and to wash off the excess starch.  I like to add a few drops of oil to the mass to keep it from sticking together.

Serve sauce over spaghetti and with Parmesan cheese available.

Rice pasta rinsed with cold water and draining.

To see a full set of photographs showing how this dish was made, go to this set on flickr.   (It will open in a new tab or window; to return to this page, just close it.) The small pictures are thumbnails; click on each one to see it full-size, and to read the comments under it.  If you prefer to use the slideshow feature, you won't see the captions unless you click on "show info" (top right).

This is #99 in the Baker's Dozen Challenge Countdown.

Grilled Marinated Chuck-eye Steak Dinner

Grilled steak on a George Foreman Grill

Prepare ahead:

1 or 2 pounds of chuck-eye steak (or more or less, it doesn't matter!) cut into chunks
Oil to coat
1 - 2 tablespoons of "Mrs. Dash" salt-free seasoning
Sprinkle of smoked paprika

Mix well, then seal into a quart-size ziplock bag and refrigerate for a day or more.  Any small container with a tight seal could be used.

A few cold steamed potatoes will be useful but not necessary. You can cook the potato from raw on the grill but it takes awhile.

To cook:

Heat the George Foreman Grill after oiling with non-stick spray.

Trim a few green onions, and cut in half so they'll fit on the grill.

When the grill is hot,  lay on the onions, then distribute chunks of meat over the onions.  Lower the lid.

Slice potato while you wait.

When juices stop dripping into the drip tray, check the meat, which is probably done.  This type of grill holds in heat and cooks very quickly!

Slide the meat and onions onto a plate.  Pick up the drip tray and drizzle the marinade and meat juices over the potato, then arrange potato slices on the grill.  Grill until done, or if pre-cooked, grill until browned.

Serve with tomato slices or some other simple salad.

This is hands-down the best dish made from chuck-eye that I have ever enjoyed!

Grilling machines tend to dry out meat, so the oily marinade is a big improvement.  If calories are important, then a better place to cut would be to replace the potato with a less starchy vegetable.

This is number 100 in the Baker's Dozen Challenge Countdown.

To see a full set of photographs showing how this dish was made, go to this set on flickr.   (It will open in a new tab or window; to return to this page, just close it.) The small pictures are thumbnails; click on each one to see it full-size, and to read the comments under it.  If you prefer to use the slideshow feature, you won't see the captions unless you click on "show info" (top right).