One such dish is Beef Burgundy, which is basically a simpler, homestyle version of Julia’s Boeuf Bourguignon.  The biggest difference is that the bacon and carrot is removed, and the red wine is often a combo of wine and tomato sauce, or for those on slim budgets, just tomato sauce.  So sans recipe, I decided to whip up a batch of beef burgundy from the recollections of watching my mama make it back in PA combined with a few tricks of my own.  I think she’d agree I did it justice.

Beef Burgundy or Tenderloin Tips and Mushrooms in a Sherry and Red Wine Gravy
Serves 5 -6

2 lbs beef tenderloin tips or beef stew meat
flour to coat, about 1/4 cup
1/2 a sweet onion, medium dice
12 oz white mushrooms, sliced thick
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup dry sherry
1/2 cup good red wine (I like Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot for cooking)
3 – 4 cups beef broth
1 bay leaf
2 tbsp tomato paste
3 tbsp heavy cream

Place a large, heavy bottomed saucepan (I use my le creuset for this) over medium-high heat.  Coat the bottom with extra virgin olive oil.  While the pot is getting hot, cube up your beef into uniform 1-inch pieces.  If you can find tenderloin tips, I much prefer the cut to regular stew meat for this dish.  Its a lower fat content, therefore a less greasy gravy.  Not to mention the word tender is in its title, so you don’t have to cook it as long for it to breakdown and become soft.

Season the beef well with salt and pepper, then toss in flour gently to coat.  Brown the meat in two batches in the pan.  You’re looking for really good caramelization and color on the beef, like in the picture below.  If you went for a large cube size, don’t be concerned with cooking the meat through at this point.  Just go for the color on the outside.  And don’t worry about the flour that’s sticking to the pan, we’ll get to that later.

Pull the meat out and brown the second batch, adding more oil if necessary.  When the second batch is done, pull the beef out, set aside, and turn the heat down to medium.  Add the onions and mushrooms to the pan and saute.  As they begin to soften and release moisture, about 7 – 9 minutes, the liquid will pull up some of the browned nums that are stuck to the bottom of the pan.  This is a good thing.  Don’t worry if you don’t get it all now, you’ve got two more steps to scrape that all into the sauce.  When the onions are geting close to finished, add in the garlic and saute together for atleast a minute.  When the mushrooms and onions take on a beautiful golden color, you’re know they’re done.

Now its time to deglaze the pot with our liquors.  Raise the heat to high and add the sherry and red wine.  If you don’t have sherry on hand, feel free to use only wine, but I would recommend adding a few tsps of sugar for balance.  Now make sure you really scrape at the pan to pick up all that caramelized goodness.  It comes off pretty easy at this point.  Allow the liquid to cook off, reduce and thicken, which takes about 3-5 minutes.  That’s right, it’s starting to look a bit more like gravy now.

Alright, everybody in the pool.  Dump that beef back in, along with any juices that might have collected with it, as well as the bay leaf, tomato paste, and then top with the beef broth.  You might not need all 4 cups, but the broth should just cover the beef by about 1/2 inch.  Stir everything to combine and scrape down the sides of the pan.  When the mix comes to a simmer, turn the heat down to low and partially cover the pan, leaving the lid slightly askew.

Simmer over low heat for 45min – 1 hour, depending on the size and cut of your beef.  You’ll want to stir the pot every 15 minutes or so to make sure nothing’s sticking to the bottom.  How will you know its done?  The sauce will have reduced by half, and become deliciously smooth and thick like a good gravy.

Wowie wow!  Look how that sauce reduced.  Right at the end, I like to stir in a tiny bit of cream which I think really brings the sauce together and a nice pinch of fresh chopped parsley to add a bright note for contrast.  Both are totally optional, and totally worth it in my humble opinion.

Serve over buttered egg noodles with lots of delicious, sweet steamed peas.  Oh billy, your tummy will be thanking you.

Today’s was a simple one. Beef with broccoli and onions in a sweet soy garlic sauce.

Ingredients:
1.25 pounds of beef (anywhere between 1 to 1.5 pounds should be good)
2 crowns of broccoli cut up
1 large onion roughly choppeded
3 tablespoons of garlic
1/2 cup of soy sauce
3 tablespoons of mirin, cooking sake, or 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar/white vinegar
3 tablespoons of brown sugar
3-4 tablespoons of cornstarch
sesame seed oil

This will make about 3-4 adult servings. (:

Cut the beef thinly. You can tenderize if you like! I used two top sirloin steaks.

Add the sesame seed oil to the pan and throw in the garlic. When the garlic starts to brown…

HUZZAH! The meat magically teleports into the pan!

So while the meat cooks, I set up the sauce!
1/2 cup of soysauce
3 tablespoons of mirin
3 tablespoons of sugar
can also add a little honey to add a slightly different sweet flavor
MIX!

When most of the meat has cooked/browned, who do we call?

Gastronomical busters!…
Onions?

And also the broccoli!
Does anyone else say “brock-cole-eye”? I sure do!

Now put the lid over it and let the steam cook the veggies for around 5 minutes.
I like to leave the broccoli and the onions on top of the beef so that the beef can finish cooking and the steam will cook the veggies without burning them or over cooking them. I quite dislike limp over cooked broccoli. It has such a weird bitter aftertaste. Then again, I really enjoy raw veggies most of all.. but that’s another story!

So after 5 minutes or so, the broccoli should look much greener and meaner! The richer color is how I like it, and still crisp. (: If you like your broccoli more cooked, leave it for another 3 minutes or so to steam!

Now pour the soy sauce mixture into the pot!

Mixmixmix! Stir and let the pan fry!

Get 3 or 4 tablespoons of cornstarch and add a little water (didn’t measure, just enough to cover the cornstarch), and mix thoroughly! It should have a nice white milky sheen. Some recipes say to just throw the cornstarch into the pan, on top of what you already have in there. I don’t like this method cuz the cornstarch can lump up. And lumps are pretty gross. Especially lady lumps. and humps. my humps. -.-

If you want a super sticky sauce to stick to the meat and veggies, throw in another tablespoon.

Scoot some the stir fry aside so the sauce is exposed.
Pour the cornstarch in there.
Turn the heat to low.
Mixmixmix!

FINISHED!

eat eat eat

It’s always a question that plagues the soul, every night!
I’m a big stickler for having all your meats and veggies. Yum!
Menu: Broiled Flank Steak and Mixed Veggie Stirfry

Ingredients for the Flank Steak:

2.5 half pounds of Flank Steak
1/4th cup of Soy Sauce
3 tablespoons of Olive Oil
2 tablespoons of Chopped Garlic
1 tablespoon of Sriracha Sauce
2 sprigs of cut long Green Onion
Salt & Pepper to taste

Ingredients for Veggie Stirfry:

.5 large Sweet Onion
.5 Red Pepper
handful of Mushrooms
1 crisp Apple
1 Lime
2 tablespoons of Garlic
3 tablespoons of Sesame Seed Oil
1 tablespoons of Mirin
2 tablespoons of Soysauce
1 teaspoon of suger

Steak:

Mix 1/4th cup of soy sauce, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of Chopped Garlic, 1 tablespoon of Sriracha Sauce, and 2 sprigs of cut long Green Onion stir em together.

If you want your steak to be a little sweeter, add a tablespoon of sugar or honey. The sweetness mixes nicely with the Sriracha.

Grab that steak and lay it flat.
Cut off any excess fattage that my be on there.
Cover with clear plastic wrap.
Pound the crap out of the steak and tenderize that summovabitch.

Put the steak in the marinade and let it sit at room temperature for at least an hour.

If you want to let it sit over night (high recommended for tasty yumness), put into a plastic ziplog bag and let it sit in the fridge.

Preheat the oven and set it to BROIL! for at least 10 minutes.

Things to know about broiling… I didn’t know!
It cooks from one side, say, the top down. So it will cook half, at a very high temperature. The nice thing about it is that it will glaze/crisp the meat super nicely.
It’s good for thinner cuts of steak, like flank, rather than thick.
If your broiler is at the top of your oven, you’re going to want to move the grill so that it’s about 6 inches away from the top of the oven/heat.

Put the steak in an oven safe glass cooking thingie so it’s laid out flat.

Cook for 5 or 6 minutes on the first side OR until the thickest part of the steak is at 125 degrees F.

Once the time or the temperature has been reached, then flip it over and cook for about 4 or 5 minutes until the steak is nicely browned.

Take it out of the broiler!

Don’t leave it in the oven/broiler, or else it will become completely well done (like I did tonight). Taking it out of the oven/broiler will let it be a nice medium well with a little pink in there.

Set aside and let it sit for about 5 minutes so that the juices reset and don’t just pour out when you try to cut it.

Cut and eat!

Look at that soft subtle pink color… Mrrroowww.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper to your yummilicous tastes!

So while the broiler is heating up, chop your veggies!

Chop mushrooms, onions, and the bell peppers and put into a big boil.
Add 2 tablespoons of sesame oil and pepper and mix around.

In another bowl, slice the apples, unskin, and squeeze the lime in there.
The lime will help keep the apple from oxidizing and turning brown.

Let the pan heat up for 2 minutes or so at a medium heat.
Put in another tablespoon of sesame seed oil and throw in the two tablespoons of chopped garlic.

Throw in the veggie mixture first and cook for 5 minutes.
(this is where you can flip your steak)
Throw in the apple and lime juice.
Add the soysauce, sugar, and mirin. Just poor that thing in there.
Cook for another 4 minutes.
Turn off the heat.
(now your steak should be ready to pull out of the oven!)

The following recipe is a Bolognese Meat Sauce via the boy’s mom with a little bit of my own addition and experimentation.


- 1 Large Can of Diced Tomatoes
- 1 Small Can of Diced Tomatoes
- 1 Small Can of Tomato Paste
- 2 Pounds (give or take) of Ground Beef
- Half a Very Large Onion
- 3 Sticks of Celery
- A Handful of Baby Carrots
- A Handful of Baby Portobello Mushrooms
- Wheat Pasta
- Cayenne Pepper
- Crushed Chili Flakes,
- Sweet Basil

It does take quite a long time for the sauce to stew. So if you’re planning on having it for dinner, I would recommend starting it around or after lunch so it can brew and stew and get into a lot of yum.

First, dice up all the onion, celery, and carrots.
The mushrooms I left a little chunkier and less dice-e-er.
If you don’t like a particular item in this list, you can totally substitute whatever veggie you want! It will still be yum. I just happen to super love onions so I put a lot of that in.

Next in a very large pot, I add about 1/3th cup of Olive Oil. Give or take. And put in a lot of garlic. I just rampantly throw it in cuz I loves the garlic, but if you don’t, you can use less.
Let that badboy cook and get all scented garlicly in yo face, yo!

Throw in the diced veggies (except the mushes) and let it cook for about 10 minutes or until the onions start to get clear.

Now throw in the mushes!
Cook for 3-5 minutes, until they’ve soaked in some of the juices.

Then we throw in the meat! ALL at once, oh yeah, bebe, just like that!

Also add the basil and a dash of the spices.

When the meat is about 75% cooked, and looks like this, throw in the tomato cans, minus the cans!

Mix it around for a while and let it cook on a low heat for about an hour. Stir occassionaly. This if my favorite part cuz it requires little attention.

After an hour, turn off the heat and mix. Allow it to sit there until it’s time for dinner! It will still be warm, but if you want it hotter, turn the heat to low and let it get hotter.

So when dinner comes around, time to make zee pasta!

Boil water, add salt, add pasta!
The salt will help keep the pasta from sticking together while cooking. No fancy salt is needed, regular girl with umbrella in the rain salt shall do!

Next, dump the pasta into some cold water and strain it. Wash the salt off good. (:
Put in a bowl and pour a little olive oil onto it. The olive oil will keep the pasta from sticking together while it sits on the counter, in your refigerator, tummy, loved one.

Plate, bowl, and serve!

You’ll need:

- steaks of your choice
- kosher salt
- olive oil

Seriously. That’s it.

Step 1:

Salt! Take those steaks and place them on a cutting board, plate, loved one; the surface of your choice. Next, pour kosher salt all over them. Both sides. I’m talking coated. Like this:

I know, it seems questionable. Trust me on this. The salt de-natures any connective tissue in the meat, making it tender and awesome. This method can turn crap steaks very tasty. The crappier the steak, the longer amount of time the salt should be left on. These are filet mignons, cause I’m fancy like that, so I only salted them for about 15 minutes. For lower quality steaks, increase the salting time up to 1 hour. No more than that though, or bad and scary things will happen.

Also, use only kosher salt please! Iodized table salt will only make your steak taste like iodine. I’m sure sea salt would be fine, but kosher is cheaper.

Now that your steaks are all nice and salty, wash all of that salt off. Thoroughly. Or your steak will not be tasty. Don’t you want a tasty steak? I thought you did. There will be enough salt absorbed by the steak to season it. And bonus! It also creates a sexy crust on the outside when you sear it. Which brings us to.

Step 2:

Searing! Get an oven safe pan hot over medium heat. Not stupidly hot, but water should evaporate almost immediately when sprinkled on it. Also, turn your oven on to 400 degrees. Take your rinsed steaks and coat the outside lightly with olive oil. Regular stuff is preferable, the extra virgin stuff will just burn. Now, sear the crap out of those mofos! Both sides please!

I can’t give you a specific time on this, cause all stoves and cookware will vary, but you want a nice, brown crust to form. Like this!

Don’t worry if they’re not super caramelized, the next step will take care of that.

Step 3:

Oven time! Stick them in! I use a probe thermometer, cause I don’t mind a hole in my steaks, but use your preferred method to test doneness. Leave them in until they are done. I prefer my steaks Medium Rare, so I set the alarm on the thermometer to go off at 125 degrees. My hub likes his Medium Well, so his stays in until internal temperature is 145 degrees. Medium, 135 degrees! These numbers probably aren’t exact since quite a bit of the probe is exposed to the oven temperature, but these numbers get me really close. That’s all! Again, I can’t give you time on this, but normally it takes between 10 and 15 minutes in my oven.

Step 4:

Rest! Once you remove the steaks from the oven, allow them to rest for at least 10 minutes. If you skip this, the lovely steak juices will run out and this will make you sad. Cover them up with some tin foil while you finish cooking the rest of your meal.

Step 5:

Devour!!! Serve with some sauteed green beans and mashed potatoes, like I did tonight, or some sweet potato fries. But that’s another post.