Tag: beef

Beef and Butternut Chili

Butternut chili recipes abound because butternut is a delicious addition to any chili recipe, soaking up and complementing the flavors in a way few other vegetables can do. This recipe started out in Bon Appetit. Use whatever dried whole peppers you have on hand. And if you don’t have any, then chili powder will do. Lots of great chili recipes start with this toasting/soaking/grinding step for dried chiles and so I keep a few small bags on hand in the freezer. If I were more of a connoisseur, I suppose I would be more stringent about which peppers I use, but I find they all turn out pretty delicious.

Asha Gomez’s Kerala Meets Brunswick Stew

Asha Gomez, chef-owner of Spice to Table and the late lamented Cardamom Hill, says it was Fat Matt’s Brunswick stew that inspired this dish, a riff on the beef stew her grandmother made in Kerala, India. I’ve adapted this from a recipe published in Atlanta magazine.

Stir Fried Beef and Sugar Snaps

I have to laugh as I put together this recipe because my little bag of sugar snaps? It’s all gone. I ate it while I was pulling together these recipes. But maybe you showed more restraint?

It’s a long list of ingredients, but goes together really quickly. If you don’t keep oyster sauce on hand, it’s ok to just skip it.

Japanese-Style Meat and Potatoes

This recipe is from “Keepers: Two Home Cooks Share Their Tried-and-True Weeknight Recipes and the Secrets to Happiness in the Kitchen,” by Kathy Brennan and Caroline Campion. I’m pretty certain most of us don’t need too many ideas for potatoes, but since we’ve had an abundance (yay!) this year, I figured one new recipe couldn’t hurt.

From the authors of the cookbook: This recipe is based on a popular Japanese stewed dish called nikujaga (niku means “meat;” jaga means “potato”), which Kathy’s mom often made when she was growing up. It’s home cooking at its best, the kind of food you want to eat when you’re tired or in a funk or under the weather.

Unlike in America, stewed dishes in Japan tend to be very light and contain only a small amount of liquid, which is more of a flavorful broth than a “sauce.” Like most stews, though, it reheats wells and tastes even better when the flavors have had time to meld, so don’t hesitate to make it in advance or to double the recipe to ensure leftovers. This is also a good dish for nights when people will be eating dinner at different times; just leave it on the back of the stove and spoon it out when needed. Serve with steamed rice, if you like.

Grilled Steak and Tomatoes with Caper Mustard Vinaigrette

This recipe was first published in Fine Cooking magazine.