Beef in a Spicy Curry Sauce

I started out trying to make a vindaloo, which is one of my favorite Indian dishes when we go out.  It's a safe food - I know I can or will eat everything that's in there (sometimes I'm even good and skip the potatoes...). 

But, much as I like it, we only eat out once a month or so, and I decided to see if I could recreate my favorite.  Of course, we don't eat a lot of chicken since it's pretty difficult to find pastured chicken here, so I adapted the recipe to be made with beef. This didn't turn out to be what I envisioned, but it tastes great at any rate!  (I adapted from this recipe.)  Hope you enjoy as well.  [It does taste good...really...in spite of the fact that I'm not a very good photographer:)]

Ingredients:

• 2 lb stew meat
• Ghee or other appropriate oil
• 2 yellow onions, peeled and sliced
• 3" piece of peeled ginger
• 2 oz peeled garlic
• 1 tsp fenugreek (methi) seeds
• 1/8-1/4 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 4 tsp hot chili powder (to taste!) or fresh hot peppers
• 2 tsp salt
• 3-4 tsp coconut vinegar

Directions:

1. Cook beef in the pressure cooker to tenderize.  [You could use another method, but this is both quick and yield really tender beef.]
2. Meanwhile, heat ghee in a pan.  Once ghee has melted, add onions.  Cook onions until they are very caramelized (a dark brown color -- just before they burn pull 'em off the heat). 
3. In a small fry pan, add a little ghee.  Once hot, add fenugreek seeds.  Cook until dark brown.  Then, add cumin seeds.  Cook until fenugreek seeds begin to turn black.  Finally, add mustard seeks and cook until funegreek seeds are a dark black.  Remove from heat.
4. In a food processor (or blender, etc.), combine caramelized onions, ginger, garlic, blackened spice mixture, ground coriander, chili powder, salt, and vinegar.  Blend until a nice paste is formed.
5. Mix together meat and spices, then cool to marinade, at least half an hour.
6. When ready to serve, gently heat on the stove.
7. Serve warm over cauliflower rice (or, for us today, spaghetti squash) and enjoy.

Buffalo Beef Chili

I'm a big fan of Frank's red hot sauce.  I use it on chicken, beef, pretty much whatever (I know, call me weird!).  When I stumbled across this recipe from Rachel Ray for Buffalo Chicken Chili, I just knew I had to try it!  Problem was, I didn't have several of the ingredients (chicken, tomato sauce).  So, here's my adaptation.  If I would have had other veggies in my fridge (bell peppers, etc.), they would have also gone in the mix. (Not my finest hour as a photographer, sorry:).)

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbs ghee (I think I could have used a little less and been as happy)
• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 carrot, peeled and diced
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 ribs celery, chopped
• 5 large cloves garlic, diced
• 1 Tbs paprika
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 cups chicken (or beef) stock
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup hot sauce (I used 1/2 cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce)
• 1 15-oz can diced tomatoes & green chile (I used Muir Glen)
• 2 Tbs tomato paste (as a thickener)
• Salt and pepper (if needed)

Directions:

1. Place large pot over medium-high heat and add ghee.
2. Once melted, add the ground beef.  Cook until browned, about 5-6 minutes.
3. Add carrot, onion, celery, garlic, paprika, and bay leaf.  Cook, stirring frequently, about 3-4 minutes.
4. Add the stock, hot sauce, and tomatoes.  Bring to a simmer.
5. Simmer for about 15 minutes to let sauce reduce and bring flavors together.
6. Remove bay leaf.
7. Taste.  Adjust seasonings if necessary and serve.

Part of Real Food Wednesday, Pennywise Platter, and Fight Back Friday.

CrockPot Beef with New Mexico Red Chile Sauce

One of my favorite foods is the New Mexico chile pepper.  Red or green, it doesn't generally matter, I love them both.  This recipe is a slight adaptation of one of my favorite dishes - carne adovada - pork in a red chile sauce.  I've made a slight variation of this recipe many times with great success.  I've changed things up to use grass-fed beef and cook it in the crock-pot.  

Warning:  in order for the flavors to fully develop, you need to allow at least 24 hours or more for marinating time.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 pounds grass-fed beef (I used a roast)
• 16 New Mexico dried red chile pods
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/2 Tbs kosher salt (more or less, to taste)
• 1/8 tsp oregano

Directions:

1. Broil chiles in the oven for about 30 seconds each side, until they are black and blistered.  Leave oven door slightly cracked, and be mindful of the fumes.
2. Once the chiles are cooked, soak them in boiling water for 45-60 minutes (again, be mindful of the fumes).   Reserve this water, as you'll use it to make the sauce. Then, transfer them to cool water.
3. While chiles are soaking, cut beef into cubes (about the size of stew meat).
4. Once the chiles have cooled enough, use your hands to remove the outer skin and the seeds (if desired; the seeds are where the heat is, so use to your taste).  I recommend some gloves during this process.  Please be careful of touching your eyes after you handle the chiles.
5. Place the chiles, garlic, salt, oregano, and about 2 cups of the water in a blender or food processor.  Blend until a nice sauce has formed.
6. Place the meat into a plastic ziplock bag or other device appropriate for marinating meat.  Add sauce and make sure all of the meat is covered.
7. Marinate in the refrigerator at least 24 hours.  I marinated around 36 hours.
8. Place meat in a crock-pot.  Set time for low, 8 hours.
9. Serve and enjoy!  The meat should be really tender, with a flavorful red sauce.

Part of Real Food Wednesday  by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.  If you are looking for more real food ideas, check out the other links!

Savory Beef and Squash Pie

Holy cow, Batman, this dish was so good that I couldn't wait to share it with you.  The squash is slightly sweet, counteracting the spicy and savory goodies underneath.  I love this recipe because you could use whatever veggies you have on hand.  Don't have those I used?  No worries, toss in whatever you have in your 'fridge.  Great way to use up leftover veggies.

The funny thing is, a year ago (okay, seven months ago even), I wouldn't have touched squash with a ten-foot pole.  I most certainly would not have thought squash tasted "sweet".  How the mighty have fallen:)  Our taste buds can, and do, change when you stop the processed food and continue to try new things!

Ingredients:

• Butternut Squash - 1 decent size or 2 small
• Coconut oil (or ghee) - 1 Tbs or so
• Leeks (or onions), diced - 1 cup or so
• Sliced mushrooms - 8 oz or so
• Ground beef (grass fed; or other combination of ground meat) - 2 lbs
• Emeril's Creole Seasoning (note:  I use a lot less salt than the recipe calls for, you may need to adjust depending upon your preference for salt) - 3-4 Tbs (to taste - you probably want to start with less and add until it tastes good to you)
• Garlic powder - 1 Tbs (to taste)
• Onion powder - 1 tsp (to taste)
• Kosher salt - 1/4 tsp (to taste) (if you use the Emeril Creole Seasoning per the recipe, you'll probably want to omit the salt here)
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• Tomato paste, 1 Tbs
• Fresh spinach - 2 to 3 cups
• Coconut Butter - 2 Tbs (this will depend upon how much squash you have)
• Coconut Milk (canned, get the kind without the "gunk") - 1/2 cup (again, this will depend on your squash, use less and add more as needed)
• Cayenne pepper - 1/4 tsp (maybe a little more if you like things spicy)
• Cinnamon - 1-2 tsp

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  
2. Cut squash in half.  Remove seeds and membranes.  Put in a pan to roast.  Roast for 350 degrees for about 50 minutes (you can also use water in the roasting process, but this worked for me and seemed easier).
3. Heat oil over medium heat.  Once heated, add leeks (or onions).  After a few minutes, add mushrooms.  Cook until tender, maybe 5-10 minutes.
4. Add ground beef and cook until no longer pink.
5. Add spices (Emeril though salt), tomatoes, and tomato paste.  Cook for a few minutes until tomatoes begin to release their juices.  Then add the spinach.  Cook until spinach is wilted.
6. Put ground beef mixture in the bottom of your roasting pan.
7. Remove cooked squash flesh from the skin.  With the flesh, puree the coconut butter, coconut milk, cayenne pepper, and cinnamon until desired consistency is reached (I put this all in the food processor for a few quick whirls; you could also use a hand blender or hand-held potato masher...whatever you have that works).  Spread squash puree over the tom of the ground beef mixture.
8. Bake about 20 minutes.

Variation:

Use curry powder instead of Creole seasoning; add fresh ginger and some type of spicy pepper to meat mixture; and add a little powdered ginger to squash.

Part of the Real Food Wednesday carnival at Kelly the Kitchen Kop; there are some great website you should check out! 

Curried Ground Meat (Keema, Part 2)

Sorry about the title, inspiration left me.  Anyway, my real inspiration came from one of the recipes in Robb Wolf's new book The Paleo Solution.  As an aside, if you haven't read Robb's new book, you really should.  It's good.  He's funny.  It's a nice blend of the science from the Paleo Diet and the fun writing style of The Primal Blueprint.  Even if you're a Paleo expert, I think you could gain something from the book.  Anyway, back to the recipe.  As I looked at the recipe for Curried Pork, I thought, wow, that looks like a simplified version of Keema, with an added can of coconut milk and some fresh spinach.  But that's one thing I love about making Paleo foods -- the possibilities are endless, and the recipes can be as simple or complex as your little heart desires.  [I made a "double" batch so we'd have leftovers, but you can easily cut this recipe in half.]

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbs coconut oil
• 1 onion, diced (optional)
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 lb ground pork (use any combination of ground meat that you want)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can diced tomatoes (get the no salt added kind) or 2 firm tomatoes, diced (optional)
• 1 Tbs ginger (optional)
• 2-4 Tbs curry powder
• 1 tsp minced hot pepper (optional)
• 1 can coconut milk (get the full-fat variety)
• Spinach (I had a big tub)

Preparation:

Heat oil over medium heat until hot.  Add the onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.  Add the meat and cook until no longer pink.  Add the garlic, tomatoes, ginger, curry powder, hot peppers, coconut milk, and spinach.  Cook for a few minutes until blended together (maybe about another 5 minutes).  Cook about another 10 or 15 minutes until sauce has boiled down.  Taste and add more curry powder if needed.

Grandma's Beef Salad Salad

When I was growing up, we had a lot of beef roasts.  I don't really know why, but I think it was because the meat was fairly inexpensive and they didn't take a lot of on-hands cooking time (my grandma didn't really like to cook, although she always had dinner prepared for us.  Love you grandma!).  One of my favorite things was what she did with the leftover roast.  Basically, we had "beef salad sandwiches".  In other words, leftover beef, mixed with mayo, and onion, then spread on a sandwich and topped with lettuce and tomato.  If we had celery, pickles, and hard-boiled eggs, we might add that to the mixture.  Who knows why I liked it - certainly nothing special or fancy.  Anyway, today the idea came to me when thinking about what to do with the leftover roast from yesterday.  I remembered how my grandma made the beef salad, but swapped out the mayo with avocado.   I also stuffed the meat mixture into a tomato and served it on spinach. You could use many different ingredients and come up with the salad that fits your palate (and what you have in the 'fridge!).

Ingredients:

• Cooked meat, chopped (I used beef roast)
• Avocados
• Cayenne pepper (if I would have had a defrosted New Mexico green chile or jalapeno, I would have added that instead)
• Diced onion
• Tomatoes, insides removed (or, you could just slice the tomato on put on top of the salad)
• Spinach and/or other salad fixings

Directions:

1. Dice meat.
2. Dice onion.
3. Core tomatoes for stuffing (or slice).
4. Mash avocados until they are creamy.  Add cayenne pepper and diced onion.  Then add meat.
5. Stuff avocados with meat mixture.  Serve on a bed of spinach.