Beef
Based on a recipe by Keith Floyd from his book Floyd’s China, “Chinese Beef and Carrots” is an ideal meal to cook in a thermal cooker.
Cuisine from Sichuan include a number of beef dishes as they are very popular amongst the Chinese Muslims and this was one of the areas Floyd visited during his TV series on China.
I have made a few alterations to the original recipe but it basically stays the same. Like all of my recipes they can be used in a slow cooker but you will not have the same energy saving as when cooking in a thermal cooker.
Happy thermal cooking,
Mr D
ingredients
- 2 tbsp rapeseed oil
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
- 2 slices of peeled fresh ginger root
- 5 spring onions, thinly sliced
- 750g stewing beef, cut into 1cm cubes
- 40ml dark soy sauce
- 1 beef stock pot or stock cube
- 1 tbsp light brown sugar
- 3 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine (Chinese cooking wine) or dry sherry
- 1 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
- 450g carrots, cut into batons
- water
method
- Heat the oil in the inner pot over a medium heat.
- Add the garlic, ginger and spring onions and cook until golden brown.
- Add the beef and all the remaining ingredients except the water. Stir well.
- Pour over water to cover the meat and carrots.
- Bring to the boil and then simmer for 5 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and place the inner pot into the vacuum-insulated outer Thermal container, shut the lid. Leave while you start the rice in the top pot. If not using a top pot leave to cook for a minimum of 3 hours.
- Add the rice and water to the top pot and bring to the boil. Stir then turn down the heat and simmer for 1 minute.
- Turn off the heat, open the vacuum-insulated outer Thermal container and place the top pot into the inner pot.
- Put the lid on the top pot and shut the lid of the outer container.
- Leave to thermal cook without power for a minimum of 3 hours.
- Check the seasoning and adjust with salt and pepper if needed
- Serve with the rice and some stir fry vegetables
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In my Mr D’s Thermal Cooker this week I have cooked this truly great Bolognese in fact one of the best I have ever tasted. It is adapted for the Mr Ds thermal cooker by me from a recipe by Jo Pratt the author of three popular books (The Nation’s Favourite Food, In the Mood for Food and In the Mood for Entertaining). The bolognese could equally be cooked in a slow cooker if you didn’t have a thermal cooker.
The History of bolognese: (from Wikipedia)
The earliest documented recipe for a meat-based sauce (ragù) served with pasta comes from late 18th century Imola, near Bologna. Pellegrino Artusi first published a recipe for a meat sauce characterized as being bolognese in his cookbook published in 1891. Artusi’s recipe, Maccheroni alla bolognese, is thought to derive from the mid 19th century when he spent considerable time in Bologna. (In Artusi’s time, maccheroni was a generic term for pasta, both dried and fresh.)
Artusi’s sauce called for predominantly lean veal filet along with pancetta, butter, onion, and carrot. The meats and vegetables were to be finely minced, cooked with butter until the meats browned, then covered and cooked with broth. Artusi commented that the taste could be made even more pleasant by adding small pieces of dried mushroom, a few slices of truffle, or a chicken liver cooked with the meat and diced. As a final touch, he also suggested adding half a glass of cream to the sauce when it was completely done to make it taste even smoother. Artusi recommended serving the sauce with a medium size pasta (“horse teeth”) made from durum wheat. The pasta was to be made fresh, cooked until it was firm, and then flavored with the sauce and Parmigiano cheese.
Continue reading about Mr D’s TV – Spaghetti Bolognese cooked by Mr D in his Thermal Cooker
Last night I started a big pot of Masaman Curry with Beef so it could slow cook in my Mr D’s Thermal Cooker overnight. This is for the family get together for to celebrate Ethans 4th Birthday. His official birthday was last weekend when he and his friends got together for a party at our local sports centre. Today though is for those who either could not make it or too old for the bouncy castle.
Massaman Curry is one of my favourites and I often make it with duck. Today though, we are having it with beef, as I had a lot of packs of packs of beef in our freezer. I always think beef needs a long long cook to tenderise it so I decided to make it before going to bed last night and leave it to slowly cook in my Mr D’s Thermal Cooker overnight.
This morning I have brought the inner pot back to the boil (even though it was still way above 60ºC) and then put it back into the outer container for lunch.
The Recipe (adapted from a recipe in “The Food of Thailand”): serves 4
Ingredients:
- 2 pieces of cinnamon stick
- 10 cardamom seeds
- 5 cloves
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp massaman curry paste
- 800g beef cut into 5cm cubes
- 400ml coconut milk
- 250ml beef stock
- 500g baby potatoes
- 2 cm ginger, grated
- 3 tbsp fish sauce
- 3 tbsp palm sugar
- 110g roasted salted peanuts
- 3 tbsp tamarind paste
Method:
- In the inner pot dry roast the cinnamon stick, cardamom seeds and cloves until fragrant, 2-3 minutes. Remove and keep to one side.
- Heat the oil in the inner pot and add the massaman paste. Cook, while stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Pour in half the coconut milk and slowly bring to the boil while continuing to stir.
- Add the beef and stir for 5 minutes over a medium heat.
- Add the rest of the coconut milk, stock, potatoes, ginger, fish sauce, palm sugar (stirring to make sure that it dissolves), ¾ of the peanuts and the tamarind.paste.
- Mix everything well and bring to the boil – turn down to a simmer and put on the lid – simmer for 5 minutes.
- Put the inner pot into the outer container and thermal cook without power for a minimum of 6 hours.
- Check seasoning and adjust with fish sauce if necessary.
- Serve with rice and garnish with the remaining peanuts.
