Category: Beef

Mustard beef pie, a recipe to impress.

This dish was actually inspired by Rachel Allen’s Individual Beef Wellington, which I saw her made in her show, Rachel Allen’s Dinner Parties. Thing was, all I had in hand was minced beef so instead of a traditional Beef Wellington, I made Mustard Beef Pie instead :D

Still, if it weren’t for Rachel Allen, I wouldn’t have thought of making this dish.

# – Mustard beef pie.

The ingredients:

  • 200 grams of minced beef
  • 2 carrots, chopped
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 3 shallots, finely chopped
  • 1 chilli, finely chopped
  • 3 cloves of garlic, sliced
  • 150 ml of water or stock
  • 8 pieces of puff pastry squares
  • 3 tablespoons of mustard powder (you can use whole grain mustard for better texture too)
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 egg yolk

For the gravy:

  • 200 ml of milk
  • 1 beef stock cube
  • 1 tablespoon of corn flour, dissolved in 2 tablespoons of water

# – First, marinade the minced beef with 3 tablespoons of mustard powder and some salt for about 15 minutes.
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# – In the meantime, fry up the onions, shallots, garlic and chillies in a pan.

# – When browned, throw in the carrots.

# – Followed by the water or stock.

# – A dash of salt to bring up the flavours. Leave to simmer for about 10 minutes or till the carrots are softer.

# – Time to throw in the beef. Stir to combine.

# – When the beef has almost cooked through, remove from heat and set aside to cool down.

# – Roll out the puff pastry squares. Puff pastries are easier to handle when chilled otherwise they become very sticky. Just stick them back in the fridge to chill for a bit if they’ve gotten too sticky or soft to manage.

# – Spoon a few tablespoons of fillings onto one puff pastry square. Make sure they’re right in the middle of the square.

# – Take another puff pastry square and lay it over the filling. Use a fork to press the edges down to seal it up.

# – With a knife, poke a hole at the top of the pie. This is to release steam when it’s baking in the oven.

# – Decorate the pie with leafs cutouts and errr…cherries from leftover puff pastry.

# – Generously brush egg yolk all over the pies. This will give the pie a beautiful golden colour.

# – Stick them in a preheated oven of 160 degrees celcius for 25-35 minutes.

# – Mustard beef pies, done!

# – Serve with steamed sweet holland beans.

# – Make a simple gravy by adding a beef cube and mixture of 1 tablespoon of corn flour dissolved in 2 tablespoons of water into 200 ml of milk that’s been deglazing the pan used to cook the beef earlier. Stir till thickens slightly.

# – Pour the gravy all over the pie before eating for a delicious, moist pie :D

I guess the BF really liked em, as he hoovered up 3 pies, which led him to twit nonsense like this….

# – LOL

Juicy, beefy filling in flaky, buttery pastry. Of course I ate a lot of pies too!

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Sweet Princess Beef Recipe (hot, sweet and sour dry beef curry)

I have a confession.

I can’t do Asian food. I don’t know why, but I just can’t get my head around it. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Asian food but I can’t seem to be able to achieve that delicate balance of flavours that the cuisine is known for. Lets not even begin on some of the techniques and skills involved with preparing Asian food…

And that’s why I decided to buy a cook book by Chef Wan, Malaysia’s answer to Jamie Oliver. It’s called “Simply Sedap!” and it contains apparently all of Chef Wan’s favourite recipes. The recipes, are not all local, but there are enough of them of which I would love to learn how to cook.

While flipping through the book, I realised that I have yet to acquire a lot of spices needed for some of the recipes. There I was…stupidly thinking that I had an awesome spice collection, but yet, I still did not have in my possession spices like fennel powder, cumin powder, candlenuts, mustard seeds and garam masala.

I believe there will be more to come. I can actually think of one more now…coriander powder! Arghh!

I believe I need more spice jars.

I’m hyperventilating!

Oh gawd, stop me!

I need help!

/give myself a good slap to the side of the head/

Anyway, the first recipe that I tried from Chef Wan’s book is called “Daging Puteri Manis” in Malay or Sweet Princess Beef in English. Don’t ask me why Chef Wan named the dish as such, but you got to admit…it’s a pretty catchy name.

# – “Daging Puteri Manis” or Sweet Princess Beef.

It was STUPENDOUS. Yeah, sorry I really do use words like that in my household. Sometimes, ‘delicious’ just doesn’t cut it, you know. The thick sauce was a perfect balance of sweet, sour and spicy. The knuckle steak was surprisingly tender thanks to an hour long of simmering.

The ingredients:

  • 2 large potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges then fried
  • 3 cardamom pods
  • 4 cloves
  • 3 sprigs of curry leaves
  • 2 inches of cinnamon stick
  • 3 cloves of garlic, finely diced
  • 10 shallots, finely diced (actually I used only 1 large red onion cause that’s all I had :P)
  • 1/2 inch of ginger, finely diced
  • 3 tablespoons of chilli paste (original recipe called for 4 but I think mine was quite spicy, so go easy…you can add more if you want later)
  • 1 tablespoon of coriander powder (I used the seeds cause I didn’t have powder)
  • 2 teaspoons of cumin powder
  • 1 teaspoon of fennel powder
  • 500 grams of cubed beef (I used knuckle steak)
  • 250 ml of water (if you’re only cooking for 30 minutes, I did add a dash more later on to prevent drying as I cooked for 60 minutes)
  • 60 ml of tamarind juice (derived from 60ml of water + 2 tablespoon of tamarind paste)
  • 2 tablespoons of sugar
  • 2 large tomatoes, cut into wedges
  • 1 onion, peeled and sliced into rings

There are loads of ingredients but the steps are really simple so it helps to prepare all the ingredients beforehand to avoid confusion.

# – First, you heat up enough oil to cover the bottom of the saucepan.

# – Chuck in the potato wedges to brown (I’ve already nuked them in the microwave to ensure they cooked through, you can boil or steam them first if you like)

# – When potatoes are browned, set aside.

# – With the same saucepan and leftover oil, throw in the cinnamon sticks, curry leaves, cardamom pods and cloves and stir around till fragrant.

# – Then, throw in the finely diced garlic, ginger and shallots.

# – When the shallots have turned translucent, throw in 2 teaspoons of cumin powder.

# – Followed by a teaspoon of fennel powder.

# – And a tablespoon of coriander seeds (original recipe called for powdered coriander seeds but I had none).

# – Next, 3 tablespoons of chili paste. Stir to combine.

# – Now, throw in the beef!

# – Then the water.

# – Stir and let it simmer uncovered for 30-60 minutes (I did 60 minutes, beef got more tender!)

# – 5 minutes before serving, pour in the tamarind juice.

# – Followed by 3 tablespoons of sugar.

# – And not to forget, a sprinkling of salt.

# – Almost done now….stir in the sliced onion.

# – As well as the tomatoes.

# – Most importantly, the divine potatoes prepared earlier. Stir till everything’s covered in the awesomesauce.

# – Then cover and simmer for a further 5 minutes.

# – 5 minutes later, Sweet Princess Beef, DONE!

# – Serve with piping hot rice for a STUPENDOUS dinner. Sorry, I did it again..

We cleared it.

Just short of licking the saucepan.

# – Only because I couldn’t fit my head inside :(

Have fun cooking!

A recipe of caramelised potato and beef with onions.

This dish is another one that I grew up eating. In fact, it was a childhood favourite! My mom used to cook it with either minced pork or pork fillets but this version that I’m blogging about uses beef steak cut into strips. You can even use chicken, or whatever meat you fancy, except perhaps seafood.

The main star of the dish however, is not the meat. It’s the potatoes. They’re soft in the middle and slightly crispy on the outside. And they’ve got a very appetising sort of smokiness to them, derived from the chinese dark caramel sauce.

# – Caramelised potato and beef with onions

Now that I’m older, I realise how fattening it is to eat potatoes with rice but hey, we all need some comfort food now and then ;)

The ingredients:

  • 2-3 potatoes, sliced
  • 1- 2 onions, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon of Shaoxing or chinese rice wine
  • A couple of dashes of Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tablespoon of chinese dark caramel sauce
  • 1 tablespoon of ordinary chilli sauce or Tabasco sauce (I used Sriracha hot chilli sauce)
  • 150 ml of water
  • 1 tablespoon of salt
  • 200 grams of beef steak, sliced and marinaded with a bit of corn flour and salt (you can use minced meat too. And switch to pork or chicken)

# – Of course, heat up a wok or pan with oil :)

# – When oil is hot, throw in the chopped onions. Ah, the sound of sizzling oil…

# – When the onions have turned a bit translucent, throw in the potatoes. Stir around for a bit till they’re a bit browned.

# – Pour in about 150 ml of water…

# – A few dashes of Worcestershire sauce.

# – Drizzle over the dark caramel sauce.

# – A good tablespoon of salt.

# – Followed by a tablespoon of chinese rice wine.

# – And lastly, a tablespoon of chilli sauce. Mix till all are combined.

# – Then cover the pan with a lid, turn the heat down to medium and let the spuds cook for about 15 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking.

# – After that, push the potatoes to one side in the pan, and throw in the beef.

# – Drizzle a wee bit of dark caramel sauce over the beef. Stir to combine. You don’t have to cook beef too long but if you’re using chicken or pork please make sure you cook them through.

# – Mix everything up, and garnish with chopped chives or spring onions. Errr, I used Rosemary because that’s what I had…

You can add chopped chillies for some kicks or more caramel sauce if you like the dish darker. You can also slice the potatoes thinner or thicker, depending on your preference. Sometimes I pan fry the potatoes first without adding any water for a much more crispier taste.

Eat together with rice or do I what I used to do when I was little….eat everything and save the potatoes for last.

Have fun cooking!