Posts Tagged Beef

Cajun Stir Fry


Oh Snap! This dish was amazing, easily the best thing I’ve made so far. I went grocery shopping with my mom and sister this past weekend and I was thinking of things to cook during the week. At the time I pictured myself cooking onions and bell peppers with a nice chicken breast in the oven, but when it came time to make dinner last night I just wasn’t feeling it.

Instead I decided to use the stew meat (beef cut into chunks) instead of the chicken, and I wanted to do the whole thing on the stove top in a pan. When I started making the dish I decided to eat the beef, onion, and pepper mix over a bed of rice and peas, but as I was cooking and the smell overcame me I couldn’t allow myself to waste any of the gravy in the pan. I decided to just throw the brown rice and peas into the pan and let it absorb all of the gravy. It was a great decision! Like I said earlier, this was the best thing I’ve made yet.

The best thing is that I’m pretty sure I could make this in the dorm as well. At the end of the post I’ll tell you what to do if you want to make this without an oven.

Ingredients:
8oz of stew meat (any type of cubed beef)
1 medium green bell pepper
1 large onion
1 cup of Brown rice
1 can of no salt peas (8.5 oz)
4 tbsp of butter or margarine
1/3 cup of water
1 tbsp Tony Chacheres
1.5 tbsp of Kitchen Bouquet browning sauce
1 tbsp of worcestershire sauce
2 tsp of black pepper
1 tsp of cayenne pepper

Optional Ingredients:
Other sliced vegetables
white rice
Noodles

Ingredients

Step 1) Throw one cup of brown rice, two cups of water, and the can of peas into a dish and microwave it for 20 minutes or so, until all the water is gone.

Cooked rice and peas

Step 2) Take a pan and turn the stove top to medium-high heat. Chop up your onion and pepper into thin long strips. Throw them into the pan and put the butter on top. Stir and let cook for about 15 minutes or until the onion and pepper are a golden color and are no longer hard.

Cooked onions and peppers

Step 3) Season your meat and throw it into the pan as well. Try to move the onions and pepper aside so that the meat can be touching the bottom of the pan. Just throw the onions and pepper on top of the meat. Let cook for about 10 minutes and then add your browning sauce. Stir the pan to make sure everything is nice and mixed.

After the meat is thrown in

Step 4) By this time your rice and peas should be done. Pour the mix into the pan and add the water. Stir so that everything becomes mixed. Turn the stove down to medium, cover the pan, and let cook for about 10 minutes.

After the rice is thrown in

That’s it! Everything should be done now.

Now, if you want to make this using a microwave, here is how I would do it.

Step 1) Microwave the rice and peas same as above.

Step 2) Throw your seasoned meat into a separate, larger bowl and microwave it until it is completely cooked. Not sure how long this would take. I’m thinking about 15-20 minutes, just make sure to stir the meat every 5 minutes or so since the microwave cooks unevenly.

Step 3) Throw your onion, bell pepper, and butter into a third bowl and microwave until the onions and peppers are a golden brown color. I’m thinking at least 10 minutes, but I don’t know as I haven’t tried it yet.

Step 4) Mix all three bowls into one large bowl (hopefully one of the three was large enough to handle everything together) Throw in your browning sauce and water in as well and stir thoroughly. Stick back in the microwave for about five more minutes.

Done! I just want to say that I haven’t tried the microwave steps yet, that is what I would do in the dorm room though, feel free to make adjustments. Just make sure the meat is cooked, that is the most important step.

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Grilled Brisket

The other day I was out shopping with some friends and I knew I was going to be heading home after we were done so I thought it would be a great opportunity to just go all out and spend the rest of the afternoon making a great meal. I thought for awhile about what I wanted and I finally decided I wanted a huge piece of meat, so that is just what I got!

I have never even made brisket before much less tried one on a George Foreman grill. I wasn’t too sure it would even cook since it was so thick, but I bought it and decided to try it out anyways. Once I got home I got online and looked at a few recipes to get an idea about what people used to season the meat with. In the process I quickly realized that most people slow cook a brisket over a long period of time, which had me a little worried. I decided to just go on and try it anyways.

It actually turned out pretty amazing. This was probably the best piece of meat I’ve cooked on the grill so far.

Ingredients
- beef brisket (~32 oz)
- 2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp garlic
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp cayenne
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 3/4 cup brown sugar

Optional Ingredients
- any seasoning you want to use really

This dish will make about four – five servings, depending on how big the portion is. I also have recipes for the sweet potatoes and the rice that can be found on the site in previous posts.

Step 1: Cut your brisket into manageable sizes. I cut mine into about six different pieces so that they would grill up quicker.

Chopped up brisket

Step 2: Throw your brisket into a bowl and throw in all the seasoning with it. Rub the seasoning on the meat and try to evenly coat all pieces of meat. Don’t be afraid to get a little messy! Wash your hands when done.

Seasoned pieces of brisket

Step 3: Turn on your grill and wait about five minutes until it heats up. Throw a few pieces of meat onto the grill. I was only able to fit about two pieces at a time because of my grill size. My brisket was about an inch thick and it took about 25 minutes to cook completely through. I flipped it over every five minutes or so, which probably isn’t necessary in a George Foreman grill, but the bottom side of the grill always seems to cook faster than the top, so I flip it anyways.

Step 4: Take the brisket off of the grill and allow to cool for about five minutes before cutting it. This will keep the juices inside. Now serve with whatever sides you’d like and enjoy your meal!

Grilled brisket - don’t cut them like this, see the juices? You want that to stay inside the meat!

Note: As I was cooking the brisket I was cutting them in half so that I could check if it was done, but this allowed all of the juices to come out of the meat. I didn’t think much of this at the time because as soon as I put the meat in a tupperware container, all the juices were coming out and tasted amazing when you pour it back over the meat. But when I went to heat up the left overs later, the meat was pretty dry. So try to avoid cutting the cooked brisket until about five minutes after it’s done cooking.

Sorry, I know a lot of you wanted easier recipes to follow, but I just really wanted brisket. I have a lot of good stuff coming up. I’ve been trying to find interesting casserole dishes to try out and I also have a lot of ideas for yummy side dishes. I’ve also started trying to find recipes that don’t require any cooking at all. So hopefully in the next few weeks I’ll have some simpler stuff thrown in the mix.

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Cajun Two Step Chili

So as you can see, I’m trying to get a little bit crazier with the names of my recipes. I don’t know how much you could really consider this a Cajun dish since I’m using Mexican hot sauces, but we’ll ignore that for now. For those of you who don’t know, the Cajun Two Step is a traditional Cajun dance similar to the country western two step, but none of this really has anything to do with the recipes except for the fact that this great tasting chili can be made in only . . . you guessed it, Two Steps!!

Ingredients:
- 7.5oz Hormel Chili with NO BEANS
- 7.5oz Tostitos Salsa con Queso (half of the jar)
- Frito Lays Scoops
- Black Pepper
- Cayenne Pepper
- Tony Chacheres
- Garlic Powder
- Onion Powder
- Chili Powder
- Any hot sauce you can get your hands on

Ignore the Kashi cereal, we won’t be needing that this time

Optional/Substitute Ingredients:
- 7.5oz of any chili
- 7.5oz of velveeta or any other soft cheese
- Any chip really, goes best with corn chips
- Pretty much any seasoning you can imagine

Step 1: Pour out the chili and cheese into a bowl or tupperware dish. If you want, add a few slices of velveeta cheese as well. Season generously with whatever seasoning you wish to put in it. Stir it all up and make sure the seasonings aren’t all bunched up in one area of the chili.

Doesn’t the chili look great fresh out of the can?

Advice: If you decide to add lots of various peppers and hot sauces, remember that they will add up in the end! If you love the hot stuff, then go for it! But If your not a big fan of a nasty burning sensation in your throat, I would limit it to about a tablespoon combined for the various peppers, and about a tablespoon for the various hot sauces.

Chili seasoned and mixed

Step 2: Place the bowl in the microwave for about 1 and a half minutes on high. Take out and stir and cook it for another minute. Take out and let cool for two - three minutes.

That’s it! Whip out the chips and enjoy.

Finished Chili

As I’m sure you can tell, this is a VERY flexible recipe. You can throw just about anything in a chili and it probably wouldn’t taste that bad. I know some people love putting beans, tomatoes, cream cheese, etc, but I was never a fan of that. I always just stuck with the simple stuff. I find that the more you over complicate the dish the easier it is to mess it up.

Lastly, I realize I put “The Dorm Life” on all of my pictures. Sorry about that. It’s 1:45 in the morning and I’m too tired to fix it. Hopefully this won’t take away from your yummy chili.

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