Beef provencal casserole

(Recipe from this blogpost)

If anyone can teach me how to take a decent picture of stew, that would be greatly appreciated! I never have any luck and my photos don’t really do the dishes justice.

I wanted a quick and hearty meal I could heat up mid-week. Plus the flavours develop so much more overnight so it’s an added bonus.

Note: Having the Thermomix on speed 4 as the recipe instruct after you pop in your mushrooms results in mushy mushies. It still tastes great, but if you prefer your mushrooms intact, I’d suggest reducing the speed to reverse/speed 2.

Ingredients

2 onions, halved
2 cloves garlic
200g sliced mushrooms
2 tbsp olive oil
800 g diced beef
4 tablespoons plain flour
400 can diced tomatoes
1 dash red wine
2 tablespoons TMX veg stock
2 MCs water
1/2 red capsicum, diced
Herbs (dried or fresh will do, I used dried oregano)

Method

Pop onions and garlic into your TMX bowl and chop for 6 secs/speed 6.

Add mushrooms and oil, and saute for 2 mins/100 degrees/speed 4.

Add beef and 2 tbsps of flour, and cook for 15 mins/100 degrees/reverse/speed soft.

Add all remaining ingredients, and cook for 30 mins/100 degrees/reverse/speed soft.

Serve with mash or rice on a cool night. Better yet, keep it overnight before reheating and serving.

Beef Rendang

(Recipe from this blog post)

I must confess, I wasn’t really sure I wanted to attempt a rendang in the Thermomix. I use Brahim’s rendang paste normally, which is ridiculously good and so easy to make! But I had to admit, it would be pretty cool to say that I could make a good rendang from scratch.

Note 1: The recipe calls for 25g of brown sugar or palm sugar. I used brown sugar but ended up with a recipe that was way too sweet. So I might go with 15-20g palm sugar next time.

Ingredients

30g dessicated coconut

1 large red chilli, end cut off

2.5cm fresh ginger, peeled

3 cloves garlic

1 small red onion, peeled

1 tsp turmeric (I used turmeric powder, but actually think it would be good to try fresh turmeric next time)

20g oil (I used vegetable oil)

1 tsp fish sauce

4 bay leaves

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

3 star anise

5 cardamom pods, split with the flat end of a knife

ground pepper, to taste

15g palm sugar (reduced from original recipe)

150g coconut cream

500g diced beef

I don’t use star anise and cardamom pods regularly, so thought I’d take a happy snap of my dry spices/herbs.

Method

• Toast the coconut in a saucepan, continuously stirring until it’s a light brown color. Then remove it off the heat immediately and set aside.

• Pop your chilli, ginger, garlic, onion and turmeric in the TMX bowl, and chop for 10-15 seconds/speed 6.

• Add the oil and saute for 3 minutes/100 degrees/speed 3.
• Add all other ingredients except the meat and cook for 5 mins/100 degrees/speed soft.
• Add the meat and cook for 110 mins/100 degrees/reverse/speed soft. (You’ll have to set the timer twice)

I decided to make this a day early and pop it in the fridge to let the flavours develop. As mentioned before my attempt turned out a bit too sweet, but in terms of texture and taste it was good. I might even add an extra 10g of coconut and toast it a tiny bit longer as well next time!

Hungarian Goulash

(recipe taken from the Everyday Cooking for Every Family TMX cookbook)

After a bit of a letdown with the beef stroganoff, I was a bit hesitant to make another stew-type dish. But that wouldn’t be fair  to the rest of the recipes now, would it?

Ingredients

2 cloves garlic (4 in my house)

300g onion, peeled and quartered (I had a red and brown onion, so used both)

20g oil or butter (Butter is better. Ask Julia Childs)

500g Beef or Veal (I went to Coles and found “beef chunks goulash” in the meat aisle, whatever that means!)

1 tsp sugar

50g tomato concentrate

250g fresh tomatoes, diced

150g red wine

2 tbsp sweet paprika powder

1 tsp lemon rind (I actually didn’t bother with this, I didn’t have another use for the lemon juice and remaining rind so didn’t want to waste a whole fruit)

1 tsp salt

Pepper to taste

1 tsp caraway seed/powder (I bought the seeds)

1 tbsp marjoram

2 bay leaves

3 Pimento (couldn’t be bothered finding out what this was or where to buy it)

Pinch nutmeg

1 tbsp flour

150g water

150g red or green capsicum, cut into strips (I used red)

Method

• Place garlic and onion into TMX bowl and chop for 3 seconds/speed 5.
• Add oil and saute for 3 minutes/100 degrees/speed 1.
• Add meat and cook for 5 minutes/Varoma temperature/Reverse+speed soft.

• Add sugar, tomato concentrate, tomatoes, wine and spices and cook for 40-60 minutes/100 degrees/Reverse+speed soft.

• Add flour mixed with water and capsicum strips through hole in lid and cook for 5 minutes/90 degrees/Reverse + speed 1.
• Serve with mashed potatoes and polenta (I made a chickpea and garlic mash, recipe to come!)

Beef Stroganoff

(Recipe taken from the Everyday Cooking for Every Family TMX cookbook)

So… I wasn’t TOO impressed with this recipe. Again, because there’s not that much time for the meat or the mushrooms to absorb the flavour of the sauce, it wasn’t as full-bodied in taste as you would hope (I was trying really hard to find another word to use than the totally wanky FULL-BODIED but somehow my brain’s just not functioning). I had leftovers the next day and it was still fairly bland.

You can certainly use lamb here if you prefer, go for a cheap cut (as you would with all stews and braises).

Ingredients

1 onion, peeled and halved

30g butter

500g tenderloin fillet cut into 2.5cm strips (I bought small cubes of tenderloin from the butcher)

120g mushrooms, washed and halved (I don’t know about you, but washing mushrooms just feels weird to me. I used field mushrooms, peeled the outer layer off and cut the top off the stem)

2 tbsp tomato paste

100g white wine

100g water plus 1 tbsp TM vegetable stock concentrate

1 tbsp cornflour

1 tsp dijon mustard

120g sour cream

1 tbsp paprika (I used sweet paprika)

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp salt

Fresh parsley to garnish (I didn’t bother)

Method

• Place onion into TM bowl and chop for 5 seconds on speed 7.
• Add butter and cook for 2 minutes/100 degrees/speed 1.
• Place remaining ingredients (except parsley) into TM bowl and cook for 20 minutes/100 degrees/Reverse/Speed Soft.
• Garnish with parsley (if you have this) and serve with pasta or some mashed potato.