Feb 3, 2009

Black Pepper Beef Stew

It's gonna be a quick post here.

I've been trying to figure out a way to compress all the things I need to do into that little time slot I have,
And it's not an easy task.

Working 20 hours a week and taking 4 classes (each class lasts about 3 hours),
That means on a typical day,
I'll work for 5 hours, head to the library, and then 3 hours of class.
Sometimes I'll get home around 10:30 p.m.
On top of that,
There are other things waiting for me:
Endless errands, house work, and of course, keeping this blog up and running.

I'm slowly transforming into an Energizer Bunny.

So here's the simple dish I cooked last Sunday,
Just a few preparation steps then I was off to do my never ending work!

Black pepper beef stew-


Ingredients?

1 lb of beef
(I usually just pick out the fattest beef I can find at the grocery store! Angus beef is one good alternative.)
2 small onions
Lots of freshly grinded black pepper
Salt
Soy sauce
Sake (Japanese cooking wine)
Extra virgin olive oil
Water

How?

First cut the beef into bite sizes.

Before we continue with this recipe, I have a complaint to make here.
I got this beef from one of the grocery store around my neighborhood,
After opening the package, I was very mad....and sad..
Here's the side that I saw while buying the beef-


Something's wrong when my knife couldn't get all the way down to the bottom,
I turned it to the other side.....I saw nothing but a gigantic bone..-


So mad, so furious,
I should just sue the grocery store for deceiving their customers!
Good thing I got one extra box of beef that day,
Otherwise we'll have bone stew for dinner instead of beef stew!

Ok I'm taking a deep breath here,
Calming down...gradually...
So after cutting the beef into bite sizes, let's dice the onion into thin strings, set aside.
Boil a small pot of water and toss in the beef,
Just cook for couple minutes, drain it, set it aside too.

Now have another pot ready,
Drizzle some olive oil,
Toss in the onion, sprinkle some salt, and grind some black pepper,
Cook till the color turned translucent then transfer the beef into the pot.
Sear the sides till slightly brown,
Add about 3 cups of hot water, 1/2 cup of soy sauce, and 1/2 cup of sake,
Don't forget our "lots of freshly grinded black pepper."
I "grinded" the black pepper for at least 35 times,
That probably adds up to at least 2 tablespoons of black pepper corns?

So bring the pot to a simmer and turn to medium/low heat after that,
Have a quick taste and see if you need to add more soy sauce,
Not much to do now, let's just let it stew for 2 hours.
You'll have to scoop out the brownish color "thing" that floats on the top of the soup,
If you ignore it, it'll leave a bad, dirty taste to your stew,
So don't be lazy during this step.

The best thing way prepare this dish is to leave it over night in the fridge,
When you're ready to eat it, just pop it on the stove and heat it up.
The flavor will be fully absorbed by the meat if doing so.
Yum!

(Ok...my eyelids cannot hold my eyes open any longer.
It's time for my bed with fluffy pillows....another long day ahead....
Have a wonderful time there people...zz....zzZZZ.....)

6 comments:

  1. Poor thing! That beef should have not gone for sale, unless there was a HUGE amount of marrow inside. Simply ridiculous to sell it; they should have cut it up and sold it as "beef stew" meat. I've never seen a bone that big at a market before.

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  2. To EatTravelEat~
    I know, what a rip off!
    I was so mad, plus there's no marrow in it at all,
    It's juat a piece of bone!!

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  3. Take care, girl. It's good you are having such a fulfilling life :)

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  4. To Tigerfish~
    Haha that's a positive way to think about it!

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  5. That is a really big bone! Hopefully the store just didn't notice, rather than tried to deceive their customers. But, it looks like you still had a wonderful dinner.

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  6. thanx to translate this to portuguese(ok thanx for blogger) but it's great! I got a pre-blog in this fotolog http://www.fotolog.com/coisaradakids/60526786 ...this flog is poor but the food is good! c ya

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