A hassle which tastes good

Preparing the main course for J birthday was almost as time consuming as was preparing the onion soup. But I mean, the least I could do was to be nice and prepare a nice restaurant-like-dinner for his birthday.

After a long consideration I decided to go for beef. I usually do not, because I am somewhat afraid that I might either burn it or under-cook it and it would be a waste then…with pork or poultry I am not that afraid, because I pretty much know these meats already and honestly, if I do burn them, I don’t feel that bad because it doesn’t cost that much…but with beef it is different, so I needed to be careful.

I started with preparing the foil baked potatoes - I had two big potatoes at hand and I had always wanted to try to make them, so that was decided.

# I washed the potatoes, made some holes in them with the fork, brushed them with butter and wrapped into foil.

# Baked at 200 degrees C for about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Smaller potatoes probably need less time - you can check it with a knife - when knife goes without trouble inside the potato, it is done.

I prepared the potatoes the evening before. To keep them nice and fresh until the next day, I unwrapped the baked potatoes, waited until they cooled completely, placed into a plastic box and refrigerated. The next day before the dinner I heated them up in a microwave oven, then wrapped the hot potatoes into the foil again and served with some paprika butter.

1 tbsp soft butter

2 tbsp cream cheese

1 tsp ground paprika

1 tsp chili powder

0.5 tsp ground cumin

0.5 tsp garlic powder

some salt to taste

 

# In a small bowl, mix all ingredients (except salt) until well-combined. Add salt to taste, if needed and mix well.

# Spoon mixture onto a sheet of waxed paper, roll it into a cylinder and twist each end tight. Keep in the fridge until serving. Btw, this butter is a nice bread spread as well.

Now to the meat, which I marinated overnight.

400 g beef tenderloins

100 ml olive oil

75 ml red wine

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tbsp sugar

 

# Whisk all ingredients in a medium bowl.

# Place tenderloins into a plastic box, pour over with the marinade, cover and shake well.

# Refrigerate up to 1 day, turning occasionally. I used pretty thin slices of tenderloin, so I did not think I needed to hammer them, but in case you use thicker slices, you might want to hammer them before marinating, to get nice and soft steaks.

So, once the meat is marinated, you’ll need to cook it.

# Heat one tablespoon of oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Add steaks to pan, cook to desired doneness - for medium-rare it takes about 4 minutes per side (I personally timed it).

# When cooked, transfer steaks to plate and sprinkle over with salt and pepper and keep warm until serving.

# Do not clean the pan - you’ll need to finish the sauce in there. You’ll need:

4 tbsp butter

half onion, sliced

1 tsp flour

100 ml dry white wine

200 ml low-sodium chicken stock

1 tsp Dijon mustard

# Melt butter in a heavy medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion slices and saute for about 4 minutes.

# Add wine and bring to boil. Boil for 1 minute, add chicken stock, turn heat lower and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

# Transfer flour into the sauce and mix well. Simmer for another 6-7 minutes.

This can be done 1 day ahead (cool slightly, cover and refrigerate). Once you are ready to serve and the steaks have been cooked, pour the sauce to the pan you used for cooking the steaks. Scrap up the browned bits and mix in mustard. You might want to add some cream as well, to make it even more smooth. When that’s done, remove from heat. The sauce is ready.

Now, all you have left to do is to serve and enjoy the dish. Place the hot foil potatoes into the heated plates, cut them on top and fill the cutting with the paprika butter. Transfer the stakes to the plate, pour over with sauce and enjoy. Soft and juicy stake, hot potato with spicy butter and creamy sauce…Quite a bit of work but well worth it!

400 g beef was too much for two of us (especially if you had already have a bowl of onion soup and you’ll know that there will be a dessert afterwards), so we did have leftovers for the next day. I used them up in the beef and vegetables stir-fry. As the beef was already cooked, I added it to the sauce together with broccoli florets. Tasty!

Beef and vegetables stir-fry

I have somehow lost the source where I got the idea for this stir-fry, it came either from Epicurious or Allrecipes, but as I changed the recipe quite a lot, I don’t find it anymore. Maybe it has been taken off. But in any case, below you’ll find a recipe for a tasty beef and broccoli stir-fry, which can be served either with rice or couscous.

200 g cubed beef sirloin, marinated in 2-3 tbsp soy sauce and 1/4 tsp sugar

1.5 tbsp cornstarch

2 tbsp soy sauce

200 ml chicken broth

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp ground ginger

2 garlic gloves, crushed

1/2 tbsp chili powder

100 g broccoli florets

2 carrots, julienned

1 green bell pepper, julienned

3 tbsp olive oil

# First of all prepare the beef - a few hours (or even a day) before making this dish, stir together soy sauce and sugar, add the beef, and let it marinate in the fridge.

# When beef is marinated, prepare the sauce. For that, dissolve cornstarch in the soy sauce and stir in broth and sugar.

# Heat a wok or large heavy skillet over high heat until it is hot, add 2 tablespoons oil and heat until it just begins to smoke. Stir-fry the beef cubes in the oil for 1 minute, or until no longer pink.

# Add remaining 1 tbsp oil to the wok, also add julienned bell pepper together with carrots and crushed garlic. Sprinkle the vegetables over with ginger and chili powder.

# Stir-fry the mix for a few minutes, pour it over with sauce and simmer for about 10-15 minutes (depending on how crispy vegetables you prefer).

# Add broccoli florets and simmer until florets are tender and sauce is thickened. Serve it on a heated plate over rice or couscous.

This is a great basic stir-fry recipe with a well-balanced sauce. You might want to try it with chicken or pork, or add more garlic, ginger and chili powder, if you are into spices. If you like your food swimming in sauce, double the sauce ingredients.