I don't normally cook beef, for several reasons: I don't like the taste or texture, it costs much more than chicken, and I've only rarely cooked beef to the satisfaction of my wife. On Friday night, however, things changed.
I get some of my recipes from this site, which is in Hebrew and sometimes in French; the recipe which I followed is here. I asked my wife to buy 1.5kg beef which we call 'number 8'; I don't know what it's called in English, but one can see from the accompanying diagram that it comes from the upper part of the cow's front legs. This is the cut which I use sometimes for cholent; as I wrote there, this cut is ideal for stews as it contains a large amount of collagen which is broken down to gelatin during the cooking process.
On Thursday night, I placed the two large pieces of meat into a pot, covered them with water and added two quartered onions. I then cooked the meat on the gas for an hour and a half; afterwards, I stored the meat and the liquid separately in the fridge.
On Friday afternoon, I prepared an evil mixture of soy sauce, salt, pepper, parsley, paprika, soup powder and garlic; the recipe says to mix these ingredients together, then press them into the flesh of the cooked meat. I put them directly into the same container which held the beef, but I should have mixed them first in a separate bowl before pouring the mixture onto the beef and massaging it. I sliced sufficient raw potatoes to cover the cooking pan, then placed the beef and the marinade on top of the potatoes, as well as the original cooking liquid (plus onions). Finally, I covered the pan with aluminium foil. Cooking time was one hour at 200°C and a further two hours at 175°C.
All the carnivores of the family were very appreciative of the dish. I think that I got a lump of unmixed soup powder on my plate, as the meat was too heavily spiced for my liking. I received approval to cook this dish again in the future, but to reduce the quantity of the marinade. The dish is maybe twice as expensive as chicken dishes, so maybe I'll cook it once every six or eight weeks (my daughter, son-in-law and grand-daughter eat with us on alternate weeks).
[SO: 4662; 5, 22, 44
MPP: 1105; 1, 6, 7]
All the carnivores of the family were very appreciative of the dish. I think that I got a lump of unmixed soup powder on my plate, as the meat was too heavily spiced for my liking. I received approval to cook this dish again in the future, but to reduce the quantity of the marinade. The dish is maybe twice as expensive as chicken dishes, so maybe I'll cook it once every six or eight weeks (my daughter, son-in-law and grand-daughter eat with us on alternate weeks).
I'm adding a new tag to these posts: SO will mean that the post includes my 'scores' from Stack Overflow and Music Practice and Performance.
[SO: 4662; 5, 22, 44
MPP: 1105; 1, 6, 7]
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