Tag: Beef

Beef Stock

Regardless of whether it is freshly made or in cube form, stock is an essential part of many meals, particularly soups, stews, casseroles and broths. Of course, there isn’t always time enough to make one’s own stock, but when one can find a few minutes it is certainly a worthwhile undertaking. It has the power to bring food alive – it’s not difficult to distinguish between freshly made stock and the slightly suspect supermarket hexahedron.

The local butcher will forever be one’s foremost ally in the pursuit of cracking homemade stock. As you might have guessed, a frequent by-product of their line of work is a hefty supply of animal bones. These are virtually worthless in monetary terms – mere superfluities to most meat eaters – but they do make for jolly tasty stock. So, simply pop down to your local butcher and ask for some stock bones (pork, lamb, beef… whatever) and you’ll almost certainly walk away with a clutch of bones, full of delicious marrow ready to add richness to anything it touches. Now, that really is frugal!

Tags Beef, cheap, Cooking, Economical, Food, Frugal, Healthy Living, meals, meat, Recipes, Stock, Thrifty

Asian Chinese Recipes

Chinese Crispy Beef with Noodles

Post author By Admin
Post date September 18, 2012
115 Comments on Chinese Crispy Beef with Noodles

This recipe was requested by friend Gemma in order that she could forego the expense of the Chinese takeaway. Naturally, I wanted to provide for this wee Scottish lass, but the idea also tickled my frugal weak-spot since one of my pet hates is perpetual takeaway eating – as Gemma’s request suggests, it isn’t particularly cost effective. Oh and your waistline may well benefit too!

Tags Asian, Beef, chinese, Cooking, Food, frugality, life, meat, noodles, Photography, Recipes

Asian Indian Recipes

Slow-Cooked Beef Curry

I’m both happy and desperately sad that this recipe is only just reaching my blog now – over a year since its beginning. It is by far my favourite curry; it is so simple, yet absolutely rammed full of richness and flavour. Indeed, the spice list for this particular concoction may be a little shorter than that of other curries, but the quality brought to the dish by the beef is unrivalled. Not only is beef a far more pleasing ingredient to cook with than chicken breast, the most overrated cut of meat there is, the fat found in braising beef has the happy effect of thickening and enriching the sauce. When served with my recently posted mango chutney this is one recipe not to be missed, assuming you’re not a vegetarian.

Tags Beef, Cooking, Curry, Food, Recipes

Asian Healthy Eating Indian Recipes

Beef Kofta Curry

Curry, loosely termed, is one of those dishes that everyone thinks they can cook incredibly well. However, more often than not it turns out that those who have claimed such a thing are spectacularly mistaken. Indeed, I’ve met very few people who can cook a remarkable curry, which is almost surprising given the many declarations of brilliance. Remember this, preparing a curry by using a shop-bought paste does not count as making a curry. When constructing a curry intended to be truly exquisite, it is impossible to undervalue time, attention and a homemade spice mix. Though one may rest assured that once one has undertaken the feat of making a homemade curry, one shall never intentionally return to the relatively insipid paste which insists on emerging from the dingy recesses of a factory filled glass jar. There’s nothing quite like a harsh lesson in reality, is there?

Tags Asian, Beef, Budget Cooking, Cooking, Curry, Food, Healthy Eating, Indian, Kofta, life, meat, Mince, Money saving, Onion, Photography, Recipes, spices, Writing

European Recipes

Slow-Cooked Beef Stroganoff

Post author By Admin
Post date February 12, 2012
71 Comments on Slow-Cooked Beef Stroganoff

As you may, or may not, know, slow cooked beef is one of my favourite foods. Indeed, this is my second such recipe of the year, the first being a rather exquisite beef bourguignon. Beef, prepared in this way, has become a regular fixture on my eating calendar for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I have taken the decision to stop eating meat flippantly. Meat is expensive, nowhere near as sustainable as vegetables or pulses and unhealthy if eaten too often. Indeed, the world could do with each and every meat eater indulging in a little less animal. Secondly, when I do decide to give in to my carnivorous tendencies, the best cure for an absence of meat is a rich, deep and delicious beef stew. I don’t mean to preach, this isn’t the Vegetable Church.

Tags Beef, blog, Budget Cooking, Cooking, Creamy, European, Food, frugality, life, Money saving, Photography, Recipes, Stroganoff