Ask the A2K cooks!

Very kind of you, Jane. (I gave you a thumbs up for saying that!! )

BTW the beef casserole ("Boef bourguinon", according to the cookbook) turned out surprisingly well. Yum! I did manage to get some red wine for the marinade in the end & I'm sure that made all the difference! Anyway, it's very good!

Thanks for your advice when I needed it. Much appreciated!

Sichuan ginger carrots,

that's what i call them. Been obsessed with my new wok since Christmas. Recipe called for potatoes and I made a few changes...since I can't stick to a recipe for the devil. I like it better with carrots, and I throw in a few slices of eggplant, too.

First i sizzle some chopped garlic, add carrots, later also eggplant. Add thai sweet chili sauce and squeeze some lemon in. Salt, too, I suppose. After awhile, when the carrots seem cooperative and eggplant is smooshed, sprinkle with brown sugar, add some black pepper (ok, it called for sichuan peppercorns...but dem don't grow here). at the very end, mix a tablespoon of corn starch with a bit of water (vegetable stock if you're less lazy than me) and throw that in, and leave it on the pan until it's nicely caramelized and whatnot.

there is a reason why i am not in the business of writing cook books...but i'm in love with this.

would welcome other best case practices in the wok area.

What variety of wok do you have, dag?

So many different types available now.

OK, I have 1/2 a kilo of cubed beef I need to cook tomorrow.
Any suggestions more interesting than my usual dust 'em in flour, brown in the fry pan, & cook in the casserole with onions, celery, carrots, bay leaves & a few herbs & stock?

Oh & my slow cooker died!
So forget that.
Better check out the warranty. (It probably ran out a week ago. )

Beef Tikka

1/2 kilogram beef -- cubed
2 tablespoons unripe papaya -- (ground)
1/2 teaspoon ginger paste
1/2 teaspoon garlic paste
salt to taste
2 tablespoons yogurt
1 teaspoon chile powder or 1 tbs chopped green chile


Mix together all the spices and yogurt and papaya and coat the beef cubes with it. Leave to marinate for 5-6 hours preferably overnight.

Then grill over charcoal.


~~~

you could bake it in the oven if you don't have any sort of grill


~~~

a page of cubed beef recipes

http://www.justbeefrecipes.com/inxbcb.html


(who knew there was such a thing? I didn't even know it was possible to buy cubed beef)

Hi Beth & thank you for responding.

A quick question on the run: any suggestions for the unripe papaya , which I gather would add a sour component to the beef Tikka?

Won't have the time to make this today, especially considering the marinating time required. So tomorrow, most likely.

I would most likely cook it in the oven, though I have an outdoor grill.

Thanks again. Back later today.

is papaya for the papain? Not that I really remember about papain, but there might be equivalents out there..

A thought: Tamarind paste?
I have some already.

I'd probably use green mango as an alternative to the papaya.

That's a cool website overall. I like the way they've got things organized.

Thanks again, Beth.
I think I'll just have to do the best I can with the ingredients on hand & leave overnight to marinade.

I will report back!

When a recipe calls for "a couple of glasses of red wine" ...
which red wine do you usually use?

Not being a red wine drinker at all, I was totally bewildered at the sheer range of varieties are available when I was out shopping just now.

What's a good "middle of the road" wine to have around for cooking purposes?

Ive always like a nice red burgundy or a chianti. They are able to flavor the food and , when I used to drink, I relished the opportunity to finish what I had not used to cook with

Thanks, farmer.

I'll keep those in mind for future reference. I ended up with an Australian red ..
<popping into the kitchen to see what I actually bought> ...

A Cabernet Sauvignon. I have no idea of what it tastes like, or if it's suitable, because I haven't attempted to drink any red wine since a most unfortunate episode something like 30 years ago ... an amazing & lasting bit of aversion therapy, that was!

I knoow. I been there. I remember one time I was trying to be a party guy and I was drinking COLD DUCK, and Southern Comfort on ice.


I slept with the porcelain goddess that night and never EVER drank COLD DUCK again. Later I also avoided Sambucco, Frangelico, and Galiano from similar "mixing events"

You were obviously a pretty wild sort of person, farmer!

I won't go into my unfortunate red wine episode (I've been trying to forget! ) but, I discovered amongst unpleasant other side effects, it also gave me hives!

not wild, just no apparent threshhold of good taste. JUst one , was a little weird. I used to go up to Lehigh to play in a tournament pool league (billiard like game). And , at a bar, we were drinking YUENGLING draft beers into which one would drop a shot of Galliano. DFisrt couple taste pretty good, then everything starts spinning and then the floor curiously rises up and meets your face.

Ha.

I put my unfortunate episode/s down to downright stupidity at the time. I shoulda known better.

Remorse is a terrific motivator, isn't it?

my historic episode was due to tequila.

I got one of those.

only one, though...

Ah yes, dys?

So, you gonna tell us the story, then?