Olla de Carne

Olla de Carne translates to "pot of meat" but I feel like there wasn't a lot of actual meat in this recipe. The recipe called for two pounds of beef and roughly four and a half pounds of vegetables. It reminded me of Caldo de Res, which is Mexican beef stew, but with more root veggies.

This was by far the easiest meal I've prepared so far. It was also one of the most boring.

Ingredients

I forgot to take a pic of the ingredients, which was probably the most interesting part.

8 cups water

1 lbs lean beef, cut into 3-4 in pieces

1 lbs lean beef short ribs, cut into 3-4 in pieces

1 cup diced potato

1 lb cassava, peeled and cut into bite sized pieces. Cassava is also known as yucca.

1 lb carrots, chopped

5 corn on the cobs, cut into 3 in pieces

1 lb taro root, peeled and cut into bite sized pieces. I couldn't find taro root so I excluded it.

1 lb sweet potato, cut into bite sized pieces

3 green plantains, peeled and cut into 3 in pieces.

S&P to taste

Heat the water and add salt and beef; cook for 20 minutes. Add carrots, corn, plantains, and cassava. Wait 5 minutes and add the potato, taro, and sweet potatoes. Cook for another 25 minutes until veggies are tender. Serve with white rice.

It even looks boring.

There was just no flavor! If I had to do it again, I would add some kind of seasoning because it was just boiled meat and potatoes, Boiled meat and potatoes is not interesting. It was filling but that's because you were eating like a pound of starch. James liked it a lot and the girls really liked the corn but that's about it. Maybe I just got a bad recipe but the one I used came from costarica.com. I'm pretty sure that's legit.

Maybe I should have thrown in some cilantro...

Biber Dolma and Bulgur Wheat Pilaf with Vegetables

We are in Turkey this week! I decided to not buy a cookbook because, well, we settled on Turkey on Sunday night and with Amazon Prime, we wouldn't get the book until at least Wednesday morning and I do my grocery shopping on Tuesdays. I wasn't able to find any at our library and I could have requested it from another library but, again, wouldn't have had it in time for grocery shopping. The internet to the rescue! 

I found lots and lots of "Top Turkish Meals" lists and chose the ones that they all had in common and then started searching for recipes. I found this website, Ozlem's Turkish Table, and, wow. she is amazing! If you want to read a fantastic food blogger, check her out. If you prefer mediocre (at best) please continue reading me!

Ingredients

Biber Dolma

3 medium sized bell peppers or 5-6 small ones. I used 2 red peppers since it was just going to be James and I.

4 medium tomatoes. I used 2.

6-8 garlic cloves, crushed. I used 2.

For the filling:

1/2 cup basmati rice

1/2 cup ground beef or lamb; I used beef

2 onions grated. I used half of one.

Bunch of parlsey, chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp dried mint. I had fresh mint so I used that.

S&P

For the sauce:

Flesh of the scooped tomatoes, chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp red pepper flakes or tomato paste (optional)

Mix the ingredients for the filling thoroughly and set aside. Cut the tops off the peppers and clean out the seeds and membrane. Hold onto the tops! Same thing with the tomatoes; cut off the tops and save. Scoop out the flesh but save it for the sauce. Fill the peppers and tomatoes with the filling until 3/4 full. Don't fill to the top since the rice needs space to expand. Cover the veggies with their respective tops. Place the veggies upright in a pan and pack tightly. Mix all the ingredients of the sauce together and pour over the veggies. Pour some water into the pan until it covers almost half of the veggies. Season with S&P and stir in the garlic cloves. Bring the liquid to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and boil for 45 minutes.

Bulgur Wheat Pilaf

2 cups coarse bulgur wheat. Apparently there are different kinds of coarse bulgur wheat. The guy at Davod's  recommended #3 so that's what I used.

1 green bell pepper diced

2 medium onions, finely chopped. I used 1.

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsps butter

14 oz can chopped tomatoes. I chopped one tomato.

2 1/2 cups hot veggie or chicken stock or water. I used veggie.

S&P to taste

Saute the onions and bell pepper in the butter and olive oil. Add the tomatoes and the stock. Bring to a boil. Add the bulgur and S&P and stir once. Cover and cook on low heat until the liquid is absorbed. Remove the pan from heat and remove the cover. Cover with a dish towel, replace the cover, and let it sit for 15 minutes so it can absorb any remaining moisture. Word to the wise, make sure the burner is off before you do this or you run the risk of thinking you're about to burn your house down.

This was a good easy meal but it wasn't anything special. I've made stuff peppers before so I knew what to expect in  terms of flavor but I did learn a new way of preparing them. I always made the meat and rice separately and then combined them in the peppers and roasted in the oven. This is a faster method for sure. The bulgur pilaf was really good and buttery. I've had bulgur before but this was fluffier and tastier.

I think the part that probably didn't work for me was all the bell pepper. When I first started cooking regularly, I always used bell peppers. They are really easy to cook with and are a great way to add flavor. We probably ate bell peppers at least twice a week for almost a year so ever since then, I'm not a huge fan. I don't dislike them but I also don't seek them out. Probably shouldn't have chosen such a heavy bell pepper meal BUT the internet wouldn't shut up about biber dolma so I had to do it. The internet is so pushy.

Poor Man's Tacu Tacu

This week we're in Peru! Only one person voted in the poll and they voted for Russian food but we were in the mood for something lighter. Also, I found this great cookbook!

I was at Costco a few weeks ago and saw this gorgeous cookbook on Peruvian cooking. It's huge and colorful so I was immediately drawn to it! Way to go marketing team! At roughly 430 pages, it's almost an encyclopedia and I was thiiiiis close to buying it when I saw the price tag. $30. Nope, not gonna happen. I just can't justify spending that much money on a cookbook, or any book for that matter. Anyway, I was at the library last week and lo and behold, the super pretty cookbook was right there, FOR FREE. Easy decision right there!

The first meal is Poor Man's Tacu Tacu. In Spanish it's Tacu Tacu A Lo Pobre. Tacu tacu is apparently a very popular dish in Peru that is made of rice and beans, shaped into a patty, and fried. I don't know if I've mentioned this before but my favorite food combination is rice and beans. Any kind of rice and beans. I'll eat them all! So I was pretty excited about this! Also, it's fried. I love fried food.

Ingredients

1 lb any dried bean except fava beans, soaked overnight. I used a cup of pinto beans and soaked for five hours.

4 tbsps olive oil

2 tbsps Yellow Chili, Garlic, and Onion Condiment. What is this? Some sauce. The book called for yellow chilies but I didn't have any so I used banana peppers. I blended some banana peppers and veggie oil and then fried that mixture with some red onions and garlic. It made a chunky sauce that I let cool and then added to the patties. It's not exactly like the book recommended but whatever, it was still good.

2 cups Peruvian white rice. Peruvian white rice is just white rice with a fried piece of garlic added during the boiling. Nothing fancy but super good!

1/2 cup chicken broth

Pinch of cumin

1 3/4 lb beef tenderloin, cut into four pieces

1/2 cup flour

2 eggs beaten

7 oz bread crumbs

1 cup veggie oil

S&P

Drain your soaked beans and boil in cold water for thirty minutes, or until tender. Once tender, drain, set aside 1/6 of the cooked beans, and blend the rest. Heat the olive oil in a pan and add the chili sauce. Add the whole beans, blended beans, and cooked rice to the pan; mix well. Gradually add the chicken broth, cumin, S&P. Cook until it has thickened and then remove from heat. Let it cool a bit and then divide into four portions. Shape each portion into a rectangle.

Heat some more oil and add the tacu tacus. Cook for four minutes on each side until brown. Set aside and keep warm.

Flatten the beef with a meat tenderizer. The book didn't say how flat but now that I've looked at pictures of this meal online, I know they meant very thin. I didn't flatten mine very well. Don't make my mistake. Season the pieces with S&P, coat in flour, then the egg, and then the crumbs. Heat some MORE oil and fry each piece, four minutes on each side.

This is normally served with fried bananas and a fried egg on top. I didn't make the egg part because I felt this was going to be more than enough food but I did fry a banana.

THIS WAS AMAZING! The tacu tacu reminded me of Gallo Pinto but tastier! I kept eating the mix when I was preparing it and noticed that it was drier after I fried it but I still loved it. I think it would have benefited from a sauce but that's about it. The meat was okay, nothing special, but the tacu tacu was fantastic! Even the girls ate it, BOTH OF THEM! I mean, granted the 3 year old smelled it first and said "NO!" but then I told her she could have some ice cream if she took just two bites. Two bites turned into eating the entire serving and her exclaiming "This is good, Mommy!" Success!