Tag: meat

Mock Philly Cheese Steak

As a busy mom of a 7 year old boy and a 5 year old girl there is a lot of balance that has to work its way into life on a daily basis. So, when planning what to bring to a Cub Scout planning committee meeting and feeding my family, I decided to just double up! One sandwich for dinner around the table and one to travel. And the best part was, it took relatively the same amount of time. For under $12, I had dinner and a fun treat for a meeting done. Plus, there was enough left over for my husband to bring in to work the next day!

I developed this recipe a few years ago when I happened to have a pound of ground beef in the fridge and a left over loaf of Italian bread. So, today when I placed my grocery pickup order (which by the way if you have not tried grocery pickup, you really don’t know what you are missing!) I simply doubled up on my ground beef and Italian bread and I was ready to go.

Although the real Philly Cheese Steak is a thing to behold, I take a bit of a Mom-cut with this version and it is a family favorite for a quick weeknight meal. It’s also great to bring to a gathering of friends planning out a year’s worth of Cub Scout events or for game day! Not to mention this hot toasted sandwich is a really solid meal to make ahead and keep in the fridge for later in the week or even pop in the freezer for whenever. (Just be sure to cool the ground beef before refrigerating to be safe) Make fresh each time or get a family pack of meat and make 3 or 4 at a time and pull out of the freezer as needed.

Pre-heat oven while prepping.
Start with an onion.





  • Slice onion in one direction and then turn 90 degrees to dice.

A medium dice is nice here.
Add extra virgin olive oil to a large skillet.
Sautee onions until slightly translucent.
  • Add kosher salt.
Grab a couple of garlic cloves.
Finely dice or put through a garlic press.
Once onions have had time to sautee some, add garlic to pan for another minute or so. Careful not to burn the garlic.
One pound of ground beef. This one is 80/20. Use which ever percentage you are comfortable with.
Salt the meat while it is raw before it goes into the pan.
Once onions become golden brown, it’s time to push them to one end of the pan to add in the ground beef. If you choose to, you could remove them from the pan and add in later. But. like I said, this is a Mom-cut version.
Break up your ground beef and start browning.
I was finding my onions were cooking a bit too much so I angled my pan to have the onions off the flame and focus more of the ground beef on top of the flame.
At this point, add in the dried oregano. Adding now helps to develop the flavor of the oregano.
Drain the fat out of the pan and incorporate the onions with the beef.
Turn off heat. Salt and pepper as desired. Let mixture cool slightly.
Lay out a large piece of foil. You want enough that you have a couple extra inches on each side of your loaf.
This is just an Italian loaf I got from Walmart for a buck.
Cut the bread, but not all the way through. The bread should look like it’s on a hinge.
Bread should be nice and soft on the inside. If you choose to, you could hollow out some of the loaf. I prefer to have the bread in tact.
Use an even layer of real mayo.
Spread it out for coverage.
Spoon on your cooked ground beef.
This is hand shredded mozzarella cheese. I always prefer hand shredded, but I wont hold it against you if you get the prepackaged stuff 🙂
You want an even coverage of both meat and cheese on top of the mayo layered bread.
Carefully close it up without breaking the hinging part of the bread.
Hold for stability. There is a lot going on here.
My foil was not extra wide or anything, so I needed to place a second sheet on top of the sandwich.
Then pinch it all closed. I like to fold it together all the way around and then pinch.
I roll up and again pinch to seal the ends.
Place on a baking sheet or pizza stone as seen here and 25 minutes later, you’ll be done.
This is best eaten hot, but it’s hard to hold hot. So, grab a clean kitchen towel to guard against the heat. And then using a serrated knife, cut into 1-1.5 inch wedges.
When it’s hot, the cheese gets all oozy, yum!

Mock Philly Cheese Steak Recipe

  • 1 lb. ground beef
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 T. olive oil
  • 1 t. dry oregano
  • 1 t. kosher salt
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 loaf Italian bread, parted
  • 1 C. Mozzarella Cheese
  • 2 T. real mayonnaise

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and add olive oil. Sautee onions until translucent, add a pinch of salt. Add in garlic, sautee another minute. Move onions and garlic over to one side of pan. Add in ground beef to other side of pan and brown. Carefully drain fat from pan. Add oregano and salt and pepper to taste. Mix onions and garlic in with ground beef. Remove from heat and set aside.

For the sandwich: On a large strip of aluminum foil place bread and split leaving a “hinge” at back of loaf. Spread mayonnaise on bottom half of bread. Spread meat mixture over mayo. Liberally place cheese over meat. Close top of bread over top. Wrap tightly with an additional layer of foil, sealing all the way around bread. Place on baking sheet and then in the oven for 25 mins. Slice and serve hot. Enjoy!

Portuguese Style Stuffed Peppers

2 Comments

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Stuffed peppers are a meal all in themselves.  They have protein, grain and vegetable all in one perfect package.  Adding in the chouriço, portuguese ground pepper (pimenta moida) and Portuguese Allspice really bring it into “Portuguese Style” territory!

These are great for a weeknight meal, to bring in to work for lunch or make some of the stuffing, freeze in an airtight bag and stuff fresh peppers whenever you get the inkling!

 

I like the red, orange and yellow peppers myself because they are sweeter, but if you prefer green, go ahead and use green!

Cut each pepper in half lengthwise. This will later lead to a more crispy top on your stuffing.

Seed the peppers removing as much of the white pith as you can.

Dice up a medium onion.

Fresh parsley is important here.

Chop it up.

Use one large can of plain tomato sauce. reserving about 1/3 of it for topping the peppers before they go into the oven.

The meat for this stuffing is made up of half ground beef and half chouriço.

Add in the onion.

Brown everything together in the skillet.

Once browned, add in 2/3 of the can of sauce.

Now add in a couple of cups of cooked white rice. If you prefer brown rice here, that’s fine, just be sure it is thoroughly cooked, this is not the time for aldente anything.

Add in some salt and pepper to taste and your stuffing is ready!

Select a baking dish that will comfortably fit the number of peppers you are looking to bake without being too tight.

Grease the baking dish with some oil.

Place your peppers with the cut side up on your baking dish ready for stuffing.

Stuff each pepper 1 and a half times its size so that it has a nice rounded top of stuffing.

Cover with some plain sauce just to keep the stuffing moist.

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Portuguese Stuffed Peppers

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

2-3 bell peppers, cut in half and seeded

1 lb. ground beef

1 lb. ground chouriço

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cups cooked rice

1 can tomato sauce

2 Tbs. parsley, chopped

1 Tbs. Pimenta Moida (ground pepper)

1/2 tsp. Portuguese Allspice

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350°F.

Brown ground beef, ground chouriço and onion in a skillet over medium heat.  Drain if there is an excess of fat (a little fat is ok).  Add in Pimenta Moida, parsley and a little salt and pepper (don’t over do it here) and 2/3 can of tomato sauce.  Stir.  Add in cooked rice.  Stir.

Stuff filling into peppers and place in an oiled baking dish.  Top stuffed peppers with remaining 1/3 can of tomato sauce.  Bake for 30 minutes until pepper has cooked through. Serve hot.

***Gluten-free

Chouriço Stuffed Roast Beef (Carne Assada com Chouriço)

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Carne Assada com Chouriço has always been one of my mother’s signature dishes.  Whenever it is time for a special dinner, you can find her making this delicious somewhat fancy version of Portuguese Roast Beef.  On any given holiday whether alongside the turkey at Thanksgiving, the Codfish at Christmas or the Ham at Easter, most Portuguese people will always serve a secondary main course dish.  My mother loves to make a good Portuguese roast beef.  Sometimes it  is just the traditional version with chouriço and potatoes on the side (which is delicious), but when she has the extra energy, it is done this way.

Any type of beef cut can be used for this process, but I would suggest something that does not have a ton of connective tissue to get through.  You will want something that is rectangular in shape and thick enough to accommodate the chouriço.  What I have used today is a 2 lb. boneless chuck tender roast.  You will then need one link of chouriço.  Whether you chose hot or mild, makes no difference really, it’s all personal preference.  The point is to impart the flavor of the chouriço into the meat.  (And to have a pretty awesome presentation)

The sauce here pulls the entire dish together and allows for added moisture without being a braise.

Start with a beef roast. This one is a 2 lb. boneless chuck tender roast.

You will need one link of chouriço and a good sharp knife. I am using hot chouriço, but mild would be fine here as well.

In order to impart the flavor of the chouriço into the inside of your roast you first need to peel the link like so.

Once your chouriço is ready to go, you can prepare your meat. Your goal will be to make a cut the length of the chouriço as close to the middle of the roast as you can creating a pocket in which to insert the chouriço.

Start with a horizontal cut. Please be careful in this process, you are sort of doing it blindly.

The next cut will help you to form an “X” in the meat. Again this should be the length of the chouriço link.

Next you need to carefully and slowly introduce the chouriço to the meat.

Remember there is a bit of a curve to the link, so easy does it.

Once the meat is stuffed, sprinkle with kosher salt.

Be sure to rub in and let sit until sauce is ready.

The end of your roast may taper off, at this point tuck in so that it can cook more evenly.

Place in a baking dish that will allow for potatoes on either side and not much else. You will want everything to have contact with the sauce.

Chop one large onion.

Place some peeled potatoes in the pan.

Sprinkle with the onions.

To start the sauce, use one 6 oz. can of plain tomato sauce.

Peel about 6 cloves of garlic.

Mince.

Add to the tomato sauce.

At this point you can also add in some pimenta moida, my mother does, I didn’t on this time around.

Add in some Portuguese All Spice. If you don’t have this spice handy, add in some mild Paprika.

Add in some kosher salt.

Add in olive oil and stir.

Pour sauce over roast and potatoes.

Be sure it is completely covered.

Cover in foil.

After one hour in the oven, remove foil.

Roast in the oven for an additional 30 minutes.

Remove roast from pan and let meat reast. If the potatoes need more time, return them to the oven.

Place foil over the meat for about 10 minutes or so.

After the resting period, slice about 1″ slices.

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Carne Assada com Chouriço

Serves 8

Ingredients:

1  2lb. beef roast

1 link of chouriço, hot or mild, peeled

8 medium potatoes, peeled

1 onion, chopped

1 6oz. can plain tomato sauce

1 tsp. kosher salt

6 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp. Portuguese All Spice or mild paprika

2 Tbs. olive oil

2 Tbs. Pimenta Moida (optional)

Directions:

Prepare meat by creating a long “X” shaped pocket lengthwise in the meat.  Insert peeled chouriço into the pocket.  Sprinkle meat with some kosher salt and rub in.  Let stand in the roasting pan while preparing the sauce.  Also place potatoes and onions in the roasting pan.

For the sauce:

Combine tomato sauce, oil, garlic, salt, Portuguese All Spice and Pimenta Moida.

Pour sauce over the meat and potatoes.  Cover tightly with foil.  Roast in the oven for 1 hour.  Remove foil, rotate potatoes and return to oven for an additional 1/2 hour.  Remove from oven and allow to rest tented with foil for 10 minutes before cutting.  Slice in 1″ pieces and serve hot.  Enjoy!

*Gluten-free

 

Stacy’s Meat Lasagna

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One of the first truly big meals I learned to make as a kid was lasagna.  My dad just loved the stuff… so he asked me to make it once a week… kind of a funny request for a Portuguese man… but I have always loved making my Daddy happy so weekly lasagna it was!  Over time, I started learing to tweak things here and there. I developed my own methods and preferences.  It was really one of those repetitive recipes that unknowingly taught me how to cook… After all, I wasn’t following a recipe, I would do it week after week and almost each week something would change, some times I kept the change and sometimes not so much.  What better cooking lesson could there be?

Through all this trial and error I learned that meat lasagna is the way to go. Although this recipe has taken me just about 25 years to perfect, it is pretty basic and pretty classic, but has an unbelievable flavor that is both simple and complex at the same time. Homemade meat sauce, hand mixed cheese and mozzarella along with thin flat pasta noodles are what makes up this delicious dinner.

This recipe is a rather large recipe, but you have options.  If you have a big family, you can get 12-16 generous portions here, so great… If you would like to use it for a party, even better!  But, if you just don’t need a huge lasagna, it’s still worth making and splitting half into a pan for the freezer!  You are doing the same work, might as well get two or even three meals out of it!

Here’s how I do it…  There will be 4 layers in all.

Let’s start with the sauce…

I start by mincing an onion.

Place onions in a pan with some heated olive oil over medium heat.

Here are the flavors that you will need to layout head of time… this method will make for a less stressful cooking experience.

Once the onions are starting to caramelize, add in the dry spices… crushed red pepper flakes and italian seasoning. This will allow their flavor to really bloom. Also, add in your minced garlic at this point so it doesn’t really get a chance to burn. Sautée for a minute or two with the onions.

Add in browned ground beef. I happened to have some that I browned up earlier in the week. If you don’t then be sure to brown and drain separately from the onions as draining the fat will take a lot of the flavor of the onions and spices away with it and won’t allow you to get the desired effect with the caramelization.

Add in a few swigs of Worcestershire sauce. This gives you an amazing background flavor you can’t get from much else.

Add in two extra large cans of tomato puree.

This ingredient is indispensable. Add in one full can of tomato paste.

This is what your can looks like when you are through adding in the puree, that won’t do.

Add some white wine into each and swish it around so you can get the remainder of that puree! I hate wasting. You could use red wine here, but I find it to be a bit too strong for a lasagna, so I use white.

Now this is a little more acceptable.

Mix it all together over med/low heat. Be careful! It starts to sputter at this point!

Strip the thyme leaves off the stiffer little branches.

Chop or rip up your basil.

Chop or rip up your basil.

Add in your fresh herbs now.

Cover up your skillet… as you can see, before I even got to my camera, the sputtering has continued.

Now let’s start on the cheese mixture.

You are putting so much work into this recipe… please use a real block of parmesan cheese (the best you can afford) and shred the cheese yourself, it makes a huge difference here.

This is the left over parmesan rind from the block of parmesan I used for the cheese, don’t throw that out! As a matter of fact, if you ever end up with a rind for another recipe and feel the urge to throw it out, avoid that urge and just freeze it for times when you are making sauce!

Toss that in the sauce.

Shred up your cheese and divide a handful of it out to reserve for later.

For this large lasagna, you are going to need a large container of whole milk ricotta cheese.

For this large lasagna, you are going to need a large container of whole milk ricotta cheese.

Dump that into your mixing bowl. You’ll want a medium to large mixing bowl.

Add in your parmesan along with about 3/4 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese. (You can cheat with the mozzarella if you choose to get the pre-shredded stuff or you can shred your own.

To the cheese add in a bunch of fresh cracked black pepper.

Then add in a good pinch of italian seasoning mix.

Add in two eggs.

Add a good pinch of salt.

MIx together.

This is what you should have when all mixed.

Now we just need to gather two more ingredients and we are ready to build our masterpiece!

The first is the pasta… I use this oven-ready pasta for three reasons 1. the big step of pre-cooking pasta before hand gets eliminated 2. the noodles are flat with no ripples and 3. they are thin… all things that make for a great lasagna!

And the next is the mozzarella … This is the cheese that I discovered as a kid and it really makes a big difference in the body of the lasagna.

Now we build!

This is an extra-large lasagna pan… this recipe won’t go all the way up the sides of this really big pan, but if you use a 9″x13″ pan, it certainly will.

Start off by ladling some sauce into the bottom of the pan… this serves a couple of purposes… 1st I always like to sauce the bottom and 2nd the pasta won’t stick to the bottom.

Place the pasta on top of the sauce.

Because we are using oven ready pasta, I like to put a sort of skim coat of sauce on top of the noodles.

Add on the cheese mixture.

Spread the cheese mixture as evenly as you can.

Add the mozzarella slices on top of the cheese mixture.

Now start on the next layer by ladling on more sauce.

when you start a new pasta layer on top of another layer of sauce, you always want to make sure you are laying them out in a different pattern so that when you cut into it, it’s got pasta running from the top of the slice to the bottom.

Finish off the top with a good coating of sauce.

Add some shredded mozzarella to the top.

Grab the little pile of parmesan we set aside earlier and sprinkle right on top.

At this point, bake for 45 mins to 1 hr until the cheese on top is thoroughly melty, but not burned.

When it comes out of the oven, let it set for a good 10-15 minutes before cutting.

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Stacy’s Meat Lasagna

Serves 12-16

For the sauce:

2 28oz. cans of tomato puree

1 6-8oz.can tomato paste

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef, browned and drained

1 cup dry white wine

1 cup hot water

1 med. onion, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 Tbs. olive oil

1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbs. fresh basil

1/2 tsp. fresh thyme

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

1 tsp. dry Italian seasoning

1 tsp. kosher salt

Parmesan rind

Directions:

In a large skillet or shallow pot, sautée onion in olive oil over medium heat.  When caramelized, add in red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning and garlic, sautée for a couple minutes.  Add in ground beef, continue to sautée. Add Worcestershire sauce, continue to sautée.

Next, add in tomato sauce and paste.  Rinse tomato cans with white wine and add in to sauce.  Add in parmesan rind and cook over low heat for 30 mins.  When done add in 1 cup of hot water to loosen if needed.

Check for salt at this point.

For the Cheese Mixture:

1 large container of Whole Milk Ricotta Cheese

1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

2 eggs

1/4 tsp. Italian seasoning

1 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 tsp. fresh cracked black pepper

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together.

Build your lasagna:

Ingredients:

1 box oven-ready lasagna noodles

2 packages sliced mozzarella cheese

meat sauce, prepared

cheese mixture, prepared

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

1/4 cup parmesan cheese, shredded

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350°F.  In a large lasagna pan, start by adding sauce to the bottom of the pan.  Next, layer on the noodles.  Skim coat the noodles with a bit more sauce.  Next, add on a layer of the cheese mixture.  Next, add on the mozzarella slices.  Repeat until you reach the end of your ingredients. Be sure to think about how large your pan is and how to divvy up the layers.  End by covering in sauce and adding on the shredded mozzarella and shredded parmesan.

Bake for 45 minutes or until all the cheese on top has melted and started browning nicely.  Enjoy!