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- May 21, 2011
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Hi guys, long time since I posted a thread here but I had an aweful lot of fun today and I decided to document it. As some of you may or may not know, I'm Belgian. The national dish is pretty much fries and beef stew. I kindly refuse to call fries 'French fries'. It's a matter of national pride. I'll take you guys through the process, all in good fun.
First things first: ingredients! Onions, pieces of low fat beef, pepper, salt, laurel, thyme, a good Begian Trappist beer (or two), a slice of bread and mustard. Oh, and a knife. Not that we need to do a lot of cutting but just because. My choice is, of course, the Becker BK15.
Cut up the onions
Put the onions in a big ol' pot with a little bit of butter on small fire
Put some of them herbs on that beef!
Fry on all sides and add it to the pot
Important step: pour the beer into the pan. This loosens the herbs and pieces of burnt meat. You have to heat the beer, don't add cold beer to the meat. Most important step: check half of the bottle to make sure it's good before you pour it on top of your stew. This recipe needs one whole bottle so you'll have to open a second one and repeat said steps
.
Add it to the pot once it's cooking as well as the thyme and laurel.
Now it's already starting to smell good, but we'll need a lot of patience and one more secret ingredient: a slice of bread, pretty much soaked in mustard. Don't worry, that's not dirt on the cutting board, it's pepper from when we seasoned the meat.
Throw it on top with the mustard facing down. Just the way it would land if you dropped it.
Now comes the tedious part. Waiting. Waiting. And more waiting. It needs to be on the fire for around 3 hours. The meat really has to start to show "threads" of meat. Leave the lid off until the sauce has the consistency you want, then add it so no more moisture can escape.
In the meantime, be useful! Clean the mess you made. Leave the Becker covered in the mustard you smeared on the sandwich till last so you can get that 'natural patina from being used'.
Next step: get really bored and strop your knife.
Next, make sure it's sharp and cut your thumb. Make yourself useful again and cut up some band aids so the next time you cut yourself, you don't have to cut them to size anymore (or just buy precut baindaids).
After some hours, we're in the final stages of this battle. Time for a sidedish. In the meantime, stew looks like this:
Still a bit later when it's completely done, it should like all threaded like this:
So we'll need fries. The best fries are the ones you cut yourself, so peel those potatoes and cut them into fries. There's great tools to do this, but don't forget to put your Becker knife next to it for internet credibility. You'll need to fry them twice. Once at 140°C and a second time half an hour later at 180°C.
First time around:
Also, let's make a salad. Beef stew is often served with chicory. Hmmm.
Cut them up, add an apple, salt and pepper, yoghurt and mayonaise and you're done.
Well I guess this is it, the end. Enjoy your creation in good health. Cheers!
Oh, one more thing: add mayonaise. Fries really are meant to be eaten this way fellas.
First things first: ingredients! Onions, pieces of low fat beef, pepper, salt, laurel, thyme, a good Begian Trappist beer (or two), a slice of bread and mustard. Oh, and a knife. Not that we need to do a lot of cutting but just because. My choice is, of course, the Becker BK15.
Cut up the onions
Put the onions in a big ol' pot with a little bit of butter on small fire
Put some of them herbs on that beef!
Fry on all sides and add it to the pot
Important step: pour the beer into the pan. This loosens the herbs and pieces of burnt meat. You have to heat the beer, don't add cold beer to the meat. Most important step: check half of the bottle to make sure it's good before you pour it on top of your stew. This recipe needs one whole bottle so you'll have to open a second one and repeat said steps
.
Add it to the pot once it's cooking as well as the thyme and laurel.
Now it's already starting to smell good, but we'll need a lot of patience and one more secret ingredient: a slice of bread, pretty much soaked in mustard. Don't worry, that's not dirt on the cutting board, it's pepper from when we seasoned the meat.
Throw it on top with the mustard facing down. Just the way it would land if you dropped it.
Now comes the tedious part. Waiting. Waiting. And more waiting. It needs to be on the fire for around 3 hours. The meat really has to start to show "threads" of meat. Leave the lid off until the sauce has the consistency you want, then add it so no more moisture can escape.
In the meantime, be useful! Clean the mess you made. Leave the Becker covered in the mustard you smeared on the sandwich till last so you can get that 'natural patina from being used'.
Next step: get really bored and strop your knife.
Next, make sure it's sharp and cut your thumb. Make yourself useful again and cut up some band aids so the next time you cut yourself, you don't have to cut them to size anymore (or just buy precut baindaids).
After some hours, we're in the final stages of this battle. Time for a sidedish. In the meantime, stew looks like this:
Still a bit later when it's completely done, it should like all threaded like this:
So we'll need fries. The best fries are the ones you cut yourself, so peel those potatoes and cut them into fries. There's great tools to do this, but don't forget to put your Becker knife next to it for internet credibility. You'll need to fry them twice. Once at 140°C and a second time half an hour later at 180°C.
First time around:
Also, let's make a salad. Beef stew is often served with chicory. Hmmm.
Cut them up, add an apple, salt and pepper, yoghurt and mayonaise and you're done.
Well I guess this is it, the end. Enjoy your creation in good health. Cheers!
Oh, one more thing: add mayonaise. Fries really are meant to be eaten this way fellas.
