Special Beef Salpicao

Beef Salpicao is one of those dishes that taste great without too much preparation and without the fancy ingredients. You can actually do away with the marination, but it will result to a much tastier dish if you left it for at least two hours.

This dish is great with rice, or as a side dish while drinking that ice cold beer.

Here's what you need to get from the grocery:

1/2 Kilo cubed beef sirloin
3 tablespoons minced garlic (or more)
1 teaspoon salt
Paprika
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
5 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce




The cooking instructions are pretty straight forward:
1. Marinate the beef. Combine salt, pepper, paprika, garlic, olive oil, and beef and let it stay for at least two hours. Keeping it overnight would be best.
2. In a hot pan, add oil then saute garlic. Add the marinated beef and sear until beef turns brown. Make sure all sides are uniformly cooked.
3. Add the oyster sauce and Worcestire sauce. Continue cooking until the liquid dries up a little.
4. Add the butter and cook for 2 to 3 minutes more.
5. You may opt to add chili flakes to give the dish an extra kick.

You can also add more olive oil or butter if you don't want your dish too dry. Guaranteed to satisfy your cravings.

Basic Beef Broccoli

Broccoli. Ugh, right? I remember being forced to eat this as a child, and I dreaded every moment. I mean, whoever decided that this ugly little thing was edible probably did so as a practical joke. I mean, evil cartoon characters have been created in the image and likeness of this vegetable. Yep, I remember seeing a battalion of walking broccolis invading Townsville and hypnotizing all the adults in the neighborhood.

Uhhh. I probably shouldn't have disclosed that I used to watch Powerpuff Girls. Too late for that.

So moving on, it wasn't until later in life that I discovered that broccolis make great buddies with sliced beef. I started enjoying it and have gone as far as ordering Beef Broccoli in restaurants on occasion. So let's cook that today.

Here's what you need:

1/4 kg beef sirloin, sliced thinly
broccoli florets
2 tablespoons cooking oil
2 cloves garlic, very finely minced 
1 teaspoon cornstarch, dissolved in 1 tablespoon water

For the marinade
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon Chinese rice wine (I just used red wine)
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
(You may instead simply use salt and pepper to season the beef)

For the sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 teaspoon Chinese rice wine (I just used red wine)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 cup chicken or beef broth




And here's what you need to do:

1. Marinate the beef: Put together the marinade ingredients in a medium bowl. Add the beef slices and stir until coated. Let stand for 10-30 minutes.
2. Prepare the sauce: Stir together the sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
3. Blanch the broccoli: Boil water and add a bit of salt. Cook your broccoli for about 2-3 minutes until tender-crisp. Drain thoroughly. Set aside.
4. Heat a pan and add cooking oil. Sear the beef, immediately spreading it out all over the surface in a single layer. Let the beef fry undisturbed for 1 minute. Flip.
5. Add the garlic to the pan and fry for an additional 30 seconds to 1 minute. This is a trick I learned if you don't want your garlic to be burnt.
6. Pour in the sauce and stir.
7. Add the blanched broccoli and bring to a boil. 
8. Pour in the dissolved cornstarch until desired consistency is reached.
9. Season with salt and pepper as needed.

Very easy to do, right?

One time, I didn't realize that I no longer had broccoli in my fridge. Apparently, somebody used it without telling me. Tsk. I had all the other ingredients prepared, so I decided to just use young corn instead of broccoli. Turned out pretty ok.

Baked Stuffed Zucchini (Or Eggplant)

Once in a while I like to experiment with new ingredients, or at least items that I have never used before. The zucchini has always been an enigma to me, and I just figured it was a more expensive version of the eggplant. It sort of is, but I discovered that there are things that I can do with the zucchini that I couldn't do with a regular eggplant.

Veggies are so much better with meat, so I decided to cook a zucchini dish that had a meaty filling and cheesy toppings. It made a lot of sense to use the vegetable as a base and the meat as topping, and to bake it to perfection. 

Feel free to use eggplants if you have trouble finding zucchinis.

Here's what you need:

Base:
3 zucchinis (or eggplants), sliced in half

Filling:

1 tbsp cooking oil
1/4 kg ground beef (like Sirloin)
1 onion (small, diced)
garlic
black pepper
salt
1/2 cup fresh tomatoes (diced, seeds removed)
1/2 cup dill pickles (diced) (optional)

Sauce:
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 cup milk
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1/4 cup cheese 

Topping:
green onions (snipped with kitchen shears, for serving)
1/4 cup cheese




Here's what you need to do:

1. Using a spoon or knife, take out the seeds and middle part of the sliced zucchinis. The idea is to make a base that looks like a boat.
2. On a pan, saute your onions and garlic. Add the ground beef and cook for a few minutes. Add in the tomatoes and pickles (only if you like pickles).
3. Season with salt and pepper.
4. On a sauce pan, prepare your roux by combining melted butter and flour. Add in milk, mustard and cheese.
5. Pour sauce on the meat mixture and cook for about 10 minutes.
6. Using a spoon or spatula, line up your zucchinis with the meat filling. Be sure to use a generous amount. Top with cheese and green onions.
7. Bake for about 10-15 minutes, or until done.

I got really good reviews from friends when I served this dish. It's also a great way to introduce veggies into the diet of your kids. I used to hate eggplants and zucchinis, but I would have loved them had I tasted a dish like this when I was younger.