Beef
869 recipes found
Pressure Cooker Beef Pho
An elegant, comforting bowl of pho usually requires blanching beef bones and then simmering them with spices for hours. Andrea Nguyen, a cookbook author who lives in drought-plagued California, wanted the same effect but in a recipe that used less water and less energy. This broth can be put together in less than an hour. It cooks in a standard stove-top pressure cooker for 20 minutes and in an electric pressure cooker for 30. “As much as I love to simmer a stockpot of beef pho for three hours,” Ms. Nguyen says, “it’s incredibly liberating to make a pretty good version for four people in about an hour."
Pressure Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage
Corned beef is really just brisket that’s been cured in salt and spices. Historically, this was done for preservation, but the method of “corning” has remained because it transforms the meat into a bold, aromatic and salty treat. You can corn your own brisket if you have a week to spare, or you can buy one that’s brined but uncooked, which is what is used here. Each one comes with a little sachet of pickling spices, usually coriander and mustard seeds, allspice and crumbled bay leaf. Make sure to fish it out of the package and save it, because those spices perfume the beef as it braises. Get a corned beef made from flat-cut brisket, if you can, as it will be easier to slice into neat, uniform slabs. (The point cut has more striations of fat and may fall apart when sliced.) Serve this satisfying one-pot meal with mustard and beer. (If you have more time, or you don't have a pressure cooker, here are slow cooker and oven-baked corned beef and cabbage recipes.)
Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage
Corned beef — brisket cured in brine — is beloved for its big, salty, aromatic flavor. It needs to be braised or simmered for a long time to become tender and sliceable, making it an ideal slow cooker dish. Get a corned beef made from flat-cut brisket, if you can, as it will be easier to slice into neat, uniform slabs. (The point cut has more striations of fat and may fall apart when sliced.) Corned beef is often braised in beer, and you could certainly do that, but a slightly sweet wine, like a semi-dry Riesling, balances the beef’s saltiness. Finish with a simple honey-mustard glaze and a quick trip under the broiler. Serve this satisfying one-pot meal with mustard and enjoy with beer. (Here are pressure cooker and classic versions of corned beef and cabbage.)
Pressure Cooker Spaghetti and Meatballs
Spaghetti and meatballs isn’t necessarily any faster when made in an electric pressure cooker, but it does take away a lot of hands-on work. And it can all be done in one pot instead of the usual two to three it would take on the stove. Here, the meatballs, which are not fried but cooked entirely in the sauce, are gently spiced and very tender — the height of kid-friendly cuisine. The ricotta topping is optional, but it makes the whole thing especially creamy and rich. If you have some homemade marinara sauce in the freezer, or a favorite store-bought kind, you can substitute 3 1/4 cups of it here. Olive fans take note: Adding 1/4 cup sliced pitted olives to the sauce will probably make you very happy come dinnertime.
Slow-Cooker Beef and Barley Soup
This recipe is inspired by the beef, leek and barley soup in “Home Cooking” (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2010), a memoir and cookbook by Laurie Colwin. It defies what you’re told you must do to make an exceptional soup: Brown your meat, add ingredients in layers, and taste as you go. Instead, just chop a few vegetables, put everything in a pot — or in this case, a slow cooker — then forget about it. This recipe builds satisfying, hearty flavors in a few key ways: The small quantity of dried mushrooms not only nods to mushroom-barley soup, but also creates an umami backdrop. Opt for chicken stock instead of beef, which is more consistently flavorful across brands. Use a collagen-rich cut of meat, like chuck or short ribs. And last, a long cook time allows flavors to deepen, without any babysitting.
Slow Cooker Guinness Beef Stew With Horseradish Cream
This is a thick, rich braise that makes good use of root vegetables. Pick whichever roots you like best; carrots and rutabaga work particularly well together; celery root and parsnips are very nice, too. This is not a toss-it-in-and-go kind of slow cooker recipe: It takes a little time to brown the beef and make a roux-thickened gravy, but those steps build flavor and ensure that you end up with a hearty stew rather than watery soup. Get everything going in the slow cooker — prepare the night before if you have the time — and the stew will be ready the moment you step in the door at suppertime. The horseradish sour cream comes together in minutes and makes a fresh, tangy topping for the mellow stew. (Here are pressure cooker and oven versions of the recipe.)
Slow Cooker Chili
A great chili should be richly spiced, with layers of deep, savory flavor. Here, that big flavor comes from the usual contenders, but also from the unexpected additions of unsweetened cocoa, soy sauce and Worcestershire, which provide complexity. This recipe makes a thick, comforting chili that can be prepared in a slow cooker or in a Dutch oven on the stovetop. Chili is perhaps the ideal slow-cooker dish because its flavor improves with a long, slow simmer. This makes a big batch, perfect for a cold-weather get-together, but if you’re making it for a smaller group, the leftovers freeze well.
Slow Cooker Pot Roast
A hunk of beef slowly braised in red wine, herbs and garlic makes for a classic pot roast that’s also easily customizable: Add the root vegetables and herbs you like best. The tough chuck roast needs about eight (or more) hours in a slow cooker to become fork tender, but the vegetables are better with a shorter cook time, so add them about four hours after the start. (If this is impossible because you’ll be gone all day, you can add the vegetables in the morning; just make sure you cut them into large chunks and know that the vegetables will be quite soft.) Optional quick-pickled onions add welcome bright flavor and make this simple dish feel special.
Grilled or Oven-Roasted Santa Maria Tri-Tip
You might need to ask your butcher (assuming you have one) or even a store meat manager to order in a tri-tip roast. Two pounds is a good size, but if you come across a larger one, by all means grab it as the extra meat makes amazing sandwiches. The trick is to carve the tri-tip against the grain, which can change directions in this cut. So before you rub it and roast it, take a look at the raw meat and see which direction the long strands of muscle fiber are running on each part of the roast. After the roast has been cooked, and it has rested for 15 minutes or so, slice the roast in two at the place where the fibers change direction. Carve each piece separately.
Spicy Citrus Skirt Steak
You don’t need a meat thermometer to grill a great skirt steak: When cooked over high heat, the inside will be medium rare once the steak is bronzed on the outside. For seasoning, counter the cut’s big buttery flavor with something salty, spicy or fresh. In this recipe, the grilled steak rests in a tart sauce of tangerine, soy sauce, ginger and vinegar that is reminiscent of ponzu, with hints of citrusy bitterness similar to the dried tangerine peel used in Sichuan and Hunan cooking. Here, that bittersweet edge comes from charring the fruit and peel. Serve with rice or a grilled green vegetable like Chinese broccoli or asparagus.
Korean Cheeseburgers With Sesame-Cucumber Pickles
These double-stacked cheeseburgers bring all the savory-sweet flavors of grilled Korean barbecue. A garlicky scallion marinade helps build flavor three different ways: stirred into burger mix, brushed on the patties to form a glaze, and combined with mayonnaise to create a special sauce. The burgers are formed into thin patties, set on a baking sheet and broiled for maximum caramelization and weeknight ease. Roasted sesame oil rounds out tangy pickles and bolsters the burger with extra umami.
Carne Asada
Nothing beats carne asada tacos, the smoky richness of charred sliced steak stuffed into tortillas. Carne asada translates to “grilled meat” and refers to the many variations on this dish, as well as parties that center around grilling the marinated meat. Esteban Castillo, the author of the cookbook and blog “Chicano Eats,” combines the intensity of a dry spice rub with a citrus juice marinade in his recipe. Sometimes, he pours some beer into the mix too, but this version, fresh with cilantro, garlic and scallions, already gives the steak big, aromatic flavors.
Burger Plate
Inspired by German Hamburg steak and other patties of the world, including Danish frikadeller, Japanese hambagu and Korean hambak steak, this lunch-counter meal of ground beef is seasoned with Worcestershire sauce, nutmeg and grated onion. The rest is mere assembly, arraying fresh, crunchy accoutrements to accompany the tender burgers: Tomatoes lend juiciness, dill pickles provide zing and sweet raw onions cut through the richness of the meat. Though you could sandwich all of these ingredients between two slices of toasted bread, eating them as a casual plate lunch lets you appreciate each part separately. If you’d like, replace the ground beef with a plant-based ground meat substitute.
Sheet-Pan Cumin Pork Chops and Brussels Sprouts
In this convenient sheet-pan supper, bone-in pork chops are coated in a spicy, garlicky cumin rub before being cooked alongside brussels sprouts and sage leaves. Roasted at high heat, the sprouts get golden at their edges and tender at their cores while the sage leaves turn brown and crisp all over, almost as if you’d fried them. Feel free to double this recipe. Just use large rimmed sheet pans instead of smaller ones.
Bricklayer-Style Nachos
Bricklayer-style beef, or puntas al albañil, made with tender pieces of beef, salty bacon and sometimes chorizo in a chunky fire-roasted salsa, is a beloved taco filling in Mexico. Once a common snack available near construction sites in central Mexico, it became popular beyond street food stands, expanding into homes and restaurants over the years. Here it’s used as the foundation for nachos, topped with mounds of melted cheese, tangy queso fresco, creamy avocado and crunchy scallions for a hearty, delicious meal.
The Best Fried-Eggplant Sandwich
In the spring of 2016, my most favorite sandwich was fried eggplant, mozzarella and roast beef on an Italian hero, with hot peppers and a slash of mayonnaise. I adapted the recipe from a sandwich served at Defonte’s Sandwich Shop, on Columbia Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn. It is a beautiful torpedo of food, crunchy, silken, sweet and spicy all at once. You can certainly omit the roast beef to make it vegetarian or at any rate a little smaller, the sort of meal that offers satisfaction without hurting anyone, that delivers deliciousness at a lower cost to the body that consumes it. It is still a colossal feed. It is still the best sandwich.
Pastrami-Spiced Steak With Charred Cabbage
Pastrami is typically a time-intensive affair, but in this recipe, its seasonings — black pepper, coriander, sugar and paprika — are applied to strip steaks for a fast weeknight dinner. Coat the steaks with the spice mixture, then brush them with mayonnaise to magnify the flavor of the spices better than oil does. (Instead of steak, you could also use tofu, chicken or a firm fish, reducing the cook time as needed.) To brown the steak without burning the spices, follow an unconventional method engineered by Andrew Janjigian, a recipe developer and writer: Start the steaks in a cold skillet, then turn the stove to high, and flip the steak every couple minutes. Eat with charred cabbage seasoned with garlic and the steak’s resting juices, plus a spoonful of mustard. Mashed potatoes, roasted carrots or simmered lentils wouldn’t be out of place, either.
Lamb Chops With Green Tomatoes
Lamb chops cooked with tomatoes is traditional, but less so when the tomatoes are green. Here, unripe, green tomatoes add acidity, which works nicely with the rich gaminess of the shoulder chops. If you can’t get green tomatoes, you can make this with the half-green, half-red tomatoes, the kind that haven’t fully ripened on the vine before they need to be picked in advance of a frost. In a pinch you can even use tomatillos or bland, out-of-season supermarket tomatoes, which will add the necessary juiciness and vegetable matter to the pan if not the same complexity of flavor (a squeeze of lemon would help). In any case, make sure to taste before stirring in the honey, since the acid content of tomatoes varies widely. And if you aren’t a lamb lover but are wondering what to do with a plethora of green tomatoes, you can make this recipe with pork chops; just add a few minutes to the cooking time.
Easy Spaghetti With Meat Sauce
The secret ingredient in this ultrafast sauce based on long-cooking Bolognese is Worcestershire sauce. The vinegar, molasses and anchovies in the condiment season the ground beef mixture with salt, acid, sweetness and funk in one shot. Once the sauce has simmered, use tongs to transfer the pasta directly from the pot to the skillet, then toss in some of the starchy pasta cooking liquid for a glossy, saucy finish.
Mapo Tofu Nachos
This twist on nachos doesn’t simply call for putting traditional mapo tofu atop tortilla chips. Instead, you’ll make a creamy, spicy, saucy version using blended silken tofu and all the usual mapo ingredients. Spoon the sauce atop layers of chips, add cheese, then bake it. You could certainly stop there, but finishing with some garnishes makes it especially festive. Save leftover sauce for another round of nachos or a half batch of mapo spaghetti. To double this recipe, bake on a large parchment or foil-lined sheet pan in a 350-degree oven for about 10 minutes. You can also make the sauce with lamb, turkey thigh or a plant-based meat alternative, in place of the ground beef or pork, if you like.
Mapo Tofu Spaghetti
Conventional mapo tofu calls for cubed tofu, but, if you blend silken tofu for a twist on the Sichuan favorite, you’ll yield a creamy pasta sauce with deep numbing, spicy mala flavor. For velvety results, select silken tofu that’s molded into its refrigerated tub. Shop at a Chinese market for the doubanjiang (fermented chile bean sauce or paste). Look for the kind that is jarred and labeled as toban djan or packaged as plastic-sealed paper cubes, and originating from Pixian. Also grab some Sichuan peppercorns, and for extra umami oomph, some douchi (fermented black beans), too. If beef or pork isn’t your thing, try ground turkey, lamb or a plant-based meat alternative. Chefs (Mei Lin of Nightshade in Los Angeles, and Yu Bo of Yu’s Family Kitchen in Chengdu) and home cooks (the family of Zhong Yi, a former graduate student at Sichuan University) alike have tinkered with mapo tofu, pushing its definition and inspiring this cross-cultural iteration.
Korean Meatballs and Noodles
This kalbi meatball recipe, adapted from the cookbook “Koreatown,” is easy and quick enough to consider for midweek dinner. It offers the sweetly peppered, deeply satisfying flavors typical of many Korean dishes, and gives new personality to everyday spaghetti and meatballs. My favorite utensil for making ground meat mixtures, by the way, is an old-fashioned potato masher. The book suggests wrapping the meatballs in lettuce, but I tossed them with noodles in a sauce that exploited the brown bits left in the cooking of the meatballs.
Vietnamese Lemongrass Beef and Noodle Salad
Bun bo xao, a zesty stir-fry of marinated beef hot from the wok paired with room temperature rice noodles, makes a satisfying main-course salad year-round. Dressed with a classic Vietnamese dipping sauce and topped with roasted peanuts, the flavors are clean, bright and restorative. Yes, this recipe calls for a lot of ingredients, but the prep is simple, and it’s an easy introduction to Vietnam cooking for the uninitiated.
Dirty Rice
Dirty rice gets its color from caramelized sirloin and the roux — flour browned (but not burned) in oil. The New Orleans-based chef Isaac Toups offers a 15-minute roux shortcut in his book “Chasing the Gator,” but you may find your roux browns more quickly in the smoking hot oil. Be sure to stir, stir, stir once you add the flour. You cannot walk away from the pot while making this roux. Prep the “trinity” — bell peppers, onion and celery — in advance as you won't have time to do it while the roux cooks. When the roux turns the color of milk chocolate, toss in the chopped vegetables to stop the roux from cooking any further. Instead of adding rice and the serving components, you could do as Mr. Toups suggests and use the meat gravy as a base for a lasagna ragu. Just throw in some fresh tomatoes and cook it down “until it’s nice and tight” and make it your lasagna filling.