Beef, Spinach and Peanut Sudanese Stew

The latest edition of Feast, the new foodie magazine by SBS, arrived in the mail last week.

It has some delicious recipes, this one a stew from south Sudan.

Not only a simple dish it was full of flavour. 

The beef is browned and then slow cooked along with the softened onions, garlic and tomato paste in beef stock. Sweet potato is added until tender and then add in cooked spinach (I used silverbeet), fresh tomatoes and ground peanuts. Serve with couscous.

I loved this dish, the taste was amazing. The peanut added a really interesting flavour and made it quite unique.

Bean and Vegetable Stew

One of my good friends said they loved this recipe for Bean Stew found on Taste in her household so I had to try it.

The red onion is sauteed to soften. The recipe says very little oil but the moment I was pouring the oil in my baby distracted me (he was attempting to eat a 5c coin he found on the floor) so I actually used a good helping.    

In goes a garlic and middle eastern spices. I chose to use this spice blend Ras El Hanout that we found at the markets on the weekend. Usually we don't buy blends but toast and grind our spices. But we have never used this particular blend before and now we have bought it we know what goes in it and can experiment a little with our own blend. Plus the man who sells it is so friendly!

Next goes in diced tin tomatoes, tomato paste, zucchini, mushrooms and capsicum. I also half filled my tomato tin with water and added this. The whole thing is then simmered for about 15 minutes, I actually covered it for 10 minutes and then uncovered for about a further 5 minutes.

Add a drained and rinsed tin of cannellini beans and some pre-cooked pumpkin. Simmer this for a further 10 minutes. 

Remove from heat and stir in some shredded basil. Pour into a serving dish, cover with cheese and grill.

Serve with some crusty bread.

It was a really delicious and satisfying dinner. The spices add a depth to the dish but were not a prominent flavour. The basil really freshened it up and the grilled cheese on top was a great addition. And it was easy, quick and healthy.

Peruvian Lamb and Coriander Stew with Beans

I love to try new things and I am especially excited when that involves seeking out new places to discover unique ingredients. So when this Peruvian dish Seco de cordero con frejoles was suggested over at the fantastic blog of Lateral Eating I just had to try it. 

Firstly we had a trip to Fairfield to the little shop Tierras Latinas that specialises in south american ingredients. It was a fantastic store jammed full of interesting looking items and buzzing with spanish, and although we like to think we know a little spanish they did speak perfect english. We bought a bottle of chicha de jora, a fermented maize beverage and some aji amarillo, ground yellow pepper.

It is quite a simple dish to prepare. The lamb is marinated for eight hours in the chicha and dark ale.  The base of the stew is red onion, garlic and aji amirillo. Grated pumpkin and chopped tomatoes are added, and  the coriander is blended with some of the marinated ingredients. In goes the drained meat with a little stock and then simmer covered until tender. At the end, season to taste and add some peas (I forgot).

For the bean dish simply fry some red onion, aji amarillo and garlic over low heat for about ten minutes before adding the beans  and seasoning to heat through (I used tinned Borlotti beans).

What a delicious dish! Its hard to explain the flavour as I have never eaten anything with the same taste. It was surprisingly light and had a very gentle sweetness. The beans were amazing and went so well with the stew.http://lateraleating.wordpress.com/2011/06/12/recipe-seco-de-cordero-con-frejoles-lamb-coriander-stew-and-beans/

Wattleseed Bread and Bush Beef Stew

Earlier this week I made wattleseed bread. Wattleseed is one of my Barbushco australian native spices. I used this recipe but made one big loaf. It has an interesting smell, I did not find it all that nice, it reminded me of a plant! It is made the same as most yeast breads just incorporating the wattleseed and also macadamia oil.

It baked beautifully, I felt really pleased when I pulled it out of the oven. I cut it while still warm but it had lost its crispy crust, I'm quite new to baking bread so I'm not too sure why, maybe the oil? I served it warm with some honey and although the flavour wasn't amazing it was different and went perfectly with the honey. I kept going back for more. I froze the remainder to serve with my bush beef stew I made yesterday.

To cook the stew I pulled out my slow cooker. The recipe was adapted from the Barbushco recipe booklet that came with the spices. I cubed about a kilo of stewing beef and put in the slow cooker with 4 slice spring onions, 1/2 cup beef stock, sliced ginger, a couple of chopped potatoes, a teaspoon of lemon myrtle ground spice and 2 teaspoons of aniseed myrtle ground spice. I cooked this on low for about 4 hours and then added the 'seasoning'. This was where the recipe turned asian! The seasoning - 2 teaspoons garlic, 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/3 rice wine, 1 tablespoon hot bean paste, 1 tablespoon dorrigo pepper, 2 tablespoons kecap manis and 2 tablespoons of sweet bean paste. I bought the bean pastes at the asian grocer and realised one of them had MSG, I really should read the labels before buying. I cooked the stew for a further 2 hours. 

I served this up with some beans and wattleseed bread and very tentatively tried it, it was really tasty! The bread worked really well with the interesting flavours of the stew. I wouldn't be cooking it up again in a hurry but I am very happy I did cook it.