Legumes Epinard, Chou, Berejèn, Militon a Vyann Bef avec Coden

Legume shouldn't be this dark, got distracted by the baby and left on stove top too long.

Braised Spinach, Cabbage, Chayote Squash, Eggplant Beef and Turkey served with boiled plantain and white rice.

Legumes is a traditional Haitian dish of braised vegetables and meat that is a real crowd pleaser. It's hearty, healthy and worth the time and effort. The meat used in this recipe is beef and turkey but you can really use any meat including pork, crab, ribs, conch meat and my all time favorite oxtail. The same goes for the veggies. The cooking time is 2 hours and it does require a lot of attention, unless you are using a dutch oven, but this dish is a staple in every Haitian home. Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 lbs of stew beef

1/2 lbs of turkey necks/steaks

1 large eggplant/ 2 meduim eggplants

2 large chayote squash

1 bag of spinach (10 oz to 16 oz)

1 onion

2 bouillon cubes

1/2 green pepper

1 cup of chopped carrots

1 cup of cilantro

1/2 cup of parsley

2 tablespoons of epis

3 cups of cabbage (rough chop)

1 tablespoon of salt

1 tablespoon of pepper

1 habanero pepper

1 teaspoon seasoning salt

2 garlic cloves (crushed)

1 green onion (crushed)

1.5 sour oranges

2 small limes

4.5 tablespoons of oil (any except olive oil)

1 teaspoon of tomato paste

1 teaspoon of ground cloves

4 cups of beef broth

PREP WORK:

Juice the limes and set the juice aside. In a medium bowl, cut oranges and rub the beef chunks then rinse with hot water, drain and set aside. In a separate bowl rub the turkey meat with limes, rinse with hot water then drain and put turkey into the same bowl as beef. Pour in lime juice, add in chopped onions, 1 crushed  bouillon cube, salt, pepper, seasoning salt, crushed garlic cloves, chopped parsley, 1 tablespoon of epis(spice blend) and green pepper. Allow to marinade minimum 1 hour.

Wash and rinse all your veggies beforehand. Chop the carrots and set aside. Peel chayote, remove the white oval shaped seed in the center; then chop into cubes and set aside. Remove the skin from the eggplant, chop in half, remove some of the seeds from the eggplant and set aside. This helps reduce the amount of liquid released from the eggplant while in the pot. Wash and rinse cabbage and rough chop, then set aside.

Let's get started:

Add oil to a 6 or 8 quart stockpot on medium high temperature. Add in 1 tablespoon of epis and saute for 1 minute then add in strained beef and turkey meat and stir. Brown the meat, turning over and stirring. After 5 minutes pour in marinade and stir in tomato paste, add in habanero pepper (do no let this break, it will be very hot so watch for the pepper). Cover and let cook until the water evaporates some. Do not let it burn. Stir with wooden spoon and add in 1 cup of broth. Do this every 15 to 20 minutes.

Once the meat starts to take on a brown color and the water has started to evaporate some more add in 1 cup of broth, top the meat with the chayote, the eggplant, then the cabbage and cover. Lower temperature to medium and let cook for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, add in rinsed spinach on top and cover. After 15 minutes, stir in carrots and cover the pot. At this point, the vegetables should start to cook down, the sauce should be getting thicker and the meat should be cooked completely. Allow the carrots to cook and the sauce to thicken a bit more, approximately 15 minutes.

At this point you want to search for and remove the habanero pepper. Lower the temperature after 15 minutes to low and serve with rice.

Legumes with boiled plantain and white rice

Every family and every home has their own way of making legume but I find that cooking everything in one pot is hassle free and saves time.

Juicy Grilled Steak

 Grilled Steak

Here is  an amazing recipe for a simple and delicious steak. It calls for 3 ingredients, yes 3 ingredients and take less than 8 minutes to cook.

Ingredients

1 lbs of steak

1 tablespoon of brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon of pepper

1 sour orange

1 stove top grill

Cut sour orange in half and rub the steak. Rinse with 3 to 4 cups of really hot water and drain. In a medium size bowl add in steak, salt, pepper and brown sugar. Allow to marinade at room temperature for at least 30 minutes. Based on my experience, beef marinates better at room temperature.

Stove top grill should be at medium temperature. Beef doesn't take long to cook. Once the grill is at it's hottest point, place the individual steak on the grill. Do not flip too often.Turn the steak over after 4 minutes. Reserve the marinade for gravy.  Depending upon how you well you like your steak, it should take no more than 5 to 8 minutes to cook. Any extra time with over cook the steak.

F.Y.I. Allowing the steak to sit for a few minutes will allow the meat retain it's juices.

THE SAUCE/GRAVY

Ingredients

1 teaspoon of brown sugar

1/4 cup of onions (or more)

1 cup of beef broth (or water)

1/2 teaspoon of cornstarch or flour

2 teaspoons of butter

1 teaspoon of paprika

salt to taste

1/2 teaspoon of pepper

1 tablespoon of oil

In the same bowl the steak was marinating in add in beef broth and cornstarch. Whisk until all lumps have dissolved. In a small saucepan on medium temperature add in oil and saute the onions until clear then add in broth mixture, sugar, salt, paprika and pepper. Once this comes to a boil lower the temperature and stir in butter. Cover and allow to cook for 5 minutes and serve with steak.

Long Day, then have some bouyon!

Bouyon/Beef Stew

Mwen renmen bouyon! I love beef stew! Who wouldn't love a hearty stew after a long day of running errands to rejuvenate your energy tank. My stew is easy and will require little effort because all the work will be done via slow cooker. Plus it's filled with  goodies and delicious short ribs.


I just used what I had in the fridge and but you can take out what you don't like in this recipe and add what you do like such as cabbage, corn, plantains, leeks, mushrooms, etc. You get the picture, just get creative and have fun making a great dish.

Serving 2-3 people

Ingredients 

2lbs of short ribs
1/2 to 1lbs of stew beef chunks
1 malanga
1 large potato
1 yuca (frozen)
1 bonita
2 can of beef stock
1 tablespoon of flour
3 tablespoons of salt
1 tablespoon of pepper
1 tablespoon of epis
1 tablespoon of thyme
1 teaspoon of seasoning salt
2 garlic cloves
1-2 carrot sticks
2 sour oranges
1 large crockpot
1/2 tablespoon of tomato paste (optional)
2 celery sticks
1 bag of spinach
1 cup of cilantro
1/8 cup of parsley
1/2 cup of watercress
1/4 cup of onion chopped
2 celery sticks
1 large garlic clove


All veggies need to be washed. Roots will need to be cleaned, peeled and chopped.

MEAT PREPARATION:

Rinse and cut the oranges in half. Juice the oranges and pour juice into slow cooker saving the oranges for beef preparation, click on link for instructions on how to prepare beef prior to cooking. Prepare the beef in a medium size bowl, add the beef chunks and ribs then remove access fat and cut beef chunk into bite size pieces.

Once the beef has been prepared, lightly steamed add into crock pot and add in salt, pepper, 1 can of stock, epis, thyme, garlic, onion, tomato paste, 1 chopped celery stick and seasoning salt. Let cook on low, if you all day, or medium/high temperature, if you have a few errands to run,  cook until meat is tender (This may take 3-4 hours, its a slow cooker). Remove meat once brown but do not allow meat to get too tender because it will fall apart if left in too long. Add in peeled and chopped bonita, malanga, potato, and  thawed yucca. These don't take too long to cook. At this point, you can add in the last can of stock. Once the the veggies are cooked add the chopped celery, chopped carrots, washed spinach, cilantro, watercress, parsley and cooked meat into the pot. Mix, stir and let flavor come together.

Serve in 30 mins to an hour. Salt to taste, if necessary.


This recipe is ideal if you don't have the time to sit and wait for the bouyon to cook. It'a filled with lots of nutritional veggies, vitamins and it has ribs.

ENJOY!!                                                          

Beef & Braised Spinach/Vyen Bef, Epina, diri blanc a sous pwa noir



Warning: The smell will have your neighbors knocking on your door because it smells so gooooood.

Beef and green go so well together. Surprisingly, there are 3 different types of spinach. Not to mention, Spinach is high in nutritional value ranging from iron, calcium, fiber, zinc, vitamin A, D, E and the list goes on. Today dish will be a simple braised spinach with beef chunks, hmmmm. My bf loves this dish.

Let's get started.

Cleaned and marinated beef chunks

Ingredients:

1 1/2lbs of stew beef chunks
1 sour orange (sliced in half and juiced)
1 tablespoon of vinegar
1 tablespoon of salt
2 garlic cloves (crushed)
2 tablespoon of epis
1 tablespoon of pepper
1/4 cup of parsley (chopped)
1/4 cup onions (chopped)
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
2 cups of boiling hot water
20oz of spinach (2 pre-packaged bags)





How to prepare the beef:

In the sink, rub beef chunks with oranges then rinse with hot water. Drain then add vinegar, orange juice, salt, epis, pepper, parsley, onions and mix with hands. Let marinade for 30 minutes to 24 hours.

Recipe:

In a large/medium sized 5 or 6 quart pan, heat oil at high temperature. Drain marinade from beef and set aside, the add chunks to hot oil and brown (Tip: do not brown too much, meat will get tough). Once browned add marinade and spinach, then cover the pot. Check back in 5 minutes, stir and lower temperature. Spinach will be done once it turned to a dark green color. Serve with rice or boiled plantain.

Braised Oxtail. Queue Boeuf

As crazy as the idea of eating a cow tail is, it's quite delicious when prepared correctly. To many here in the States, some may consider it a delicacy, but in the West Indies eating this part of the cow is part of the norm. You can either cheat with a crock pot or braise the meat the old fashion way. It's best served on a bed or rice and beans, just thinking about it makesg me hungry, lol. Let get started.

Ingredients

Marinated oxtail

2 lbs of oxtail
1 sour orange
1/4 cup of orange juice
1/4 cup vinegar
3 tablespoon of epis
1 tablespoon of Lowry seasoning salt
1 tablespoon of pepper
1/2 baby cabbage (optional)
2 large potatoes (peeled and cut into cubes)
1 carrot (sliced)
1 onion (chopped)
3 garlic cloves (chopped and minced)
8-10 cups of water/beef broth
1/4 cup of olive oil
2 habanero peppers
1 beef bouillon cube (optional)


In the sink, lightly scrub oxtail with our oranges. Rinse oxtail with cool water, then in a medium size bowl, pour vinegar, orange juice, epis, salt, pepper and bouillon. In a large/medium pot pour in oil and add oxtail and marinade. At this point, you stir and cover, every so often you will go back and watch to see if the liquid has evaporated, if so add 1 cup of broth/water, stir to ensure nothing is sticking to pan and continue process until meat is tender. Cook time 1 hour 30 minutes. Once meat is tender add in 2 cups of broth/water and add in carrots, potatoes and cabbage.  Allow veggies to cook and add onions, Serve once veggies have tenderized. VOILA!

Empanadas anyone?

Empanadas are delicious snacks or breakfast pastry treats. These delicious stuffed bread pastry's make an ideal treat if you are on the go.  You can find meat filled empanadas, cheese filled empanadas, fruit filled empanadas and even veggie filled empanadas. Empanadas are Spanish originated and I love them; especially with a nice cup of cafe con leche (coffee and steam milk).

Fresh baked empanadas

My biggest concern whenever I buy an empanada is that there is never has enough meat in it, so I decided to make my own empanada filled with just enough meat to my liking.

Recipe (10 Empanadas)

1lbs of turkey meet (ground)
1 package of Goya turnover pastry (can be found in frozen section at local supermarket)
1 egg
1 tablespoon of flour
1/4 cup cilantro (optional)
1/2 onion (diced)
1/2 green pepper (diced)
1/2 chicken bouillon cube (optional)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup of tomato sauce
1 tablespoon of Lowry seasoning salt
1 tablespoon of pepper
1 tablespoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
 
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In medium sized skillet add ground turkey, onions and peppers. Cook turky meat until browned, drain any excess fat then add tomato sauce, paste and season with seasoning salt. Sprinkle the pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg. The meat will take on the color of tomato sauce. Sprinkle on bouillon cube and allow meat to cook then set aside once the sauce has thickened and allow to cool for 5 minutes.

Using a large surface or cutting board, sprinkle on a little bit of flour and place pastry puff on board. I went over board with the flour. These pastries are small, just spoon the meat onto pastry and fold. I stuffed mine until they were full, lol. Seal pastry edges with fork by pressing down then prick the top of pastry with fork to allow air out while baking. In a small bowl, crack egg and separate egg yolk then brush empanada with egg yolk for color. Bake on cooking sheet until golden brown. 

Voila, delicious empanadas!