57 recipes. Page 3 of 3
As an Amazon Associate, we may earn from qualifying purchases.
The 2.5 tablespoons of soy sauce are split: one seasons the beef up front, and the rest goes in with syrup at the end to glaze the lotus root as well. Only a thin cut of beef will cook in about the same time as the lotus.
Most of the flavor comes from spreading the ground beef across a hot pan and letting the moisture cook off until brown bits form. Left in a heap, the meat steams pale instead. Tomato paste worked in between the meat without lumps, then a low simmer, gives a thick sauce that clings to the beef rather than pooling under the spaghetti. As it thickens it catches on the bottom easily and needs an occasional stir. There is no wine or milk, just beef, tomato, onion and garlic, finished with Parmesan and a few basil leaves.
Melted cheddar glues tortilla chips together with browned beef, black beans and slices of jalapeño, building a tray meant for sharing. Building the chips in two layers, each with its own share of beef, beans and cheese, keeps the bottom ones from being left bare. The beef cooks until the pan is dry, because any liquid left behind turns the chips soft in the oven. Grated cheddar loosened before scattering melts in an even sheet rather than in clumps. Salsa stays off until just before serving, keeping its moisture out of the chips while they bake.
Cut a square of pastitsio and three layers should show clearly: macaroni, a cinnamon-scented beef sauce, and a thick cap of bechamel. Each layer has its own way to fail. Macaroni boiled fully soft keeps softening in the oven, and a beef sauce with liquid pooling underneath soaks the pasta below it. The 15-minute rest after baking lets sauce and pasta set, so a knife pressed straight down leaves all three layers clean.
Somewhere between a burger and a grilled cheese, a patty melt puts a thin beef patty, deeply caramelized onion and cheddar between slices of sandwich bread griddled until crisp. Three heat levels do three jobs: low heat for at least 20 minutes sweetens the onion, medium-high heat browns the thin patty, and medium-low heat crisps the bread while the cheese melts.
Ground beef is first browned with soy sauce and sugar for the sweet-savory taste of tteokgalbi, Korean grilled short-rib patties, before tomato puree and gochujang are added and simmered. Gochujang, a fermented chili paste, adds savory depth rather than just heat and sets the sauce apart from a standard meat sauce. Pulled from the water two minutes early, the ziti finish in the 200-degree oven without going soft. Gochujang brands differ in saltiness, and the sauce is tasted only after it has reduced.
Salty green olives and sweet raisins scattered through browned ground beef give this Cuban dish its push and pull of flavor. Cumin warms the beef, and crushed tomatoes reduce until they cling to the meat rather than pooling around it. Leaving the beef alone for a moment after it hits the pan lets it brown instead of turning gray and steamed.
Ground beef simmered with ketchup, tomato paste, Worcestershire, and a little sugar turns into a sweet and savory filling piled onto soft buns, meant to drip as you eat. Browning the beef until its moisture cooks off keeps the sauce from going watery once the tomato paste and ketchup are in. The finished mixture should hold on a spoon and slide off slowly; any looser and the buns soak through and collapse. Toasting the cut sides of the buns dries their surface and slows how fast the sauce seeps in. Pickles on the side balance the richness.
Small beef meatballs simmer in a creamy milk gravy, usually alongside mashed potatoes to catch every bit of sauce. Tenderness comes from a light hand: overworking the mixture tightens it into dense, rubbery balls. The pan is never wiped before the flour goes in, because the gravy owes its depth to the browned drippings the meatballs leave behind. Once the flour loses its raw smell, the milk is stirred in a little at a time so the gravy stays smooth. A splash of Worcestershire sauce gives the cream a savory edge.