Machaca Inspired Beef

I love machaca, beef or chicken, it is one of my favorite dishes. I have never made it, or had a recipe for it, but have always wanted to re-create it on my own in some way. I found THIS RECIPE on Epicurious. I was making it for a party, so in order not to have as much work to do I adapted this into a slow-cooker recipe for a group and it did not end up coming out exactly like machaca because I pulled it out a little early (so I sliced it instead of shredding in, but the good news is came out fantastic. We served this sliced beef with tortillas, salsa & guacamole for little soft tacos.

The flavor of this dish is amazing. The meat marinates in lime juice, spices and oil overnight and then slowly simmered for hours with peppers, onions, tomatoes and chiles. I can not wait to make this again!! I think I would try it with chicken to switch it up too.



Machaca-Inspired Beef
Adapted from Epicurious
Original recipes serves 6 for dinner, see original recipe HERE
This served 25 people for an appetizer buffet, cooked in a slow cooker.

Marinade
3/4 C. Worcestershire sauce
Juice of 6 Limes
1 T. garlic powder
2 T. ground cumin
1 1/2 T. chili powder
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 1/2 C. vegetable or olive oil

Beef:
6 lbs chuck roast trimmed and cut into 1/4 lb portions
2 large sweet white onions
1 large green bell pepper, diced
1 head of garlic, minced
3 fresh jalapeno peppers, minced
2 14oz cans tomatoes with green chilies, drained
1 16oz can of beef broth
2 T. dried oregano
2 T. dried cumin
2 T. hot sauce such as Chalula or Tapitio

First, prepare the marinade ***(you will be marinating the beef OVERNIGHT!!!)***
Combine all marinade ingredients in a LARGE bowl and whisk until well combined ("to form an emulsion"). Place beef in a LARGE freezer bag and pour marinade over beef, seal the bag and mush it around a bit to make sure all pieces of beef get covered & submerged. Use two bags and divide the meat and marinade in half if necessary.
****REFRIGERATE OVERNIGHT****
Remove meat from marinade and place in a very large, clean bowl. Toss the marinade (aka, throw it away, no mas). Add the onion, bell pepper, jalapeno, cans of tomatoes, beef broth, spices and hot sauce to the bowl with the meat and stir until all ingredients are mixed together. Slowly transfer (by pouring or using a ladle and tongs) the beef mixture into the slow cooker. Cook on HIGH four hours or until meat is cooked to your liking and tender....*

*Note on cooking time: Next time we make this I will cook 4 hours on High or 7-8 hours on Low, and then it will be more "shredded" and come apart with forks. THIS time I thought the slow cooker was on high, but, alas I had it on high for 1 hour, then on low for 3 hours (duh!, how do I manage sometimes!?!) So, as guests were arriving for our fiesta, I shut it off and sliced the meat (vs. forking it apart).
We still got rave reviews, it was REALLY pretty delicious! I loved the combination of spices and flavors and CAN NOT WAIT to make this dish again! (maybe in smaller scale this time for a summer dinner!)

Teacher Shower~

I love summer parties! This weekend we gathered at my mom's place to celebrate my sis landing her first teaching job! It's a year-round school so only one more week of summer for her. Since the schools have such tight budgets these days we threw her a little shower to help her start her career off right (and with plenty of fun supplies!) It was a day-time event with buffet-style appetizers.
I made Goat Cheese Stuffed Grape Tomatoes and Shrimp & Veggie Couscous (both easy to make here at my house and traveled well on the hour trip to my moms)

~Cherry Tomatoes Filled With Goat Cheese~
This is the Original Recipe from Williams Sonoma Recipes Online (my mod's below)

24 Cherry Tomatoes (a mix of red & yellow
1/4 Lb fresh goat cheese (chevre)
1/4 C. Fresh minced basil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

Cut the top off each tomato & scoop out pulp to make a hollow yet sturdy shell, drain any juice that accumulates in the shells.
Combine all other ingredients in a bowl, mix well with a fork.
Fill each tomato with cheese mix, plate & serve
(original recipe makes 24 cherry tomatoes, serves 6)

I used grape tomatoes, and doubled this recipe.
Also I used 1 14oz package fresh chevre (plain) and one 8oz package fine herb coated chevre, then added a little less than 1/4 c. finley minced basil, pinches of Kosher salt & pepper to taste....
I used the tip of my potato peeler to hollow the tomatoes out & fill them.
I had about 1/4 c cheese mix leftover that we're spreading on crackers today!





Shrimp Couscous Salad
From All Recipes Online






2 C couscous
2 C water

3/4 C. olive oil
1/4 C apple cider vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp ground cumin
1 clove crushed garlic
salt & pepper to taste
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 1/2 lbs cooked shrimp, peeled & deveined
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 cup crumbled feta cheese

My mods~
I winged it with the dressing mix, added more mustard & more cumin and added 2 cloves of finely minced garlic until I liked how it tasted..I may add a bit of lemon zest next time.
I also did one only one tomato and added some chopped orange bell pepper.
The shrimp seemed a bit large since this was an appetizer-type salad to be served in smaller portions I choped them in half. I used 1/2 reg feta and 1/2 fat free.
I refrigerated overnight & I am using the extra dressing as a marinade for chicken.

Pour water into saucepan, bring to a boil. Stir in couscous, cover & remove from heat. Let stand 5 minutes and immediately fluff with a fork (otherwise it will clump) set aside to cool.

In a small bowl wish together olive oil, cider vinegar, Dijon mustard, garlic, Salt & pepper~ set aside.

In a large bowl, toss together shrimp, cooled couscous, bell peppers, tomato, parsley & feta. Whisk vinaigrette blend, the drizzle about half over couscous & toss to coat. Add more dressing to coat with out drenching. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.

Steak & Cake

The weather is absolutely beautiful! Last night we cooked out and had the last of the lemon cake I made last week. I got a big ole tri-tip from the store and did a rub/marinade with spices & olive oil. Then grilled it sloooooww & low on med-low heat for about an hour & 15 minutes.

Rub/Marinade
(Sorry these are not exactly precise measurements, I kind of eyeball stuff like this!)

In a bowl large enough for the steak
aprox 2-3 tsp Kosher Salt
aprox 1-2 T Black Pepper, I prettty much lightly coated both sides of the tri-tip, not sure exactly how much
Garlic Powder same as above
Paprika same as above
Finely chopped garlic 3-4 cloves
Olive oil drizzled a bit over it and rubbed it all into the steak- let marinate for 30+ minutes, grill to taste (medium rare is 130-135 degrees)


Lemon Cake
Here's the deal with my oven- IT'S TERRIBLE!!! We've been trying to get the landlord to replace it since we moved in, no luck yet. If a recipe for says 350 for 30 minutes it really means 225 for 22-26 minutes- I am finally starting to learn it's tricks, it isn't 100% consistent in it's suckyness. Therefore since the disaster that was my usually super-fun Christmas baking (we moved in Thanksgiving weekend, this has been a nightmare) this lemon cake is the FIRST thing that hasn't burned in some way shape or form. It's barley even a recipe since I was really just continuing to experiment with the temp and also I got a new Williams-Sonoma bundt cake pan keeper and wanted to use them! So....here's the UN-burned Lemon Cake
(I will double this next time because it made 1/2 a bundt!)

1 Box of yellow cake mix (also the oil, water & eggs)
2 tsp lemon extract
1 Lemon (for zest & juice)

Prepare cake according to box, except after adding the oil squeeze the juice of 1 lemon and add 2 tsp lemon extract to the measuring cup- then add water to equal the correct amount (did that make sense?)
Then after eggs are mixed in add the zest of the lemon
Bake according to box

I frosted it with cream cheese frosting (my fave) and most of it went down Friday night after a celebratory dinner with friends.