Friday, December 24, 2010

Beef "muffins" a la Stevie


I am in debted to Mary of One Perfect Bite for some advice about making a rice panade as an alternative to bread panade. Her method calls for the rice to be pureed, but I didn’t want to have to wash the food processor (lazy slut that I am), so I mashed the rice with a potato masher. It worked just fine.

I never buy ground beef at the supermarket. There are two reasons for that: first, a cheap cut of round or chuck can save some money when found in the manager’s special bin; second, there is little chance of ecoli contamination in a chunk of beef as opposed to pre-ground meat. My method is to boil some water and immerse the beef hunk in it for 30 seconds. Contamination can only exist on the surface of the meat and this defeats it entirely.

One thing about home-ground meat is that it can hold together less well when made into a burger. Therefore I’ve settled on making “muffins” instead of traditional burgers. They bake up in 15 minutes and, yeah, they’re sorta like meatloaves, but no matter, they taste great.

As for the enoki mushrooms, I used the remains of them just because they were languishing in the vegetable drawer in the fridge. Substitute any other mushrooms you may have, or just leave them out.
A word about the side dishes: broccoli roasted with some Shiaoxing rice wine, Chinese black vinegar and olive oil; and mashed potatoes with Muenster cheese (extraordinary).

Beef “muffins” a la Stevie
1 lb. beef chuck or round, any cut will do
2 tsp olive oil
2 scallions, white and greens parts finely chopped
2/3 cup enoki mushroom stems, chopped
2/3 cup cooked rice
¼ cup grated cheese, any kind you have
salt and pepper to taste

Grind the beef yourself after “purifying” it for 30 seconds in boiling water. Put it in a large bowl.

Heat the oil in a sauté pan. Add the scallions and mushrooms. Sprinkle with salt and sauté for 3-4 minutes. Set aside to cool. Then add them to the beef.

Puree the rice or, as I did, smash it with a potato masher. Add it to the beef along with the cheese and salt and pepper. Roll up a 1” ball and microwave it for 20 seconds. Taste for seasoning and adjust to your taste.


Spray a muffin tin (6 holes in mine) with Pam. Divide the beef mixture equally in the muffin tin.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the muffins for 15 minutes. Let rest for 5 and then chow down.

1 comment:

Chris said...

Have you ever tried grinding brisket? I've heard it makes the best burgers when mixed with chuck. I've been wanting to try it but the thing holding me back is the sheer amount a packer brisket and an equal amount of chuck would make.

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