Beef Wellington

Christmas is always a big day in my family, my Mom will prep all the foods and stuffs for the open house to ensure the guests are well feed and enjoy the warmth of Marbun's family...  Well, I bet they will feel warm because my Dad (Papi) won't hesitate to serve all those expensive liquors for his guests while us just wonder if Papi will let us have a taste of alcohol.

Since I have my own family, we always serve Beef Wellington for Christmas dinner and somehow this food only came once a year from my oven. Let's just keep it like this so it will stay special for us :P (or actually to keep my laziness at the right level). This year around we serve the Beef Wellington with mashed potatoes, roasted carrots and kale and also the onion and wine sauce. 

I prep the Beef Wellington a day in advance so it won't be too hectic on Christmas day since K and M will always have special requests on the last minutes for their christmas dinner. We can't get a nice big Angus Fillet this time, so I decided to make it as individual Beef Wellington instead, causing I let it cooked a little bit too long for the beef.

There is a lot of recipe on the internet, but my favourite is from Gordon Ramsay. The ingredients is not too complicated and as long as you follow the instruction religiously, it won't fail.. errr, except about your cooking time for the beef :P

Ingredients:

Beef fillet of around 1kg

• 3 tbsp olive oil

• 250g chestnut mushroom, include some wild ones if you like (I use almost 400gr)

• 50g butter

• 1 large sprig fresh thyme

• 100ml dry white wine

• 12 slices prosciutto (1 used about 16 sliced ham)

• 500g puff pastry, thawed if frozen

• 2 egg yolk beaten with 1 tsp water

Method:

1.     Consider the size and weight of your steak before calculating the cooking time; eating the well done steak when you want a medium rare one is painful!!! Season the fillet with salt and pepper, and gently press it into the meat with your fingers.

2.     Get the grill pan nice and hot, then add a tbsp of olive oil. When the oil is heat up, put the fillet on the centre of the pan. Only flip the steak once during the cooking.  For medium steak as an end result, cook for 3 minutes for first side and then 2 minutes for the rest of the side.  When the beef is cooked to your liking, remove from the pan to cool, then chill in the fridge for about 20 mins.

3.     While the beef is cooling, chop 250g chestnut (and wild, if you like) mushrooms as finely as possible so they have the texture of coarse breadcrumbs. You can use a food processor to do this, but make sure you pulse-chop the mushrooms so they don’t become a slurry.

4.     Heat 2 tbsp of the olive oil and 50g butter in a large pan and fry the mushrooms on a medium heat, with 1 large sprig fresh thyme, for about 10 mins stirring often, until you have a softened mixture. Season the mushroom mixture, pour over 100ml dry white wine and drink the rest of the bottle as you are cooking and cook for about 10 mins until all the wine has been absorbed. The mixture should hold its shape when stirred. Remove the mushroom duxelle from the pan to cool and discard the thyme.

5.     Overlap two pieces of cling film over a large chopping board. Lay 12 slices prosciutto on the cling film, slightly overlapping, in a double row. Spread half the duxelles over the prosciutto, then sit the fillet on it and spread the remaining duxelles over. Use the cling film’s edges to draw the prosciutto around the fillet, then roll it into a sausage shape, twisting the ends of cling film to tighten it as you go. Chill the fillet while you roll out the pastry.

6.     Dust your work surface with a little flour. Roll out a third of the 500g pack of puff pastry to a 18 x 30cm strip and place on a non-stick baking sheet. Roll out the remainder of the 500g pack of puff pastry to about 28 x 36cm. Unravel the fillet from the cling film and sit it in the centre of the smaller strip of pastry. Beat the 2 egg yolks with 1 tsp water and brush the pastry’s edges, and the top and sides of the wrapped fillet. Using a rolling pin, carefully lift and drape the larger piece of pastry over the fillet, pressing well into the sides. Trim the joins to about a 4cm rim. Seal the rim with the edge of a fork or spoon handle. Glaze all over with more egg yolk and, using the back of a knife, mark the beef Wellington with long diagonal lines taking care not to cut into the pastry. Chill for at least 30 mins and up to 24 hrs.

7.     Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Brush the Wellington with a little more egg yolk and cook until golden and crisp – usually it took 20 minutes for medium steak when i use about 700gr fillet steak. This time as i wrap the steak individually, each steak is 200gr and 20 minutes give me a medium-well done steak, still juicy but I want that pinky meat :(

Modified from BBC Goodfood

© 2015 Ovie Ober-Marbun

Empal Gentong (Cirebon's Beef Stew)

I was living in Cirebon for about 1.5 year because of my job. It's a small city in the north of West Java with a very rich cultures and culinary. I stayed in a rented house close to Kanoman Palace so I can see a lot of happening around there. 

I don't mind to visit Cirebon again for the food and local produce over there. One of the food that I really like from Cirebon is Empal Gentong. It's a beef stew with a rich spices taste. I don't remember if I ever buy this stew in a special place, I think I always bought this in any street vendor :)

Ingredients:

400 gr beef (you can use brisket)
1500 ml water
2 bay leaves
2 cm galangal, crushed
2 lemongrass, crushed
1.5 tsp salt
4 tbsp cooking oil
2 tsp cinnamon powder
3 tsp cloves powder
500 ml coconut milk ( i mixed 400ml canned coconut milk and 100ml water)

Spices (ground)
6 shallots
2 cloves garlic
2 toasted candle nuts
2 cm ginger
4 cm turmeric + 1 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp toasted coriander
1/4 tsp toasted cumin
4 cardamom
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Topping
2 tbsp sliced chives
2 tbsp fried onion
dry ground chillies

Method

1. Boil the meat in water together with the bay leaves, galangal, lemongrass, and salt until the stock is reduced to 1250ml. 

2. Remove the meat from the water and cut into 1x2 cm size.Put the  beef back to the gravy. 

3. Heat oil on a wok, saute the ground spices. Add the cinnamon  and cloves, stirring, until fragrant and cooked, remove from heat. Put the cooked spices to the pan. Pour the coconut milk, cook until boiling, stir occasionally to prevent the coconut milk from curdling, remove from heat.

4. Serve the stew with chives and fried onions. Add some chili powder if you want a spicy stew.

*i always add extra turmeric powder for the color as i found the turmeric here didn't give enough color to the food.

The recipe inspired from Vania Blog

Soto Betawi

I was asking my friend to buy a beef intestine so i can make the Gulai Tambuksu. Instead she bought me the beef tripe. So i just make this soup instead of gulai (Indonesian curry).
The english version is a modified from the recipe in Bahasa Indonesia as I only use the ingredients that i have in the kitchen.




Ingredients:
500gr beef
250 gr washed and cleaned tripe
2 bay leaves
2lt water
2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
4 lemon leaves
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp oil
400ml coconut milk


Grind:
4 cm ginger
8 shallot
3 garlic
1 tsp roasted coriander seed
1/2 tsp roasted black pepper
1/4 tsp roasted cumin


Method:

1. Boil the tripe with bay leaves in 500ml water  about 20 minutes. Discard the water and the bay leaves.
2. Add the beef  and 2000ml water, cook until the water is boiling, add nutmeg, cinnamon, lime leaves and salt. Cook until the beef is tender.
3. Remove the beef and tripe from the stock, diced the beef and tripe about 2cm x 2 cm size.
4. Put beef and tripe back to the stock.
5. In a wok, heat oil in a medium saucepan over a medium heat, add the spice paste. Stir fry until fragrant.
6. Add the coconut milk to the wok and cook until it's boiled.
7. Pour the coconut mixture to the beef stock, stir and cook until it's boiling.
8. Serve with fresh sliced tomatoes, sliced fresh spring onion and fried onion.
9. Add chili sauce, Kecap manis and lime if you like.

Bahasa Indonesia

Bahan : 

300 gr daging 
300 gr jeroan sapi
2000 ml air untuk merebus 
1/2 biji pala 
3 butir cengkeh 
5 cm kayu manis 
4 lembar daun jeruk 
2 sdt garam 
1 sdm minyak goreng, untuk menumis 
250 ml santan, dari 1/2 butir kelapa 

Bumbu halus : 4 cm jahe 
8 butir bawang merah 
3 siung bawang putih 
1 sdt ketumbar sangrai 
1/2 sdt merica 
1/8 sdt jintan sangrai 

Pelengkap : 
250 gr tomat, potong-potong 
3 batang daun bawang, iris halus 
3 batang seledri, iris halus 
3 sdt bawang goreng 
kecap manis, air jeruk limau, emping goreng, dan sambal rawit. 


Cara membuat:

1. Rebus daging (dan jeroan) hingga mendidih, tambahkan pala, cengkeh, kayu manis, daun jeruk, dan garam. Masak terus sampai daging (dan jeroan) lunak, angkat. 
2. Angkat daging (dan jeroan) dari kaldu. 
3. Ukur kaldu sebanyak 1500 ml. Bila kurang, tambahkan air panas. Potong-potong daging dan jeroan 2x2 cm, masukkan kembali ke dalam kaldu. Jerangkan di atas api. 
4. Panaskan minyak goreng dalam wajan, tumis bumbu halus hingga harum, masukkan santan, aduk, angkat. 
5. Masukkan santan berbumbu ke dalam panci kaldu. Timba-timba hingga mendidih dan matang. Angkat. 
6. Penyajian: Siapkan mangkuk saji, masukkan daging (dan jeroan). Tambahkan tomat iris, daun bawang, seledri, dan bawang goreng. 
7. Bubuhkan kecap manis dan air jeruk sesuai selera. Hidangkan dengan emping goreng dan sambal cabe rawit. 

sumber: Mbak Vania

Sup Brenebon

recipe by Ikaray, modified and translated by Evameinar

Ingredients:
150 g red kidney beans (I added more beans about 300 g), soak in water for 3 hours
1.5 L water, for cooking the beans
500 g pork hocks (substitute these for beef ribs, marrow or oxtail if you don't eat pork. I myself used 250 g cubed king oyster mushroom)
1.5 L homemade veggies and shittake mushroom broth (If you are going to use beef or pork, use 1.5 L water)
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 tsp ground white pepper
1/2 nutmeg, grated (can be used 2 tsp ground nutmeg)
6 cloves
1 tsp margarine (I used unsalted butter)
2 green onions, finely sliced
fried shallot, for garnish

Methods:
For Vegetarian Version:
1. Boil red kidney beans in 1.5 L water until tender but not mushy. It will be faster if you use a pressure cooker. Drain the cooked beans.

2. In a pot, add the mushroom broth and cooked beans; bring to a boil.

3. Meanwhile stir fry onion and garlic in butter. Add chopped king oyster mushroom, nutmeg, and ground white pepper, then continue sauteing until the mushroom tender.

4. Transfer the sauteing mixture to the pot. Add cloves, stir. Taste the soup and add sea salt as you need. Simmer for the next 15 minutes. Ready to serve and garnish with green onions and fried shallot.

For the beef/pork version:
1. Prepare two pots. In pot 1, cook soaked red kidney beans with 1.5 L water until tender but not mushy. In pot 2, make meat based broth by boiling beef/pork with another 1.5 L water. After the pot 2 is boiling, simmer for next 10 minutes and remove from heat.

2. After the beans are tender, transfer to pot 2. Start pot 2 to simmer again while you are stir frying onion and garlic in butter. Add nutmeg, and ground white pepper.

3. Transfer the sauteing mixture to the pot. Add cloves, stir. Taste the soup and add sea salt as you need. Simmer for the next 15 minutes. Ready to serve and garnish with green onions and fried shallot.

Cook's Note:
I have changed the direction of cooking as well since I didn't use any beef or pork products.

Steamboat

Kaldu: 1 liter kaldu ayam 1/2 sdt merica bubuk 1/2 sdt garam 1 sdt minyak wijen Isi: 150 gr daging sapi untuk sukiyaki 250 gr udang kupas segar ukuran sedang 200 gr filet ikan kakap, potong 3 x 3 cm 150 gr filet ayam, potong 3 x 3 cm 200 gr bakso ikan 50 gr kol, iris kasar 75 gr daun selada air 1 batang daun bawang, potong melintang 10 cm 5 buah jamur hioko kering, rendam dalam air panas, potong-potong 25 gr tahu putih, potong 3 x 3 x 1 cm 8 butir telur puyuh rebus, kupas 125 gr bihun kering, rendam dalam air panas, tiriskan 4 butir telur ayam Saus Pencelup: 110 ml kecap asin 4 cm jahe, cincang halus 2 sdm minyak wijen 1 sdm cuka 1 sdm saus plum botolan 1 sdm mustard 1 sdm saus cabai botolan 1 batang daun bawang, iris halus

Cara Membuat: Didihkan kaldu ayam, masukkan merica, bubuk dan garam. Aduk rata Tuangkan minyak wijen. Aduk dan didihkan. Angkat Tuangkan kaldu ke dalam panci steamboat, sisihkan Saus pencelup: Aduk rata semua bahan saus, sisihkan Penyajian: Didhkan kaldu, masukkan bahan isi ke dalamnya, masak hingga matang. Angkat, celupkan ke dalam saus, siap untuk disantap

Sumber: Femina - Seri Belajar Masak 5. Mudah Sekali. Untuk 6 porsi. Kalori per porsi: 471 - Cara menyantap hidangan steamboat juga khas. Panci berisi kaldu diletakkan di atas kompor meja. Dengan menggunakan sumpit, bahan makanan segar yang tertata rapi di piring saji dicelupkan satu per satu ke dalam kaldu mendidih hingga matang. Setelah matang lalu dicelupkan ke dalam saus pencelup. - Saus plum adalah salah satu saus khas Cina yang dibuat dari buah apel, plum, aprikot, kecap, gula, cuka, dan cabai. Berwarna cokelat kemerahan, kental, dan rasanya asam segar. Dijual dalam kemasan botol.