Photo by Sarah Shatz
A&M's Testing Notes:
Expand CollapseSusan's Notes:
Expand1 pound stew beef Ask a question about this ingredient
1 pound green beans Ask a question about this ingredient
1 pound tomatoes - can be in a can Ask a question about this ingredient
2 cloves of garlic Ask a question about this ingredient
salt Ask a question about this ingredient
pepper Ask a question about this ingredient
Rub the beef with salt and pepper, place in a covered skillet, and cover with water. Stew it until it is brown.
Ask a question about this stepRemove the ends from the green beans. Cut them into 1 1/2 inch pieces.
Ask a question about this stepWhen the beef is finished, remove one cup of the broth and reserve it. Put the green beans in alongside it, and stew them until they are cooked to your taste.
Ask a question about this stepChop tomatoes and food-process with the beef broth and crushed garlic until smooth. Add this mixture to the green beans and beef. Salt and pepper generously, and add about 2 teaspoons each of cumin and coriander. Let it simmer for about an hour. For the most delicious flavor, let it sit on the stove for a while after that hour and reheat later.
Ask a question about this stepThis tasted delicious. But it was still quite watery? I used canned tomatoes but removed them from the juice before weighing. I did leave the top on through-out the cooking process. Should I have used fresh tomatoes or left the cover off during the cooking process?
Thanks so much
Maybe to avoid having too much liquid: before step three. separate meat from all liquid, not just one cup as recipe says, maybe strain liquid or... not,chefs perogative, reserve the one cup aside as recipe request in step three, then take the remaining strained liquid and reduce it down on the stove to concentrate the flavor. Then proceed to step three. adding desired amount of liquid "broth" to green beans and stew meat. etc.
Love the ingredients used in this recipe, and a very appetizing photo!
We made this right after Christmas when we wanted something completely different from all that blandness. It was easy and delicious. I did increase the spices a bit since I had quite a bit of liquid. Both myself and my 11 year old son loved it! Thanks!
So simple but so good! Very similiar to a Lebanese recipe called Lubee Ah Laham. Just replace the beef with lamb and the coriander and cumin with cinnamon and perhaps a pinch of allspice.
This is a great recipe....love it! have also made it with lamb...yummmm! Thanks!!
Cathy is the author of The Art of Eating In and blogs at Not Eating Out in New York.
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For this dish, we used canned tomatoes instead of fresh, as the recipe said we could, and thought the recipe turned out perfectly. We also used a very inexpensive cut of beef, cubed chuck roast, and the meat was still tender. Humble ingredients, yes, but very delicious results.
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Aggressively seasoned meat, ready for the pot.
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We added 1 1/2 c. water, just enough to come about halfway up the sides, and cooked it over medium heat, covered, for 10-12 minutes, or until the beef was browned.
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While the beef was cooking, Amanda outsourced the job of trimming (more) green beans.
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We used fairly hearty green beans- they weren't perfect looking, but they tasted great. It turned out well though, as these heftier beans held their own after cooking for a couple of hours.
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Merrill measures out the coriander to be crushed. It turns out that dried spices retain their measurement after grinding or crushing, so no need to measure twice!
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This smelled great. As did the cumin, which we also mortar and pestled.
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Cutting the green beans in half yields an appropriate length.
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After the meat was browned, we removed 1 cup of water for the broth.
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We pureed the beef water, 1/2 a 28oz can of whole tomatoes, with the appropriate juice, and the crushed garlic together. This will become the delicious gravy.
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We seasoned with all 2T of both spices, and found it was just the right amount.
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As the dish cooked, we found it dried out more than we wanted, so twice uring cooking, we added about 1 1/2 cups of water to the dish, recovered, and continued to cook. The kitchen smelled wonderful!
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Amanda tests a piece of beef. We found that it required about 1 hour and 45 minutes of cooking, rather than the hour the recipe called for. This was probably a result of the size of our cubes of beef (large), but you should just cook until the meat is tender.
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Finished. Delicious- especially when served with plain yogurt!
I made this over the weekend and it was good, but I would not say great. I toasted and ground my corriander and cumin seeds, but it seemed like it still needed something more, perhaps some form of acid to punch it up a bit. There was definitely more flavor on day 2 and the green beans held up nicely even with the long cooking time.