keftka beef meatballs and homemade naan

How can you follow a meal like the persian chicken with jeweled rice with ramen? You cannot. So dinner two days later consisted of another very flavorful recipe, and wasn't really any more complicated to prepare.

I've made homemade naan before, but haven't blogged about it. I still plan on created a single post showing the process, though for now I'll just talk about how great this stuff is.

The recipe (found on AllRecipes.com - I will link to it at the end of post) is enriched with milk, an egg, and sugar and comes together quickly and allowed to rise for an hour. I've changed the process up by making the dough a day ahead of time and refrigerating it, though you have to make sure the dough comes to room temperature either before shaping into individual balls to let rest, or increase the resting time.

Naan are generally prepared in a tandoor, or clay oven, though you can cook them on a skillet or a grill. I chose a regular cast iron skillet, and next time I may try the skillet I have that has grill indents. I didn't time how long it took, but the first side took less than 2 minutes, and once flipped the other side needed less than 45 seconds. As soon as I placed an uncooked naan in the skillet, I brushed the side facing up with melted butter with garlic. The garlic flavor isn't overwhelming and adds a wonderful flavor boost to the naan. (A note: The skillet doesn't have to be heated to high, but medium will work just fine as long as you make sure to let it thoroughly heat before cooking.)

The best way to cook naan is to either have someone in charge of cooking them whilst you stretch the dough out, or get the process down so that as soon as a naan comes out of the skillet you're ready to put one in. Place cooked naan in a heated oven, covered, to keep warm.

Keftka is a Middle Eastern lamb meatball, though I subbed ground beef for the lamb. The ingredients from the recipe I used sounded incredibly good, with a spice trio of allspice, cinnamon, and cayenne powder. Also included is finely ground nuts (I used pecan, though the recipe called for pine nuts), and a processed mixture of onions with fresh cilantro and parsley. A different kind of meatball compared to its Italian counterpart, but every bit as delicious and definitely unique.

Instead of broiling these as a kabob type meal, the meatballs skewered on bamboo skewers, I formed them larger, browned them in a skillet, then set them aside. After I drained most of the fat away, I sauteed an onion with salt and cumin powder until soft, adding 2 cans of diced tomatoes that I pureed. When that mixture came to a boil, I added the meatballs back, reduced to a simmer, and let cook whilst I cooked the naan. A really simple and easy dish that produced a brothy tomato mixture that you could be sopped up by a couple naan. (I also removed the meatballs about 5 minutes before serving and let the sauce continue cooking at a higher heat until ready.)

The naan comes out so chewy, warm, slightly sweet with a hint of garlic. It's very difficult to just eat one, so I don't; I ate three. I once made a different version that was leavened by baking soda and yogurt, though I didn't like it as much as this yeast version. It lacked the sweetness I liked and it also wasn't as tender. It would have made a good substitute if you're pressed for time, once I tweak the recipe.

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Recipes ~

Keftka Kabob recipe

Homemade Naan

Asian Burger with Stir Fry Slaw and a Steamed Bun

There are many variations for burgers out there, but one I don't hear about often is an Asian-inspired burger. My requirements in coming up with my own version was to flavor the ground beef with the ingredients I used when I made filled steamed buns, create a simple stir fry topping that features cole slaw vegetables, and finally make steamed buns to use in place of traditional hamburger buns.

First, I mixed the ground beef mixture together and set it aside to give the flavors a chance to develop. Unfortunately, I didn't measure the amount of beef I used, but it made about 3 burgers. I definitely didn't use a pound, probably not even half a pound, but I kept the amounts for the flavorings the same.

Up next was the stir fry slaw, a mixture of shredded green cabbage, onions, garlic, a bit of green bell pepper, and sliced green onions. For the sauce I failed and didn't measure anything, but I used about 1/2 cup chicken broth and 1/4 cup water, corn starch, a teaspoon of sugar, oyster sauce, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, and white pepper. I can't remember if I added any salt, but I don't think I did because the soy sauce I have seems saltier than other brands. For the vegetables, I think I chopped 1/4 of a head of cabbage since it shrinks down drastically after cooking, 1 medium onion, 2 cloves minced garlic, a 1/4 of a bell pepper, and however many green onions I felt like. There definitely was extra slaw left over so I know I probably made more than I needed, but stir fry tastes awesome the next day.

When it came time to make this, I used a cast iron skillet over the wok. Why? I was sick with a cold; my head was stuffy; the skillet was out and already dirty. What I forgot was how well cast iron not only heats up, but retains that heat. As you can imagine, it got to be so hot that the oil evaporated. Whoops! Fortunately, the kitchen didn't smoke up black, but windows had to be opened and fans were required to air the house out. My bad. Also fortunately, the stir fry had an incredibly smoky, charred flavor, and I managed not to burn anything. This, folks, is why I don't cook when I'm ill.

After setting the stir fry aside, the steamed buns were ready to be cooked, the dough having been kneaded and set aside to rise before I made the meat mixture, which I remembered just now and I don't feel like editing the above. I used the same recipe I used last time, though I divided the dough into eight balls, and after shaping I pressed them down flat so they wouldn't be completely like a dinner roll. I steamed them for 15 minutes. Because I could only steam 4 at a time, the burgers weren't started until after the last 4 buns were steaming.

As far as hamburgers go, these were incredible, like a stir fry-potsticker-steamed bun all in one bite! The flavor of the burgers came through very well, but the slaw was the biggest hit. I was initially concerned with how well the buns would hold up to the burger, though I needn't have since they held up fine. I really liked the chewiness of the buns.

Recipe after the jump.

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Asian Burger with Stir Fry Slaw and a Steamed bun

This recipe will be very vague, and I truly am sorry for that. I should have written the ingredients down as I went along, but being sick I just wasn't thinking. What's here is my best attempt at remembering all I did.

For steamed buns and ground beef filling, click here

So as I said, I used a very straightforward, basic steamed bun recipe. Divide the dough into eighths, shape into balls, and flatten after you place the buns on a square of wax paper, on a baking sheet, before letting rise. Steam for 15 minutes.

For the ground beef, I used enough beef for 3 hamburgers, so maybe 1/4 pound, though I really have no idea! Everything else was kept the same.

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Print this recipe

Stir Fry Slaw
Recipe by Christina Provo

ingredients ~

2-3 cups shredded green cabbage
1 medium onion, sliced into half moons
1/4 green bell pepper, sliced into strips
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 green onions, sliced into 1-inch pieces, plus additional for serving
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup water
2 teaspoons corn starch
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
Vegetable oil for stir frying

directions ~

1. Mix chicken broth and water, corn starch, sugar, oyster sauce, vinegar, soy sauce, and white pepper together in a small bowl; set aside.


2. Heat skillet or wok over medium high heat until just beginning to smoke. Adjust heat as needed. Have a dish nearby to place ingredients after stir frying.


3. Add a teaspoon of oil to skillet. Drop in garlic and green onions and stir until green onions look charred; remove to dish. Add another teaspoon of oil, then add the onions and bell pepper and cook until charred marks are visible on onions. After you remove those, cook cabbage in the same way with another teaspoon of oil. Once cooked, add back the vegetables in the dish and stir to mix. Pour the sauce on top, stirring constantly; remove skillet from heat and continue to mix until sauce has thickened. Place in dish and keep covered until ready to eat.

is raw ground beef bad when brown?

Someone once told me that he threw out raw ground beef because it was bad. Said person doesn't cook, so I wondered why exactly he threw it out. "Did it expire?" I don't remember what he said, but I think he didn't look. "Why did you throw it out?" It was grey.

To get to the bottom of this question, in case anyone wondered the same thing, I did a quick Google search, as well as conducting a personal test, to find out the answer.

The Google search said that when raw beef becomes exposed to air, the air reacts with the meat pigments, particularly oxymyoglobin and causes the outer surface of meat to turn red while the inner meat, not exposed to oxygen, becomes grey-brown. Hm.

It turns out that the innards of this meat was red. What I actually was searching for was a page telling me that red dye was inserted into meat, but I found some stuff about meat being packaged with CO or some such thing to keep the meat looking red, which does absolutely nothing for the freshness, and the meat is packaged in a way to either keep air out and the air it was packed with in, or to let a small amount of air in.

Back to the meat used in this post, both were purchased at the same time, and both were placed in the same section of the refrigerator, though one slightly froze while the other was completely "fresh". One of the pages I read said that if the meat was thoroughly grey, chances are it was bad, though you should also go by smell as well because I've used ground beef in the past when a) it was past the expiration date, and b) it was grey through-and-through, neither of which I'm suggesting anyone do and blaming me for your bout of e coli, I'm just letting you know I'm still alive and running.

To sum this post up, be one with your food. Part of cooking includes getting "in there" and closely observing what's up with your ingredients. If you go by sight, you'll end up throwing out grey raw ground beef that may be perfectly fine to cook with, and no one wants to be wasteful. Right?

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P.S.
The ground beef was turned into taco meat, though that's beside the point of the post. =P