Rolled flank steak

Discovering new food blogs is always an interesting thing. I love going through their archives, checking texts, recipes and photos, getting to know a little about that foodie – who will probably become a blogger friend.

One of my latest “findings” is packed with beautiful photos and delicious recipes, and the girl behind it is a huge Martha fan, like me. I’m talking about Mimi.

She is hosting an event called “Martha Mondays” and I really liked her idea. One of the rules was to cook a recipe from this gallery and, to please my dear husband – who has been eating tons of chicken and fish lately because of me – I chose a beef dish.

If I keep making dishes like this, Joao will end up joining the Martha fan club as well. :)

Rolled flank steak

680g (1½ lb) flank steak - I used a different cut
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 cloves garlic, crushed
½ cup (57g/2oz) shredded mozzarella cheese – I used the yellow mozzarella we have here, made from cow’s milk
4 scallions, sliced
¼ cup (57g/2oz) roasted red peppers, cut into thin strips
sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 230ºC/450ºF with rack in center. Between two sheets of plastic wrap, pound steak to 1.25cm (½-inch) thickness with a meat mallet or heavy skillet. Using a sharp knife, score the steak on one side in a cross-hatched pattern. In a large bowl, whisk together oil, vinegar, and garlic. Place the steak inside and marinate at least 20 minutes or up to overnight.

Remove steak from marinade. Lay steak on cutting board, scored side down, with a short end facing edge of work surface. Cover steak with cheese, scallions, and peppers, leaving 1.25cm (½-inch) border on the long sides and 5cm (2-inch) border at the far short end. Season with salt and pepper. Starting from closest side, roll up tightly. Using kitchen twine, tie steak crosswise.
Season with salt and pepper.

Place, seam side down in a lightly oiled baking dish or on a rimmed baking sheet, and roast until juices run clear, 35 to 40 minutes for medium rare. Let rest 10 minutes, and remove string before slicing.

Serves 4 – I used a 400g steak and my husband ate 80% of it. :)

Rolled flank steak

Tyler and Agdah's meatballs

I’m sure that most of you have your favorite meatball recipe – perhaps even a family classic. But these were such a hit at home I had to share them with you.

My dear fellow Brazilian blogger Adgah posted these meatballs a while ago and they looked so delicious – the exact kind of food Joao is crazy for. She adapted this recipe, from Tyler Florence, and I followed her version (which is the one I’m posting here).
I had a few myself and the mix of cooked onions, parsley and basil gives the meatballs a wonderful flavor – not to mention that melting cheese is always a winner in my book.

And I was right about Joao – he loved these.

Tyler and Agdah's meatballs

olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, smashed*
2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh parsley leaves
a handful of basil, chopped
1 cup (240ml) milk
2 very thick slices firm white bread, crusts removed – I used whole wheat bread
1kg ground beef
1 large egg
1 cup freshly grated parmesan
salt and freshly ground black pepper
200g mozzarella cheese, cut into chunks – I used the yellow mozzarella we have here, made from cow’s milk and used as pizza topping

Heat 3 tablespoons oil in an ovenproof skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, and parsley and cook until the vegetables are soft but still translucent, about 10 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and let cool.

Pour enough milk over the bread in a bowl to moisten and let it soak while the onions are cooling. Combine the meats in a large bowl. Add the egg and parmesan and season generously with salt and pepper. Use your hands to squeeze the excess milk out of the bread and add that to the bowl along with the cooled onion mixture. (Hang onto the pan - you'll need it to cook the meatballs.) Gently combine all the ingredients with your hands or with a spoon until just mixed together. Don't overwork or the meatballs will be tough. Divide into 10 equal pieces and shape them into 10 nice looking meatballs.

Preheat the oven to 175ºC/350ºF.

Heat a bit of olive oil in the frying pan over medium heat and brown the meatballs on all sides, about 10 minutes – be careful not to tear them apart. Put them into a baking dish and bake until the meatballs are cooked through, about 15 minutes.

* instead of the cloves, I used a garlic infused olive oil I made a couple of weeks ago (I got the idea from one episode of "Nigella Express")

Makes 10 – I used 1 heaping tablespoon of beef mixture to format each meatball and got 40; half of them were eaten fresh and the others were frozen (while still raw).

Sfiha

Besides the cake, I made savory snacks for the boys’ birthday get together at my house last month. Simple yet good food, easy and quick to put together, because they’d arrive at lunch time and I would not have much time to cook. So I went for mini carne louca sandwiches and sfihas.

As much as it sounds like a big cliché, Brazil is a melting pot and we have been influenced by many different cultures. Our food is a great example of that. Italian, Portuguese, Japanese – you’ll find all those flavors in our menu. Not to mention the dishes we inherited from the indians (Brazil’s first habitants) and from the slaves that came from Africa centuries ago.

There’s also a large Syrian-Lebanese community here (at least in Sao Paulo), so sfihas are extremely popular. These are so delicious, I’m sure you’ll love them – I did, even though I can’t stand beef. And my Italian/Portuguese/German family loved them, too.

Sfiha

Filling:
½ kg (17 ½ oz) ground beef
2 ripe tomatoes, seeds removed, finely diced
½ onion, finely diced
½ cup chopped parsley
2 teaspoons salt
juice of 1 lime
freshly ground black pepper*

Dough:
30g fresh yeast
500ml warm milk – I used 1% fat
3 tablespoons sugar
1 ½ teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
5 ½ cups (about 780g) all-purpose flour – I used only 730g

Start with the filling: place all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well until smooth. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 220ºC/428ºF.

Now, the dough: place the yeast in a large bowl and add the milk. Mix well with a fork until the yeast is dissolved. Add the sugar, salt and oil. Start adding the flour, gradually, mixing with a wooden spoon until a smooth dough forms. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let it rest for 5 minutes. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead it for about 5 minutes. Take small portions of dough – the size of a walnut – and make them into balls. Place onto a floured baking sheet, cover with a kitchen towel and set aside for another 5 minutes.
Using your fingers – I used a rolling pin, it was a lot easier – open each dough ball into a circle. Place ½ tablespoon of beef filling** into the center of the circle. Fold in the lower third of the circle towards the center of the sfiha, then the left and right thirds of the circle, forming a triangle. Pinch the ends together to seal the filling inside.
Place the sfihas, 1 inch apart, onto an oiled baking sheet.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden.

If you prefer your sfihas softer, place them inside a pot right after they’re out of the oven and put the lid on (I did not do that).
You can also use an egg wash on the sfihas before baking them, which I think is completely unnecessary.

* the original recipe calls for 1 teaspoon bahrat; I didn’t have any in my pantry, that’s why I used black pepper instead.

** the ground beef is used raw in the filling and releases water and blood after being mixed with the other ingredients. To prevent the dough from being watery, I placed the filling inside a colander over a bowl and squeezed the small portions of filling between my fingers to get rid of any excess liquid before putting them in each dough circle.

Makes 60

Trivial food - steak with herbs

A dear friend of mine, who happens to have a lovely blog written in Portuguese, asked the other bloggers about the trivial food they cook at home.

I have lunch close to work and my dinner is always the same, so I though I should share one dish that João loves - beef. I mean, steak - he'll gladly have it everyday.

To change things a little, once the steak is grilled, I remove it from the pan and add a bit of butter. When it's melted, I add a generous amount of chopped fresh herbs - I usually use parsley, chives and basil or rosemary. Once everything is well combined I pour it over the steak. I serve it with sliced onions browned in olive oil, rice and salad.

It's not an actual recipe but it's a hit with my picky husband! :)

Giant stuffed steak

I was looking for something on my other blog archives when I saw a stuffed pork loin I made last year. Then I decided to make something similar, using beef instead.
There’s a dish here called “bife à rolê” that my husband likes a lot – steaks are filled with chopped carrots, bacon and green olives, secured with toothpicks and cooked in a simple broth (most people here use a pressure cooker for that). It’s similar to bracciola, except for the tomato sauce.
I created a giant “bife à rolê”, stuffed with farofa and served it with fresh homemade tomato sauce – click here and here if you’re interested in my other recipes with farofa.
Although I thought the farofa had disappeared at the end, João loved this dish.

Giant stuffed steak

450g rump/top sirloin, cut as a very large steak
1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
½ small onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped bacon
2 tablespoons pitted and chopped green olives
1/3 cup breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
salt
freshly ground black pepper
boiling water, enough to cover the beef – you may use beef stock if you like, but be careful with the amount of salt
your favorite tomato sauce

Make the farofa: heat olive oil in a small saucepan, over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook until golden. Add the onion and cook until golden as well. Add the breadcrumbs, olives and parsley, season with salt and pepper, mix well and remove from heat. Set aside to cool. Place the steak open on a chopping board and season with salt and pepper. Spread the farofa on the center and roll the steak, closing all the sides so the stuffing won’t fall out. Secure with cooking string:

In a large saucepan, heat butter over high heat until it’s melted. Add the stuffed steak and cook until all the sides are evenly and nicely browned.
Add the boiling water (or stock, if using), season with a bit of salt, close the lid and cook until the beef is tender – I used a pressure cooker (in a hurry!).
Remove from the pan, cut the string and remove it.
Heat the tomato sauce and spread it over the steak.
Slice it when serving.

Serves 2 very well, with rice, potatoes or a nice salad.

Carne louca

This is a very common recipe around here – carne louca, which means “crazy beef”.

It was easy to stumble upon these sandwiches in birthday parties. All the kids loved it – except for me. I already had problems with meat as a child. Never liked it. My mom had to sit by the table, her Havaianas in hand, staring at me, so I would eat my steak.

It was my first attempt at carne louca – and I must confess I only made it because João asked me to. I didn’t use a specific recipe, I made it the way I remembered it.

All I can say is that it smelled so great I had to taste it. And I did taste it. And then I had a big spoon of it, right before the 2 sandwiches I ate watching a soccer game on TV with João. :D

Carne louca

a 500g piece of eye of round
50g (2 tablespoons) butter
100ml white wine or beer
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
10 green olives, pitted and chopped
2 ½ tablespoons parsley, finely chopped
juice of 1 lime
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt
freshly ground pepper

In a saucepan or kettle, set 1.5 liters water to boil.
In a pressure cooker* over high heat, melt the butter and add the piece of beef. Cook it, turning it around to get all the sides nicely browned. Add salt (just a little, since you’re going to season the beef in the end), wine/beer and the boiling water. Close the pressure cooker and when it starts whistling, turn down the heat and cook for 50 minutes.
Remove from heat and let it stand until all the pressure is released – be careful.

Place the beef on a cutting board and, using a knife and a fork, shred the entire piece. Put it in a large bowl (glass is better) and add the onion, bell pepper, olives, parsley and approx. 400ml of the broth left in the pressure cooker.
Season with salt and pepper to taste, add the lime juice and the olive oil and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days, bringing to room temperature before serving.

Make sandwiches using baguettes.
* If you’re using a regular pan, proceed the same way and cook the beef for longer – it has to be very tender otherwise it will be hard to be shredded.

Steak with maître d’hotel butter and roasted new potatoes

Jeff once wrote in one comment that you can’t beat meat and potatoes – João totally agrees with that. :)

I saw this steak recipe and then the new potatoes recipe on the same book - 140 pages apart - and decided to make both and serve them together.

João loved it so much I’ve made it twice already.

Steak with maître d’hotel butter and roasted new potatoes
from Family Food

90g (6 ½ tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons finely chopped parsley
lemon juice
4 steaks, about 1,3cm thick – I used 2cm thick tenderloin steaks
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt
ground black pepper

Potatoes:
600g new potatoes
1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons thyme leaves – I used rosemary
2 teaspoons coarse salt

Cream the butter in a bowl, using a wooden spoon, then beat in a pinch of salt, a pinch of pepper and the parsley. Add about 2 teaspoons of lemon juice, a few drops at a time. Let the butter harden in the refrigerator a little, then form it into a log shape by rolling it up in waxed paper. Put it in the refrigerator until you need it.

Make the potatoes: Pre-heat the oven to 205ºC/400ºF. Cut the potatoes in half and place them in a roasting pan. Add the oil, thyme/rosemary and salt and mix well all the potatoes are coated.
Roast for 30-40 minutes or until they’re golden and cooked through.

Season the steaks with salt and pepper on both sides. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and, when it is very hot, add the steaks - here, I added one small red chili finely sliced; it's totally optional. Cook them for 2 minutes on each side for medium, and 4 minutes on each side for well done. The cooking times may very depending on the thickness of your steaks – if they are thin, give them a slightly shorter time and if they are thick, cook them for longer.
Cut the butter into slices and put a couple of slices on top of each steak. The heat of the steaks will melt down the butter.
Serve with the potatoes, vegetables or salad.

Serves 4.

Tail of round with shallots

The minute I saw this recipe I knew I had to make it for João – he loves beef, he loves onions.
It was taken from a book I have – it’s a compilation of recipes from a Brazilian food magazine. I made few changes, nothing big.

João really liked the dish and asked me to make it again, with one condition: to use striploin instead of tail of round – he told me it has much more flavor.

Since I don’t eat beef I’ll have to take his word on that. ;)

Tail of round with shallots

40g butter
400g tail of round – one piece
200g shallots
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large rosemary sprig
salt and cracked black pepper

In a pressure cooker, melt the butter and add the beef. Cook it, turning it around to get all the sides nicely browned. Season it with salt and pepper.
When it’s browned, add water until the beef is covered by it. Close the pressure cooker and when it starts whistling, turn down the heat and cook for 30-35 minutes.
Remove from heat and let it stand until all the pressure is released – be careful.
If you’re using a regular pan, proceed the same way and cook the beef for longer- just until it’s cooked through and tender.
Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC for 10 minutes.
Place the shallots in a baking dish, season them with a little salt and pepper, drizzle with the olive oil and bake them for 20 minutes – they will be soft.
Heat the beef in the same pan it was cooked – if there’s too much broth remove the excess – add the rosemary and cook for 10 minutes.
Serve it with the shallots.

Serves 2.

Striploin with golden new potatoes, rosemary and tomatoes

An important Brazilian magazine launched a special edition with chefs’ profiles and recipes – Joao bought it for me.
I made a recipe from the magazine right after I got it but it didn’t work out – there was something wrong with the amount of flour. I’ll try it again some time.

I was flipping through the magazine the other day, determined to try a new recipe, when I saw this beautiful piece of beef with rosemary leaves. I had just come back from my grandmother’s house with a huge bunch of rosemary that she had picked from her garden.
It was a perfect coincidence.

I made ¼ recipe and it serves one really well: Joao had half of it for lunch and the other half I cut in strips, cooked quickly with finely chopped onions and served with bread as a Sunday night snack.

After slicing the beef, I noticed that the center part was too rare for Joao’s taste – so I grilled the steaks for 1 minute or so.

Striploin with golden new potatoes, rosemary and tomatoes

800g new potatoes
50g fresh rosemary
8 tablespoons olive oil
200g cherry tomatoes
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1,6kg striploin*
4 tablespoons Dijon mustard
salt and cracked black pepper

Cook the potatoes in salted water. Drain and set aside.
Remove the rosemary leaves and cook them in the olive oil until they’re crisp and crunchy. Drain and set both the oil and the rosemary aside.
Bring a frying pan to high heat and cook the tomatoes with 2 tablespoons of the reserved oil. Season with salt and pepper and cook until they’re golden. Remove from heat, add the vinegar and set aside.
Place the potatoes in a baking dish, season with salt and pepper and bake in a 220ºC/425ºF oven until they’re golden. Set aside.
Divide the beef in 4 pieces of 400g each. Season them with salt and pepper.
Heat up a broiler/grill – I used a frying pan like this – and grill the beef with the olive oil, saving 1 tablespoon. Grill both sides to your taste.
Heat the potatoes, tomatoes and rosemary in a saucepan, add the remaining oil and check salt and pepper.
Serve the beef with this mix and the mustard.

Serves 4.

*The beef cut I used is actually the interior part of the striploin.

Tenderloin medallions with carrot “farofa”

It’s amazing how many people I’ve been in contact with since I discovered the delicious (yep, pun intended) foodblog world – and then started my own blog.
People who share the passion for food I have, people who understand the excitement of trying a new recipe, of cooking for family and friends, of tasting new ingredients for the first time.

One of these people is Terry, from Blue Kitchen – a blog you’ll get addicted to visiting, I can assure you.

Terry and I exchanged some e-mails after I wrote a comment on his blog about a very Brazilian dish - rice and beans. He said he would cook it – I crossed my fingers (and toes, as well, just in case) hoping we would like it.

He did like it and made a beautiful post about it!

Thanks, Terry! I loved your post and I’m very glad to be a part of your fantastic blog.

To keep on the Brazilian food theme, I’ll post a “farofa” recipe – click here to know more about farofa.

This is a bit different farofa, for the recipe calls for grated carrots – one way my grandmother found to make my brother eat at least one more kind of vegetable, besides French fries.

I used to cook this dish all the time when I was single and lived with my father and my brother – who still won’t eat anything green.
I still make it now because Joao loves it.
A simple side dish, quick to put together and that goes well with many things.

Tenderloin medallions with carrot “farofa”

4 tenderloin medallions
4 rashers of bacon
salt and cracked black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil

Farofa:
1 large carrot, roughly grated
1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
½ small onion, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped parsley – I didn’t have any, but I always use it
40g olives, pitted and chopped
70g manioc flour – or more, if you like your farofa a little drier
salt and cracked black pepper

Season the medallions with salt and pepper.
Wrap each medallion with a rasher of bacon and secure it with a toothpick.
Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat and grill the medallions to your liking.
Remove toothpicks and serve.
I served the medallions with the sauce found in this recipe.

For the farofa:
Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until light golden. Add the carrot, cook for 1 minute and then add the olives and parsley.
Add the manioc flour and mix well.
Season and serve.

Serves 4 – or 2, depending on how hungry they are!