Beef with bell pepper

The introduction

Hi everyone! Today I want to tell you about my other dish, which I just prepared the other day and, at first, I wanted it to be an usual dish, which is well-known in Georgia and which is prepared very often and people often go to the restaurants to eat this dish and they have this dish in Ketsi in the restaurants, which is a clay plate and when you prepare something in it, it comes out pretty delicious, and, besides, when you eat at the restaurants and the dish is not prepared by you and it’s served to you already prepared, you like that dish and it seems to you, that it’s really delicious and you wish, that you could prepare it like that, however, sometimes , when you prepare something, it is more delicious, than that same thing prepared by someone else, of course. Though, you may not like your dish after so much time of preparing it and spending your precious time in doing so, and, well, maybe that dish won’t even come out as planned and it may not taste as you wish it would taste after the preparation process. So, many people just like to go to the restaurants and order Ostri and enjoy their meal there, while others prefer to prepare it at home as they like it to be. Well, to be honest, I really don’t know what it’s called, because everyone calls this dish “Ostri” and it’s a Russian word and it means “Spicy” in English and it’s kind of spicy, I guess, however, it all depends on  a person and the amount of the pepper, that you add to the dish, of course. But the main taste, which I love so much , is given to it by the tomato paste and if you add a good tomato paste to the dish, it will be just amazingly delicious. So, I wanted to have something like this dish, however, I also had this other thing, that was the red bell pepper and it’s really delicious in such dishes and so I decided to have it in my dish , too, and that is what made the dish different from that Ostri dish and I didn’t use any fresh herbs either, so that it was not the same dish as that Ostri. However, it became really good and it was very delicious and it was worth preparing. To tell you the truth, I didn’t really think, that this dish would be so delicious, because I didn’t think, that the beef pieces would be delicious, because when I prepared some dish with that same beef, it was not that good and I thought, that this one wouldn’t be very delicious either, however, it was really good and I’m not exaggerating, because I really liked it.

To tell you the truth, it’s not like we add some water to the dish, though, you may add some of it, just to make the dish not that dry or whatever. You know, it kind of really depends on the tomato paste and how thick it is. If it’s thick enough that you will need to add some water to it, so that the dish won’t get without any juice at all, then you will need some more water, than you would, if you had that kind of liquidy tomato paste. For this one, I had that liquidy tomato paste bought and I used it in my dish, which made it taste pretty good, and now I know, that if I want to have that kind of dish with some good tomato paste, then I should buy it. It was some kind of Italian tomato paste, though it might not be called the “tomato paste” and, I think, I should call it “tomato sauce”, because, if I know it right, the paste is thicker than the sauce.

Anyways, let me tell you about the ingredients and the preparation process and some tips about preparing this dish, because I don’t think, that you are very interested in that introduction and the history of the dish or whatever and how people prepare some dish, which is kind of the same as this one, and things like that. So, let’s get to the business.

Ingredients:

• Beef, 300 grams
• Tomato paste, 100 grams
• Butter, 50 grams
• Onion, 1 medium
• Salt to taste
• Red bell pepper, 1 medium
• Ground red pepper
• Ground coriander
• Bay leaf, 1 small

Preparation process

So, the preparation process is pretty easy, because you don’t really need to pay much attention to the dish and you can leave it like that and just go and watch TV or something like that. It’s just the beginning, that needs your attention, because you have to prepare the onions and then cook them with other ingredients.

Well, as you know,  I have this convection oven, which is pretty easy to use and is very helpful in many things and is a great thing to have at home. So that, I took the beef and cut it into very small pieces and put them in the convection oven. Well, actually, I had these beef pieces prepared some days ago and I had chopped the beef and put it into a container and have it in the freezer for when I wanted to prepare some dish with that beef, I would have it already prepared. So, I took it out of the freezer and put it into the convection oven on a steamer pan on a low rack and had it like that on 200 degrees Celsius for about an hour or so. The beef pieces got pretty much cooked and they were cooked well. I sometimes used to stir them, so that they would get cooked evenly. And I also added some salt to them while cooking, because I like the beef to have some good taste until it’s cooked. You know, some people season the dishes with salt just when they are finished and done cooking. I don’t like that, because then when you eat that dish, the beef pieces or whatever they have inside the stock or whatever, doesn’t have  a great taste, because it hasn’t yet absorbed the salt, so that they need some time to get all tasty and stuff, and that’s not that good , because people usually want to eat the dish when it’s cooked and not the other day or so.

So, after that one hour or a little bit more, I turned the convection oven off and took the beef pieces out. They were pretty well-cooked and tasted good, too. Then I had this one medium onion chopped in my chopper, which is a great thing in the kitchen just like the convection oven, however, I think, that it’s better to have the chopper in your kitchen, than the convection oven. That is, if you have a choice from this two and you have to choose just one of them, then I prefer having that chopper than the convection oven. So, I chopped the onion and had it put into a medium saucepan and added the butter and had it cooked on a high heat until the onion pieces got kind of golden in colour and then I added the salt and the ground coriander and the ground pepper and stirred it and then added the cooked beef pieces and let the two be cooked together for a minute or so. After that, I added the tomato paste and let the dish be cooked on a medium heat, until I chopped the red bell pepper. Well, actually I had it put in my chopper and had it  chopped into very small pieces. I wanted my dish to have some bell pepper in it, because the bell pepper gives some great taste to the dishes and I like having them in my dishes, too, though my brother doesn’t really like them. However, when they are chopped into very small pieces or something like that, he can’t notice them and doesn’t know, that the dish has some bell pepper and then he eats the dish just like that, without knowing about bell peppers and he doesn’t even complain about them.

Anyways, I added the chopped red bell pepper to the mixture in the saucepan and let it be cooked for a couple of minutes, occasionally stirring and I also added some salt to the dish and I also added that one small bay leaf, so that it would emit its distinguished taste, which I like in my dishes. Although, some people don’t like bay leaves in their dishes, for example , my father. He told me once, that he didn’t like bay leaves in the dishes, but I don’t know why.

After a couple of minutes of cooking, I added a cup of boiling water or so and then it was just perfect, I stirred the dish and let it cook on a low heat, until the beef pieces were well-cooked and soft and easy to eat. Well, to be honest, I wanted my dish to taste very delicious, so that I tasted it from time to time not to have a bitter taste or something, however, when I tasted it, it already had this great taste and it didn’t need anything to be added or didn’t have anything more than enough, so that I was pretty happy about that and I just decided, that it was finished and I had this great dish to eat. It had a stock, but it was not like a soup and it was just in a perfect shape like a slow-cooker, so that it was a very good thing to have at home for your meal. To tell you the truth, I wanted to have some fresh coriander or parsley added to my dish, however, I didn’t have it at home right at that time, and I was pretty lazy to go to the shop and buy it, so that I decided to have the dish this way and if I wanted, I could go shopping the next day and buy one of them and chop them and add them to my dish, however, then it would need some boiling for a minute or so and then the dish would be ready as hell.

So, this was my dish, which I found very delicious and great to eat. I hope, that you will prepare it in my way and you will like it and prepare it from time to time.

Enjoy your cooking!