Help Please! We need some quick ideas for ground beef!

[Tropicalsenior]

Yesterday @JoNorvelleWalker sent out a plea for ideas and recipes for using ground beef. She's cooking for one and I can tell from her posts that she isn't into casseroles so what would be your suggestions for her?

These are what I make when I want something quick.

Tacos

Taco salad

Sloppy Joes

Goulash

Cheeseburgers

Hamburgers with mushroom gravy

Beef enchiladas

Meatloaf

Teriyaki meatballs

Swedish meatballs

Meatball Stroganoff

Spaghetti with meatballs

Joe's Special

 

[Mjx]

Larb! Simple, and perfect for warm weather.

[Porthos]

Regular Chili

White Chili and Beans

Ground Beef and Onions in White Sauce over a Baked Potato or Noodles

[Darienne]

I was just about to reply when I saw the dictum: no casseroles.  That's mostly where I end up.  And I have some goodies.

[Tropicalsenior]

1 minute ago, Darienne said:

And I have some goodies.

Actually, I think you ought to include them because the rest of us are going to benefit from this, too.

[KennethT]

I liked @JoNorvelleWalker's idea of mapo tofu.  I'd also consider various spicing methods to either make an Indian sikh kabob or maybe a middle eastern kabob...   or go the Indonesian route with a sate lilit.

[Duvel]

Marcella Hazan’s ragù alla Bolognese, hands down! Just made 4.5 kg with ground short rib …

 

[Tropicalsenior]

I know that I'm breaking my own rule by adding a casserole but this is one of my new favorite recipes

[Darienne]

Picadillo and Picadillo de la costa, both from Elizabeth Ortiz, The Complete Book of Mexican Cooking, 1965. One calls for beef and the other for pork and veal, but I put them both together with beef (and ground pork if I have it on hand) and call it Picadillo de la cabaña because we live in Cavan.  Yes, it's silly, but I don't care.

 

Ground beef and Cabbage Casserole from food.com. https://www.food.com/recipe/ground-beef-and-cabbage-casserole-391323

 

Bobotie from Epicurious.  https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/bobotie-231245 Originally from Rainbow Cuisine: A Culinary Journey Through South Africa by Lannice Snyman 1998.  Bits taken from help from my South African cooking mentor, JohnT,  then living in Cape Town, South Africa.  Don't know where he is now.  Covid 19 put an enormous dent in his plans.  

 

There's always that old standby Impossible Pie.  Consists of meat, vegetables, eggs, cheese and biscuit layer in probably a hundred different varieties.  

 

I have a Chile Relleños Casserole which I got from Jaymes, (https://forums.egullet.org/topic/21203-rellenos/?tab=comments#comment-282635, May 18, 2003)  who is not around eG much anymore but who was such a help to me when I was starting to learn Mexican/ Tex/Mex/ California/Mex/ etc cooking.  It doesn't call for meat...but I add ground beef anyway. I also use Poblanos which are the only chile you can get where I live.  And my own topping of biscuit.

 

In fact, because Ed likes beef and is only a half-hearted "lessmeatarian" (a term from Mark Bittman), and doesn't like lamb, I often add ground beef (and or ground pork) to any number of recipes which don't call for meat at all.

 

That's enough I think.  Of course I make enough always to freeze at least two meals if not more. 

[Darienne]

2 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

I know that I'm breaking my own rule by adding a casserole but this is one of my new favorite recipes

I'll try this one, although with Mr. Ed's tomato sauce, modified for Italian.  Thanks. 

[Tropicalsenior]

1 minute ago, Darienne said:

Mr. Ed's tomato sauce

If you use your own sauce recipe, make sure that it is cooked down until it is quite thick. Otherwise it bleeds into the other layers. I can't see that it would change the taste much but it would not make it easy to slice. I'll try to get my pastitsio recipe sorted it out and post that, too.

[rotuts]

@Darienne 

 

"  Mr. Ed's tomato sauce, modified for Italian  "

 

any links to these two ?

[Duvel]

If your ground beef is on the fatty side, consider making Leberkäse …

[Yiannos]

Also more of a casserole in a way but Greek pastitsio would be a great use for it, basically Greek lasagna. I like the recipe in Greece: The Cookbook by Vefa Alexiadou, but here's a recipe that is similar and seems to hit all the right notes (though I haven't tried it personally).

[Tropicalsenior]

10 minutes ago, Duvel said:

If your ground beef is on the fatty side, consider making Leberkäse …

Looks absolutely delicious and I want to try it. In your recipe you mentioned starch. What type of starch do you use? The only type that I have available to me is cornstarch or flour. Will that work?

[Duvel]

2 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

Looks absolutely delicious and I want to try it. In your recipe you mentioned starch. What type of starch do you use? The only type that I have available to me is cornstarch or flour. Will that work?

Cornstarch works well, as does potato starch ( Flour doesn’t unfortunately, as it is not purely starch) …

[Tropicalsenior]

7 minutes ago, Yiannos said:

but here's a recipe that is similar and seems to hit all the right notes

Wow, that is almost word-for-word the recipe that I have been using. I have had to use parmesan because I can't get the Greek cheese and I did put mozzarella in the pasta mix. It is an excellent recipe. Thank you.

I did want to mention that the best pastitsio that I ever had in my life was in a Greek restaurant in Queens. I will not mention the name of the restaurant because I had the worst case of food poisoning afterwards. But it sure tasted good going down.

Edited July 1, 2021 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[Darienne]

1 hour ago, rotuts said:

@Darienne 

 

"  Mr. Ed's tomato sauce, modified for Italian  "

 

any links to these two ?

Ed has been using this Italian meat/tomato sauce since we've been married (61 years now).  I have no idea where he got it.  I'm typing off an old index card which is hardly legible after decades of use and stains.  He's not here right now so I can't ask him any questions about how closely he follows the recipe now. 

 

1 lb ground beef

2 cans tomato paste

1. no 2 1/2 can stewed tomatoes

1 tsp sugar (not used)

1/8 tsp pepper (would use more now)

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1 cup chopped onion

1 finely chopped clove of garlic

1/4 cup celery

1 1/4 tbsp salt

1/4 tsp oregano, chopped parsley 

 

1. Gently fry meat, onion, garlic, celery, in shortening (uses some kind of oil now), stirring about 5 minutes.

2.  Add other ingredients and simmer indefinitely.

 

This is his basic tomato sauce and for spaghetti, he'd add more oregano and basil.  The sauce is also modified for Mexican, Greek and other nation's dishes.  Sorry, we are not very sophisticated in our culinary skills. 

[donk79]

Cabbage Rolls

Stuffed Peppers

 

Can't say I use much ground beef.

[donk79]

Makes enough for one to eat for  a fortnight, but the last memorable thing I made with ground beef was timpano.  It's been a while...

[Tropicalsenior]

21 minutes ago, donk79 said:

last memorable thing I made with ground beef was timpano. 

I read the recipe on this thread and I might be tempted to make it except that I don't know where to find 1 chicken neck for the Ragu. Holy cow, what a recipe!

Edited July 1, 2021 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[lindag]

3 hours ago, Darienne said:

 

 

Ground beef and Cabbage Casserole from food.com. https://www.food.com/recipe/ground-beef-and-cabbage-casserole-391323

 

 

 

Your beef and cabbage recipe really speaks to me, I’ll definitely try that.

[liuzhou]

I've been trying to think of any Chinese recipes using ground/minced beef but although there are many for beef in general, not so much pertaining to ground beef. Apart from mapo tofu , which has already been mentioned, I can think of 

 

1. Ants Climbing Trees (蚂蚁上树 - mǎ yǐ shǎng shù). Both Fuchsia Dunlop in The Food of Sichuan (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) and the relevant Wikipedia article on this Sichuan noodle dish only mention pork, but it is also often made with beef.

 

2. Mr. Xie's Dan Dan Noodles (牛肉担担面 - niú ròu dàn dàn miàn) is an excellent dish using beef. Again, Fuchsia Dunlop has the recipe.

3. Ground Beef in Nests (窝窝头牛肉 - wō wo tóu niú ròu) The only local dish I can think of is this, which I have had in restaurants and made myself.

 

The beef is stir fried with garlic and ginger (and any spices you care to include - I used cumin in the batch above) and pickled vegetables of choice and served in the buns.

There is a recipe for the buns here in Recipe Gullet.

I'm sure there are more, but I'll need my second coffee of the morning before dislodging them from what remains of my mind.

Edited July 2, 2021 by liuzhou (log)

[Tropicalsenior]

35 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

Ants Climbing Trees

I've made this and we love it but I've only made it with pork. I'm going to have to try the ground beef.

 

36 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

There is a recipe for the buns here in Recipe Gullet.

Thank you again for this recipe. I've made them several times and they're a little tedious but well worth the effort. I've used the filling that you suggest and I also used the filling for a Korean egg roll recipe that I have. I got it here. 

[jmacnaughtan]

I'm a fan of keema - it's usually made with lamb, but it's good with beef too.

 

For something less spiced, cottage pie is always a winner too.