お料理（ビーフシチュー）

And it's time for another recipe from Nintendo. You've all had this before, I'm sure, but here's a sort of Japanified take on the dish, which pretty much means it has way more tomato flavor than is necessary. And yes, in case you were wondering, I have only one bowl. Only one spoon, fork, cup, and pair of chopsticks, too. Maybe I should go shopping.



Beef Stew

Yield: 1

Ingredients:

• 80 g beef chunks
• 1/2 clove garlic
• 1/8 carrot
• 1/2 potato
• 2 small onions (my local store didn't have these because it sucks. I just used a quarter of a regular onion cut into chunks)
• 2 mushrooms (EVIL!!)
• 2 string beans
• 1 tbsp flour
• 6 g butter
• Dash of salt
• Dash of pepper
• 1/2 tbsp salad oil
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 3 g buillon cube (what kind of buillon? Your guess is as good as mine. I'd guess BEEF considering the nature of the stew, but the dissolved product looked like chicken broth to me.)
• 1 cup water
• 1 laurier leaf (what the hell is this? It looks just like a bay leaf to me, though it has a really strong tea smell. Who knows?)
• 1/4 tbsp sugar

Preparation:

Peel the 1/8 carrot and cut into 1-inch pieces. Peel the 1/2 potato and cut into 1-inch pieces. Peel the 2 small onions, and cut X’s into the top of each one. Cut the stems from the 2 mushrooms and discard. Cut the tips from the 2 string beans, then cut each bean in half. Set aside.

Boil some water in a pot and add a dash of salt. Boil the string beans until their color brightens, then empty into a collander. Peel 1/2 clove garlic and mince finely. Set aside.

Add 1 tbsp flour to a frying pan and set on low heat. Stir until the flour turns golden brown. Add the 6 g butter and stir well. Dissolve the 3 g buillon cube in 1 cup water, then add gradually while stirring. Then add the 2 tbsp tomato puree and stir well. Add the 1/4 cup red wine, 1/4 tbsp sugar, and laurier leaf, then turn the heat to medium. Stir constantly until boiling, then turn off the heat. Place this sauce in a bowl and set aside.

Place the 80 g beef chunks in a bowl, then add a dash of salt and pepper. Set aside.

Add 1/2 tbsp salad oil to a frying pan and set on medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until it begins to smell strongly. Then add the beef and cook until golden brown. Add the carrot, potato, small onions, and mushrooms, then cook until all the oil disappears. Add the sauce from before, then turn the heat to low. Stir the stew occasionally until the vegetables get soft. Add salt and pepper to taste, then add the string beans.

Remove the laurier leaf, transfer to a bowl, and enjoy.

***

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I'm not a big fan of tomatoes, and this definitely has a strong tomato flavor. Also, I didn't boil the vegetables nearly enough at the end, so they were pretty tough. The meat was also way too tough for some reason...I must've cooked it too long initially, or else just not boiled it enough afterwards? Eh...I'm no chef. But I got really impatient with the loooong boil. The sauce reduced a LOT, and in my boredom I drank about half the bottle of red wine used in the recipe. Oops. All in all, I thought it tasted okay, though maybe that's because I was a little drunk. I'll probably give it another go later this week.