Aunt Bukky’s Beef and vegetable fiesta

My cousin who we fondly call Aunty Bukky is going to scream when she sees this. You know why? She cooked this on Christmas day last year and I told her I was going to put it up on the blog. I truly can’t believe I am just posting this. I remember posting part of the procedure to making this on Facebook on Christmas day. It was trending among the meats, chicken, vegetable soups, turkey and all that jazz. You may be wondering why I dug this out almost 6 months after, well *cough* *cough*, the Apple head that I am has succumbed to the technological genius (okay, okay, marketing played a part) of Retina display and I want that baby so bad. It doesn’t help that my darling Macbook has lasted 3 years. 3 years people. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever owned a personal computer that has lasted that long and IS still working. The garri I drank to save up for it, and friends telling me it was a waste of money. 3 years after it is still working and all of them have changed laptops at least twice. In your face guys. Looool. A little rough around the edges, slow in some bits, which a quick restart will fix, but the fact that it is still functioning at near optimum capacity 2 months shy of 3 years, is amazing. I will never forget my first Macbook Pro. All hail the vision of Steve Jobs.

With a new gadget baby coming into the household, before I hand this one over to some lucky bidder on eBay, I have to go through the tedious job of sorting out my files. I have been doing this for weeks now, clearing out the old, deciding what to trash and what to keep. I sure have tons of photos that I never want to set my eyes on again, lol. Serious errors in judgement. Get your mind out of the gutter, no dirty stuff. Looool. Just memories I would rather trash and put a finality to. Looking through my photos of food has revealed an incredible growth in my food photography skills. I am not even anywhere near where I want to be. I still judge my own photos and give them a 6, on days when I have my judgy hat on, I give myself a 5. I will keep some terrible shots to remind myself of where I started though, that’s a given. Whilst looking through my files, I came across these pictures and thought oooooh, I have to post that on the blog. It is a very handy recipe, and a great way to use leftovers or to quickly whip up some sauce to serve with white rice or fried rice.

Aunty Bukky serves Jollof rice with stewed meat, but her fried rice, she is quite particular that no stew goes anywhere near it. I don’t blame her, her fried rice and my mother’s fried rice would make you willingly chop veggies for days without complaining. My mum’s fried rice recipe isn’t designed for bulk cooking. Aunty Bukky’s recipe on the other hand though, features moderations here and there which totally and I mean totally works for bulk cooking. She caters on the side, so I am not allowed to reveal her recipe. I am going to bribe her to let me include it in the cookbook though, that way she can at least get paid for her efforts. Lol. We have ranges of Aunt Bessie’s food products, well, this is Aunt Bukky’s Beef and Vegetable Fiesta.

You will need

Onions
Tatashe – red bell pepper
Green bell pepper – green pepper
Ata rodo – scotch bonnet/habanero pepper
Fried or Grilled meats – you can throw in chicken or lamb if you wish
Other Fresh vegetables – such as carrots, cabbage, green onions
Vegetable Oil
Meat Stock
Garlic
Ginger
Dry pepper – cayenne pepper

How To

1. Slice all the veg that you need thinly. In this bowl I have tatashe, green pepper, yellow pepper, onions and spring onions. we added carrots at some point, but I had taken this picture with my phone

2. Fry or grill your beef and assorted meat. You can also throw in chicken if you have

3. Blend garlic and ginger to a smooth paste

4.  Heat up vegetable oil in a pot, pour in the garlic and ginger paste and let it fry till it reduces

5. Add the chopped and sliced veggies and sweat them down

in a few minutes, you should have this, and you would also notice that the volume of liquid in the pot has increased, because the water content of the veggies has leached out.

6. Add the meats and beef stock and dry pepper to the pot, stir and reduce the heat to let it simmer till most of the beef stock has been absorbed and the meats have softened and plumped up. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: As it simmers, it would start absorbing all the flavours of the garlic, ginger and vegetables. The aroma alone is amazing. You may choose to add dried spices like curry or thyme, but I would say no. Garlic, ginger, onions and the fresh taste of the peppers is just what you need. This dish reminds me of Oriental cooking. Simple, clean flavours. No drama. If you want more fluid sauce, dilute with water, or preferably beef stock.  If you wish, you can quickly convert this to a Curry  by mixing 1 – 2 tablespoons of flour with water, and adding it to the pot on low heat. Stir and give it a few minutes for the flour to cook with the rest of the ingredients and re-season if necessary. I have a recipe for Chicken Curry. Click HERE.

Serve with fried rice or plain boiled rice

This is a beautiful dish to make with leftover fried rice ingredients, or if you are close to the end of your weekly or monthly shop and you have leftover bits of veggies, lying around in the fridge or on your kitchen cart.

Enjoy!!!!