Foodie Dice Challenge 1: Beef with Kale and Bulgar

With the first roll of my foodie dice I ended up with the following combination:

Beef

Millet

Bacon

Kale

Basil

Cayenne

Sautee

I had to go to work that day so I couldn’t find any millet at the nearby grocery store and with no time to go to whole foods or Trader Joe’s to look for it so I subbed in the closet thing I could find which was bulgar.  For the beef element I decided to go with beef shanks.  And I wanted to braise them along with some mushrooms.

A slight problem arose along the way since I was cooking at work.  This means I didn’t have the chance to be in constant attendance of the food.  I lost the mushrooms to them burning and the beef was overcooked as well.  Still everything turned out to be alright and outside of those two faux pas, I ended up with a pretty successful meal. 

What I ended up with was a braised beef that was seasoned with spicy cayenne pepper, over a salad that was a play on the Middle Eastern tabouleh salad.  For the salad I sautéed the cooked bulgar with bacon and kale and finished with the basil.

Anyway here’s the recipe

Ingredients:

2 Beef shanks about 1.5 lbs

1 Tablespoon Cayenne Pepper

2 Slices Bacon

1 Tablespoon Butter

1 Cup Bulgar

3 Cups beef stock

1 Bunch Basil

3 Handfuls of Kale

1 Teaspoon dried rosemary

½ pint mushrooms

Method:

1. Soak bulgar in 1 Cup of hot beef stock for one hour
2. Cook the bacon until crisp and reserve
3. Season the beef with salt, black paper and cayeene pepper,  cook on both sides.  Remove and Sautee mushrooms until tender.
4. Deglaze the pan with one cup of the beef stock and add beef and simmer over low heat until tender.
5. Add  the remaining beef stock and bulgar to a medium saucepan and simmer over low heat until liquid is absorbed.
6. Sautee the bulgar with kale and basil in butter, stir in crumbled bacon