Here's another dish my mom would make all the time when I was little, and I think I've finally mastered it. Nowadays, whenever I go home, I look forward to her making it. But when I was little, I thought it was gross as hell.
The texture of the eggplant or the cabbage. The big, wilted slices of onion... Yuck. By high school, I was indifferent toward the dish, but I focused more on the beef. But then Mom started using another cut of beef that had a big line of connective tissue down the center, which turned slimy when cooked. Again, yuck. But from time to time, she would use sirloin, and it was damn good.
I've tried to make this dish a few times. But each time, the meat came out too chewy and the sauce had no flavor. A few weeks ago, I found a recipe for chicken braised with apples and cider vinegar, and I tried a couple of things: (1) I gave the chicken plenty of time to brown really well, (2) I let it simmer in the liquid for over an hour. The result: the chicken didn't just melt in your mouth, it fell off the bone effortlessly.
So with those lessons learned, I tried again. I picked up some flat iron steak; it's light on connective tissue, but cheap and has a little bit of fat left for flavor. After marinating it overnight, I browned it well in a Dutch oven (even got a good, light char on some pieces), and let it braise with the eggplant and carrots for 90 minutes. In the end, the meat was relatively tender, the sauce was nice and savory, and this iteration was a success.
Ingredients:
- 1lb flat iron steak, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 large clove of garlic, minced
- 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
- salt & pepper to season
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 large carrots, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
- 1 medium eggplant, diced (~2 cups)
- 1 Tbsp tomato paste
- water
- 1/2 of a medium yellow onion, sliced
Procedure:
1. Season the beef with the salt and pepper, and rub it with the minced garlic, and marinate it in the vinegar overnight.
2. Remove the beef from the marinade. Bring a Dutch oven to medium-high heat, and heat the oil. Add just enough of the beef to fill the bottom of the Dutch oven (probably half of the beef). Saute it until the meat is browned, remove it from the pan and set it aside. Pour the juices out of the pan, and brown the rest of the beef.
3. When the beef is all browned, set it aside. Saute the diced eggplant until some of it is partially translucent. Then add the carrots and let them saute for a minute.
4. Dissolve the tomato paste in 1/2 cup of water and pour it into the eggplant and carrot mixture. Bring the beef back into the Dutch oven, add the onions, and add more water to just cover it all. Bring it to a boil, then cover and let simmer for 1 hour. Using a potato masher, or other utensil, mash the eggplant as the liquid boils. Add more water as the braising liquid boils off.
Serving suggestion: Mom almost always served it with white rice and black bean sauce.
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