halal beef Archives - My Halal Kitchen

Halal Beef Tacos

by Yvonne Maffei | Jun 20, 2017 | Cooking Techniques & Kitchen Tips, Iftar, Latin, Mexican

For those of you who know me as a home cook or who follow my Instagram page of cooking and recipes and food interests in general, you probably know I love a good taco.

I think it’s one of the best foods you can make at home and quite honestly, one of the easiest. It’s like having street food at home all the time once you get a good recipe under your belt. The trick is definitely in flavoring the meat just right.

That said, I’m going to explain it all right here– and then how to build the taco once you’ve got the meat flavored properly.

First, in order to do it, you have to season the meat with things that are in the recipe below. My trick or secret is that I roast the meat with these spices, honey, and vinegar. It gives the meat have a deep, dark smoky flavor, in my opinion.

Once that’s done, you’ll move the meat to a Dutch oven and cook for a couple hours or until the meat pulls apart. If you’re not having any luck with the meat pulling apart easily, bring it out of the pot and pull it apart with a fork and a knife or two forks, whichever is easier.

Bring it back to the pot to continue cooking, stir it in and keep it hydrated until it’s ready to serve.

A few tips on taco building, and with all of the possible toppings, a little of everything goes a long way…

Warming tortillas

Warming the tortillas, don’t cook them. Whether made from scratch or bought prepared, they are already cooked prior to warming and should not be eaten straight from the package. I recommend eating only the ones with these ingredients at most: corn, lime (cal), and salt. Warm either over an open flame or on a comal, or thin steel pan, for no more than 20-30 seconds per side, warming two at a time. Once they’re nicely scorched, but not too much, wrap them a medium thick towel or place in a tortilla warmer.

Beans

Once you’ve made your own cooked beans, dollop a tablespoon of bean purée (refried-style) in the center of the tortilla and spread outward in a circular fashion, leaving about an inch of tortilla exposed. The layer of beans just coats and helps to keep the other ingredients in the right places.

Meat

On top of the beans is the single most important ingredient. Meat eaters top with meat. Non-meat eaters, top with fish or veggies. Shredded meat or chunks of meat allow the taco to be eaten bite by bite without playing tug of war with your teeth.

Vegetables

Garnish your taco with colorful, crisp vegetables such as shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, and chopped onion, or simply pico de gallo or some sort of salsa. Pinch each topping with all four fingers and thumb and place by spreading on top of meat, fish or veggies.

Crema

A teaspoon of sour cream adds a little weight on top of the vegetables, contrasts the ingredients above and below, nourishes with dairy and cools the edge of the next topping.It also looks nice.

Salsa & Hot Sauce

Choose from your favorite flavors and styles. Popular ones include chipotle or tomatillo and Green tomatillo based salsas lighten the taco and give it a bit of refreshing flavor, in my opinion. Garnish on the sparse side with a few specks so as not to miss out, but not to overwhelm, either.

Citrus & Cheese

Squeeze a small wedge of lime on top of your masterpiece. If you have it, crumble a bit of Mexican cheese, too.

So, there you have it.

You may have just built one of the most remarkable and versatile three or four bites of your culinary life. Enjoy for breakfast (suhoor), lunch (after Ramadan), dinner (Iftar), late night snack (after Taraweeh night prayers), and of course with friends and family. This may not be your favorite Mexican restaurant’s tacos, but which would you prefer?

At home street food can now be a real thing…

[yumprint-recipe id=’109′]

Pan-Grilled Ribeye Steak with Creamy Herb Sauce

by Yvonne Maffei | Dec 30, 2014 | Beef, Red Meat Dishes

Recently I’ve been cooking with a lot of Angus beef products from Crescent Foods, which is a game changer for the halal food market here in the United States. It’s not easy to get beef from a grass-fed halal source, but Crescent has done an amazing job of sourcing it from New Zealand and providing it to us in a variety of stores throughout the country. Being in Chicago, I’m fortunate that it is available in some stores, but not everywhere yet- us halal consumers have to ask for it so that more stores will consider carrying it.

For this super easy and quick recipe, I used the Angus Ribeye Steak that Crescent carries. They also have beef cubes, ground beef, beef burgers and more. I also used a grill pan with ridges so you can get those really great grill marks in the dead of winter when you can’t go outside and grill!

I start out by salting the pan (add pepper, too, if you like) and a nice big pat of butter so that when it melts, it will cover the underside of the steak. I like to let it cook long enough that it gets a nice dark brown color and not move it until it easily moves itself with a little nudge of a spatula (silicone here, nothing metal or it will scratch the cast iron pan), around 5-7 minutes.

That gives me just enough time to prepare the no-cook creamy sauce that will go on top of the finished steak. All you need is some sour cream, mayonnaise, parsley and salt. Put it all in a small bowl and mix, then set aside until the steak is done.

Once the first side is cooked to your liking, turn it over gently and let it cook on the other side. Don’t do too much of that flipping, otherwise you’ll ruin the nice and neat grill marks. I like to do another 5-7 minutes, then find something to cover the pan for a couple minutes, just to be sure it’s well done, as I’m not keen on rare or medium rare meats.

Once it comes off the pan, you can salt again just a bit and even add a small pat of butter on top of the sizzling meat- it’s really delicious that way; otherwise just let it cool for a few minutes and add the cream sauce directly on top. If you’d rather not, you can simply serve it as a dipping sauce.

I absolutely loved this recipe, which is simply the product of starting with a high quality ingredient and not doing too much to it in the process of cooking to interfere with it. It came out juicy and tender and with just the right amount of cream on top, I felt like it was something you might order from a gourmet restaurant. Serve with some sort of potato dish, home-baked fries or even rice. Who needs to go out to eat?

[yumprint-recipe id=’62’]