Beef Pastel




So I thought tonight would be another night I'd get to talk about some Filipino dish that has Spanish origins.  But try as I may, I couldn't find a single thing on Beef Pastel while searching the net.

Beef Pastel is like a Beef and Mushroom Pot Pie.  I did find a heck of a lot of articles on Filipino Pastel de Lengua while searching the net.  So naturally, I emailed mom to ask if there was some connection.  Low and behold, I discovered something that was glaringly obvious.... ha ha ha!  This is still so funny.

I guess my family just substituted regular stew meat for Ox tongue in the recipe for Pastel de Lengua.  So really what is supposed to be ox tongue meat pie, for us growing up was just a beef stew.  My mom never made the pie crust.  The funny thing is that I've had Pastel de Lengua quite a few times, but never noticed how....similar the taste was to Beef Pastel.  When I told Jon about this, he blamed the consistency of the lengua.  I guess that could throw you off.  Hah.  Well that gave me a little chuckle. 

Did any of that make sense to you guys? 

Well I don't think there's anything really Spanish about this dish or Pastel de Lengua except that the name of the dish is in Spanish.  That doesn't really mean too much since a while ago Spanish was one of the common languages spoken all over the Philippines.

Tonight's recipe is a bit of an anomaly in my repertoire because the recipe uses condensed soup!  I've definitely made it from scratch before, but that is a bit more time consuming and this tends to be a weeknight dish so I usually opt out of that.  Thank goodness someone finally made organic condensed cream of mushroom soup! 

Here's the recipe for the Beef Pastel.  If you want to get really authentic you can make it with boiled ox tongue and add green olives and chorizo de bilbao.  Yum.  I've got to ask my mom to make that sometime soon.  Oh yes, and put a pie crust on top of it!  I think Pastel means pie in Spanish or something, that's why the dish has that name.

Beef Pastel - Filipino Beef Stew (Pie)

(I think this is Lola's recipe too.)
Ingredients1lb        stew meat (Mom uses sirloin since she doesn't usually use the slow cooker)
1tbsp    butter or oil (grandma says use butter)
1/2 c    onions
1 can   condensed mushroom soup (if you're using organic it'll be a box of soup!)
2          potatoes
2         carrots
1c        peas
           mushrooms (as much as you like)

salt and pepper to taste



I doubled the recipe tonight with the hope that we would have enough leftovers for another night!



Method          
1.  Brown the beef lightly.  Drain meat and set aside. 

2.  Heat butter in pan, add onions and beef and saute until the beef is completely brown.  Add the can of mushroom soup (no water).  Simmer on low-medium heat until beef is almost
tender. 

3.  Add potatoes and carrots, cook until almost done. Add mushrooms and peas, cook until the peas are heated through and the potatoes and carrots are tender. 



4.  Season with  salt and pepper. 



I used the slow cooker tonight.  Not the best idea when you don't have much time.....



If you want, you can do it in the slow cooker to make the beef really, really tender.  Just add the vegetables (besides the onions) into the slow cooker an hour or two before you want it to finish. 

I was all wonky today and started late, yet for some reason I still decided to use the slow cooker.  Apparently I got mixed up and thought my slow cooker would act like a pressure cooker?  I don't know.  But after 2 hours in the slow cooker my meat was not as tender as I would have liked. 

Since Jon had a long day I decided to turn it on for another hour so it could cook more for when he got home.  I guess 1 more hour did the trick because he said that his beef was tender. 

So if you're going to use the slow cooker for this recipe, make sure that you have at least 3 hours for it to cook.

Ah yes, and if you cook it for a bit longer your sauce will reduce and be thicker too.  It's not supposed to look that thin.  Yikes, today was a kitchen disaster!



Give it a try!  My roomies in college seemed to like it well enough!

Oh yes, and today was the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel!!  Mikey's namesake day!  We unfortunately weren't able to make it to Mass because of Jon's long day and my inability to handle 2 loud toddlers at Mass solo.  I also tried to make a traditional French treat for the feast day, and while it tasted pretty good, it looked horrible and fell apart all over the place.  I'll spare you the ugly pictures.   If you have a pizzelle or gaufrette iron, you should try it.  If you have a regular waffle iron like me, steer clear!!  Next year I'll just make a goose like the English do.  Ha ha!


In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.
St. Michael the Archangel defend us in the day of battle
be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil
may God rebuke him we humbly pray
and do thou O prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God
cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits
who prowl through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.