Beef And Mushroom On Endive

Total Time: 2 hrs 25 mins Preparation Time: 2 hrs Cook Time: 25 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 1 lb beef, cut in about 2-inch squares
• 1 -2 cup sliced portabella mushroom
• 1 italian eggplant (the small variety that fit in your hand, not the large ones about the length of your forearm)
• 1 belgian endive
• 1 garlic clove
• 3/4-1 cup red wine
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (or enough to coat pan)
• 1 cup vegetable oil (i generally use corn oil)
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 egg
• salt
• pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/8-1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Recipe

• 1 make a quick marinade with the onion and garlic powders, salt, pepper, and olive oil; mix the contents thoroughly (i recommend one of those bottles you sometimes get with good seasons or other make-it-yourself dressings) and let them sit in the fridge, overnight if you can, so the oil takes on as much of the flavor as possible.
• 2 wash beef and cube if necessary (i used stew beef to save knife time); place cut beef in a bowl, and coat with oil mixture from last night; mix with your hands to get everything well coated, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let sit in refrigerator for at least 1 hour prior to cooking.
• 3 prepare your veggies, so you don't burn anything while cooking and chopping all at once; start with the eggplant, which should be peeled, sliced about 1/4-1/3" thick, and seasoned lightly to taste with salt and pepper before cutting each disc in half.
• 4 wash the mushrooms, removing the stems if you desire (i personally did, and usually do); season lightly with salt, slice the caps, and then cut each slice into thirds; i got a pack of 3 portobellos and they were plenty; a similar-sized pre-sliced package would be just as good.
• 5 remove the leaves from the endive, washing as you go, as you would any tight-headed leafy vegetable; you should get about 6 to 8 reasonable sized leaves (2 to 4 being a little small comparatively) before getting to the core of the endive; keep these leaves whole, and coarsely chop any smaller leaves.
• 6 when you're ready to start cooking, heat about 1/4 cup olive oil, or enough to coat, in a large pan.
• 7 you should have just enough time to whack the life out of a clove of garlic with the bottom of a pan before your oil is hot enough; protect the pan, the table, and yourself by wrapping the garlic loosely in wax paper, aluminum foil, or similar; you needn't overdo this; one good whack should be enough to get the desired effect out of the garlic and scare your cats/mother.
• 8 add your eggplant to the hot pan; keep an eye on it, and cook until it just turns golden.
• 9 as soon as the eggplant is goldening, for lack of a real word, throw in the mushrooms, which should cook until they start to get tender and give off a bit of a meaty flavor when tested.
• 10 after adding the mushrooms, give the flat garlic a good chop and throw it in as well.
• 11 when the mushrooms get to that magic just about tender point, add your beef; it shouldn't come straight from the fridge, but also you don't want it just sitting about for too long; let this brown.
• 12 when you feel the beef is just about cooked through, add the wine; i added somewhere just under a cup; this should be enough to coat the beef mixture, but not drown it; if you like wine, make sure it's a wine you'd drink with a meal; if you're not a wine person, which i am not, make sure it's red.
• 13 at this point, you'll have enough time to do some frying while the wine reduces; fill a small pan of average depth (the one you killed the garlic with will probably be perfect) with enough vegetable oil to fry (i'd say about a cup) and start heating; trust me, this doesn't seem like much for frying, but you won't need much.
• 14 mix the corn starch and flour in a shallow bowl together.
• 15 if you'd like, add a moderate pinch of the mixture to about 1/8 cup water, stirring it up and adding it to your wine sauce if you want it a little thicker (doing this outside the pan without hot water will make clumping less likely).
• 16 beat 1 egg in a similar bowl to the one you have the flour mix inches.
• 17 take your whole endive leaves and coat them first with egg and then with the flour/cornstarch mixture.
• 18 about two or three at a time, fry the endive leaves until lightly golden; let the leaves drain on a paper towel; they'll come out tasting like milder onions, but leafier.
• 19 your beef should be set right about now; take it off the heat.
• 20 to plate, place fried endive leaves toward edge of plate, fanned along the circumference (about half the yield per plate); spoon beef into center of plate, so it only partially covers endive; sprinkle the remaining endive (yknow, the stuff you chopped) over the top of each serving; this should make 2 large, 4 small, or 3 sensible servings.