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Recipes with lean beef

5 recipes that use lean beef, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Kitfo, takes 30 minutes. It is most often cooked with cardamom, garlic and mitmita.

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Dulet

Butcher-restaurants in Addis Ababa serve dulet in the morning, and it is one of the dishes families look forward to on Easter morning, when the long fast ends and every part of the animal is used. Tripe, liver and lean beef are chopped almost as fine as mince, then tossed in a hot pan with red onion, green chilli, niter kibbeh and plenty of mitmita, so it is rich, peppery and full of different textures. It is eaten with injera and a spoon of ayib to cool the heat. Many places serve it barely warmed, but liver and tripe must be cooked through, so this version pre-cooks the tripe and fries everything until no pink remains; dulet served raw or rare is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Chef's tip: buy tripe that is already cleaned and blanched, and simmer it until a knife slides in easily before chopping.

75 minEthiopianMeatGluten freeSpicy
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Muqmad (Somali spiced meat preserved in ghee)

Before fridges, nomadic families in Somaliland preserved meat as muqmad, also called oodkac: beef or camel cut into tiny cubes, dried in the sun, fried in ghee with garlic and spices and packed into a container topped with more ghee. A spoonful is eaten for breakfast with sabaayad or canjeero and tea, and jars are made for Eid, weddings and travellers. Sun-drying raw meat is risky in a home kitchen, so this safer version cooks the cubes through to 71 °C first, then dries them in a low oven and keeps the finished jar in the fridge. The traditional raw-dried version is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Cutting the cubes unevenly is the common mistake: big pieces stay moist inside while small ones burn, so aim for 1 cm all round. Chef's tip: partly freeze the meat for 45 minutes and it cuts into neat cubes far more easily.

240 minSomaliMeatGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Sharmout (Sudanese dried beef, oven method)

Across Darfur and Kordofan, and in kitchens throughout Sudan around Eid al-Adha, strips of lean beef are salted and hung to dry in the hot, dry air for several days until they turn hard and dark. That sharmout is then pounded and fried with onion to give tagalia, kawal and other stews their rich, savoury depth. Air-drying raw meat at home is risky, so this safer version heats the strips to 71 °C first and then dries them slowly in a low oven, and the finished sharmout is kept in the fridge. The traditional raw air-dried version is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Leaving fat on the strips is the usual mistake: fat does not dry and turns rancid, so trim every bit. Chef's tip: partly freeze the beef so you can slice it into even 5 mm strips along the grain.

330 minSudaneseBasicsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Leberkäse

Despite its name, Bavarian Leberkäse contains neither liver nor cheese: it is a smooth, finely ground loaf of pork and beef baked until it has a dark, crunchy crust. In Munich it is the mid-morning snack, a thick warm slice folded into a crusty roll with sweet mustard and eaten standing at the butcher's counter. Made at home without curing salt, the inside bakes pale grey rather than pink, which is normal. Chef's tip: everything, including the bowl of the food processor, must be ice-cold; if the mix warms above about 12 °C the fat separates and the loaf turns crumbly.

115 minGermanMeat
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Kitfo

Kitfo comes from the Gurage people south-west of Addis Ababa, and it is the dish Ethiopians order at special kitfo houses or make for Meskel, the September feast of the True Cross. Lean beef is finely minced and stirred with warm spiced butter and mitmita, a hot chilli and cardamom powder. In Ethiopia it is often eaten raw (tire) or barely warmed (leb leb), but raw or lightly warmed minced beef is not safe for home cooks: this version is cooked to 71 °C, which keeps the buttery, fiery flavour with a soft, crumbly texture. Serve with ayib, braised greens and injera or kocho. Chef's tip: mince the beef yourself from a single lean cut if you can, and keep it fridge-cold until the moment it goes into the pan.

30 minEthiopianMeatGluten freeSpicy
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Goes well with lean beef