Stop Browning Beef !-- A Culinary Confession

I must confess.  It is a heresy here at Potluck Paradise headquarters, but I hate browning ground beef. Worse yet, ground beef and onions. I just have no patience for standing over the stove  for ten or fifteen minutes and mashing the bits of beef into smaller bits, shuffling them around the pan until they are all browned and ready for the next step in casserole, hot dish, or sauce making. And then there is the grease to get rid of.

There I've said it!

But I'm not going to hang up my apron.  I've discovered a better way to manage beef for even tastier dishes.  I make extra hamburgers every time I fire up the grill.  It doesn't take that much extra time. The cooked burgers fit nicely into the freezer and when I'm ready to make a browned beef dish, I just crumble the burger into it and off we go. They add a nice grilled flavor to the dishes. And I usually mix chunky-style salsa into the beef before I form the patties, so I get that nice cooked onion in there, too. I usually add about 8 ounces of salsa to 5 pounds of beef and get about four burgers to the pound. Very handy to have on hand for a quick version of the Midwestern favorite

Hamburger Goulash

1 8-ounce package elbow macaroni, cooked and drained

8 ounces ground beef
1 medium onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced

OR instead of the beef, onion, and pepper use
3 grilled hamburger and salsa patties, crumbled

1 24-ounce can tomato juice
6 ounces cheddar or American cheese, cubed

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease a 12 x 9-inch baking dish. If using the ground beef, onion and pepper--begin by browning the beef in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and pepper and cooke, stirring until the beef is brown, the onion is transparent and the pepper is slightly cooked. Follow directions below.

If using my ever-so-sensible method of grilled beef just put all the ingredients into the baking dish and stir gently to make sure the ingredients are evenly distributed. Cover with foil and bake until the tomato juice is mostly absorbed by the macaroni and the cheese is melted, about 30 minutes. Stir once during cooking.

Serves 4 to 6 or 2 famished teen-aged boys

Copyright 2015 Rae Katherine Eighmey. All rights reserved.