I saw a recipe in NZ Herald a couple of days ago for Minotaur Beef in Rae McVinnie's column. I have yet to make the slow cooked Minotaur beef recipe (which comes from an Auckland Turkish restaurant Lokanta), but I did make the accompaniment which was Spinach Pilaf because I had plenty of silverbeet to be used. It is a really nice recipe and something different to our usual way of cooking it and we have enough left over for tonight's dinner. I didn't use 1/2 cup of evoo though, I changed that to 1/4 cup.

Thought I'd pass the recipe on for those silverbeet lovers (like us)! [www.bite.co.nz]
Regards,
Dawn.

Thanks Dawn, always great to get feed back on recipes and the little tweeks. Will try as always looking for different side dishes.

That looks nice, Dawn - thanks for posting.

I am unfamiliar with red pepper paste and have never seen it in the supermarket - is it a specialty store product? Or can you make your own?

Regards,

Barbara Anne

I thought I'd make the casserole at some stage Barbara-Anne, but it was really the effortless and different spinach (or in my case silverbeet) pilaf recipe that I was mainly interested in at the time.

I too wondered about the red pepper paste and I did a quick google and came up with a recipe from Allyson Gofton for red pepper paste but I don't know how close it is to the Turkish R/P paste as I thought the Turkish variety may have some heat. I would probably need to wait until there is a glut of red peppers if I were to make the paste myself and I think I'd much prefer to do that than try to buy the red pepper paste as I'm not keen on 'heat' in food. I did a Google search and found Grand Bazaar in Newmarket, but I could only find red peppers in brine and not red pepper paste.
[www.allysongofton.co.nz]
[grandbazaar.co.nz]
Regards,
Dawn.

I buy red pepper paste from Middle Eastern food markets. It's very useful and keeps well in the fridge. The brands I have used are Sera and Marco Polo. I don't think it would be feasible to make it at home unless you could get hold of the right kind of peppers.

Hah TPANDAV, you and I posted together. Thanks for your information and I think you'd be correct in your advice. Is the paste you buy 'hot' to taste?
Regards,
Dawn.

I'm presently using Sera Hot Pepper Paste, which isn't hot at all. The Marco Polo brand has two versions, mild and hot, and I buy the mild one. It's an good idea to read the labels of the various pepper pastes because some contain other veges as well, often eggplant, and they don't then have the right intensity of flavour.

Thanks for that TPANDAV.
D.

It's an good idea to read the labels of the various pepper pastes because some contain other veges as well, often eggplant, and they don't then have the right intensity of flavour. hat mac ca