Mashurka in Albanian or taze fasulye for fresh green beans in Turkish. This is a very common dish around the Mediterranean, you can make it with stew meat or ground meat, or with out meat at all!
We are not big meat eaters so I don’t add much…sometimes I add ground beef, you can always make it vegetarian….its delicious in anyway you make it. I get my meat from the butcher, and pack it in the portions that are suitable for my meals. One pound of stew meat is approximately the amount you will need, use as much or less as you prefer.
The first photo is with ground beef, the middle photo is made with stew meat, and the last photo is made with peas and stew meat. You can always make it without meat at all. For the recipe with peas follow this link, bezelye
What you will need:
- 1 chopped onion
- 1 and 1/2 lbs fresh green beans, approx
- 3-4 potatoes (optional)
- 2 cups water, approx
- 2 heaping tsp tomato paste or more
- 1-2 heaping tbsp pepper paste or more
- salt & pepper
- olive oil
- 1/2 lb ground beef or 1 lb approx of stew meat ( small cubes)
If using stew meat, cook first in a small pot with some olive oil on low heat covered with lid, will take an 45 minutes to one hour to cook, this makes the meat tender. If using ground beef, break up and cook into small chunks.
Remove ends of green beans and cut them up, french beans however are thin and tender so I don’t cut them if I am using them.
Add some olive oil in a large pot, add in the pepper paste, tomato paste and chopped onion, then add in the green beans, and meat, stir around for a few minutes. Add in water, enough to cover the beans. Bring to boil, cover and cook on low to medium heat, till beans and meat are tender takes about one hour to cook. Season with salt and pepper in the middle of cooking. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.
Alternate cooking method:
I like to bake them in the oven as well, gives it a nice flavour. Follow the same instructions above for the stew meat. Then add the pepper paste, tomato paste, onion in a deep baking pan, combine with meat and green beans. I like to add large cubes of potatoes to this. Pour water over, enough to cover the beans. Sprinkle the potatoes with paprika. You may need to add more tomato/pepper paste for flavour and colour.
Season with salt, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and cover with lid or foil wrap. Bake at 375 for one hour, then remove lid and continue to cook till liquid has thickened and potatoes and beans are soft.
If you are using ground beef, cook it in a pot along with the pepper paste, tomato paste and onion for the best flavour. Then add to the baking pan with the green beans, and continue as you would with the stew meat. Always taste and adjust seasonings as you cook.
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