Beef Strips with onion and Mashed Potato Balls Gratin

This recipe was invented by a cousin of mine.  She is a genius chef! all her food is so delicious! 

The first thing that caught my attention was the look of it.  Seriously, so gorgeous.  Why ruin it? hehehe, but then again, it tastes amazingly good as well, so it's ok, go ahead, and have a piece!

The dish has beef which surely can be substituted with chicken if you want, and the rest are basic ingredients.  Go ahead.  Do it.  And report back!

Beef Strips with onion and Mashed Potato Balls Gratin

Ingredients

1kg of beef (tender) cut into strips (or chicken)

2 onions - cut into sliced wedges (cut it a little thick because they will shrink)

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 kg of potato, peeled and washed (6-8 potatoes)

Handful of parsley, chopped

Handful of coriander, chopped

1 tsp of garlic in powder

1tbs of butter

Few tbsp of milk

Salt

Pepper

Shawarma condiment (optional) (This is a Lebanese condiment, its ok if you don't have from it)

Shredded mozzarella cheese

Bechamel

2tbsp butter

2tbsp flour

500ml milk

Grated nutmeg

Sprinkle of Paprika

Salt 

Bay leaf (optional) and half an onion

Method for the beef

Stir fry the onions until golden with little oil.  Set aside.  On same pan, stir fry the beef, sprinkle salt, pepper and shawarma condiment along with the minced garlic.  Once cooked pour on them cooked onion and flip them around.  Turn off the heat once cooked and put them on a rectangular pirex, set aside.

Method of the mashed potato

To cook quickly the potato, slice the potatoes in medium slices and put to boil with little salt.  Once tender, sift them to remove water.  

In a bowl pour in the butter, parsley, coriander, garlic powder, and few tbsp of milk (as per your desire) and put the cooked potatoes on it.  The heat from the potatoes will melt the butter.  Start mashing the potatoes with a potato masher.  Pour salt and pepper and mix them with your hands until well incorporated.  Start making balls and put the balls on top of the beef/onion mixture, one next to the other.  The size of the ball depends on how you like it, can be small, medium or big.

Method for the Bechamel

Melt in a pan the butter, pour the flour and mix quickly it will become as a paste.  Pour in the milk and keep mixing.  If you get pieces like it did not dissolve, just use a hand mixer and keep mixing to boil.  Sprinkle nutmeg, paprika, and salt.  Sometimes in bechamel sauce I put in it a bay leaf plus half an onion (excluding the nutmeg and paprika) it gives an amazing taste, remove them before serving.  Pour in the cream and mix, and set aside to be served.

Pour the bechamel slowly on the potato balls, all around the pirex, and then sprinkle with grated cheese.  Gratin it for few minutes.  Serve hot.

ENJOY!