There are a whole lot of variations on beef stew out there. Even Asian. And my friend Cherrie’s version made with the addition of currant jelly and cream. I used to make a kind of bland one in the crock pot some years ago too. But my all time favorite is this one, which I hadn’t made in years and years. My DH doesn’t really love stew. Even he doesn’t know why. I had made this for him before, but I hoped that perhaps with a few modifications, he’d like it better. Oh, indeed he did. He wanted seconds, even. I didn’t add potatoes this time – just carrots, mushrooms and the flavoring vegetables.
This recipe has the strange name because it was a version prepared by a dear family friend named Ruth Cormack. After her husband died in the last 1970’s, she developed Alzheimer’s and one day when I phoned her she didn’t know who I was. She was still living alone at that time. It was heartbreaking to me. I didn’t have the phone numbers of any family, plus I lived hundreds of miles away from her, so I don’t know what happened to her. She had rather unpleasant step-daughters who probably neglected her. Sad story. But beef stew will forever be linked with my friend, Ruth. She lived in San Anselmo (a beautiful suburb of MarinCounty, across the bridge from San Francisco). I hope that where she’s observing me from a heavenly cloud, she’s smiling because I’m sharing her recipe.
What makes this version stand out from the other more mundane recipes are these ingredients: lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, a bit of sugar and some allspice. Not things you’d normally associate with beef stew. And I’m really happy with the changes I made to the good-old tried and true recipe. I added a heap of mushrooms, used a mirepoix to help flavor the broth, also added some chicken broth (you could use beef or chicken), and I thickened it a bit more with some added flour that I tossed around on the raw mushrooms. I made it with my new pressure cooker (see p.c. notes at the end of the recipe). It’s not exactly stew season around here, but we actually had a cool day when I made this. Try it and see what you think.
(Cormack) Beef Stew with Dumplings
Recipe: Adapted from a recipe from an old family friend, Ruth Cormack
Servings: 4 (I really think this will serve 6 people)
2 pounds beef stew meat — in one inch cubes
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons flour — for dredging
1 cup mirepoix — (diced onion, celery and carrots)
2 1/2 cups beef broth — or chicken broth
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 cloves garlic — minced
1 whole bay leaf
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar — [or Splenda added at the end]
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
3 whole carrots — halved
4 small onions — sliced
2 whole potatoes — quartered (optional)
1/4 cup Italian parsley — chopped
2 cups mushrooms — trimmed, halved
DUMPLINGS:
1 cup Bisquick® baking mix
6 tablespoons milk
1.Dredge meat in flour, seasoned with salt and pepper.Save the leftover flour.In a heavy Dutch oven, brown meat on several sides in a bit of olive oil.The more the meat caramelizes, the better tasting it will be.Do not crowd pan; you may have to do this is more than one batch, adding a bit more olive oil to the pan.Remove meat and set aside.
2.To the pan add the chopped mirepoix vegetables and all the sliced onions and sauté for 2-3 minutes.Add the garlic for the last minute.Place meat back in the pan.
3.Add lemon juice, broth, Worcestershire, bay leaf, salt, and sugar.Cover and simmer for about 2 hours until meat is very tender.
4.Add the carrots and potatoes (if using) and continue cooking (lid on) for about 10 minutes.Add chopped parsley and mushrooms, which you can toss with the leftover flour mixture from the dredging (step 1) and stir in.Remove bay leaf if you can find it.
5.Mix Bisquick and milk together in a small bowl.Using a soup sized spoon, drop about 8 dollops on top of vegetables.Cover and simmer for 10 minutes, then remove lid and continue cooking for another 10 minutes.Serve immediately.
PRESSURE COOKER VERSION: At end of step 3, cook meat, onions, and seasonings for 20 minutes under pressure.Cool and open pressure cooker.Add carrots and bring back up to pressure again for about 5 minutes.Cool again, then add in mushrooms and parsley and push them below the broth surface.Stir to distribute flour.Add dumplings on top and proceed with the 10 minutes lid on (not pressure cooked), 10 minutes lid off.
Per Serving (actually less because this will serve more than 4 people): 778 Calories; 32g Fat (37.0% calories from fat); 62g Protein; 59g Carbohydrate; 6g Dietary Fiber; 128mg Cholesterol; 1931mg Sodium.
I have a question – did your mother or grandmother can pickles? Both my mother and grandmother made a variety of pickles every year. They made regular whole pickles (sweet type, though), piccalilli, bread and butter pickles and sometimes even pickled watermelon rind. I was never very crazy about the latter (too sweet for me). And my mother would make some kinds of pickle relishes. Not the tiny-minced sweet relish that we can buy in the markets now, but bigger chunks of cucumbers, red peppers and onions. With a delicious sweet and sour flavor going on.
A month or so ago my daughter Dana and family came to visit and she brought with her my mother’s recipe box. I’d forgotten she had it. It’s like this really fun bonanza to re-discover some lost and found thing. Just now I went to the section for pickles and condiments, and pulled out a small stack of recipes. I found: Watermelon Pickle, Zucchini Pickles, Zucchini Relish, Chow Chow, my Dad’s Aunt Rosa’s Bread & Butter Pickles, Dill Crisps from my great, great Aunt Nora, my Grandmother Isis’ Bread & Butter Pickles, and Mustard Pickles.
Here’s a photo of the aging 3×5 cards. The top one is in my grandmother’s handwriting, I think. I’m flooded with memories of visiting my mother’s family, at their farmhouse in Ceres, California. This would have been in the late 1940’s, early 50’s. In the middle of the farming belt of central California. The house was located about half a mile from the railroad. Many a summer night do I remember trying to go to sleep in the attic room (you know how hot attics get in the heat of a San Joaquin summer?), trying not to think how hot and sweaty I was, hearing the whoo-hoo of the trains going by all hours of the night. Growing up within a mile of the bay in San Diego, the only sounds I heard at night were fog horns, so train noises would awaken me. I also remember helping my grandmother a little bit in the kitchen - usually baking something like biscuits. Or helping my grandfather kill a chicken for Sunday supper (I watched until it came time to start plucking the feathers). And of poking my nose into the icebox that sat on the inside back porch. And helping my grandmother feed clothes into the wringer of the round free-standing washing machine that sat out on the outdoor back porch. Of riding on the tractor out in the field on my grandfather’s lap, holding on for dear life, diligently trying to steer the darned thing (very difficult). And playing with the multitude of kittens that always seemed to be around whenever we visited. They always had cats to keep the mouse population in check. I also prowled around in the monstrosity of an old barn, listening intently for mice hiding in the stacks of hay, or scurrying into the bowels of an old abandoned tractor that would no longer run, that was covered with stuff. Wonderful fodder for varmints. And food for cats.
Well, back to pickles. Back in the 1970’s I did make refrigerator dill pickles when the canning cucumber variety were plentiful at the markets. I can’t find my Sunset recipe. I’ve hunted for it, but no luck. Dana remembers when I made them several summers in a row. She adored them, dipping her hand into the icy cold jar of brine and grabbing one to chew on outside on the patio, where the juice could run unhindered down her arm.
That’s what was conjured up in my memory a couple of weeks ago when I was contemplating the menu for our 4th of July barbecue. We grilled turkey burgers (Oprah’s recipe), and traditional burgers too, but all of them were the small slider size. I may never go back to regular size again – I like these smaller ones so much better. They’re easier to handle, even forming the raw meat was easier. And we all liked the rolls (King’s Hawaiian bread rolls). It’s a light, soft bread, and it scrunched down just fine to fit into your mouth.
Our grandchildren and at least one of our adult kids wanted pure, unadulterated burgers. No special relish. Nothing but the bun, lettuce, tomato and red onion slices. But I made this really piquant relish/marmalade stuff that I’d make again anytime. It was relatively simple to prepare – I sautéed a bit of sugar and some onions (I should have used red, but yellow ones were what I grabbed) while bell peppers (supposed to be red only; I used one red and one yellow) charred under the broiler. Once they cooled and the skins were peeled, they were tossed into the onion mixture with balsamic vinegar and some spices. It took about 30 minutes to make, and I thought their flavor on the burgers was sensational.
Pickle making is becoming a lost art, I suppose. We’re all too busy. What a huge loss, since refrigerator pickles are so easy to do, requiring no cooking. I found some recipes on the internet and gave them to my daughter, in hopes that she’d make them for her family. She’s interested, but might be too intimidated to try it without mom around to oversee. In the meantime, for me, this delicious relish/marmalade will have to do!
Red Onion and Red Pepper Marmalade
Recipe: An ancient clipping from the Los Angeles Times Food Section
Servings: 8-16
2 whole red bell peppers
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 whole red onions — halved, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons sugar — or Splenda added later
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon coarse salt
3 tablespoons fresh basil — minced
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh thyme — minced
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh rosemary — minced
2 tablespoons butter — optional
1.Preheat the broiler.
2.Stand the peppers on their end and cut each into 4 flat sides and remove seeds and ribs.Arrange the peppers skin side up in a single layer on a foil-lined pan and broil until blackened, between 5-10 minutes.Remove them from the oven and wrap the peppers in the foil.Wait until they’re cool enough to handle, then remove the skin.Cut them into thin strips and set aside.
3.Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.When hot, add the onions and sugar.Cook, stirring often until the onions are lightly colored (not dark brown) about 10 minutes.Turn down the heat if they appear to be browning too quickly.
4.Stir in the vinegar, mustard and salt.Cook, stirring often, until the onions are soft, about 7 more minutes.Stir in the red bell peppers; heat through.Adjust seasoning.This can be made to this point several days ahead and refrigerated.
5.To serve, gently reheat even if you’re serving it at room temperature.Stir in the herbs, and when hot stir in the butter until melted.Taste and adjust seasoning.Serve hot or at room temperature.
NOTES: The butter may not be necessary - I didn’t use it - your choice. If you use Splenda, stir it into the finished marmalade.
Over the year+ I’ve been doing this-here blog, I’ve learned a lot. Not only about how to run a website (blog), about software that runs stuff behind the scenes (I know, you’re likely not interested in that part, are you?), but also a lot about food. No, I don’t have a culinary degree (when I went to college I didn’t know I’d be so interested in cooking and the culinary arts as an adult), but over the years my head has filled with a whole lot of varied knowledge about food and cooking. My daughter Dana and two of my friends phone me every now and then to ask questions. Usually it’s about a cooking technique (Can I freeze raw artichokes? Answer no, only cooked ones. Can I freeze heavy cream? Answer yes, but it may separate once it defrosts and doesn’t seem to whip up very well, so basically no. Do you use raw egg yolks – like in Caesar dressing? Answer yes, I do, as long as the eggs have come from a grocery store where I know they’ve kept them refrigerated.) I don’t always know the answer. Thank goodness for the internet. It’s such an huge mass of information. The only problem is you don’t really know what’s true and what isn’t. You need to search several sites to see if you get a consensus. Or refer to some reliable sources. Even Wikipedia, a site I refer to often, isn’t always correct, so I’ve read. It’s only as reliable as the sources from which THEY got the information.
The problem is: I have a curious mind. I like to understand the “why” of things. Which is the reason I often refer to Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking. He’s more like a chemist, but he loves cooking and everything related to food. My cousin Gary gave me the book for Christmas one year, and it’s been a great source of food chemistry fact and lore. McGee debunks the lore part and gives you a lot of info (maybe more than some people want to know) about food chemistry. I’m fascinated by it. It is written for the home cook, but it’s almost like a textbook - fairly heavy reading even for someone interested in food from the get-go.
So, today we’re talking about Steak Diane. When I went online to look up about Steak Diane, I found differing information. Elise, a blogger I read regularly, had an entry awhile back about Steak Diane in which she says that the name Diane comes from Diana, the Greek goddess of the hunt. Yet, when I went to the Practically Edible website it says Steak Diane has nothing whatsoever to do with Diana (the goddess) because there are no hunted animals (like venison) involved. I don’t know who’s right, and mostly it doesn’t matter. All we really care about here is whether the sauce on the steak is GOOD. Or not. I hereby proclaim it’s good. And not hard. Your guests will be impressed, I guarantee you. Be sure to serve these steaks with some kind of comfort carb (Monterey Scalloped Potatoes, plain mashed potatoes or buttered rice or noodles) as you’ll want to slick up every morsel of this sauce. I’ve changed the recipe to serve 8, not 4, meaning each person will eat a half of a 1 1/2 inch thick New York steak.
Steak Diane Flambé
Recipe By: Phillis Carey
Servings: 8
2 1/2 pounds beef New York steaks — 1 1/2 inches thick (four steaks)
Salt and pepper — to taste
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
SAUCE:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 tablespoons shallots — minced
1/4 cup brandy
1/4 cup dry white wine — or vermouth
4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/4 cup A-1® Steak Sauce
1 cup beef broth
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons minced chives — garnish
1.Trim all outside fat from the steaks.Cut steaks in half horizontally (to make two thinner steaks) then pound each piece to flatten them to 1/4 inch thickness.Season liberally on both sides with salt and pepper.
2.Melt 2 T.butter in a large skilled over medium high heat.Add steaks in batches and cook one minute per side.Remove to a plate.
3.Lower heat and add remaining butter.Once butter is melted add shallots and sauté for one minute.Add brandy and ignite, shaking the pan until flames subside.Whisk in mustard and A-1 sauce and reduce to a syrup.
4.Add the beef broth and continue to boil until the sauce is thickened and reduced to 1/2 cup.Add cream and boil until thickened.Taste and adjust seasoning.Add chives and return steaks with any accumulated juices to the skillet, turning to coat steaks a couple of minutes as the sauce reduces a little more.Do not COOK the steaks - you’re just reheating them.Serve steaks with the sauce.
COOK’S NOTES: If you’d rather not serve the thinner steaks (which was done this way - way back when - because the steaks were cooked tableside in restaurants), you can do these as a thick steak and finish in the oven.Leave steaks at 1 1/2 inches thick.Sauté in a frying pan for about 4 minutes per side, then place in a 400 F.oven for 8-10 minutes (that will be rare to medium rare).Make sauce in a separate pan.
On those occasions when I bake or rotisserie a roast, often I don’t know what to do with the leftovers. Well, sometimes anyway. With a beef roast, I suppose you could make hash or sandwiches or open faced sandwiches. A roast chicken is another thing altogether – I’m talking about a lamb roast or pork roast. Often the meat isn’t all that moist anymore, so unless I’ve made some kind of sauce for the meat the first go-around, I’m left with a hunk of meat and big question marks in my head about what to do with it. We’re certainly not going to waste it, but serving just slices of cold roast pork or lamb doesn’t work around my house. Maybe once, but that’s it. My DH doesn’t complain – he’s SO good about eating whatever I put in front of him, generally, but dry, sliced, cold meat isn’t something that ranks high in his book of good meals. Or mine either, for that matter.
So, I have two recipes to share with you today about this leftover meat problem. The first one, the Marchand de Vin, comes from a favorite little book I own that’s eons old. I bought it used, years and years ago for $2.88. It’s called Sumptuous Sauces in the Microwave, by Patricia Tennison. If you click on the link above, you’ll get to a Google search results page with dozens of listings for her book. It’s out of print, but you can buy it used – cheap – if you’re interested. I love this little book which contains recipes for stocks, white sauces, veloutes, brown sauces, hollandaise, butter sauces, wine and beer sauces (that’s the chapter this recipe came from), gravies, pasta sauces even, a few barbecue sauces, even some veggie and salad dressings and condiments. And, last but not least, some dessert sauces (which I’ve made many times). And every single one of them is cooked (in part or full) in the microwave. What I like about them is that they’re quick and easy. When I’m preparing a leftover meal, I’m usually into QUICK things. Knowing I have leftovers makes me lazy – often I don’t start preparing dinner until 15 minutes before I want to eat. So these sauces work for me.
This particular recipe, the Marchand de Vin, in French, means Wine Merchant’s Sauce. It’s simple – shallot, butter, red wine, stock, cognac, lemon juice and thickened with cornstarch. Ideal for any grilled or roasted meat, really. You’ll find lots of different versions of this sauce if you search on the internet – some contain ham, and mushrooms (they are a nice addition to this, actually, if you have them). You can heat up the meat in the microwave, then pour the sauce over it. In and of itself this sauce isn’t something from a gourmet restaurant, but it’s tasty enough - will give meat some moisture. Be careful and don’t add too much lemon juice. If it’s too thick when you’re done, just stir in some hot water until it’s the right consistency for pouring.
The Leftover Sauce (now, isn’t that a glamorous title? – I should give it some high-fallutin’ new name instead) is a tomato juice-based sauce, but has onion and celery in it, and a bit of chili powder and a little plop of vinegar to give it some zing. My only caution – tomato juice (or sauce if you use that instead) often contains lots of salt. Try to choose one with no or little salt in it to begin with, then you can season it however you’d like to. This one is made in a frying pan and once it’s simmered for 25 minutes or so, you add the meat slices to the pan just to heat through. If you have leftover mashed potatoes too, make more sauce so you can spoon it over those as well. This recipe came from a friend of my mother’s, Mary W., from about 1971. Tried and true, that’s what it is.
Leftover Sauces for Meat
Recipes By: Marchand: from Sumptuous Sauces in the Microwave, by Patricia Tennison.Leftover Sauce: from an old family friend, Mary W.
MARCHAND DE VIN:
1 Tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons shallot — finely minced
1/3 cup dry red wine — such as burgundy
1 cup beef stock — or broth
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon cognac
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon salt — optional
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper — optional
Mushrooms, if you have them
1.Place butter and shallot in 4 cup glass measuring cup.Microwave on high 1-2 minutes, until softened but not brown.
2.Stir in red wine and stock.Microwave on high 15-18 minutes, until reduced by half.
3.In a cup, mix cornstarch with water and blend until a smooth paste.Stir into wine mixture (and add mushrooms if you’re using them).Microwave on high 1-2 minutes, until thickened.Stir in cognac, lemon juice and taste for seasonings (salt and pepper). Add water if it’s too thick.
LEFTOVER SAUCE:
2 tablespoons oil
1/4 cup onion — chopped
3/4 cup celery — chopped
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1 1/2 teaspoons salt — or no salt depending on juice or sauce used
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
3 tablespoons vinegar
1 1/2 cups tomato juice — or 1/3 cup tomato sauce + 2/3 cup water
1.In a large frying pan, sauté onion and celery in the oil until vegetables are soft and translucent, about 4-8 minutes.
2.Add sugar, dry mustard, salt and chili powder.Stir to combine, then add vinegar and tomato juice.Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 25 minutes.Add sliced meat to the pan and heat through.Do not cook meat, just warm it through. Add water if sauce is too thick.
Back in the 1970’s, pita bread kind of appeared in West Coast restaurants. In fact, back then you couldn’t buy pita bread anywhere, but some restaurants did serve it. They didn’t sell the bread. So Sunset magazine did an article about it, with a recipe. Since I was a bread maker anyway, making pita didn’t intimidate me at all, and in fact I made them many times, back then. But I will admit, I had trouble with the bread opening up evenly – some parts would stick a bit. And if you couldn’t stuff the bread, well, what else could you do with them? So I had some waste.
It wasn’t long, though, before the grocery stores started carrying pita. And now we can buy whole wheat pita as well as regular. Even some flavored types on occasion as well.
Vividly I can remember, like Marcel Proust and his madeleines, the first lamb pita sandwich I had. It was a potluck at someone else’s home, and a couple I didn’t know brought lamb meatball pita sandwiches with a dark brown, rich, wine gravy to go with it. Oh my. It was so out of this world. Unfortunately for me, the guy was a chef, owned a restaurant (which I didn’t know), and was moderately offended when I asked if he’d share the recipe.
Ever since that day I’ve tried to find a recipe that would try to recreate that dish. I have tried lamb meatballs, attempted after the above incident, to figure out how to make them, and the sauce. Now I suspect it was probably an intense veal and red-wine stock that enriched the gravy.
So way back in 1973 I saw a steak pita sandwich recipe in Better Homes & Gardens (the magazine). Over the years I’ve changed it a little bit to try to make it as close to that meatball recipe as I could (but using steak instead of lamb). Marinating the sirloin steak (or a lamb steak) in a red wine-garlic-oregano mixture helps. Then you pan-fry the steak with the red onion until it’s barely done. Ahead of time you will have prepared the condiments (chopped tomato, lettuce, cucumber, and mixed the yogurt-sour cream sauce which contains some minced up green onions). Heat the pita if you’d like, but whenever I make this, the bread is back to room temp by the time you doctor up your pita with all the toppings and are ready to take your first bite.
This particular time I made it, I had some leftover rib eye steak. The steak was quite rare to start with, so I marinated the meat in the red wine-garlic mixture just as above, but when I sautéed it in the frying pan, I just barely cooked it, so the meat was warmed through, but still slightly pink when it was served. You could easily adapt this with leftover roast beef or roast lamb – just slice really thin pieces and marinate it in some red wine to give it moisture and heat it through. The original recipe didn’t serve cheese with it, but I have on occasion done so, but a typical Greek style would be crumbled Feta as another condiment, which I’ve also done, so that’s added into the recipe too. Feta may be Greek, but it might not be typical for this sandwich. I just like the texture and saltiness added to the combination.
Greek-Style Beef or Lamb Sandwiches
Recipe By: Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens, 1973
1.In a sturdy, sealable plastic bag combine the wine, oil, garlic, oregano, onion and salt & pepper.Cut the steak into strips about 2 inches long and 1/4 inch wide.Allow to marinate for about an hour at room temperature.If marinating for longer period, refrigerate it.
2.Combine the low-fat sour cream and yogurt, with minced green onions and allow to sit in refrigerator for several hours.
3.Remove the meat and onion from the marinade and dry on paper towels.Melt the one T.of butter in a hot pan and cook the meat, a little bit at a time (so it doesn’t steam rather than brown), stirring to brown all sides.Keep meat hot while preparing the remaining meat.Add the red onion and sauté until all the onion is wilted, but not mushy.
3.Have small bowls ready into which you put the lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, Feta and the sour cream and yogurt mixture.
4.As chef, you can add the meat to each pita and then serve condiments for people to add as they wish.Or just pass everything.
NOTES: I prefer to marinate the meat for about 24 hours; you may also use flank steak for this, although then you definitely need to marinate the meat for 24 hours.You can also make this with LAMB steak, using same technique.The oregano is an important element in the marinade, so use ample (more if you like the herb).
I don’t know about you, but I’ve always liked short ribs. My mother used to prepare them with some frequency, because our family all liked them. I don’t remember now how my mother prepared them. Over the years I’ve made them in numerous ways myself, but this recipe (new to me, but probably an old rendition) is so awesome. So perfect for this cut of meat.
Over the last few days I’ve mentioned a cooking class I attended last week about comfort food. Well, this recipe is the all-star winner in that category. The chef who prepared this, Deb Buzar, credited her mother-in-law for this recipe. As a professional chef, Deb said she tried countless versions of short ribs, but every time she kept going back to her mother-in-law’s recipe, and finally decided this is her favorite. She no longer even looks at other recipes. She said the sauce “made” the dish, and I wholeheartedly agree. You do want to serve this with a carb that will take the sauce, though – like mashed potatoes – she served it with the Mashed Potatoes with Caramelized Shallots and Truffle Oil that I posted recently. You could use rice, but mashed potatoes are just the perfect side for these.
The chef started off the class by laughing, saying “bet you thought I was crazy to choose short ribs to make for a 2+ hour cooking class.” Then she slid a pressure cooker over for us to see. She’d brought her own – a 10-quart Fagor she uses annually for canning and in between for lots of other things too. She loves her pressure cooker and uses it very often.
I don’t own one anymore. I was given one back in the 1960’s as a wedding gift. I did use it for some years until I burned the bottom of it when I dashed outside for some reason and left artichokes cooking away in it. An hour later the artichokes of course, were burned to a crisp inside and the pan had bowed such that it was no longer usable. I felt very guilty about that and kept the darned pan for years hoping somebody could figure out how to fix it. Nope. Nada. Finally tossed it out about 15 years ago. Meanwhile, some cookware manufacturers have come out with new versions. They work infinitely better than the older variety with the rocking gadget on the top. Now there are electric models too, but from reading reviews about them I’d say the stovetop ones appear to have more control. At least for now they do. The chef and the store owner both recommended the Fagor brand (made in Spain) as the best.
The sauce is so very easy – chopped celery and onion (raw) combined with water, white vinegar, ketchup, sugar, salt, Worcestershire sauce and dry mustard. You brown the chunks of boneless short ribs (silverskin removed and cut into large 2-inch pieces) on two sides, then combine the sauce and meat. If you have a pressure cooker, it takes 28 minutes to process. If you bake it in a 350 F. oven, it takes about 2 hours, maybe 2 ¼ hours. It can also be done in a crock pot for about 8-10 hours too.
The calories and fat on this recipe are outrageous. I’d forgotten how bad this meat is for us. Short ribs are just riddled with fat. They used to be a cheap cut of meat. Not so much anymore. I purchased the boneless ones at Costco. The chef recommended this be made a day or two ahead, refrigerated, then you can remove the fat from the top of the sauce. It’s so gosh-darned good. And yes, more comfort food at its finest. Technically this should serve 8 people. But if they’re hungry and they like this, well, 4 pounds of meat won’t feed more than 6.
Barbecued Short Ribs
Recipe By: Deb Buzar, professional chef
Serving Size: 8
4 pounds short ribs [boneless, if possible]
2 medium onions — diced
1 cup water
1/2 cup vinegar
2 cups ketchup
1 cup celery — diced
4 tablespoons sugar [optional, but is in the original recipe]
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1.Dice the onions and celery into approximately similar size quarter-inch pieces.Set aside in a large bowl.
2.Measure water, vinegar, ketchup, sugar, salt, Worcestershire sauce and dry mustard and add to bowl.Stir until well mixed.Set aside.
3.Trim meat of all silverskin.Cut ribs between the bones or in 2-inch pieces if using boneless.If using bone-in ribs, tie around meat with kitchen twine (each piece).Season with salt and pepper.In a large roasting pan pour a small amount of olive oil and sear ribs on top and bottom only, just long enough to brown nicely, then remove to a plate.Do not crowd meat.Continue browning meat until all pieces are finished.Do not burn the meat as you’ll have to discard the nice fond on the bottom of the pan and clean it well in order to continue.
4.Pour sauce into the pot, then add the ribs.Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to a very low simmer and bake at 350 for 2 hours or until fork tender.Transfer meat to a hot platter.Puree remaining sauce in blender (don’t overfill or it will blow the lid off).Serve meat with sauce.May be made up to several days ahead and reheated.After cooling the sauce, you may easily remove any hardened fat from the sauce and discard before reheating.
Over the years since the tri-tip roast became more visible at the butcher shop (or at Costco), I’d not been bitten by the bug. Lots of people raved about it. I wasn’t convinced. Yes, I had some here and there when someone else made it. After all, it looks like a fillet mignon. It just doesn’t taste like one, and it certainly doesn’t chew like one. But I read an article recently for tri-tip, extolling its virtues. So, when I visited my local, favorite butcher and they had Niman Ranch tri-tips, rib eyes and porterhouses, I figured if Niman Ranch was producing them, and if my butcher was showcasing the tri-tips with its very uptown relatives, then maybe they were worth reconsidering.
If you’ve never been much of a tri-tip fan, I won’t be convincing you otherwise. I don’t really think I am, either. This recipe doesn’t make tri-tip taste or chew any better than a fairly chewy piece of meat. But if you enjoy a bit of chew, this preparation may be just down your alley.
Tri-tip is a cut of meat that comes from the bottom sirloin. If you’ve ever had a sirloin from the bottom end and noticed that it was a lot more chewy and less tender, well, this is cut from that end. There are only two of them on every animal, so that’s why we don’t see them all that often. They’re very lean, I’ll give them that. Although there are some sinews and a bit of gristle, there’s really very little. So, if you’re going to eat red meat, this is fairly healthy. It needs marinating to give it more flavor, and to tenderize it. At least 24 hours worth.
The recipe comes from Bon Appetit, June, 2002. My DH enjoyed the flavor. My opinion? Eh. It’s not the preparation I didn’t like; it’s the cut of meat. If you go onto epicurious for this recipe, there are countless reviews of it. Some loved it. Others didn’t. Most people raved about the relish. I didn’t make the relish because I still had some mango-strawberry salsa I made the other night. But I think the cherry tomato relish would be a much better complement to the beef than the salsa. The marinade has a more savory taste, and a sweet salsa doesn’t go. It just doesn’t. But, no matter what, you can’t change the taste or the chew of the meat. So, knowing all that, you can decide whether you’d like to try this.
I don’t usually post recipes here that I don’t just love, but since I thought maybe other people would like the meat better than I did, I’m posting it anyway.
Grilled tri-tip roast with tequila marinade and cherry tomato relish
Recipe By: Bon Appetit, June, 2002
Serving Size: 8
4 pounds beef tri-tip roast — (two roasts), trimmed of visible fat and sinew
MARINADE:
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1/2 cup fresh cilantro — chopped
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup tequila
7 whole garlic cloves — unpeeled, mashed
2 teaspoons lime peel — grated
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
CHERRY TOMATO RELISH:
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
4 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
3/4 cup olive oil
1/8 cup green chiles — canned, drained, diced
4 green onions — finely chopped
4 cups halved cherry tomatoes
1.Whisk first 10 ingredients in medium bowl.Using small sharp knife, pierce meat all over.Place meat in large re-sealable plastic bag; add marinade.Seal bag.Refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight, turning plastic bag occasionally.
2.Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat).Remove meat from marinade.Discard marinade.Grill meat to desired doneness, about 10 minutes per side for medium-rare.Transfer to cutting board.Tent with foil; let stand 10 minutes.Cut diagonally across grain.Serve meat with Cherry Tomato Relish.
3.RELISH: Whisk vinegar and oregano in medium bowl to blend.Gradually whisk in oil.Mix in green chilies and green onions.(Can be made 6 hours ahead; cover; chill.) Add tomatoes; toss to coat.Season with salt and pepper.
It seems like it’s only been in the last year or so that I’ve become enamored with preparing beef tenderloin for guests. Probably my reluctance in years past was that I truly didn’t know how to roast it. More specifically, I didn’t know how to prepare it perfectly. Then, of course, there’s the cost factor. It is one of the most expensive cuts of meat out there. I wasn’t about to invest in a $50 roast to serve an overcooked, tough, or dry piece of meat to guests.
My mother, bless her heart, a product of the depression, probably never, EVER purchased or roasted a tenderloin. Growing up, even when we went out to dinner I wasn’t allowed to order steak (too expensive). For many years my mother and I shared a meal, even when we went out, in order to save money. I so well remember when I was about 17 or 18, I finally asked my mother if I could have my very OWN steak, on those occasions when she’d buy T-bones to grill at home.
Mostly, though, my mother would buy a rump roast and bake that for guests. With no sauce. It had nothing to elevate it to something edible, in my book. Rump roasts are one of those that need dry heat, but when you’re done, it’s nothing but a very dry piece of meat. And not all that tender, either. I would venture to guess that I may have made a rump roast once in my complete adult life. It was just as I’d remembered. Dry, tough, like shoe leather.
I believe I ate chateaubriand for the first time when I was in my mid-20’s. I thought it was heavenly, but it was never in the budget to buy it to prepare at home, and here I am in my 60’s and it’s still elusive, a bit.
But, this last week I was served a beef tenderloin that came from a regular grocery store. I was positively amazed how tender and delicious it was. Usually when I buy meat – especially for a company dinner – I go to a meat market, or an upscale grocery store, and will pay top dollar. It’s possible this particular roast from a grocery store was a fluke, but I’m going to have to try them and see if it’s their normal quality. (It happened to have been Albertson’s, in case anyone is interested.)
As I’ve mentioned before in my blog, I’m in love with meat thermometers – the newer kinds that measure both oven and meat temps. I can rely on it telling me when the meat has just reached the right temp.
Now let’s get to the recipe. This roast is seasoned, browned, then crusted with a pile of fresh herbs before baking in the oven. You use the same saute pan to prepare the cabernet wine sauce. Then you make a horseradish cream sauce too. The meat needs to rest a bit before you slice it up to serve, so there’s plenty of time to prepare the wine sauce and the horseradish cream. That’s it. It was just scrumptious. Certainly not low in calorie, however. But if you’d like a foolproof recipe for tenderloin, this is it.
Herb Crusted Beef Tenderloin
Recipe By: Deb Buzar, professional chef
Serving Size: 10
5 pounds beef tenderloin
1 teaspoon salt — or to taste
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper — or to taste
HERB CRUST:
2 tablespoons Italian parsley — minced
4 teaspoons rosemary — minced
2 teaspoons thyme — minced
2 teaspoons fresh garlic — finely minced
CABERNET SAUCE:
1 medium shallot — minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter — softened
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons fresh thyme — minced
CREAMY HORSERADISH SAUCE:
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup prepared horseradish
1/8 cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1 dash freshly ground black pepper
1.Preheat oven to 425 degrees.Take the meat out of the refrigerator and cover loosely, about 1 hour prior to roasting (to take the chill out of the meat, for better roasting).Trim the meat as necessary, to remove ALL silverskin.Season the meat to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper no more than 30 minutes before cooking.If salted too long before roasting, the salt will take some moisture out of the meat.
2.In a small bowl combine the pepper, parsley rosemary, thyme, garlic and mix well.Set aside.
3.In a large sauté pan large enough to hold the meat, over medium high heat, add olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan.Add beef and brown on all sides.Do not burn the meat because you use the brown bits in the sauce, but keep temp below that level.Transfer meat to a shallow roasting pan.Rub meat with herb and garlic rub and insert a thermometer in the middle of the meat.Roast until the meat registers the desired temp: 125-130 for rare, 135-140 for medium rare, and 150-155 for medium, about 25-40 minutes.
4.Let the roast stand 15-20 minutes before carving.
5.CABERNET SAUCE: To the same sauté pan as you browned the meat, add the shallot and salt.If there is not enough fat in the pan, add just a teaspoon or two.Return to medium-low heat and cook until softened, about 4 minutes.Stir in the wine, scraping up the browned bits.Add the broth and sugar, bring to a simmer, and cook until the mixture is reduced by two-thirds, about 8 minutes.Pour any accumulated beef juices into the simmering sauce.Knead softened butter and flour together with your fingers (or a fork) as tough you are making pastry.Add little bits of this mixture into the hot liquid, whisking constantly, until the ingredients are well blended and the sauce is thickened to your satisfaction.Do not make the gravy too thick - it should be a thin sauce.
6.Do not boil the sauce, but simmer long enough just to dispel the floury taste.Add thyme just before serving.Pour a small amount of gravy on each serving.
7.CREAMY HORSERADISH SAUCE: Whip cream with a mixer until stiff peaks form.Gently fold in remaining ingredients.Serve a dollop of this alongside the beef.
When I saw this recipe I was very skeptical. Beef stew with currant jelly? And cream in the sauce? But Cherrie, my friend, had just raved about this dish, said she and her husband both craved seconds, and leftovers. So finally, I got around to trying it. And yes indeed, it is very good.
Apparently it’s a Wolfgang Puck recipe. And if you’re not of the school that likes all those soft, soggy vegetables that usually accompany stew, then this version will float your boat. There are no carrots sticks or celery pieces, nor potato cubes either. There is, however, a mirapoix (that’s French for the mixture of finely minced onions, celery and carrots) that’s part of the flavoring agents used in much of French cooking. And, it happens, that Trader Joe’s (at least in our area) is now selling a quart container of fresh mirapoix. That’s what I used for this, and it made the prep work on it so very easy. In this case, the beef stew meat is marinated in wine and herbs (overnight, preferably), then you quickly sear the beef and mirepoix in some oil to bring out that wonderful fond flavor (the brown stuff that sticks to the bottom of the pan). Then you add a bit of flour to help thicken the sauce, and add broth and the marinade before simmering for a couple of hours.
Since this didn’t have any veggies, to speak of, I should have added some mushrooms. I think they would have made a nice addition. And I served it on a bed of linguine. Probably not traditional, but was very good with the wine gravy. This recipe is a keeper.
Cook’s Notes: Allow the beef to marinate overnight if at all possible (I gave it about 7 hours). You can use any kind of red wine, although I wouldn’t use anything sweet, since the gravy is sweet enough with the addition of the currant jelly. Be sure to bring the stew JUST up to a simmer and let it bubble very slowly (below a simmer) for the rest of the cooking time (otherwise the meat will dry out). And next time I’ll be adding some small button mushrooms toward the last 10 minutes of cooking.
Beef Stew with Currant Jelly & Cream
Recipe By: Cherrie S.’s adapted from Wolfgang Puck, via Our House cooking school in San Juan Capistrano.
1.THE NIGHT BEFORE: In a large bowl, toss together beef, celery, carrots, onions, wine, bay leaves, rosemary and thyme.Cover and refrigerate overnight, stirring a few times.
2.THE NEXT DAY: Drain meat & vegetables and save marinade and set aside.In a large, enameled cast-iron pot, heat 2 tablespoons oil until shimmering, add meat & vegetables in batches and cook over moderately high heat until lightly browned on bottom, transfer to large bowl.Repeat with remaining oil and meat/veggies.Return meat and veggies to pot, stir in flour and cook, stirring about 2 minutes.Add red wine vinegar and scrape up browned bits, add reserved marinade, tomato paste and simmer about 2 minutes.Add stock and red currant jelly, season stew and bring to boil.Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally about 2 - 21/2 hours until meat is very tender.
3.Ten minutes before serving add the mushrooms.Just before serving, stir in heavy cream, season and simmer for just a minute to heat through.
There are years when I don’t do anything special for St. Patrick’s Day. I may not even wear green. Even though part of my genealogy is Irish. I certainly wouldn’t ever drink green beer, but then I’m not a beer drinker anyway. What tilted me over the edge this time was seeing a Niman Ranch corned beef round at Trader Joe’s. You’ve heard it from me before, Niman Ranch makes some mighty fine meat products. The corned beef I bought was called a “corned beef round,” so I’d guess it was a slightly different cut. It had absolutely NO fat on it at all, and cost me about $14.00 for 5 pounds.
I also knew exactly what recipe I would make, too. My friend Linda T, a very good cook, has told me about her recipe for a couple of years, and I’ve been meaning to make this, so it was time.
The ingredients in this version aren’t all that different, but the cooking method IS a bit unusual: you simmer (always below a boil) the corned beef for 3 ½ to 4 hours, then cool the meat in the water until it reaches nearly room temp. (My guess is that time allows time for the meat to reabsorb some of the liquid it lost during the long slow simmering time). You remove the meat, spread it with a glaze and bake it for about 45 minutes before serving with vegetables you simmered in the cooking water from the beef. So you need to plan ahead with this – it’s not that it takes much hands-on time (it doesn’t), but you need to watch over the pot on the stove so it doesn’t boil (a very important aspect of this dish). It’s like braising – long, slow cooking at just under a boil. Keeps the meat more moist and succulent.
I wasn’t totally successful keeping the pot below a boil – I needed to run a couple of errands, and left the pot on the stove during that time. When I got back and lifted the lid, it was bubbling away. Perhaps a safer method would be to put the corned beef in a crock pot and pour boiling water over it, add the pickling spices and turn it to low right then and there. I’m not certain what temperature a crock pot on low is, but the beef might need a few more hours of that slow cooking than normal. With my crock pot (which is very old) on high it is boiling. I should measure the temp of the food one of these times when I use it.
If you use regular potatoes, just cut them into 4-6 pieces so everything will be done at about the same time. My favorite part of the vegetables is always the cabbage, especially simmered in that flavorful water. All the vegetables were done at the same time (I used fairly small carrots – if larger, you might want to give them an extra 5-10 minutes before you add all the other veggies).
The beef was moist and juicy. Easy to slice into thin pieces. The flavor? Outstanding. I’d make this again soon. If I could get more of Trader Joe’s corned beef, that is. I’ll have to look and see if they still have some and I might just buy one to make in a few weeks.
Cook’s Notes: remember to keep the corned beef below a boil during the 3-4 hours of simmering. Time the vegetables so they’re just done when the corned beef comes out of the oven. And save the cooking liquid – you use it for the veggies.
Corned Beef for St. Patrick’s Day
Recipe By: From my friend Linda T.and she got it from her friends Jane & Auggie R.
Serving Size : 6
5 pounds corned beef brisket — flat cut, if possible (more meaty)
1 tablespoon pickling spice
GLAZE MIXTURE:
10 whole cloves
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 cup Madeira
10 small potatoes
8 medium carrots
1 whole cabbage — cut in quarters
1 whole onions — peeled, cut in half
1.Remove corned beef from package and discard all spices (if any) from the package.Trim off all visible fat, then place in a large, heavy pot.Fill with water to barely cover the corned beef.Bring it to a boil, cover and reduce to a bare simmer.Do not let the water boil at any time during this cooking process.Check the pot frequently to make sure it isn’t boiling.Cook the beef for about 3 1/2 to 4 hours.
2.Remove pot from heat, remove lid and allow the mixture to cool to just above room temperature.This is an important step.It will take about 1 1/2 hours.Remove brisket from the water and place in an open roasting pan.Keep the liquid you used to boil the meat, as you’ll use it to cook the vegetables. Stud the beef with whole cloves.
3.Preheat oven to 350.Combine in a small bowl the dark brown sugar, dry mustard and Madeira.Rub all over the brisket and place pan in heated oven for about 45 minutes.Remove from oven twice (15-minute intervals) and baste the meat with the glaze.
4. Reheat the cooking water from the meat.Prepare vegetables and after the beef has been in the oven for 15 minutes, add vegetables to the pot on the range.Do not overcook the vegetables.Serve the meat hot with horseradish and hot/sweet mustards, and with all the vegetables around it.
READING: Currently I'm reading Audition, the memoir by Barbara Walters. Just finished reading It's Not About the Tapas: A Spanish Adventure on Two Wheels, a memoir about traipsing around Spain on a bicycle (very cute, especially if you've ever been to Spain).
FINISHED: Resurrection (about Gnostic gospels, a novel); Double Bind (Bohjalian); We've Always Had Paris (Patricia Wells' memoir); A Kiss from Maddalena (WW II in Italy); Red Water (excellent, about polygamy in 1870's); Fieldwork (very interesting, Thailand); Peony in Love (excellent read, China); Special Topics in Calamity Physics (different); Mistaken Identity (true-life story, excellent); An Uncommon Reader (Queen Elizabeth discovers reading).
