Tasting Spoons

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.

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Certainly you’ve had Beef Wellington at some time in your life, haven’t you? I’ve even made it a couple of times in individual servings. Very good. This recipe is kind of like a Beef Wellington except the beef is already cut into cubes, and it’s combined with a mushroom sauce inside, then served with a wonderful spicy horseradish sauce on the side.

The recipe is Phillis Carey’s, from a recent cooking class. The subject of the class was “entertaining entrees.” And yes, they were. Are. For entertaining. Two other recipes from the class I probably won’t make (a pork tenderloin with port fig sauce and a chicken breast stuffed with spinach) as they weren’t very “wow,” in my book, anyway. If the recipes don’t wow me, I don’t even enter them into my recipe software program. But the orange roughy with leek sauce and this one I entered immediately.

The best thing about this beef tenderloin in puff pastry is that you can make it up ahead - like a week or so and freeze it (and bake it 10 minutes longer) - or you can make it up to 4 hours ahead and keep refrigerated until you’re ready to bake for your guests. I like those kinds of options when I’m entertaining.

The origin of the horseradish chive sauce is interesting. Phillis loves the jar of similar sauce made by Rothschild, and she looked at the ingredients on the jar and created a sauce very, very similar to it. Certainly cheaper. And really quite easy. She combines sour cream, mayo, chili sauce (not the hot type, more like a thick spicy catsup), garlic, horseradish and chives. Everybody in the class was “mmmm“-ing while we ate it. I made these for a dinner party last weekend. Got lots of ahhhs. And I promised to post the recipe for our guests so they can make this themselves.

The beef: gorgeous tender tips of fillet mignon briefly browned; a sauce with mushrooms, onion, garlic, dry sherry, broth; puff pastry cut into quarters and rolled out to a larger square. Beef and sauce in the center, pastry edges brushed with egg then pressed together into a kind of envelope. Then it’s baked in a hot oven. Have your dinner all ready during the last 5 minutes of baking - maybe even get your guests seated at the table. Whisk out the pastries and serve them immediately.

I did learn something in making these myself . . . I had a box of puff pastry in my freezer already. I also bought another one, because we had 9 people for the dinner party. I hadn’t looked at the dates on either package, but the newer purchased one was actually older than the one I had in my freezer. I could tell the difference. Some of the dough stuck to itself. I managed, but it was a little bit difficult. So, my advice is to buy fresh (well, it’s frozen) puff pastry and don’t keep it long. I also didn’t buy the recent package at a regular grocery, but an independent market, so it had been there in their freezer for nearly a year. The more recently frozen the puff pastry, the more likely it will be easier to roll out and manipulate.

Cook’s Notes: be sure to defrost the puff pastry a day ahead - in the refrigerator. Don’t do it on the kitchen counter, or the pastry sheets will stick to themselves. The beef cubes need to be ever-so-quickly browned. That’s it. Just browned. They need to be still very, very red inside since they bake for an additional 15 minutes, and you’d like the meat to still retain a bit of pink. If you freeze the pastries, they are baked differently - don’t defrost them. Bake from a frozen state, at 400 for 25 minutes. And I’m being repetitive here, but serve them immediately. No dilly-dallying even 5 minutes.

Beef Tenderloin Tips & Mushrooms in Puff Pastry
Recipe By: Phillis Carey, author & instructor
Serving Size : 6
BEEF:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 pounds fillet mignon — cut into 1″ cubes
MUSHROOM GRAVY:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 pound button mushroom — sliced
1/2 cup onion — diced
2 cloves garlic — minced
1/2 cup beef broth
1/4 cup dry sherry — or pale sherry
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 whole egg — whisked with 1 T. water
1 package puff pastry — thawed in refrigerator
HORSERADISH CHIVE SAUCE:
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons chili sauce — “Homade” brand
2 cloves garlic — minced
1 1/2 tablespoons prepared horseradish
2 tablespoons chives — chopped freshly ground pepper to taste
1. Melt the 2 T. butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add beef cubes, in batches if necessary, and brown well, leaving the center of the meat very red. Season beef with a bit of salt. Transfer to a bowl.
2. Add 2 T. butter to skillet and cook the mushrooms, onions, garlic until mushrooms are beginning to brown. Remove to bowl with the beef. Add the sherry and bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan and reducing by half. Add the beef broth and bring to a boil. Mash together the other 2 T. butter and flour, and add to the broth, boiling until thickened. Stir sauce into the bowl of meat and mushrooms. Cover and chill the bowl for at least 2 hours, until the meat is very cold. (This refrigeration is necessary, otherwise the beef will overcook during the baking process.)
3. Cut each puff pastry sheet into 4 squares. Roll out 6 pieces into 6-inch squares. Divide the meat/mushroom mixture evenly among the squares. Brush edges of pastry lightly with the egg/water wash. Bring two opposite corners over the filling and overlap to seal. Bring remaining two corners over the others and seal well.
4. Turn pastries over, onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Cut decorations from the remaining two squares. Brush the pastries with egg and decorate. Brush decorations with egg and chill until ready to bake, up to 4 hours. Poke two small holes in the top of each pastry to allow steam to escape.
5. Meanwhile, make Horseradish Sauce: combine all ingredients and chill at least one hour and up to 24 hours.
6. Preheat oven to 425. Bake for 15 minutes, or until well browned and heated through. Serve IMMEDIATELY with a dollop of sauce on the side.
Per Serving: 694 Calories; 61g Fat (79.2% calories from fat); 25g Protein; 11g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 161mg Cholesterol; 324mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain (Starch); 3 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 8 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

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Seared steak salad - with some goat cheese, tomatoes, and delicious roasted onions. Then there’s some chipotle mayo drizzled on top of the steak.

I never think to make a steak salad. It always seems to me that if I’m going to grill a nice steak, I really want to eat it straight away, its own chunk of beefy goodness. With maybe a veggie, or if I’m feeling particularly weak willed, some potatoes on the side.

But I had this ONE steak in the freezer. Lonely steak. Small steak, albeit a ribeye. What could I do with it, to extend it to feed two? I breezed through my recipes and came across this one that I hadn’t made in a couple of years. My recollection was that it was very good. And yes, it was.

Don’t get overwhelmed by the list of ingredients. It’s really not that involved, even though it may look like it. There’s a rub/marinade for the steak. There are onions that get marinated and baked in a blisteringly hot oven. There’s a salad, with an easy oil and balsamic dressing, the specific salad greens and the different decorations to go along with everything, AND there’s a very easy chipotle mayo that gets dribbled on the top. See, not so awfully hard, is it?

It does take a bit of time to assemble everything, I admit, but it is worth the effort.

Cook’s Notes: First do the dry rub and get the steak going. Then do the onions – they take about 20-30 minutes altogether, after the oven gets up to 500. Make the chipotle mayo and let it rest in the refrigerator while you do other things. Then, when you’re ready to do the steak, make sure you have everything else you need ready at hand. Tossing the salad is a cinch, but you need to have the garnishes all ready to go on.

Seared Steak Salad

Recipe By: Tarla Fallgatter, 2002

Serving Size : 4

MEAT:

1 pound top sirloin steak

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 pinch cayenne — optional

1/2 cup barbecue sauce

ONIONS:

2 medium red onions — cut in wedges

3 cloves garlic — minced

3 whole bay leaves — coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons fresh parsley

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons olive oil

CHIPOTLE MAYONNAISE:

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon chipotle chile canned in adobo

SALAD:

3 cups arugula leaves

3 cups salad greens

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup goat cheese — crumbled

12 pieces asparagus spears — steamed

1 cup cherry tomatoes — halved

1.  MAKE AHEAD: cook asparagus and cool, then chill.  Prepare all the salad ingredients and keep in the refrigerator until ready to assemble.

2.  ONIONS: Preheat oven to 500 (yes, 500).  Place the onion wedges in a single layer in a shallow baking pan.  Sprinkle with garlic and herbs, then season with salt and pepper.  Drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the onions and toss with your hands so all sides of onions have been mixed up with the oil and vinegar.  Roast for about 10 minutes, remove and stir the onions around some, then return to oven and continue cooking until onions are lightly browned and just tender.  If pan is crowded, it may take up to 20-30 minutes.  remove and allow pan to cool.

3.  CHIPOTLE MAYO: In a small bowl mince up the chiles with a fork until they are completely mushed.  (Alternately, place on a flat board and mince with a chef’s knife, then mash with side of knife.) Add the mayo and stir until combined.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.

4.  STEAK: In a small bowl combine the herbs and mix well.  Trim any noticeable fat from the steak, brush with olive oil, then rub with herb mixture on both sides of the steak.  Set aside for 30-40 minutes before grilling.  When ready to serve, add the barbecue sauce to the meat, then grill steak until medium rare, about 5-6 minutes per side.  When steak is cooked to your liking, remove to a wood board and allow to sit (cover with a piece of foil, loosely) while you prepare the salad.

5.  SALAD: On a large platter combine the salad greens and arugula.  Pour on the olive oil and toss with your hands, then add the balsamic vinegar and do the same.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Slice the steak into thin slices and lay across the salad.  Around the edges add the cooked asparagus, cherry tomatoes and the cooled, cooked onions.  Drizzle the chipotle mayo down the center of the meat so ever slice has some of the sauce on it.  Sprinkle the entire platter with the goat cheese crumbles.  Serve immediately.

Per Serving: 641 Calories; 51g Fat (69.8% calories from fat); 31g Protein; 19g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 90mg Cholesterol; 1093mg Sodium.  Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 4 Lean Meat; 2 1/2 Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 6 Fat; 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.

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Probably 30 years ago I saved a recipe for Bobotie, after reading it in some magazine. It sounded so unusual - a ground meat dish (a casserole, actually, like a meatloaf) with some raisins and almonds, plus some curry powder, then topped with a kind of eggy custard. I’d never made it. Until the other night. I’ve had it served to me - some friends of ours are from South Africa - and they entertained us one night and served their version. This has been a couple of years ago, but I believe it was served with rice, chutney and some other condiments. I really enjoyed it. This version resembles a recipe I found in Gourmet, but I made several changes based on the other recipes I had to refer to.

I knew it was an African-historied dish, but here’s more, from Wikipedia:

• Bobotie is a South African dish consisting of spiced minced meat baked with an egg-based topping. The recipe probably originates from the Dutch East India Company colonies in Batavia, with the name derived from the Indonesian Bobotok. It is also made with curry powder leaving it with a slight “tang”.
• It is a dish of some antiquity: it has certainly been known in the Cape of Good Hope since the 17th century, when it was made with a mixture of mutton and pork. Today it is much more likely to be made with beef or lamb, although pork lends the dish extra moistness. Early recipes incorporated ginger, marjoram and lemon rind; the introduction of curry powder has simplified the recipe somewhat but the basic concept remains the same. Some recipes also call for chopped onions to be added to the mixture. Traditionally, bobotie incorporates dried fruit like raisins or sultanas, but the sweetness that they lend is not to everybody’s taste. It is often garnished with walnuts, chutney and bananas.

Cook’s Notes: If you enjoy curry, you might want to add more. Be sure to serve this with rice (it’s customary) and some condiments, preferably some chutney. The apple isn’t always included - your choice. Make certain the onion and apple are minced up finely so the meatloaf will be cohesive. The lemon leaves are not a requirement, but they must be traditional in South Africa. I didn’t have any bananas, but they appear in several recipes for Bobotie.

Bobotie
Recipe: Loosely based on a Gourmet recipe.
Servings : 5
1 slice bread — fresh, chopped finely
1/3 cup milk
1 medium onion — thinly sliced in rings
1/2 small Granny Smith apple — peeled, cored, finely chopped, optional
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons raisins — minced
2 tablespoons slivered almonds
1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder — preferably Madras
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 large eggs
1 pound ground beef — or lamb, not lean
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
1/8 teaspoon black pepper — freshly ground
3 whole lemon leaves
1. Make sure bread crumbs are very small. Remove crusts, then cut and chop, if necessary. Soak bread crumbs in milk in a small bowl until very soft, about 15 minutes, then drain by squeezing lightly, pressing to remove excess milk. Save milk.
2. Preheat oven to 350 and set rack in the middle. Butter a baking dish - flatter is better than taller.
3. Place sliced onions in a small frying pan with about 2 T. of water and simmer until onions are moderately limp. Pour off water, then pour out onto a cutting board and MINCE onions until they’re diced. In same frying pan melt butter and add diced apple and onions. Saute until both onions and apples are fully cooked, but not longer. Set aside to cool while you prepare the meat.
4. In a large bowl combine the ground meat, raisins, almonds, salt, curry powder, lemon zest, sugar and one egg. Then add the bread cubes and the onions/apple mixture and gently combine. Add the lemon juice sprinkled all over the meat. Place meat mixture in pan and pat down just so it reaches corners. (It’s preferable if the meat is not totally mashed flat - some peaks and valleys are good.) Roll lemon leaves into long cylinders and stick each into the meatloaf, standing upright.
5. Bake meatloaf for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and pour off any liquid/fat from the pan.
6. Just before the end of the baking time, combine the remaining milk and the remaining egg. Sprinkle with a dash of salt. Mix until thoroughly combined, then pour over the meatloaf. Return to oven and continue baking for another 15 minutes until the custard is set.
Per Serving: 426 Calories; 33g Fat (68.4% calories from fat); 20g Protein; 14g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 174mg Cholesterol; 341mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 2 1/2 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 1/2 Fruit; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 5 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.
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When my DH was still working - this has been more than 10+ years ago now - Fay was one of the women who worked in the office (DH sold computer chips for Intel). She lived on the outskirts of our county on a small ranch. Her children were young teens then, and the family was active in 4-H. The H’s stand for Head, Heart, Hand, and Health. It’s a youth organization, centered mostly around farming or ranching families, along the lines of Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, except the kids learn skills for raising livestock (like cows, sheep, chickens, etc.). They do service projects just like scouting does, but still the day to day work is all about farm projects.Fay had a son who wanted to raise a pig. And usually, the deal is that the kids raise the animals, knowing from the beginning that they’ll be sold at the County Fair. Or at a livestock auction. So Fay offhandedly mentioned to DH that her boys were going to be selling a pig - their pig - at the Fair that summer. She also told us that we’d be paying a fairly premium price for the pig, but would we be interested in buying a half or a whole pig? She explained that the pig was mostly hand raised, and that part of the price is tax deductible somehow. Her son would be caring for it from day one on their ranch, the best feed, exercised well, pens cleaned out, etc. We talked it over, and Cherrie and I agreed to buy a half a pig. Fay would buy the other half. We signed up to buy it in the Fall when the pig was a little piglet. Months and months went by, and I’d forgotten all about this until one day Fay phoned to tell us that the pig was going to the Fair the next day. Oops. And that we would need to pay up in full right away. That’s when we learned how BIG the pig was. Something like 400+ pounds. Somehow I’d pictured a sweet little, demure thing, maybe 100 pounds or so. Ah well. Live and learn. Pigs are not hogs, but they’re gosh darned BIG.

The next day Fay phoned with the price and Cherrie and I mailed our checks immediately. Meanwhile, we needed to decide how we’d like to have the pig butchered - well, not how exactly, but what kind of cuts. We were faxed a page from the butchering firm, and we looked it over carefully to decide on chops, ribs, roasts, breakfast sausage, Italian seasoned sausage, plain ground pork, even hams smoked or raw, and bacon. We needed to specify how much of each. Of course, some things we didn’t know - like how many pounds of baby backs there are in a half a pig. It was quite perplexing figuring that out. We faxed back the page, and they told us to come pick it up a few days hence, depending on the smoke house schedule. The 4-H group used a company almost in Northwest Riverside (that’s about 50 miles away), out in the boonies, to do the butchering.

THEN, we got a note from Fay’s son, including the tax deduction information, and he thanked us for buying PETUNIA. Oh my. Petunia. When we heard her name was Petunia, we wanted to back out. To say no, you can’t have butchered Petunia! How could we possible buy a slaughtered pig with the name of Petunia? Sounds inhuman. Like you’re destroying a famous cartoon character. But we had to - after all, we’d agreed to do this and we’d already paid for it. It was too late, of course.

For several years we bought an animal from Fay’s son and one of us had to drive out to this butcher, with the car filled with ice chests. It was always summertime, so we needed to keep the stuff cold. They did freeze all the meat for us - that is a nice service - and it was all labeled well. Cherrie and I figured out which was which - hers and mine - and we began enjoying the pig. PETUNIA. <very big, sad faces here> I think Petunia was the very best tasting pig we had. For a couple more years we shared another pig. Cherrie bought a half by herself one year. His name was Tootsie Roll. Fay’s sons also raised lambs a couple of times too. Generally, with whatever kind of meat, we used the nice cuts first, seemed like. The chops, the roasts. Even the Italian sausage. Unless we used the ham prior, for a special occasion, it usually waited until Easter to be served. Some years it was too salty for me, so in subsequent years I asked for less smoking, less salt, which the butcher was kind enough to accommodate.

So all of this story is leading up to how this recipe came to be. Cherrie had somehow, one year, ordered a LOT of ground pork. I mean a lot. We learned over the years what we preferred - the chops, roasts, even the ribs, not so much the hams or the numerous packages of seasoned sausage. We could order the ground pork in whatever sized package we wanted - I always ordered in one-pound ones. But they often got rolled to the back of the shelves (the freezer) and began to accumulate. There are only so many recipes you can use with pounds and pounds of ground pork. Unseasoned, fairly lean, but still, it’s ground pork. The only constant was meatloaf. But usually that’s a mixture of beef, veal and pork, or some semblance of such. Veal is not very accessible these days and way too pricey anyway, so basically you’re down to ground beef and ground pork (or you could add ground turkey or chicken too). So, really, how much pork can you use up in ONE meatloaf. Two pounds maybe. When you have perhaps 25 pounds of ground pork in the freezer, that’s a heck of a lot of meatloaf.

So, Cherrie raved about this recipe for Chinese Meatloaf, and she was delighted because the single recipe used a full pound of ground pork. She’d found the recipe in the Los Angeles Times (this has been years and years ago, now, and it’s not available online). She’s changed it just a bit, but mostly it’s the original recipe: ground beef, pork, a lot of Napa cabbage, cilantro, fresh ginger, Asian seasonings, and some Hoisin sauce on top. I’d gone online to see if I could find the recipe, and did, but mostly found recipes for a meatloaf using lots of cream soup cans and bean sprouts. Yuck. This version is ever so much more authentic and tasty.

Cook’s Notes: Cherrie has added another cup of Napa cabbage to her version (the one below), and she likes to put a bit of Hoisin on the top of the meatloaf when it first goes in the oven. Not much, but about 2 tablespoons. You’ll want to use a large baking dish, like an oval or round Pyrex. Mold the meatloaf into the dish so it has space around the sides to exude the juice. The meatloaf generates a lot of liquid, so make sure it’s high enough sided that it doesn’t spill over. Halfway through the baking, you’ll want to pour off the fat. I suspect a lot of the liquid is juice from all the cabbage, but still, you’d like it removed since the fat is swimming in that water anyway. Then when the meatloaf is done, smear the top with a bunch more Hoisin sauce, because that’s the part you crave (like the ketchup part on a traditional American meatloaf). The meatloaf makes a somewhat soft texture (from all the cabbage), so let it cool for a bit before slicing and serving. She serves it with basmati or jasmine rice in which she’s shaved some carrots, and a green salad to which she adds some kind of citrus, like Mandarin oranges from the can, or some wedges of fresh orange or tangerine. Thanks Cherrie, for sharing your great recipe.

Chinese Meatloaf
Recipe: adapted from my friend Cherrie S.
Servings: 8
1 pound lean ground beef
1 pound ground pork
5 cups Napa Cabbage — chopped
1/2 cup cilantro — minced
1/4 cup ginger root — minced
1/2 cup green onion — minced
1 tablespoon salt [next time I’ll use less, probably 2 t.]
2 tablespoons hot chili sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 large eggs — beaten [I might use 3]
4 tablespoons Hoisin sauce
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Combine beef, pork, cabbage, cilantro, ginger, green onions, salt, chile sauce, sesame oil, soy sauce and eggs in bowl and mix well. Press into a large baking dish (with sides). Spread about 2 tablespoons of Hoisin sauce on the top of the meatloaf.
3. Bake for 1 hour or up to 90 minutes, removing halfway through to drain off the fat.
4. Remove from oven and brush top and sides with additional Hoisin sauce. Allow to sit for 10-15 minutes before cutting and serving.
NOTES : The Napa cabbage seems like a lot, and it does generate a lot of liquid, but it adds a wonderful lightness to the meatloaf. Don’t omit it.
Serving Ideas : Serve with rice (white or brown) with some grated carrot in it. Also with a green salad with some citrus in it.
Per Serving: 392 Calories; 29g Fat (67.0% calories from fat); 23g Protein; 9g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 137mg Cholesterol; 1581mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 3 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 4 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.
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Why would you think a soup would be named Tuscan CHICKEN Soup when there isn’t any chicken in it? Beats me! But, I’m being true to the original recipe, which called it Tuscan Chicken Soup. Even though it has beef in it.

When the instructor, Patty Padawar, explained this soup, she must have had some kind of explanation, but it’s nothing that stuck in my head, nor did I write anything on my notes. My only recollection is that it’s a traditional peasan soup from Tuscany. Whether it’s chicken or beef, it’s just a plain old good soup.

This recipe came from a cooking class at Sur la Table, and was a compilation of some of the cooking school’s “favorites.” How could I not go to a class that culled through hundreds of cooking class recipes and pulled out the best of the best? Only one of the recipes was one where I’d attended the class (that was Joanne Weir’s Sicilian Tuna Salad, which I’ve already posted here on my blog).

I’m a real sucker for soups. I’ve loved them always, but over the last 10 years or so I’ve found them to be such a time saver and they make a very full, tasty and easy meal. We don’t eat many bean soups just because neither of us need the packed carbs at our age. But, I love vegetable soups, chicken soups, beef soups, squash soups too.

This one is a mixture of ground beef, escarole, fresh fennel, onions, and orzo pasta. A nice combination. If you don’t know if you like fennel, trust me on this - fennel once cooked is very mellow. There isn’t even an inkling of anise flavor in this soup once it’s been simmered awhile. And, as always, this soup is much better the next day if you can plan ahead!

The soup also has one added touch that I’d never seen done before: just before serving you slice a plank of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, using a cheese plane, and place it in the bottom of the soup bowl. Then you ladle the hot soup on top and within a minute the cheese is mostly melted, although it doesn’t “stir” into the soup at all. It’s best when your spoon just lifts a little bit of the cheese with a bite of soup. Be sure to tell guests so they don’t scrape the bottom and get an entire mouthful of cheese.

Actually, this time I used some ground chicken (a third) to this soup in addition to ground beef (two thirds). And I added some celery too, just, well, because. The soup is low in calorie, although I don’t think this serves as many as the recipe indicates. We eat about 1 & 1/2 cups per serving, and I think the recipe assumes less. I made a double batch so I’d have leftovers. And this soup freezes well to join others in my soup library. That is, if there are any by the time we finish tonight’s dinner.

Tuscan Chicken (no, Beef) Soup
Recipe By :Patty Padawar, cooking insructor
Servings: 8
3/4 pound lean ground beef — or veal
1 small fennel bulb — chopped
1 medium onion — chopped
2-3 whole cloves garlic — minced
4 cups low sodium chicken broth
2 cups low sodium beef broth
2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano — crushed
2 whole bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup orzo
4 cups escarole — shredded
4 ounces Parmesan cheese — shaved in planks

salt — to taste

1. In a large saucepan or pot, cook the ground beef, onions, fennel and garlic over high heat, stirring as needed for about 5 minutes, until meat is browned and vegetables are softened. Drain off excess fat.
2. Add broths, water and seasonings and simmer for 10 minutes. Bring up to a gentle boil, add the orzo and cook 10 more minutes, stirring twice.

3. Remove bay leaves, add the escarole and remove from the heat. Taste and add salt if needed, or more pepper. Stir to blend in. Divide the cheese planks into serving bowls, ladle the hot soup on the cheese and serve.
NOTES : To make cheese planks: use a cheese plane or sharp vegetable peeler. If you have leftovers, taste it when you reheat it as you may need to add additional water or broth.
Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 275 Calories; 13g Fat (43.8% calories from fat); 24g Protein; 14g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 43mg Cholesterol; 586mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 3 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 1 1/2 Fat.

To print a PDF recipe only, click HERE.

(photo from thatsanice.com)

Update about my broken foot: I’m on a countdown - 5 days to go and I hope to be walking again. Maybe not walking well, but at least not in a wheelchair. Back to cooking again and photographing my blog food! Back to driving again. I hope.

We went to an Italian restaurant the other night - Vessia - in Irvine. One of the chefs from Prego opened it a couple of years ago. Good food. We’d been there when it first opened and were disappointed, but last night was a big improvement. My DH ordered their Braesiola.

When I looked at the word on the menu I wondered if it was something similar to the Braciole that I’ve made for years. Or if it was a completely different dish. Reading the fine print it sounded very similar. Why the different spelling, I wonder? Maybe some reader of mine who is Italian, or knows Italian cuisine can tell me why a dish can have so many different spellings? I did an internet search and found several also. Confusing to me! I think the meat roll is Sicilian in origin, but it’s claimed by all Italians, now.

So, I decided to take a look again at my version of this standby, Braciole - I think it’s pronounced brah-jol. Our Mexican waiter butchered the word big time as well as every other Italian word he tried to pronounce. I think I previously asked an Italian how to pronounce it.

Anyway, today I read online of many variations on the braciole theme. I liked reading about the addition of pine nuts, garlic, Pecorino-Romano cheese, parsley too. Here’s one version I liked. And I also like the option of cooking it on a bed of tomato sauce. I may have to try some of those options next time I make this. My recipe dates back to the 1960’s.

Because refrigerators with large freezers were a new fangled thing back then, there were lots of books and articles in magazines about how to use your freezer. Hard to imagine but I even bought a small BOOK about how to freeze. It seems like second nature now. But back then we didn’t have plastic bags. And initially we didn’t even have plastic containers (boxes) to store or freeze in either. You just used the ceramic (lidded Pyrex) or metal containers things were cooked in. Hard to believe, I know.

Because I still have the original clipping from this recipe, it was from an article about freezing meals ahead. About buying a larger amount of meat, prepping it, then fixing half and freezing half. Seemed like a logical thing to do. Have done it every since when I make this dish.

At the time I’m sure the refrigerator manufacturers probably paid marketing writers to punch out lots of material about why we needed to have these new-fangled refrigerator-freezers so they’d have umpteen more customers. Freezers had been around for awhile, but they were tiny little cubby-holes nested inside the top of the refrigerator. And they weren’t frost-free. Far from it. I remember many a time on a weekend putting bowls of hot-hot water inside the freezer unit trying to hurry-up the process of defrosting the thing. Using an ice pick to pry the chunks of ice off the sides. The opening was so clogged with ice and frost that you could hardly store anything in it. Or what was in it was completely enveloped in ice so you couldn’t remove it to use it. Then there were the piles of towels you needed to use to mop of the dripping water. And sponges and bowls to mop up the water on shelves below the freezer. It was an awful process. I hated it. Hated it. Hated it. But do it every homemaker did; otherwise the freezer was a useless feature.

But then they came out with frost-free. I wasn’t exactly first in line because such refrigerator/freezers were pricey and beyond the budget, but I do remember, in about 1967 finally getting one. Oh, was I excited! I can hardly believe it now, but my former husband, always pinching pennies, gave me a choice (I was a stay-at-home wife) of getting an old used car of my very own OR a new frost-free refrigerator freezer. We had one car only and he used it to go to and from work. Twice a week I took him to work and used those days for errands, shopping, etc. Then I had to pick him up from work too. The other days of the week I was at home all day. Baking, cooking, cleaning, writing letters, reading, etc. Anyway, I chose the refrigerator/freezer. I was greedy: I wanted both. But both I could not have. It was probably 5 more years before I finally had a car of my own.

So, back to freezing food and braciole. However you pronounce it, it’s a very simple stuffed meat roll. You start out with round steak, cut 1″ thick, then you butterfly it to make a big flat surface. Then it’s filled and rolled with Italian sausage, red bell pepper strips, some cheese and a bit of bread stuffing. You tie it, bake it, adding some additional cheese near the end. Remove, let sit briefly, then slice to serve.

Italian Braciole
Recipe: Magazine recipe from 1960’s
Servings: 12
2 whole round steaks — 1″ thick, butterflied
1 lb Italian sausage — hot or sweet
1 whole onion — sliced, separated
1 c herb-seasoned stuffing cubes — Pepperidge Farms
1 whole egg
1/4 c water
1 whole red bell pepper — strips
8 oz Mozzarella cheese — packaged, sliced
1. Ask the butcher to split the steaks butterfly fashion, but not all the way; open each steak to 1 large piece. Pound both steaks with mallet until somewhat thin and tenderized. Cut pieces of kitchen string about 12-14″ long and lay underneath meat at 2″ intervals.
2. Cook the sausage meat briefly in a large skillet, drain well and spread meat on both steaks. Briefly sauté onions and red pepper strips in pan and spread on meat. Add stuffing mix to pan, then egg mixed with water and mix well. Do not cook stuffing. Add to steaks. Remove one slice of cheese, chop and save. Halve lengthwise remaining cheese and lay on steaks. Roll each steak carefully, keeping stuffing inside and tie meat carefully, but not too tight as meat and filling expand as they bake.
3. If cooking immediately: Place rolls in shallow baking pan large enough to hold steak and pour 3/4 cup water over rolls. Bake in moderate oven (350) for 40 minutes, basting occasionally. Sprinkle reserved chopped cheese over rolls. Bake 10 minutes longer, or until cheese melts. Remove to serving or cutting board and remove strings, then slice. Serve immediately.
4. If freezing: wrap uncooked rolls in foil; label & freeze. To bake frozen rolls: unwrap, place in baking pan and pour 3/4 cup water over. Bake in 350 oven for 1 hour and 40 minutes, basting occasionally. Sprinkle cheese on top and bake 10 minutes longer.
Serving Ideas : Wonderful with corn casserole, garlic bread, green salad.
NOTES : The magazine article from which this recipe came was about freezing entrees for ease of serving later. This entree will keep in the freezer well and can be baked right out of the freezer. Do not add the cheese until the last or it will drip off the meat.

Per Serving: 246 Calories; 19g Fat (70.7% calories from fat); 14g Protein; 4g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 74mg Cholesterol; 436mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 2 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 2 1/2 Fat.

To print recipe, click HERE.

(photo from kitchengardeners.org)

This is about chiles. You want a bit of chile heat in your meatballs? This is your recipe, then. Usually I make these during cool weather, not in the summer, as the spicy heat seems to taste better when the rain is falling or the wind is blowing. But, there’s no reason why this couldn’t be eaten any time of year.

We’d been on a hiatus from eating beef when I made this some years ago. The recipe was in Bon Appetit, and just hit a taste button with me and I promptly went out to buy the ingredients. I made a moderate batch of them and froze the remaining in dinner-sized portions. I freeze the rice in a separate quart-sized Ziploc bag but put it with the meatballs in the gallon sized bags. Then my meal is all together.

This could be made with ground turkey or chicken, or a mixture. It’s the little bit of capers in the middle that make the meatballs unusual. And the chipotle chiles. Then the fresh tomato sauce is also different. Fresh Tomato Sauce merely means you use fresh tomatoes and you don’t cook it very long. So the sauce retains some semblance of a “fresh” taste. It’s easy and delicious. Summertime is a good season to use up your abundance of home grown tomatoes.

As I mentioned, the recipe called for rice (I use brown basmati), but it could also go over mashed potatoes just as easily. Or pasta for that matter. But you might want some kind of carb to soak up the good sauce. Generally I make more sauce than the recipe says, but it’s truly not necessary unless you like sauce like we do.

Chipotle chiles are an ancient condiment, I’m sure, with all the Mexican or South American cuisines that include hot chiles. They’re merely jalapeno chiles that have been smoked and canned or bottled in an adobo tomato sauce. They’re spicy. Very spicy. I’d open a can and use a mere teaspoon or two, put it in the refrigerator and months later would discover this moldy messy gunk in there. So I was overjoyed when at one of the cooking classes I attended, the instructor suggested piling the chipotles into a plastic bag and freezing the leftovers. Then when you need some, you just use a spoon and scrape out whatever you need. Very easy, and certainly a better use for the contents of the can. I don’t cook Mexican food very often - we have such wonderful restaurants here in our part of the world that I don’t need to make it. But I use lots and lots of Mexican food products in my cooking. And this meatball dish certainly isn’t Mexican particularly.

Are any of you enjoying Rick Bayless‘ cooking program on public television? I’ve been Tivo-ing it for awhile, and have enjoyed it immensely. Rick is a famous American chef from Oklahoma, although he lives in Chicago now, where he has two very popular Mexican restaurants. He’s a very unassuming kind of guy - I don’t detect a bit of ego in his style. He just adores Mexican cuisine, particularly from the Yucatan. He uses copious amounts of chipotle and other chiles in nearly everything he makes. Some chiles I’d never heard of. Rick has published six cookbooks. (Just an aside here for those of you who follow my cookbook obsession, I own not one single Rick Bayless cookbook . . . aren’t you proud of me?) This series, with the recipes from the PBS series is from his book called Mexican Everyday, although the series is called Mexico One Plate at a Time.

My hands are particularly sensitive to chiles. No matter how careful I am with cutting up a chile, I always manage to feel some heat from it - usually underneath my fingernails. Not everybody has this problem, so this is just a friendly warning. I use plastic gloves. The staff in my dentist’s office has been kind enough (thanks Joan and others) to give me a box of their gloves every couple of years. They’re a must for me. Particularly with the chipotles. Getting a little bit of that spicy chipotle sauce under my fingernails can be so painful for hours and hours.

So, if you’re looking for something a bit different, give this a try. Use gloves.

Chipotle Meatballs in Fresh Tomato Sauce
Recipe: Bon Appetit, May, 2003
Servings: 6
3 pounds plum tomatoes — chopped
1 medium white onion — chopped
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons chipotle chile canned in adobo — minced
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 pound lean ground beef
1 pound ground pork
1/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons oregano
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons capers — drained
1. Puree first five ingredients in blender (in batches, if necessary) until almost smooth.
2. Heat oil in large pot over medium-high heat, add tomatoes, cover and simmer for 10 minutes just to blend flavors and thicken slightly. Stir occasionally and season with salt and pepper. This can be prepared up to 3 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate.
3. In a large bowl combine the beef and pork and next six ingredients. Add 1/2 cup of the cooled tomato mixture and stir well. Using your hands, form about 1 rounded tablespoon of meat mixture into a ball. Insert 2-3 capers into the center and reshape to cover them. Repeat with remaining meat mixture and capers.
4. Bring sauce to a simmer over medium heat. Add meatballs, cover and simmer until meatballs are cooked through, about 20 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, prepare a batch of basmati rice. I use brown basmati rice because it’s better for us. Spoon rice into a large shallow bowl and ladle meatballs and sauce on top.
NOTES : At a cooking class I learned to open a can of chipotle chiles, divide them up into small plastic bags, place those in a larger plastic bag that can be labeled. Since you never use much chipotle for any one dish, at least you’ll always have it on hand. The chipotle adds a subtle, but important kick to this dish. I make this in at least double quantity and freeze both meatballs (in sauce) and rice in separate bags, and on evenings when I don’t want to cook, it’s really easy to pop out one of each bag and there’s dinner with a vegetable and/or salad.

Per Serving : 511 Calories; 38g Fat (66.6% calories from fat); 30g Protein; 13g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 147mg Cholesterol; 635mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 4 Lean Meat; 2 Vegetable; 5 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

To view a printable recipe, click HERE.

(photo from tallgrassbeef.com)

I probably should start out this posting with the sentence: I love thyme. It is this recipe that introduced me to its virtues. And I’ve been a frequent user ever since.

My memory served me poorly on this recipe. I’ve been making it for so long, and it’s been written into my old recipe binder for so many years that I didn’t remember who gave it to me. When I did a search for the title (in French) sure enough, I found it. This is Julia Child’s recipe from her first major tome, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1. I found a write-up about the recipe on the Julia-Julie Project (the young woman who decided to methodically cook the entire contents of Julia’s book in a year, all the while blogging about it, and she subsequently wrote a book based on her blog). I tried to read her blog a couple of years ago (after I read Julia’s memoir, My Life in France, written by her nephew, which I just loved), but this woman, named Julie, has such a foul mouth I just couldn’t continue. (I’m not even going to insert a link to her site because I disliked it so much.) I don’t understand why people feel they have to use the f and s words in every sentence.

But, I also found the recipe on one of my favorite blogs, Sweet Napa. If you want to see what these French Hamburgers look like when finished, click on over to her blog to see it.

So, obviously, this isn’t anything original. This has been a staple in my cooking repertoire for 40 years. I’ve even served it to guests (I double the sauce in that case), and whenever I do make these I make extra and freeze at least 4 patties so I can make them just by defrosting. They aren’t difficult. Not in the least, although they do take a bit more time than just making patties from raw meat and cooking them.

Since I haven’t read Julia Child’s take on using minced beef (raw), I don’t know the origin of this either. But she recommends using lean beef, then you ADD butter to the raw meat. Interesting, huh? Most current chefs and cooking magazines recommend using nothing leaner than ground chuck. But, realize that when you cook these, if the cold butter is in the middle, when the heat finally reaches the butter, it melts right into the meat, not out into the pan. That’s what gives the meat it’s richness. But first you saute some onion and butter, cool it, then combine that with egg and thyme to make thick patties. It’s necessary to allow these to chill a little bit (with the egg to hold it together). That’s an important step. Then you dredge them in flour, then fry them up until done to your liking.

You remove them from the pan and set in a warm oven while you make the sauce. Then you drain the fat from the pan, and add wine or broth. I usually use red wine, but have also used sherry. You can also use broth, or white wine for that matter. You deglaze the pan, scraping up any of those pan juices and little sticky parts, until the wine has evaporated some. Remove from heat and add some additional butter, in bits. Pour into a HOT little pitcher to serve at the table. The recipe says pour the sauce on the burgers, but then most of the sauce ends up on the platter, not on the burger, so I prefer a pitcher.

I like serving this with pasta, just simple buttered pasta. Because some of that sauce tastes great with the pasta. Then with a bright colored veg - like broccoli, or green beans perhaps. And a salad. This used to be - back in the days when nobody thought anything of eating beef 3-4 nights a week - a frequent visitor on my regular family menu. Now it’s a treat.

French Hamburgers
(aka Bifteck Hache a la Lyonnaise)
Recipe: Julia Child, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1
Servings: 4
BEEF PATTIES
3/4 c onion — minced
2 tbsp butter
1 1/2 lb lean ground beef
2 tbsp butter — softened
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp thyme
1 whole egg

DREDGING MIXTURE:
1/2 c flour

1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp vegetable oilSAUCE:
1/2 cup red wine — or sherry or port or broth
2 tablespoons butter
1. Cook minced onion slowly for 10 minutes in butter, until tender, but not brown. Pour into a mixing bowl. Add the ground beef, additional butter, and seasonings to the onions and beat just until combined. Form into 4 patties, 3/4 inch thick. Cover with wax paper and chill several hours.
2. Just before sauteeing the patties, gently roll them in the flour. In a large, heavy frying pan, melt butter and oil, bring to a moderately high temperature and add patties. Sear them until they’re brown on both sides, then reduce heat until they’re done to your liking. This usually takes longer than I think - about 15 minutes.
3. Remove patties to a heated oven. Pour fat out of the pan and add sherry (or other wine), scraping up the pan juices, until it’s reduced to a thick syrup. Take off the heat and add the butter and serve in a small pitcher to pour over the patties.
4. Note: the original recipe calls for red wine, white wine, vermouth or beef stock for the sauce. Use either red wine, sherry or light port.
NOTES : Originally this dish was called “Bifteck Hache a la Lyonnaise” but we always called them French Hamburgers. I believe it is a Julia Child recipe from way-back, when we didn’t care (or know) much about watching fat. But, it’s a wonderful company meal. I’ve altered the original a little by reducing some of the butter. When making these I usually buy extra beef and make additional patties to freeze.

Per Serving: 766 Calories; 60g Fat (73.4% calories from fat); 34g Protein; 15g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 235mg Cholesterol; 1160mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Grain(Starch); 4 1/2 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 9 Fat.

To view a printable recipe, click HERE.

We may be one of the few cultures to make baked meatloaf. Lots of other cuisines include a ground meat stuffed something (pastry, cabbage, etc.) or small orbs of some kind of chopped meat, but we Americans appear to have invented meatloaf (really, we did), meaning we started with finely chopped raw meat. Mostly I learned, earlier cooks used cooked meat to make any kind of chopped meat dish. I wanted to know more about the history of the dish, and found this:

The raw, ground meat commonly used to make today’s American meat loaf has a humble heritage. In the 19th century, we know the Industrial Revolution made it possible for ground meat to be manufactured and sold to the public at a very low cost. At first, many Americans were slow to purchase raw ground meat products and generally regarded them with suspicion. Cooks continued to mince their meat (often already cooked, as was the practice for centuries) by hand. Companies selling meat grinders to home consumers at the turn of the century endeavored to change this practice by providing recipe books to promote their products.

Regarded as the ultimate comfort food, there are certainly lots of types of meatloaf. Some with fillers and additions (bread crumbs, cracker crumbs, carrots, onions, eggs, red bell pepper) and many variations of toppings (savory tomato, catsup type, even teriyaki style). But the most common is with a tomato-based sauce on top. I’m no different than the crowd, so this may not be one of the recipes you’re going to try since you may already have a favorite sauce. But for me it’s simply the sweet and sour sauce that is a must here. The recipe came from one of my old 1960’s era military officer’s wives cookbooks, and since I first made it, this has been the standard by which any and all meatloaves are measured. In our family, this is THE recipe, and mashed potatoes on the side are an absolute must. No rice. No pasta. It must be mashed potatoes.

And generally I increase the sauce because everybody loves to put more sauce on the potatoes. So early on I began doubling it. No problem. It’s easy enough to make. I’ve made this with partly ground turkey, and it’s also very good. I think my daughter Sara makes it with all turkey and her family loves it that way. When I make it now I use 50/50 beef and ground turkey. That gives the meatloaf a little firmer texture, which is what we (and most people, I surmise) miss about eating ground turkey. It just doesn’t have the “tooth” to it that beef does. I’ve made this using Splenda (it’s fine) and with Brown Sugar Twin (also fine). So we can still have this but with less carbs.

Back when our children were teenagers we asked each of the kids to choose a weeknight and be responsible for preparing dinner for the family. (We’re a blended family, so between DH and I we have 3 children, two daughters and a son, all in their late 30’s now and for most of their teenage years we all lived together.) We had to plan ahead so the ingredients were on hand, and mostly the kids were pretty good about it. They got to fix one of their favorite meals, and we were all appreciative (at least I think we were). I will tell you that this item was a real “regular” on the menu. Everyone in our family loves this meatloaf and they all learned how to make it because they had to do it.

Meatloaf with Sweet & Sour Sauce
Recipe from a Military Wives’ Cookbook from the 1960’s
Servings: 6
MEATLOAF:
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef or mixed with ground turkey
1 whole egg — beaten
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 ounces tomato sauce
1 medium onion — minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons Italian herbs
SAUCE:
4 ounces tomato sauce
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1. Preheat oven to 375. In a large bowl combine beef, egg, crumbs, tomato sauce, onion and spices. Mix just enough to combine the ingredients; no more. Mound into a loaf shape and place in baking dish somewhat larger than the meatloaf with at least 1-inch sides. It’s better to use a higher sided dish than a lower, flatter dish.
2. In same bowl combine the sauce ingredients: tomato sauce, water, vinegar, sugar, mustard and Worcestershire. Mix to blend in the brown sugar, then gently pour over the meatloaf. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes, then slice and serve with more sauce on each slice.
Notes: Over the years I began to double the sauce recipe because we loved to spoon the sauce over the mashed potatoes, and we never seemed to have enough sauce. The original recipe said you could use either tomato paste or sauce, but we prefer the sauce. If using paste, increase the water in the sauce as it will be too thick. You want the sauce to stick some to the meatloaf, although most of it drips down into the pan.

Per Serving: 378 Calories; 25g Fat (60.3% calories from fat); 23g Protein; 14g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 120mg Cholesterol; 564mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 3 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 3 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.
To view a printable recipe, click HERE. (photo from sourcherryfarms.com)

I absolutely promise that my blog is not going to be all about casseroles. It’s too bad that the word itself is a semi-bad one on blogs. I don’t have all that many casserole recipes. Honest. But those of you old enough to remember the casserole era (that would be the 1960’s and into the 70’s for you young’ns) probably have many of your own of similar ilk as this one. I’m trying to give you some variety here on this blog, and I wouldn’t have chosen this as a subject of a blog post except that this happened to have come out of the freezer the other night - literally it kept falling out of the freezer every time I opened the door. It was trying to tell me something, I finally concluded.

Some of you may know that way back in my deep, dark past, I was a Navy wife. My former husband was an air intelligence officer, and we lived in a variety of places (Florida, Washington, D.C., Whidbey Island, Washington and Denver, Colorado) over the years of his Navy service. During one of the early years I acquired a Navy Officer’s Wives Cookbook, with hundreds and hundreds of recipes from other American Navy officer’s wives from all over the globe. Actually there was a series of them (one of each of these: salads, desserts, casseroles & breads, meats, and one on international foods too). I still go to those cookbooks sometimes to get ideas about dishes to try, even though the plastic spiral bindings are nearly disintegrated on all of them. I was in my mid-20’s then and new to the day-to-day cooking arena when these books went to press, so I didn’t even think of submitting one of my recipes for any of the books. I’m not even sure I had any recipes I could call my own at that time.

As many of you probably remember, casseroles were a staple in every cook’s repertoire. They were popular for family meals, and more elegant casseroles were very popular for guests too. They certainly were in mine, and they were inexpensive. In the 1960’s my normal weekly food budget was $20, and that fed two people for 7 days, 3 meals a day. So, in the Meat cookbook of that era, amidst the little spots of food that spilled there is this recipe for Mister Charlie. Heaven knows why it’s called Mister Charlie. Was Charlie the inspiration? Was he the cook and his wife submitted the recipe? Or, I like to think it’s the dog’s name, because he ate Suzie Q’s portion when she dropped it on the floor? Do you ever ponder why recipes receive the names they do? I’ve asked myself this question about this dish for many years. Undoubtedly I’ll never know the story. I even did a Google search for the title to just see if there was anything official out there for a pasta casserole called Mister Charlie. Nope. Over the years I’ve adapted the recipe some (I use Italian sausage rather than ground beef) and I’ve added mushrooms and cheddar cheese to it. So maybe I should call it Missus Carolyn? What do you think?

Well, then. There isn’t anything startling in this casserole - pasta, meat, mushrooms, a variety of cheeses and a tomato-based sauce. That’s it. But in combo, they make a very tasty dish. Casseroles sometimes don’t look very appealing. Does the photo convey a little bit of the 1965-ish boredom of the tops of many such casseroles? What it does have going for it is that it makes a LOT. It can be made ahead. It’s high in carbs (sigh). But all-in-all, it’s still a keeper. Most of all, it’s American comfort food. So, enjoy Mister Charlie, wherever he is. Woof.

Mister Charlie
Serving Size : 12 Preparation Time :0:45

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 pounds Italian sausage
1 whole onion — minced
2 cloves garlic — minced
12 ounces tomato paste
8 ounces fresh mushrooms — sliced
24 ounces water
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning — or oregano, basil, thyme combination
1 pound cottage cheese
1/2 pound cheddar cheese — grated
1/2 pound Mozzarella cheese — grated and sliced both
1 pound pasta — your choice of type (penne rigate, macaroni)
1/2 cup parsley — chopped

1. Heat large skillet, adding olive oil. Add diced onion and cook while preparing other ingredients. Add the Italian sausage (mashed into small pieces) and continue cooking until all the pink is gone.
2. Add the garlic, herbs and mushrooms, then add the tomato paste and water. Cook for about 15 minutes until well blended. Taste for seasoning (salt and pepper). Set aside to cool slightly. Preheat oven to 350°.
3. Meanwhile, cook pasta until it’s just under-done. Drain.
4. Into a very large bowl add the pasta, cottage cheese, then add the slightly cooled meat mixture. Prepare the cheese - about 1/3 of it should be in thin slices, the remainder should be shredded. I freeze the big ball of mozzarella cheese for about 20 minutes to make it easier to grate. Pour into two 9 x 13 pans, or a combination of other types. Place cheese slices on top. Bake about 20 minutes until the cheese is bubbly.

Serving Ideas : You need nothing with this except a crispy green salad. Back in the day, I’d always make garlic bread, but it isn’t really necessary.
NOTES : This makes a big gooey, mushy mixture, but as it bakes it firms up some. I actually prefer it when it’s sat overnight before baking. Seems to solidify the flavors, I guess. You can alter the amount of water you add - the original recipe said to add 4-5 cans (from the tomato paste) of water. I usually add about 4 cans, which should be 24 ounces. You can also add canned, drained tomatoes to this. Ricotta can be substituted for the cottage cheese too. Originally this recipe called for ground beef, but I like the flavor of the sausage better.
Per Serving: 561 Calories; 33g Fat (52.3% calories from fat); 29g Protein; 38g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 83mg Cholesterol; 995mg Sodium. Exchanges: 2 Grain(Starch); 3 Lean Meat; 1 1/2 Vegetable; 4 1/2 Fat.

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If we’d wanted these ribeye steaks to turn out any better than they did, I don’t know what we could have done to make them so. The recipe is very exact in its cooking method, and with the help of my meat/oven thermometer, they cooked to perfection. The smear underneath is a puckery sauce made ahead and plopped on the hot plate just before serving.

Up until last night’s dinner, we’ve been a bit disappointed with steak we’ve purchased lately. The Costco ribeyes weren’t all that tender, and even the steaks from Whole Foods weren’t very tasty or tender, either. So we decided to splurge on our next steak dinner and buy U.S.D.A. Prime meat, only available at a local, independent butcher (Pacific Ranch Market in Orange Park Acres).

It was money well spent, as these steaks were outstanding in every way. The recipe comes from Hugh Carpenter, a prolific cookbook author and entertaining instructor. He came to my attention about 16 years ago with classes he taught in Los Angeles and Pasadena. I’ve purchased several of his books, and a couple of years ago he taught a grill or barbecue class at Sur la Table in Newport Beach (SLT is rarely doing guest chefs anymore, so don’t look for him there or at any other SLT store . . . perhaps I’ll write a rant about the Sur la Table cooking school on another posting . . . I used to be a big fan, but no longer). This was the recipe he prepared that night, and it’s been a success every time. I believe it’s from his book Hot Barbecue printed a few years ago, which I do not own.

Buy the best quality meat you can afford. Make sure you have a very reliable meat thermometer like the one pictured here. This little number has been a lifesaver for me more times than I can count. And as good as anyone thinks he/she is as a grill king, it will make a believer out of you that every cook needs one. This particular model by Polder tracks the temperature in the grill oven as well as the food so you can make adjustments. The method of cooking is this: the steak is marinated for a few hours. Meanwhile, make the Amazing Glaze sauce and allow it to cool.

After removing some to serve on the finished plate, drain the steaks, blot them dry and let them sit in remaining glaze for about 40 minutes. Heat grill to medium high, sear the steaks for one minute on each side, then put them on a rack on a baking sheet and place back in the grill at 300° but not over the direct heat. Watch the meat thermometer carefully and remove them when they hit 120°. Allow to sit for 5 minutes covered loosely with foil. Serve! You won’t be disappointed.
Happy grilling . . .

Ribeye Steaks with Amazing Glaze
Recipe By :Hugh Carpenter, cookbook author
Serving Size : 4 Preparation Time :0:30

48 ounces steaks — 4 ribeyes, 12 ounces each
10 ounces Worcestershire sauce
3 whole lemons — squeezed
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 whole yellow onion — chopped
6 cloves garlic — minced
2 tablespoons fresh thyme
2 cups red wine
1 1/2 cups Heinz 57 Sauce
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon molasses
1 tablespoon fresh oregano
1 tablespoon paprika
1/2 tablespoon fresh sage
1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

1. Place the steaks in a large rectangular container. In a small bowl combine the Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice and water. Pour over the meat and chill for 1-8 hours.
2. Meanwhile, prepare the Sauce: In a 2 1/2 quart saucepan add oil and onion. Sauté until onions are translucent, about 8 minutes. Add garlic and continue cooking for just 30 seconds. Add all remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Remove lid, increase heat and boil until the sauce has reduced about half. Transfer to a bowl, cool, cover and refrigerate.
3. Set aside one cup of the sauce to serve with the meat. Drain and discard the meat marinade. Blot the steaks of excess liquid, then spread remaining sauce liberally over the steaks, to coat evenly.
4. Grilling meat: Preheat oven to 300°. Use convection, if available. Then preheat a stovetop grill over high heat. Grill steaks on hot grill and cook about 1 minute per side. Place steaks in oven on a rack, on a baking sheet and insert a meat thermometer in the center of one steak. Bake about 15 minutes, or until the internal temperature is about 120° - 130°. At 120° = medium rare, at 130° = medium. Cut into one steak when it is about 5° below desired temp. It may require a few more minutes, depending on your oven temperature.
5. Remove steaks from oven and allow to sit for about 5 minutes. Slice steak into thin slices and serve on a heated plate with a puddle of the sauce beneath it.
6. If you would prefer to use a GAS GRILL, preheat it to medium heat. Brush the grill with oil, then lay on the steaks, marking them, but cooking no longer than that. Have ready a rimmed baking sheet with a rack, and place steaks on the rack in the grill, but not over direct heat. Reduce heat to 300°. Insert meat thermometer, close lid and continue to cook until meat reaches temperature desired (see above). Allow to cool 5 minutes before serving.

Start to Finish Time: 2:15

Serving Ideas : This is best served with a smooth carb - like garlic mashed potatoes or creamy polenta. Grilled onions make a good accompaniment as well.
NOTES : Sauce is very spicy. If you prefer more highly seasoned, add more Tabasco. And this recipe assumes a VERY hearty eater with 12 ounces of steak per person. Most people would eat an 8 ounce steak. Another option: buy bigger ribeyes and cut them in half after they’re grilled. The “secret” to this recipe is the cooking method and it has worked perfectly every time. We take the steaks off at 120° and let them sit for a few minutes covered lightly with foil.
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