Lá Fhéile Pádraig, Cuid a Dó
Our Beef Braised in Guinness took a turn to the better, this evening. This is a dish I've been making for years and haven't really varied much from the basic. Tonight, we varied!
It started with Victor not knowing what I was planning for dinner, tonight, so he went into the kitchen and made a batch of pasta. Our meals are pretty flexible - either of us can just go in and decide to do dinner without fanfare or consultation. It works for us.
I said, great, I was going to do Beef in Guinness but nothing had been prepped. He said he'd freeze the dough. I said No... make wide noodles. I had a plan...
Instead of doing my typical large pieces of beef and potatoes, I did stew-sized pieces - sans potatoes - and made a bit of a different dish. A stew-like dish with noodles. Same rich, delicious flavor - just a different final presentation.
Part of the fun of cooking is switching things out - being creative. Tonight, we were creative.
Beef Braised in Guinness
- 16 oz beef, in cubes
- 1 large leek, diced
- 8 shallots, halved
- 2 carrots, sliced
- 2 celery stalks, sliced
- 1 pound assorted mushrooms
- all-purpose flour
- Salt and pepper
- Garlic powder
- 3 tbsp butter
- 1 tsp basil
- 2 bottles Guinness
- 2 tbsp honey
- Fresh pasta noodles
Cut the meat into cubes. Peel the shallots and slice in half. Chop the leek. Slice the carrots into rounds.
Place the flour in a dish and mix in 1 tsp of salt, pepper, and a bit of garlic powder. Heat the butter in an oven proof pan with lid. Dredge the pieces of meat in the seasoned flour and brown. Set aside as the pieces are cooked. Add the leeks and shallots and cook until soft. Add the carrots and mushrooms and cook until mushrooms have wilted.
Add the Guinness. Allow to boil for a minute or two, then add the basil and honey. Add the meat. Taste and add salt and pepper, as needed.
Cover the dish and bake at 325° for about 90 minutes.
Right before taking out of the oven, cook pasta noodles. Drain well and add to the stew.
Flexibility really is key in cooking. Hell, it's key in life. We ended up with a perfect meal that both of us contributed to and exceeded what either of us had thought about making individually. We added a couple of slices of the Soda Bread with Cayenne I had made earlier in the day.
It does not suck to be us.
The End of Week Thirty
I'm definitely filing this in the who woulda thunk category, today.
Really. Who woulda thunk we'd be doing this for thirty weeks - losing weight, gaining strength and stamina, eating better - and actually enjoying it?!? It seriously boggles the mind.
I had to buy a new pair of gym shorts, yesterday, because the old ones were too big and starting to fall off me. All of the XXL clothes have been donated, and while the closet is looking a bit sparse, we're not buying anything new, right away, except for jeans. I've gone from 40x32 to 34x32. Damn, it feels food.
What also feels good is doing things I never even conceived as being possible. Our trainer has us doing the seemingly impossible - and we continually succeed. I may not have a lot of finesse or style, but I'm making up for it with pure grit and determination. I figure finesse and style will come, eventually - my main focus right now is simply not dying while I'm doing whatever crazed thing he has us doing. Remembering to breathe is important.
Eating is important, too.
And we're definitely eating. Tonight was a celebratory steak topped with bacon, onion, tomato, and chipotle. Ridiculously good. The idea came from the NY Times Cooking pages.
Bacon and Chipotle Sauce
- 4 oz bacon, chopped
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 can diced tomatoes, drained
- 1 tsp chipotle powder - or to taste
- salt and pepper, to taste
Cook bacon in a small skillet until crisp. Add diced onions and cook well. Add chipotle powder and quickly mix in. Add drained tomatoes and mix well. Cook until everything is hot and reduced to a jam-like consistency. Season with salt & pepper, as desired.
This is one of those things that could be used for anything - starting as the filling for a grilled cheese sandwich! Every bite is pure flavor. I cooked the baby zucchini in it, tonight, and it added some excellent flavor to an often-bland vegetable.
I marinated the steak in the drained tomato juice, cumin, Mexican oregano, and ancho chile powder. I seared it on the stove and finished it in the oven.
Waste not, want not, ya know?!?
So... here's to another successful week - and the next one coming up.
I'm feeling better and better about this.
Roast Beef, Mashed Potatoes, and Peas
My impulse-buy of the week was a 3 3/4 pound top round steak - often erroneously called a London Broil which is a cooking method, not a cut of meat. Your food etymology lesson for the day is complete.
I like top rounds because they lend themselves to a score of cooking methods. I will cube them for stew or brochettes, pound them for chicken fried steak, or pan-sear and roast as I did, tonight.
That big ol' piece of meat was cut into 5 different pieces, vacuum-sealed, and 4 of them were frozen. Five meals for under $3.50 each. Mr. Frugal strikes, again!
I seasoned the beef with some salt and pepper, and then seared it well on top of the stove and then placed it in a 425°F oven for about 15 minutes. It came out perfectly medium rare. Potatoes were mashed with the skins - because I really like the skins of potatoes - and it's where a lot of the nutrients live. Fresh peas with a bit of butter, and mushroom pan gravy.
A 30-minute meal.
Chili
I've been craving chili for a while, now. Back when Victor had to travel for work - and before Nonna moved in - I would live on chili dogs and chili burgers while he was gone. It's been many years since I was able to do that, but bad eating habits die hard.
I started today's chili right around noon - I wanted a nice, long simmer - and it didn't disappoint. I started off by soaking a pound of cranberry beans overnight. While I really have no qualms about using canned beans, dried beans are cheap - really cheap. Cranberry beans are not the most traditional bean to use, but they're a bit thick skinned and hold up to some rigorous cooking.
Into the dutch oven went a chopped onion, a chopped bell pepper, and 2 cloves of minced garlic. When it was starting to look good, I added a pound of ground beef - 80/20 - and the spices - chipotle powder, ancho chili powder, cumin, Mexican oregano, Goya sazón, cayenne pepper, mixed chili powder and some salt and pepper. I don't have actual amounts because over time, i added more of this and that...
When the beef was cooked, I added some beef broth that was in the 'fridge, some tomato sauce that was in the 'fridge, and a can of diced tomatoes, and brought it all to a boil. I covered the pot, reduced the heat, and let it simmer for a couple of hours.
Meanwhile, I cooked the beans.
When the beans were cooked, I drained them and added them to the chili mixture and let it all simmer together for another hour.
The end result was a pretty good batch of chili.
Steaks and Mushrooms
I came across a steak recipe the other day on the BBC Food website that sounded kinda interesting. It was a filet crusted in cashews and topped with a mushroom sauce - my kind of meal. We didn't have any cashews in the house, but we did have pistachios. I went to work.
Steak and Mushrooms
adapted from Paul Rankin/BBC Food
For the beef with pistachio crust:
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 8oz beef fillet
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tbsp truffle mustard
- 2oz breadcrumbs
- 2oz pistachios, roughly crushed
- tbsp chopped fresh parsley
For the wild mushroom sauce:
- 2oz butter
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 shallot, finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- 4oz mushrooms, sliced
- 1oz dried mushrooms
- 2 cups beef broth
- 1/4 cup brandy
- salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
For the beef with cashew crust, rub the beef all over with olive oil and season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Heat an ovenproof frying pan until hot and fry the beef for 2 minutes on each side. Spread the mustard over the beef.
Place the breadcrumbs, pistachios, and parsley into a bowl and mix well. Press this mixture onto the mustard-covered beef, then transfer to the oven and bake for five minutes, or until the crust is golden-brown and the beef is cooked to your liking.
For the wild mushroom sauce, boil the beef stock and soak the dried mushrooms. Drain, reserving liquid.
Heat the butter and oil in a skillet and gently fry the shallot and garlic until softened.
Add the sliced mushrooms and soaked mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms have softened. Add the brandy and reduce by half. Add the reserved broth and season with salt and pepper to taste. Boil until reduced by half. You may thicken, slightly, if desired.
To serve, place the beef onto a plate and top with sauce.
With the potatoes and carrots, it was one of those meals that took an awful lot of pots and pans - but it was worth it. The steaks came out perfectly cooked, the mushrooms were rich and flavorful, and who can argue with baby carrots and dill?
I used one strip steak, cut in half - we both had 8oz steaks - and neither of us finished them. Blanche was extremely happy!
So were we.
Steaks and Baked Potatoes
Gastronomically speaking, it doesn't take a lot to put a smile on my face. And sometimes, the more simple, the bigger the smile.
A steak and a baked potato are as basic as basic can be - but with the tiniest little tweaks, they can become awesome.
The tiny tweaks tonight started with a spice sample I got from Penzey's - Chicago Steak Seasoning. I have often said that I don't buy or use a lot of spice blends - except for the dozen or so that I always use - so when this one arrived with my last order, I was a bit skeptical. I used it, tonight, and I must admit that it's pretty good. It's a blend of: salt, Tellicherry black pepper, sugar, garlic, onion, lemon zest, citric acid and natural hickory smoke flavor. And it works.
I cooked the steaks on a cast iron skillet and then finished them off in the oven. Since I was baking a potato, I heated the skillet in the oven. It was nice and hot when I put the steaks on...
I baked a potato, split it in half and added a bit of butter. On top went steamed broccoli in a quick cheese sauce - butter, flour, milk, jack cheese and a bit of garlic powder. Simple as simple can be.
Added to the plate were a couple of slices of fresh-baked bread. I held off on the butter, but there were some nice steak juices to sop up.
A single steak cut in half. A single potato cut in half. Really simple and a really big smile.
The End of Week Twenty-Seven
I've been circling the sun for 66 years - and I finally have the the very beginnings of a bicep. Not quite Charles Atlas - more like Charles Nelson Reilly - but it's almost beginning to be there! Will wonders never cease...
When we started this, the goal was to lose weight. We've been losing the weight. What I naively wasn't expecting was for my body to actually start working better - like with actual muscles and stuff working together to make things easier. It's slowly happening.
Okay... I still can't touch my toes - but I'm getting closer. And I hurt in places I never knew existed six months ago - but I'm recovering faster. It's slowly happening.
It's seeing - and feeling - the results of all of this that is keeping us going. It is most definitely the best money we have ever spent.
Our goal in all of this is NOT to look like some of the muscle-boys at the gym - no bulging biceps and thighs like tree trunks - but a little bit of toning wouldn't hurt my feelings. Of course, to tone muscles, one must find them in the first place. We're at the search and rescue portion of the journey, right now.
Our trainer is getting more demanding, but he's also extremely understanding of where we are and where we started. He'll start me out with 20 pound dumbbells but will switch them out when he sees me struggling too much. But then brings the 20 pounders back the next time. And he'll keep increasing the weight on machines each time we do a rep until I literally cannot move whatever it is I am supposed to move - all the while saying This is an easy one. Low weight. You can do it while my arms want to fall off and have completely stopped working.
On the other hand, I almost have the beginnings of a bicep. It's slowly happening.
What didn't slowly happen was dinner, tonight. It quickly happened, because it's ready in the time it takes to boil the orecchiette. The recipe came from Jacques Pépin and has become a staple in our house. It's really quick and easy to make. And it tastes fantastic! Our friend, Ann, started putting anchovies in it - and it's a great addition!
The recipe calls for pine nuts, but I didn't have any so I used pistachios. They were an excellent switch.
Orecchiette with Fennel and Tuna
adapted from Jacques Pépin
- 1/2 lb Orecchiette
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 anchovy fillets, chopped
- 1/2 cup pine nuts
- 1 medium fennel bulb, thinly sliced
- 1 bell pepper, cut into thin strips
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 6oz can of tuna (packed in oil, preferred)
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
- Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Start cooking orecchiette.
In a large skillet, saute onion in olive oil until translucent. Add the anchovies and cook a minute until they dissolve. Add the pine nuts and cook until they begin to lightly brown and are fragrant.
Add sliced fennel and stir or flip pan until fennel is on bottom and pine nuts on top. Add a bit of pasta water or white wine. Cover, and cook about 3 minutes.
Uncover and add bell peppers. Cook a few minutes and add the garlic. Continue cooking and add the tuna and raisins.
Cover, again, and cook until vegetables are tender – just a few more minutes.
Drain pasta and stir into fennel. Stir in parsley and cheese.
Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper, as desired.
Twenty-five more weeks to go.....
Beef Stew and Mashed Potatoes
It has definitely turned into stew weather. It was 22°F when we headed off to the gym, this morning, and I think it got up to a whopping 32°F by this afternoon. It's dropping back down as I type.
I can tell I'm getting old simply by noticing the temperature. I kinda laugh at it, thinking about the years I lived at Tahoe and rarely wore a jacket unless I was spending a lot of time outdoors - and even then, a cheap thermal shirt under a flannel shirt made it easier to move about. I don't think I've ever owned a real winter jacket - even in Boston or Buffalo. A couple of layers of long sleeves has always been adequate.
I still don't own a real winter jacket. But I am noticing the cold, more. Time to move to warmer climes...
I thought a nice stew would be good for dinner, and then decided that a nice stew over mashed potatoes would be an excellent dinner. And I was right - it was an excellent dinner.
I made the smallest batch of stew I've even made, using one of our smaller pots just to force containment. It worked.
I started with about 12 ounces of beef that I cut into cubes. I started with half a chopped onion and let it cook for a few minutes. I added the beef just to brown a bit and then some minced garlic.
Next went in about a third of a cup of brandy. I boiled it down a bit and then added red wine to cover the meat - maybe a bit more than a cup. I added a bit of salt and pepper, put a lid on, lowered the heat, and let it simmer for about 2 hours.
The house filled with the most fabulous aroma.....
About an hour before serving, I cut up a carrot and 2 stalks of celery and added them in, along with 8 ounces of assorted mushrooms.
The lid went back on and I let it all simmer away.
Finally, I thickened the broth with a bit of flour and cornstarch mixed together with a bit of water.
It went atop a single russet potato - unpeeled - that I boiled and mashed. Nothing fancy - just butter and milk and a pinch of S&P.
Victor's going to make a batch of lentil soup tomorrow and there may be some chicken pot pies in our future. If the weather is going to be cold, I'm going to make sure there's plenty of warm food to keep me from going out and buying a jacket I really don't need.
Besides, I don't know what size to buy, anymore...
The End of Week Twenty-Five
Twenty-five weeks, boys and girls. We've been at this for twenty-five weeks. That means at the end of next week, we will have been at this for six months.
Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought I'd be going to a gym for six months, losing weight, and actually enjoying it. It's almost as if someone else has taken over my mind and body. This can't possibly be me!
But it is me - and I have the sore muscles to prove it.
I lost two of the pounds I gained over the holidays and Victor is down two, as well. I think, though, our focus for the next six months is going to be a bit less about weight loss and a bit more about how we feel and how we're doing. We both have more weight we want to lose, but 2 pounds a week is pretty unsustainable. Even one pound a week is stretching it after a while. The goal is to drop some more, but not push it. At some point we're going to reach that magic number we're looking for and it will all be about maintaining at that point.
The gym is getting both easier and more difficult. Easier in that many things are much more doable today that they were six months ago. more difficult, because as we get better at doing something, our trainer adds another twenty pounds or throws another move into the mix. He's pushing - and not letting up. It's the discipline I need to keep going forward. At the same time, I'm finding myself saying that I can take another 10 pounds, or I push it to twenty when the rep was fifteen.
And then there's recovery time. When we first started this, we'd walk out of the gym and be shot for hours. Now we walk out and are ready to face the day. There's no down-time. It's almost like our bodies are starting to work the way they were designed.
What a concept.
On the food end of things, I still need to work on portions. I will probably always need to work on them - although I really am getting better. Marginally, perhaps, but better. Kaizen, as we used to say at Trader Joe's.
Tonight's dinner was going to be Beef Stroganoff - until I went to the 'fridge and found out what I thought was sour cream was actually ricotta. Dinner became beef and mushrooms, instead. Served over egg noodles. We did not suffer.
Things that still amaze me are things like taking one steak and having enough food for both our dinners and at least one lunch the following day. Once upon a time, it would have been two steaks - and no leftovers.
Beef and Mushrooms
- 1 12oz strip steak cut into strips
- 1 lb assorted mushrooms, sliced
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/4 cup brandy
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 1 1/2 cups beef broth
- flour
- salt
- pepper
- garlic powder
Mix flour, salt, pepper, and garlic powder in a bowl. Dredge beef in flour mixture. Reserve flour mixture for finishing sauce.
Melt a pat of butter in a skillet and sauté beef strips just until browned. Remove from pan and set aside.
Add chopped onions to skillet with a bit more butter, if needed, and cook about a minute Add sliced mushrooms and cook until mushrooms are quite well-cooked.
Stir in the tomato paste and cook slightly. Add the beef and coat with the tomato.
Add the brandy and cook until it mostly evaporates. Add the wine and do the same.
Add the beef broth and bring back to a boil.
Add a bit of water to the leftover flour to make a smooth paste. Stir in small amounts at a time until sauce has thickened to your liking. Continue cooking for a few minutes.
Meanwhile. cook egg noodles according to package instructions. When done, drain and stir into beef mixture.
Enjoy.
There's lots of flavor going on with this. One thing I tend to do is under-cook mushrooms. They really like to be cooked well - and half the time I try and rush it. Tonight, I did it right - and it showed in the finished product.
Little splashes of brandy, of wine, and of tomato paste all added to the sauce. And I weighed the noodles.
A successful dinner - even if it was supposed to be something else.
And another successful end of a week.
Twenty-seven more until the end of our contract. Just in time for summer!
Roast Beast and Hasselback Potatoes
Tonight's dinner is the roast beef I planned for Christmas. The potato is a recipe Victor found from Jamie Oliver. I love Jamie Oliver. I love his passion for food. He's a great role model for kids and adults.
The roast has a funny back story... Back when I worked at the Hyatt House in Burlingame - early to mid '79 - the fancy restaurant, Hugos, did a mean prime rib. They went into a 500°F oven for an hour and then the oven was turned off and they sat in the closed oven for 90 minutes. They were seriously known for their prime rib - and they always came out excellent. The only reason I remember that is because yesterday, I saw two different articles on cooking a roast for 5 minutes per pound at 500°F and then turning off the oven and letting it set for 2 hours. I had this niggling thought that I had seen this somewhere before or someplace I worked had done it... Every hotel I worked in cooked prime ribs - and every one did them differently. We slow-roasted them at the Hyatt Lake Tahoe. One did them completely encrusted in salt - also excellent. Alas, I worked in too many of them to actually remember details at this point in my life, but Tahoe and Burlingame are the last two hotels where I actually cooked.
But I did decide to cook my little-more-than-2-pound roast using the 500°F method, today, just because. I preheated the oven, placed it in, set the timer for 11 minutes, left the kitchen, and never heard the timer go off.
I was answering an email when I had an oh shit moment and went running into the kitchen. The timer had reached almost 10 minutes and was still counting up. It had been in there for 21 minutes.
I resisted opening the oven and decided I would pull it out at 90 minutes instead of 120. I did, and it was a bit more cooked than I generally like, but it was tender and flavorful - and the gravy made it perfect.
Lesson Number One: If you're going to set a timer, make sure it is placed where you can hear it.
The beef was a bit over-cooked and the potatoes a bit under-cooked. One of those days... the recipe for the potatoes calls for Maris Piper potatoes - quite the popular potato in England. It looks like a thin-skinned white potato but I don't recall seeing the name around here. I had a nice russet that I cut in half and used, but it would probably have been better had I used a smaller spud. It tasted absolutely wonderful - the combination of thyme, bread crumbs, hazelnuts, and cheese was remarkable. It just could have been a tad softer.
I definitely will make these potatoes again.
Jamie calls for blue cheese. I didn't have any but used manchego. I think you could use whatever you had on hand and get excellent results. I also used dried thyme - I just got a sample from Penzey's... It was great.
Hasselback Potatoes
Ingredients
- 2.5 kg Maris Piper potatoes , choose the smallest ones
- ½ a bunch of fresh thyme (15g)
- 4 tablespoons higher-welfare turkey dripping , or olive oil
- 50 g stale bread
- 40 g hazelnuts
- 100 g blue cheese
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4.
The fun and unique part of this side dish is that you need to slice multiple times through the potatoes, but – importantly – without going all the way through, giving you a kind of concertina-style potato. This looks beautiful but also makes them wonderfully absorbent of flavour and amplifies their crispiness. Try to choose small potatoes, give them a wash, and if you have any larger ones, cut them in half and use the flat side as a base.
To make this process as simple as possible, place a potato on a board between the handles of two wooden spoons, so that when you slice down into the potato the spoons stop the blade from going all the way through.
Carefully slice at just under ½cm intervals all the way along. Repeat with all the potatoes, placing them in a large roasting tray as you go.
Pick half the thyme leaves into a pestle and mortar and pound with the turkey dripping or oil. Spoon over the potatoes, making sure the fat gets down into the cuts you’ve made, then season with sea salt and black pepper.Roast for 1 hour, or until the potatoes are golden and tender.
Meanwhile, tear the bread into a baking dish, add the hazelnuts and toast in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove and allow to cool, then tip into a food processor, strip in most of the remaining thyme leaves, add a pinch of sea salt and black pepper and half the cheese, and pulse into coarse crumbs.
When the hour is up, sprinkle the crumbs over the potatoes, then finely crumble a little bit of the remaining blue cheese on to each one.
Dress the rest of the thyme sprigs with a tiny bit of oil and sprinkle randomly on top.Return to the oven for a final 10 minutes, or until the cheese starts to melt, then serve.
Dijon and Cognac Beef Stew
After about 15 minutes into this recipe, I was a bit worried...
I had followed the recipe fairly well - for me - and had added the mustard to the pot - a quarter cup of Dijon plus a tablespoon of a truffle mustard. All I could taste was mustard.
My first instinct was oh, shit. And them common sense took over. I figured that the mustard would have to mellow - none of the reviews mentioned it tasting like a pretzel dip.
I soldiered on.
I'm rather glad I did, too. This is a pretty darned good stew - and perfect for this ridiculous weather. It's 40°F/4°C and raining. It really seems a lot colder - it's the penetrating damp - but it beats a blizzard, I guess.
Dijon and Cognac Beef Stew
adapted from the New York Times
- 1/4 pound pancetta, diced
- 1 large onion, finely diced
- 3 shallots, chopped
- 2 to 4 tablespoons butter, as needed
- 1 1/4 pounds beef chuck, in 1-inch cubes
- 2 tablespoons flour
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 4 tablespoons butter, as needed
- 1/2 cup Cognac
- 2 cups beef stock
- ½ cup Dijon mustard
- 4 tablespoons Pommery mustard (whole grain mustard will work)
- 4 large carrots, peeled and cut into half-moon slices
- 1 lb potatoes, cut into large chunks
- 1/2 pound mushrooms, stemmed, cleaned and quartered
- 1/2 cup red wine
Instructions
Place pancetta in a Dutch oven or a large heavy kettle over low heat, and cook until fat is rendered. Raise heat, and add onion and shallots. Cook until softened but not browned, 10 to 15 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer to a large bowl.
If necessary, add 2 tablespoons butter to the pan to augment fat. Dust beef cubes with flour, and season with salt and pepper. Shake off excess flour, and place half the cubes in the pan. Cook over medium-high heat until well browned, almost crusty, on all sides, then transfer to a bowl with onions. Repeat with remaining beef.
Add Cognac to the empty pan, and cook, stirring, until the bottom is deglazed and the crust comes loose. Add stock, Dijon mustard and 1 tablespoon Pommery mustard. Whisk to blend, then return meat and onion mixture to pan. Lower heat, cover pan partway, and simmer gently until meat is very tender, about 1 1/2 hours.
Add carrots and potatoes, and continue simmering for 30 minutes, or until tender. As they cook, heat 2 tablespoons butter in medium skillet over medium-high heat, and sauté mushrooms until browned and tender.
Stir mushrooms into stew along with remaining mustard and red wine. Simmer 5 minutes, then taste, and adjust seasoning. Serve hot.
I did not add the remaining mustard, and added 1/2 cup of red wine instead of the 1/4 cup originally called for. I also added potatoes - because I wanted potatoes in my stew. I used smaller yukon golds, but any would work.
The end result is it's a keeper.
Beef and Mushrooms
We were having a conversation with some friends the other day about cooking. Some of us are intuitive cooks - you open the 'fridge, see what's in there, and cook dinner. Others of us need everything in place with step-by-step instructions on what to do and how to do it.
Obviously, I'm the first category. Unless I'm cooking something extremely specific or making something for the first time and wanting to impress - I wing it. There are certain flavor profiles I can replicate fairly easily and if I want to make something and lack an ingredient - I just put in something else. The most difficult part of being an intuitive cook is trying to tell someone when they ask, what you did and how you did it. My standard response is something along the lines of I dunno - I just did it - and then rattle off the Cliff's Notes version of what I did.
Of course, that is totally meaningless to someone who needs step-by-step instructions - and makes total sense to someone who doesn't.
The most difficult part of writing this blog is coming up with written recipes. I'm an add water and stir person in a world of how much water and how long do you stir? people. It's not an easy place to be.
My basic premise with cooking is you just do it. You taste things, you add, you adjust... you look through the spice cabinet and add a pinch of this and a dash of that... You look in the 'fridge and see what needs to be used up. But what do you do if you honestly don't know what goes with what? What do you do if you don't really care all that much, but you need to get something on the table? What if your passions lay elsewhere and cooking is just something you need to endure until you can afford a full-time chef?
And my answer is... I don't know. My passion is cooking and baking. I do not have a passion for calculus or discovering new stars in a galaxy far, far away. I can look through a microscope or telescope and appreciate what I'm seeing - but it's pretty meaningless to me in the grand scheme of things. And, I'm going to need printed step-by-step instructions to do it. Pretty much, I gather, as cooking is to others.
So... I guess my revised answer is get a good, basic cookbook - something like Better Homes and Gardens that has a huge variety of good, basic recipes that are pretty no-fail. We have an old copy that I love to go through and get ideas, and the latest edition has been updated to more modern tastes. Learn how to make one dish really well and let it become your go-to when you have no idea what you want or aren't feeling creative.
And, I guess I would add to try not think of cooking as a chore. And don't try to replicate foods you had at a restaurant or be upset that your homemade dish doesn't taste like Stouffer's. Restaurants get different foods than grocery stores and they have the time and ability to do things that the home cook can't. Prepared foods are formulated for mouth feel, taste, scent, texture... Even when they're not chemically enhanced, they're manipulated. You can't do that at home, either.
Tonight's dinner started off with needing to use up some mushrooms.
I took a NY strip steak out of the freezer, let it thaw, and then cut it into strips. I sautéed it lightly in a tablespoon each of butter and olive oil, and when it was about half-cooked - I took it from the pan.
Into the same pan went the mushrooms. When they were fairly browned, I added about t tablespoons of tomato paste and cooked it a bit with the mushrooms. Then I added about a third of a cup of dry sherry. It bubbled up nicely.
Next went in some beef broth - about a cup - and I cooked it until it reduced a bit and thickened slightly. Then I added the beef back to the pan and let it cook through.
I added some garlic powder, a pinch of thyme, and some salt and pepper.
Served it over some orzo and rice pilaf.
Really simple, really basic, and quite good, too.
Same dish could be made with marsala, red wine, or no wine, at all. The thyme could become oregano - or French herbs or Italian seasoning. Same basic idea, slightly different flavor profile.
Cooking is not rocket science - which is a really good thing, because it it was - I'd starve.