Shepherd's Pie
We eat a reasonably seasonal diet. The heavier sauces, soups, and stews of winter give way to grilled foods, fresh produce, and generally lighter fare during the summer. But every now and again something strikes a fancy and seasons be damned. We're having it.
I had pulled some ground beef out of the freezer this morning thinking I would stuff zucchini for dinner. After work today, I decided hamburgers and fries were in order.
The temperature outside is hovering just around what I imagine the third level of Hell to be. Burgers definitely sounded better.
Victor had other ideas...
When I got home, he said he was making shepherd's pie for us. Never being one to question someone cooking dinner, I immediately jumped on the idea. You're cooking, I'm eating. End of discussion!
It had tomatoes, celery, carrots, Italian green beans, peas, corn, garlic, onions, fresh herbs, and ground beef, topped with mashed potatoes and parmesan cheese.
I cleaned my plate and went back for seconds.
I contemplated thirds, but common sense roared its ugly head and I acquiesced.
Damn, it was good!
And there should be enough for lunch tomorrow and on Monday when Victor's in NYC. I won't have to eat hot dogs all day long like I normally do when he's out of town...
Ribeye Steaks with Caramelized Onions
It's an art-form to bring a pan juuuuuust this close to destruction. And to properly caramelize onions, that's just about where you have to go with it. And ya know that if there's an opportunity to truly dirty a pan, I'm there.
The purpose of this particular skillet-crusting was a couple of ribeye steaks. When we decided to do the steaks tonight, Victor specifically requested the onions. It really is his favorite way to eat a steak.
I was happy to oblidge.
The pan shows the remains of four onions sauteed in 2 tbsp butter. When they were about 80% done, I splashed in some red wine and cooked it down.
The rice was cooked with some red pepper tapenade and then when finished, I stirred in some cheese.
Arugula sauteed in a pat of butter with salt and pepper finished off the plate. And me.
I like cooked arugula much better than cooked spinach - and I love cooked spinach! It's just a great way to enjoy it, and it's as versatile as can be. Lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, garlic... It will take anything.
The steaks were about half the size of the monsters we had in Omaha - which was just fine with me. As much as I like to eat, even I couldn't do one of those very often.
I think a little ice cream for dessert is in order, later...
Omaha Steaks
When in Rome, do as the Romans. When in Omaha, have a steak.
The cousins took us out to a steakhouse that's been around for 80 or so years - Piccolos's. On the south side of town down where the stockyards one dominated, it has transitioned from neighborhood bar to night club to a cavernous restaurant with some damned good steaks!
We headed off to the bar while awaiting the gang. Old-style drinks poured by people who know how to pour a drink.
Into the restaurant we went - a party of 20.
The steaks are all served with an iceberg salad and choice of sides.
I ordered the 20 oz T-bone for $21.00. Rare. Really rare.
It was one fine steak. The sides were a foil-wrapped baked potato and canned green beans, but ya know?!? I was here for the steak, not the side dishes. Besides, they were slightly fitting for the environment.
It was the perfect local haunt.
Rib Eye Steaks
Actually... It's a rib eye steak topped with shoestring fries topped with Bearnaise sauce.
Really.
The concept came from Gourmet magazine a few years back. They used a fast-food-style french fry. I almost did, too - we usually have some shoestring fries in the freezer - but then decided a really skinny shoestring fry was in order. Out came the trusty mandoline and in mere moments I had a lovely mound of perfectly-slivered potatoes.
I fried them off in grapeseed oil, a few at a time.
The steaks were grilled outside and while they were cooking, I made the Bearnaise.
Blender Bearnaise
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 tsp heavy cream
- 1/2 cup hot melted butter
- 2 tsp white wine vinegar
- 1/2 tsp tarragon
- pinch chervil
- 1 tsp minced shallot
- pinch salt and pepper
Add egg yolks, heavy cream, shallots, and spices to blender. Mix really well. With blender running, add half the hot butter. Add the vinegar, and then finish adding the remaining butter. Blend until smooth.
It is just too easy. And so good.
A bit of steamed broccoli for balance, and dinner was served.
This is one of those meals that just works on so many different levels. Everything blends well, every taste plays off the other, different textures in every bite. Creamy...
My stomach is smiling.
London Broil
London Broil... I've been searching for the origin of the term but keep coming up short. But I did find out that contrary to popular belief, "London Broil" is not that thick ol' slab of top round. In fact, it's not a cut of beef, at all - it's a method of cooking. Who knew?!?
And, the traditional cut of beef used was flank steak. Over time, it became a marinated piece of beef, grilled close to the fire, sliced thin, against the grain. Really. Who knew?!?
I remember in my cooking days at the Hyatt Lake Tahoe, we had a bin in the meat walk-in with marinating flank steaks in it 24/7/365. I honestly don't know if that thing was ever emptied in all the years I worked there. It seems we just kept adding to it. But it was some of the best damned flank steak I've ever had. We'd just push up a sleeve and stick a hand in there to pick a few out, as needed.
It was definitely a different world, back then. Agribusiness still hadn't taken control of our food supply and we still had standards. It's funny to think of basic, normal things we did back then that would flabbergast people, today. For instance... we used to smoke and drink while working! There were no such thing as latex gloves and we literally had cases of cold beer at our disposal at all times. Customers would buy us drinks for grilling that perfect steak or just from appreciation for a stellar meal. Make that a double Jack Daniels, thankyouverymuch!
But lest anyone think it was a free-wheeling party, we also had an Executive Chef, Peter Koenig, who ran that kitchen like a well-oiled Swiss watch. I mentioned standards, earlier?!? His cooks were clean, his kitchens were clean. We worked hard and we played hard. We had a lot of fun. But there was no horseplay. Trust me on that one.
Peter went on to become one of the founders of the Max's chain in San Francisco. He was a great guy. In fact, he hired me twice. The first time as a cook at Hugo's Rotisserie right on the lake, and then, after a brief stint back in SF and a move back to Tahoe (long story) he rehired me on the spot and had me open the all-you-could-eat Ponderosa Buffet. I learned a lot from him.
Looking back, it really was a great place to be young. And we ate really well.
So fast-forward almost 35 years and we're grilling a big, thick, top round steak labeled "London Broil". I did a bit of a marinade in some Dale's Seasoning, garlic, salt, and pepper. Basic and simple. Mashed potatoes, steamed asparagus, and a bit of mushroom gravy finished the plate.
I was going to do the traditional thin-slice-against-the-grain, but Victor said to just cut him a slab.
Worked for me.
It was good.
Salads with a Mexican Bite
Tonight was one spicy meal. From the grilled London Broil to the fried peppers, from the corn salad to the dressing, there was chili to be had.
The corn salad was a wing-it recipe...
Corn and Pinto Bean Salad
- 2 ears fresh corn
- 1 can pinto beans
- 1 can chopped green chilies
- 2 tbsp mayonnaise
- 2 tbsp Sofrito sauce
- splash Tabasco
- pinch cumin
- salt and pepper, to taste
Cook corn, cool, and cut kernels from cob. Place in bowl with 1 can pinto beans, rinsed and drained, and 1 can chopped green chilies.
Add mayonnaise, sofrito sauce, tabasco, cumin, and salt and pepper.
Mix well and chill.
It was rather good. The flavors and textures played off one another well. It made a goodly amount, so we'll have leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
The beef was another spice-sensation. I did a dry rub of salt, pepper, garlic powder, cumin, and chipotle powder. Lots of chipotle powder. It was spicy! And good. The really thin slices really picked up the flavor.
And then the dressing...
It was pretty much the same dressing as on the corn salad with the addition of lime juice! I wanted something to jazz it up just a bit.
Creamy Sofrito Dressing
- 3 tbsp mayonnaise
- 2 tbsp Sofrito sauce
- juice of 1 lime
- pinch cumin
- pinch cayenne pepper
- splash Tabasco
- salt and pepper, to taste
Mix all ingredients and chill.
The salad itself consisted of iceberg lettuce under spring mix, with some fried peppers, tomatoes, black grapes (love the sweet pop in a spicy dish!) the grilled beef, grilled zucchini, and the corn salad.
It was a lot of flavor for minimal effort.
Let's face it - salads have to be one of the easiest meals to create. They're really not much more than open the 'fridge, pull stuff out, put it atop some lettuce, and add a dressing.
Dressings seem to intimidate people. They really are nothing but three parts oil to one part vinegar - and then stuff added, if you want. Apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, red or white wine vinegar, olive oil, grapeseed oil, peanut oil or safflower oil. They all have their own unique flavors and work with a variety of other things... mustards, honey, maple syrup, soy sauce, rice wine... Usually stuff you already have in the house. And the beauty of making your own dressings is you can make exactly the amount you need and not have a refrigerator-shelf full of partial bottles of molding science experiments (that you have no idea how long they have really been in there). Not to mention the chemicals, additives, and flat-out garbage that so many of those "national brands" seem to have in them.
I mean... you're putting fresh vegetables on a plate. Why would you want to cover them with crap?!?
And herbs! ANYthing fresh from the garden works. Anything. Chop it up and throw it in. But dried herbs work well, also, and herb blends like herbs d'Provence or Italian seasoning take all the guesswork out, completely.
No matter where you live, you should be approaching - if not already in - peak vegetable season.
Do your local economy a favor and make a salad with some locally grown ingredients. Or better yet, with some things you've grown yourself!
Cheese Burger In Paradise
It was shortly after dinner last night that Victor said I should make some bread dough so we could have homemade burger buns today. I like the way his mind works.
I made a batch of no-knead dough. Mother Nature's proofing box is working overtime right now. The only thing good about this weather we're having is it makes for some perfect dough-proofing. It really is just like putting it into a steam box.
So...
Three hours outside last night, overnight in the 'fridge, and then shaped and formed and outside again for an hour made for the most perfect buns. They were extremely light, the crust properly chewy... (I actually brushed them with a bit of butter when they came out of the oven to help soften them a bit). And slightly oversized - important when you look at all the things we tend to put on them!
From the top down:
- bun
- mayonnaise
- ketchup
- mustard
- sliced pickles
- sliced tomatoes
- fried hot peppers
- asiago cheese
- burger
- lettuce
- ketchup
- mayonnaise
- bun
It was a total mess to eat. I had juice and mayo and lord knows what running down my arms. I'd take a bite and stuff would just ooze everywhere.
The perfect burger!
I made a really small batch of potato salad to go along with it.
Cheese Burger in Paradise, indeed! Jimmy... Eat your heart out!
Not Your Normal Nachos
I had planned to do something with a couple of pork chops tonight. On the grill, whatever. I didn't give it a lot of thought when I pulled them out of the freezer this morning.
Everything changed, however, when I got home and found a present from our friend Luigi - a bottle of Gates Kansas City BBQ Sauce! No way could I grill chops tonight. I have Gates Kansas City BBQ Sauce! I need to plan using this. The chops went back into the 'fridge. I needed another plan tonight.
Pseudo-Mexican!
Mexican is my go-to style of cooking when I don't know what I'm going to cook. I was thinking tacos of some sort - I had the necessary stuff to pull it off. Victor came in and said something about Nachos. The mind started creating...
Our tastes are remarkably similar, but when it comes to tortillas, Victor is more of a flour tortilla kinda guy and I'm definitely of the corn persuasion. I like fried and crunchy, he's more soft.
So... how to combine two different tastes into one dish?!? Fry up some corn tortilla wedges and bake some flour tortilla wedges. Pile one type on half the plate, pile the other type on the other half of the plate.
Simple.
The filling (or is it topping?) was strictly clean-out-the-refrigerator. I fried up some ground beef with an onion and then added some sofrito sauce and a bit of chipotle powder. I heated up the leftover polenta from the other night. Tamales are made with corn meal. Polenta is corn meal. 'Nuff said.
Fresh corn. I cut the kernels off an ear. Pinto beans. And those fried peppers from the other day. Lots of them. And some of the cucumber salad from last night. Diced tomatoes. Cheese.
It was one of those dishes that just screamed YUM!
It was messy to eat and every bite was slightly different. Each chip had a slightly different combination of filling. It was a lot of fun. It would make a great communal party dish.
Fun food.
And speaking of fun food.....
I'm thinking a mixed grill of sorts tomorrow. I have pork chops and pork ribs. Maybe some steak tips, as well. Corn on the cob and a salad.
I can't wait!
Italian-Inspired Brochettes
Just received the latest issue of La Cucina Italiana. I really like the magazine. I rarely follow their recipes verbatim, but it really does inspire me to have some fun.
Tonight's dinner is a perfect example...
This month, the cover recipe - and several recipes inside - are about skewers of some sort. Chicken skewers, shrimp skewers, sardine skewers, tuna skewers, lamb skewers...
I haven't made kabobs/skewers/brochettes in a while and the magazine got me going. There was one recipe that sounded especially intriguing... It was a chicken skewer that was topped with chopped arugula, olives, cucumber, thyme, and crushed red peppers. The concept was sound. I top things with homemade salsas all the time. This was like a dry salsa. Sorta.
First thing I did was switch the meat from chicken to a cubed tri-tip. I marinaded it in Moore's Marinade, garlic, and a bit of sherry. Onto skewers with quartered onion, zucchini, and red bell pepper.
For the topping, I chopped a mango, radicchio, broccoli rabe, and fresh basil, parsley, thyme, and oregano.
Served over white rice.
That little bit of chopped stuff on top really took the plate from ordinary to extraordinary! The fresh herbs, fruit, and veggies really livened up the dish. Every bite exploded in freshness! And unlike the salsas I usually make, there was no underlying sweet/hot flavor. This was pure fresh.
I can see variations on a theme happening all summer.
BBQ Tri-Tip Sandwiches
Ahhhh... the tri-tip. One of my most favorite parts of the cow. It's still relatively unknown on the east coast, but it's been a west coast favorite for decades.
It's part of the bottom sirloin, usually weighs in between 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 pounds, is lean, tender, and really, really flavorful. Besides roasting and grilling whole, it's also excellent cut into steaks, and even better cut into cubes for brochettes. (Which is something I haven't made in a long time...)
Tonight, I made a dry rub of chipotle powder, garlic powder, chili powder, smoked paprika, salt and pepper. I cut the roast into thirds for easier grilling, and liberally rubbed in the spices. Onto the barbie it went.
I hand-cut a potato and drizzled with a bit of oil and put it all onto a sheet pan and into a hot oven for about 20 minutes. Perfect shoestring fries.
A couple of tablespoons of the Memphis BBQ Sauce on the mini sandwiches did the trick.
The Memphis sauce came through tonight on the sandwiches. It's sweetness was offset by the smoky-spiciness of the dry rub on the beef.
I'm really looking forward to getting some Gates Kansas City BBQ Sauce from a friend, soon. I've never had it before, but understand it is the Gold Standard of Kansas City Barbecue! I can't wait! I'm thinkin' another tri-tip, probably. Maybe I'll do brochettes. There are just so many possibilities!
I was planning on making Peach ice cream for dessert tonight, and Victor even went as far as top peel and chop a couple of peaches.
Then, as he was watching some food show, he mentioned how he'd love a Boston Cream Pie one of these days.
Well... Let us just say that there is now a Boston Cream Pie in the 'fridge for later...
Ice cream can wait for another day.
Open Sesame
Tonight's dinner is brought to you by the letter 'S'. For Sesame Seeds.
I took a couple of eye of the round steaks out of the freezer this morning, thinking I would just grill them when I got home. Simple. Basic. And eversoslightlyboring. Can't have that!
All the reminiscing about Singapore had me thinking satay which pointed me towards all of the Asian spices and condiments in the house - and the black sesame seeds that I seldom use. A recipe was born. I thin-sliced the steaks into strips and marinated them in soy sauce, sesame seeds, sesame oil, mirin, garlic. sambal oelek, ginger, and black pepper.
After an hour, they went onto the grill.
Still using charcoal. I came *thiiiiiiiiis* close to getting a gas grill this weekend, but practicality won out over convenience. For now, at least. It takes a bit more planning and the spontaneous hot dogs just don't happen, but I'm not in a hurry to change. That, and I'm just not ready to spend a couple hundred bucks on something I really don't need. I can be so cheap at the strangest times.
But back to dinner...
I also had a batch of no-kneaad dough in the 'fridge, so I made some sesame rolls to go along with the sesame beef.
I made six small rolls (about 3/4 the size of a tennis ball) and after forming them, rolled them in the sesame seeds. I let them proof outside - 80° with 85% humidity is Mother Nature's perfect proofing box - and then baked them for 25 minutes at 450°. They came out really crispy-crunchy with a really tender interior.
Japonica rice and asparagus and cherry tomatoes - with just a bit of garlic and rice wine - finished the plate.
I could have just eaten rolls with butter and the beef. As it was, I ate two of them. I could have kept going, but reality set in there, as well.
Besides, this way Victor has something for lunch tomorrow!
Burgers and Downpours
It's 84° outside. Thunderstorms with torrential downpours. Perfect for throwing a couple of burgers on the grill. And then quickly getting back inside the air conditioned house. (How it can actually get hotter outside while it's raining is beyond me, but... such is life in the Mid-Atlantic states, I guess.)
I usually judge a burger by the number of napkins needed while eating one. The more napkins - the better the burger. This was a three-napkin burger. Definitely a good one.
When we went down to get the new coffee pot, we saw Kenmore gas grills on sale for $199. Nice ones, too. Tempting. I probably would grill even more with a new gas grill. But... I'm not quite ready to give up my charcoal. It's entirely possible that one day in the future I'll bite the bullet and switch back, again. But in the meantime, I'm still enjoying the unpredictability of the open flame.
And there is a flourless chocolate cake cooling on the counter...
It is pouring outside. I am so glad we got the roof done!