Skirt Steak Sandwiches
I tell ya... I'm so old I remember when skirt steak was cheap. Then it got trendy and the price went up. Same thing happened to flank steak. Yep. Flank used to be cheap, too.
Both cuts are really flavorful and take marinades and seasonings really well. I usually like skirt steak for fajitas but tonight I was looking for a sandwich. I had seen a recipe for a skirt steak sandwich with corn mayonnaise that seriously intrigued me. I've mentioned more than a few times that I love sandwiches and coming up with different ways to put things between a couple of slices of bread. This one was right up my alley.
I first marinated the skirt steak in a bit of olive oil, red wine, garlic, and salt & pepper. Later, I grilled it to a nice medium-rare and set it aside.
The original recipe called for grilling fresh corn on the cob, grilling red onions, grilling red peppers... I was having none of that. First off, I don't buy fresh corn in December. It's not fresh. Second, it's 35° outside. I'm not standing outside if I don't have to.
I made the corn mayonnaise with a cup of thawed frozen corn, a half-cup of mayonnaise, a minced shallot, splash of red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and a hefty pinch each of basil and oregano.
To assemble, I sliced the rolls in half and hollowed out the top half and filled it with the corn mayo. On the bottom I laid out strips of jarred red peppers and then the thin-sliced beef. Covered with the top and Voila! a sandwich was born!
The potatoes came from Fine Cooking magazine...
I cut a russet potato into 8 wedges and boiled them until just barely done. I drained them and set them on a sheet pan and brushed them with olive oil and then rolled them in bread crumbs. On top, I sprinkled shredded parmesan cheese and baked them at 425° for about 15 minutes. The magazine picture doesn't show what a pain in the arse it is trying to get shredded cheese to stay on a breaded potato wedge.
But they came out really tasty.
That's it for now... Victor baked Ricotta Cookies and I think we need to sample them. Again.
Beef and Mushrooms
As a kid growing up in a large family, I saw a lot of casseroles, sauces, and gravies. Mom made steak pies, beef and noodle casseroles, chicken and noodle casseroles, crust-topped, biscuit-topped, corn flake or cracker-topped. As an adult, they're the foods I gravitate to when it starts getting cold - and they're the ones I find easiest to make.
It wasn't necessarily always so. I'd call her up and ask how she did something and she was always very vague about ingredients or cooking methods, times, and temperatures. It could be frustrating when I couldn't quite replicate things. It finally dawned on me that she was vague about things because she always made things slightly different, usually based on what she had on hand. She didn't have a recipe, per se, she had a concept that was built upon with whatever she had at hand. They were the same, yet ever-so-slightly different.
I so understand it now, because that's exactly how I cook. The most difficult part of cooking for me is writing down what I did - trying to explain it. As did my mother before me, I put things in a pot, taste, add something, taste, add something... and continue until I like the result or I run out of things to add. And sometimes it's difficult to remember that I'm the abnormal one - most people want a detailed recipe with detailed instructions.
It's hard to do!
Today I picked up a whole beef eye of the round. After cutting it into steaks and a roast, I took the small end pieces and cut them up for what I thought would be a beef stroganoff over noodles. I started off by cooking off a small onion and about a quarter-pound of mushrooms. I took them out of the pan and added the beef. When it was slightly browned, I added the onions and mushrooms back with a hefty splash of red wine. This was when stroganoff became beef and mushrooms.
When the wine cooked down, I added about two cups of beef broth and let that cook down a bit. I added the requisite salt and pepper, and a pinch of thyme. Looking back, I didn't add any garlic. Unusual, for me.
I then thickened it with a bit of a flour and butter paste - a beurre manié. It's fun tossing off French cooking terms.
It came together well, had lots of flavor and worked well with extra-wide egg noodles. The dollop of sour cream was the cherry on top.
Lardo-Studded Roast Beef
I knew when I got up this morning that it was gonna be a beef-for-dinner day. I could handle leftover turkey soup one more time for lunch, but dinner was gonna be beef.
I went perusing through past issues of La Cucina Italiana magazine and came upon a recipe that sounded extremely intriguing - wrapping a roast in parchment paper.
I decided to give it a try!
Like so many of the La Cucina recipes, the ingredients were few and the cooking style slightly unique.
The basic premise is to make a paste of lardo - a cured meat made from the layer of fat found directly under the pig's skin - garlic, parsley, and a couple other ingredients, rub it onto the roast, wrap the roast in parchment, tie it, and roast it. Not really very difficult.
Lardo-Studded Roast Beef
- 3 1/2 ounces lardo or guanciale
- 2 tsp roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tbsp brandy
- 1 (3 1/2-pound) eye of round beef roast, excess fat trimmed
- potatoes cut into 1-inch wedges
- 4 carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 4 celery stalks, cut into 1-inch pieces
- olive oil
parchment paper; kitchen string
Heat oven to 400° with racks in upper and lower thirds.
In the bowl of a food processor, combine lardo, parsley, garlic, peppercorns, paprika, cinnamon, and brandy; blend to a smooth paste.
Make about 12 x-shaped incisions about 2-inches deep all over the roast; stuff each with about 1 teaspoon paste. Rub roast all over with remaining paste and season with salt.
Roll roast in a sheet of parchment paper and fold and tuck ends under. Tie up the roast at 1-inch intervals with kitchen string. Place roast in a baking dish and cook in lower third of oven for 30 minutes.
In a roasting pan, toss potatoes, carrots and celery with oil and salt to taste.
Put vegetables in upper third of oven and continue to cook roast and vegetables until an instant-read thermometer inserted into center of roast registers 130° for medium-rare, about 45 minutes more.
Remove roast from oven (leaving vegetables in oven to finish cooking while roast rests) and let rest 15 minutes. Discard string from roast, slice roast into 1/3-inch-thick slices and serve with vegetables.
I did more pressing than spreading, but it worked. The goal is to try and cover the meat.
I buy full-sheet parchment paper by the case because I use so much of it. One full-sized sheet worked perfectly.
The vegetables were total simplicity.
And an hour later...
I actually over-cooked the beef for my liking, but it still was tasty.
I really should have checked it sooner, but I was relying on the clock rather than then thermometer. Next time I'll pay closer attention.
But I have to tell ya - the cooking method really rocked! The beef was juicy-tender with tons of flavor. And the whole house smelled great.
Just what I was looking for!
Steaks and Parmesan
In a magazine once upon a time, I saw a picture of a steak atop a bed of barely-wilted spinach and topped with parmesan cheese that had been melted under a salamander. I don't remember the restaurant, I don't remember the magazine, but I do (kinda) remember the concept. I think it was just a basic steak that was topped with parmesan cheese and finished under a broiler. If it was more than that, well... such is life. This is pretty much what I remembered - and it worked quite well.
I had a steak ready for dinner and the idea popped right into the ol' noggin just as I was getting ready to cook it. It's not unusual for me to change course right in the middle of cooking something. I just get an idea and go for it. I'm lucky that Victor is an enthusiastic - and non-fussy - eater.
The next idea was to use up the odd-and-ends of the french fries and onion rings that were in the freezer. Two kinds of fries and onion rings. They were topped with a bit of parmesan, as well. What the heck. It was there.
It actually was good. A bit of the unexpected. The cheese was nice and salty so I didn't need to add any more - just a hefty dose of black pepper. And I used frozen spinach because that's what I had, but I can see how it would be good on a bed of barely-wilted fresh spinach. Or arugula.
This is another one of those ideas where I can see a lot of possibilities...
::burp::
Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, and Peas
Victor's favorite meal. Gotta love a man with simple tastes.
Meatloaf is another of those meals where I don't have a recipe. It's meatloaf. But while I make a pretty standard loaf most of the time, I do like to mix it up now and again. Like tonight.
Tonight I took a couple slices of bacon, a small onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 carrot, a handful of mushrooms, some parsley, and a stalk of celery and put them all into the food processor - along the lines of duxelles. When it was all finely chopped, I sauteed it until the bacon was cooked and the whole shebang was cooked through. I added a bit of salt and pepper because I always add a bit of salt and pepper.
When it all had cooled, I added it, a cup of cooked oatmeal, and 2 eggs to the ground beef, shaped it into a loaf, and baked it off for an hour at 375°.
I have to say it came out pretty good. Victor seemed to enjoy it, as well. Lots of monosyllabic sounds coming from him as he ate!
There's plenty left for meatloaf sandwiches tomorrow, too.
Steaks on the Barbie
An absolutely gorgeous day. Low 70s and a slight breeze. No humidity. I could get used to this. Alas, it shan't last, but I'm taking advantage of it while it's here. Windows are open and the grill has been used.
Tonight was a couple of strip steaks. Salt and pepper - nothing else. A couple of potatoes, cubed and roasted in the oven - with olive oil, salt, and pepper. And French-cut green beans with butter, salt, and pepper.
It was a salt-and-pepper sort of night.
We both bemoan single-use kitchen gadgets, yet we seem to have an awful lot of them. Tonight I broke out one of my more favorite ones - a string bean slicer and stringer.
I do have to admit I haven't seen a string bean in quite a while. They've mostly been bred out of existence, I think. I remember stringing beans as a kid. It was some tedious work. Not difficult, but every damned bean had to be done by hand. I got pretty good at it pretty fast. Fast-forward many years, and I'm still doing beans by hand - but this time with a French green bean cutter.
I really have no idea where I got it or how long I have had it, but it's one of the best single-use kitchen gizmos around! Just feed the bean in and pull it through. If you have string beans, it will string it for you as it goes through. Way cool.
The beans come out great and besides a great side dish, make for a great cold bean salad.
And I think at some point I'm going to have to soften my stance on single-use gadgets. We just have too many of them to be taken seriously about it...
Not Quite Italian Ravioli
This is one of those meals that was created because of the ingredients I had. And I'm thinkin' I should have these ingredients around all the time!
There has been one rather large strip steak languishing in the freezer for a while. All by itself, I'd just move it out of the way as I added or removed things. Until last night. I decided it was time to cook that sucker.
My first thought was making a simple beef stroganoff - I had the ingredients - but after starting, I decided beef, mushrooms, and mushroom ravioli would be more fun! I had those ingredients, too.
I sauteed the beef in a bit of olive oil and then added the mushrooms. I let it all cook down really well, and then added a splash of soy sauce and a splash of worcestershire sauce. I then added maybe a cup of beef stock and let it all heat together. When it was boiling, I added a bit of cornstarch to thicken.
In went the cooked ravioli, mixed well - and yum.
A pretty quick off-the-cuff dinner.
Beef Tips and Mushrooms
It's work out of the freezer month here at the Dineen/Martorano household. I did a bit of shopping when we got back from vacation and in just a few days we went from manageable to barely close the freezer door. I got some good deals, but it's still a bit tight.
The nice thing about having both a sharp knife and a FoodSaver is the ability to buy things like whole pork loins, beef tenderloins, or whole eye rounds and portion them up for pennies on the pound. Boneless pork chops can run $5.99/lb or more. A whole pork loin on sale at $1.99/lb can give me 20 pork chops for less than $20.00. Same holds true for anything else.
So tonight's meal deal was a 2" thick piece of eye of the round beef. I cut it into cubes and marinated it in Moore's Original Marinade for about 20 minutes before putting them on the grill. Moore's hails from Alabama. I first heard of it from our friend Mike down in South Carolina. It's a quick and easy marinade that one can do lots of things to - or just use it as it is.
Good stuff.
Served it over some Israeli couscous blend and a really simple mushroom gravy - mushrooms, red wine, beef broth...
It worked well.
We have a fresh peach pie cooling for dessert.
Life is good.
Beef Ribs and Pasta Salad
I came home to a big batch of pasta salad sitting in the refrigerator. It is just so nice to have a man around the house - who knows how to cook!
This was a fairly typical pasta salad around our house. It's open the cupboards and refrigerator, see what's there, and make salad. It's really simple.
This particular version had 2 types of pasta (I can't believe we're practically out of pasta. I had pretty much cornered the market on it for a year or so.) And it had marinated artichoke hearts, tomatoes, cannellini beans, black olives, celery, garlic, carrots, bell peppers... A chianti vinegar and olive oil. Very simple, very basic.
I picked up the bowl in Rome as a surprise for Victor. It's Sicilian from a company named La Giara. I fell in love with the colors. I've always liked Italian pottery and we've bought several pieces over the years, but after walking into so many shops and just being overwhelmed with the vast amounts and variations, I want to just thrrow everything out we have and start over. Not exactly practical, so I won't. But I'd love to. After checking out La Giara's website, methinks I will be visiting the actual shop when we make it to Sicily. There are a lot more pieces I can get. Late 2013 or early 2014 is my plan.
Back to food...
I can't remember the last time I had beef ribs. Years (and years and years) ago when I worked at the old Hyatt House in Burlingame, we had "Just Bones" on the menu. They were the bones cut from the prime ribs after roasting. Liberally doused with BBQ sauce and onto the broiler for a moment, I think we sold them for $19.95 - in 1978 dollars. I've had beef ribs since then, but not very often. Pork ribs just seem to be everywhere.
I marinated these overnight in a bottle of beer and some molasses. I baked them for a few hours in a low oven and then placed them on the grill with some BBQ sauce.
They came out real good.
Speaking of hotels... the "Bayshore Diner Blue Plate Special" plates came from the Westin SFO - right up the road from the Hyatt Regency Burlingame that took the place of my old hotel. I was given the plates as a going away present when I transferred to Indianapolis to open the Westin there.
The good ol' days...
Teriyaki Steaks
Some of you may not believe it, but once upon a time, teriyaki sauce was virtually unknown in the non-Asian USofA. Yes... back in the Culinary Dark Ages, even Kikkoman was a fairly unheard-of name - except for soya sauce in those shaker bottles in certain Chinese restaurants.
And then Hawai'i became the 50th State. Exotic Polynesian Hawai'i. In no time at all, little umbrellas were everywhere.
It actually started in the mid-1950s as we were gearing up towards statehood. While I don't know what was going on in the rest of the country, California was certainly embracing it. I remember my Aunt Dolores (of the famous Rum Balls) and Uncle Tommy doing backyard barbecues and having wild and exotic things like grilled chicken brochettes with pineapple chunks and everyone had tall drinks with umbrellas - even the kids - although ours were definitely sans alcohol. Tiki torches were everywhere, too - and the backyard patio became "The Lanai." Pretentious?!? Of course.
Teriyaki sauce back then was more of a Hawai'ian sauce than Japanese. Or... at least that is how I remember it. Teriyaki sauce was essential for your backyard Luau. And everyone was having backyard Luaus. It was the thing to do.
Right around the time Hawai'i became a state, I was even in a ukelele group. (I would love to find a picture of of that!) Hawai'i was the omnipresent theme.
But theme or no - teriyaki sauce wasn't something you picked up at the store. You made it.
Yes. Made It. And everyone was trying to outdo their neighbors with their newest or best-tasting creation.
I think this particular recipe came from Aunt Dolores. I can't be sure of the provenance because there's no one left to ask, but I did get it from my mother, originally. Like so many recipes of the time, it was just a few things jotted on a scrap of paper.
Auntie's Teriyaki Sauce
- 1 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- 1/4 cup bourbon
- 2 tbsp oil
- pinch black pepper
Mix all ingredients. Use for chicken, beef, or pork.
It also has a liberal amount of alcohol in it. If you're watching Mad Men, you'll definitely understand. It's just the way things were.
Tonight's stroll down Memory Lane came about because I wanted grilled pineapple. I had already taken the steaks out of the freezer and the only way I could tie the steaks together with the pineapple was to make the teriyaki. Baked sweet potatoes - which should have been fabulous Hawai'ian Purple Sweet Potatoes - finished the plate. Alas... the Hawai'ian Purple Sweets are not readily available back here in PA-Burbia...
From steaks to Aunt Dolores and tiki torches to Hawai'i statehood and ukelele groups. All because of a pineapple. I even amaze myself sometimes at how I can come up with some of these associations.
Aloha.
The Weekend
I've come to the conclusion that I hate writing out recipes.
I still love cooking and creating and all that, but the actual process of sitting down and trying to write out what I think I may have done for dinner is actually difficult. My measuring skills are imprecise at best. Well... not exactly true. If something calls for a half-cup of milk, raisins - whatever - I can eyeball a pretty precise half-cup. But if I'm making a sauce for scallops of pork tenderloin... Was it a half-cup? Three-quarters? I dunno. The finished result was a smooth, creamy sauce. I can tell you the ingredients, but amounts vary.
I used to love creating recipes commercially - the real science behind cooking. And taking a base recipe and expanding it to 20 - or 200 portions. I first learned the concept from the AFRCS - The Armed Forces Recipe Card Service. It was relatively new when I was in Uncle Sam's Yacht Club. Standardized recipes printed on cards set up in 100-portion quantities. One of the first things we learned in "A" School was to multiply them out to 5000 people - or to divide them down to 30. It was only through working with the recipes that one learned how to manually adjust things like baking powder or yeast - and salt and other spices. Even though ingredients are the same proportionally, they do not multiply out. A quarter-cup of salt in a recipe for 100 would not call for 12 1/2 cups of salt for 5000. Trust me on this.
And speaking of varying... You've surely noticed the trend in many cooking magazines to give you the weight of some ingredients in place of measurements. The theory - according to the magazine publishers - is because of the variables in measuring. They wish to be precise.
However... the recipes generally will state something like "15 1/2 oz flour (3 1/2 cups)" yadayadayada ingredients, and then state something like "1 cup water, or more." with instructions to add the 1 cup and then add more, 1 tbsp at a time, to get the desired consistency.
HELLO?!? Where is your "precision" now?!? I certainly understand the science of baking vs the art of cooking. The variables in baking are legion. They include the type of flour, the moisture content of the flour, the weather and relative humidity along with in cake baking - the proper ratio of flour, sugar, eggs, and fat...
But if the recipe calls for weighing your flour - approx 4 1/2 oz per cup - and NOT weighing your sugar - about 7 oz per cup - it's nothing more than something written by an elitist snob. Be precise - or within acceptable guidelines - but please don't pretend a precision that isn't true. Whether it be 3 1/2 cups of flour or 15 1/2 ounces, you still have as much as a 20% variable to play with within the traditional parameters. Generally speaking, a teaspoon of flour either way is probably not going to ruin your cake.
Rant over. For the moment.
So for those lovely pork scallops up there?
Really easy.
I sliced a pork tenderloin and then pounded the slices between sheets of plastic wrap with my wooden mallet. I sauteed them in a bit of butter and olive oil and then removed them from the pan. I added sliced mushrooms and browned them well, and then added a splash of sherry. I then added a splash of chicken broth and a splash of heavy cream. I cooked it all down, added the pork scallops back, and heated it all through. If it seems too thin, you could add a bit of cornstarch.
As a side dish, I did cauliflower in a cheese sauce, baked in the oven. No crumbs on top, but it was yummy.
And then Sunday...
Beef Stroganoff.
I bought a whole tenderloin a while back and after cutting up steaks and a roast, set the tail, chain, and other smaller pieces aside for a stew or something. The something was stroganoff. A really simple recipe that literally just takes minutes to prepare.
The beef doesn't get a lot of cooking or braising time, so you want to use something reasonably tender. I sauteed beef and mushrooms, added a splash of marsala, a pinch of sage, about a cup of sour cream, and a teaspoon of grainy dijon mustard. I heated it all through and served it over wide egg noodles.
The whole dish was cooked in the time it took to boil the water for the noodles.
Simplicity.
The Birthday Dinner
It's Victor's birthday.
His favorite meal?!? Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and peas. Birthday dinners at our house are so easy.
Ya gotta love a guy who wants basic comfort food for his annual main meal. Over the years I've played with it... A couple of years ago I made a Rustic French Meatloaf that was really good, but as good as it was, basic still reigns supreme. Mushroom gravy. Simple.
I did make a nice chocolate cake last night. It was the day before his birthday, but we were dessertless and I figured we could start celebrating early...
Basic chocolate with chocolate filling.
It came out really good, too. I have 8" cake pans that really do make for a great layer cake. But we're passing on the cake right now, because we're off to see the 70th Anniversary showing of Casablanca!
It is playing in 500 theaters across the USofA tonight only. This is one film I really can't wait to see on the big screen. It's amazing that you can't drag us to the theater on any other occasion. Newest blockbuster movie?!? Eh. Yawn. Whatever. But a 70 year old flick we've both seen a bazillion times and can recite the dialog to?!? We're there.
It has nothing to do with getting old. Really.
Off we go for $40.00 popcorn.
Happy Birthday!