What can you expect in the Food Thread on PF?

[turbo]

OK. My wife's back. She said that without the fat it won't taste as good. I said, in my best turbo voice, but then it will become slippery and unappetizing and we don't want all that grease in the broth. She said ok and told me to put the fat in the freezer so she can cook collards with it. Suits me. Collards are already slippery and unappetizing, what harm could a little more do? Then she said quarter the potatoes. I would have told her that the recipe said whole potatoes, but the recipe was not within striking distance. The potatoes have been quartered. She's cutting me some slack though. She said this is an experiment and if it doesn't work out it's ok.

My objection with a fatty piece of brisket (corned beef) is that if you simmer it with vegetables, you can skim some of the grease off the broth, but you can never get that fat out of the voids in the cabbage, and that overpowers the flavor of the cabbage, IMO. Of course, my opinion rules because I'm always RIGHT.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Ok, we're both always right!

The plaintiff spoke in court and the judge said "You're right".
Then the defendant had his say and the judge said "You're right".
Then the bailif said, these two versions are opposite. How can they both be right?" and the judge said "You're right".

 

[turbo]

I'm a methodical cook. Learned from my mother and grandmother, and it took years to figure out why they did things a certain way, although I'm sure that stuff when have flown over my head when I was in grade school.

 

[Evo]

I made corned beef and cabbage last week, and i kept eating the cabbage, so every day I'd add another head of cabbage to the broth. I cooked 3 heads of cabbage that way.

If you make the corned beef early enough in the day, or even the night before, if you put the cooled down pot in the fridge, the fat will harden and you can easily pull the hardened fat right off. It also tastes better the next day.

 

[turbo]

If you make the corned beef early enough in the day, or even the night before, if you put the cooled down pot in the fridge, the fat will harden and you can easily pull the hardened fat right off. It also tastes better the next day.

My wife and I do this with turkey and chickens, especially in cold weather. Once you have boiled down the carcass, strain out the bones and skin and set the broth out in a covered pan on top of one of the freezers (cool in the garage) and skim off the fat in the morning. Not so do-able when you want to be able to serve a non-greasy boiled dinner the day of preparation. I'd love to have a walk-in refrigerator in this place, but we barely have room for a walk-in bedroom.

 

[Borek]

Put the broth in the fridge, then collect solidified fat from the surface. At least that's what Marzena does.

Funny thing is I made a goulash soup today, so we are eating beef as well.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Thanks to Turbo and Evo, the meal came off well. My wife isn't used to western food and it turns out the reason she wanted this dish was because she heard about it on St. Patrick's Day and wanted to try it. She said that we can have it again next year on St. Patrick's Day, or sooner if I want it. That means she didn't like it all that much. Next time I will not get the packaged meat. But then where do I get the spice package?

 

[Evo]

Thanks to Turbo and Evo, the meal came off well. My wife isn't used to western food and it turns out the reason she wanted this dish was because she heard about it on St. Patrick's Day and wanted to try it. She said that we can have it again next year on St. Patrick's Day, or sooner if I want it. That means she didn't like it all that much. Next time I will not get the packaged meat. But then where do I get the spice package?

I always buy the prepared corned beef. I can find you a recipe if you want to corn your own, but I don't know anyone that does, but maybe it will be fun. What brand did you buy? Quality and flavor vary greatly between companies.

 

[netgypsy]

My wife and I don't get ground beef from supermarkets, but from a local butcher-shop. When ground beef is on sale, she'll buy a lot and we'll repackage it and put in in our chest freezers. These are very cold freezers, not self-defrosting compartments in a refrigerator/freezer combo, so that might make a difference. We don't have any problems with burger-patties falling apart during cooking.

Before the local butcher shop opened up, we did have problems with frozen or re-frozen, re-packaged beef falling apart and sometimes even had to resort to using eggs as a binder when making patties. I like my patties thick (and rare in the center) and that is very hard to achieve when your patties crack or break.

Interesting. One article said to add beef fat which grocery stores will give away, to your home ground beef so that you have a 50% mixture. Wonder if your meat market uses higher fat content? Cause fat is sticky?

 

[netgypsy]

Corned beef and cabbage need to be cooked until the beef can be pulled apart like barbequed pork. The leftovers are great for sandwiches, seasoning collard greens and making corned beef hash.

Cook the cabbage until you like the texture. I also like it quite soft. You can also devil corned beef like ham for sandwiches or salad. The fat does improve the flavor and it's easy to skim off if there's enough water. If you don't want to chill it you can drag paper towels over the surface and then trash them to remove the fat.

I had very good corned beef and cabbage last week and it also had parsnips in it. Hadn't had them in ages.

Reminds me that I had a Cornish pastie a couple of weeks ago - one made WITH turnips. I usually make them without turnips myself. i can picture a shepherd on Cornwall headed off with the flocks with a couple of pasties in his pouch. So many items originated because there was no refrigeration and working people needed something portable, that would hold up and not spoil without refrigeration. Empanadas, tamales of many different types, pasties, stromboli too, all could be stuffed in a pouch for later consumption because they are sealed and sterilized during cooking so last a long time without being cooled.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I always buy the prepared corned beef. I can find you a recipe if you want to corn your own, but I don't know anyone that does, but maybe it will be fun. What brand did you buy? Quality and flavor vary greatly between companies.

Wegmans. Turbo implied that I could get corned beef at a butcher's. I'll look around and see if that's so.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Corned beef and cabbage need to be cooked until the beef can be pulled apart like barbequed pork.

When I was done, it was much more tender than the thin sliced corn beef I get when I order a rachel sandwich, but not as tender as my wife's bbq pork. We all like our veggies a little on the tough side, so I didn't cook them as long as the recipe said.

 

[turbo]

When I was done, it was much more tender than the thin sliced corn beef I get when I order a rachel sandwich, but not as tender as my wife's bbq pork. We all like our veggies a little on the tough side, so I didn't cook them as long as the recipe said.

Good for you. My wife and I do the same. When making a boiled dinner (vegetables and a hunk of meat) we try to keep the vegetables al dente. Try this again, Jimmy, though using a cheap shoulder roast (chuck roast is my favorite). Once again, trim off excess fat, simmer the hell out of that roast (low-slow is the key if you want tender pull-apart meat) and add your potatoes, carrots, turnip, etc. Last add your onions and cabbage. You have just made a New England boiled dinner.

Initial steps (critical!) are to sear the roast in peanut oil (high smoke point) until it is browned on all sides, and then add red wine and water to the pot to lift the browning residue off the bottom of the pot. The vegetables will pick up that nice meaty flavor from the stock. You can't add flavor later, so you have to start off right.

Edit: I should add that for the original browning of the roasts, my mother and grandmother didn't have peanut oil, and they used a bit of lard (high smoke point) to brown the meat. Mom didn't always use lard, but would would sear some salt-pork in a pot before adding the roast. Lard could be an expense, but she could always send me down-cellar to spear a hunk of the salt pork out of the little wooden cask.

I'm not a master chef, but I learned how to cook from some people who were killers in the kitchen. I'd love to open a restaurant, but everybody that I know in that business has suffered from burn-out, alcoholism, and family problems. The stress in that business is incredible, and I have to give kudos to anybody who has initiated a restaurant start-up, and has still kept their personal life and family relations healthy.

 

[netgypsy]

The restaurant business is like the horse business - to make a little money you have to start out with a lot of money.

 

[gravenewworld]

Yummy:

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/29/10922289-urine-soaked-virgin-boy-eggs-are-a-springtime-taste-treat-in-china

 

[lisab]

Yummy:

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/29/10922289-urine-soaked-virgin-boy-eggs-are-a-springtime-taste-treat-in-china

 

[lisab]

I wonder where the third bay leaf went?

 

[Evo]

My neighbor wanted to borrow my car again, so she offered to bring me a cup of her vegetable soup. OK.

The *soup* was a tasteless, bland, watery cup of tomatoes, carrots, green beans and a few tiny noodles.

Evo to the rescue! I added some of my Knorr Caldo de Tomate Con Sabor de Pollo. It made it edible. Of course I will tell her how wonderful it was.

 

[Andre]

Oh, that soup certainly needed more tomatoes and celery for sure. Furtermore lots of thyme and origanum, and for the yummy factor chicken or beef dice well done and smoked bell peppers.

The clan came for dinner this evening and Enrunwen decided it should be burritos. She grabbed the Canon while dinner was prepared.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22026080/burrittos.jpg

 

[Evo]

Looking good Andre!

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Tonight we had a simple dinner of steak, baked potatoes avec des trous, brussels sprouts yucca, and okra Winfrey.

1.66 lbs ribeye steak bone in
4 russet potatoes
some brussels sprouts
one yucca
some okra
hot peppers.

Pre-preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
With a fork, poke a few holes in each end of the potatoes, wrap in foil and place in the oven for 1 hour.
Rub the steak with a little vegetable oil, salt, and pepper from a mill. Place on top a couple of sprigs of rosemary from the herb garden.
When the potatoes have been baking for 20 minutes, place the steak in the oven. After another 20 minutes turn it over. When the potatoes are done, the steak will be too.
Fry the okra with some hot peppers.
Boil the brussels sprouts with the yucca. Actually, I don't have any yucca so I just boiled the brussels sprouts.

 

[Evo]

Did you sear the steaks before finishing in the oven?

 

[dlgoff]

Oh, that soup certainly needed more tomatoes and celery for sure. Furtermore lots of thyme and origanum, and for the yummy factor chicken or beef dice well done and smoked bell peppers.

The clan came for dinner this evening and Enrunwen decided it should be burritos. She grabbed the Canon while dinner was prepared.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22026080/burrittos.jpg

Oh my. Save some for me Andre. And your photo is wonderful.

 

[rhody]

Jimmy,

What kind of hot peppers ?

Rhody...

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Did you sear the steaks before finishing in the oven?

No. I asked my wife about it and she said that just before the steak is ready I should turn the heat up high to finish it. Next time.

What kind of hot peppers ?

To taste. I used some hot pepper sauce in a jar that my wife got from the Chinese grocery. The name is in Chinese characters "Toward Heaven Chili". It's very hot but nothing like habaneros. It's packed with oil in it to fix the heat to your blood.

 

[turbo]

No. I asked my wife about it and she said that just before the steak is ready I should turn the heat up high to finish it. Next time.

Sear the steaks first in a very hot skillet with salt and pepper, then finish the steaks in the oven. Searing helps keep the steaks nice and juicy. It really does matter. Searing after you have already dehydrated the steaks does no good. You really need to come up here and help me with planting season, and I will help you learn to be a decent cook.

 

[Evo]

Searing is for taste, I have touted the maillard reaction for years.

Methods: Temper a steak by taking it out of the fridge and letting it sit at room temperature for about half an hour. Heat up a pan containing a thin layer of oil on the stove top. When the oil in the pan is smoking, place the steak in the pan. Make a note of all the changes that are occurring. Hear the sizzle of the meat in the oil. See the meat, where it touches the pan, start to change colors from deep red to gray to brown. But, most important, smell the new aromas emanating from the pan.

Are you hungry yet? I certainly am. A good sear can make a mediocre steak delightful. And a bad sear can render a good steak disappointing. A sear, in this case, doesn’t just give texture to your food. It creates new flavors. It creates new aromas. A good sear is the realization of an uncooked steak’s hidden potential.

All of this is a product of the Maillard reaction.

http://cen.acs.org/articles/89/i47/Maillard-Reaction.html

 

[turbo]

All true. The browning (and subsequent lifting of those browned juices from the pan) are key to taking a cheap cut of beef to boiled-dinner perfection. Searing steaks is even more more critical, IMO, because you need to seal the outer surfaces to keep the juices in before final finishing.

 

[Monique]

Searing steaks is even more more critical, IMO, because you need to seal the outer surfaces to keep the juices in before final finishing.

That's actually a myth, it doesn't seal the surface to keep in juices. It does reduce the total cooking time, making the end result more hydrated.

 

[Andre]

That's actually a myth, it doesn't seal the surface to keep in juices. It does reduce the total cooking time, making the end result more hydrated.

Exactly, it's much better to slowly but thoroughly heat the steaks to some 30-35 ^oC ~(80-90F), using Maries bath with the steaks in a plastic bag. Then fry them short to the desired state and you'll be known as the incredible steak wizard.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I should point out that the final result was pretty good. The steak was medium rare with a pink center. So juicy that instead of cutting it into pieces, we poured it on the potatoes.

 

[Evo]

I should point out that the final result was pretty good. The steak was medium rare with a pink center. So juicy that instead of cutting it into pieces, we poured it on the potatoes.

Sounds yummy, and that's what matters.

My mother would take a 1/2" steak and cook it for 45 minutes. It was like shoe leather, it made my jaw hurt trying to eat it. That's how she liked it. I never could figure out why people liked steak until I went to a steak house and got a properly cooked steak.

 

[rhody]

My mother would take a 1/2" steak and cook it for 45 minutes. It was like shoe leather...

Just a guess, but I would be willing to bet that she got food poisoning one too many times and cooking it this way ensured that it never happened again.

Rhody...

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Last night my wife put a small piece of leg of lamb in a marinade consisting of olive oil, salt, pepper from a mill, rosemary from the herb garden, and garlic. Tomorrow I'll roast it.

 

[Evo]

Last night my wife put a small piece of leg of lamb in a marinade consisting of olive oil, salt, pepper from a mill, rosemary from the herb garden, and garlic. Tomorrow I'll roast it.

Oooohh!

Last night I was so tired, I ate cold salmon right out of the can.