Sauer Times (Mike's Sorta Sauerbraten)

There's nothing quite like finishing a major school project and soothing the aching eyeballs with a big honkin' dish of comfort food. In this case, my take on a slow-cooker recipe for sauerbraten. Mmm...beef in thick, vinegary gravy over noodles. What's not to love?

• 3 lb rump roast, trimmed of excess fat
• 2 onions, sliced
• 3 sticks celery, sliced
• 5-6 whole cloves garlic
• 1 tart apple, cored, peeled, and sliced
• 1 c. dry rose wine (or 3/4 c. white wine and 1/4 c. red wine)
• 2 tbsp. malt vinegar
• 3 tbsp. white wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp. allspice
• 1 1/2 tbsp. salt (or to taste)
• 1 tsp. ground pepper (or to taste)
• 1 c. gingersnap cookies, broken into large chunks
• egg noodles

Put everything but gingersnaps in a large ziploc bag. Marinate in the fridge overnight. Before leaving for work, dump everything (except the gingersnaps) into a slow cooker. Cook on low for 10-12 hours.

About a half hour before serving, remove the beef from the slow cooker and place on a cutting board. Increase the heat to high and toss the gingersnaps into the liquid. Make your noodles. When the noodles are almost done, take an immersion blender and pulverize the heck out of the stuff that's still in the slow cooker. Slice your beef into thick chunks and add to the slow cooker to reheat.

Serve over noodles. Eat with a contented smile on your face and, if you've just finished a midterm, a couple of ibuprofen. Wine pairings are tough with this one because of all that yummy vinegar. A Riesling's probably your best choice, but if you want red wine, think Zinfandel/Primitivo.

Repurposing Basil, Part III (Angus Beef Brunch Melts with fruit salad)

Zzzz....zzzzz....zzzsnorg....huh?

Where were we? Ah, yes. Weekend. Sleeping in. Taking it easy. A bit too late for breakfast, so we’ll slide right into a throw-together brunch. With more basil, of course.

Take a couple of good Everything bagels, split them, and toast them. (You can use other types of bagels if you wish.)

On top of each bagel half, put a few slices of thin-sliced deli Angus Beef. (As the Kroger guy said to me, “Are you sure you want this? It’s real rare.” I assured him that I did.) Top the beef with a few leaves of fresh basil and a half a slice of swiss cheese. Put this in a toaster oven or under a broiler until the cheese melts.

Meanwhile, slice some fresh peaches and a couple of bananas. Take a few leaves of fresh basil and slice into ribbons. Toss everything with some blueberries. Sprinkle with a little bit of powdered sugar.

And floating a spring of fresh basil in V-8 gives it a yummy bouquet.

There you go – brunch in 10 minutes with basil appropriately integrated. Enjoy!

 

Technorati Tags: recipes

Repurposing Basil, Part I (Penne with Chili-Rubbed Beef and Pineapple Salsa)

Hello all...

Yes, yes, it’s been next to forever since I’ve updated The Man Who Cooks. Lots of life events, transitions, and just plain laziness stood in the way. I thought about letting this little domain lapse into the ether, but thanks to a flash of inspiration around Vine Headquarters, I thought I’d get back in the ring and take another swing.

What’s the inspiration? A big-ass patch of basil, that’s what.

Fresh basil. Can’t live without the stuff during summertime. There’s something about the soil and sunlight in our garden, though – the stuff grows out of control if we don’t continually chop it back. Even with our barbering, we end up with jar after jar of frozen pesto at the end of the season.

I’m not saying that’s necessarily a negative, mind you, but I know I’m not alone here. Basil tastes best when it’s new. If you leave a basil plant to its own devices, the leaves lose some flavor, the stems get woody, and it’s just not as good.

To keep waste to a minimum, we decided to “repurpose” the basil by incorporating the stuff into as many things as we could this summer. Our attempts will follow.

Here’s the first installment. This pasta, adapted from a Food & Wine recipe, makes a really nice summertime pasta. The original recipe called for cilantro, but I think the basil’s spiciness gives a nice counterpoint.

• 1 lb. flank steak (I used a couple of pre-packed bacon wrapped filets instead)
• 2 tbsp plus 1 teaspoon cooking oil
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 tbsp. salt
• 8 oz. crushed pineapple, drained 
• 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded
• 1 shallot, chopped
• juice of one lime
• 1/2 c. chopped basil
• 1 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
• 1 pound penne

Heat the broiler. Rub the flank steak with the 1 teaspoon oil, 1/2 teaspoon of the chili powder, and 1/4 teaspoon of the salt. Broil until medium rare, about 5 minutes per side. Let it rest for 5 minutes and then cut it into thin slices.

In a large glass or stainless-steel bowl, combine the pineapple, the remaining oil, the jalapeño pepper, shallot, lime juice, bail, black pepper, and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon chili powder. Stir in the sliced steak.

In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the penne until just done. Drain and toss with the salsa and steak.

Served this with a glass of Albarino. Tasty, tasty lunch...

 

 

Technorati Tags: pasta,beef,recipes

Deli-meatin’ Workin’ Man Blues (Penne Salad w/Roast Beef & Capers)

“Man, it's hot. It's like Africa hot. Tarzan couldn't take this kind of hot.”

– Eugene Morris Jerome, Biloxi Blues

I don’t know about you, but the heat just takes it out of me. This weekend, heat indices were up around 100, and the last thing I felt like doing was spending a lot of time in the kitchen over a hot stuff, much less standing in front of my usual flaming implement of destruction to make dinner. I was in the mood for something light, but I wanted beef or something similarly meaty. Does that make any sense? In any case, we put out heads together and came up with this little gem. This recipe is something you can put together in less than 15 minutes, if you need something quick.

• 1/2 lb rare deli roast beef, cut into thin strips
• 1 lb. penne
• 5 oz. spring salad mix
• 3 tbsp. quality olive oil
• 1 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1/4 c. capers, drained
• Shredded parmesan

(Note: don’t skimp on the quality. Get the best roast beef your deli has. Use really good olive oil. Indulge yourself.)

Get the water going for the pasta. Take the beef and slice it into thin strips.

When the pasta is done, drain it and rinse it with cold water. When it’s drained, put everything but the beef and cheese into a big bowl. Add some salt and pepper to taste. Toss everything together. Add the beef and toss it again.

Plate it up and top it with the Parmesan. That’s all there is to it. As for a wine pairing, put it with some Beaujolais, which is one of the few red wines that should always be chilled. Then hunker down in the a/c and move as little as possible until the cold front comes through…

Rocket Quinoa (Quinoa salad with black beans & peppers)

We hadn’t had a hamburger in awhile.
We knew we had one of those evenings where we needed to get down to the whole eating business pretty quickly. We happened to have some lean ground beef frozen. We decided to make burgers.
Only problem – we didn’t have a side to go with the burgers. We had some of the makings for a quinoa salad recipe that I saw in Food & Wine. If you’re not familiar, quinoa is a high-protein grain that can be cooked up like rice or couscous. We didn’t have all the ingredients, so, I improvised a bit:

• 3/4 c. quinoa
• 1 1/2 c. water
• green pepper, chopped
• roasted red peppers, a few, chopped
• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 3 oz. jar cocktail onions, drained and chopped
• 1/2 c. cilantro, chopped
• 3 tbsp. fresh lime juice
• 1/2 tbsp. ground cumin
• salt, pepper, olive oil

Put the quinoa in a saucepan with the water and some salt. Bring to a boil. Stir, cover, and cook over low heat for 15 minutes, stirring once. When cooked, spread on a baking sheet or in a baking pan and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Combine the green pepper, roasted red peppers, beans, onions, and cilantro in a bowl. Stir to combine.

Whisk together cilantro, lime juice, and cumin. When quinoa has cooled, add it to the mixture with the dressing. Mix well. Put back in the fridge until you’re ready to eat. (You can refrigerate overnight if you wish.)
For the burgers, the SPinC made patties that included diced onion, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, and dill. We decided on mushroom & swiss burgers topped with a little mayo. The final result looked like this:

While we used the quinoa salad as a side, it would make a really tasty main dish if you’re looking for a simple meatless meal.

Pho Your Life (Mike's Faux Pho)

Hello all. I'm back from my jaunt to New Orleans to see some of my far flung friends, to overdose on basketball, and, of course, to get some good meals. The highlights? K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen, the flagship of Paul Prudhomme's restaurants (beef tenders in debris. Zowie!); breakfast at Mother's, “home of the world’s best baked ham," where the homemade spicy smoked sausage will knock your socks off; and the chicken friand & raspberry-filled croissant I had at Croissant d'Or. As another dear friend of mine would say, "gismic." I could go on about the Central Grocery muffulleta, or the happy hour at Lüke with the 25 cent oysters, but we have other things to get to. The lowlight? Some kind of virus that smacked 2/3 of our little group on Saturday that left many of us taking inventory of some of that food for a second time. (Not food poisoning, we decided...the timing would have been wrong for that many of us to get sick.)
In any case, I returned home and the Sweet Partner had to head out to help her dad after successful cataract surgery. I needed to put some food together for myself, and I decided -- both since my stomach was still a little iffy and because our weather got chilly again, that I wanted something soupy. For some reason, pho sounded good.
If you're not familiar, pho is a Vietnamese soup which originated as a breakfast meal. It's basically a beef stock with whatever's handy thrown in. I fell in love with the stuff at Cilantro, this fantastic little lunch counter near the University of Cincinnati where I work. Making it "authentically," however, requires boiling up stock, a lot of straining, and a lot of time.
I made a trip to Lansing, Michigan several months ago to visit a pal, and I brought a wonderful discovery back from an Asian grocery -- pho paste. It's not quite as good as the homemade stock, but I still think it's pretty daggone workable. I've since discovered that most Asian groceries have a jar or two of this, so you should be able to find it or get it ordered to a good grocery of some kind without too much trouble.
So, for this evening's work (measurements approximate -- aren't you proud, Sweetie?):

• 10  c. water
• 2 heaping tbsp. pho paste
• 6 oz. noodles (rice vermicelli is traditional, but I used udon since that's what we had)
• 6 oz filet mignon (hey, why not use the good stuff?)
• Bean sprouts
• 2-3 sliced mushrooms
• 2 yellow tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• Green onions
• 3 tbsp. fish sauce
• 3 tbsp. lime juice
• Fresh cilantro/basil -- fresh, about ¼ each. (I had some Thai basil frozen from the summer.)

Get a soup pot and heat a little olive oil over medium-high heat. Sear the filet until brown all over. Remove from pot. Add the water and bring to a boil.
Slice the filet thinly. Add noodles to boiling water. Cook until about five minutes are remaining in the noodle-making process. Add everything else but the herbs and tomatoes. Simmer until noodles are done. (That's if you simmer the noodles. If you are boiling them, take it down to about 2 minutes, reduce the heat, and simmer until done.) Stir in the tomatoes and herbs. Bowl it up. Grab some chopsticks. Chow down.

Pho also usually has hot pepper -- ordinarily, I'd have diced a jalapeno and added that, but I eliminated it for a couple of reasons. First, my tummy's still a little iffy, so I didn't want to overdo the heat. Also, sriracha (the now-ubiquitous chili sauce) can be used to control the heat level, and I prefer that flavor.
Some "traditionalists" might also note that the usual serving method is to put the noodles, etc. into the bowls and ladle the broth over. Others may offer that there are no tomatoes or mushrooms in pho. To those folks, I offer a heartfelt "bite me."
Here's what I ended up with:

Start to finish: half an hour

Welcome to the Fold (Marinated Flank Steak w/gingered asparagus & Joel's Gonga-Getti)

Greetings! I'm Mike. If you've made your way here, you like flavor.

Some of you have found your way over from The Naked Vine, my wine review site. Some of you have stumbled here from a lucky google. Regardless, welcome -- pull up a chair and grab a fork.

If you want to skip ahead to the food, scroll down to the stars...

Like most guys, my first experience cooking was when I left college and entered bachelorhood. My cooking was uncomplicated. I was just trying to feed myself, so I went the "quick and easy" route first. I was a fifth-degree black belt in tuna mac. That gets old quickly, so I branched out a bit. Anything with "quick" or "one dish" in the title drew my attention. I would make huge tubs full of Joel's Gonga-Getti (see the bottom of this post); square yards of my "semi-sagna"; and a beef stew that would knock anyone's socks off. Best of all? Leftovers. Lots of leftovers. I didn't need to buy lunch at work which, as you know, saves a ton of cash and left me more beer money.

Enter Pam, my now-wifey. Pam was a basketball fan, which made her significant-otherable immediately. We officially started dating on a cold December day in 2001 after watching Jay Williams light up Rashaad Carruth. As we got to know each other, I quickly discovered that I was completely out of my culinary league. So between my ardor and Pam's own level of culture, I taught myself to cook.

Then we mutually discovered wine.

Aside from the general yumminess of The Grape, we were fascinated by the way wine paired with food. As a couple of former potential chem majors, we wanted to understand why things worked as food and wine meshed. We plowed through Kevin Zraly's Wines of the World book and embraced the whole "so, what will go best this wine?" thing.

So, along came The Naked Vine -- which still moves forth if you're looking for some easy to understand wine info. I'd done it for going on four years, and I was starting to feel a little burned out. Both Pam and friend of the Vine David L. noted that the Vine, over the years, was focusing more on wine pairings than on wine alone. Along came the crystallizing moment. Our friend Jeff's birthday present to his wife, the Rev. Christine -- 12 meals, 12 wine pairings. The first of which is documented here in all its glory. Jeff inspired me. I decided to start this food blog.

Trouble is, both Pam and I lead pretty busy lives. We both work full time, and when we get home at the end of the day, we're spent. Two hours slaving over a hot stove -- not gonna happen. But neither of us wants to simply peel back the foil over the apple crisp on a couple of Hungry Man TV dinners and call it chow time.

Really good cooking doesn't need to take a lot of time. Dinners don't necessarily require extensive food prep. For example, I recently saw a recipe for a normally-simple tamale pie that had a 34-item ingredient list and required grinding a spice mélange. I can get it down to half that and taste as good to anyone who's going to be following along here.

We're constantly on the lookout for flavorful, wine pair-able recipes that won't take all night to throw together. We've done a pretty damned good job in the search, if I say so myself.

I'd like you to join us on our tour through the world of lazy gourmet cooking. The main characters in this little narrative will be myself, the aforementioned Man Who Cooks, and Pam, henceforth known as the Sweet Partner in Crime.

Life's too short to eat bland food, so let's get it started...

************

The Sweet Partner in Crime walked into Kroger and got inspired by the first good-looking asparagus we'd seen in awhile. She snagged a bunch, and thought flank steak would make a good entrée.

[Remember -- there's no need to start with an entrée. If there's a side you want to try, it's easy enough to cobble together a menu around that instead. Takes the pressure off a bit.]

So, we ended up with this hunk of meat. Flank steak is meat made for marinating. We had some sesame-ginger vinaigrette in the fridge. I don't buy a lot of bottled dressing. I'd much rather simply throw some good olive oil together with vinegar and some spices. Store bought dressings tend to be average on salads at best, but if they're vinaigrettes, they make good marinades.

So, into a Ziploc bag went the meat, the vinaigrette, the juice of half a lime, and a bunch of minced garlic. Rather then the recommended couple of hours, the meat went into the fridge when we left for work. So, by the time we took it out of the fridge, we'd made meat ceviche.

We got home and I got the grill ready for the first time this season. Once it got up to high heat, I threw the extremely tender slab of meat on the grill after wiping off the marinade. Don't skip this step...your grill will flare something awful. I judged doneness by using a "poke test." If it doesn't spring back, give it more time -- when it does, get it off there! It cooked very quickly. Probably 6 minutes total, and I would have cooked it a tad less if I'd had it to do over again. Brought in the slab, covered it in foil, and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, the SPinC cut the asparagus into 2-inch or so pieces, slicing each piece on a 45 degree angle. She melted a little butter in a little olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and sautéed some more minced garlic, then added the asparagus. She sautéed the asparagus until it was almost tender, then added a teaspoon of chopped up crystallized ginger, salt, pepper, and a little bit of white wine.

I did my best to slice the flank steak against the grain at a perfect 45 degree angle. It sort of worked. Our little tenderizing project worked too well...the pieces would rip apart easily. But hey, small price to pay to make a tasty meal out of an inexpensive cut of beef. The meat ended up a little more done than I would have liked, but the soy-ginger flavor permeated the meat. Tasty stuff. The asparagus rocked. And the wine -- well...properly done California Cabernet. You tell me...


We served this with Dark Horse 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon. Dark Horse was one of the first wines we fell in love with on our first trip to Sonoma years ago. A delicious pairing to end a long work week.

Start to finish: half an hour.

And in case you were curious:

Joel's Gonga-Getti

1 tsp. Olive oil
1 lb. Lean ground beef
1 can tomato paste
3 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp. Onion powder
¼ tsp red pepper flakes
Dried basil, parsley, and oregano
1 jar Newman's Own spaghetti sauce-- your choice.
Salt & pepper
1 lb pasta -- I like using penne
Shredded parmesan

Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Remove plastic wrap from ground beef. Plop mass of ground beef into skillet. Add garlic, onion powder, pepper, and an appropriate level of spices. Your call. Brown beef. Once browned, add spaghetti sauce. Reduce heat and simmer.

Cook pasta in a big pot of salted water. Drain pasta.

Taste sauce. Add salt, pepper, and spice as necessary. Return pasta to pot. Add sauce. Stir to mix. Bowl up and top with shredded parmesan.