What the Blarney is this?

There is no corn in this beef!

Well, at least not in the pot. And there is a logical reason for that as corn refers more to small kernels or corns of spice. Like... um, peppercorns. or allspice...or kernels of salt. Because at its heart corned beef is a salted dish, brined in fact.

In the last couple of years it has become popular to brine meats before roasting them.. We have brined turkeys a couple of times with great success. But corning? Well, it was something of an adventure. And we, GastroNerds love an adventure.

The brine for corned beef was simple enough... a combination of salt (kosher), brown sugar, water, pickling spice and sodium nitrate (sold as InstaCure No. 1). Yes, I know that nitrates are bad for you, but it is St. Patrick's Day, for the sake of all that is Holy! Live a little.

The salt in the mixture helps draw water out of the meat which decreases the chances that the water will be used as a conduit for introducing bacteria into the meat. The nitrates, mix with the fixed iron in the muscle tissue and help preserve the nice pink color.

Yeah, I know, I could make it just as tasty without the nitrate but pink is my favorite color... and besides, I think the end product would have had that dead grayish color of boiled meat... which is decidedly un-appetizing... so, I think that I will stick with my chemically altered meat.

The point is that the experiment worked and was very tasty. We ate our corned beef with boiled red potatos and cabbage that was coarsely chopped. I know that seems like heresy as even in my childhood, it was deemed a pre-requisite to eat that cabbage as a big wedge. But if you will indulge me for a moment, you will notice that our cabbage has some color... and some texture... which made it awfully tasty. Thanks to Alton Brown for the suggestion. Oh, and as a result of cooking it that way, we avoided the explosion of hydrogen sulfide as it was being expelled by the cabbage leaves. This worked at both ends of the dining process (TMI? Sorry, but everyone farts)

Now for those of you who want to tell me that no self-respecting Irishman would eat corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day, don't get your undies in a bunch. I am aware of this. You would more likely eat stew or a boiled dinner including smoked butt. I know... that is what my "Currie" mother often served us. On the other hand, this is the American tradition, which naturally means that it got screwed up. The Irish wouldn't drink themselves into a stupor (at least, just one night a year), drink green beer (which is revolting) or paint shamrocks on their cheeks at a parade.

They would go to mass.

Still want to be authentic?

We gathered together...

To ask the Lord's blessing...

Ahh, if only the turkey had considered this philosophy... or the cocktail shrimp...

That being said we cook as a family in my kitchen. Things learned? The turkey cooks much faster in convection oven... We had a humongous turkey... in the over 20 lbs variety.. it would have been done in 3.5 hours if we hadn't turned off the convection.

The girls will now and forever more play an important part of the creation of the meal... Their accomplishments this year? The Angel prepared candied sweet potatoes that included mini marshmallows and candied pecans. Imelda? She was in charge of cranberries and is responsible for jellying them.. However there was no Jello Brand Gelatin to be had in her concoction... she used real... plain... Knox Gelatin and fruit and juice.... I have to admit that she was not entirely sure that it would work... yet somehow it did. (Told ya' baby!)

We had good old fashioned mashed potatoes that were peeled and cut within an inch of their past lives... (The Angel likes to use the chef's knife) after being drained they were mixed with butter and cream cheese which I find a bit richer than cream.... They were eaten up quickly. We even had soup... Pumpkin soup, with cumin and coriander and chiles.. very American. The soup was topped with sweet and spicy pecans.





Dad made the stuffing and therefore I am unable to report the actual recipes.. but I can tell you that there were apples and walnuts involved.... oh.. and it was really dressing. Because we are adherents of Alton Brown's belief that stuffing is evil, it is important to point out that our seasoned and damp bread was cooked and served in a container other than the germy uncooked turkey. Why dry out the turkey meat and create a haven for bacteria at the same time? (btw... turkey picture courtesy of the Angel)

My worst dish? steamed asparagus.. I got a little distracted when Dad took over the kitchen for the ending of the cooking...(he taught his grand daughter's how to make gravy AND how to carve a turkey) to say that it got a little over cooked would be an understatement. Eh. So it goes...

My favorite part of the meal was the dessert. In years past, we made too much dessert and ate none of it.... This year we clued in. I made one item. Not a pumpkin or apple pie... but maple. I have to admit that I got the recipe over at Smitten Kitchen. It was a breeze and sooo, so good, that I wish I had some leftover. (tart picture courtesy of Imelda)

As you can see, it turned out to be a pretty good day. Good food and fun with family... Heck, the girls are not even trying to strangle each other in this picture! Can you top that during the Holiday Season? Oh, you probably can... but it is a big deal here! Now all we have to do is get ready for Christmas...

All American Fall Dinner

I love when it gets cool outside. Why? because then it is time for me to make chili!

Chili is such an American dish.

The main ingredients, beans, tomatoes and chiles, both sweet bell types and dried spicy were all cultivated originally in the Americas.

For my chili, I use black beans, more accurately, black turtle beans, because they are naturally full of antioxidants. A member of the common bean family that has spread through the world to include snap or string beans, shell beans such as the French flagelot and Italian Borlotti, pinto, white, kidney, pink and yellow beans.

Tomatos were also native to Central and South American and have become the most commonly cultivated fruit in the world. Fruit? Vegetable? Eh... It really is a fruit, but we eat it like a vegetable... except for my mother and the Angel... Someday I will look up the picture of the Angel's first tomato.... she ate it straight from the fridge like an apple.... she was 15 months old. Yeah, the diaper rash was wicked.

And crazy is what the Europeans thought the Aztecs were when they saw them eating those tomatoes... See, the conquistadors recognized that the tomato was a member of the deadly nightshade family... along with the eggplant, tobacco, chile peppers and potatoes. But the reality is that the fruit of the tomato is edible.. very edible. I oven roasted some tomatoes by quartering some romas and drizzling them with olive oil, salt and pepper and baking them in the oven until they start to carmelize. The flavor gets sweeter and smokier and are a nice addition to the canned fruit.

The last major ingredient are the chiles. The chile's also a member of those crazy nightshades... but like the tomatos and beans quickly spread throughout the world. We call them peppers, but that was a misnomer that was caused by Columbus... having found chiles when he landed in Santo Domingo, he felt that they must somehow be related to the pepper (piper nigrum, et. al) because of their spiciness. (Also as Columbus had failed to find the gold or other spices that he was tasked to locate, he probably felt that should come home with something that Queen Isabella was hoping to locate!) As sailors began to trade the goods that they found in the New World throughout the Old, these new "peppers" spread. Today, India is the largest producer of chiles (how is that for irony? Columbus searches for India and pepper and finds chiles that are then exported to India who then produces huge numbers of them).

My version of chili includes fresh and dried, mild and spicy peppers.. and because I can't over-spice the chili because of the girls delicate (cough) palates, I ended up adding chili sauce too! My other ingredients include a small amount of finely ground beef (I find that it browns and breaks up better...) onions, a beer (to deglaze the pan after the browning... I like to get all the flavor that I can out of the meat), oregano and then coriander seed and cumin that I grind together in my mortar in pestle.... oh, and my secret ingredient (also of American origin), cocoa powder... it worked for the Aztecs and Maya... it works for me too... Everyone always notices it, but they NEVER know what it is.

Yeah for fall and chili!

A meal fit for a Tsar!

That is what the girls fixed for us last night.

Beef Stroganoff in fact.


So elegant, so tasty... such an old dish...

It turns out that beef braised in sour cream has been a classic part of Russian cuisine since the medieval period. Often the classic dish was flavored with mustard but did not include onions or mushrooms.

In fact, it was not until the fall of Imperial Russia that the dish became popular. It was brought to the U.S. by Russian and Chinese immigrants (where it was a very popular dish) and was served over rice or noodles.

The name Stroganoff is also something of a mystery. We know that Russian dishes are commonly named for the household that the chef worked in rather than the chef himself... So as nearly as we can tell Beef Stroganoff is named after the prominent Russian family.

For my girls, this was one of the first dishes that they learned to make. It gave them pride to be able to tell people that they could make something that sounds so impressive and elegant.

On the menu

This morning I fixed cinnamon ginger french toast and papaya agua fresca to the sleepover crowd at my house...

I am really beginning to get the hang of this stove thing... other than the grill portion, which sets off the fire alarm at an alarming rate...(Yes, it is always something with me).

Anyway, I am planning on writing more regularly now that I have pulled things here together (somewhat anyway).. in the meantime, here are some of the first meals that we have enjoyed!

Our Austro-Hungarian Feast.

I went to the grocer the other day looking for ingredients for the weekend and found beautiful veal cutlets. Generally speaking we end up making veal parmesean but I really wanted to do something different. So instead we made weiner schnitzel and spatzle with a paprika gravy.

Honestly, I prepare the veal the same way whether it is for parmesean or schnitzel... first it is flattened a bit. This is done by Imelda who uses the marble mortar. For some reason, I find this a much better tool than one of those stupid mallets and it certainly has some heft behind it... then I just coat the piece in seasoned bread crumbs and then pan fried. Simple.

What we were concerned about during this dinner was the side dish... The spatzle.

Why?

Well because we made them from scratch. I had been convinced that this was a doable dish. and it turned about to be the case. Like everything that I cook, I looked up a recipe and then screwed around with it. In this case, we figured that the recipe was too big. I really didn't need spatzle for six.. That sounded like enough mini dumplings for an army and given the results that we got, I stick by that answer.

My version called for 2 eggs, 3/4 of a cup of milk, salt and pepper and 1 1/2 cups of flour that are combined with a wooden spoon until combined. Then the mess sits in the fridge for about an hour. So far so good. When it was time to cook my little dumplings of joy, I got a pot of water (salted of course) to a rolling boil...(Please note: on the stove in this rental this takes about 45 minutes... when my Btu dreams are fulfilled in about a week, I hope to decrease this time to about... um five minutes.)

Then the fun began.

In my imagination I expected to take the dough, load it into my potato ricer loaded with the biggest holed disc that I can find, push it through the disc and slice it off every 1/4 inch or so. Great plan, eh?

Well not exactly since the cutting process makes the dough stick together..yuck. It kind of works but it is kind of messy. 'Kay... lets try again... Now I try again but push the dough through and kind of jiggle the dough as it stretches and finally breaks off from the ricer.

The end result? Something a bit longer than I expected... BUT.... completely normal looking! WHEE! They were scooped out of the pot, drained and tossed into the pan that we cooked the veal in.. Traditionally spatzle are panfried with bread crumbs... So this worked. As you can see, they almost look edible (in my humble opinion)

This feast was served with a quick paprika gravy that was made of paprika, tomato paste and olive oil, mixed with veal stock (yes.. I cheat.. I use veal glace that I keep in my fridge.. and water... once it is cooked down a bit? I added a cup of sour cream. The thing I forgot? SALT I forgot that the glace has none... This is a pain the butt for me.. but the glace is really good.. it is just me that is stupid and forgets... or too lazy to make my own veal stock.. the choice is yours.

The fact is that dinner was amazing. so good. I expected Imelda, my 10 year old, to be enthusiastic about it as she helped cook it.. but she was overwhelmed by the flavor. Fun Daddy sang its praises also (although he sat watching Imelda and I cook.... The Angel? At the movies.)

What can I recommend? Take that trip between Budapest and Wein.. Try the schnitzel with spatzle and gravy.