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Beef Bourguignon – Video Recipe #1

Sunday, March 7th, 2010

Yes, I know this video recipe has been done a zillion times and since this is my first video recipe I chose a dish that is simple to prepare.  I had no idea what I was doing making this video.  I couldn’t find a pause botton, the segments were too long, and I was totally frustrated.  So have a good laugh with me on this one and I promise the next video recipe will be better.  I should have drank the wine before I started filming…next time.

The important part of this post is the dish.  This is a stove-top version of the classic recipe for beef burgundy which was made popular by in Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Childe and last summer’s box-office hit “Julie and Julia.”   If you haven’t made this dish yet, I encourage you to do so.  It is not as daunting as you may think.  There’s really no measuring…this is basically beef stew with lots of red wine.  See the list of ingredients and simple method following the video.  

Ingredients: (estimated for 4 people)

  • 3 strips of bacon, sliced into 1/2-inch wide strips
  • 2 cups sliced mushrooms
  • 1 pound of beef surloin or stew meat, 2-inch cubes
  • 2 Tbsp flour
  • sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
  • 3-4 cups red wine (burgundy, merlot, shiraz, pinot noir or 1/2 burgundy and 1/2 madeira)
  • 2 Tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 sprig of fresh thyme
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 stock celery, chopped
  • baby carrots
  • fingerling potatoes
  • boiling onions (or 1 onion sliced into 6 or 8 pieces)
  • 2 cups beef stock (homemade is best)

Method:

  1. Saute bacon over medium high heat until fat is rendered.
  2. Add mushrooms and sweat them.  Continue saute until mushroom juices disipate.
  3. Add beef cubes and saute for 5 minutes or until no longer pink.  Add flour and continue to cook until meat is lightly browned.
  4. Add wine, tomato paste, thyme, bay leaf, celery, carrots, potatoes and onions.  Stir and lower heat to medium.  Cook uncovered for 20 minutes or until some of the liquid has evaporated and thickened to a silky sheen.
  5. Add beef stock, cover, open steam vents, and lower heat to a lively simmer.  Cook 1 hour or until meat is fork tender.
  6. Serve over egg noodles or rice.  Garnish with fresh parsley. 

Donate to My Coffee Kitty and help a senior pay for cataract surgery. 70% of seniors are afficted with cataracts. It's a simple surgery to remove cataracts but very expensive...about $3000 per eye. If you're not old enough to qualify for medicare, and you're uninsured, can't find a job, can't get a driver's license, or read a good book because of cataracts, your world is impoverished. Help save someone's sight!

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Shepherds Pie for St. Patty’s Day

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

Here’s the scoop on Shepherd’s Pie and Cottage Pie.  They were both created to use up leftovers from roasted lamb or roasted beef and vegetables, usually potatoes and carrots.  The difference is Shepherd’s Pie is crustless with smooth and silky mashed potato topping.  Cottage Pie has a pastry crust on the bottom and the top.  You may know this as a beef pot-pie.  Americans rarely eat lamb due to the history of our beef cattle industry. However, that’s starting to change a bit.   In nearly all the Crown colonies a cottage pie made with ground beef or lamb, is referred to as a mince pie, not to be confused with American mincemeat pie which is sweet.

This pie is pure comfort food with a rich gravy and lots of savory meat.  Serve with a little spicy chutney, a simple salad and Irish soda bread.  Be sure to pour plenty of Guiness.  More about St. Patrick’s Day at last year’s post St.Patty’s Day Recipes 2009.  Also watch this Gordon Ramsey video.  He makes it look so easy.

Ingredients:

  • 2 large russet potatoes, boiled
  • 1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp butter, melted
  • 1/4 cup milk, or half-n-half
  • 1 egg yolk, beaten
  • 1/4 cup cheddar or gruyere cheese, grated
  • fresh parsley to garnish
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 pound ground beef or ground lamb
  • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 carrot, grated
  • 1 onion, minced
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 2 Tbsp Worchestershire sauce
  • 1 Tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 Tbsp flour
  • 1/2 cup red wine  or beer
  • 1/2 tsp thyme
  • 1/2 tsp rosemary
  • 1 cup beef stock

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 375° F.  Lightly butter 2 individual gratin dishes or small casserole dish.
  2. Mash boiled potatoes with milk and 1/4 cup butter until they hold together.  Add beaten egg yolk, salt and pepper, and whip until smooth and silky.  Fold in cheese.  Set aside with parsley.
  3. Heat oil over medium high, add beef or lamb, saute until no longer pink.  Remove any excess fat.  Add salt and pepper.
  4. Add remaining ingredients except  beef stock.  Cook until until alcohol disipates 6 minutes.
  5. Add beef stock and cook until mixture thickens and mounds up on a spoon.
  6. Spread meat mixture into prepared dish.  Spread mashed potatoes evenly on top and out to the edge of the casserole dish.   With a knife or fork, swirl potatoes to make peaks. 
  7. Drizzle remaining butter over potatoes.  Bake for 18 to 20 minutes.  Cool for 15-20 minutes before serving.

Donate to My Coffee Kitty and help a senior pay for cataract surgery. 70% of seniors are afficted with cataracts. It's a simple surgery to remove cataracts but very expensive...about $3000 per eye. If you're not old enough to qualify for medicare, and you're uninsured, can't find a job, can't get a driver's license, or read a good book because of cataracts, your world is impoverished. Help save someone's sight!

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Grilled Mahi-Mahi

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

The Polynesian culture is more than 900 years old. Its very existence can be attributed to coconuts. The coconut palm is called “the tree of life” for it provides everything that is essential to survival in the South Pacific. In fact, coconut palms are so important that one tree is planted for every newborn. The juice of a young coconut can be used in transfusions, it is so perfect in its composition of electrolytes and nutrients, and it is sterile, pure and refreshing. The roots can be used to treat dysentery, the ribs of the fronds make brooms, the leaves are woven into baskets, the shells are polished for cups and bowls, buttons, and decorations, the wood is now a replacement for hardwoods used in flooring. The hardwood also makes a superior charcoal for filtering and the meat of mature coconuts, known as copra, makes oil and flaked coconut.

In the Tongan islands, the hub of Polynesia, fish is breaded, browned in coconut oil, and then cooked in coconut milk with onions. The local hot-sauce, made of chilies soaked in seawater, is the condiment of choice with this dish. The flavors are fresh, spicy and comforting. This recipe is a leaner, kicked-up version that can be grilled on the barbeque, on a cast-iron grill, or on a George Foreman grill. Halibut, tuna, shark, or swordfish may be used in place of mahi-mahi. Buy the freshest fish available and trim the dark areas before marinating.

Grilled Mahi-Mahi

Ingredients:

o 1 lb. mahi mahi (4 oz per serving)
o Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
o juice of 1 lime, reserve zest for sauce
o 2 Tbsp olive oil
o 2 Tbsp minced shallot, reserve 1 Tbsp for sauce
o 3 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro, reserve 1 Tbsp for sauce, remainder for garnish

Method:

1. Salt and pepper fish fillets on both sides. Place on a glass plate.
2. Combine remaining ingredients in a small bowl.
3. Pour ½ the marinade over fish and distribute evenly. Turn and repeat.
4. Cover and marinate for 30-40 minutes in the refrigerator.
5. Grill 6 inches from flame for 3 minutes each side, or until it flakes with a fork.
6. Remove from grill and keep warm. Reserve the juice from the fish for the sauce.
7. To serve: Make a puddle of sauce on each plate, top with grilled fish, garnish with lime slices and cilantro.

Coconut Cream Sauce

Ingredients:

o 1 can (14.5 oz) coconut cream
o Reserved juice of grilled fish
o 2 tsp lime zest
o 1 Tbsp reserved cilantro
o 1 small red chili, minced (or Tabasco sauce to taste)
o Sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Method:

1. Pour 1 cup coconut cream into a small sauce pan over medium heat.
2. Bring to a low boil, lower heat to a simmer and reduce until slightly thickened.
3. Add juice from fish, lime zest, cilantro, chili, salt and pepper. Simmer for 5-6 minutes.
4. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Other recipes by JoAnn Jagroop can be found at http://yuwie.com/joannjagroop

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=JoAnn_Jagroop

Donate to My Coffee Kitty and help a senior pay for cataract surgery. 70% of seniors are afficted with cataracts. It's a simple surgery to remove cataracts but very expensive...about $3000 per eye. If you're not old enough to qualify for medicare, and you're uninsured, can't find a job, can't get a driver's license, or read a good book because of cataracts, your world is impoverished. Help save someone's sight!

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Pulled-Pork Tacos for Poker Night

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

This is the night mom takes the kids skating or to the movies and dad invites the guys over for a friendly game of Texas hold’em. Dad, you can use the crock pot and start cooking the pork before you head off to work in the morning. Once you’re home from work make the gravy in the blender, warm the tortillas and chill the beer.

This recipe is a take-off on country style ribs with green chili gravy that was popular in Houston around the mid 1990s. The ribs were stewed with onions and garlic and the resulting juice was used in the preparation of the gravy. Toasted corn tortillas were used for thickening the gravy and added that little maza flavoring. Roasted poblanos and cilantro were added to produce the green chili in the gravy.

* Deep dark green poblano chilies are as large as green bell peppers, mildly spicy with a lot of flavor. The best way to cook them is to roast them over a fire or in the oven. Just hit them with a little olive oil which will draw the heat of the oven to them, place them on a baking pan in a 350° F. oven for about 10 minutes, turn them over, and roast the other side for 10 minutes. They should be blistered or charred on the outside. Place the chilies in a plastic bag for 10 minutes to steam, then scrape off the outer skin. Slit open and remove the seeds and stems.

Buy a pork shoulder roast. It will cost about $6.00 for 4 pounds and will be full of flavor and tender enough to pull once it is slow cooked. Fatten them up before you take their money. They won’t mind a bit after you feed them this great dish.

Ingredients:

o 4 pound pork shoulder roast (Boston butt)
o 2 onions, chopped course
o 6 cloves of garlic, smashed and peeled
o 1 bay leaf
o 1 sprig of thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme
o 5 cups stock (beef, chicken or vegetable)
o 2 corn tortillas, toasted lightly on a dry grill or skillet, torn into pieces
o 2 large poblano chilies, *roasted, scraped and seeded as directed above
o 1 bunch cilantro
o 1 tsp cumin
o Salt and pepper to taste
o Chopped lettuce, tomato, and queso fresco (or grated cheddar cheese) for toppings

Method:

1. Place one onion on the bottom of a 6 quart crock pot.
2. Set pork roast on top of onion, cut roast in pieces if necessary.
3. Add remaining onion, garlic, bay leaf, thyme and stock. Set temperature to low and let cook for 10 hours or longer.
4. Remove meat to a platter and pull pork with 2 forks while poblanos are roasting.
5. Prepare poblano chilies as *directed above.
6. Pour crock pot juices into a blender. Add poblanos, corn tortillas, cilantro, cumin, salt and pepper to blender. Cover the blender and puree contents until smooth.
7. Return gravy to crock pot, add back the meat and turn the temperature to warm.
8. To serve, toast a tortilla in a dry skillet, spoon pulled pork and gravy into tortilla, add lettuce, tomato, and queso fresco or grated cheddar cheese. Fold up the bottom and then the sides like a burrito.

Donate to My Coffee Kitty and help a senior pay for cataract surgery. 70% of seniors are afficted with cataracts. It's a simple surgery to remove cataracts but very expensive...about $3000 per eye. If you're not old enough to qualify for medicare, and you're uninsured, can't find a job, can't get a driver's license, or read a good book because of cataracts, your world is impoverished. Help save someone's sight!

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Tartiflette Provencal

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

This French country dish from the Savoie region is reminiscent of gratin with the heavy cream, potatoes, bacon and cheese.  It is perfect for warming up after an afternoon on the ski slopes.  Make ahead, omitting the cream, until ready to bake.  Serve it with a green salad and a white wine like Apremont.  (Let’s not get too pretentious here… red wine is also acceptable.)  

Traditionally, tartiflette is made with Roblochon cheese which is made from cow’s milk.  Dairy farmers in the Aravis Valley of the Savoie region made this cheese for decades as a result of avoiding all the tariff imposed on milk.  Instead of milking their cows dry they would milk them for just enough quantity to satisfy the taxman.  After the taxman left, they would finish the milking and use that milk for Roblochon cheese and other home purposes. 

Roblochon is similar to Brie or Camembert and melts beautifully into the potatoes, onions and bacon in this dish.  A true tartiflette casserole dish is greased with goose or duck fat and rubbed with raw garlic before the layers of cooked potatoes, onion and bacon are assembled.  As with every French dish butter, cream and cheese are added for richness, flavor and comfort…it’s not low cal that’s for sure.  However, drinking wine, especially red wine, will help to eliminate fatty solids from your digestive system.  That’s why the French have less heart disease than the English or Americans.  Cooking with wine enhances flavors and tenderizes too.  Any wine you’d drink  is appropriate for cooking.  However those little bottles of cooking wine on grocers’ shelves are way too salty and overpriced so avoid them.

Enjoy this French country dish. 

Ingredients:

  • 2 large waxy potatoes, scrubbed clean
  • 8 strips of bacon, diced
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 1/4 cup of dry white wine
  • salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
  • 1 sprig of fresh thyme or 1/2 tsp of dried thyme
  • 1 Tbsp butter plus enough to grease casserole dish
  • 1 clove garlic to season casserole dish
  • 6 ounces of Roblochon cheese ( Brie or Camembert if Roblochon style cheese not available)
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • salt and fresh ground black pepper

Method:

  1. In a sauce pan of salted water, boil potatoes for 20 minutes.  Drain and cool enough to handle.  Peel and slice into 1/4-inch discs.
  2. Saute bacon over medium heat until fat is rendered.  Add onions and saute until translucent.  Transfer to a strainer to remove excess fat.  Return to skillet.
  3. Add wine, thyme and season with salt and pepper.  Cook until wine is nearly dissipated.  Remove skillet from heat.
  4. Preheat oven to 350° F.
  5. Lightly butter the bottom and sides of a 3-4 quart casserole dish.  Rub with raw garlic clove.
  6. Layer half the potato slices on the bottom, cover with half the onions and bacon. 
  7. Slice the cheese in half horizontally so you have 2 round discs.  Place one disc, cut side down, on top of the onions and bacon.
  8. Repeat layers ending with cheese on top.  Dot with butter.  Pour cream over the top surface and season with salt and pepper.
  9. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour or until top is golden brown and bubbly.  Remove to a cooling rack for 15-20 minutes before serving.

Donate to My Coffee Kitty and help a senior pay for cataract surgery. 70% of seniors are afficted with cataracts. It's a simple surgery to remove cataracts but very expensive...about $3000 per eye. If you're not old enough to qualify for medicare, and you're uninsured, can't find a job, can't get a driver's license, or read a good book because of cataracts, your world is impoverished. Help save someone's sight!

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