This Dame Cooks A Collection of Recipes from Alaska to the South Pacific and Caribbean

Most Americans think of beef brisket as corned beef. The rest of us know that fresh brisket is an essential part of Texas barbeques and Jewish holidays. The brisket comes from the breast of the cow, between the forelegs. There are two different cuts, the flat cut which is more tender, and the point cut which is less tender but more flavorful due to more layers of fat. Both cuts require long slow cooking and are especially tasty cooked with sweet and sour sauces.

Rhubarb and onion marmalade adds the right amount of sweet and sour to this dish and its a unique way to use the rhubarb in season now.

Onion marmalade alone is great on hamburgers, a tasty condiment for roasted lamb or chicken, potted meats, and spinach-gorgonzola tarts.

The recipe given is easy to prepare and sure to impress the carnivores of the household.

Ingredients:

• 3 to 4 lb beef brisket, flat cut (NOT Corned Beef)
• 1/2 tsp each Kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper, thyme, garlic powder, chili powder, and smoky paprika
• oil for searing brisket (about 2 Tbsp)
• 3 onions, sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 2 stalks rhubarb, sliced
• 1 Tbsp yellow mustard seeds
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 1 cup red wine (divided)
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch (for gravy) in 1/2 cup cold water

Method:

1. Trim fat from brisket leaving a thin layer and taking care not to puncture meat.
2. Mix Kosher salt, black pepper, thyme, garlic powder, chili powder and paprika in a small bowl. Spread herb mixture on both sides of brisket, and rub in.
3. Heat a skillet over medium high, add oil to glaze bottom of pan. Sear brisket on both sides until browned. Transfer to crock pot. Deglaze pan with 1/2 cup red wine, scraping up bits in pan, pour over brisket.
4. Toss onions with olive oil in a large sauce pan. Sweat over medium heat until onions are caramelized, stirring occassionally.
5. Add rhubarb, mustard seeds, sugar and vinegar. Cook until syrup thickens and rhubarb is very tender.
6. Pour over brisket in crock pot. Set temperature to high and cook for 5 hours. Or, set temperature to low and cook for 10 hours.
7. Remove meat to a platter. Pour juices from crock pot into a sauce pan. Add 1/2 cup red wine, bring to a boil.
8. Stir 1 Tbsp (heaping) of cornstarch into 1/2 cup water, stir into boiling juices. Whisk until thickened for gravy.
9. Slice brisket, ladle gravy over slices. Serve remaining gravy on the side with potatoes.

You can never have too many salad/salsa dishes in your culinary repertoire. This recipe is from my Jordanian friends in Seattle. It is a marinated bean salad that just gets better and better the longer it marinates. It has all the essential flavors of the Mediterranean with lemon, olive oil, cumin, cilantro and mint. The addition of chipotle chilies, capers, olives, artichokes or sun-dried tomatoes would give this dish a whole new dimension. Whatever you add to make this your own, it will be well received.

Serve it as part of your party hors d’oeuvres in baby hearts of romaine or endive. Or, serve it with tortilla chips like salsa, add it to tacos or enchiladas. Stuff it in hollowed out crusty rolls with deli meats and cheeses like a muffalatta. Its a great side dish for a dinner with roasted lamb, chicken or fish. Its also a light accompaniment to a vegetarian sandwich.

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 cups cooked black turtle beans (or 2 cans 15oz each)
• 1/2 cup sliced scallions
• 1 large tomato, seeded and diced
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1 Tbsp fresh chopped mint (1 tsp dried mint)
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 or 2 dashes of Tabasco sauce
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 tsp cumin
• Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Method:

1. Rince black beans in a collander. Place in a bowl.
2. Add remaining ingredients and fold to combine.
3. Marinate, covered, in the refrigerator overnight or at least 1 hour before serving in order to develop flavors.

When you live in the tropics bananas probably grow right outside your door.  Stalks of bananas can weigh 20-40 pounds depending upon the variety.  There are fingerling sizes, export sizes that you see in supermarkets, and there are plantain sized bananas that grow in various shapes.  Polynesians and West Indians of the Caribbean cook green bananas in coconut milk for a starchy side dish.  Over ripe bananas can be stewed with coconut milk and served as a hot drink.  Bananas are also used in more traditional baking of pies, cakes, breads, muffins, pancakes, and eaten out of hand. 

Never to let food go to waste, I made lots of jam from bananas while living in the South Pacific.  My first batches were rather dismal. The bananas disinegrated in the long-cook-method and the resulting color was a muddy brown.  Adding pectin to shorten the cooking time required too much sugar making the jam overly sweet and obliterating the banana flavor.  

I found a recipe in Down-Island Caribbean Cookery, 1991, by Virginie and George Elbert.  The recipe begins with a vanilla bean and a heavy sugar syrup and 20-25 minutes of cooking with the bananas.  I still wasn’t happy with the resulting jam so I tweaked the method to shorten the cooking time and ended up with a pale yellow, chunky banana jam… just what I wanted…with lots of banana flavor and undertones of vanilla.   Try this recipe for breakfast or spread it on a pbj sandwich.

Ingredients:

• 6 firm ripe bananas, sliced 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick ( 3-3/4 cups)
• 2 limes, juiced
• 1 cup water
• 3 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 vanilla bean
• 1 tsp banana extract (optional, or just a few drops will do)

Method:

1. Place bananas in a bowl, pour lime juice over and toss to coat.
2. In a stainless steel pot, boil sugar and water until sugar dissolves.
3. Add vanilla bean and continue boilng until syrup coats the back of a wooden spoon, about 5 minutes
4. Add banana and lime mixture.  When it once again comes to a boil, reduce heat to a lively simmer.  Stir occasionally so the bananas will not sink to the bottom.  Skim off any foam that rises to the top.
5. Check for jellying stage by dropping a 1/2 tsp of jam onto a cold saucer and refrigerate for a minute.   Or use a candy thermometer and this handy altitude table.
6. If the jam has jellied, remove pot from heat, remove vanilla bean, and stir in banana extract.
7. Ladle jam into hot sterilized jars up to 1/4 inch from rim.  Seal immediately. 
8. Process in a Boiling Water Bath for 10 minutes.  Remove and cool.
9. Check that lids have sealed.  Store in cool dark pantry for 1 week to ripen before using.  Refrigerate after opening.

Batida is Portuguese for shaken or milkshake.  de Coco is coconut milk and watermelon with coconut milk is a cool drink on a hot summer’s day.  In Tonga they call this ‘Otai (oh-tie).  Its low in calories, high in nutrition and can be made with mango, quava, peach, pineapple, papaya, soursop or a combination of fruit like strawberries, watermelon and red grapes.   Garnish with little umbrellas and fruit for a festive look.

If you add cachaca, Brazilian sugarcane liquor which is distilled sugarcane syrup, you’ll have a Brazilian cocktail.  Cachaca should not be confused with rum which is made from sugarcane molasses.  

Ingredients for 2 servings:

• 1 cup of watermelon flesh, seeded
• 1 cup of coconut milk
• 1 Tbsp lime juice (or Roses Lime)
• cup of ice

Method:

1. Place watermelon, coconut milk and lime juice in a blender and whirl for 30 seconds.
2. Add ice and whirl until smooth.
3. Pour over ice in tall glasses and garnish.

June and July are clam tide months on the Oregon coast.  As a kid, I always looked forward to weekends spent at the beach clamming.  The whole family would pile into the station wagon on a Friday night with camping gear and clam shovels and drive from Seattle to Seaside, Oregon. 

Razor clams are sweet morsels and a lot of fun to dig.  You have a clam shovel or a clam gun, (6-inch round aluminum tube about 24 inches tall) and walk the beach looking for a bubble and clam neck poking its head out.  Then you have to step gently up to it with your back to the sea, position the shovel just behind the hole and in a vigorous foray of excitement and speed try to capture that clam before he heads for China.  Sometimes the hole dug would be three feet deep before the raschel was apprehended. 

The true test of a good clam digger is to see how many clams you can get in one shovel and not crack the shell.  Whether the shell was whole or not, not a clam was wasted for what we didn’t eat over the weekend would be frozen for a succulent meal after the season was over.  Mom also minced clams and can them in a pressure cooker.  Minced clams make a terrific clam dip or fritters.

Razor clams have flat sharp shells.  You simply slip them from their shelves with a knife and remove the black stomachs with scissors.  Breaded and fried they are a delicious treat.  Red cocktail sauce with horseradish was the preferred accompaniment along with home-frys and mom’s cole slaw. 

This recipe will also work with mussels and tenderized abolone and conch.

Ingredients:

• 2 lb cleaned razor clams, stomachs removed
• 1 sleeve soda crackers, crushed
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup of buttermilk (or 1/2 cup plain yogurt with 1/2 cup milk)
• sea salt
• 1 or 2 dashes Tabasco sauce
• 1/4 cup butter plus (more if needed)
• 1/4 cup canola oil plus (more if needed)

Method:

1. Whisk together eggs, buttermilk, Tabasco and salt.  Pour into a flat pie plate.
2. Place cracker crumbs in another pie plate.
3. Over medium high heat, melt butter, add oil and heat.
4. Dip each clam in egg wash, then keeping the clam flat, dip into cracker crumbs and coat both sides.
5. Fry about two minutes on each side, until golden brown.  Don’t crowd them in the skillet and try to lay them out flat.  
6. Remove to a rack over a platter to drain.  Keep warm until all clams are cooked.
7. Serve with cocktail sauce or tartare sauce.