DINNER TIME! Dutch Oven Beef Stew

It can still get a little chilly at night here in Northern California. A hearty stew is just the thing to take the chill off.

This recipe used a cast iron Dutch oven inside of a conventional oven. It takes several hours to finish but most of that time, it's "set and forget." Just a little bit of preparation at the beginning and two stirrings during cook time.

INGREDIENTS
2 lbs. - beef stew chunks
2 strips - bacon
1/2 med. onion
4 med carrots
10 small yellow potatoes
4 oz. - sliced mushrooms
10 oz. - frozen peas
1 med. tomato
1 can - beef broth
1/4 cup - sherry
2 tablespoons - mince garlic
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon - thyme
1 bay leaves
1/4 cup - cornstarch
2 tablespoons - olive oil

My wife and son don't like chunks of onion so, instead of dicing, I put the onion in the blender on a medium speed with 2 tablespoons of water for 5 seconds (you can dice if you like). Then, it's peel the carrots and slice into quarter inch chunks.

I quarter the potatoes and set aside in a bowl with the carrots.

Dice the tomato and set aside in a separate bowl.

Preheat the oven to 285 degrees.

Cut up the bacon into small chunks. Heat the olive oil in the Dutch oven on the stovetop at medium-high heat. Cook the bacon until just done in the oil.

Add the onion and cook another 5 minutes.

Add the beef, salt and pepper. Stir occasionally and cook another 5 minutes.

Add half the sherry, stir and scrape the bottom with a wooden spoon or spatula.

Turn off the heat and add the vegetables, bay leaves, garlic, thyme, mushrooms, and cornstarch.

Pour in the broth and the rest of the sherry.

Oops! I forgot the tomatoes so I add them (you can add with the rest of the vegetables).

Cover and put in oven for 2 hours. At that time, remove cover and stir. Cover it back up and cook another two hours. Stir again and cover. Cook one more hour and serve.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2019 - All Rights Reserved

Cheap and Easy...Trader Joe's Bool Kogi

While we've been known to get pretty elaborate with our recipes here on the blog, it's a bit much to expect to sit over a hot stove on a summer day when the temps are trending over 110 degrees. Still want to eat at home but without too much effort.

That's where the magic of Trader Joe's comes in. Here there are plenty ready to eat and pre-prepared groceries that are delicious and easy to cook.

Recently, it was another dreadfully hot Sunday and...honestly...cooking was the last thing I wanted to do but it is my responsibility to provide the meals on that day. I was picking up some staples like milk and eggs at my local Trader Joe's, thinking about what quick-serve place I could go to pick up dinner that night.

For some reason, I wandered over to the pre-prepared foods cooler just to see what was there. The 'Bool Kogi,' TJ's bulgogi Korean-style beef, looked good and easy so I picked up a package.

To get to the point, this made for a easy, quick dinner. I put some rice in the steamer, fired up my Weber grill with a load of charcoal, and opened the package.

Basically, it's flank steak marinated with a variety of Asian style seasonings and sesame seeds...sort of a Korean carne asada.

The hot grill made short work of cooking the meat.  So I chopped it up and served over rice in a bowl.  Not bad but needed a little extra. We had a few lefter over Waba sauce packets (teriyaki sauce that's served at the Waba Grill restaurant chain) and put a little on top.

There it is...quick, delicious teriyaki bowls made at home for a fraction of what I'd pay at a take out place.

Better than that, we had plenty of meat left over. The next morning, I threw a handful in a skillet and cracked open some eggs.

Pour an egg, cream, salt and pepper mix over it...sprinkle on some shredded cheese...and scramble to make some of the most delicious steak and eggs I've had in quite awhile.

This Week's Gardening - 

Weeding and trimming, mostly, like cutting back on the deadheads of this glaucous daisy I have growing around my mailbox.

You can already see new flower buds coming. Also, spraying the front yard roses with deer repellent. Let's see if that works, and doing a sprinkler check for clogged emitters.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

An Amalgamation of Classics

Sometimes, in my kitchen or even the bar, I'm kind of like a Dr. Frankenstein...mixing different things together to get a hybrid result. Or would that be Dr. Moreau, crossing different species to rush along evolution? Anyway, this dish...very suitable for a sunny, summer day barbecue...is one of those creations

Go to Minnesota and you need to try a Juicy Lucy (or 'Jucy', depending on where you get it). This burger is a specialty here where the cheese is put inside the meat patty before cooking.

Here in Southern California, there's another local chain that has made its mark with the 50~50 burger. This burger features a patty that is half ground beef and half bacon.

Here at the Sunday Sauce blog, we figure why decide between one or the other? We'll make both, hence the 50~50 Juicy Lucy.

INGREDIENTS

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
2 strips cooked bacon, cut into thirds
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon Slap ya' Mama
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 egg
1/2 cup shredded cheese
6 slices of colby jack (or your favorite) cheese

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl (except for the bacon and cheese), cover and let chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

I cover a large cutting board with wax paper and do the same with a handy plastic bowl.  Years ago, my cousins gave me a burger press, one of the handiest gadgets I own.  I'll be using that to press out the patties.

I'm doing double burgers with two quarter pound patties.  I put about an eighth of a pound down on the wax-paper covered cutting board and sprinkle a bit of the shredded cheese on it. Another same-size bit of meat goes on top.

I press down with my press as hard as I can. Some meat will squeeze out the bottom. I lift up, put that meat back in the middle and press again.

This is the patty I get as a result.  With my fingers, I press gently all around the patty to spread it out a bit.  I like to have a finished patty that's about an inch wider in diameter than my bun because it will shrink that much in cooking. That way, I'll have perfectly sized patties for the bun.

Put the finished patties on wax paper in the plastic bowl. I'm doing six patties for three double burgers. In the end, I think maybe one patty for each one would have been plenty but make as much or little as you'd like.

Cook over the coals in direct heat for two minutes per side.

Finish with 4-6 minutes on each side over indirect heat, covered, putting cheese on top for the final few minutes.

Garnish  as you would your favorite burger and enjoy. I also put some bacon on ours.


Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Something Offal Comes This Way...

Ready to get out of your comfort zone? Offal refers to the parts of the animal most people would rather not think about.  Kids remember having to choke down some of mom's liver or kidney.  Beyond that, it can get even scarier but it can be very tasty.

I had my epiphany with offal on a camping trip with my future wife and future inlaws when my brother-in-law's then girlfriend's (now his very lovely wife) dad set up a barbecue at our site.  He proceeded to unravel a large piece of cow intestine in a spiral on the grill.

"I'm not eating that," I whispered to Letty.

"At least try it," she insisted.

Quite a bit of back and forth later, I relented and told her I would try just a little bite. Screwing up my courage, I did and guess what?  It was terrific. I couldn't get enough.

I now search out a good tripas taco whenever we're someplace I'm likely to get some good Mexican food.

I've learned to not pass up on foods that might be off-putting to me. I've found some great foods and, yes, a few stinkers along the way trying things like pig's intestine soup, blood sausage, brains, heart, snails, and tripe (as in menudo).

Recently, we had this dish.  If you're ready to jump off the safe ledge, give it a shot.

Tacos de Cachete

INGREDIENTS

2 pounds cachete de res (beef cheeks, ask your butcher)
4 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon pepper
1 small onion (chopped)
1/2 pound cilantro (chopped)
Corn tortillas

In a stock pot, boil the cachete, garlic, salt, and pepper for three hours on low heat. It should be soft enough to easily chop up with a knife when done.

Heat up a comal (or a flat griddle) on medium heat.  Heat up some corn tortillas, about 30 seconds on each side. Place the tortillas folded up into a clean dish towel.

Chop up the meat, place a bit with the onion, cilantro, maybe a little guacamore, and your favorite salsa into a warm tortilla and eat as a taco.

Tuesdays with Letty: 88 Noodle House, Arcadia

Home of the world famous Santa Anita Racetrack and the Arboretum, Arcadia has morphed into an upscale Asian neighborhood.  The San Gabriel Valley is famous for its Asian population and food stretching east from the epicenter of Monterey Park.  Those with money have gravitated over to San Marino and Arcadia. Fortunately, they've brought their food with them.

Across the street from the world famous Din Tai Fung dumpling house is our favorite place for Chinese soup, the 88 Noodle House.

While there is an extensive menu here, I come for one thing...beef tendon noodle soup.

These little bits of jellied cow floating in a spicy and savory broth are just irresistible. Imagine the best ribeye steak literally melting in your mouth and you get a hint of the taste.  Along with the noodles, spinach, and that tasty broth, it makes for a soup you'll remember to your grave.

Also, Letty likes to have the shrimp and pork dumplings that rival the famous ones people are lined up for across the street.

88 Noodle House is in a strip mall on Baldwin Avenue, just north of the corner of Baldwin and Duarte and about 4 blocks south of Santa Anita Mall.

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

DINNER: Smoked Tri Tip Roast

Texas has it's saucy version of barbecue, Memphis has its rubs, and Kansas City it's smoke.  All three are hard to get good versions of here in California but we do have an ace up our sleeve.

My home of the Golden State has its own style of barbecue, smoked tri tip.  

It's a part of the cow that used to be ground up, or even just thrown away sometimes, until a butcher at the Von's in Santa Maria came up with this triangular cut.  It's a bit tough to start but cooks on the Central Coast figured out that smoking it came up with a tenderizing and tasty way to serve it.

You can now find tri tip being served up in every corner of the state on weekends at fairs, farmers markets, church group fund raisers, and on almost every corner of Santa Maria.

This is a meal I reserve for special occasions. It takes quite a bit more to prepare and cook than the other recipes you'll find on this blog but it is well worth the results and you can have very good leftovers for days.

INGREDIENTS
2 or 3 tri tip roasts - minimum grade of USDA Choice, Prime if you can swing it.
1 tablespoon Kosher salt 
1 tablespoon pepper
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
16 oz pineapple juice
16 oz orange juice
1/2 pound hardwood chips (hickory, oak, or mesquite)

PREPARATION

The day before, put the roasts in a sealable plastic bowl and fill with a 50/50 mix of orange and pineapple juice. Seal and put in the refrigerator overnight.

Put the wood chips in a bucket and fill with water, let sit overnight.

RUB

Mix the cayenne, paprika, mustard, and onion powder together.

COOKING

Drain the pineapple and orange juice into a small sauce pan. Simmer on low for about an hour. This can be used as a glaze when the meat is done.

Sprinkle the salt and pepper over all surfaces of the meat.

Apply the rub thoroughly on all surfaces of the meat.

Drain the water from the chip bucket so that you only have soaked chips left in it. In a smoker or a charcoal grill, put a ring of charcoal around the edge. Don't make a full circle but leave about a quarter of the circumference empty. It should resemble a Greek omega symbol - Ω

Put a layer of wet wood chips on top of the charcoal.

Light each end of the ring. I put about ten briquettes in a starter chimney and and then put about half of the burning charcoal on each end of the ring.  This will burn slowly around the ring but give enough of the temperature to cook (you're shooting for 250 degrees F).

The wood will also help regulate the temperature along with providing the smoke needed for flavor.

The meat all goes in the center, with no direct heat underneath them.

It's a slow process, maybe two hours for one roast and an hour for each roast you add to that. A meat thermometer will help you monitor the progress. Keep the smoker or grill covered, check once an hour or so. Remember that each time you remove the lid, you'll be adding 15 minutes to cooking time so do this sparingly.

You're looking for an internal temperature of 140 - 150 degrees F for medium rare. Once done, remove to a platter, cover with foil for 10 minutes before serving.

We like to serve it as a sandwich with my wife's homemade sourdough bread with a little jack cheese...

...or as an entry, as shown above.

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved.

Beefy Tomatoes

Nice, ripe tomato on the vine. What to do?

Put it on some great roast beef from our local Italian deli, that's what. Delicious!

Darryl