a little zaftig » Beef

Bread and Jam for Frances & Spaghetti and Meatballs

Laura — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 22:43:20 +0000

This is the first in a new series of posts. So many of my happiest hours were spent reading to my two children and cooking together. And so many splendid picture books lend themselves to a particular recipe, sometimes more. When my Honey Girl and Sweet Boy were little ones, we walked to the library with our wagon in tow every week. They could fill the wagon as high as was possible with books, and we’d walk home with it wibble-wobbling behind us, with books threatening to topple and held steady by little hands. During the winter, if it was terribly cold or the sidewalks were too icy, we loaded the wagon into the trunk of our car and hauled it into the library. At home, we would work our way through the stacks, setting aside the best books. Then we would read those, over and over and over again, sometimes until my voice was hoarse. Each of us had favorites for the week; our Honey Girl preferred silly books, our Sweet Boy loved books with a lovely music about them, and I favored sweet storytelling. But we all loved that time together on our ratty sofa. “Again, again, again!” my sweet ones would chirp. And I would begin again.

The first book I’ve picked is Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban, illustrated by Lillian Hoban; I think we must have read it three hundred times. It was my favorite book as a girl, and my two peanuts loved it, too. Frances the badger loves bread and jam, and has interest in eating little else. Her story unfolds over the breakfast and dinner tables of her sweet badger family, and at school, over desktop lunches with her friend, Albert. When Frances grows weary of bread and jam, she is finally beguiled by a plate of her mother’s spaghetti and meatballs. Russell Hoban’s descriptions of Frances and her family, their quiet exchanges, Frances’ and Albert’s lunches, and Frances’ little songs are charming. And Lillian Hoban’s pencil illustrations are tender and evocative. Curl up with it, and then make some spaghetti and meatballs together. And when you eat them, like Frances, make the meatballs, the tomato sauce, and the spaghetti come out even.

Spaghetti and Meatballs
Yield: four generous adult servings, plus leftovers

Ingredients:
1 recipe meatballs (recipe below)
1 recipe tomato sauce (recipe below)
1 pound spaghetti
finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano

Method:

Make the tomato sauce.

While it simmers, make the meatballs.

When it’s time to add the sauce to the meatballs, bring a large covered pot of water to a boil over high heat.

When it reaches a boil, add some salt and the spaghetti. Stir the pasta so that it won’t stick. Reduce the heat a bit, so that the water will not boil over, but will maintain a rolling boil. Cook according to the package directions, or until it is tender but still has a little bite.

Drain the pasta into a colander.

Plate some spaghetti, top it with a couple of meatballs and a ladle of sauce. Grate some Parmigiano Reggiano over the top.

Tips:
If you can’t find strained tomatoes or passata, you can puree tins of whole tomatoes in a food processor or blender.

You know the child(ren) in your life best, but it’s probably not a good idea to have the very young handle raw meat or roll the meatballs, as they might touch their faces. Raw meat can harbor pathogens. There are lots of other ways they can help with this meal.

Simple Tomato Sauce
Yield: 6 c. sauce

Ingredients:
48 ounces strained tomatoes or passata (pureed tomatoes) (I prefer BioNaturae brand.)
2 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
A pinch of sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
2 t. dried oregano
a handful of fresh basil leaves, roughly torn

Method:

Place all of the ingredients into a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir them together, and bring the sauce to a simmer.

Reduce the heat to the lowest possible setting and allow the sauce to simmer. You will pour it over the meatballs later.

Meatballs
Yield: 15 meatballs

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
4 extra large eggs
1 c. Italian breadcrumbs, such as Progresso
1 t. red pepper flakes (optional)
1 T. fennel seed (optional)
1 c. finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano
salt and pepper

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Place all of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix them together with your hands until they are well blended.

Using the palms of your hands, roll the mixture into balls a little smaller than a tennis ball.

As you make them, place the meatballs into a large baking dish. (I use a 9×13” glass baking dish.)

Bake the meatballs for 25 minutes.

Pour the tomato sauce over the meatballs and bake for an additional 20 minutes. (You may have extra sauce.)

Boneless Short Rib Ragu

Laura — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 22:20:04 +0000

This sauce is so simple and so delicious. It has all the unctuous richness of short ribs, but you don’t need to fuss with extracting them—dripping from the pan—to remove bones or shred them. It’s the kind of recipe that, after a little time devoted to browning, is quick to put together and perfumes the house while it braises in the oven for a couple of hours. It also keeps well and reheats beautifully, so it’s a perfect do-ahead dish. This is winter fall-in-love food, and, if you live in a cold climate like I do, it is, to my mind, a very romantic gesture. Of course, my kids think it’s just the best dinner of the week.

Short Rib Ragu Tips
The truth is that I wing most of my cooking. This is a riff on a basic ragu. I’m sure I’ve made this with one carrot and with four, with and without mushrooms or bacon, with some broth instead of wine. Feel free to play and to cook to suit your taste. Only a few things are really important. The meat should be well browned. You want a nice crust and a deep color, so resist them temptation to tinker with it and peek at it while it’s browning. And it needs enough time to braise in the oven until it is fork tender, so don’t try to rush the cooking time.

To crush the tomatoes, take each tomato from the tin and make a few inroads into it with your thumb and forefinger to reduce squirting. Holding them low in the pan, give them a good, crushing squeeze. Transfer the remaining tomato pulp to your cutting board and mince it finely. Add the tomato pulp to the pan. I don’t remember when my devious brain decided that this might be a good idea, but it’s really perfect. No more chasing whole tomatoes around a pan trying to crush them. No more unwieldy chunks of tomato in your sauce. And the consistency is much better than tomato puree.

Serve with fresh pasta, with polenta (recipe below), or with pan-fried gnocci. I usually serve it with something quick like polenta the first night I make it and then make something like fresh gnocci or fresh pasta a couple of nights later to eat with the leftover sauce.

An assertive vegetable such as Brussels sprouts or a salad with kale is nice with this. It’s also lovely with a simple baked yam or roasted butternut squash or mashed potatoes.

This sauce keeps well covered in the refrigerator for about five days. It reheats beautifully. If it is a bit dry, add a bit of broth or wine and bring it to a simmer over the lowest possible heat.

Boneless Short Rib Ragu
Yield: 10 to 12 servings

Ingredients:
4 to 5 pounds beef chuck boneless short ribs
3 to 4 turns around the pan of olive oil
4 slices bacon, diced
1 large onion, diced
3 carrots, diced
3 ribs celery, diced
5 cloves garlic
12 ounces crimini or other mushrooms, quartered or sliced
2 to 3 T. tomato paste
a generous glass of wine, either white or red, about 1 c.
28 ounces plum tomatoes and their juice (I prefer Bionaturae organic from Italy or Muir Glen organic)
salt and pepper

Method:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Heat a large pot over medium high heat.

Pat the short ribs dry and season them generously with salt and pepper.

Make three to four turns around the pan with olive oil and add the short ribs in one layer. Do not crowd the pan. You will likely need to brown them in batches.

Do not disturb the short ribs. Let them sear uninterrupted for about five minutes. When they have a nice crust and deep color, turn them over and brown the other side.

Remove the short ribs from the pan and place them on a large plate.

When all of the short ribs have been browned and removed from the pan, add the bacon and cook until it is beginning to crisp.

Add the onion, carrot and celery and a bit of salt and pepper and sauté until the vegetables are tender, scraping any brown bits from the bottom of the pan as the vegetables soften.

Add the mushrooms and sauté until the mushrooms take on a bit of color.

Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for a minute.

Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, for a minute.

Drain the juice from the tomatoes into the pan and, with immaculately clean hands, crush the tomatoes over the pan.

Add the wine and stir.

Place the short ribs into the sauce, pour in any juice from the plate, tuck a piece of parchment paper on top, and cover the pot with its lid.

Heave the pot into the oven and braise for about 2 ½ hours. It will be fork tender when it is ready.

Pull the meat into shreds and chunks with a tongs and a fork and stir it into the sauce.

Taste and adjust seasoning.

Quick Polenta
Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Resist the urge to make extra polenta. It doesn’t reheat well, and it’s quick to make another batch.

Ingredients:
2 c. chicken stock (homemade or Swanson’s organic)
½ c. quick cooking polenta
a good knob of butter, about 3 T.
a good amount of Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated, about 1 c.

Method:

In a medium saucepan, bring the stock to a simmer over high heat.

Reduce the heat to medium, whisk in the polenta, and stir for five minutes.

Add the butter and the cheese and stir to incorporate.

Serve immediately.

Fresh Pasta and Fresh Gnocci posts coming soon!

Beef Brisket

Laura — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 02:27:41 +0000

Our Honey Girl is home from college! And since she is a consummate carnivore and lover of all things beef, I made a beef brisket for one of her first dinners home. When she and our Sweet Boy were little, they took a turn cooking with me one night a week and planned menus. After a particularly enthusiastic week of cooking during which she planned seven nights of beef—meatloaf, braciole, beef brisket, beef stew, steaks, beef stroganoff, and shepherd’s pie made with…beef—we decided to give her a week or two off! They were all delicious dinners, and she was in heaven, but the rest of us were feeling, well, like we might start mooing if we ate any more beef. Whenever she comes home now, though, I cook some of her favorites, and we all enjoy a bit of a beef festival.

I don’t know why more people don’t cook brisket. At my favorite market they have recently stopped carrying corn-fed brisket, and I’m a little heartbroken over it, partly because I have to make a trip for it now to the fancy schmancy grocery store across town where it is twice as expensive, but also because it is a sign that its popularity is waning. It is a delicious cut, rather inexpensive, and a snap to make. After browning, it braises in the oven until it is fork tender, and it doesn’t even need an occasional prod. It’s practically a one-pot dinner, and I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t love brisket. Make it.

Beef Brisket Tips
Ask your butcher to trim up a whole brisket. This can be done while you finish your shopping. It only takes a few minutes.

When you sear the brisket, resist the temptation to peek at it and to fuss with it. You will smell its beefy goodness when it is ready to be turned, and you will see the deep brown crust at the edge. If you lift the brisket, it will not develop a proper crust and will, therefore, not develop excellent flavor. It will pull away from the pan easily when it is ready. If it’s sticking, let it brown a bit longer. It takes about eight to ten minutes per side to brown.

The meat is ready when it is fork tender. If it’s tough, it just needs to cook a bit longer. Don’t worry!

If you have leftovers, warm them over a low flame on the stove. Or remove the brisket from the pan, slice it thinly, return the meat to the pan, warm it over a low flame on the stove, and serve it on farmhouse rolls, perhaps topped with a little horseradish cream, for a delicious brisket sandwich. You can smash the carrots into the sauce and drizzle some on, too. Yum!

Beef Brisket
Adapted from Lil Pachter’s recipe in Saveur magazine
Yield: twelve generous servings

Ingredients:
1 large brisket, 7 to 8 pounds
olive oil for the pan
4 T. dried oregano
¼ c. ground dried chiles
salt and pepper
4 large onions, peeled and sliced thinly
2 pounds carrots, peeled and cut in half
14 ounces diced tomatoes (I prefer Bionaturae or Muir Glen.)
4 c. chicken stock (homemade or Swanson’s organic)

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

If your butcher has not trimmed the brisket well, take a few minutes to trim most of the external fat.

Salt and pepper both sides of the brisket liberally and rub in the oregano and chile.

Heat a large pan over medium high heat. When it is hot, drizzle in a few turns of olive oil. When the oil is hot, place the brisket in the pan and sear it until it develops a dark crust. Flip it and sear the other side.

While the brisket is searing, peel and slice the onions, and peel and cut the carrots.

Remove the brisket to a plate and add the tomatoes to the bottom of the pan.

Place the brisket on top and pour in the stock. Add the carrots, pushing them down into the liquid. And scatter the onions over top.

Place a lid on the pot and put it in the oven. Braise for two hours.

Carefully take the lid off the pan and continue to braise for another hour.

Place the lid back on the pan and braise for an additional one to two hours, or until it is fork tender.

Slice the brisket and serve it with a few carrots, and some of the onions and tomatoes. I also serve it with boiled potatoes with a little melted butter.

Winter Supper: Beef Stew & Farmhouse Rolls

Laura — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 21:46:52 +0000

There are a couple of simple keys to making a great beef stew. Buy good beef, brown it really well on all sides, don’t crowd the pan during the process, and don’t move it while it’s browning. If you do that, and mingle it with other best-quality ingredients, you can’t go wrong. This is my favorite kind of supper to make during a busy time of year. It’s a one pot meal with leftovers that last a couple of days. And it’s filling and delicious and everyone loves it. I serve it with farmhouse rolls, either store bought or homemade (recipe later). It’s an easy winter staple.

Beef Stew Tips
It is very important that you not crowd the beef in the pan. It will steam rather than brown if it doesn’t have enough room.

Resist the temptation to fuss with the beef as it browns. You will see the crust forming at the edge of the pieces, so you don’t need to peek at it. If you move it, it will not develop a proper crust.

Browning the meat will develop a lovely, deep fond on the bottom of the pan. A fond is the caramelized drippings and bits of meat that form a crust on your pan as you brown meat.

Deglazing the pan is simply scraping up the brown bits and fond from the bottom and sides of the pan. Use a bit of broth and a wooden spoon to get every last bit. It add tremendous flavor to the stew.

Beef Stew
Yield: about 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients:
Olive oil for the pan
2 pounds good stew meat
1 large onion, peeled and cut into a very large dice
6 carrots, peeled and cut into coins
6 yukon gold potatoes, scrubbed and cubed
8 ounces crimini (or other) mushrooms, wiped clean and quartered
1 T. dried thyme
1 t. culinary lavender
2 bay leaves
8 c. chicken stock, homemade (or Swanson’s organic)
28 ounces whole tomatoes in their juice (I prefer Bionaturae or Muir Glen.)
salt and pepper

Method:

Heat a large Dutch oven or pan over medium heat. When the pan is hot, drizzle in a few turns of olive oil.

Add the beef piece by piece, placing them so that they have space between them. Allow the beef to brown without disturbing it until it has a deep golden brown crust and pulls easily from the bottom of the pan. Turn the pieces and brown them on all sides in this manner.

Remove the browned beef from the pan and place it on a plate. Brown the remaining beef and move it to the plate.

Spoon off any excess fat from the bottom of the pan and add the onions. Sauté them until they are soft. Add the carrots and sauté them until they are beginning to soften.

Add a bit of stock to the pot and, with a wooden spoon, deglaze the pan. (See tips above.)

Add the beef back to the pan, the potatoes, the mushrooms, and the thyme, lavender, and bay leaves, and then the stock.

Drain the tin of tomatoes over the pot. Then, with immaculately clean hands, crush the tomatoes over the pot. If you have soft tomatoes, they will crush completely. If your tomatoes are a bit more firm, squeeze out all of their juice and then place the pulp on a cutting board. Finely mince all of the pulp and add it back to the pan.

Season the stew with salt and pepper and simmer it uncovered over very low heat until it is thickened and the meat and vegetables are tender, about one hour.

Taste the stew and adjust the seasoning.

This stew will keep covered in the refrigerator for about four days.