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Orange and Pale Ale Marinated Steak

grilled steak sliced

The other day I wanted to cook the little pastured blade steaks I had ordered from the CSA, but wanted to add a little oomph to them beyond simply salting and peppering.  I know this particular cut can be a little tough, too, so I wanted to prepare them in way that would relax them a bit.  Right around that time, I had received the August issue of Sunset Magazine, which featured a selection of marinade recipes, one of which sounded perfect for my little steaks.

marinated steaks

This marinade called for orange juice and beer as its main ingredients, both of which help to tenderize meat.  It also included garlic and onion as aromatics.  I decided to try it.  The night before I wanted to cook them, I put the marinade together and poured it over the steaks.  By the next evening, they were ready to go!

Well, the marinade definitely helped to tenderize the steak – while not buttery in texture by any means, the meat sliced well and was delicious, cooked at medium.  The marinade gave them wonderful flavor, while allowing the inherent taste of the meat to come through.  It was well-received in my household and I would totally use this marinade again.

steak on the grill

It will come as no surprise to some of my friends that I would be a little lost at sea when it comes to cooking slabs of meat, having been a vegetarian for so many years.  I needed a little guidance, so I must give props to the instructions in Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food.  It has great basic info for a noob like myself!

Orange and Pale Ale Marinade
adapted from Sunset Magazine, August 2010 issue

1/2 cup medium-bodied beer, such as pale ale
Zest and juice of 1 large orange (2 large oranges would work, too, if you want more orange flavor)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon naturally fermented soy sauce
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/2 medium onion, peeled and coarsely shredded on a box grater
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Whisk all ingredients together. Put beef in a nonreactive baking dish and pour marinade over, turning to coat.

Marinate for one day, then grill.  Makes enough marinade for 2 pounds of beef.

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Perfect Crispy Bacon

Bacon

I love bacon.  I really do.  However, over the years I haven’t had the best luck cooking it, even though it seems so simple in theory.  When cooking it on the stove top – the only way I’d been taught – I’d always get grease spatter on my hands (ouch) and the bacon would cook unevenly.  I kind of gave up on preparing bacon, to be honest.

However, I’d recently heard about cooking bacon in the oven, and since I wanted to make a cobb salad on Friday, I thought I’d give this technique a chance.  Well, I am a total convert now!  This method works beautifully and turns out amazing crispy bacon, with no grease spattered hands or burnt bacon.

I took my inspiration from a method described on about.com, which is as follows:

Line a baking sheet with foil. This will make cleanup easier later.
Arrange bacon slices on the foil and place the baking sheet on the center rack of a cold oven. Close oven door. Turn oven on to 400°F. Walk away.

Come back 17 to 20 minutes later. As soon as the bacon is golden brown, but not excessively crisp, it’s done. The exact time will depend on the thickness of the bacon slices, and also on how quickly your oven reaches the target temperature.

Remove the pan from the oven. Transfer the bacon to another sheet pan lined with paper towels to absorb the fat. You can pour the liquid fat into a heat-resistant container to save for other uses. I like to pour it through a strainer lined with cheesecloth to filter out any crunchy bits.

My observations:

  • The foil was a really good call.  I wouldn’t want to do it without foil because it really does make cleanup easy.
  • At about 15 minutes, I turned over the bacon slices, using tongs to grab them. I think that gave the bacon a chance to cook more evenly than just cooking it on one side.
  • One way to drain the bacon is to set the slices on a baking rack which sits over a paper towel.  That way, the bacon won’t be sitting in its own fat and will have a better chance to more thoroughly drain off the fat.

My household was really impressed by this bacon. It was perfectly crispy without being burned or overcooked. In fact, you could hold the bacon horizontally and there was no bending. It snapped off and almost melted in your mouth. It was perfect in our cobb salad (which was delicious), and for breakfast this weekend.

I will forever cook my bacon this way.

Photo credit: (cc) Porge, via a Creative Commons License.

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Omelet – a Quick and Delicious Dinner

omelette

I don’t remember how I came up with this dish, but it was probably inspired by having a bunch of leftovers combined with my love of eggs. Basically, “omelet”, as I call it, is vegetables and meat sauteed in a pan, topped with uncooked scrambled eggs and cheese, and steamed until the eggs are cooked through. It doesn’t sound exotic or fancy, and isn’t the prettiest thing around, but it is tasty, nourishing, and easy to prepare. It’s an excellent dish to cook when you have little time or are just plain tired and want something to eat fairly fast. It’s also a great canvas for improvisation.

I mentioned leftovers above – it’s a great dish for leftovers – greens work especially well, as do onions, potatoes, carrots, summer squash, and tomatoes. You can mix in some pesto with the eggs, add diced or ground meat, sausage, or cured meats. You can also make it very simple with just onions, potato, egg, and cheese. You can even add a sauce you like at the end. This dish is incredibly flexible, which is one of the things I like about it.

Last night, I used half a white onion, leftover garlic lemon greens, chopped cooked chicken, pesto ricotta, eggs, and grated Locatelli (a salty hard cheese). In this case, everything but the eggs and cheese were leftovers from last week. It was a very tasty combination.

So, what I did was:

  • Diced up the onions and sautéed them in olive oil (about 1 T) until they became translucent.
  • Added the chicken and cooked that a little bit.
  • Then came the greens, and I cooked everything together until it was heated through.
  • I also made sure that the pan was completely covered with this mixture, so that eggs would not leak through to the pan surface; it’s best if they sit atop the vegetables.
  • Scrambled the eggs and poured them on top (I used 5 eggs this time, which was perfect)
  • I then put small dollops of pesto ricotta across the top of the mixture, and sprinkled on the grated cheese.
  • I put a lid on it, turned the heat down to low and let it steam. I’d check on it from time to time to make sure the eggs were cooked through. It took about 10-15 minutes for the eggs to cook and the dish to come together.
  • I only salted the onions a little bit, as the leftovers had all be seasoned when I cooked them originally, so extra salt was not needed.

If I were skipping the pesto ricotta, I’d probably use a sharp cheddar in place of the Locatelli and eat it with hot sauce!

So, in general, the order of ingredients would go as follows:

  • aromatics (e.g. onion, garlic, bacon)
  • ground/chopped meat (if using)
  • hard veggies (e.g. carrots, potatoes)
  • soft veggies (e.g. greens, summer squash, tomatoes, sauce)
  • herbs
  • eggs (solo, or combined with sauce like pesto, tomato, or salsa)
  • cheese
  • The order of things can even be re-arranged if it works better for you.

Like I said, there is room for improvisation and the dish is extremely customizable.

It’s been a quick and delicious dinner staple in my household and has provided us with delicious and nutritious meals numerous times. I hope you find it a useful and enjoyable dish as well.

This post is participating in Real Food Wednesday, hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

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Asado de Bodas

final dish

Last week I was in a bookstore, and found my way to the cooking section (no big surprise there).  I was there with the intent to buy some food writing or a memoir.  I saw a number of books that were perfectly respectable candidates, but nothing spoke to me at that time.  Then I spied Diana Kennedy’s The Art of Mexican Cooking, and had to check it out.  For a while now, I’ve been debating whether to get a basic Mexican cookbook by Rick Bayless or Diana Kennedy, not sure which I’d prefer.   After perusing this book, I knew I had to have it.  And I’m glad I did.

There are so many delicious sounding recipes in here!  I knew I had some pork kebab meat in the freezer that I wanted to use, so I checked out the pork section.  I came across this recipe for Asado de Bodas – a northern wedding dish from Durango and Coahuila – and it looked perfect.  The flavors sounded wonderful – chiles, chocolate, tomatillos – and the method looked pretty simple (boiling, sauteeing).

I prepared it after work last night.  It took a little longer to make than I anticipated, but none of the steps were difficult.  It was worth the time and waiting – this pork is good.  It’s warm and tangy, which just the tiniest hint of bitterness in the background, not at all disturbing (I’m not normally fond of bitter things).   The tartness of the tomatillos takes care of the harsh bitterness you often find in chile soaking liquid.  As the sauce thickens, it tastes more intense, as would be expected.  I just loved it.

ingredient collage

I got to use some special ingredients, too.  I had a few stale tortillas from Tortilleria Nixtamal; the chocolate I used was made by Taza, so it is organic and stone ground, with a hint of cinnamon in it; and the pastured pork I used was sourced from the wonderful Lewis-Waite farm via my CSA.

While I’ve included the recipe as-is, I did make a few adjustments.  First, I halved the recipe, simply because I had one pound of pork on hand instead of two.  I used extra virgin olive oil, because I haven’t rendered my lard yet. I used ground cumin instead of cumin seed, because that’s what I had.   I also chose to cut the pork into slightly smaller sizes because I like it that way.

sauce collage

And I used a regular old Queens bay leaf instead of a Mexican bay leaf.  Interesting story – as T and I were walking around Corona one day, we noticed a house with a big greenhouse attached to it.  The older man who lived there came out and said hello, and we remarked how amazing his house looked with that green house attached.  He invited us in and showed us around – he’s growing citrus trees in there!  Also a bay laurel tree, and so he snipped off a handful of leaves for us.  Such a kind and neighborly thing to do – I’ve loved using these bay leaves in my cooking.

I ate this over millet cooked with chicken broth, but tortillas would be wonderful.  I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I do.

Asado de Bodas
From The Art of Mexican Cooking

The Meat
2 pounds (900 g) pork with some fat, cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm) cubes
1/4 medium onion, roughly sliced
2 garlic cloves peeled
sea salt to taste

The Sauce
6 tbs lard
4 chiles anchos, slit open, veins and seeds removed
the pork broth
About 8 tomatillos
4 garlic cloves, peeled
1 small slice dried French bread
1/2 dried corn tortilla
1/8 teaspoon cumin seeds, crushed
1 oz Mexican drinking chocolate, broken into small pieces
1 Mexican bay leaves
1/2 tsp dried Mexican oregano
Thinly pared zest of 1 orange
sea salt to taste

Put the pork into a saucepan; add the onion, garlic, and salt to taste. Cover the meat with water, cover the pan, and bring to a simmer; cook slowly for about 25 minutes. Remove 1 1/2 cups (375 ml) of the broth and keep warm in a bowl. Continue cooking the meat, uncovered, until it is just tender but not soft and the water has been absorbed – about 15 minutes (cooking time will vary with the quality and cut of the meat).

Melt 3 tbs of the lard in a frying pan and fry the dried chiles very briefly on each side until they are an opaque tobacco brown inside – about 3 seconds. Remove from pan an add to the broth.  Fry the tomatillos and garlic until golden and transfer them to the broth. Last, fry the bread and tortilla over very low heat until crisp and brown. Add to the broth. Set the contents of the bowl aside to soak for about 15 minutes or until the chile skins are soft.

Transfer the mixture to a blender jar, add the cumin seeds and chocolate, and blend until smooth.

Melt the rest of the lard in a heavy pan and fry the pork pieces until golden, about 10 minutes. Add the blended ingredients, bay leaves, oregano, orange, zest, and salt to taste and cook over low heat, scraping the bottom and sides of the pan until the sauce is fairly thick and the lard makes a shiny surface on the sauce – about 20 minutes. Serve with corn tortillas

Serve 6-8.

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Extravagant Stuffed Dates

cooked dates

So, as part of changing my eating habits, I’ve cut out a lot of refined sugar.  I have a huge – like, Godzilla huge – sweet tooth, so it’s a challenge.  However, my health and general feelings of well-being are greatly improved without all that sugar.

Still, I have had to find ways to cope with the sometimes overwhelming sugar cravings!

One way I do that is by eating dates – medjool dates, to be exact.  I live in an area that has a sizable Arab population, and dates fit prominently in their food culture, so they’re easy to find.  You can even find fresh dates at certain times of the year, usually around Ramadan.  I have a source for incredible medjool dates, just a few blocks from my house.  They are huge, sweet, and have a fantastic caramel-like texture, sort of chewy (especially if you put them in the refrigerator for a little while).  I just love them.  And they satisfy my sweet tooth.

These mondo dates are excellent for stuffing.  It’s easy to extract the pit, and the hollow inside holds a good portion of whatever you want to put in it.  I like to use a fresh cheese – either chevre or a fresh cow’s milk cheese – but bleu cheese could also be delicious.

In addition to stuffing the dates, I like to wrap them in prosciutto di parma.  Natural bacon would also be good.  Then I heat them up.  Simply fantastic – sweet, salty, and smoky all at the same time.  I must thank my friend Laura for teaching me how to prepare these.

They’re also rather filling, I find.  They’d be great paired up with a simple green salad and glass of red wine.

stuffed date collage

Prosciutto Wrapped Stuffed Dates

If you can find proscuitto that is made from free range pigs, and not cured with nitrites but only with sea salt (as is necessary for some PDO/Protected Designation of Origin hams), that would be ideal.  You could also wrap the dates in natural bacon as well.  If you use bacon, only use half slices, and also use a well-soaked toothpick to hold it all together.

12 medjool dates
4 oz chevre or other fresh cheese
12 slices of prosciutto

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Take your dates and pit them by slicing into the date lengthwise, then spreading open the date and removing the pit.  They will look sort of butterflied at this point.

Stuff the dates with 1/2 tsp or so of cheese.  Make sure the cheese is all the way in the cavity of the date.  Close the halves of the date (some of the cheese may peek out a bit).

Roll up each date in a slice of prosciutto.  Set the dates in a baking pan – one with edges, so that any fat won’t spill out and into your oven – and bake them until the meat crisps, about 20 minutes.

Serves 6 an appetizer, 2 as a meal.

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Larb

larb plated

So, I’ve had a package of ground pastured pork in my freezer for a while and I’ve been itching to use it. It’s delicious stuff, from pigs raised by Alan and Nancy Brown at Lewis Waite farm. I could have made burger with it, but I wanted larb. Larb!

What is larb? It’s a Southeast Asian ground meat salad that can be made with pork, beef, chicken and other poultry, or fish. In Laos, it’s made with a bit of ground toasted rice, but the recipe I used didn’t specify that. The version I made was basically meat and some seasonings, served over lettuce with cucumber.

It was delicious, and had that wonderful mix of tangy-salty-fresh-and spicy flavors that I love so much in Southeast Asian food.  It was also well-received by our resident picky eater, so I see that as a good sign.  It would be an excellent summer dish, perhaps paired with some fresh spring rolls, or perhaps just with a side of papaya salad.  Fresh fruit would be perfect for dessert.  I expect to make it again.

larb

Larb (Spicy Pork Salad)
I adjusted the original recipe to reflect my preference for deeper flavors. I increased the amount of lime juice, mint, and cilantro, as well as the chili sauce. I also found that red leaf lettuce worked just fine, though Boston lettuce would be very nice. I also do not use nonstick pans, so I added a tsp of coconut oil to my cast iron pan, which worked well.

1 pound ground pork
1 tsp coconut oil
4 medium shallots, peeled, sliced in half and then sliced 1/4-inch thick, divided
3 tbsp fresh lime juice, divided
2 medium scallions, sliced
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp chili sauce, hot Asian-style (like Sriracha), or to taste
1/3 cup mint leaves, fresh, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup cilantro leaves, fresh, coarsely chopped
12 leaf Boston or red leaf lettuce

1 kirby cucumber, thinly sliced

Heat the coconut oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When it melts, add pork, half of the shallots and 1 tablespoon of lime juice. Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon to break up pork as it cooks, until pork is no longer pink, about 6 to 7 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine remaining shallots, lime juice, scallions, fish sauce, chili sauce, mint and cilantro; add pork mixture and toss well to coat.

To serve, place 2 or 3 lettuce leaves on a plate; divide about 3/4 cup of pork mixture over top and serve with cucumber slices.

This post is participating in Food Renegade’s Fight Back Fridays.