2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
3/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground allspice
12 Tbs. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 c. dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 c. granulated sugar; plus 1/3 c. for rolling cookies
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 c. unsulphured molasses

Adjust racks to upper- and lower-middle positions and preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, and spices together in a medium bowl.  Set aside.  Either by hand or with an electric mixer, cream butter, brown sugar, and 1/2 cup granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes with mixer on medium.  Scrape sides of bowl with rubber spatula.  Add egg, vanilla, and molasses.  Beat until combined, about 30 seconds.  Scrape sides of bowl.  Add dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds.
Place remaining 1/3 cup granulated sugar in shallow bowl.  Working with 2 Tbs. of dough each time, roll dough into 1 3/4 inch balls.  Roll balls in sugar and place on ungreased cookie sheets, spacing them 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart.

Bake, reversing position of the cookie sheets (from top to bottom and front to back) halfway through baking, until outer edges begin to set and centers are soft and puffy, 11 to 13 minutes.  Cool cookies on sheets for 2 to 3 minutes before transferring to cooling racks with wide spatula.
The cookies in the picture came out slightly flatter than this recipe usually makes — probably because the batter was sitting out for a bit while we waited for our very slow oven to come to temperature.  Either way, they’re delicious!!

Granted, meatloaf is hardly a gourmet concept to start with, and certainly Rachael Ray will not be the one to take it to that next level. Nevertheless, meatloaf is a comfort food standby for many people, my husband included. Every Christmas Eve, when RJ’s mom whips up a stylish Lobster Newburg for the family, she also makes a meatloaf for her two sons. Her version (RJ’s favorite) involves dry mustard, celery salt, and Worcestershire for flavoring, as well as a topping of barbecue sauce and bacon. It is very yummy and definitely satisfies the requirements of comfort food.

My mini meatloaves, however, are finished in far less time (haha – hence the “30 Minute Meals” origin), and I have jazzed them up a bit – a riff on Rachael Ray’s version, which you can find here (if you must – but don’t trust the disgusting picture – I promise they’re good!) .

Mini Meatloaves with Blue Cheese and Mushroom Gravy, adapted from Rachael Ray

Meatloaves:

1 ½ lbs. ground meatloaf mix (beef, veal, and pork – if your grocery doesn’t sell this or the makings of this, just use ground beef chuck)

1 large egg, beaten

¼ c. milk

½ c. bread crumbs (I used the Italian-flavored ones, but whatever you have is fine – use a bit more if you are using panko)

½ c. grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino Romano

4 to 6 big leaves of fresh sage, thinly sliced

Black pepper

2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil

4 thin slices prosciutto di Parma, pancetta or bacon

Sauce:

8 or so cremini (baby portobello) mushrooms, sliced

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 Tbs. butter

1 Tbs. all-purpose flour

1 c. whole milk (plus more if needed)

pinch freshly grated nutmeg

Scant ¼ c. crumbled Gorgonzola (or more, by preference)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground meat, beaten egg, milk, breadcrumbs, cheese, sage and pepper to taste. Try not to over mix, as this makes the loaves really dense and not as good. Form the mixture into four equally-sized loaves (like ovoid hamburgers) about 1 ½ inches thick.

Preheat a non-stick skillet over medium heat and add the oil. Cook the loaves in the skillet just long enough to brown the outside – 2 to 3 minutes per side. Place them on an oiled or parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Top the loaves with prosciutto (or pancetta or bacon) to cover in one layer. Bake for about 8 minutes.

While you’re waiting for the meatloaves to finish cooking, make the sauce. In the same skillet used to brown the meatloaves, add the mushrooms and the garlic (and a bit more olive oil if the pan is dry) and sauté over medium heat.

When mushrooms are browned to your liking (about 5 minutes for me), add a tablespoon of butter to the pan to melt. Once melted, add the tablespoon of flour and stir to combine. Let cook one minute, then add milk to the pan slowly, stirring constantly. Keep adding milk until you reach the desired consistency for gravy, or even a slight bit thinner. Add in the pinch of nutmeg and the blue cheese, stir to combine.

Serve the meatloaves topped with the gravy. The gravy is also great on top of mashed potatoes, baked potatoes or plain rice.

Recently, however, various trips and family obligations have kept me from this decadent routine.  This past weekend, I stayed at a friend’s house on Saturday night, and while I knew that the sleeping-in part would not be a problem, the breakfast was up in the air.

Most everyone who loves food and eating has some sort of routine that they hold sacred.  I have my Sunday Mornings, others have “Roast Chicken Thursdays” or make their salad the same way for every lunch.  Caroline, the friend with whom I was staying this weekend, has a breakfast routine of her own.  She pours cereal – usually mixing two or three different brands – into a pasta bowl and douses it with about a quart of milk, leaving it to sit for a bit before sitting down to the table with a carton of fresh berries and diluted O.J.  Far be it from me to cast aspersions on her breakfast – everyone has their own comforting food traditions – but I was craving my own form of Sunday Morning catharsis.

As we wandered into the kitchen that morning, she went into the pantry to grab her cereals, and I went into her closet to grab the Joy of Cooking.  She shook her head at me with a smile and we went our separate ways.  As she got out a bowl and a spoon, I took down her food processor from the shelf; as she grabbed berries and milk from the fridge, I withdrew eggs, lemons and apple cider.

Eventually, my friend’s husband wandered into the kitchen and I think I lured him to my side of the battlefield, because soon he was flipping crepes alongside me.  When all was said and done, however, and I took my seat at the breakfast table, Caroline passed me a big mug of steaming hot tea and all was right with the world.

Crepes with Apple Cider Syrup, adapted from the Joy of Cooking

For the Crepes:
2 eggs
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. milk
1/4 c. lukewarm water
pinch of sugar
pinch of salt

For the syrup:
1 1/4 c. Apple Cider
1 Tbs. Light Corn Syrup
2 Tbs. Brown Sugar
Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Add all of the ingredients for the crepes into the bowl of a food processor or the pitcher of a blender.  Mix until fully blended and a bit frothy at the top.  If using a food processor, pour mixture into a pitcher – or leave it in the blender pitcher – and let sit for 30 minutes so that the liquids absorb the flour.

In the meantime, pour all of the ingredients for the syrup into a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan and stir until blended.  Turn the burner on medium until the mixture comes to a boil, then turn down the heat to maintain a rapid simmer.  Reduce until mixture reaches a syrupy consistency.

When the syrup is where you like it, warm a nonstick skillet over medium heat.  Wrap a tablespoon of butter in one sheet of paper towel, and rub the bundle over the pan to grease it.

Pour some batter into the pan (1/4 cup should be plenty, but it depends on the size of your pan) and immediately tilt the pan around in a circle to spread the batter across the surface.  If you have a wooden crepe-spreader-thingy, all the better. 

Cook for about 1 minute or until the edges of the crepe easily separate from the pan when you pass a thin metal spatula around the perimeter of the skillet.  Flip the crepe and briefly cook it on the other side.  The crepe should be lightly browned.

Remove the crepe to a plate and drizzle with the apple cider syrup and (if you like the crunch) some demerara sugar.  Other winning toppings: lemon juice and sugar; jam of preference; and sweetened cream cheese with cinnamon or finely zested orange peel.  Then, what I like to do is fold the crepe in half and then in half again so it looks like a triangle.  Top it with some berries or whipped cream and voilà – the perfect Sunday Morning!

(This post first appeared on my other blog: http://www.frommytable.com ) check it out!

As you may know, this is my first Sugar High Friday during which I will have a blog – I feel compelled and ecstatic to (finally!) throw my hat in that ring!

The theme for this month is desserts made with Spices.  I took a look through my deep and disorganized spice drawer and was immediately drawn to one jar that still had the plastic shrink wrap enveloping the cap – cardamom.

I think I had purchased this particular (and expensive!) jar when contemplating a new recipe for ginger snaps, but eventually declined to deviate from my old standby in the Best Recipe cookbook.  I knew, therefore, that this spice was from the warm, dessert family (which I take to comprise cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, allspice, mace, and the like) and that it would be a fun experiment for this contest.

I went through many different cookbooks and magazines looking for a cardamom-based recipe and stumbled upon a coffee cake recipe in September’s issue of Fine Cooking.  Now, while coffee cake is not exactly dessert, it certainly fits into the Sugar High category based on the rich and delicious streusel alone.  But just to be certain, I decided to serve it alongside a saffron flavored ice cream.  Let the festivities begin!

First, make your ice cream.  This recipe is adapted from the cookbook “Ice Cream” by Liz Franklin, and I owe my friend Caroline a shout-out for giving me both the book and my Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker.

Southern Comfort, Saffron, and Ginger Ice Cream

1 1/4 c. milk
A good pinch of saffron threads
4 extra-large egg yolks
1/2 c. superfine sugar
1/4 c. orange blossom or clover honey (something lightly colored to avoid overpowering the flavor of the spices)
1/4 c. Southern Comfort (also known as a ‘nip’!)
1 c. mascarpone cheese
2 to 4 oz. crystallized ginger, coarsely chopped (I thought 4 oz. looked like a lot, even for a ginger-lover, but you be the judge!)

Pour the milk into a heavy-bottomed saucepan and add the saffron threads.  Bring to a boil, turn off the heat, and leave the saffron to infuse for at least 30 minutes.
Put the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and beat until light in color and creamy in texture.  Return the milk to a boil and pour over the egg mixture, whisking until smooth.  Return the custard to the stove and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until it has thickened, taking care not to let the mixture overheat, about 15 minutes or more – I would recommend waiting until the custard has reached the consistency of gravy and coats the back of your spoon to remove the pan from the heat.  Stir in the honey and Southern Comfort.

Let mixture cool completely, then beat in the mascarpone until thoroughly blended and smooth.  For best results, cool this mixture in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before adding it to your ice cream machine.  Churn until almost frozen, then fold in the crystallized ginger.

Continue to churn until the mixture is completely frozen, then transfer to a freezerproof container and freeze until ready to serve.  In the meantime, bake your coffee cake:

Plum and Pear Coffee Cake with Brown Sugar and Cardamom Streusel, adapted very slightly from Fine Cooking issue #94.

For the Streusel:
1/2 c. Flour
1/4 c. packed dark brown sugar
1/8 tsp. kosher salt
Heavy pinch ground cardamom
3 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted

For the Cake:
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces; more softened for the pan
1 1/2 c. flour, more for the pan
2 large eggs
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/4 c. packed dark or light brown sugar

1/4 c. whole milk
1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. table salt
1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
2 firm-ripe medium plums, pitted and cut in sixths
1 barely-ripe small Anjou pear, seeds and stem removed, cut in sixths

Make the streusel: put the flour, sugar, kosher salt, and cardamom in a small mixing bowl and stir the ingredients with a fork until combined.  Drizzle the melted butter over the mixture and stir with a fork until the mixture resembles a clumpy dough.  Using your fingers, break the mixture into pistachio-size clumps and large crumbs.  If the streusel is sandy and won’t clump, add a little more melted butter, 1 tsp. at a time.  Refrigerate streusel while you prepare cake batter.

Make the cake: Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 375.  Lightly butter and flour an 8x8x2 straight-sided cake pan.  Beat the eggs lightly in a small mixing bowl.

Whisk in the granulated sugar, brown sugar, milk and vanilla until well blended.  Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, table salt, and cardamom until well-blended.  Add the butter pieces to the bowl and cut them into the flour with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles a very coarse meal strewn with pieces of butter the size of small peas and oat flakes.

Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture.  With a wooden spoon, fold and stir the ingredients together until it’s a thick batter speckled with visible lumps of butter, 45 seconds to 1 minute.

Scrape the butter into the prepared pan and spread it evenly.  Break up the streusel mixture with your fingers and sprinkle half of it evenly over the batter.

Arrange the plum quarters and pear slices skin-side down, in any pretty pattern you like.  Push them down a bit into the batter.  Sprinkle the remaining streusel over the cake.
Bake the cake for 20 minutes and then rotate the pan.  Continue baking until the top of the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in thte center comes out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it, 10-15 minutes more.
Cool the cake in its pan on a rack for at least an hour before cutting.  The magazine recommends you serve the cake within 24 hours of baking, otherwise the fruits’ juices will make the streusel soggy.

Serve warm with the ice cream or cinnamon whipped cream alongside and enjoy!

The slow cooker is truly an excellent invention.  If it is not possible, in this time of your life, to sit around the stove all day long, stirring a bubbling pot until dinnertime, the slow cooker can do the work for you.  I find it particularly helpful during the week, when a bit of chopping in the morning or the night before is all you need to ensure a hot meal when you return home from work.  In the case of this weekend, I was in New York, and had no intention to sit around my friend’s apartment all day.  We told several friends to show up at 7 for dinner, then left the house and did the same.

In my experience, there are two different kinds of slow cooker recipes.  The first is emblematic of the cooking of the 1970s, when the machine first arrived on the scene.  These recipes usually call for only 3 to 5 ingredients, and often involve a canned Campbell’s soup of some kind.  Though these are for the slow cooker, they are not Slow Food.  The gummy glop of salty paste that slurps out of the soup may be very easy when faced with the alternative of slowly caramelizing vegetables, reducing fresh cream infused with herbs, and pureeing the aromatic mixture into a soup, but which option would you prefer to eat?  The recipes in some slow cooker cookbooks are simple and fast, but the results they impart have given the appliance a bad reputation for bland, mushy food with an ‘off’ aftertaste.

Not to worry – there is also a library of cookbooks featuring slow cooker recipes that do not compromise flavor to save a few minutes in the kitchen.  And I do mean a few minutes – the slow cooker is nothing if not a time-saver.  Some of my favorite reference manuals are: Not your Mother’s Slow Cooker Recipes, the Williams-Sonoma slow cooker cookbook, and 150 Slow Cooker Favorites.  I also just picked up The Gourmet Slow Cooker, and will let you know how it tests out.  These books are characterized by the use of fresh ingredients and a bit more thought about the importance of seasoning and taste.  By taking the time to brown meat on the stove before you put it in the slow cooker or stirring in some fresh herbs at the end of the process, you can boost the flavor of the dish ten-fold!

Now for the stew.  This recipe is adapted from two different recipes in the Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker: Recipes for Entertaining book.  Jerry and I mixed and mingled our favorite parts of each, and encourage you to swap in your favorite veggies for ours.

Ingredients:
6 slices of thick-cut bacon
1/3 c. whole wheat flour
3 lbs. lean beef stew meat, cut into 1 to 1 1/2 inch cubes
2 cups chopped and cleaned leeks
3-4 large carrots, cut in rounds (or 1 small bag of baby carrots)
1/2 lb. new potatoes (if large, clean skin and chop into large dice; if small, halve them)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
16 oz. can of chestnuts packed in water
2 cups beef broth
2 cups dry red wine
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper

Chop the bacon into 1/2 inch pieces.  Put bacon into a large skillet preheated over medium heat and cook, stirring, until the fat renders and the bacon begins to brown.  Remove bacon from the pan with a slotted spoon, leaving the fat in the pan.  Put the bacon into the slow cooker insert.

Beef browning & just floured

Put the flour into a large sealable plastic bag or a bowl with deep sides.  Season the flour liberally with salt and pepper; stir to distribute.  Add the beef and toss to coat.  Return the bacon fat to medium-high heat and add the floured beef in batches, taking care not to crowd the pan.  The beef pieces should not be crammed together or they will not brown properly.  Turn the pieces of beef to brown all over, then remove the beef to the slow cooker insert.  If you want to save time here, you can distribute the bacon fat between two pans and do the meat batches simultaneously, or skip the browning altogether (though I find that it is worth it, flavor wise, to take the time to brown).

When the meat is done, take a look at the pan.  If you have fat left in the pan, great, otherwise add a tablespoon of oil and let it get to temperature.  Add the carrots and leeks to the pan, stirring to grab up the browned bits of meat and bacon on the bottom of the pan.  Depending on how thick you cut your carrot slices, cook these veggies for 7-12 minutes, until the leeks are softened and the carrots are just beginning to get tender but still snap in the middle when you bite into them.  Add veggies to the cooker along with the cut potatoes.

Stir the tomato paste, beef broth, wine and chestnuts into the stew until they are evenly distributed.  Tuck the bay leaf into the liquid and place the lid on the slow cooker, and set the dial to low for 8 hours, or high for 4 hours. We used a 6 1/2-quart Cuisinart oval Slow Cooker for this recipe and it was probably at the limits of capacity (if the slow cooker is filled more than 3/4 full, the dish will cook unevenly).  If you have a round slow cooker or a smaller-capacity one, simply use a bit less meat.

When we returned from our city-trekking, the entire floor of the apartment building smelled divine.  Our guests arrived momentarily and the feast was ready to go, with the kitchen already clean, no less!  We served the stew with a delicious whole wheat sourdough boule that nicely sopped up the leftover liquid.  A perfect fall meal!

I suppose I should know better, considering all of the celebrity chefs, nutritionists, and green activists championing the merits of free range and ‘natural’ poultry.  But the Purdue bird looked plump and perfect and meaty, and it was on sale!  So I hefted the beast into my shopping cart and brought her home.

The preparation was simple enough, and I followed a tried and true family method: rinse the bird with water and pat dry with paper towels.  Salt and pepper inside and out, reserving the bag of giblets separately.  Sprinkle lemon juice over the skin of the bird.  Place half an onion (with skin on) and the squeezed lemon half inside the bird, and tie the legs together with twine.  Roast for 15 minutes at 400 degrees, then turn the heat down to 325 for another 15 minutes per pound.

With all of the above completed, and a meaty gravy made from the giblets served alongside, I carved the meat for dinner.  The first couple bites were eaten in silence.  “Is it okay?” I tentatively asked RJ.  “It’s chicken,” he replied.  No, really, it wasn’t.  RJ’s unenthusiastic response was more generous than this meat deserved.  I tasted zero of that luscious, rich flavor a good chicken delivers.  If you’ve ever eaten at Hammersley’s Bistro in Boston’s South End, you know what a chicken can be, and this was FAR from that Platonic ideal.  In fact, I’m not sure that the meat we ate was even the same species.  The supermarket bird was clearly pumped full of water, and who knows what it was fed throughout its short life, but it did not make for a yummy bird.  The result of the practices of the mass-market producer was a completely insipid piece of protein not worth the $6 I paid.

Coincidentally, the day following the chicken disaster Ms. Alice Waters waltzed into town for a talk at Harvard University, and I immediately signed myself up for a ticket.  For those who don’t know this true ‘maverick’ of a woman, she is the owner and chef at the acclaimed Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, CA.  She is also an avid proponent of the “Slow Food” movement.  Carlo Petrini, the global spokesperson for the movement, writes in his book Slow Food: The Case for Taste, that he and his followers support and advocate the “gaining and spreading knowledge about material culture [meaning the methods of authentic food and wine production]; preserving our agricultural and alimentary heritage from environmental degradation; protecting the consumer and the honest producer; and researching and promoting the pleasures of gastronomy and conviviality.”

Petrini is infamous for leading a vigorous and loud protest against the opening of a McDonald’s in front of Rome’s Spanish Steps.   In his book he laments the proliferation of fast food chains throughout the world – a trend that has resulted in the standardization of taste and the supplanting of authentic, local and diverse regional restaurants with imperialistic, uniform, low-quality chain restaurants, to the detriment of all future generations’ ability to appreciate food (the hyperbole is his, not mine, but I’m feeling the passion).  Slow Food, named in contrast to fast food and all that it implies, advocates gastronomic education; the preservation of traditional foods, preparations, animals and plants; and the right of all humans to have access to quality products.

Alice Waters, in her light, breathy voice, sang the praises of the convivial dinner table as a starting point for all of these ideals.  According to her, 85% of kids in America don’t eat one meal with their families.  My immediate thought when I heard this was, I bet they don’t even use a knife and fork anymore.  With Pop-Tarts, chicken fingers and pizza slices, all consumed on-the-go, there’s hardly a need!  When Ms. Waters called the family table “a civilizing place,” I nodded in agreement.  If we cannot even get our kids to eat at the table, how will they ever learn to savor their food and appreciate quality ingredients?  My chicken from the other night may have been perfect in “Chicken McNuggets”, coated in batter and fried, but was hardly suitable for a dinner table of discerning palettes.

 Now, there is of course an understanding among these Slow Food leaders that it costs money to buy quality, and it takes time to make it.  My giant Purdue bird was a mere $.99/lb., whereas the local farm in my town sells free-range, home-grown poultry for $2.79/lb.  But at the farm, I can see the chickens and how they live.  I can shake the hand of the man who plucked the feathers out for me and ask him how fresh the bird is.  My $12 goes toward supporting him and his family as well as the living conditions of the farm animals, rather than towards a multi-national corporation and their slaughter-factory.  The choice is a no-brainer.  As for the time issue, this is one of the hardest aspects for the busy Gen-Y-er to adopt.  If Purdue chickens are in the supermarket, along with everything else you need to buy for the week, it is a lot easier to do a one-stop shop then to drive to your nearest farm for a free-range chicken, then swing by the dairy farm for your cheese fix.  But Alice Waters points out that you shouldn’t feel put out or obligated by anyone or anything to make your multiple stops – you should just be able to taste the difference.  Feel free, of course, to pick up the Purdue “Fit and Trim” chicken breast fillets, but know that you will have an experience like I had this week – and you will be disappointed.  The choice is yours, but the choices you make affect the outcome not only of your dinner, but also the future of food production.  If everyone buys all their food in the supermarket, the farms may stop selling the good stuff, and we won’t have the luxury of choice at all.

 I can tell you, however, that the movement is taking off.  This weekend I spent some time in New York City and a lovely Saturday morning at the bustling Union Square Green Market.  All of the participating tables at the market are local producers and farmers.  Walking through the stalls selling heirloom tomatoes, sheep’s milk cheeses, huge heads of cabbage, and delicious pies and jams, I was in awe.  I drank pear cider, sampled several different apple varieties, learned about how to cook quince, and ate a slice of home-made carrot bread.  Granted, we aren’t all so lucky to have Union Square right next door, but local markets are everywhere, and it is worth seeking them out.  I will even say it is essential.  Alice Waters told me to, and after the chicken fiasco, I can’t argue.

I am sorry to not have a recipe for you all today, but I have a message instead, which all foodies can appreciate.  Good food is worth eating.  Good wine is worth sipping.  They are both are worth our efforts to preserve and protect them.  Take some time to learn about Slow Food and its principles, and taste the “Delicious Revolution” as it transpires.  You will not regret it.

P.S. And for some comic relief, wander around this website that offers a forum for the debate about McDonald’s.

This weekend we hosted two of our close friends for dinner, both of whom are foodies in their own right.  The pressure, of course, to maintain my reputation as a great cook (I talk a big game!) was on.  Visions of Osso Buco, bacon and pear soda bread (!), and flourless chocolate cake danced through my brain.  Thankfully, experience has taught me that if I try to outdo myself with some elaborate three course spread, the result is usually one of two unfavorable situations: either I end up spending 90% of the time in the kitchen rather than with my friends, or one or more dishes flops, overcooks or reaches the table cold.   These are not the outcomes upon which a good reputation is made!  Inevitably, too, the end of the night finds my husband and me faced with heaps of dirty dishes and flour-soaked counter tops.

As a consequence, I am slowly developing a repertoire of recipes that are my “old faithfuls” – they often have steps that can be completed well ahead of guest arrival, the cooking time is minimal or at least unattended, and I have made them all so often that I know that I can pull them off within a set time frame and to great effect.

Saturday night I turned to an old, old faithful – my dad’s fantastic steak marinade.   This is one of those concoctions whose composition can actually vary slightly depending on what the pantry holds, but the driving concept is a mélange of sweet, salty and savory flavors which transform an inexpensive cut of meat into a delectable and simple main course for a crowd.

Ingredients:
3 lbs. London broil steak, preferably thick cut
1 cup red wine, preferably some that has been sitting out for several days
1/2 cup soy sauce
3 tbsp. teriyaki sauce
3 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
6-10 shakes Outerbridges Sherry Pepper sauce (what would a secret family recipe be without at least one obscure ingredient!?)
1/2 tsp. sugar
1 small onion, peeled and thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
1 inch of ginger root, peeled and sliced

As with most marinade recipes, the instructions are fairly straightforward – mix together in a bag, insert steak, wait 3 hours, grill and eat.   Nevertheless, I’m going to walk you through it – the process is easy, the ingredients each deserve a little more elaboration.

First, the steak.  This, in particular, requires further discussion.  It must be said that London broil is not an actual cut of meat – it is a form of preparation, and not the preparation I’m about to describe.

My steak was actually chuck shoulder steak.  Sometimes flank steak or top round is labeled “London broil.”  My thought?  It doesn’t matter.  This marinade performs miracles with beef.  That’s all I’m sayin…

So, take your ill-defined piece of meat and a sharp knife and make cross-hatch marks in the steak.  These should be VERY shallow cuts in the surface of the steak, on both sides.  Why do I do that?  I assume it has something to do with the penetration of the marinade flavor into the meat, but the real reason is that my dad does it that way.  Put the steak(s) into a gallon-size sealable plastic bag.

Now, for the marinade: when it comes to the wine, my dad insists that you use leftover red wine.  This has something to do with the vinegary-ness (new technical term) of wine that has been sitting in contact with oxygen over a couple of days.

Vinegar has the effect of tenderizing meat.  Hence, my dad is convinced that vinegary-tasting wine will have same effect.  Hey, the proof is in the pudding – make this recipe and try and tell me it isn’t true.

To the red wine, add the soy and the Teriyaki, as well as the Worcestershire and a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar.

Sidebar: the next ingredient is a secret weapon.  Not to be used lightly – it has a very strong flavor – it adds that extra something to sauces, dips and, of course, steak marinades.  It is called Outerbridges Sherry Pepper Sauce, and It…Is…Awesome.  Spicy, vinegary goodness.  It hails from Bermuda originally, and can be purchased there or, if you prefer…, online.  Go forth and purchase at will.  Don’t forget some of their Swashbuckling Steak Sauce – you’ll thank me later.  Right now, though, add some shakes of the Sherry Pepper Sauce into the marinade.

Drop into the bag your sliced onions, garlic and ginger.  Mmm…

Now, your marinade is assembled.  Seal the bag and shake it to distribute the solids throughout the liquid and make sure the steak gets a good coating.  Stick it in the fridge and let it rest for 3-10 hours.  This weekend, 6 was perfect.  If you remember, flip the steak a couple times during that span.

Preheat your grill and cook the steak to your liking, 4-5 minutes per side for medium rare.  As a warning: if your liking is more cooked than medium, this is not your cut of meat.  An over-cooked London broil is rather tough, chewy and gross.  VERY IMPORTANT: when your meat is cooked, and laid out across the cutting board, you must slice the steak properly to get the most out of this meat.  Angle a carving knife at about a 60 degree angle to the cutting board.

Slice down on an angle, against the grain of the meat (perpendicular to the long side of the steak).  Make thin slices, about 1/4 inch thick.  Fan out meat on the plate and serve!

The inevitable leftovers are great for steak sandwiches or a great salad for tomorrow – far more economical than a “5 dollar foot-long” sub sandwich.  Happy eating.

Its arrival has pushed forward my time line for the final two installments of my “Tuna Four Ways” series.  Here are the recipes I use for tuna several days after it has been caught, though I must reiterate that when you get a super-fresh tuna as I did today, raw (as in the tartare) and nearly raw (as in the grill-seared steaks) is the way to go.

However, as many have pointed out to me, not everyone “likes it RAW.”  So here are two other recipes for either supermarket tuna or fresh tuna you still have lying around 5 days later.

The first recipe comes from the August issue of Fine Cooking (Side Note: this is my absolutely FAVORITE food mag):

Fresh Tuna Burgers with Ginger & Cilantro:

1 lb. fresh tuna fillet
2 tbsp. Chopped fresh cilantro
2 tbsp. Finely chopped red onion or scallion
2 tbsp. Mayonnaise
1 tsp. Minced fresh ginger
1/2 tsp. Minced fresh hot green or red chile, such as cayenne, thai bird or Serrano
Kosher salt and black pepper
2 tbsp. Canola oil

With a very sharp knife, cut the tuna into 1/4 inch dice.  Alternatively [this is what I did and it worked out great] cut the tuna into 1 inch chunks and pulse in a food processor until just chopped, about 4 quick pulses – take care not to over-process.  Gently stir in the cilantro, onion, mayonnaise, ginger, chile, 3/4 tsp. Salt and 1/4 tsp. Pepper.  Shape the tuna into 4 equal 1 inch-thick patties.  Refrigerate, uncovered, for at least 20 minutes and up to 1 hour.

Heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat.  Cook tuna burgers until nicely browned on both sides but still pink in the center, 2-4 minutes total.  Don’t overcook or burgers will be dry.

I served these with the dipping sauce from my Tuna Steaks recipe.  May also be good with a remoulade sauce of some sort – experiment and enjoy! (I really could have eaten it raw…)

Finally, when you have truly reached your tuna breaking point, and you can’t imagine eating for dinner again, no matter how it is prepared, it is time for Tuna Confit.

This recipe was sent to me by a friend and I’m not sure where he got it. However, it was pretty simple to do, and the tuna cooked this way will last for 2 weeks so you can spread out its consumption over several lunches!

Ingredients:

3-4 cups good-quality olive oil, more if needed to cover the tuna during cooking
1 medium onion, cut in 1/2-inch slices
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
6 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. black peppercorns, coarsely cracked
Zest of 1 lemon
3 Tbs. coarse salt
2 lb. top-quality fresh tuna, cut into 1-inch-thick steaks

Instructions:
Combine the oil, onion, herbs, peppercorns, lemon zest, and salt in a deep sauté pan or Dutch oven.  Heat to between 140° and 150°F, stirring occasionally, and cook for 20 min. to infuse the flavors of the herbs and spices into the oil and to pasteurize them for a long shelf life. Taste the oil; it should be slightly salty. Leave to cool and infuse for about 30 min.; the oil will be warm.

Put the pan back over medium-low heat and slip the tuna into the barely warm oil. (Add as many pieces as will fit in one layer. The tuna must be covered by the oil, add more if needed.) Slowly bring the oil to 150°F again. Turn off the heat, take the pot from the heat, and let the tuna cook slowly in the warm oil. After a minute or two, test for doneness by breaking into the flake of the tuna.

The fish should be cooked to medium rare-slightly pink inside and still tender to the touch. If the tuna isn’t quite done, return it to the oil for another minute. Repeat with any remaining pieces of tuna.

Transfer the tuna to a storage dish and let it cool. Let the oil cool separately and then strain the oil over the fish, discarding the herbs and spices. If the tuna isn’t completely covered in oil, add more olive oil to the storage dish. If not using right away, cover the container tightly and refrigerate. The tuna will keep, covered in oil and refrigerated, for up to 2 weeks.

I ate this tuna in salads for 2 weeks and it was awesome.  Very very tender and flavorful – perfect for a Nicoise salad or mixed with warm chickpeas, shallots, green beans and vinegar.  Trust me, I had many envious stares in the lunch room at work!

But fresh raw tuna looks just enough like steak that even RJ cannot deny the supreme tastiness of this marine delicacy.  Now, he craves it!  And this is the recipe we developed that we think makes the most of the steak.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately for some people, there are no exact measurements for this, but it is easily tweaked to perfection and taste preference.

First – make the dipping sauce.  Pour soy sauce into a small bowl or ramekin to about halfway up the sides.  Add a splash of teriyaki sauce and a small splash of sesame oil.  I really like to put some roughly chopped fresh ginger in here if it’s around, and some leaves of cilantro or scallion slices if I have them.  Let sit while you prepare the steaks.

This could not be simpler: First preheat your grill on the highest heat setting.  Pour onto a plate or shallow bowl about 1 tablespoon each of sesame seeds and black sesame seeds per steak.  That is, if you have 3 steaks, you want 3 tablespoons of white sesame seeds and 3 tablespoons of the black ones.  Note – as far as I can tell the black ones are really just for presentation so don’t feel like you have to spend a million dollars on them!!

Mix up the sesame seeds so the two colors are evenly distributed across the surface of the plate or bowl.  Take the first tuna steak and drop it flat onto the seeds.  Press hard on the top of the steak so that the seeds stick.  Flip the steak to the other flat surface and push down.  Move to a tray and repeat with the remaining steaks, adding more seeds if necessary, and re-distributing the seeds across the plate between each steak.

Now put all of the steaks on the grill and cook 3 minutes with the top on.  Flip the steaks and cook another 3 minutes.  Take the steaks off the grill – they will be very rare!

If you are feeling very fancy you can slice the tuna into thick rectangles to show off the beautiful red interior meat.  RJ and I usually don’t wait for that – we just start eating.

The dipping sauce’s role is pretty obvious.  Put it in the middle of the table and DIP your tuna into it for a sweet and salty contrast to the nutty taste of the seared sesame seed crust.

VERY IMPORTANT – If you received this very delicious and otherwise very expensive tuna gratis from a fisher-friend, do splurge on a nice bottle of wine.  Cakebread Chardonnay from Napa was so completely amazing with this meal – together with the tuna it was a truly transcendent experience I recommend to everyone.

A damn good bottle of wine for tuna

Tunas run anywhere between 70 and multi-hundreds of pounds, and if you’re an avid fisherman without a permit to sell the meat, the steaks pile up quickly in your freezer! However, a fast glance around the dockyard will probably find you RJ, ready with a cooler of ice to accept any generosity you’re inclined to bestow, as was the case earlier this week.
Which brings me to Tuesday evening when, as a dutiful wife, I received the meat my husband brought me and turned it into dinner.  This all sounds very “ugh, woman. here meat. me want food now” but I truly love the challenge of taking (literally) raw material and finding different ways to prepare it.  Fresh-caught tuna is the ultimate in this endeavor and an extra special treat.

Now, as any true tuna angler (or tuna eater for that matter) knows, the best way to eat tuna is raw, right on the boat, maybe with a splash of soy sauce or a dash of salt.  But we had about 7 pounds of the stuff and eating it all raw was a nauseating prospect.  So I approached the glut of meat in my fridge logically.  We had about 1 1/2 pounds of fatty tuna (toro) which is particularly prized for sashimi and comes from the belly and the napes (neck meat) of the beast, and about 5 pounds of ruby red tuna steak, cut from the loin.  Call me crazy but if anything was going to be eaten raw, I wanted it to be the best stuff.  So… the first order of business was Tuna Tartare made from the toro.

Our friendly neighborhood tuna fisherman had already trimmed the meat for us, but make sure that you check your pieces for silverskin (this is the term for pork and beef; I don’t know if it applies here though it looks the same) – the whitish, tough strip of gristly membrane that runs along the side of meat.  If you see it, just trim it off with a really sharp knife and try not to waste any of the meat.  Then, you’ll need:

2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
3-4 shakes of Tabasco (recipe called for 1 1/2 tsp. Wasabi paste but I didn’t have any and I don’t like it anyway…)
3/4 teaspoon Sesame Oil
8 oz sushi-quality ahi tuna steak, cut into 1/3-inch cubes (as I said above, I used the napes, not the steak, cuz it is better, but I don’t think they sell it in your average grocery store)
1 medium avocado, halved, pitted, peeled and cut into 1/3-inch cubes
1 cup of 1/3-inch cubes seeded English hothouse cucumber (I forgot this!)
1 green onion, finely chopped (I substituted finely minced red onion)
Toasted Sesame seeds (I used mix of black and white ones) and/or chopped chives

Whisk the first 5 ingredients in a medium bowl to blend.  Add tuna, avocado, cucumber and onion, stir gently to coat. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and/or chives.

I served on little toasts like these but you can also buy wonton wrappers, brush them with olive oil and bake on parchment-paper covered baking sheet at 350 degrees for 9 minutes to make a more Asian and more funky presentation.

Tomorrow… what I did with all them steaks!!