Always Helps To Put Things In Perspective

Every now and then it helps me to put things into perspective and I thought this article did a great job of it. It was in the Knoxville News Sentinel on Jan 5, and originally came from the St. Petersburg Times (Fl). It's about three screens long but it held my attention - which is hard to do. Just click on the Link to go to the original article.

We're having a heat wave, it's up to 25 today - almost went out and mowed the lawn.

Have a great one.

Larry

Steak For Breakfast & Supper

I can’t believe I did this – but I did. Back on Dec 20, I posted about a whole rib eye that I had bought and cut into steaks. I cut up the whole thing, laid out a couple of steaks for dinner and stuck the others in the frig to vacuum seal when Bev got home – she’s the Foodsaver operator. Yesterday, I brought up from the downstairs frig the second one I’d bought the same day to remind me to remove it from the cryovac, carve, package and freeze today. As I was putting it in the upstairs frig, which now had a lot less stuff in it, I couldn’t help but wonder what was the big pile of stuff on the plate wrapped in foil. Oh no! I exclaim as I find the 8 thick steaks the top of which looked pretty bad – I’d also been wondering what the smell in the frig was for several days. I can’t believe I did that. Fortunately, I’ve seen and read many shows and articles on dry aging and believed we might be able to save them. So this morning Bev suggested we clean a couple of them up and have for breakfast, which she proceeded to do. I can’t believe I did that.

I was sitting in my chair reading the morning paper when Bev asked if I wanted to make a picture of breakfast. Since she regularly ridicules me for my food pictures and having nothing better to do than blog, I was more than a little surprised – so I hustled into the kitchen, camera at the ready. She even said to wait while she sprinkled a little chopped parsley around the plate for pretty – I’m slowly winning her over (shhhh).

She just pan fried them and I think they were a little more tender than the first ones we ate - maybe the dry ageing helped. She was just planning to cook one but decided she wanted a whole one for herself so we each had one - and here's mine.


The steak was excellent and we didn't get ill, so we're good to go. After breakfast she cleaned up the other 6 steaks and into the freezer they went – we kept out one for a taste test. I think she wanted to do this because she doesn’t think I take enough of the fat off the ribeyes and this way she can do it to suit herself – works for me. Have I said I can’t believe I did that.

When she got done, I cut the other whole ribeye into a roast, some thin slices for Philly cheese steaks and 1 ¼” steaks - kept one out for a taste test. Wow, sure dodged a bullet. I'll save the pictures of these until we eat them.

I usually keep my posts shorter than this, but since it's about these steaks, I decided to cover both breakfast and dinner in one. Bev has been wanting to try Steak au Poivre for some time and since we have two steaks laid out, seems like a match. Looked around on the web for a few minutes and decided on this one because it sounded like the classic recipe and we have all of the ingredients. We did make double the amount of sauce to ensure we had enough. Also, we included red peppercorns as our blend already had them in it. The recipe is from the January 1994 issue of Gourmet Magazine coutesy of Epicurious.

Ingredients
· 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
· 1 teaspoon white peppercorns
· 1 teaspoon dried green peppercorns
· 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
· 2 boneless shell steaks (3/4 pound each, about 1 1/4 inches thick)
· 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
· 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
· 3 tablespoons heavy cream
· 2 tablespoons Cognac or brandy (we had brandy)

In a heavy-duty sealable plastic bag or between 2 sheets of wax paper crush peppercorns and fennel seeds coarse with bottom of a heavy skillet. Pat steaks dry and coat both sides with peppercorn mixture. In a 10-inch heavy skillet heat butter and oil over moderate heat until hot but not smoking and cook steaks for 4 to 5 minutes on each side for medium rare. Season steaks with salt and transfer to plates.
Pour off excess fat from skillet and add cream and Cognac. Boil mixture, scraping up browned bits, until sauce thickens and coats back of spoon, about 1 minute. Season sauce with salt and spoon over steaks.

Our neighbors gave us a gift certificate to a local fresh seafood shop which we spent today and one of the items we bought was their shop made crab cakes. We had them as an appetizer tonight and they were excellent - more of a cajun than Maryland style.



Now for the main course - after the crab cakes, we decided the steak would be suffecient - so no side dishes. We used our dedicated coffee grinder to bust up the pepper corns, put a teaspoon or so on each side and fried them in a hot cast iron skillet. I took a picture of my plate, but it was too bad to post - guess I was quivering with anticipation. It was just a shot of a ribeye with a tan sauce on it. We did do a little taste test with one fresh cut steak and one of the accidentially aged ones. Not sure it was valid since they were from different roasts, but the aged one may have been a little more tender - both were very good.

I've never had this dish but would eat it again - I'll try it in a restaurant to see how ours compares. The first bite was a little peppery, but the more I ate the better I liked it. I tasted the sauce in the pan and was not impressed, but it was great on the meat. If you like steak and you like pepper, I highly recommend this dish.

Have a nice cozy evening by the fire - that's what we're doing.

Larry

Sausage Gravy & Biscuits With A Kicker

I’m not a hunter, but I have family members who are, so when a friend asked if I knew where he could get some venison for his mother, I answered perhaps so. Since I had a trip planned to West Virginia at Christmas time, I gave my cousin a call and asked if he could harvest and process a doe for me. He checked about the processing and advised a deer could be arranged which ended up being supplied by his 12 year old grandson as the hunter. My son ended up making the trip to West Virginia instead of me, but the packaged and frozen venison still made it back to me and on to my friend - and his mom was very happy with her Christmas present.

This was a long way of saying that they also sent me some of the items they had made from their own hunting. One item was a couple patties of venison/pork breakfast sausage, which I fried up for breakfast. I still had some sausage gravy from the other day, so breakfast was a biscuit & gravy and a venison sausage biscuit to which I added a little cheddar cheese - may need a bigger biscuit next time. It was an excellent way to start the day.


We're having a heat wave as it's 4 degrees warmer this am - up to 14. Have a great day.

Larry

Chicken Pot Pie From Leftovers - As Usual

I put several posts in my queue during the holidays, so some of these are a little dated. If you follow my blog, you know we had chicken and dumplings for dinner last Monday night and while we ate all but a few dumplings, there was quite a bit of chicken and gravy remaining. One option would have been to just make more dumplings, but we decided to use it for a batch of pot pie instead – using the semi-homemade cooking style. Bev added some frozen veggies to the leftover gravy and heated through. We then poured the mixture into a casserole dish, topped with frozen biscuits and baked until they were golden brown. It turned really good, but I think it created more leftovers to deal with than we had to start. Here’s a pic of the whole dish and Bev’s bowl – I normally use my plate but I like to flip my biscuit upside down with the gravy on top and it doesn’t make as pretty a picture. My make it a little runny to have gravy to be soaked up by the biscuit.



I finally ate up the last of it Sat night for dinner.

It's a balmy 10 degrees to start the day here at Almost Heaven South - a great one.

Larry

Fried Crappie - Last Meal Of The Decade

And the last meal on our list for the family visitors from Korea. They headed back to the other side of the world early Jan 1. I’d probably just shoot myself if I had to start the new year with a 15 hour flight from Atlanta to Seoul – after getting up at 4am, driving to the airport and the flight from Knoxville to Atlanta. But I digress, the meal was fried crappie supplied by our fishing friends, Mexican cornbread, and slaw. The fish were beer battered and deep fried - I’ve posted a few times about our crappie cooking and at least once about the cornbread, but this time I’ll supply the recipe. It’s by far our favorite cornbread in part because all the stuff in it helps it stay moist. It came from a friend of ours but I don’t know where she got it.

MEXICAN CORNBREAD
Makes 12” skillet full

2 cup Self rising corn meal
3 lg Eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cup Vegetable oil
1 sml Onion, finely chopped
1 sml Green pepper, finely chopped
1 cup Cheese, shredded
1 cup Buttermilk
½ tsp Baking soda
1 ea Jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely diced
1 cup Whole kernel corn, drained

1. Preheat oven to 400F and warm greased cast iron skillet.
2. Mix together meal, eggs, oil, soda, and buttermilk.
3. Stir in other ingredients.
4. Bake until top is browned and toothpick pulls out cleanly.

You can of course make it hotter by how you prep the jalapeno and by adding more.

It's a balmy 14 degrees here in East Tennessee - Have a great day.

Larry

Quiche And Fatty – Real Men’s Breakfast

We had a real nice 8 day visit with our family from Korea and they are back there now after a 23 hour door-to-door trip that began yesterday at O-dark-thirty, as our military son often says. As long as the trip is, I think it's amazing that we can go half way round the world in less than a day - compare that to 100 years ago. Since their daughter, Alex, is spending this year with us, there were lots of seperation tears at the airport - they are due to come back to the states next summer after their 3 year tour of duty. Following is another meal we made for them.

Many years ago, Bev decided to try a quiche recipe that was advertised as a favorite of President Kennedy - we both loved it and have made it several times. Since our daughter-in-law has previously said she liked it, we made it for breakfast while they were here for the holidays. Bev got everything ready the day before so all I had to do was mix with the eggs and cream and bake it up. As I recall, it always takes longer than the recipe says.

It’s easy and delicious and I highly recommend it – here’s the recipe, but make sure you’re using a big pie crust – or have a couple of ramekins handy for the extra.

KENNEDY QUICHE
Makes 8 servings

2 tbsp Olive oil
1 ea Small onion chopped
1 ea Small green pepper chopped
2 cups Tomatoes, skinned, seeded and diced
1 ea Clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp Pimientos or roasted red pepper, chopped
¾ tsp Salt
¾ tsp Pepper
½ cup Smoked ham (about 2 ounces), finely diced
4 ea Eggs
1-1/2 cups Whipping cream
1 tbsp Fresh parsley, chopped
1 (10 inch) Partially baked pie shell or six 4” shells

· In large deep skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat.
· Add onion; cook for 3 minutes.
· Increase heat to medium high.
· Add green pepper; cook stirring often, for 2 minutes.
· Add tomatoes, garlic, pimentos, salt, & pepper and cook for 10 minutes, stirring ocassionally.
· Stir in ham.
· Remove from heat and cool completely.
· Mean while, whisk together eggs, and cream; stir in cooled tomato mixture.
· Pour into partially baked pie shell.
· Sprinkle with parsley.
· Bake in 425 degree oven for 10 minutes.
· Reduce heat to 350; bake for 20 minutes or until set but still jiggly.

I had posted awhile back about an Italian fatty I’d made and we decided to serve it with the quiche. Here’s a picture of the reheated fatty and my son’s plate.



Have a great day

Larry

Prime Rib For Family Holiday Dinner

Like many others, I’m a big fan of prime rib for Christmas dinner and since taking up barbecuing, I’ve become a big fan of smoked prime rib (even though mine’s actually choice rather than prime). Since most of the family had other commitments for Christmas day, we chose Dec 30 as our family get-together-for-dinner day. I bought a whole boneless rib eye on sale a couple of months ago and stuck it in the freezer for this event. I accidentally got it out of the freezer to thaw on Dec 14 thinking it was a brisket, so it ended up being wet aged in the frig until Dec 27 at which point I unwrapped it (wanted to be sure it was ok), rinsed and put back in the frig uncovered to dry age for a few days.

Although I’ve cooked prime rib several times, I’d recently read several articles regarding how to cook them to the desired internal temperature while minimizing the thickness of well done meat around the outside. I normally would cook it around 350* until I got the internal temp I wanted and just accept whatever the crust and well done thickness turned out to be.
One of the articles I’ve read describes how to achieve very little well done while achieving a nice crust by cooking to nearly the desired internal temp at a low oven temp, around 200*, then cranking it up to the 500* range for a few minutes for crust development. That high temp is pretty hard to get in a smoker and I was afraid cooking at 200* would take too long so I decided to smoke at 225* to an internal temp of 120* then remove, tent, cover with a towel and rest until 30 minutes before mealtime. I would then direct heat cook it about 5 minutes per side on a hot grill to establish the crust. I used the grill because the oven was busy with pie and bread. I would have been better off to leave it on the pan and roast in the grill as the grease created lots of flair ups. It developed a great crust but it created a little more well done than I was looking for, but much less than normal - it was still medium rare most of the way through.

This is the roast right out of the frig.


And here it is ready for the smoker - I split it to get four end cuts. I like to use a rub I got from a professional cook that contains Lawry's Seasoning Salt, salt, garlic and onion powder, and dried parsley.


This is right off the smoker. Note that the rub is all still on the meat and there is no juice in the pan, so it's still all in the meat. I put in it the smoker at 250* and dropped the temp to 225*. I later dropped it to 205* as it was going to be done to soon otherwise. The internal temp when pulled was 120* and it was in the smoker 3 1/2 hours.


Here it is on the grill after flipping to the second side. I began getting too much flare up so I put it back on the pan and closed the lid to create an oven.


And this is the final temperature check before pulling. It was 126* at this point which is probably where it was going on to the grill where it only stayed about 10 minutes.


Here they are ready for carving.


This is after taking off a couple of slices. Note the well done portion is pretty thin and it's evenly done the rest of the way through. I believe the well done part would have been even thinner had I used the 500* oven rather than the grill. I like to cook them to the rare side of medium rare and if anyone wants their’s more done, I just lay it in the simmering skillet of au jus until I get the color they want – usually about 15 seconds per side. This is a neat trick as it sucks the color out of the meat without really cooking it much more or changing the texture. This is how restaurants can serve it to a wide range of doneness.


This is a typical plate headed for the table.


The table ready for some serious eating to happen.


Here’s a pic of my place setting. We had twice baked potato, salad of romain and Chez Johns blue cheese dressing, homemade rolls, and a V. Sattui Cabernet Link. My wife, who’s not a big ribeye fan, said it was delicious and one son said it was the best he’s ever had. I also thought it was outstanding.


Next time I will add the crust in a hot oven as recommended in the article verses using the grill as I think it will make it more uniform. Also, I may use less rub as virtually none of it got washed off by the cooking juices at the low temperature in the smoker.

I also smoked a turkey breast rubbed with Wolfe Citrus for use later on Kentucky Hot Browns and such. Here’s a pic prior to the smoker – I was too busy to get an exit pic, but I always cook them skin side down to allow the juices and flavors from the cavity to move down into the meat.


After dinner the grandkids and dad’s participated in a spirited game of wii miniature golf. It'd have to say it was a great get together and this is definitely the way I'll cook prime rib in the future, whether on the smoker or in the oven.

Happy New Year and let's watch a little football. Go eers (I'm a WVU grad).

Larry