We had a little dinner party at our house a while back, and we tried a lot of new things. The first of which, was making our own beef stock. If you have the time, it's definitely the way to go. You can control the salt content and it's really not that difficult.
Here's what you need:
3 lb. beef bones
3 carrots, cut into 3" pieces
3 celery ribs, cut into 3" pieces
1 large onion, quartered
10 whole peppercorns
1 bay leaf
1/2 bunch parsley
12 cups water
Here's what you do:
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
Put your beef bones, carrots, celery and onion in a roasting pan.
Roast the bones for about 30 minutes. You'll know you're ready when they look like this:
Put all of that into a large dutch oven.
Pour about 1/2 cup of water into the bottom of the hot roasting pan.
Scrape off all the good bits of flavor from the bottom.
Pour that yummy goodness into the stock pot.
Add the parsley, bay leaf and pepper corns. You could also add some fresh thyme if you'd like.
Now cover with the rest of the water.
Bring that to a boil.
Let the stock boil for about 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cover. Leave the lid slightly off to allow some of the steam to escape.
Let that simmer for at least two hours. Skim the fat off of the top of the stock every half hour or so. You're never going to be able to get all of the fat off, just get what you can. You can cool it down in the fridge and scoop the rest off later. Don't stir the stock though! Just let it simmer away.
Scoop out all of the large pieces from the stock until you just have the liquid. You can season the stock at this point with salt. Or, you can wait until you use the stock later to season. It's really up to you.
Strain the stock into containers for storage. You'll get a few little bits that you'll just want to discard.
At this point, we apparently got distracted and forgot the final picture. We don't have a good excuse.
Enjoy!
Ok, so this is by no means a traditional taco. It could also work as an enchilada. In fact, we used enchilada sauce in the filling. Well, whatever you call this, it tasted really great. You could use beef or turkey instead of venison if you want.
Here's what you need:
1 lb ground venison, beef or turkey
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno
1 jar enchilada sauce (we actually made our own using tomato sauce, spices and chipotle in adobo)
4 cups cheddar jack cheese, shredded
1/4 cup sour cream
Garnish:
Chopped cilantro
Diced tomato
Sliced scallions
Sour cream
Here's what you do:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Start by browning your ground meat with the garlic.
Meanwhile, dice up your jalapeno.
Add the jalapeno and 3 cups of the shredded cheese to a large bowl.
Once your meat is browned, add that to the bowl as well.
Pour in the enchilada sauce.
Add the sour cream.
Stir the mixture together to combine everything.
Pour in a casserole dish and top with the last cup of cheese.
Bake for 20 minutes while the cheese melts thoroughly.
Serve on soft tortillas and garnish with cilantro, scallion, tomato and sour cream.
Enjoy!
This is the final portion of my Sunday cooking extravaganza while Zack was at work. This also comes from my Jacques Pepin "New Complete Techniques" book.
Get ready, because this is going to be a long one!
Here's what you need:
1 5 lb flank steak
1 lb ground beef
8 sprigs or so of Thyme
2 bay leaves
3 cloves of garlic
3 carrots, divided
5 celery stalks, divided
1 large red onion, divided
6 slices of whole wheat bread
1 large tomato, roughly chopped
4 cups beef stock
2 cups red wine
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 Tbsp olive oil
Kosher salt & black pepper
1-2 Tbsp cornstarch
Butcher's twine
Here's what you do:
Start by dicing 1 carrot, 2 celery stalks, 2 cloves of garlic and half of the onion.
Next, let's make some croutons. Cut the crust off the 6 slices of bread.
Carefully cut the bread into strips, then into cubes.
Heat a tablespoon of butter and olive oil in a 12" skillet.
Cook until they are brown and crispy on the outside, but still soft on the inside.
Add the croutons, ground beef, strip 4 of the thyme sprigs, and add about a half a tablespoon of Kosher salt and black pepper. I didn't really keep track of the seasoning, just until it looked like enough.
Mix together until it looks evenly combined.
Now on to the flank steak.
With a really sharp knife, slice the steak slowly to create a pocket in the center.
Stuff the ground beef mixture into the center of the flank steak.
Fold the flaps over the stuffing and begin tying the roast. This process is pretty simple. Here's an awesome video to help you out. Basically, you tie the twine at one end of the roast, then loop it under the roast, hook the twine under it, and pull it tight.
I wrapped mine in foil and put in the fridge for a couple hours because I wasn't quite ready to start cooking it. Just make sure that you take it out and let it warm up a bit before searing. Season the outside of the roast with more salt and pepper.
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
In a large heavy pot, heat the other tablespoon of butter and olive oil over medium-high to high heat. Sear all sides of the meat until you get a nice brown color.
Reduce the heat to medium. Add the remaining onion, carrot, celery, garlic, and thyme, as well as the tomato and bay leaves.
Let that cook down until everything starts to soften and the onions become translucent. Now add the beef stock.
And finally, add the red wine.
Cover and braise in the oven for 1 1/2 hours, or longer if the internal temperature of your roast hasn't reached 155 degrees.
Remove the roast from the oven and set on a cutting board and cover with foil.
Now for the sauce... Put the pot back on the stove over medium heat and bring up to a boil. Add the cornstarch and whisk to combine.
Whisk for about 5 minutes while your roast rests.
Remove the twine from the roast, slice and carefully transfer to the plate. You don't want to lose your stuffing!
Now, top with the sauce.
Whew. Enjoy!
Spezzatino is an Italian dish that we saw on David Rocco Dolce Vita. We made this to go with our polenta... which happens to also be from David Rocco's Dolce Vita. What can we say, we like rustic Italian food.
Here's what you need:
4-5 lb roast (you can use beef, pork, veal, venison - whatever!)
4 carrots
4 celery ribs
1 large onion
4-5 baking potatoes
1 15 oz. can low sodium tomato sauce
1/4 cup red wine (we think we used a cabernet)
Kosher salt and black pepper
Here's what you do:
Slice the roast into about 1" cubes.
Place a large pan (or perhaps a enamel coated cast iron dutch oven would be better (You'll see why later)) over medium high heat and add a bit of olive oil to the bottom. Sear the meat. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, chop your carrot, celery and onion.
You don't have to be precise about your chopping, because you're going to run it through the food processor.
Peel and chop your potatoes.
Your meat should be seared, so remove from the pan.
Add the veggies to the pan. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
Brown them for about 5 minutes.
Once your veggies are softened, pour the wine over them, and deglaze the bottom of the pan by scraping with a spatula. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
You're going to want to let this simmer for a few minutes. Once you can't smell the alcohol in the wine any longer, you're ready to move on.
Add the potatoes to the pan. Stir and season lightly with salt and pepper.
Now add the meat.
Next goes the rest of the wine.
And finally the tomato sauce.
Give everything a good stir. We had to be very, very careful with this step. As you can see, our pan probably wasn't quite big enough.
Bring this to a low boil.
Now, just reduce your heat to medium and cover for an hour and a half.
The meat tenderizes and the potatoes cook through, but aren't mushy. We think you're really going to enjoy this one.
Enjoy!
