cooking @ home

Archive for January, 2008

©2008 Harry Kenney

Sometimes food is delicious to the tastebuds, but not so delcious to the eyes. Meat loaf comes to mind. So does split pea soup, among others. Veal piccata must unfortunately be counted among these. The photos here this time, do not do it justice. (And a quick look around the Net showed me for good or bad, none of the other images I saw taken by others did it that much justice either.) And the fact this recipe falls right after the brilliant colors of salmon no doubt makes it seem duller still, image-wise.

But enough. Not every meal can spark all the senses. What this one lacks in being picturesque it more than makes up for in taste as well as in aroma. Picatta means “sharp” in Italian and it has come to mean a variety of dishes that use thin cuts of meat, cut thinly and/or pounded thinly, cooked in a pan and served with a sharp sauce, provided by the lemon and capers.

And in this dish also added to by the dry sherry. Some dishes say use dry white wine. Fan that I am of that, three reasons for doing with the dry sherry this time. The first time I made this dish was a couple decades ago from The Frug’s recipes (Jeff Smith). Next, how often outside of Asian cooking do you get to use a nice sherry? And most importantly, third, it adds more of that piccata “bite” that we’re looking for here, where as the wine might soften that too much, take some of that away. And that’s not desired.

Before I go into the nutritional and health elements of eating veal, let’s quickly get past the talk of eating veal at all. In other words, the whole “veal bad” animal rights thing. Suffice to say conditions in veal farming and the veal industry have improved dramatically in the past two decades thanks to the activists. Some say it’s enough, some say it isn’t. You wouldn’t be reading this — nor I writing it — if this issue was of great concern. As for myself, I take a practical Native American perspective when it comes to animals and food. Hunting to put an animal on a wall or make a fur coat is (among other things) a horrible waste and soley for ego. Whereas food raised to be food is to be eaten. And as humans we eat food. And this is the natural way of life. Period.

Now on to the postive assessment of veal as food. In terms of nutrition, low-fat and cost … Veal is lean; it has very little fat. This also means there is little waste when compared to other animal meat. Because of this a pound of veal can often vield three or four servings. Some have suggested when comparision shopping to evaluate the cost per serving instead of the cost per pound when thinking about veal.

Veal is an excellent source of protein with “balanced amino acid profile containing proteins of a high quality”. Also it is a superior source of B-complex vitamins, especially niacin, zinc B12 and B6. It is also a good source of iron, calcium, sodium, potassium, and phosphorus. A trimmed, cooked three oz. serving of veal contains on average 166 calories and only 5.6 grams of fat.

Back to this specific dish, surprisingly one does not find too many veal piccata recipes around. And those that I’ve stumbled across, not sure, they seem to have lost something in translation. Beside the advice of using wine instead of the sherry, many advocate using chicken broth. Are they crazy? That even further deadens the sharp taste that is the entire reason for this dish in the first place. Why even make this dish — I want to ask these other cooks and their recipes — if you want to deaden the inherent sharpness and pleasant bite that what makes this dish?

No idea. Maybe, because many folks are more used to seeing chicken piccata something got mixed in along the way (like adding chicken broth, yuck) which was never supposed to be in the dish in the first place. Obviously chicken piccata — which I love too of course — is more prevelent as the poultry is more widely found and is viewed as a less costly an alternative. That said though, piccata was foremost and originally made as a veal dish; it’s the others that have become variants off the master.

If you have never had veal (other than as part of your meatloaf or meatball dishes), this recipe is an excellent one to introduce yourself to this lean, nutritious and delicious meat.

Veal Piccata
©2008 Harry Kenney

1 lb veal scallops (or veal cutlets pounded to 1/4-1/8 inch thickness)
flour for dredging
salt
pepper
3 tbsps lemon juice
2 tbsps capers, diced
1 1/3 cups dry sherry
olive oil
butter
parsley (fresh or dried flakes)

Take the precut veal scallops or the pounded veal slices and dredge in a mixture of salt, pepper and flour. Place into medium heat frying pan with hot olive oil. Roughly two minutes per side. Take out and reserve.

Pour in dry sherry and scrape up all the bits left in the pan and mix well. Add lemon juice and capers. Mix and reduce to half. (If not thick enough, sprinkle one teaspoon of extra flour in and mix well.) After reduction add some butter to make richer.

About 30 seconds later reintroduce the veal into the pan. One minute on each side. Add parsley in now or on plate before serving, your choice. Take out of pan. Pour sauce on top. Serve. Makes four servings.

©2008 Harry Kenney

I love salmon. I try to have it at least once every month. What can you say about something that is healthy and fresh and yet something about it’s texture, it’s thickness reminds one of a steak in so many ways. Yes, silly as it sounds, in many ways I think of it as a “steak of the seas”.

Often I prepare it in the most simple and pure of ways: salt, pepper, little oil to help it cook, and maybe a twist of fresh lemon. Period. Sometimes, like now, I like to vary it with a sweet and tangy glaze. No matter what ingredients I add though, there’s only one way to cook salmon, in my opinion: Grilled.

I know, Oven isn’t bad, broiler with a fish this oily is a fire hazard, alas. And poaching? Well, poaching is probably fine but — truely, I’m more of a crunchy crust person I have to admit and not a big poaching fan at all. In the end, there’s nothing like grilled. Outdoor especially over hot charcoal; that’s the best. But when that’s not to be had, especially here in the Northeast part of the US in January, there’s always the trusty stand-by. The two-burner cast iron grill.

If you don’t have one. Get one. Now seriously how often have you heard me say that about anything? Correct. I don’t think I ever have. There’s just some things that are indispensible and not substituable. Wait you say, what about those frying pans that have the raised grill bar thingys in them? Nope. They don’t go high enough. There is no where for the fat to drain, so you are still going to be frying things in their own oils, not true grilling at all.

What about those electric grills? How about those George Forman grills? Although I haven’t actually tried them, from what I can see they probably work alright. I guess if I had a choice between the frying pan and an electric grill I would go with the latter. But a choice between a grill over the fire and a grill running alternating electrical current, gimme the stove and the cast iron anyday. Call me caveman. Call me purist. But it I can’t have my outdoor brikets, it’s indoor stove grill.

Now I have to give a big doff of the hat here to master grillsman and Iron Chef, Bobby Flay. First, this glaze definitely originates from his delicious brown sugar and mustard glaze. Hey, if I borrow or heavily base something on some else’s I tell you! Natch, I had to mess with it some and made significant changes and additions that while you could compare and no doubt tell his glaze was the “parent”, this is related yet different enough to be it’s “child”.

Another thing I about this recipe is I followed something else Bobby said on one of his shows about his personal preference when grilling salmon, that sometimes he eats the skin, and sometimes he takes it off. It depends on if he is able to get it to a certain level of crispiness. When he does, he eats it, when it’s for whatever reason not happening for him, he takes it off.

Now, I’ve always taken it off. Or to be more precise, when I’ve bought it before it was (not sure which one, but) a different type of salmon, cut into thick rectangular “steaks” and without skin. This time, I ended up getting CoHo Salmon, and instead of a steak it was the long filet. And it came with skin. Thick black and silver skin. My first thought was, ugg, take the skin off. But then I thought of what Chef Flay said, and thought, hell, I will definitely give that a try and proceed similarily, if it worked, awesome, if it didn’t work, I’ll take the skin off.

And as someone who’s been doing his best to perfect crispy skin on poultry, I managed to my delight to pull this one off as well. Yummy, crispy skin attached to a light, delicate, moist fish. You’re definitely going to enjoy this one.

Usually my photos speak for themselves, so other than the mouse-over little notes that pop up, I don’t have captions, and I rarely ever any special “notes”, but this time is an exception, so …

Important notes about the photos. The first photo of the raw fish, skin side up shows (at least it shows on the one on the right) the cross-hatched scoring I did to both. This is necessary to help achieve the crunch and crispness. Also, in the second photo of the cooking fish with the skin side up there are two notes. First, the black you see is not burn; it is the color of the skin of the coho which is silver in places and black in others. The second important note is this is the first turn of the fish, not the second, so this is only stage one of the crispy skin. And look how good it looks already.

Grilled Salmon Fillets with Crispy Skin and Asian-Fusion Glaze
©2008 Harry Kenney

2 coho salmon filets, 6-8 ounces each
olive oil
salt
pepper

glaze:

4 tbsps dijon
3 tbsps soy sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp finely ground ginger or ginger powder
1/4 tsp sesame seed oil
2 tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil
1 tsp garlic powder
3 tbsps light brown sugar
2 tbsps honey
salt
pepper

First, put all the ingredients together mentioned and create your glaze. Next, get your grill (outdoor preferably, or indoor preferably a cast-iron double burner grill or an electric one) ready and turn on to high heat.

Take your filets, score the skin on back both horizontally and vertically to make squares or a cross-hatch pattern. Rub olive oil on both sides. Season the front flesh part as you normally would with salt and pepper. When seasoning the skin side, use two to three times more salt than normally.

Put oil over your hot grill and immediately slap down your fillets skin side down. Leave about a minute more than you normally would, checking the underside occasionally to ensure cooking and browning but not burning. After about four or five minutes and right before you are ready to turn, liberally brush on the glaze all over the flesh side, then turn that over so it faces the grill.

You should see some very nice crispness on the now skin top side. Leave the flesh part down for another two-to-three minutes. Do not over cook this. Give a light brush of the glaze on the skin and turn over again. Now with the topside up, again liberally brush the glaze all over the flesh. After a minute or so more, take off of grill and serve.

Depending on how hungry your guests are this can serve two. But I found the pieces rather large and was able to feed four and still considered these nice sized servings. Myself I served this with steamed Italian flat green beans with minced onions and a helping of wild rice on the side.

©2008 Harry Kenney

It’s definitely not my intent to in any way hide things. Very much the opposite. It’s that sometimes something comes to me and I say, I will make an article out of this. (For my articles just click the category link or the one I just provided for a list of those.) At other times, most times in fact, the topic comes out of doing the specific recipe.

Let me give you a for instance, talking about cooking oils is a big topic in and of itself, so I wrote an article on that. How to get the crispiest skin on poultry while using an oven, that topic however becomes a part of my writing the a recipe on BBQing Chicken Legs in the Oven. It’s not that I am trying to purposely “hide” how to make crispy skin in that recipe, it just went together naturally. And so that’s where the information came out, there where it was the most pertinent.

This does however mean they can be a smidge hidden, a bit “below the obvious surface” even if unintential. Despite the fact that this website has a great search feature on it in and of itself that can find things. Or that Google and the other “true” monster engines do a good job of indexing items on this site. But it dawned on me, maybe it would be helpful to put together a post like this every so often and list some of the “hiddren treasures”, histories or tutorials that lay somewhat obscured in the back story or forewads to my recipes. And as I just hit 51 recipes the other day, now seems as good a time to do this.

Oven BBQing & Crsipy Skin

Besides scoring skin, when trying to emulate a BBQ style in the oven, avoid a deep casserole dish, instead you want it completlly “out there” getting heat hitting all around it. Do this by putting it on a baking sheet with a grill on it. See the photo of this (and of scoring skin) at my recipe for Roasted Orange-BBQ Chicken Leg Quarters

Fruit Sauces

Working with fruit sauces especially those with made from or with jelly or preserves. If you wait too long it will thicken back to a gelatin state. What to use with jelly and what to do when it thickens back up can be found at Ricotta Pancakes with Raspberry Sauce

Giving Tortillas More Authentic Flavor

Ever scorch a totilla on the burner? On purpsose? Give it a try while making my Steak Quesadilla.

Making a Stuffing Pocket

Making a pocket in a piece of meat or poultry is pretty simple. Unless you haven’t done it before. When making Harry’s Stuffed Chicken Florentine I touched upon this complete with a photograph. I also demonstrate how to take a stuffing and turn it into a creamy light sauce as well.

Health Benefits of Fish

Not only do I list a lot of them, I also supply a link to more good info at my recipe for Grilled Rainbow Trout with Dill and Lemon.

Tips on Using Pizza Dough at Home

You can find those tips when I made Pepperoni Pizza & Ham and Pineapple Pizza.

Dry Rubs and BBQ Sauces

One thing that goes with talking about grilling and barbecuing, and that’s dry rubs and BBQ sauces. I don’t use bottled any more. In fact I never did like them. The problem is you never know what you’re going to get. I have same problem when I’m ordering out at a restaurant or a food stand … Is it going to be a BBQ sauce I like or something that’s too sweet or so tomatoey it burns my throat or so vinergary I have to pucker. At home I gave up on that junk long ago and make my own. And of course I’m usually mixing it up so it’s never exactly the same every time. Fortunately this website’s blog system uses a tag system which is another way to make additional categories and makes it a lot easier to group and to find things, so click on these if you want to get a list of my recipes of different dry rubs and different barbecue sauces I’ve done so far.

Kids Food

There’s a lot of good food on here children will enjoy. But I defnitely let my inner child run loose when I made both a Cheeseburger Pizza and a Peach Ricotta Dessert Pizza. Others that stand out in my mind are Pizza Burger Mac and Steak Quesadilla. And naturarlly, kids love deserts. Apple Turnovers with Royal Icing using puff pastry is a nice healhy homemade desert, and if you really want to light up their eyes, make yourself a trifle like Lemon Berry one my where you get to slip in fresh healthy fruit amid pudding and cake and the layers and colors will just knock them out!

Drumsticks on the Grill

With little meat on them, most of it on the outside where the fire is, and filled with bone, drumsticks aren’t the eaisest things to cook on a charcoal grill. See how to do it at Apricot-Glazed Grilled Chicken Drumsticks.

London Broil into Flank Steak

Gotta recipe for flank steak? But you can’t find it at the market or you don’t have any at home? Slice down your London broil (which is actually a type of cooking, not a peice of meat, but your supermarket doesn’t know that) and there you go. Now you can make my recipe for Braciole.

What is Gourmet?

It was when I made my Butternut Squash Soup with Chorizo and Rice that I ended up waxing on about what it gourmet and what isn’t, and how the American taste bud has evolved tremendously in the last couple of decades with people’s willingness to try new flavors and pairings

Best Meatloaf Crust Ever

Seriously, I found a major winner with my Tomato-Balsamic Glaze atop my homemade meatloaf. It’s got the tomato, it’s got just enough and not-too-much sweetness and it has a crunch. I don’t care if it’s a sweet concotion or a savory dish, from lava cake to fried chicken, one thing many dishes have in common is there’s nothing better then when you combine an inner softness with just a bit of outer crunch to it. And this has it

Squashes

Butternut Squash is a tough one to cut open as you know with my first-ever photo tutorial Peeling and Cutting a Butternut Squash I also go in there the difference between winter and summer squashes by the way. But if you have an acorn squash, it’s such a very different thing. Especially with my microwave and broiler technique. We’re talking fast and delicious so give my Broiled Ginger-Apricot Acorn Squash a try.

Turnip, Rutabaga, Swede …

What are those things? Sometimes they’re the same thing. Sometimes they’re not. It’s another fun trip through the English language shared by the US, Canada, Australia and the UK where one language doesn’t mean you know what you’re saying. There’s even a chart here at my White Turnip Mash recipe to help cut through the translations.

Dressing or Stuffing?

What’s the difference? I talk about it in my Cranberry-Chorizo Dressing post.

Brining

What is this whole brining thing about? I finally got a chance and tried it out for myself when I made my Barbecued Turkey Breast with Orange-Herb-Wine Sauce for Thanksgiving last year. In short, the brining technique turned out fantastic, especially for this! Would I use it again elsewhere? Not sure, but doubtful. Yes I became a somewhat of a convert that brining is a wonderful and effective technique for sure. But I think it’s something limited to few times. Grilling a turkey being one of them.

Marinades

I am all for the quick marinade. I really like these two guys, but … every time I watch License to Grill or Emeril Live and they talk about “or you could marinade it for 24 hours” makes me laugh my head off. This and my other thoughts on marinades can be found in my recipe for Pancetta-Wrapped Margarita Shrimp.

Alcohol Burnoff When Cooking?

You would be surprised. Very very surprised. It was when I was making another one of my essentially children’s desserts but with a deciedely adult dessert flair that I looked up and shared with you the full details on when and how much does cooking burn off liquor in a dish. The results were extremely surprising. Take a look at my Hot Apple Topping over Ice Cream recipe for all the info.

Deep-Frying

Although I still am planning to do an article specifically on the subject, meanwhile I do get into some details about the technique of deep frying with cooking oil when I made my Homemade French Fries as well as talking about different kinds of fries, fry toppings, what’s a frite, what’s a British chip and all that other trivia associated with the cooked potato.

Prime or Choice or Select

There was no way possible I could talk about cooking Prime Rib with getting into the whole process of meat grading and selection here in the States. So for a quick lesson on cuts of meat and USDA standards, check out that recipe for some good info that will definitely help you the next time you’re shopping at the butcher or your supermarket’s meat section.

Well, that’s pretty much it. For now. I’m sure in another fifty recipes I’ll be hitting some more cooking points as they come to me. Hope this list helps you find some helpful info you might otherwise have glossed over. Thanks for reading my yakking points. Maybe I yack too much I sometimes think, but just giving a recipe and nothing else to go with it seems so lazy and average, and just not me. I think that’s the same reason we enjoy the cooking shows, we’re not just entertained, we’re educated along with it. Having a sense of history I think rounds out a meal. And learning various techniques along the way only makes us better cooks. See you next time.

©2008 Harry Kenney

If you enjoyed my very recent Chocolate-Raspberry Lava Cake recipe, then you are going to love this “makeover” or redeaux as well. Remember the original lava cake was made as a mistake. And this dish came about when I messed up my lava cake. So much for the saying two wrongs don’t make a right!

Think of it almost as a crunchy chocolate pudding “slash” cake. Obviously since it never leaves the dish it can’t “lava” out like the original. And as you see the cracking on top in the photo, you see why I had to call this chocolate cave-in cake.

I wanted to make something special for when my brother came over. And he has one of those intestinal things where you can’t eat little seeds. And I ran out of my original jar of raspberry jam and when I reached for the spare I had in the cupboard, turns out I’d mistakenly purchased preserves containing seeds (mistake one). That meant no raspberry sauce so I switched to orange, and instead of sauce, whipped cream.

Mistake two came when I forgot to grease my ramekins. Ooops! But wow what a delicious mistake! Plus, this recipe is even doubly fool-proof then the other one. Since you don’t have to take it out of the ramekin, even less chance to mess anything up. And yet, lip-smacking good. My bro’s girlfriend thought it was going to be as rich and dark and too sweet as a death by chocolate cake, and was surprised how it had just the right amount of sweetness but not that overpowering kind.

Btw, as always, when a recipe calls for an orange liqueur as this one, I say use Triple Sec instead of Grand Marnier because they’re the same taste, but the former costs about 10 times less while the second has a better marketing name and bigger price tag. Period.

By the way, did I mention this version has 2.5 to 3 times the amount of liquid chocolate inside?

Chocolate-Orange Cave-In Cake
©2008 Harry Kenney

6 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
6 oz butter
5-6 oz milk chocolate (or semisweet) chocolate chips
3 tbsps orange liqueur

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 eggs
2 egg yokes
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt

Orange Whipped Cream
©2008 Harry Kenney

1 pint heavy cream
3 tbsps sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
6 tbsps orange liqueur

Note: This recipe is based on 6 oz. ramekin size.

Preheat oven to 350. Mix eggs and yokes and sugar together and cream. Over double-boiler melt bittersweet chocolate with butter. Slowly pour into beating mixture. Add flour, sugar, salt, vanilla and orange liqueur until well mixed.

With six ramekins (not greased) placed on top of baking sheet, fill the ramekins 2/3s to 3/4s of the way with cake mixture. Place about an ounce of chocolate chips (10-15 chips) into the middle of each and let sink. Pour rest of cake mixture on top. Place in oven for 22-28 minutes until see good cracking on top and firm around the sides.

Take ingredients for whipped cream and place in mixer (or use hand beater), adding orange liqueur half way through.

When cakes are done, let cool a few minutes. Top each cake with orange whipped cream and serve in ramekin with spoon. Don’t forget since you’re serving it in the cup itself, clean the cup off first before giving it to your guests. Makes six servings.

©2008 Harry Kenney

So how do I follow up a recipe on prime rib? Why, this way. Am I crazy? Like a fox. How can I top prime rib? How does a successful recording artist top a monster selling album? The same way. You don’t. You go different. And that’s the thing here at cooking @ home …. It’s home cooking. And that runs the gamet. Or at least it should. You might see on this page prime rib and stuffed mushrooms, but you might also see french fries and meatloaf and beef stew.

Home cooking doesn’t have to be “plebian” for lack of a better word. It can be (although I have problems with this word too) “gourmet”. On the same note it doesn’t have to be all gourmet either. It’s all of it. Why? Because that’s exactly what cooking at home means. You — and I — are doing this at home, and we might have hot dogs and soup one day and filet mignon with a panna cotta dessert the following. Same person cooking, same kitchen. We can and we should do what we want, and that is from simple everyday meals up to five-star dining. At home. And on that note …

I am a bread eater. One of those who’s always loved bread and butter with a meal. (Mind you, in this circumstance I actually mean spreadable margarine). Just always loved “the sauce” or “the gravy” and I’ve always enjoyed scooping up, sopping or just plain having along side a pasta dish or a stew, bread and butter or roll and butter. Maybe that’s a working man’s blue collar thing? I have no idea.

That said though, there was a very trendy, way ahead of it’s time salad place in Reading Terminal Market in Center City Philadelphia about 15 years ago or more. I was working down there and would often go to “the salad lady” for my lunch. Imagine someone who was making pasta and rice salads before you ever heard of such things. Seriously. What is now more or less “average” fare that can be gotten at a fancy super market deli section, when The Salad Lady’s place was there in the Market, it was relatively unique.

I bring this up because she always gave away slices of different homemade breads (yes buttered, and in her case it meant real butter, btw) with every salad meal (provided you wanted it of course). So, ok, I guess she was the Salad and Bread Lady then. Point is, if she was ahead of her time — and she was — accompanying bread with a salad was in a way “chi-chi” …. And you can’t be chi-chi and blue collar at the same time, can you?

Which brings me back to my quickie garlic bread. Because I get such enjoyment at having bread — and garlic bread especially — and mine especially because it is rarely “just garlic” — my garlic bread is always garlic and cheese bread — I like to have it often. And to me, the oven or the broiler is just too much work. Mostly because if you take your eye off of it for a moment, wham, it’s burnt.

This is ovenless, broiler-less garlic bread, using two of my favorite cooking tools that folks so under use — the toaster and the microwave. Basically, I make mine as though I had a toaster oven (which I don’t). Why do it this way? It’s quick. Is it that much quicker than the oven? Hmm. Probably not in one way. But then the difference to me between four minutes and (when you include pre-heating, twelve minutes … Let’s put it this way, it’s not a lot of time difference but it is still three times faster.

Most importantly I can see what’s happening. There’s a greater amount of control, partly due to the incremental stages I have set up and the fact that things will automatically shut off at those stages. It’s essentially, no-fail. Whereas with the broiler method (and to a slightly lesser extent the oven method), should you misjudge by as little as half-a-minute, you can turn broiler garlic bread into blackened garbage. So you went frantic and you wasted 12 minutes while holding up dinner. Plus, if you still want it, you have to redo from scratch again, while the rest of your meal goes cold. Which means you probably will not bother to redo your smouldering garlic bread afterall.

Since this dish is basically an extra side to my main meal, it means I’m already running around the kitchen doing the last minute cooking and setting up to serve stuff when I’m making this. And at that time it’s very easy to forget something in a broiler. My way, things don’t get out of control. Plus it’s four minutes. Mind you this even works if you’re in a pinch with white bread toasted and put into the microwave, but natch, rolls are ten times better.

So, all of this said, I do it this way pretty much to have it more often. Would I serve this to a bunch of guests? Probably not. Two reasons, one, the oven or broiler is going to be better, by far — but with the caveat that you keep a very close eye to it and really watch it. Second, my toaster meets microwave works because it’s for one or two people. You cannot fit more than two atop the toaster nor in the microwave at a time. With guests, even if its a total of four people, you can fit the bread onto a baking sheet easily. So easily you could make garlic bread for six or even 12 people at one time in the oven (maybe 6 in the broiler). The question then is would I do it this quickie way for guests? No firstly because it’s impossible, but also if were it somehow possible (as though I had a giant toaster oven or five toasters plugged together or whatever sillyness you can think of) I’d still do it in the broiler because if would be better, and they are guests and I want to serve them the very best and it would be worth the effort. In fact for a bunch of folks, it would be simpler making them all at once too. The dynamics in that respect would have changed.

But for everyday, for having it often, for the taste and the three times faster and the no-fail, won’t burn, control of it. Yep I like my quickie garlic and cheese bread just fine. Hope you do too!

Quick Cheese and Garlic Bread
©2008 Harry Kenney

two long rolls, preferrably Italian
margarine
garlic powder
grated parmegan

Cut or open the rolls, place a top the toaster as though it were a grill. First we’ll toast the bottom of it. Now, no matter what setting or numbers are on your slider or knobs, think of them in fifths or percentages. Put your settings at 20% of what it should be. Place down the slots to turn the sides on and toast the bottom. When it pops up, turn the inside of the rolls to face down, put on another 40% (a total of 60%) dark and again push down the two slots. When they pop up, check the roll. If it’s getting toasted move it over an inch, if it’s still fairly white, leave where they are, now push the slider or knob to 100% darkness.

Have a paper tower ready in front of or next to the toaster. When the toaster pops the third time, take off the rolls, crust down, and butter them. Now liberally sprinkle on garlic powder to taste. Do the same if you wish with grated parmegan. You see the paper towel has a few functions, to catch the excess seasonings, to transport the rolls to and from the microwave as well as to serve as a bed that will stop the roll from getting soggy in the microwave. Now, place them in the microwave for about 45-55 seconds on high (based on an 1100 watt microwave, longer if you have a less powerful 600-800 microwave). When done, serve with your meal.

©2008 Harry Kenney

What do you get when you take Wolfgang Puck and Guy Fieri, put them into one person and say give me your best meal? In my opinion, what you get served is prime rib. It’s got the Puck big-time class with the Fieri big-time eats all in one. It’s elegant. Yet there’s no getting around it: It’s also one big ol’ slab of beef, baby. Quality and quantity.

Tyler Florence once likened this to that giant side of Brontosaurus Fred Flintstone has slapped on top of his car and eventually makes it fall over. LMAO! I couldn’t agree more. It really does look like a miniature version of that cartoon hallmark. (And that’s the last time I’ll use the word miniature referring to this dish.)

Now, the name itself, Prime Rib. It’s a misnomer in a way. Because, at least here in America, it suggests that it is a prime grade of meat. And, if you purchase it at the butcher or the supermarket, where just about all of us get our meats, well, they don’t sell “prime”. You’ve no doubt purchased either Choice or Select. So, for all intents and purposes, even though the most famous name of this meat is Prime Rib, it’s actually better labeled as a Standing Rib Roast.

Ok, because of this name game thing, this is an excellent place to look into exactly what is United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) grading, what these meat grades are, what beef falls into what category, and where can and can’t they be purchased from.

Here’s the deal. There are eight levels of beef grading. In order from the best on downward, they are: Prime, Choice, Select, Standard, Commercial, Utility, Cutter and Canner. Prime is rarely sold anywhere except for restaurants and hotels. Choice and Select are the best of the supermarket grades. Standard and Commercial are usually sold as “store-brand” or non-graded at markets. And the last three are rarely ever seen in retail, and go to industry to make fillers, processed products and we assume pet food.

Concerning ourselves with the three best grades … Prime: This is the ultimate for flavor and tenderness, produced from young, well-fed cattle. Contains the greatest amount of marbled fat and less than three percent of all beef can meet this criteria. Choice: Still very high quality though with less marbling than Prime has. This is the most popular as it has a high degree of tenderness and flavor while a lot less costly than Prime. Just over half of all beef are given the standard of Choice. Select: It is leaner than Choice or Prime and therefore the least amount of marbling and a degree down in terms of taste. It is still tasty though and fairly tender, generally, but it can vary from meat to meat. Roughly a third of all beef falls under this grade.

If you are desiring visual aids, and want to see photos of these — and at the same time play “can you be a meat grader” go here. And if you’re interested in further information on USDA grading, including how it grades other meats and poultry check out the USDA site.

Another thing I need to address here is this “thing” I’ve read on some websites that say your standing rib roast has to have a lot of ribs or forget it. One particular website snootily said (ok, it was actually the owner of the site not the site itself who said it, if you want to get technical) … “Don’t even bother with less than a three-rib roast, any less than that is not a roast but rather a thick steak and would be better treated as such.” Hah! I say. I could not disagree more! Sure a six-rib mass of roast looks impressive to the eye, but, dear sir, I am more concerned with taste than looks.

One of my guests when learned I had two one-ribbers in the oven (to serve four people), said what a great idea. I replied, yes, I think you get better cooking that way and put an outside coating on more steaks this way, making it tastier. She agreed adding that when she’s had it before “everyone wants the end cuts” — that is, let’s say you were serving six people with a three-ribber roast, two would get the end cuts and four people would get the one’s in between. If you instead made three one-ribbers, each steak would be an “end cut”. You see the ends get that exterior cook plus that exterior coating.

So unlike some folks’ thinking, if you have a three-rib roast, I’d do the opposite, and get the butcher to precut them down (or you could do yourself possibly) into three one-ribbers: better cooking, more flavorful with each serving getting a coating and the exterior heat, and six “ends” — the most desired cuts of the roast.

Now this is an impressive meal. And I served it over the holidays for that reason, to impress some folks, and to overall make them a very nice meal, part of my Christmas gift. Funny though, it is and it is not expensive. I ended up with two nearly-three pound roasts which together cost me about $25 at the market. Think about it though, do you really believe if the four of us had gone to a restaurant and ordered this that we could all have been fed for $25? Heck no. Even now knowing what we learned about grading and that the restaurant meal would have been up a grade to “real” Prime rib … we’re talking a $200 meal and that’s not including appetizers, dessert, wine and tip. Easily. (And I won’t even mention parking or gas!) So, expensive meal? In one way, yes; in another way — a steal.

So enjoy this ultimate beef dish and don’t overcook it. This puppy deserves to be served with a lot of pink. It’s just that good and that tender.

Prime Rib of Beef with Peppercorn-Horseradish Coating
©2008 Harry Kenney

Two 2.5 to 3 lb cuts of prime rib roast
1/4 cup whole peppercorns
4 heaping tblspns horseradish sauce
3-4 cloves garlic, sliced thin
olive oil

Preheat oven to 350°F Take the two roasts, stand them so the fat side is up (this will cover two sides). With a sharp paring knife make 8-12 insertions into the fat. Place thin slices of garlic deep into each incision.

Crush the peppercorns and place into small bowl. Add horseradish and enough olive oil so it’s about 2:1 ratio oil. Mix with a fork, then cover all sides (except bone side) of both roasts and rub in. Especially get the fat side and the two “steak” sides.

Place in roaster uncovered for roughly 1-1/2 hours. The rib should be on the bottom, almost like a natural plate or rack, with the fatty section on top so it can drip on down. If they won’t stand by themselves, let them lean on the side of the deep roasting pan if it’s sturdy enough.

Temperature is more important than time though. Continuallly test the inside temperature with a meat thermometer. You need to take a reading in multiple places as depending on where you place them, you may be hitting bone or marblized fat. Go with whatever turns out to be the lowest temperatures as your official “read”, and base off of that.

When you get a reading of 120-130°F at multiple points and at the previous lowest temperature points, take the roast out, cover, and let sit for 20-30 minutes, then cut off the rib from the back, slice exactly down the middle, and serve. Feeds four.