Archive for the 'Beef' Category

©2008 Harry Kenney

Simple recipe? Yes. Simple ingredients? Yes. Great taste? Hey! That goes without saying. What does need talking about is, simple as these are, what is a sauce? A glaze? A mop? What exactly is Jack Daniel’s? And while we’re at it, where exactly on the steer does a strip steak come from?

According to About.com “Mops are sauces you might (better) know as sop, bastes or mops.” I would have to add “glazes” to that list. (For instance the Asian glaze I use on salmon is like this; whereas the glaze I put on meatloaf stays there the first time, that is, one application and leave it.) First, let’s take a left turn. A marinade is a sauce made of either all wet ingredients or wet ingredients and some dry (spices and herbs), but it’s still basically a wet sauce. And into this marinade, your proteins, your meat, poultry or seafood is placed prior to cooking to add flavor. So all these other things — glazes, mops, bastes — are what you put on immediately before and/or during your cooking — as with this recipe.

Read the rest of this entry »

©2008 Harry Kenney

What we have here essentially is a Spanish Oxtail Stew featuring Root Vegetables. Not only is it a dish eaten in the south of Spain, but this is a dish that transcends not only geography, but also social classes and time itself. With a few variations this dish could have been eaten in close to this form not only a few hundred years ago, but also two thousand years ago, and even nine millennia ago. Talk about getting in touch with the earth and roots huh? So how did I decide to do this exact dish?

Having done so many Italian and Italian-American recipes lately I’ve felt a great need for change. And a desire to let my taste buds, if not my actual personage, travel to some different distant lands. It was an episode of Dinner: Impossible that got me interested in trying out oxtails. I find it in some ways humorous and in many ways delightful when poor people’s food or “peasant food” becomes trendy cuisine.

Read the rest of this entry »

©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.)

Read the rest of this entry »

As with meat loaf, I have several different ways to make beef stew, depending upon my mood du jour. Actually the ways are not all that different, so maybe variants or “slight variations” would be the more correct phrase. But this one is pretty much what I would consider the “master” verion.

There are so many great things about stews. Number one is they turn any tough meat into delicious meat. Second they bring together so many wonderful things — meat, vegetables, herbs, sometimes wine — into this well amazing orchestra, basically. For what is an orchestra but something which at times you hear (in this case taste) all the individual elements, and yet they also work in harmony with each other Kill me for saying this, but it’s music for your mouth and your stomach

Read the rest of this entry »

There are so many combinations of meatloaf in the world. Use 100 percent beef. No, use beef and pork. No, has to be the tri-meat combination of beef, pork and veal. No, it’s lamb as the third, not veal. You can use milk-soaked bread, big crouton things purchased or made yourself. You can use breadcrumbs. Nope, use the oats in oatmeal. With and without eggs. Mayonnaise as an extra binder; no way, hold the mayo. Gotta have some gravy. Gravy has to be brown. No, it’s gotta be tomato. No gravy anywhere; that ruins it. … And the list goes on and on.

And then, like myself, many cooks have more than one meatloaf. Why? Same as above. There’s so many ways to do it and there’s no one right way. In fact, it’s pretty tough to mess up. Hope all you newbie cooks are listening up. Meatloaf is many things: The perfect comfort food being one. And an excellent dish to start on if you’ve never or rarely cooked before.

Read the rest of this entry »

Whew! The last three recipes were each a bit complicated and time-consuming in terms of preparation and cooking … got to do plenty of interesting cooking things though: turned a slab of beef into steaks, pounded meat thin, made a meat stuffing, created a custard in a pot, made a ganache, took a squash apart, made a puree with the food processor, oven-roasted vegetables, got to cook some chorizo…

Time then to switch things up and do something quick and a bit more whimsical. So for today, it’s pizza for kids. Yes, I know, kids like any kind of pizza; but that said, they’ll like these even more. Moreover, you don’t have to have kids, these are definitely pizzas for the kids in us all!

Read the rest of this entry »

This is one of those delicious dishes I haven’t had for so long. The very first time I had it was many years ago when I actually made it. Yes, it was a recipe and it was during the days when I was all into The Frugal Gourmet, my first television chef inspiration. Braciole (pronounced bra’zhul) was one of the dishes featured on his PBS show and in one of his very first books. Really though how could a guy in his twenties having seen this being made on the TV screen not instantly fall in love with the idea of braciole? I mean: It’s like a jelly roll made of steak!!! Obviously the same Olympus god who created beer surely must have had his hand in the making this as well.

The second time (and the third and the fourth) I had this dish was in the best place on Earth or at least in North America I can think of to have it, namely in Little Italy in New York City. Luna’s on Mulberry Street to be precise. Huge portions, so juicy, so …. scrumptious. Really it was as they say “to die for”. And here I am once again faithfully revisiting a past delight.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve made brisket of beef before several times and each time it was made the same basic way, maybe a bit more “American” standard roast a few times, maybe a bit more “Italian” flavoring once or twice, but I was definitely in the mood for something more robust and different. Only one way to go then, BBQ-style, and when it comes to beef and BBQ, that means Texan. Actually, not, it seems.

I thought Texan, but I missed by a few states. Seems Texas does love it’s brisket big-time, but a little research turns out they’re not much into the sauce masking the meat taste. Seems when it comes to sauce as well as ingredients like cinnamon, brown sugar and a tomato base, and beef instead of pork, we’re talking more towards Missouri.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mac? As in “Mac and Cheese”. In any event. that’s what I finally decided to call this dish (… after having ten other names along the way.) Yep, this one was tough because it reminds me of so many different combinations of things. It’s down-and-basic super comfort food. It’s so easy I thought not to include it, until a few friends said “gee, I never thought of that”. It’s so easy you could make this in your sleep. It’s so easy a caveman … yadda yadda.

This puppy is part homemade “Hamburger Helper”, part cheesburger meets pasta, part Sloppy Joe Italiano, part pizza meets macacroni and cheese. Whatever you call it, you have to call it: Yummy! Kids will adore it; and that’s kids all the way up to 90 years old!

Read the rest of this entry »

Did this one with a decidedly Moroccan influence in the marinade. Yes I know, when you see in the list below I’ve used soy sauce, you’ll surely recognize that isn’t exactly at the top of the list of ingredients for Rabat. Point is it works (and why I say the marinade was “influenced” as opposed to straight out “Moroccan”.)

Btw, you might also think lamb more than beef when considering this North African country, and you’d be correct that lamb, goat and such are high on the list. But beef is a close second to lamb there these days. That said then, do feel free to substitute lamb if you wish. I just can’t give a 100% guarantee that the amounts of spices in the marinade would work without making adjustments or not. Right now, every thing is calculated for the stronger beef flavor. If you try it with lamb, my instincts tell me to half the cumin, and to then add the same amount you just subtracted with the same amount of dried mint. If you have fresh, all the better.

Read the rest of this entry »