Posts filed under 'Beef'
I love St. Patrick’s Day — one of the few holidays when there are no obligations for expensive gift-giving, or party obligations. The only requirement is to wear something green, so you can avoid getting pinched, which I find not to be a hardship at all. St. Patrick’s Day is simply fun! And it also involves cooking foods we don’t normally have, so for me, that makes it extra fun.
For more information about St. Patrick and this day, check out the History Channel’s website here.
For our St. Patrick’s Day dinner, I will be making:
Corned Beef
Boiled Potatoes
Fried Cabbage
Irish Soda Bread
I also saw a recipe for Lemon Curd Cake (suggested to go with your St. Patrick’s Day meal) in a magazine, but I’m not going to be making it since I really don’t need any more calories in my life or in this meal. 
If this interests you, do a quick web search, I’m sure something will pop up. I’m not offering any advice about lemon curd cake since I have never even eaten it, much less made one.
Corned Beef –> This time of year, it is easy to find a package of corned beef, all ready to be cooked, with a little spice packet included. I have found that these are very, very good. At my warehouse club, I can buy this all year round for about $2.39 per pound. Last week, my corner grocery had them for $1.79 per pound. I bought two and will cook both on St. Patrick’s Day, the leftovers make great sandwiches. To prepare, simply place the raw corned beef, with spice packet sprinkled on top, in the crock pot and cook on low all day.
Boiled Potatoes –> Simply cut potatoes into quarters, and boil gently for about 20 minutes or until soft all the way through. Then drain, add some butter, salt and dill and you’re done.
Fried Cabbage –> Also easy to prepare. Chop a head of cabbage into chunks, add some chopped onion or green pepper. Melt a generous amount of butter into a large skillet and fry for about 20 minutes until the cabbage is soft and caramelized. Yum. Cajun seasoning is yummy on this, too, if your family likes spicy food.
Irish Soda Bread –> Refer to this earlier St. Patrick’s Day post to see a recipe for Irish Soda Bread.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all of my readers!!
March 16th, 2009
Corned Beef Hash is one of those old-time favorites of my husbands. Strangely, this is one that my own mother never made and it took me a few years to understand why DH raved about it. I imagine lots of folks picture corned beef hash as one of those greasy-spoon-diner breakfasts that is never made or served anywhere else. I’ve no idea how many people are keen on trying this out for themselves, but it’s not that tricky and is really delicious, so let’s give it a shot…
First off, you need some corned beef. Now, this is pretty easy to obtain from the deli counter of any grocery and you can just ask the worker behind the counter to cut off a chunk for you instead of slicing it real thin-like. Personally, I quit buying corned beef at the deli because of the extremely high prices. I buy a do-it-yourself hunk of corned beef at everyone’s favorite warehouse — Sam’s Club. It comes in a moderate size (about 3 pounds, untrimmed) that my family easily polishes off in one meal. I usually buy two. If you decide to buy it this way, click here to read my method of cooking it. Corned beef that you do yourself will be more tender and will fall apart the way you want it to for hash. Deli beef will have to be cut into bite-sized chunks.
As I mentioned, I like to cook two packages of corned beef. One gets consumed right away, usually in Reuben sandwiches or just plain with sauerkraut. The second I hide away from the seemingly always hungry people in my house for a day or two and then surprise them by pulling it back out and making cold meat sandwiches or corned beef hash.
Corned Beef Hash
serves 6
1-2 c. shredded or chunked corned beef
3-6 redskin potatoes, diced
1 sweet onion, preferably a Mayan sweet or Vidalia
1/4 c. olive oil
3 T. flour
1 c. skim milk, chicken broth, or a combination of the two
salt and pepper
First off, dice the potatoes, rinse in cold water, and drain. Pat dry with paper towels. If you’re not crazy about putting that much work into it, buy some Ore Ida hash browns, they will be just as good.
Next, chop the onion and get it sizzling with the oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add the potatoes and leave them alone for a few minutes while one side browns. (I used to fuss over hash browns and always ruined them by stirring too much. Leaving them to sizzle on their own is much better.)
Meanwhile, mix the flour and milk or broth in a shaker container or whip them together with a wire whisk. When the potatoes have begun to brown, slide a spatula underneath them and flip. They don’t need to remain in one large piece, but stirring them up too much causes your corned beef hash to turn to a pile of gooey, mushy potatoes. Once flipped, add the corned beef and wait for the other side of the potatoes to brown.
The last step is to pour the milk/flour mixture over all and let the heat thicken it to a white gravy. Add salt and pepper as desired. If you’re really trying to please someone, serve with eggs.
ENJOY!
June 24th, 2008
Okay, after tonight’s dinner, I don’t think I could ever go vegetarian.
These days, I’m eating mostly fruits and vegetables, but OH MY! — Beef is just too good to be eliminated from my diet permanently.
As a Christmas gift, an associate sent my DH a box of Filet Mignons — top-notch, high-quality, thick-cut, and packed in dry ice. This was a few weeks ago, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with them, so they went into the freezer for awhile. This morning we decided to make them.
Last year’s batch of Filet Mignons were good, but I wasn’t happy with the way I prepared them - on the grill. It had turned dark while I cooked them and in my inexperience they were way under-done. (I suppose some people would say that Filets cannot be underdone.) Anyway, we ate them, but they could have been better.
Tonight we learned exactly how much better they can be. I did a bit of research and decided to pan-sear the steaks with a cracked pepper crust. I also added a wine/broth mixture for dipping. (There were great without it, even greater with it.)
You can use the same method for other types of steaks - check the cut to make sure that pan-searing is appropriate. This is the single most important thing to learn about beef - different cuts are best prepared in different manners.
The steaks I was working with were cut 1 1/2 inches thick, 8 oz. of pure, delectable beef each. Cooking times have to be reduced if your steaks are not as thick. From what I have read (and the tasting tonight proved it) filet mignon should not be overcooked, rare or medium rare is what you are looking for. A couple of ours were more like medium and they were still delicious, but the redder ones were better.
I have to admit that our family eating these was a little scary. We all loved them except my 3-year old, who sat staring and sucking his thumb. When it was all over, he ate spaghettios. Who can figure out 3-year olds?
Pepper-Coated and Pan-Seared Filet Mignons
makes 6, easily adjustable
6 Filet Mignons - 1 1/2 inch thick / 8 oz. each
1 t. salt
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. sugar
dash cayenne pepper
3 t. cracked black pepper
3 T. olive oil
1/2 c. beef broth
1/2 c. red wine
1 t. parsley
The cooking of these goes pretty quickly, so be prepared. (You might want to read the steps through a time or two.) Have your side dishes ready, the table set, the candles lit, etc. Another note: use a cast-iron skillet if possible, not a non-stick skillet, certainly nothing with a plastic handle. Borrow a cast-iron skillet from Grandma if you need to. Also, be prepared to open the windows in case of a little smoke.
Start by heating the oven (yes, I said the oven) to 375. This was easy for me because I was baking potatoes for a side dish.
Next, lay out the steaks on 3 or 4 thicknesses of paper towels and let them drain. Flip them and pat the tops dry. They should be nice and dry before moving on to the next step.
Combine the salt, peppers, garlic powder, and sugar in a small bowl. Consider this like a rub - sprinkle a bit on each steak and rub it in. Just do one side now and do the other once they are in the frying pan. In a larger bowl, combine the broth, wine, and parsley — set this aside for now.
Heat the oil in the skillet over medium-high heat until good and hot. The oil doesn’t have to be smoking but if you put your hand over the open skillet, it will feel rather uncomfortable.
Place the steaks (peppery side down) in the skillet and set a timer or watch the clock for 3 minutes. While they sear, top with the pepper seasoning. Using a tongs, flip them gently. The reason that filet mignons are traditionally wrapped in bacon is because they tend to fall apart. Sear the other side for 3 minutes also.
Move the skillet (steaks included) into the oven for 3 more minutes. Keeping things simple with the times — don’t you love it?! After three minutes, remove and gently move them to a shallow bowl — I used a pasta bowl. Put the skillet back on the stove and add the broth combination, stirring up and loosening any bits that were stuck to the pan. Then pour this over the filets and you are ready to serve.
January 22nd, 2008
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