Corning Your Own Corned Beef

OK, I never had corned beef often as a kid - maybe once a year (hey, we weren't Irish-Americans). Had my share of boiled red cabbage though :D

Anyway, two years ago, Carol had this one week course development job that we scheduled for the week of my Spring Break so I cared for the kids and she pulled 14 hr days working. Ugh. But my end of the deal was a never-ending supply of food, tea, and snacks. Luckily St. Patrick's Day fell on the week, so the kids and me made corned beef, cabbage, soda bread with hand-made butter, and something chocolate-y for dessert.

We bought the corned beef from Eagle Bridge Custom Meats (now USDA certified) and it was fantastic - moist and well-spiced and the same price as that nasty stuff from the big grocery store. This year, we are making our corned beef from our portion of a quarter cow named Burgess from the Masons' at Long-Lesson Farm (here in Johnsonville).

from Simply Recipes, fab recipes and photog!

This is from Alton Brown's excellent recipe:

Ingredients

• 2 quarts water
• 1 cup kosher salt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons saltpeter
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken into several pieces
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 8 whole cloves
• 8 whole allspice berries
• 12 whole juniper berries
• 2 bay leaves, crumbled
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 pounds ice
• 1 (4 to 5 pound) beef brisket, trimmed
• 1 small onion, quartered
• 1 large carrot, coarsely chopped
• 1 stalk celery, coarsely chopped

Steps

1. Place the water into a large pot along with salt, sugar, saltpeter, cinnamon stick, mustard seeds, peppercorns, cloves, allspice, juniper berries, bay leaves and ginger.
2. Dissolve the salt and sugar on high heat, stirring often.
3. Cool using either ice or refrigeration until the temp is less than 45 F
4. Once the brine is cooled, place the brisket in a 2-gallon zip top bag and add the brine. Seal and lay flat inside a container, cover and place in the refrigerator for 7-10 days.
5. Check daily to make sure the beef is completely submerged and mix the brine.
6. After the 7-10 days, remove from the brine and rinse well under cool water.
7. Place the brisket into a pot just large enough to hold the meat, add the onion, carrot and celery and cover with water plus 1 more inch.
8. Set over high heat and bring to a boil.
9. Reduce the heat to low, cover and gently simmer for 2 1/2 to 3 hours or until the meat is fork tender.
10. Remove from the pot and thinly slice across the grain. Enjoy with boiled cabbage, soda bread, and easy hand-made butter!

Eating Thai Food @ Land Thai (NYC)

It is a sad thing to say it, but there is some crappy Thai food out there. I love the fresh tastes of Thai food - galangal (a perfume-y cousin to ginger), cilantro, lemongrass, fresh seafood, wok-ked beans or greens, and of course hot red peppers. Aah.

Up here in upstate, there isn't much to Thai food (of course, according to the first item from this episode from NPR's "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me", there isn't much of anything in Albany).

But when we went to NYC, we decided to go looking for something good to eat. Something we couldn't find here. And that rules out pizza and Italian.

We cruised the NY Magazine's restaurant excellent search engine (sort by neighborhood and cuisine) and settled on "Land Thai Kitchen" on the Upper West Side. It was fabulous, fast and fresh and spicy (although the waitress specifically asked if we wanted the kids' salad to be mild instead! Awesome = 25% tip!).

Things we would like to note:

1. Restaurants are smaller (quite the discussion with the 7-yr old about real estate values and the size of city lots). Land Thai is literally 10 feet wide, elbow-to-elbow.
2. Really good food doesn't need to be hard to make - the ingredients here were fresh and not cooked to destruction. Texture choices - yum!
3. Even kids will eat spicy food if it is good.

Things we would like to eat again (I linked to blog recipes that look close)

1. Drunken Chicken Noodles - (above) spicy hot and yummy, this one used wide noodles.
2. Esan Roasted Chicken - (E-san is (as far as I can tell) a commercial version of Nam Jim Jeaw sauce) and this was a dinner which the kids loved and it came with a side of Green Papaya Salad (oh, to die for)
3. Chicken Galangal Soup - delicious broth with big oyster mushrooms in it.

Great recipes for more Thai over here at RasaMalaysia!

Chicken Cobbler with Cheesy Biscuits

OK, I haven't made this - yet - but I found this within 2 degrees of separation of SimplyRecipes, so it has to be good, right? Skip the fact that the cheesy biscuits alone may be worth it, here is a recipe for essentially a pot-pie that really looks like a casserole. Frozen chickens, your time has come!

Ingredients

Chicken Cobbler

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• 2 celery stalks, chopped (keep the leaves, too!)
• 8 oz mushrooms, chopped
• 2 Tbsp. flour
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 4 cups of chicken broth (good or home-made)
• 4 cups chopped chicken or turkey (white and dark meat!)
• 1 cup frozen peas

Biscuits:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 2 Tbsp. melted butter
• 1 cup grated old cheddar or Gouda or 1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Steps

1. In a heavy skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat and saute the onion, carrot and celery for about 5 minutes, until soft.
2. Add the mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms release their liquid and the vegetables start to turn golden.
3. Sprinkle with flour and thyme and cook for another minute.
4. Stir in the broth and begin scraping up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan, stirring until smooth.
5. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 5 minutes, until thickened.
6. Stir in the roasted chicken or turkey and peas and pour into a baking dish that will accommodate it.
7. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
8. To make the biscuits: In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Add the milk and canola oil and stir by hand just until you have a soft dough.
9. On a lightly floured surface, pat or roll the dough into a 9” x 14” rectangle. Stir the garlic into the melted butter and spread over the dough, then sprinkle with cheese.
10. Starting from a long side, roll tightly jelly-roll style into a log. Cut into 8-12 biscuits using dental floss or a serrated knife.
11. Lay the biscuits on top of the chicken mixture, leaving a bit of space between them (they will rise in the oven), and bake for 30-40 minutes, until the the biscuits are puffed and golden brown and filling is bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Serves 8.

Birthday Belgian Waffles

This is our favorite waffle recipe (found here almost randomly several years ago)- it usually shows up on birthdays topped with whipped cream, strawberries, and maple syrup. The trick is the rise time, it needs 60 minutes which translates pretty cleanly to make it before and then cook it after farm chores in the morning.

The above pic is from the Interweb, not ours, but the banana slices and powdered sugar are a nice fancy touch. We love these and we talked it over and this is just a little more intensive than normal waffles - just that rise time.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups water, blood-warm
• 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (one packet)
• 3 cups sifted flour
• 3 large eggs (separate 3 yolks and 1 egg white)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 8 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 tsp vegetable oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk

Steps

1. Dissolve the yeast in the water (I like a 4 cup measure) and let stand for 10 minutes.
2. Melt the butter in a small pot.
3. Sift the flour and salt in a large bowl; stir to blend and reserve.
4. To the yeast-y mixture, add the 3 egg yolks, one of the egg whites, and sugar.
5. Add the milk, melted butter, oil, and vanilla to the liquid. Stir until the mixture is smooth.
6. Add the liquid mixture into the flour mixture and beat until the mixture is smooth.
7. Beat the 2 separated egg whites until stiff peaks form.
8. Fold the egg whites gently into the batter.
9. Let the batter stand for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
10. Preheat the waffle maker; the light will turn off when preheated.
11. Add 1 cup of batter - it looks like too much and it seems too runny to me, but it makes a nice full, fluffy waffle.
12. For best results, do not open the waffle maker and peek - the light goes out when it is done, early views will cause it flop more (and we like 'em tall and fluffy).

Makes about 8 waffles. We can eat 1 each topped with whipped cream, berries, and syrup. Maybe more if you were really really hungry. Like after farm chores.

"Focaccia of Doom"

This recipe is one of our oldest - it harkens back to the Burlington days in the mid-90s. We found a wonderful little trattoria there on Cherry Street - they had an olive oil dipping sauce that was salted and heavily garlicked. So good that we went home (burping all the while) and started looking for a focaccia to match it.

We found a version of this recipe in Nava Atlas' "Vegetariana", a very nice veg cookbook. We omitted some of the ingredients (the original called for slices of sun-dried tomatoes in the loaf, but we found that the tomato clashed with the garlic oil dip).

This is a great recipe because it takes about 1hr 20min from start the yeast to put it on the table. Pair this with some sauce-simmering and the meatballs, and it all works out to be ready at the same time (and without all the sweating).

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 tsp of dried yeast
• 1 Tbsp of brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp of olive oil
• 1/4 cup of minced sun-dried tomatoes (optional)
• 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
• 1 cup unbleached white flour
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• Dried rosemary
• Kosher salt
• Olive oil

Steps

1. In a 2 cup bowl, add 1 cup of blood-warm water. Sprinkle in the brown sugar, oil, and yeast. Stir very lightly, just get some of the yeast below the surface of the water. Let stand for 10 minutes until the yeast starts to foam.
2. Add the sun-dried tomatoes if you like (we usually skip this if we are going to dunk the bread in olive oil/garlic because it is too sweet).
3. In a large bowl, add the flours and salt. Mix well.
4. Slowly pour in the yeast slurry and mix.
5. Knead for 5 minutes, incorporating all of the flour, the dough will be "goldilocks" - so, not too sticky (add a bit more flour to the kneading area) and not too dry (it should hold together with some cracking). Alternatively, mix for 5 minutes on medium with a dough hook on your trusty stand mixer.
6. Form the dough into a ball, put it back into the bowl and cover for a 10 minutes rise time (I like being near the woodstove, but not on the ground - dog noses push in the towel).
7. Take the ball and roll it out into a round, about 12 inches across should make it about 1 inch high. Place this on a cookie sheet, cover with a towel and
8. Let rise 40 minutes in a warm place.
9. Preheat the oven to 400 during the 40 minute rise.
10. Uncover and bake for 2o-25 minutes, it should have a hollow "thunk" when it is ready.
11. Let cool for 5 minutes and serve with olive oil - we have two favorites:

• EVOO with balsamic vinegar (about 2 EVOO: 1 balsamic).
• EVOO with garlic (1 tbsp EVOO: 1 clove of good minced garlic)(never garlic in a jar)

Cuban Black Beans and Rice (plus Mojo Criollo)

I have to admit a guilty pleasure - we love to watch the breezy spy-do'gooder series "Burn Notice" on the Interweb. I have learned that there is a remarkable:

1. number of exploding things you can make with the help of a hardware store or cell phone (not your mother's MacGyver)
2. amount of yogurt being eaten by spies on surveillance duty (perhaps all that Fiona does eat)
3. love affair with Miami out there, especially to Cuban cuisine (though the main characters never are seeing actually eating those Cuban sandwiches).

So today, a 20 F cold day with a west wind that just wouldn't quit, we hung a 10 ft gate and latch. We were shivering on the way in. I suggested we use up the rice by making bean burritoes - Carol countered with enchiladas (no cheese!) - I volleyed with Cuban Black Beans - and Carol said "Mojo sauce!"

Mojo (according to WikiP) "In Cuban cooking mojo applies to any sauce that is made with garlic, olive oil and a citrus juice, traditionally sour orange juice." Sadly, we don't have any sour orange available, so we mod below according to the "3 Guys from Miami" website, to whom we defer on all questions about Cuban cooking.

Mojo goes great here, but use it as a marinade too, if you dare. Garlic is the point, not an addition, keep that in mind. The oil is left out here, but if you were using it for a marinade of meat, then follow the version here (3 Guys) with oil.

This is related to our own "Vampire Marinade" (which if you follow the WikiP link on Mojo above lists the cilantro-heavy variant of Mojo as a typical Puerto Rican choice).

Ingredients

Black Beans and Rice

• 1 onion, chopped (not too finely, it is fun as texture)
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 2 14 oz cans of black beans (Goya makes a nice organic)
• 1/2 cup of mojo criollo
• 1 tbsp of cumin

Mojo Criollo

• 1.5 cups of orange juice (use a good one, no green orange flavor Need Apply)
• 1/2 cup of lime juice
• 1/2 cup of lemon juice
• 1 tsp of sea salt
• 2 tsp of oregano
• 1 head of garlic, minced (we use a strong garlic we grow called "Music")

Steps

1. Start with the mojo - add the juices, salt, oregano and garlic to a jar. Shake the bejeesus out of it and then let it sit at least 1 hour. Refrigerate any extra up to 7 days (time to plan more cuban dishes this week).
2. Saute the onion and green pepper in olive oil until they are nearly clear.
3. Add the beans, cumin, and mojo criollo. Heat it up and let some of the juices boil off.
4. Serve hot with rice.

Makes about 6 servings (4 if you love mojo).

Our Spaghetti and Meatballs

So, for us, spaghetti has never been a big deal - Carol is not a big fan of just spag-and-sauce. I used it as an excuse to deploy the "focaccia-of-doom". But there were always leftovers...

Until I found this meatball recipe from Simply Recipes. I don't use the sauce - we use our own (this year's blight knocked our tomato sauce production down to zero, so I sub in Newman's Sockarooni Sauce (with red and green peppers!).

We throw these on top of linguine (best) or spaghetti, top with the meatball(s) and then drizzle sauce over top. Yummie! And if you can stand the extra garlic, try adding in the "focaccia of doom" and dip those bread slices into olive oil studded with minced garlic. Vampires beware!

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef (I use 90% lean, plenty of fat from the cheese and pork)1
• 1 lb fresh sweet Italian pork sausage (I like the local Geno's)
• 2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil (or 1/2 Tbsp dried basil)
• 2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley (or 1/2 Tbsp of dried parsley)
• 2 eggs
• ¾ cup bread crumbs
• ¼ cup grated parmesan
• sea salt and pepper to taste

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F.
2. Mix together meats and herbs in a medium bowl (I use the KitchenAid!).
3. When well combined add the eggs, bread crumbs and parmesan. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix for 1 minute till really well combined.
4. Roll the mixture into golf-ball sized meatballs (should make about 20).
5. Place the meatballs on a cookie sheet (I line mine with aluminum foil to keep them from sticking) and cook them at 400 F for 20-25 minutes.