Choosing a Beef Roast

I've been thinking about roasts recently; actually I've been thinking about them since this morning, when our friend from London emailed me a question about them. Gotta love the roast; as long as you have a thermometer and a big enough pan you can feed as many people as you want. The question is this; which roast is best?? There are many different types at many different price points; how do you choose.

First a word about "prime fillet." This is the roast that, if cut into pieces, would be fillet mignon. Feh. Its really expensive, a bit of a pain to cook (the sweet spot for getting the doneness right is rather narrow), and in my humble opinion, flavorless. Leave it for the Bar-Mitvahs.

Chuck roast is cheap, reasonably available, and is quite tender. The biggest issue is its toughness. I use chuck roasts to make chili and many other types of stewed meat. I recently tried to make it as a pot-roast. The concept seemed to work but it needed to cook a lot longer than I gave it (2 hours +). It also smokes well. When I perfect the pot roast recipe, I will post it.

Round roasts are commonly seen in supermarkets. I often buy them at King Kullen on the way to Fire Island. When roasted, they are tasty but need to cut extremely thin because of their toughness. I have smoked a few and they are much better this way.

My favorite type of roast is the prime rib roast with the bone in. Although you will need a second mortgage to buy one, it makes an incredibly tasty piece of meat. The bones are always a favorite for some people, and, if large enough (>5 pounds) its possible to have a range of doneness to make most people happy. There is always some guy who likes it gray, and this person can not be helped.

A question I recently was asked is which roast would I serve cold. Obviously any of the cheaper cuts that are smoked or braised could be served cold without a problem. They probably taste better this way. For roasted meat, I'd still go with rib roast. I might not do bone in however: guests gnawing on cold bones may be a bit gross. The roast pictured above is such a roast.

Three Meat Sauce (Chopped)

I prefer to make sauce with whole pieces of meat. Chopped meat, although great in hamburgers and acceptable in meatloaf, somehow always tastes bland and chewy in many "bolognese" type sauces. But since it takes longer to make sauce with whole meat, there are many occasions that call for chopped. Family dinner, which occurs after a full day at work, is one of those times. Although I guess I could precook the sauce, that would require a level of organization that I clearly lack. So chopped meat it is.

One thing that I have learned helps significantly in making chopped meat sauces is to use several different kinds of meat. This is easily accomplished from many places, including my good friends at Ottomanelli's, on 79th and Broadway. Chopped pork cooks well has a great flavor. I usually combine it with a mix of beef and veal. The following recipe is simple, and it works. I need to adjust the spices a bit, as it could use a bit more flavor. But its a good basic recipe for sauce that you can make in about an hour of total cooking time, although, of course, longer would be better. You can easily half the recipe, but I like having the leftovers, which often taste better a day later! But not two days later :(

INGREDIENTS

1 pound ground pork
1/2 pound ground veal
1/2 pound ground beef (I prefer chuck for this type of dish)
One onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, sliced

Olive oil to cook with
2 cans (28 ounce) whole peeled tomatoes
1 cup+ white wine or 1/2 cup+ vermouth (the wine is better if you have it around)
1 1/2 teaspoons thyme
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt + more to taste (figure up to one more teaspoon)
1 1/2 teaspoons white wine vinegar (you can substitute white vinegar)
1/2 teaspoon white pepper

Pasta (I prefer fusilli [pictured] for this dish, but you can use rigatoni or any wavy pasta)

EQUIPMENT YOU WILL NEED

Pot to cook sauce (I use a wok, which allows me to sautee the onions)
Extra Pan to brown meat

INSTRUCTIONS

Brown the meat and drain. Set aside. Brown the onions, and add the garlic a few minutes after throwing the onions in. The onions should be a golden color, which seems to take a while. Add the two cans of tomatoes, crushing them somewhat with your hands and a fork. Add one teaspoon salt, the garlic, the vinegar, the thyme, pepper, garlic powder and one cup of wine. You may add a little bit of wine later as you test the sauce. The main flavor the wine will add will be sweetness, but it will give the sauce a fuller flavor as well.

Put the flame on medium and let the mixture come to a boil. Put the heat down to low and keep uncovered. Since you need to cook quickly, you should see some bubbling. Stir every now and then, and check the flavor, too. Add salt as you get closer to the end of cooking. I add up to second cup of wine as I cook. I like tasting the wine, and find that if it cooks in too long you lose it. The sauce will cook down to a thick, very meaty tomato sauce. It needs about an hour, but the longer the better.

I find that the pasta tastes better for this type of sauce if it is "dragged" in the sauce (there is a real Italian word for this but I can't remember it...later). Cook the pasta a minute or two less than you should, and drain it but DON'T rinse it. Throw it in a the sauce, and let it cook for 3 to 4 minutes. It really changes the flavor! Keep some plain pasta sitting around in case you have finicky children.

Cassoulet Kind of Thing

When we were in Paris, I had cassoulet, one of my favorite winter dishes. The beans, the duck, the, pork, the denseness. You know that a good cassoulet could keep a village alive for the winter. When you are home its different. Finding and putting together all of the ingredients, particularly the duck, has always been hard for me. So, cassoulet like substitute is something I always like to make. This latest variation, one of many I have done, was particuarly tasty, not particuarly difficult to prepare, and looked like something when done. The only downer is that is takes about 2 1/2 hours to cook.

INGREDIENTS

One large onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, smashed

2 pounds stew beef in 1" cube (I get mine cut at the butcher)
1 pound "hot" sausage, meat, removed from casings and partially pulled apart
Olive Oil for sauteeing

2 cans cannellini beans
one cup of carrots, cut into small pieces

2 cans of whole peeled tomatoes (28 ounce), crushed in your hands
2 cups red wine

1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon of thyme
bay leaf
salt to taste

Bread crumbs

EQUIPMENT YOU WILL NEED

Large Skillet
Large pot (or coverable skillet) to put all that stuff in

INSTRUCTIONS

Cover the beef, salt liberally and brown in the skillet. Set aside. Brown the sausage and set aside. Sautee' the onions and garlic (I like to add the garlic late in the process). Add the beef and sausage. Add the tomatoes, crushing them with your fingers. Add the wine. Add the thyme, bay leaf and white pepper. Once it boils, place the stove on low and let sit, uncovered, probably for at least one and a half hours.

After this, add the carrots. Let cook another 15 or twenty minutes or so. By this time, the meat should be pretty tender. The pot can be covered at this time. You may also have to add a bit of water to stop the mixture from drying out. Near the end of the cooking process, when the beef is quite soft, add the cannellini beans. They should be washed before being put in.

Serve in small bowls. I topped the mix with bread crumbs (homemade foccacia bread crumbs, I should add, which actually really helped the whole thing!

Sliders at Home

I was so happy after my trip to White Manna last weekend that I decided to turn burger night in our house into slider night. I had watched the slider-meister at work while I was at White Manna and I decided to imitate his work. Its not hard, and the sliders I made have a distinctive slider taste. The only necessary piece of equipment seems to be a griddle, although I did use a food processor to cut the onions into uniformly thin pieces, which helped them cook into sweet little greasy pieces of pure joy. I could not find the small Martin Potato rolls on the Upper West Side on short notice, and used the regular Martin Sandwich rolls, which I cut into quarters.

The next time its burger night in your house, try sliders. They are scarily tasty and in some ways easier to make than regular burgers!

INGREDIENTS

1 pound or more of chopped ground beef (leaner is not necessarily better)
onion, quartered lengthwise and put through a food processor for thin strips of onion
salt
American cheese, cut into slider sized pieces (about a 1/4 of a slice)
Small Martin's potato rolls or regular sized Martin's potato rolls, cut into quarters
dill pickle slices, ketchup, mustard, etc.

EQUIPMENT YOU WILL NEED

Griddle
Metal Spatula (to help smush meatballs into sliders you need the heft of metal)
Optional but nice: food processor to slice onions

INSTRUCTIONS

Place griddle on low heat. Put ground beef in bowl, and pull out meatball (about 1" in diameter) sized pieces, form into loose balls, and place on griddle. After you have done several of these, smush them down with the spatula. I did not totally squash them, just flattened them to look like little mini-thick burgers. Salt liberally. If these are onion sliders, which the lovely wife and I preferred, place a good amount of onion in and around the burgers. If they are not, don't add onions. The photo shows you how I cooked with onions and without onions together, with no complaints of onion from either Boy #1 or Boy #2 (boy #2 formed many of the sliders himself, although I did the smushing). Turn the onions a bit to avoid burning, but the beef grease prevents this. Flip sliders when the sides are brown. If you are using cheese, the sliders should be cheesed about a minute after flipping. They're done when they are somewhat firm to the finger.

Pre-open the buns so you can easily plop the sliders right on them. The onions go with the meat. Serve immediately with condiments and sliced dill pickles.

Slider-riffic! (in New Jersey!)

Its not only London and Paris that MM gets to travel to. Hockey calls, and we get to go to exciting places like the Englewood and Leonia, in the heart of Northern New Jersey. Before feeling sorry for me for getting stuck on route 4, route 46, I-80 and who knows what else for 4 hours trying to get back to the George Washington Bridge, realize that while I was looking at some other guys SUV hatchback, I was full. And that fullness is thanks to White Manna, a postage stamp sized slider place in Hackensack, New Jersey (201-342-0914). There is a 10 seat counter around the griddle and two 6 seat back counters. We have been there twice, and the place is always packed. Having said that, we were able to quickly sit down both times and got in and out in a reasonable amount of time.

The sliders, small hamburgers that are similar in size (but nothing else) to a White Castle, are made on a small griddle right in front of you. They are made out of actual hamburger meat, and not pre-formed patties. When you order them you ask for how many cheeseburgers ($1.05) and hamburgers($0.95) you want, and whether you want them cooked with onions (unless you are a kid you do). 3 burgers will easily fill a kid, four or five an adult. They also serve double burgers (no need), shakes (good), unsweetened iced tea (surprisingly good), and french fries (ok). As an added bonus, the rolls are Martin's potato rolls, the same brand we try to get for Porkfest. If your travels bring you to Northern New Jersey, this is the place to drown your sorrows at the traffic back to where ever you are going.

The Faux Fillet

Since I have returned from France, I have been writing about the faux-fillet, which is the cut of meat that is traditionally served with Steak-Frites. This has led some curious types (thanks, Robin) to ask me what the faux fillet actually is. Contrary to its sound, it is not a big pile of eggplant and tofu. The faux fillet is actually part of the sirloin,

near the bottom of the cut. It is known in the US as a tri-tip. It can be grilled, chopped or slow cooked. They tend to be much cheaper than other parts of the sirloin. The steaks are as good as any other piece of sirloin, if not better, but they are on the smaller side. That is one reason they make the perfect 10 ounce steak-frite steak. Wikipedia has a review on this, too.

Chez Denis, With Kids

Chez Denis (5, rue des Prouvaires, Paris / 01 42 36 21 82) is a favorite bistro of mine. Besides the fact that we were both created in the same year, Chez Denis is a great place to get snails, organ meats, terrines of fish or meat, and one of the better steak tartare I have had. Its loud, smoky, and crowded. The waiters don't even secretly know English. You're on your own.

Eating there with kids was worth it, but a bit of a challenge, especially if you have finicky eaters. To start with they have two soft drinks, Coca Cola and Orangina. For you, they have excellent house wine and a decent list. The bread, not the best I have had in Paris, was a thick, dark, peasant style bread that was not enjoyed by any of the four children in our party. There was nothing at all to feed a child from the list of appetizers, although I did offer boys 1 and 2 all the snails they could eat (neither took me up on it). With some difficulty, we were able to convince the waiter (more out of language difficulties than because of "Frenchiness" as he seemed rather nice) to bring out one order of fries as an appetizer. We tried to get the kids a plain lettuce salad, but all they had was frisee. For you, the frisee comes with nice, greasy tasty croutons and an excellent vinegarette dressing. The terrines were excellent too.

The reason that my kids thought this place was great, and ultimately the reason I do too, is the steak. I am usually fan of American beef, and love steakhouses. But this place rocks. I had steak tartare myself, and if any of you people have any comments on the potential evils of raw eggs in raw hamburger please try to remember who is the gastroenterologist here. The enterocote and the onglette were both excellent. One piece of advice I have is to remember that in Paris, "medium" is medium rare, blue is effectively raw, and there is some name in between them which is more rare than rare usually is in the states and less blue than blue usually is.

Desserts were also great for the kids. They have an over sized ramekin of chocolate mousse which was a favorite of all four kids there. For adults, there are a variety of bistro style desserts which are fine.

One final thing to remember is that in addition to the posted menu, there is also a bar menu. Make sure to take a look on your way in. They will serve you parts of it at your table.

Short Ribs For Winter 1

I love short ribs. They put the "G" in gadempt. Cook, for hours, savor, for longer than it normally takes to eat stuff, and refrigerate, for the next few days. The problem I always have with short ribs is that the liquid the short ribs cooks in is always a liquid, goopy, mess. Skimming during cooking is not practical, and does not stop the thinness of the taste. What seems to work best is two things. First, I use a tremendous amount of root vegetables in cooking. Second, after the ribs are cooked I carefully degrease the cooking liquid and, squish all of the liquid out of those otherwise overcooked and mushy root vegetables. This maximizes flavor while getting rid of mushy carrots and messy onions. You can add wine to this, but it is not necessary. The whole operation takes 3 hours (or more, depending on the toughness of the meat) but much of that time the whole thing is in the oven and you can ignore it.



INGREDIENTS

5 pound short ribs with bone (this feeds about 8 people if they can eat)
2 large yellow onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
3 cups chopped carrots
2 cups chopped celery
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon thyme
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon rosemary
1 teaspoon salt plus more to taste and to salt the meat
Olive oil for cooking
Chicken stock, at least one quart

EQUIPMENT YOU WILL NEED

Large skillet to brown meat, onions etc. (2 helps speed this thing up a lot)
Large bowl or pot to hold meat
Dutch oven or other large, oven safe dish to put meat (it needs to be BIG)
Good knife
Large strainer or colander to mash vegetables
Pot to reduce liquid
Broiling or roasting pan to finish off meat and brown it


INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Salt meat well and brown in skillets on medium high heat. This takes some time, so using two skillets helps a lot. The meat does not have to be browned to death but should be at least somewhat cooked on all sides. Set meat aside in large bowl and let juices drain to bottom. Start to brown the onions and garlic. When it softens and glistens, add other vegetables. Soften them. Place the meat, vegetables and spices in the pot and add enough stock to just cover the whole thing. If you don't feel there are enough vegetables, add more! The final volume should be about half meat and half vegetables by volume. There should be some room at the top. Place the whole thing in oven and ignore for at least 90 minutes. You can check it every 20 minutes or so after that. The meat is ready when it is fall off the bone soft (it will in fact, fall off those little bones). At this point remove the whole thing from the oven. Remove meat and place in a pan for later.

Remove all of the vegetables and set aside in a bowl. Skim off as much fat as humanly possible from the liquid and set heat to simmer. Place a colander or strainer over the pot and place vegetables in this. Using a spoon or other such implement, squeeze as much liquid as you can out of the vegetables and into the pot. It takes a while. After this, increase the heat to a moderate boil and reduce the liquid by at least half. Salt to taste. If you are really adventurous, you can try to thicken the mixture with some flour, but its not necessary.

Right before serving, place the meat under a broiler (or you can heat the oven to 500 degrees) for a few minutes. This will brown the meat somewhat and given it a bit of crunch and attractive color. Serve over pasta or rice.