Leftover Chuck

In this previous post, I described cooking a piece of beef chuck sous vide. We of course ended up with more than we could eat at a single sitting. So what to do next? I could consigne it to freezer bags, freeze it so that it could be dumped three years later, or better still could find creative uses for it.

It became a voyage of discovery with a really good outcome. The other key idea is that if you have hot potatoes, you can dress withem with a flavorfull vinaigrette style dressing, the potatoes absorb the dressing and become really flavorfull. So why not do it with carrots too?

Ingredients

6 Small Yukon Gold potatoes - of roughly even size

6 small (width of your ring finger) unpeeled, but washed carrrots, cut into 1/2" thick rounds 

3 scallions, white and light green parts only, sliced finely

2T Pickled jalapeno peppers

1 Roasted red pepper, sliced into small strips

3T Pine nuts, toasted

8 Grape tomatoes

4 Radishes, quartered

1 Hot pepper ( we used a fish pepper from the garden)

1/4 cup vinaigrette (we made some using a candied tomato, roasted pepper, olive oil base)

1/2 head of butter lettuce, chopped

8 oz cooked beef chuck, sliced very thinly

Method

Microwave the carrots and potatoes on high until they are soft. The carrots took 90 seconds, the potatoes 3 minutes. As soon as they come out of the  microwave, place in a bowl with the vinaigrette. Add the scallions , hot pepper, pickled jalapenos and leave to set.

Meanwhile, warm the meat gently in a saute pan over low heat. You are not cooking it, just making sure that it has a good texture.

Plate the dish by putting lettuce around the inside edge of each bowl, leaving a small well. Into the well  put the potato/carrot mixture into the well. Srinkle some of the toasted pine nuts over the potatoes. Arrange the sliced peppers, radishes and tomatoes over the top. 

Arrange the thinly sliced beef in spokes on top. Drizzle with a little high quality olive oil and sherry vinegar.

Serve with a robust red wine.

Beef Chuck Sous Vide

 Our local meat market had a terrific deal on beef chuck again. This time I wanted to do something a bit different, so decided to use the circulator and cook it sous vide. Whenn cooked for long enough it becomes really tender, and because it has such good, beefy flavor, it ends up delicious. Served with a slightly sweet pan sauce, redolent with shallots and mushrooms, we had a major hit on our hands. The surprise ingredient here was creme de cassis - the French liqueur that is added to white wine to make a kir.

Ingredients

3lb beef chuck roast, trimmed of some of the external fat, and the hard internal fat removed

1T Kosher salt

1T Coarse black pepper

2T Butter

1 Large shallot, minced finely

6 Mushrooms (white or cremini) thinly sliced

1/2 Cup dry, full bodied red wine (we used the Dashe Zinfandel)

1/4 Cup creme de cassis

Method

Trim the meat, pat dry and then coat liberally with salt and pepper. My standard technique here is to put the salt and pepper onto the cutting board and then pat the meat onto it. You get a nice even coating that way.

Bring the water bath up to 115F (46C) in a lrge container with the circulator. Seal the meat in a vacuum bag, using whichever method you prefer. I use a food saver, but I imagine that the displacement method would work well. Immerse the bag into the circulating water. Cover the surface of the water to prevent evaporation - I use ping pong balls.

Leave the meat in the circulator at this temperature for 12 hours (+-). Increase the temperature to 132F (55C) and cook for another at least 12 hours. At this point the met will be medium rare - medium. Definitely evenly pink all the way through when you cut it. Heston Blumental suggests cooking meat slowly below 120F (50C) to allow some of the envymes to work on tenderization. I know that some people have had success cooking the meat at a single temperature for the whole time. I do it this way because it works for me.

When you are ready to finish the dish, you will need to make a pan sauce. Cut the bag open, taking care to preserve the juices - I poured them into a measuring jug. The juices will be quite salty, so no more seasoning will be needed. For this amount of meat, you will get about 1 cup of liquid. It is surprisingly non fatty.

Microwave the sliced mushrooms for 30 or so seconds to drive off some of their moisture. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a skillet and add the shallots. Cook gently until softened, but not browned. Add the microwaved mushrooms and continue to cook for a couple of minutes. Add 1/2 of the wine, stir well and evaporate the liquid until the pan is almost dry. Repeat with the rest of the wine. Add the cassis and bring to a simmer, add the reserved beef liquid and bring again to a simmer. The sauce will be a thick enough emulsion that it doesn't need any extra help.

Serving

Slice the meat thinly agains the grain. Plate with a little sauce. We served a salad of butter lettuce, red peppers, grape tomatoes, radishes, left over cooked potatoes that had been warmed  through, pickled jalapenos. With a dressing made from roasted candied tomatoes, olive oil, rice wine vinegar and scallions.

Potstickers

This started innocently enough. I had dinner at a Chinese dumpling house with my friend Dave Gilbert instead of watching the "Presidential" debate. I was left with a hankering for some more. I like them so much. And my favorites are steam fried

As it happened, Madame had found an amazing deal on pork chops - we had some pan fried with an onion/apple side, another time we had some with a smoked paprika dusting - again pan fried but with apple, green beans, almonds garlic on the side. And still we had some left over - about 12 oz as it turned out.

I had also made a very hearty beef stew for a friend who is very ill. So had a chunk of salt pork too. Now all I needed were the wonton (gyoza) skins, kaffir lime, lemon grass, Napa cabbage, hot peppers, soy sauce, sesame oil, sake, ginger, and scallions As it happens all that I had to buy were the skins, scallions and the Napa cabbage. Everything else either grows in the garden or is a pantry staple.

Now I am generally lazy, so I was looking for a way to get everything to the size I wanted. The meat grinder (mincer) attachment to my stand mixer did the trick. Who knew that you could put the various ingredients in, and let it do the work?

Ingredients

2 cups Napa cabbage, shredded, salted and drained

12 oz lean pork cubed

5 oz salt pork, cubed

2 stalks lemon grass, cut into 1 inch lengths

1 1/2" piece of ginger, peeled and cut into small pieces

2 kaffir lime leaves - woody spine reoved

6 scallions - white and light green parts cut into 1/2" pieces

2 hot Thai peppers - minced

A couple of grinds of white pepper

2T toasted Sesame oil

36 Wonton skins

1T neutral oil for frying the dumplings

Method

Pass half of the salt pork through the grinder. Follow with the ginger. Then half of the lean pork. Follow with the lemon grass. Add the rest of the salt pork then the scallions, kaffir lime leaves peppers. Finish with the rest of the lean pork. Doing them in this order means that the meat has the opportunity to push the aromatics through the grinder. Once all the ingredients have passed through the grinder, add the seame oil into the bowl. Mix up the contents until almost pasty. It wants to be quite tightly textured. Break off a small piece of the mixture and microwave on high for 45 seconds (until cooked through). This will allow you to check the seasoning.

Unfortunately I could only find square wonton skins, so had to improvise. 

I placed the wonton skins onto a cutting board. 1 1/2 teaspoons of filling into the center. Brush all the edges with warm water, and fold to look like this

Cover with a damp cloth until they are ready to cook.

To cook them, heat the neutral oil in a skillet until almost smoking. Place the dumlings into the hot pan, flat side down. They will take about a minute to brown. Check the bottom for doneness. When they are suitably brown, put in 3T of water and innediately cover the pan tightly. Steam for 90 seconds, remove the lid and allow the pan to dry out. Then another 3T of water, tight covering and 90 seconds. Remove the lid and evaporate the water. 

Serve immediately with a dippimg sauce.

Ingredients - Dipping Sauce

1/4 Cup soy sauce

3T Mirin

3T Sake

1T Toasted sesame oil

2 Thai chillis finely chopped

The green parts of the scallions from above

Method - Dipping Sauce

Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and leave to stand for the flavors to meld.