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.

Boxing Day

On those years when Madame and I are in the country over Christmas and December 26th is a weekend, we have a Boxing Day (day after Christmas, feast of Stephen) party. This year was no exception. Our typical approach is to ask the people who come to bring food items for our local Church's food pantry. Those who came (about 75 people in all) did the church proud. So a heartfelt thanks to everyone.
We made a few dishes to set the scene, nowing that in addition to the church pantry food, guests would bring all manner of wonderful things. And they did! It was a wonderful day.
We made a couple of different kinds of chili and almost 3 gallons of mulled wine - most of which got drunk. So in this posting I will do what I can to put a couple of recipes out...

First the mulled wine:
Ingredients
12 bottles of dryish red wine. We used a Cabernet/Merlot from Spain - the key is that it is fruity enough
1 bottle port
24 inches cinnamon stick broken into small pieces
60 cloves
2t coriander seeds
2T whole green cardomoms
4 oranges - greated zest and juice
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups water

Method
Place the wine, port, orange juice and zest into a large heavy pan and place on ,ow heat. Make up spice bags from most of the cinnamon, cloves and all the cardomom and coriander. Immerse the bags in the wine mixture. Put the sugar and remaining cinnamon/cloves in a small pan and heat to dissolve the sugar and make a flavored syrup. As the wine comes to temperature (not boiling, but very hot), add the syrup to taste. depending on the wine, you may find you do not need all the syrup. Steep the pices for at least an hour. Serve hot in small mugs.....

And now the chili. There is of course a lot of discussion and controversy about chili, so I can only tell you what I did, not what's right! For me the first rule is that it must neither be wimpy, nor blow your head off. I also prefer to use finely chopped meat, not ground beef. The chili has a mixture of dried and fresh peppers of various strengths and a fair amount of cumin. At least this chili did not make such a large amount as the mulled wine!

Ingredients
3 1/2 lbs beef chuck see method for details on preparation
2 ancho peppers ground finely
6 dried cayenne peppers
3 fresh cayenne peppers
3T cumin seed ground finely
1 medium yellow onion chopped finely
3 large carrots  grated
1 can tomato paste
2 cans crushed tomatoes - drained
2 bay leaves
1 Chipotle pepper (dried - not in adobe)
Salt/pepper as necessary.
2 Raw green jalapenos - thinly sliced
1 white onion thinly sliced
Method
Remove the fat from the chuck and set to render over low heat in a large skillet. Letting the beef fat render adds greater depth to the dish than using oil for browning the meat. Slice the meat into 1/4 inch cubes. Do not salt the meat. Brown the meat in the hot beef fat in several batches. making sure you have plenty of browning.
While the beef is browning, grind the dry spices finely in a spice grinder (or old coffee grinder). Slice the onions, grate the carrots and slice the fresh cayennes thinly.
Once the beef is browned, pour off some of the fat. Add the dry spices to the remaining hot fat and heat until fragrant (1bout 15 seconds). Add the onions and carrots, scraping the bottom of the pan to get the fond mixed it and the spices well incorporated. Soften the carrots/onions for several minutes - do not allow to brown. Add the fresh cayenne peppers and stir.
Move the onion mixture to the side and add the can of tomato paste to the exposed pan. heat it until it browns and varamelizes a bit. This adds extra depth to the chili. Once it is suitable caramelized, mix it in with the onion mixture.
Drain the crushed tomatoes, add to the onion mixture and stir. Check for seasoning - I added about 1t salt at this stage.
Put the browned meat back in to the pan and add the chipotle and bay leaves. Transfer to the slow cooker and cook on low heat for 6 hours. When cooked, allow to cool overnight.
Reheating
Heat the oven to 275F. Place 1/2 of the chili into an ovenproof casserole. Spread with the thinly sliced onions and jalapenos. Cover the onions/jalapeno layer with the rest of the chili. Place a layer of jalapenos on top. Cover the dish and heat for 2 hours - until the interior is hot enough.
Serve with raw onion, grated cheese and sour cream.