Dry Aged Beef - Part 2



The end result



I was so excited last night when I pulled the first of 2 roasts out of the fridge. It was on Sept 13^th that I placed the roasts in to begin my “dry aged beef” experiment.  I was nervous that I was doing a “at home botulism kits” and would end up throwing out some very expensive meat.

There was a little pomp and circumstance to getting everything ready at the beginning:

·         Getting the meat

·         Washing the meat

·         Wrapping the meat in cheesecloth

·         Monitoring the temperature in the little bar fridge

·         Figuring out how to lessen the temperature swings (approximately 10F swing)

o   Solution add stuff to the fridge

·         Resisting the temptation to open the fridge. This was probably the hardest and if you have ever going camping in a tent or soft sided camper in the rain AND have been told to not touch the side, you know what I am talking about.

I did take the meat out a couple of times to re-wrap it so the cheesecloth did not stick to the roast and to take a sniff to make sure that it was smelling like prosciutto and not sulphur! Then popped it back in to wait a little more.

With the arrival of Matt and Ruth last night meant just the right reason to pull out the first of the roasts.  And it was wonderful! I trimmed it up just taking off the outer layer of the most dried meat revealing delicious tender roasts with concentrated flavour.  

We are all alive and kicking this morning having enjoyed a wonderful steakhouse meal together – salad (a la Ruth), beef, roasted sweet potato fries and mushrooms and onions. Shout out to my husband who did a great job on the grill!

Phew! No one is dead and I have proven that for at least 14 days you can age beef in a bar fridge in a kitchen...with one piece left, let’s see if I can do it for 28+. Ben arrives in soon and there is beef on the menu!



After 14 days in the fridge the meat has dried on the outside



Trimming off the dried portions



Ready for the BBQ.  I opted to cut into 2 large steaks, enough to feed 4-6 people.



Double Chocolate Almond Biscotti

Double Chocolate Almond Biscotti

There are some times when I just like to try out a new technique or a dish that I have enjoyed many times but never made.  Last weekend was one of those times.  I was at Starbucks getting a delightful coffee and needed a little “treat” to go with it – Biscotti was in the case, which got me thinking about giving this a whirl.  I had tried biscotti in the past but really was not thrilled with the result so I decided to try them again.  This recipe is abridged from Canadian Living and they are good enough to suggest some other ways to make them which I will include at the end. 

A couple of lessons from this experience...first, you really do need at least 2 cookie sheets or let the cookie sheet cool completely before you move to the bake them a second time stage. Also, let them cool not quite to room temperature but close otherwise they will crumble when you try to slice them.  I did this and ended up letting my husband eat the spoiled ones – he was happy but I was annoyed! And this is a situation when the butter is best at room temperature.  Finally, melt the left over chocolate chips and drizzle over the cookies. This uses up the left over chocolate chips, which if I leave them around I will eat straight from the bag, and it make them look pretty.

 I really liked this recipe and with some variations available I may actually make these for some Christmas baskets that I normally do for friends (shhhh.... Don’t tell them)!

½ cup	Butter (room temperature)
1 cup	Sugar
3	Eggs
1 tsp	Vanilla
2 cup	Flour
2/3 cup	Cocoa powder  (sifted to get rid of lumps)
1 ½ tsp	Baking powder
¼ tsp	Salt
1 cup	Blanched whole almonds
1/2 cup	Milk chocolate chips (plus more for melting and drizzling)

In a bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy; beat in eggs, 1 at a time, then vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt; add to butter mixture all at once stirring just until combined. Stir in almonds and ½ cup chocolate chips.

Divide dough in half; with floured hands, shape each half into a log about 12 inches long. Place, about 4 inched apart, on a parchment lined or greased baking sheet, flatten until about 3 inches wide, leaving top slightly rounded.

Bake at centre of oven at 325F for about 30 minutes until firm. Let cool on pan for 15 minutes (Canadian Living said 10 minutes but that was not long enough, in my opinion).  Transfer to a cutting board; with a serrated knife, cut into 1/2 – 1 inch (depending on personal preference) thick slices. Stand slices upright on a baking sheet. Return to oven; bake for 30-40 minutes until dry and crisp. Let cool on racks.

Once cool, melt about 1 cup of remaining chocolate chips.  Using a fork, drizzle chocolate over biscotti. Place in fridge to cool for 15 minutes.

Variations.....

1.       Straight Almond...lose the cocoa powder and increase flour to 2 ¾ cups and when you put in the vanilla also add 1 tsp almond extract.

2.       Cherry/Blueberry/Cranberry Almond...decrease almonds to ½ cup; add ¾ cup of dried cherries, blueberries or cranberries (I would probably not do the blueberry, as I have not enjoyed the dried blueberries that I bought but that is a personal choice and product problem)

3.       Other Nuts...got no almonds, got no problem...try hazelnuts, pecans, walnuts or shelled pistachios; replace almond extract with additional vanilla!

ENJOY!

Squash and Pear Soup

Fall is in the air.  Watching the fall colors begin to blanket the trees brings my heart joy! This is definitely my favourite time of the year. And it is soup and crockpot season. 

Squash is not something that I grew up eating in Newfoundland. I think that it is something that would grow well there but it just never took off in my family or, in my best estimate, in the province.  But since coming “up along” (i.e. moving to Ontario), squash has become a favourite. Using the recipe below you can go in a number of different directions depending on your own personal taste making it incredibly versatile. You can incorporate a little curry, peanut butter and cilantro to make it Thai (a la my Step-daughter) or even add a little maple syrup and some other spices to make to even more fall’ish.  It makes a great starter to a Thanksgiving dinner party, well in my opinion almost any dinner party.

3 tbsp	Butter
1	Onion, chopped
1 tsp	Ginger (more or less to taste)
2 cloves	Garlic, minced
1	Butternut Squash, chopped – here is a little hint, peel the squash before you cut it up with a vegetable peeler. This will save you a lot of heartache. Or for an extra boost of flavour roast the squash (375C for 40-50 minutes) then just scrape off the peel.
2	Potatoes, peeled and chopped
2	Pears or apples, peeled and chopped
5 cups	Chicken stock ( I try to find the stock with the least amount of salt possible giving me more control over the seasoning)
	Salt and Pepper to taste

In a large pot, melt butter over medium heat add onions, ginger and garlic until soft, about 5 minutes.  Add squash, pears, potatoes and chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and cook until all the vegetables are soft. Puree with a hand held blender or in a blender. I recommend using the hand held if you have one as it makes clean up a lot easier.

You can serve it with a few croutons on top or even a little sour cream.

To make Thai – add 1 tsp curry powder (more or less to taste), 2 tbsp peanut butter (I like the stuff that is just peanuts but my preference), and 1 tbsp cilantro (more or less to taste)

To make it fall’ish – add 2 tbsp maple syrup when you puree

For more spice flavour – add a dash or two of cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice, etc to the pot.

To make creamier – add ½ cup heavy cream when you puree

Anything goes!



Squash and Pear Soup with Roasted Garlic Crusty Bread.



ENJOY!

Dry Aged Beef

This next post is definitely NOT for the vegetarians, vege-quariums, or those who do feathers and fins. This post is about meat – more specifically beef. And not just any beef – dry aged beef.

I have seen this on the menu at restaurants a number of times (along with a hefty price tag) but had never ordered it.  The first time that I actually had the privilege of eating this was a number of months ago, when our neighbours, who enjoy experimenting with food, dry aged a roast. And it was so tender with concentrated beef flavour that I decided that I must also give this a whirl!

I have done my re-con and googled this to death.  I am a little worried about spending a bundle on meat only to have it ruined or, worse, send someone to hospital due to my “culinary adventure”.  Dry aging beef is a pretty simple process with amazing results.  It is a technique done by butchers and chef, where they hang beef or wrap in cheesecloth for anywhere from 8-45 days in a temperature controlled (about 37F) environment. The reason for doing this is that it breaks down the meat making it tenderer; it dehydrates the meat thereby concentrating the flavour.  While in the Napa Valley, we were at the Oxbow Market and happened by the Five Dot Ranch (www.fivedotranch.com) booth.  They happened to have some dry-aged meat there so I took the opportunity to chat about technique and what to look for. The guy at the booth was wonderful and gave me several hints of what to watch for and things to consider. An important thing to think about is the smell as an indicator of spoiling – so he let me smell his meat! (LOL) Really, the older the meat gets it should begin to smell like prosciutto and not sulphur or lemons.

So here is what I have done so far....

1.       Wash and dry the meat

2.       Wrap in cheesecloth

3.       Place on a wire rack on a cookie sheet

4.       Place in fridge – preferable one that you can leave closed for the majority of the time otherwise the temperature will not be as constant as necessary.  We happen to have a bar fridge that can be used for this purpose, but the moment we open it we lose all the coldness

5.       Wait

Meat washed and ready to be wrapped

I will rewrap the meat every couple of days just to make sure the cheesecloth is not sticking but otherwise I am waiting it out.



Meat wrapped and placed in the fridge for 2 weeks



I had a very large piece of meat that I have split in two pieces. I am planning to cook the first one in 14-15 days and if everything goes well the other piece after 30 days. When I pull them out, I will need to trim the meat of dry outside layer before cooking.

Seems easy enough, although the waiting is going to kill me!  I am used to being able to fuss with stuff and to not be able to watch it change and monitor every minute is a little nerve racking! 

I think self explainatory!

Some thoughts on wine and a little trip to Napa!

I have one rule when drinking wine...drink what you like! It is really that simple. Wine has all sorts of pretension around it, but this is highly unnecessary. Wine has been around since the dawn of time and celebrated by and for the gods! The ingredients are pretty simple: some grapes, some sunshine, some rain, a little yeast and time. How hard can it be? I am sure you can make bad wine but I have not found it yet – there is definitely wine that I do not like (but that is my personal taste) and some that give me headaches (grrr phenols!) but by and large I will try anything. I have had, and loved, some very cheap wines and some more expensive wines.  So drink what you like.

One night when we were avoiding the crowds at Halloween, Geoff and I headed to a local restaurant (sadly now closed). There were only a few people in the place so the waiter had some time to try out some of his new “wine toys” with us.  This is when I learned about an aerator.  We taste tested wine that had not been run though the aerator and some that had.  I was surprised at the difference. I have heard “people” talking about “opening up wine” and “letting it breathe” but never really believed it mattered.  I was like most people and drank wine within a few hours of buying. So this enables me to improve the taste of the wine and drink it shortly after it is bought!  You can pick them up for between $20 -$ 100, depending on how fancy you want to be or just pour it into a different bottle and wait an hour or so.

There are so many hobbies out there – camping, hiking, stamps, etc, I just like good food and many of the things that go with it. Wine just happens to be one of those things that go delightfully with food. Honestly, you can pair anything with food including beer, even scotch, but wine is definitely the most common.  So we tend to like to explore the wineries in the Niagara Region but this past weekend we were in San Francisco for work and were able to plan a long weekend to spend in the Napa Valley.  What a treat! I never expected to be able to go so to be able to blend work and pleasure it was all the better. 

There are hundreds of wineries in the Napa Valley, some very big and some very small. We only managed to get to 5 while there, but enough to get a nice sample. The weather there is incredible, about 31C during the day with no humidity and about 10C over night. The views were amazing, photo-ops galore!  

Roses are traditionally planted at the end of the vines - red for red wine and white for white wine

The weather and the land directly will impact on the grapes and the wine.  We tasted one wine that was exposed to the smoke from the fires that were in the area in 2008 and there was a smoky flavour to the Pinot Noir.  This year was very rainy in June and the grapes have not had as much sunshine.  Normally, everything would be harvested by this time, but most wineries are not starting until this week and should be all done in about 4 weeks.  I am including a little information and of some of the wineries we tried. I did a little searching when we got back and we can get some of these at my local liquor store, so you might be able to get them also. But these are my favourites – drink what you like!

The first place we went to was Domaine Carneros (http://www.domainecarneros.com//index.cfm). We had a wonderful host! He convinced us to have the Sparking and Pinot Noir and cheese pairing plate.  It was 10am – it was 1pm in Ontario so that makes it ok to indulge in the morning! Both of these were just wonderful. And the views of and from this location was just stunning.

Domaine Carneros

Who says wine only comes in one size of bottle

View from Domaine Carneros

Our next stop was Etude (http://shop.etudewines.com//index.cfm).  This was the first place that I had heard of wineries using heirloom grapes.  There has been a great interest in heirloom vegetables, mostly tomatoes, but this was the first time that I have ever heard of heirloom grapes.  They had some grapes on hand and they were about 50% smaller than the other grapes.

We then headed off to Saintsbury (http://www.saintsbury.com/). This was a wonderful little winery, with only an outside patio with a couple of tables for tasting. Ralph, the cat, joined us for the time, mostly sleeping on our table. Carly did a great job showing us some of the wines they have been producing – Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.  The concierge at the hotel we stayed at described them as “elegant” and that pretty much sums it up.

Tasting area at Saintbury

Carly poured the wine, and Ralph supervised

 

Our last night there, we tried out Brix (http://www.brixnapavalleygrille.com/), at the recommendation of the hotel.  It was a wonderful dinner with very “California” menu. Geoff chose the pork and I enjoyed the chicken.  We sat under a vine covered patio as the night air settled in. After dinner we walked through the kitchen garden, enjoying the last sips of a delicious wine (http://www.decoywines.com/wines/dc-pn/dc-pn-avpn/2009/) before ending our night in Napa.

We had a wonderful time and to be a cliché ...if you ever find yourself in Napa take a few minutes to explore and find some wine that you enjoy!

Thai Night!

I don’t know what those folks in Thailand have got going on but they do great food! It has a wonderful combination sweet-salty-sour-and heat. I first got turned on to Thai food when I was doing a placement in my Masters of Social Work program.  I worked with Conestoga College and the University of Guelph to bring 5 Thai women to Canada and prepare them to attend the university.  These women had a deer in the headlights look for many weeks and wanted to have some of the comforts of home so we spent a lot of time in Thai restaurants.

Since that time, I have explored many other Thai restaurants and have taken a class in Thai cooking at Conestoga College. It is amazing that the classic Thai dish, Pad Thai, is street food. That would be great street food! In Canada it can be a little challenge but it is getting easier. There are some grocery stores with wonderful international food section that have these items, and even some of the fresh items like the hot chilli peppers. If you are in larger centres, you can find Asian grocery stores that keep you in supplies. Of course you can always find great substitutes that will make it your own.

I had not made Thai in a little while and with the pleasure of having some friends over for dinner it was a great time to pull out the wok and make it a Thai night.  I made a number of dishes: Papaya Salad, Pad Thai and Sticky Rice with Mango for dessert.  

Green Papaya Salad

1	Medium green Papaya
2 tsp	Chopped garlic
2	Fresh Hot Chilies
4 tbsp	Dried shrimp (optional)
2 tbsp	Roasted unsalted peanuts
6	Long beans (or 10-12 green beans)
2	Medium tomatoes
6 tsp	Sugar
4 tbsp	Fish sauce
6 tbsp	Lime juice
	Cilantro leaves for garnish

Peel the papaya, cut into quarters and scoop out and discard the seeds. Grate through the largest hole of grater to obtain 3-4 cups of papaya.

Put garlic in a large mortar. Chop chilli into quarters and add to garlic. Wash and drain shrimp (if using) and add to mortar. Add peanuts. Pound these ingredients with the pestle until they begin to break up. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, you can also place ingredient in a large Ziploc bag and use a rolling pin to break up.

Trim ends and cut beans in to 1 inch pieces, add to mortar and pound for 1 minute. Add papaya shreds and pound. Cut tomatoes into eights and add to mortar. Pound for another minute.

Add sugar, fish sauce and lime juice and pound working the ingredients from bottom to the top.  Salad is ready when everything has been integrated, some juice has been extracted and the bigger chunks have been broken down but everything is not mush.

Transfer to a serving dish and top with cilantro. This salad can be served immediately or can sit in the fridge for up to 2 hours before.

Pad Thai

So I think people who like Pad Thai land in one of two camps: Ketchup based and Tamarind based.  While there are benefits to both, I tend to prefer the Tamarind flavour. If you are in the Ketchup camp please post your favourite recipe so that there are options for everyone!

1/3 cup	Fish sauce
1/3 cup	Tamarind concentrate (or fresh lime juice)
1/3 cup	Sugar
5 tbsp	Vegetable oil
1 clove	Garlic, minced
3/4 cup	Shrimp
3 eggs	Lightly wisked
2	Chicken breasts, cut in to small pieces
½ pkg	Rice sticks
1 ½ cup	Chicken stock
1 cup	Bean sprouts
½	Carrot, grated
½ cup	Cilantro
¼ cup	Roasted unsalted peanuts
3	Green onions, trimmed and cut diagonally
3	Thai Chilis (these are hot little suckers so more or less depending on preferred level of heat)
1	Lime, cut into 8ths

For a vegetarian option omit the chicken, and shrimp and toss in some tofu.

In a medium bowl, mix fish sauce, tamarind and sugar and set aside.

Prepare rice sticks, according to the package directions.  Remove from water when al dente.

In a wok or large sauce pan, heat 2 tbsp oil over high until hot. Add the garlic and cook until golden. Add the shrimp and cook until pink. Remove from heat and keep warm.  Add eggs to pan and cook until gently scrambled.  Remove from heat and keep warm.  Add more oil as necessary.  Cook chicken small batches at a time. Cook each batch until cooked through and browned.  Remove from pan and keep warm. 

In the wok, add chicken stock, rice sticks and fish sauce mixture. Toss occasionally until fully coated and rice sticks are completely cooked. Add shrimp, eggs, chicken, bean sprouts, carrots.

When plated sprinkle pad thai with peanuts and cilantro. Serve with limes for squeezing over noodles.

Thai Chilis

Sticky Rice with Mango

2 ½ cup	Thai Sticky Rice
2 cups	Unsweetened coconut milk
1 cup	Sugar
1 tsp	Salt
3	Ripe mango, peeled, seeded and sliced

Place rice in a bowl and cover with cold water. Soak for at least 3 hours. Drain and rinse thoroughly.

Line the bottom of a steamer with cheesecloth or parchment paper. Place the soaked rice in the steamer. Cover the steamer and place on pot filled with a few inches of water. Bring the water to a slow boil and allow the rice to steam for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, stir the coconut milk, sugar and salt together in a saucepan. Cook, stirring over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Set aside.

Please the hot rice in a bowl and pour over the coconut milk mixture over it. Stir until it is completely combined.              

To serve, scoop out 2-3 tablespoons of the rice mixture onto individual plates and top with sliced mango.

ENJOY!