What's Cooking (Take Three!)

[Jenise]

And it takes brisket. Brisket all by itself is a rare item in meat counters on the west coast.

Tonight I'm making myself a birthday dinner. Doing open faced beef wellingtons--filet steaks on a round of puffed pastry with a fresh mushroom sauce scooped over and topped with a little slab of seared foie gras.

Whole Beef Brisket is in abundance here. I have one in my freezer right now...don't know what I was thinking when I bought it!
Happy BirthdayJenise, your dinner will be wonderful.

Karen, what cut do you mean when you say "whole brisket"? Untrimmed brisket (aka "packer cut" or "packer trimmed") has a thick fat cap over the top with two layers of meat separated by a layer of fat underneath. Around here the only readily available brisket cut is "flat brisket", with the top fat cap trimmed off and the two layers of meat separated and sold separately. "Whole brisket" can refer either to packer trim (i.e. untrimmed) or to a cut with the two layers together (separated by the internal layer of fat) but with the top fat cap removed. Packer trim (untrimmed) is considered the best cut for Texas barbecued brisket--all that fat renders beautifully during the 12+ hour smoking. But around here you have to special-order it from a specialty butcher.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

My understanding is that a whole brisket breaks down into two pieces, the point (the double decker part you spoke of, Paul) and the flat, essentially the opposite end.

I'm not surprised, Karen, that it's a constant down there, considering you're in California BBQ country. Up here, doesn't happen like that. I recall asking a supermarket butcher for some in early spring and he said they won't carry it until around June 1, the official start time for barbecuing. So I slipped into my New York Jew accent and accused them of discrimination as brisket was needed for Passover. Startled him pretty good!

[Jenise]

Oh, and speaking of beef, yesterday I bought a package of beautiful skirt steak. $12.99/lb and 2 pounds exactly in the package; it's a rare thing up here, we almost never see it.

When I took them out of the package, oh boy, the underside was lots and lots of fat and sinew. You can't cut it all off, but just getting rid of the worst offenders lightened my bounty by half a pound. The butchers should have done some of that. Anyway, the pieces are now soaking away in a bath of garlic, jalapenos and olive oil to be grilled for carne asada style tacos either tonight or tomorrow night. I'm on a Mexican food binge--again!

...skirt steak. $12.99/lb...

The poor trimming is not nice, but that price is way better than I see here.

Tonight it is Mahshi (stuffed in Arabic) an Egyptian dish of stuffed vegetables, which in my case will be tomatoes and bell peppers. I like this recipe because it is so easy, no fuss at all. Tops are cut off of each one, filled with a mix of 80/10 lean hamburger, brown basmati rice, onion, garlic, parsley, and an array of spices, mixed and stuffed into each one. A sauce is made from the stuff pulled out of the tomatoes, tomato sauce, paste, and put in the dish around the veggies. I will add vermouth in there as well. Each one will have a dollop of Bella Sun Luci Sun Dried Tomato Chipotle Topper & Sauce. This stuff is killer and I am loving it. A side of baby zucchini cut in half, sits in a bath of salt, pepper, and fresh lemon juice, then browned on each side, parmesan is added at the end, and more lemon juice.

...skirt steak. $12.99/lb...

The poor trimming is not nice, but that price is way better than I see here.

That's cheaper than what we see here in NH as well. But Jenise had to cut off 1/2 pound of gristle from the original two pounds. That puts the price of the useful part at $17.32 per pound. Not a bargain anymore.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Exactly.

New dinner plan based on today's news: Cheeseburgers!

Exactly.

New dinner plane based on today's news: Cheeseburgers!

I had a craving for a cheeseburger the other day so I went to the local butcher and bought about 1/3 of a pound of ground beef. When I cooked it up it was a total disappointment. Easily overcooked, dried out, and totally flavorless.

The craving was not satisfied so a few days later I stopped by the local abattoir. It was always my favorite place to get burger but they stopped having meat cutters on Saturday so I haven’t been in a while.

Anyway, they had fresh (not frozen) ground beef so I bought some and had a ridiculously good cheeseburger last night. Craving satisfied and a couple of frozen burgers for next time.

[Jenise]

Dan, I bought my burger meat today from a local store. They advertise this as "Perfect Burger", it's some mix several different cuts; haven't bought it before but I hope it's good. My burgers will feature pickled red onions, havarti cheese, arugula, and lightly marinated green chiles that I roasted last August. For those who absolutely require goop, I'll provide a mayo blended with pesto.

The rest of the dinner will be a gazpacho starter, cabbage and peanut slaw, and for strawberrry ice cream sandwiches for dessert.

Karen, what cut do you mean when you say "whole brisket"? Untrimmed brisket (aka "packer cut" or "packer trimmed") has a thick fat cap over the top with two layers of meat separated by a layer of fat underneath. Around here the only readily available brisket cut is "flat brisket", with the top fat cap trimmed off and the two layers of meat separated and sold separately. "Whole brisket" can refer either to packer trim (i.e. untrimmed) or to a cut with the two layers together (separated by the internal layer of fat) but with the top fat cap removed. Packer trim (untrimmed) is considered the best cut for Texas barbecued brisket--all that fat renders beautifully during the 12+ hour smoking. But around here you have to special-order it from a specialty butcher.

-Paul W.

Paul, I do not recall what it said in the ad when I bought it. It is a 12-inch by 10-inch heavy piece, with a fat cap on one side, and a smaller fat cap on the other side.

Karen, what cut do you mean when you say "whole brisket"? Untrimmed brisket (aka "packer cut" or "packer trimmed") has a thick fat cap over the top with two layers of meat separated by a layer of fat underneath. Around here the only readily available brisket cut is "flat brisket", with the top fat cap trimmed off and the two layers of meat separated and sold separately. "Whole brisket" can refer either to packer trim (i.e. untrimmed) or to a cut with the two layers together (separated by the internal layer of fat) but with the top fat cap removed. Packer trim (untrimmed) is considered the best cut for Texas barbecued brisket--all that fat renders beautifully during the 12+ hour smoking. But around here you have to special-order it from a specialty butcher.

-Paul W.

Paul, I do not recall what it said in the ad when I bought it. It is a 12-inch by 10-inch heavy piece, with a fat cap on one side, and a smaller fat cap on the other side. These are in abundance here as there are always many BBQs going on somewhere in the area, I was given a recipe decades ago which is a three-day process. As I said, it was on sale and I don't know what I was thinking when I got it. Paul here is a link to an ad for last week, scroll down and watch the left side. It is on sale for 3.99 a lb, and most likely what I purchased.
https://www.randrqualitymeats.net/weekl ... /index.php
Here is a picture that looks like the one I have.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=htt ... AdAAAAABAE

Based on that photo, I think you have flat brisket, not packer-trim. The latter has a layer of fat covering the entire top. In that photo this has been cut off.

-Paul W.

Last night I made chile verde according to Jenise's recipe outline. The meat was Boston butt, I used roasted Hatch chiles from a jar, and a good dose of Mexican oregano. It came out delicious, and it really did showcase the Mexican oregano, which has a similar, but distinctly different, aroma and flavor vs. European oregano.

For years I've wondered what all the hoopla is about concerning Hatch chiles. Now I know. They are delicious.

Thanks, Jenise!

-Paul W.

We are in “already open grain bag” liquidation. Ou r pantry is loaded with half bags of bulgur, quinoa, farro, lentils etc etc

We made this from NYT and had made a batch of pesto from our garden…. It was fabulous

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/102 ... -iOS-share

Love that recipe, have made it several times. Sometimes, I use fresh basil from my herb garden instead of parsley.

[Jenise]

...skirt steak. $12.99/lb...

The poor trimming is not nice, but that price is way better than I see here.

That's cheaper than what we see here in NH as well. But Jenise had to cut off 1/2 pound of gristle from the original two pounds. That puts the price of the useful part at $17.32 per pound. Not a bargain anymore.

-Paul W.

Considering the waste, I'm better off buying flank steak. Skirt steak goes on the never again list.

Paul, so happy about your success with the chile verde. Beware, you'll be craving it again soon.

[Jenise]

Last night friends had us over for a Dungeness crab feast. Fantastic!

Not entirely sure what I'm cooking tonight for dinner. Lunch will be a vegan warm spinach salad since we have a surplus of tomatoes whose season, weather wise, came to an abrupt end yesterday.

[Jenise]

Well, before the day was out yesterday, friends dropped off crab so dinner was crab scampi-style, over noodles with a butter-garlic-lemon sauce. I made two quarts of stock from the shells and will throw together a bisque today.

Tonight I might try a recipe from the NYT for a white chicken chile. I'm really in the mood for chile but I haven't made a red meat chile in over 20 years. I don't hate it but I like it soupy, and most versions in restaurants are gut bomb-heavy and if something's going to make me run for the Pepcid that's the dish.

A pretty late-summer lunch on Labor Day: Striped German, Green Zebra, a totally stinky/yummy Bonne Bouche on knekkebrodt, and a few slices of loukaniko:

2023-09-04 late summer lunch.jpg

And another thing! Very happy with tonight's steak technique. I got a 2# chunk of prime boneless ribeye steak -- a gorgeous, 2" thick slab. The goal is to make four dinners, two of them rare-to-medium-rare and two of them well-done, with one of each for tonight and the remainder for Thursday.

First, do a minimum of trimming then a bit of seasoning, just s+p and a splash of Worcestershire. Sear in a hot cast iron pan for 5 minutes on each side, then move it to a roasting pan, still in one piece, for 18 minutes at 400*F, turning once. Sounds like a long time, right?

I brought this out and cut it in half: picture perfect in the middle. I almost squealed.

The rest is easy: Set half aside for Thursday. Cut the rare half of today's portion and set that aside for me. Split the remaining piece longitudinally and thrust it under the broiler for 6 more minutes; serve to Pumpkin.

Plated with baked potatoes and a couple roasted sweet Italian sausages (because all that talk in the other thread about mixed grills got me hankering...).

He'll do the same prep on his portion again on Thursday; I will probably eat mine at room temp.

[Jenise]

It was fun chatting meat doneness with you and Jim last week at lunch. I don't think I'd have ever remembered that deplorable event in our past when out with another couple wherein the male half ordered his steak "cremated" and then sent it back because it was "overcooked"!

Today I'm making a white chicken chili (I probably have already mentioned this plan, it kept getting put off) but today it's really happening but today it's road food. We're going camping and will take it along. A tomato-oregano salad and grilled tortillas will join the chili. Should make the entire campground (amid 100+ year old trees overlooking a bay) jealous.

It was fun chatting meat doneness with you and Jim last week at lunch. I don't think I'd have ever otherwise remembered that deplorable event in our past when out with another couple wherein the male half ordered his steak "cremated" and then sent it back because it was "overcooked"!

An old friend of the family liked his steak 'black and blue'. Unless at a really good steakhouse he would tell them to incinerate it... for 30 seconds.