Sliders

I was having a hankering for sliders so I came up with this recipe

Ingredients

• 1 pound of ground beef
• 2 Tbl dried onion flakes
• ¼ Cup hot water
• ½  tsp smoked salt
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• small buns or potato rolls

Directions

1. Soak dried onion flakes in hot water for a few minutes to soften.
2. Mix together beef, smoked salt, garlic powder and onion/water mixture.
3. Divide meat into 8 portions and form into patties about 3 to 3½-inch in diameter.
4. Fry on a griddle or heavy frying pan until cooked through, flipping once
5. Slice buns and place a patty on each bun
6. Add condiments of choice

Condiments

• Dill pickle slices
• 1 medium (or ½ large) onion, thinly sliced and sauteed until caramelized and a nice rich color
• BBQ sauce
• Mayonnaise
• Ketchup (or Catsup)
• Mustard

Notes

• Dill pickle slices are a must on sliders as far as I am concerned.  Everything else is a matter of choice
• Serve with frys - or, even better, tater tots - or best, cheesy tater tots

Beef Stroganoff

We had a lot of family over for the holidays.  In preparation for their visit, I had stocked up on cube steak thinking I would make my Chicken Fried Steak.  Unfortunately, it never happened; so, now we've got a bunch of cube steak in the freezer which needs to be used before it gets freezer burnt.  So, I've been looking for recipes that use cube steak.  One such recipe is Beef Stroganoff.

The problem I had with the Beef Stroganoff recipes I found is that they use Cream of Mushroom soup.  I don't know what it is, but I really do not like canned soup nor recipes that use them.  Maybe it's the preservatives - but there is just some after taste that I don't like in a lot of canned foods.

So, I set out to prepare a Beef Stroganoff recipe that didn't use canned Cream of Mushroom soup.

Serves: 4 people

 Ingredients

• 1 Tbl oil
• 1 medium (or ½ large) onion, thinly sliced
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 8 oz mushrooms, ¼-inch sliced
• 1 pound cubed steak, cut into strips
• ½ cup flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 2 Tbl oil
• 3 Tbl unsalted butter
• 3 Tbl flour
• 2 cups beef broth
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 sprig fresh thyme
• 1 cup sour cream
• salt/pepper to taste
• Noodles, cooked according to directions on package

Directions

1. Add 1 Tbl oil to heated pan and then add sliced onion and chopped carrot.  Cook until onion starts to brown. Add muchrooms and cook until tender.  Remove from heat and reserve
2. In a separate sauce pan, add 3 Tbl butter and 3 Tbl flour to make a roux.  Cook until flour starts to turn a light brown.  Then whisk in 2 cups beef broth and 1 cup heavy cream.  Continue cooking, whisking frequently, until thickenen.  Add in reserved vegetables and fresh thyme and simmer.
3. Meanwhile, combine ½ cup flour, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tsp garlic powder in a plastic bag, shake to combine.  Then add strips of cube steak and shake to coat thoroughly.  Put 2 Tbl oil in heated pan, add meat and saute until meat is cooked through.  Add meat to sauce and vegetables
4. Continue simmering until heated through, stirring occasionally to keep from burning on the bottom of the pan.  
5. Stir in 1 cup sour cream and heat through.  Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
6. Remove thyme stem and serve over cooked noodles

Notes

• This can be an inexpensive, and relatively easy, recipe to prepare.  Our local Kroger store has a bin where they sell meat that has reached its 'sell by' date and a similar bin for vegetables (what I like to call the 'used meat' and 'used vegetable' bins).  So, I only paid about $3 for the meat and 89¢ for the mushrooms.
• When making the sauce, be sure to select a sauce pan that is large enough to hold everything that will be added later and (if you're like us), to serve from.
• Beef Stroganoff is traditionally served over egg noodles; however, I just use whatever pasta I happen to have on hand.  When I made this recipe, I used Farfalle (bow tie or butterfly shaped) pasta simply because I had ½ box that I wanted to use up.
• Try adding ¼ tsp dried thyme to the sauce in place of the fresh thyme sprig
• Try using thinly sliced round steak in place of cubed steak.  This would make it easier to trim the fat off of the meat.  I suppose you could also use chicken in place of beef - but then it would be Chicken Stroganoff.
• I'm not really sure the purpose of coating the meat with flour before cooking - this was just something I saw in a lot of the recipes I reviewed.  Try just seasoning the meat with salt and garlic powder (or garlic salt) before cooking

Chicken Fried Steak

A Texas treasure - the Chicken Fried Steak.  I've tried making chicken fried steak at home in the past - but it never tasted as good as that which you can get in the better restaurants.  It was bland and oily.

To overcome the blandness, I experiemented with different seasonings in the flour.  A little seasoned salt can go a long way to overcome the blandness; but, too much makes it too salty; so, I added other seasonings.  Using buttermlk in place of regular milk also adds a bit of acidy goodness.

To overcome the oilyness and lack of crispyness, I turned to the cooking god himself - Alton Brown.  I highly recommend watching his chicken fried steak episode; although, I think he makes it far more complicated than it needs to be.  But, he does have some good ideas worth incorporating.  For one, using the double dip method (seasoned flour -> milk/egg -> back to seasoned flour).  For another, letting the breading sit on the meat for a bit before cooking allows to to stick better to the meat.  Also, draining the meat on paper towels to remove as much of the oil as possible and the putting in a warm oven helps to keep it crispy.

For the meat, I just use cheap cube steak from the grocery store - usually I picked it up on the used meat bin (the "about to expire" meat bin) for a couple of bucks per package and then stick it in the freezer until I'm ready to use it.

Ingredients

• 4 cube steaks (about 1½ pounds)
• 1½ + ¼ Cups all purpose flour (divided)
• 1 tsp seasoned salt (like Lowrey's)
• ½ tsp onion powder
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp black pepper
• ½ tsp ground thyme
• ½Tbl smoked hot paprika
• 1 Cup buttermilk
• 1 Egg, slightly beaten
• 2 Cups milk
• ½ tsp kosher salt
• smoked salt
• oil

Equipment

• cooling rack on top of a baking sheet
• Another baking sheet to place in oven
• 12" cast iron frying pan
• Plate covered with paper towels
• Tongs
• Whisk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees
2. Mix together in a flat bowl 1½ flour, seasoned salt, onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika.
3. In another flat bowl, mixed together buttermilk and egg
4. Lightly sprinkle both sides of cube steaks with smoked salt
5. Dip cube steaks in seasoned flour, then in buttermilk/egg, then back in seasoned flour and place on cooling rack
6. Let steaks sit with breading on cooling rack for 15-20 minutes
7. While steaks are sitting, preheat frying pan with about ½ oil
8. Place steaks in oil, 2 at a time, and cook about ??? miuntes per side.  Be careful not to crowd them.
9. When steaks are done, remove to plate to drain for a couple of minutes and the move to cooking sheet in oven to stay warm and crisp
10. When all steaks are cooked and in oven, drain all but about 3 Tbl of oil from pan, being careful to leave the crispy bits in the pan.
11. Add ¼ cup flour to pan to stir to brown for a minute or two
12. Add 2 cups milk and quickly whisk together until gravy thickens, stirring constantly.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with mashed potatoes and some other vegetable, like green beans.

Shepherd's Pie (aka Daddy Jon's Pot Roast, part II)

Since it's just Linda and I, we usually always end up with leftovers after dinner as we just haven't gotten used to the idea of cooking for two. I usually end up eating the leftovers for lunch the next day or two. But, leftover pot roast was just too good to waste on lunch. So, I made shepherds pie.

The shepherd's pie we've made in the past had the leftover meat and vegetables on the bottom, leftover mashed potatoes on top, and baked until the stuff on the bottom was bubbly and the potatoes were lightly browned.

This recipe is different in that it puts the potatoes on the bottom (soaking up all of that good flavor from the gravy) and a biscuit crust on top.

Shepherd's Pie

• Leftover pot roast, cut into small chunks
• Leftover gravy, heated in microwave until liquefied
• Extra potatoes, peeled and boiled until tender
• Leftover vegetables from pot roast
• Extra vegetables if necessary to make 2 to 3 cups (see note below)
• Instant biscuit mix (I used a single-use package of Kroger brand buttermilk biscuits, so I don't know how much actual mix)
• 3 Tbl butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Potato layer: Place the potatoes in the bottom of a casserole dish and lightly mash, leaving it a bit chunky

Meat layer: spread the meat over the potatoes and then lightly drizzle the gravy evenly over the meat.

Vegetable layer: Spread the vegetable mixture over the meat.

Biscuit layer: Mix up the biscuit mix according to instructions, adding just a bit more liquid to make it thinner than normal and spread it over the vegetables. Drizzle melted butter over the biscuits.

Place in oven and bake for 35-45 minutes until the biscuits are lightly browned.

A note on vegetables: I only had a few carrots and parsnips leftover from the previous dinner. So, I chopped up some fresh carrots and precooked them in the microwave for one minute (covered). I also cut up some fresh green beans into 1 inch pieces and precooked them in the microwave for 1 minute (covered). I then added some frozen corn niblets. I could have used a bag of frozen mixed vegetables - but personally I think they taste nasty. Fresh carrots and green beans (in season) are pretty cheap, and they taste so much better than their frozen counterparts.

Daddy Jon's Pot Roast

For me, recipe's are more like suggestions than actual rules. I usually start with a recipe, often looking up several recipes - and then I concoct my own recipe using ideas inspired by those I looked up as well as my own.

This recipe is no exception. It started out as Momma Neely's Pot Roast, but I added enough of my own ideas to it that it is now my own recipe; so, I call it Daddy Jon's Pot Roast.

Daddy Jon's Pot Roast

• 1 (3-4 pound) pot roast (I prefer bone-in as the bones lend flavor)
• Vegetable oil (I used bacon grease leftover from my breakfast)
  
• 2 yellow onions, peeled and chopped
• 3-4 cloves garlic, smashed (don't be afraid to add even more garlic)
• 1 cup red wine (see note below)
  
• 2 cups stock (preferably beef, but whatever you happen to have on hand, I used chicken because that's what I happened to have left over from a previous dinner)
• 2-3 fresh thyme sprigs (I suppose a teaspoon of dried would work)
  
• a handful of raisins
• 12 whole allspice berries
• 12 whole black peppercorns
  
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 carrots peeled and sliced into 1 inch pieces (1/2 inch if large in diameter)
• 2 parnips peeled and sliced into 1 inch pieces (1/2 inch if large in diameter)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a Dutch oven over medium-high heat, heat the oil and sear the roast on all sides. Remove the roast and add the onions, garlic, and tomato paste; cook until slightly colored. Remove the Dutch oven from the burner, spread the onion mixture evenly over the bottom of the pan and lay the roast on top. Add the wine, stock, thyme, bay leaves, allspice, and peppercorns. Cover the Dutch oven and place in the oven.

Roast for about 1-1/2 hours and then add the carrots and parsnips, pressing down into the liquid. Continue to cook for another hour or so.

Remove the roast and vegetables from the dutch oven to a serving dish. Strain the leftover liquid in the dutch oven through a colendar and then return to the dutch oven. Over medium heat, gently boil the cooking liquid to reduce and thicken. Remove gravy to a bowl

Optional: You could also add potatoes along with the carrots and parnips. Although, I put a couple of baking potatoes in the oven at the same time I added the carrots and parsnips to the pot. I left the potatoes in the oven while I reduced the cooking liquid.

A note on the wine: Personally, although I am a Mormon and don't drink, I don't have a problem using a bit of wine in a recipe. Particularly one like this where it cooks for a long while as all alcohol will be long gone by the time it is consumed. I usually keep a bottle of cooking wine in the pantry; although, I've recently discovered that, if you watch sales, you can pick up a bottle of cheap wine for $3-$4 dollars, which is cheaper than cooking wine. To a wine connoisseur, I'm sure it probably tastes nasty; however, my personal opinion is that the typical substitutes (water, juice, stock, etc.) change the flavor profile and that even a cheap wine will produce a result closer to what the author of the recipe intended. However, if you have a problem using wine in a recipe then feel free to substitute.

Texas Style Smoked Brisket

For Sarah's wedding reception, I'll be smoking brisket.

I wasn't born in Texas (born and raised in California); but, I've been a naturalized Texas citizen since 1984.  In the time I've lived here, I've developed a deep appreciation for Texas BBQ.  If there is a food of the gods then this is it. It just doesn't get any better.

Before I continue, I should warn anyone who might be reading this: If you are one of those health weenies (er, I mean health conscience) then it might be best if you moved onto another blog to read.

This is a recipe for Smoked Brisket that I've perfected over the years. Some of it based on ideas I've gleaned from other individuals, and some of my own making.  

Following is my normal recipe; although, for Sarah's wedding, I'm going to try something different.  Rather than starting it in the oven the night before an finishing it in the smoker, I'm going to start it in the smoker the day before and finish it in the oven.  This is for convenience since I can't be messing with the smoker on the big wedding day.

First of all, there is some equipment and utensils you'll need.

• Smoker. Personally, I like the, so called, water smokers which consist of an upright cylinder with a fire pan at the bottom, a water tray about that, and racks above that. Although other types of smokers would work just as well.

• Wood Chunks. I like to use a combination of: Hickory, Mesquite, Pecan, and Fruit (Apple, Cherry, etc.)

• Charcoal. There is a brand I get at Bar-B-Que Galore that is chunks of wood charcoal, not the formed briquettes (ala Kingston and other brands). I think it burns hotter and doesn't get smothered in ashes as much.

• Roasting Tray. The aluminum kind like you roast a big Turkey in. You might need two of these depending on how many briskets you are smoking.

Ingredients

• Beef Brisket (get the untrimmed kind, usually weigh about 8-12 lbs each)
• Fresh Jalapeño Peppers (about 5-6 per brisket)
• Whole clove of garlic
• Limes (about 2-3 per brisket)
• Apple Juice (I use the frozen concentrate)
• (Optional) Fresh Rosemary (I have a bush growing in my back yard, so I cut off a small branch)

Preparation

The Night Before

1. Trim the fat off of the brisket leaving about a 1/4" layer across the top. There is also a big chunk of fat in the side of the brisket which should be removed as much as possible.
2. Half the Jalapeño Peppers and remove the membrane and seeds, then cut into strips about 1/4" wide and 1" long. It works best if you make them triangular shaped so that they are pointed on one end.
3. Separate the garlic into individual cloves and slice them up into small strips about 1/8" wide and 1" long (or the length of the clove).
4. Take a paring knife and make a slit in the brisket about 1-1/2" deep and stick a slice of Jalapeño Pepper and a slice of garlic in the slit. Repeat this all over the brisket (top, bottom and sides) making the slits about 2" apart.
5. Put the brisket in a roasting pan.
6. Cut the limes in 1/2, squeeze the juice over the brisket and rub it in with your hands working it into the slits. Then put the lime halves on top of the brisket.
7. Put the roasting pan in the oven and set the oven to 250 degrees F and leave it in the oven all night.

The next morning

1. Put the chunks of wood into a bucket of water to soak.
2. Get up early and prepare the smoker. Light a fire in the fire pan using starter fluid. Wait until the flames die down and the charcoal is covered with a light layer of ash.
3. If using a water smoker, once the flames have died down, put the water tray in the smoker, add the apple juice and rosemary branch, then fill the water tray up to the top with water. Then insert the other trays in the smoker.
4. Transfer the brisket to the smoker (carefully) and close the smoker. I like to have the meat in the smoker by 8:00am so that it smokes all day.
5. Add some water soaked chunks of wood on top of the charcoal and close the smoker.

Throughout the day

• Check the smoker every couple of hours,
• add more charcoal as necessary
• add more water soaked wood chunks as necessary
• add more water to the water tray as necessary
• Try to keep the temperature inside the smoker at around 200 - 300 degrees F
• Around noon, it's time to start slicing off chunks of meat to taste (gotta make sure it's good)

Other things to smoke

As long as you have the smoker going, you can add other things to smoke along with the brisket.

Things I've tried smoking (and liked):

• Sausage. (Kielbasa or similar), smoke these about 4 hours
• Hot links, smoke these about 4 hours
• Snow Crab legs, smoke these about 2 hours

Things I've tried smoking (and didn't like so much):

• Cheese. Warped in foil poked with holes (turns into a gooey mess)
• Shrimp. (shells stick to the meat and are difficult to remove)
• Salmon. (I don't particularly like salmon, so I don't know why I thought I might like it smoked)
• Chicken. (ended up tough and dry)

Serve this with my Texas Style Barbecue Sauce. Invite a bunch of family and friends over and prepare to feast.