Another Bite™

Across the Kitchen Table:

It’s a Meat and Potatoes Time of Year

For those of us in search of inspiring recipes. the Web offers plenty of choices. Starting from our own www.digitalhearth.com, click on Recipes and then on Beef, which takes you to the home page of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, www.beef.org. Better yet, go straight to the mother ship, American National Cattle Women (www.ancw.org), the real cooks of the crowd. Who would know more than cattle women about cooking beef? ANCW, founded in 1952, sponsors the biannual National Beef Cook-off. The top entries as well as other great beef recipes are posted. And if you don’t know your flank steak from your rib-eye, you can get straightened out in no time.

Our beef wanderings also took us to www.beefinfo.org, a Web site maintained by British Columbia ranchers, and then to www.laurasleanbeef.com, the Web site for a Lexington, Kentucky, company dedicated to providing hormone and antibiotic-free beef (and in the process helping to save family farms). Large feedlots may not be able to survive without the help of those additives, but small producers will, if they can find the market for their meat. Laura’s Lean Beef is now sold in 30 states and is endorsed by the American Heart Association. The recipe for Sugar-Cured Rosemary Roast Beef, adapted from the site, is a simple way to make an elegant beef roast for a special occasion. The sweet and savory rub seals in the juices and gives the meat a rich flavor.

One final beef foray on the Web took us to the recipe for Texas Calf Fries (something like Rocky Mountain Oysters) at www.manfood.homestead.com. Too bad all those lonesome cowboys in the Wild West who got stuck eating beans and salt pork didn’t have this resource. There’s even a link to "Cooking for Dummies."

Now, on to potatoes, the other half of the dynamic winter duo. There’s no shortage of Web resources here, either. Try www.peipotato.org (Prince Edward Island, Canada); and www.mainepotatoes.com (Maine), just for starters. Lots of links and advice reside at www.potatohelp.com. The Searchable Online Archive of Recipes (http://soar.Berkeley.EDU/recipes) has a wide-ranging collection of potato recipes among its nearly 68,000 items.

In combination with beef, potatoes have an important job. They sop up juice, gravy, and other liquids from the meat and marry the flavors together. Sometime in the 1950s potatoes got a bum rap when someone decided that they were fattening, and they’ve recently taken another hit from the "Zone" food police who equate eating a potato with eating a Snickers bar.

This is silly. A medium-sized potato baked in its skin has only about 220 calories, no fat, and is high in fiber, iron, vitamins B6 and C, niacin, and potassium. It’s an excellent source of complex carbohydrates. (Besides, a mashed Snickers bar just wouldn’t taste good with gravy.)

During the Depression, when no sensible person turned down a hearty, home-cooked meal, the U.S. Department of Agriculture distributed this recipe for Potato and Spinach Soup to potato growers. Rich and thick, it’s a meal in itself and is easy to make.

The day before serving, mix salt, sugar, rosemary, and chili powder and rub it on the meat to cover the surface.

Refrigerate. The next day, preheat the oven to 500°F. Place an empty, heavy-bottomed roasting pan in the oven. After 8 minutes, remove the pan from the oven and add the seasoned beef. Roast for 10 minutes, then turn the meat and sear the second side an additional 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350°F and cook until the meat reaches an internal temperature of 135°F for medium rare, approximately 20-25 minutes. (Use a meat thermometer.) Remove roast from the oven and allow it to rest for 15-20 minutes before slicing.

Note: This recipe contains more salt and sugar than may be appropriate for restricted diets. However, the salt/sugar/rosemary rub creates a "crust" that can be trimmed away if you prefer.

Beef and Barley Soup

For simpler fare that will warm the cockles (whatever they are) of anyone’s heart on a gray winter day, try Beef and Barley Soup, also courtesy of Laura’s Lean Beef.

1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups peeled, diced potatoes (about 1 pound raw potatoes)
2 cups chopped spinach (fresh or frozen)
2 cups milk or one 13-ounce can evaporated milk
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
8 ounces grated cheddar or Swiss cheese
In a soup kettle, saute the onion in the butter until the onion is translucent. Add water, salt, potatoes, and spinach. Cook until potatoes are tender (about 15 minutes). Longer cooking won’t hurt, but keep the heat low so mixture barely simmers. Add milk and Worcestershire sauce and reheat to near boiling, but do not boil. Stir in grated cheese. Serve immediately. Serves 4.

1 pound lean ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 46-ounce can V8 juice
1 15-ounce can crushed tomatoes
2 cups water
1/3 cup uncooked pearled barley
1 cup sliced carrots
3/4 cup chopped celery
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 bay leaf
1 cup frozen peas
2 cups sliced mushrooms
2 cups chopped greens (spinach, kale, or Swiss chard), optional
Brown the beef in a large soup kettle, stirring to crumble it. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring, until translucent. Add V8 juice, tomatoes, water, barley, carrots, celery, and seasonings. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, covered, until barley is soft (about 30 minutes). Add peas, mushrooms, and greens, return to a simmer, and cook for about 10 minutes. Taste, add salt and adjust other seasonings, and serve. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

How to Peel A Chestnut Without Cutting Off Your Thumb

For me, the hardest part of cooking a turkey comes the day before, when I roast and peel chestnuts for the stuffing. Why do it at all? Well, our family loves the taste of fresh-roasted chestnuts—sweet, meaty, buttery. Compared to fresh, canned chestnuts lack character. But separating the hard, stubborn shell from the sweet, golden nut is no easy task.

Cookbooks have lots of varying advice (some wrong-headed) on the subject, but they do agree on a few basics: 1. Fresh chestnuts must be cooked, usually by roasting (oven or stovetop) or boiling, to loosen the shell from the nut. 2. Before heating the nut, the shell must be punctured or slashed (usually an X on the flat side, made with a sharp paring knife) so they won’t explode when steam builds up during cooking. 3. The nuts must be peeled while warm.

Over the years, I’ve tried several ways of roasting and peeling nuts. My worst experience came after reading that nuts could be roasted in a cast-iron pan on the stovetop with a few teaspoons of oil. I tried this, and ended up having to peel dozens of hot, slippery little devils, which turned into bloodshed (mine).

Here is the easiest way: Wearing leather gloves and using a sharp knife (I use my Swiss Army knife), cut an X into the flat side of the nut, trying to penetrate only the shell. Place a single layer of nuts at a time in a glass pie plate or baking dish and zap them for 6 to 8 minutes on high. The edges of the X should start to curl back (if not, keep going). As soon as the nuts can be handled, peel off the hard outer shell and as much of the inner skin as possible. (I don’t wear gloves for this step because they feel too awkward.) Some chestnuts (which resemble a shrunken brain) come out whole; others, in pieces. It doesn’t matter for stuffing. Before adding the chestnuts to the stuffing, saute them for a few minutes in a tablespoon of butter. Delicious!

Gingered Cream of Carrot Soup

Soup 101

This recipe is from Potluck Plain and Fancy.

1 medium onion
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons butter
1-1/2 pounds carrots
1 quart chicken broth (homemade or canned)
salt and pepper to taste
one 2-inch chunk of fresh ginger root, peeled and grated (about 2 tablespoons)
2 cups half-and-half
chopped parsley for garnish

Peel and chop the onion and garlic. Melt the butter in a soup pot and saute the onion and garlic until tender. Peel and chop the carrots and add them to the pot along with 2 cups of the chicken broth. Cover and cook until the carrots are tender. Puree the vegetables and broth in a blender or food processor and return the puree to the pot. Stir in the remaining broth, salt and pepper, and the grated ginger. Simmer gently for about 10 minutes. Stir in the half-and-half and heat, but do not allow to boil. Taste and adjust seasonings. Sprinkle parsley on top of soup just before serving. Serves 6.

Here are a few tips on soup making, and a favorite recipe from a book my husband and I wrote called Potluck Plain & Fancy.

Ten Tips for Tasty Soup

1. Never throw out cooked meat bones without first extracting their goodness in the form of soup stock. If you don’t have time, wrap and freeze the bones until you do.

2. It’s a myth that stock has to cook for hours on end. An hour or two will do the trick. Use a tall, narrow kettle so the liquid doesn’t evaporate too quickly, and simmer gently.

3. Take the time to strain stock, refrigerate it, and skim off fat. This creates a clear and flavorful broth and soup base.

4. Saute cut-up vegetables in butter or olive oil before adding them to soup. Or oven-roast them. This brings out the taste of the veggies.

5. Don’t be too proud to use good-quality bouillon cubes or other soup boosters. Knorr’s vegetable bouillon is especially tasty and intensifies the flavor of nearly any soup.

6. Thicken a vegetable soup by pureeing a cupful or two of the cooked soup in the blender; stir the puree back into the soup.

7. Add fresh or dried herbs near the end of cooking to retain their color and flavor. Stir, taste, and adjust the salt. A few drops of lemon juice or splash of good dry wine (don’t bother buying cooking wine, which is invariably bad) brightens the taste of clear soups.

8. Once milk or cream is added to chowders or cream soups, the soup should be heated gently but not allowed to boil, lest the milk curdle.

9. A rule of thumb for homemade soups is to use at least 6 cups of liquid to make 6 to 8 servings of soup. If your soup includes dried peas, lentils, rice, or other ingredients that absorb liquid, you will need to add more water or stock.

10. If you can get your hands on a turkey carcass after Thanksgiving dinner, treat it like the treasure it is and make yourself a large amount of turkey soup. Freeze the excess in quart containers and you will certainly survive the winter!