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Recipes

Frugal Friday Recipes: Beef Burgundy

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Having run low on craft projects, I’ve decided to change the Friday department to recipes and cooking posts, something I’m never likely to run out of.

Last weekend I made an awesome boeuf bourguignon for some friends. It was mighty pricey: about $45 for all the ingredients. But so far, that roast has yielded 12 servings…and counting. The guest meal was wonderful, and every leftover variation has been really good, too. So, I thought I’d share the original recipe with you. Next week: all the meals that came out of it.

This recipe is not hard to make, but it requires a half-day to cook. So, plan to be around the house while it’s simmering.

You’ll need…

  • 3- to 6-pound rump roast (other cuts of beef will work)
  • 3 or 4 pieces of bacon (probably not necessary for chuck roast)
  • olive oil
  • 1 or 2 cut-up carrots
  • 1 large or 2 small cut-up onions
  • 1 bottle inexpensive but drinkable red wine
  • 1 can or box of low-salt, high-quality beef broth or beef bouillon, or two or three cups of home-made beef broth
  • 1 bay leaf or sprig of rosemary
  • 1 tsp (more or less) thyme
  • 2-inch strip of orange zest, or 1/3 tsp bottled orange peel
  • 1 large or 2 moderate-sized tomatoes
  • tomato paste
  • 2 or more cloves of garlic
  • salt and pepper
  • about ½ pound fresh mushrooms
  • about 20 small white onions
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • sour cream, if preparing gluten-free meal; or a tablespoon or two of butter with a like amount of softened butter
  • good-quality egg noodles (or, for gluten-free dining, potatoes or rice)
  • sharp paring knife
  • saucepan
  • deep, heavy frying pan or large-diameter stock pot, with lid
  • another frying pan
  • stock pot or other large pot for cooking noodles
  • water
  • cutting board
  • serving plate

First, place the bacon in the saucepan with a couple cups of of water. Heat the water to a simmer; allow to simmer about ten minutes.

Meanwhile, wash and cut up the carrot, onions, and tomatoes. Peel and chop the garlic. Set aside.

Drain the bacon. Dry it in paper towels. With a sharp knife, slice the fat away from the meaty part of the bacon strips. Slice the fat into thin pieces.

Dry the saucepan. Skim the bottom with a little olive oil. Place it over low heat with the meaty pieces of the bacon. Let the bacon meat cook slowly while you’re doing the next step.

Rinse the roast and dry it well with paper towels.

Cut the strips of fat into one- or two-inch long pieces. Take your knife and punch a hole in the meat, and then with the tip of the knife gently push a strip of bacon fat into the roast. Be careful not to cut yourself.

Repeat this until you’ve worked the bacon fat into holes all over the meat, top, bottom, and sides.

Keep an eye on the cooking bacon meat while this is going on. When it’s crisp, turn off the heat and set the saucepan aside with the bacon and cooking grease in it.

Pour enough olive oil into the big frying pan to skim the bottom. Place the pan over medium to medium-high heat, warm the oil, and then brown the meat on both sides. After you’ve turned turn the meat to the second side, add the cut-up onions and carrots. Stir around as the meat continues to brown. After they seem to be cooking, add the garlic.

When both sides of the meat are nicely browned, pour in about three-quarters of the bottle of wine. Add enough beef broth to just cover the meat. Add the tomatoes, the orange peel, the thyme, and the bay leaf or rosemary. Stir in a heaping tablespoon of tomato paste.

If the broth is not simmering, leave the heat on medium-high until it comes to a simmer. Then turn the heat down so that the pot will stay at the simmer. Cover the pot and go away.

Depending on the size and the cut of the meat, cooking should take two to four hours. After about 90 minutes, check every 15 or 20 minutes for doneness. The finished meat should be tender but preferably not disintegrating.

While the beef is cooking, wash and dry the mushrooms and cut off any tired-looking ends of the stems. If they’re very small, leave them whole. If they’re more than an inch or so in diameter, slice them in half or quarters lengthwise. Peel the onions (an easy way to do this is to drop them into a pan of boiling water for a minute or two, then drain them into a colander and cool quickly under cold water), slice off each end, and cut a cross into the root end of each onion.

Take the onions and place them in the saucepan you used to cook the bacon meat. Place the pan over medium heat and gently stir the onions and fried meat around for a couple of minutes. Add about ½ inch of water to the pan, cover, and simmer for a bout a half-hour, until the onions are just tender when pierced with a knife. Set aside.

Pour some olive oil in a clean frying pan and place over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the mushrooms. Stir or toss the shrooms until they’re lightly browned, around five minutes or less.

When the meat is done, take it out of the pan and set it on a serving plate.

Meanwhile, place a large strainer or colander over a large bowl, and pour the pan juices through it. Push the juices out of the vegetables, and then discard the vegetable residue. Pour the juices back into the pan, and place the pan over high heat on the stove.

Allow the stock to boil down about 50%. If desired, add a little more wine or tomato paste, or both. Herbs can also be added-more thyme, a bit of marjoram, a dash of lavender, whatever you have at hand. When the stock has cooked down to about three cups, lower the heat.

If you wish to thicken the stock with sour cream, wait until you’re ready to serve the meal. Then reheat the stock gently but do not bring it to a boil (if it boils, the sour cream will curdle). Stir a few tablespoons of sour cream in to thicken a bit. This is useful if a guest is sensitive to gluten. To serve a gluten-free meal, substitute potatoes or rice for the pasta.

But if everyone can eat flour, the classic way to thicken this sauce is with a beurre manié. Take equal parts of white flour and room temperature butter and mash them together. One or two tablespoons apiece will probably do. With the broth simmering vigorously, stir pieces of the flour-butter paste in a little at a time, stirring until the sauce thickens. Taste the sauce; season with salt and pepper if necessary.

Place the meat back in the sauce and add the onions and mushrooms. The roast can be served immediately or may be set aside and reheated later.

If you are serving noodles, fill a stock pot with water and place it over high heat. When the water comes to a boil, add a package of noodles and cook until just soft. If you are serving potatoes, peel and boil them (or simply clean and boil, if you are using tiny new potatoes or fingerlings). If you are serving rice, cook according to package directions.

Slice the meat and serve with the sauce and noodles (or other starch). A generous green salad will suffice for vegetables and extra color.

Frugal Crafts Friday: The musical fruit

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Not feeling much into tools, glue, and paint today, I offer yet another food craft, this one very ancient. Let us us speak of beans. Wonderful, delicious, amazingly nutritious and astonishingly cheap beans!

You can buy beans, as you no doubt have noticed, mighty cheap in bulk at places like Sprouts and at various ethnic stores. Canned beans also are cheap, but IMHO they’re soggy and never as good as dried beans made from scratch.

So you have a bag of these dried beans. What do do with them?

Dried beans can be cooked in a pressure cooker, but I don’t do so because the prospect of clogging the safety valve gives me the whim-whams. Instead, I cook them in a regular Dutch oven on the stove.

Just about any kind of dried beans can be treated this way. I happen to favor great northerns. Also much enjoyed: pinto beans, navy beans, black beans…oh what the heck. Try them all!

Stovetop, you have a choice of (relatively) fast-cooking them or of preparing them the traditional way. Either way, you need the following:

  • 1. A cup or two of beans
  • 2. Five or six cups of water (the proportions are very forgiving: just add plenty of water, enough to cover the beans two or three times as deep as they are in the pan)
  • 3. A colander or big strainer
  • 4. A big pot

The Quick Way (and “quick” is a relative term here)

Put the beans in a colander or large strainer. Run your fingers through the dry beans, picking them over to remove shriveled-up or discolored beans and any little field stones that might have made it all the way to the market.

Rinse well under cold running tap water.

Pour the cleaned dry beans into a big pot. Cover generously with water-I use about five cups water for a cup or so of beans. The beans will swell up and make lots more food than first appears to be the case.

Turn the heat to high and bring the pot to a boil. If you’re using an electric stove, turn one of the other burners to low, so it will be ready when you need it. As soon as the water comes to a rolling boil, count off 60 seconds.

When one minute at a fast boil is over, turn the flame to low (or turn off the hot electric burner and move the pot to the burner set to low). Allow the beans to simmer gently until they reach the stage of softness you like. Simmer; don’t cook at a full boil. I personally prefer mine on the soft side of al dente; others may like them soggier. The longer you allow them to simmer, the softer they will get.

This process may take from 40 to 90 minutes, depending on your preference and on how old the beans are. The older the beans, the longer it takes them to soften up.

You can tell when beans are done by blowing on a few in a spoon. If the skin peels off when you blow on them, they’re ready to eat. Taste them, though, to check for your desired degree of doneness.

You now have a pot of cooked beans, which you can use in a vast array of recipes. See below for a couple of easy ones.

The Classic Way

I believe an old-fashioned overnight soak yields a much better cooked bean. The fast-cook method gives you a fairly mushy product. With this approach, the beans stay firmer and they seem to taste better. Also, the extra change of water diminishes the “toot” effect we all know and love.

Start the evening before you intend to cook. Pick over and wash the beans, as described above. Place them in a pot and cover well with water, cover the pot, set the pot aside, and go away. Allow the beans to soak in the water at least 12 hours.

Next morning, drain the water off through a colander or large strainer. Rinse the beans under running water. Place the beans back in the pot and cover generously with water again. (Five or six cups to about a cup or so of beans.)

If you would like to add a bit of flavor at this stage, you can put in a coarsely cut up onion and a piece of salt pork or a smoked ham hock. But it’s also good to cook the beans in just plain water and gussy them up later.

Turn the heat to medium and allow the water to come to a simmer. Turn the heat down and regulate it to keep the water simmering gently. Cover and allow to cook slowly for an hour or so. Check now and again for doneness by blowing on a few beans held up in a spoon; if the skin peels off when you blow on it, the beans are about ready.
Recipes

Beans á la Mode of My Great-Grandmother

Having learned this as a child in the kitchen of a grand old lady who was born in the 1860s, grew up in New England, and spent her adult life in California (when California was California), I love beans in their simplest form.

Using a slotted spoon, lift cooked beans out of the hot liquid and place in a bowl. Add a pat of butter, if desired. Sprinkle with white vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. If desired, add a dash of Tabasco sauce.

Fastest Comfort Food in the West

Once you have a pot of cooked beans, you can whip up a very fast and very delicious dish.

Drain the water off the beans. Cover the bottom of a small frying pan with olive oil. Mince some garlic and, if you have them, cut up some fresh herbs. If you don’t have any fresh, use dried herbs of any variety that pleases you. I generally use marjoram or thyme, oregano, chives, parsley, and sometimes tarragon-any or all of those. In the dried herb department, a teaspoon or two of fines herbes will do nicely.

Heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the minced garlic. Stir the garlic around for a minute or two, till it softens. Add the beans, stir around a bit, add the herbs, and stir until the whole mess is heated through. Sprinkle with the juice of half a lemon. Or a whole lemon, if you like. Season with salt and pepper. Eat. Enjoy.

This makes a great side dish, an awesome bean sandwich, or a fine lunch with a little salad.

If you use canned beans, drain the beans in a colander and rinse well before proceeding with the recipe.

Bean Salad

Cook a pound of white beans, in the fashion described above; hold the onion and pork. When done, drain the beans well.

Combine the following to make a dressing:

  • 1. 2 Tbsp white vinegar
  • 2. 1 Tbsp Dijon-style mustard
  • 3. 4 drops Tabasco sauce (optional-I never have this around)
  • 4. Whisk in 1/3 cup olive oil or other vegetable oil

Place the warm beans in a bowl. Add these to the beans:

  • 1. 2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil or 2 tsp dried basil
  • 2. 1 ½ tsp chopped mint leaves, or 1 tsp. or so dried mint
  • 3. 3 Tbsp chopped parsley
  • 4. 2 chopped green onion
  • 5. ½ tsp finely minced garlic.

Stir together with the dressing. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and chill at least 6 hours. Before serving, add cherry tomatoes and garnish with sprigs of mint.

As you can imagine, this gets better overnight. With a loaf of French bread, it’s a perfect summer meal.

Boston Baked Beans

These are meant to be sweet and porky.

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.

Drain the cooked beans well. Place them in a baking pot. Bury a quarter-pound piece of salt pork or a smoked ham hock in them. Mix in about ½ tsp dry mustard plus a half-cup of maple syrup, or a quarter-cup molasses plus 2 Tbsp sugar. Then cover with boiling water. Cover the bean pot, place it in the oven, and let the beans bake all day: 8 to 10 hours. Check now and again and add more hot water if necessary.

This also is a dish that gets better after spending a night in the fridge. And IMHO cold Boston baked beans are right up there with leftover meatloaf as the Perfect Sandwich Filling.

Chicken soup for dog-lovers

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Anna H. Banana is looking a little peppier today, after having been off her feed for quite a while. The other day it occurred to me that if chicken soup is Jewish penicillin for people, maybe it would perk up another mammalian species. So I took a few chicken thighs out of the freezer, which I happened to have in lifetime-supply quantities thanks to a bargain purchase, tossed them in a saucepan and covered with water, and added a little salt and a little sugar, and simmered.

Sugar and salt, because she was so peakèd she wasn’t even drinking much water. Suspecting she was getting dehydrated, I wanted to slip her a dose of electrolytes. The beauty of chicken thighs for making a small amount of broth is that they have only one large bone. Getting the cooked meat off is easy—no dodging splintery little bones and sinews.

After an hour or so, I dipped a couple of cups of broth and meat into the dog bowl, stirred in a few ice cubes to cool it to a temperature on the high side of lukewarm, and served it up to the aged Queen of the Galaxy.

She inhaled the stuff! After a couple more meals like that, she began to eat her regular food again, especially if it was made soupy by the addition of lots of broth.

Discovery: Dogs like chicken soup.

Discovery: Dogs like their food warm. Try zapping a little dog food (not kibble) in the micro until it’s warm but not hot. Works.

Discovery: Dogs that hate kibble will eat it if it’s floating in broth.

Normally I don’t feed her much kibble, but if I’m broke or under the weather myself so that I can’t buy or prepare two pounds of food a day for Her Dogship, we don’t have much choice. She’s a lot more likely to eat it if it’s drowned in chicken, lamb, or beef broth.

Chicken broth is easy to make, with thighs, legs, or wings or with bones and carcasses from several meals stashed in the freezer until you’re ready to cook. Just cover them with water, bring to a boil, and turn down the heat to a slow simmer. Pour the cooked broth through a strainer to remove bones. Just now a big pot with three carcasses and bones saved from cut-rate beef roasts that were converted into hamburger is bubbling away on the stove. You can sometimes get lamb necks on sale—dogs really like lamb. There’s only one caveat, and it’s important:

Do not add onions!

Onions are toxic to dogs. Onions themselves are especially bad, but all members of the onion family (garlic, shallots, little green onions, chives) can do the job on your dog. They cause a kind of anemia that can kill the animal—I can testify to this, because I put some onions in meat I was feeding and almost did in two ninety-pound dogs. The smaller the dog, the more vulnerable it is to onion toxicity. For this reason, it’s not a good idea to dose your dog’s food with canned chicken or beef broth, which almost always contains onion.

To make a tastier broth for human purposes, brown some chopped onion, celery, and carrot (any or all) in another pan. Add some garlic if desired and then dip a portion of the broth into the pan. Simmer for an hour or more. Strain into a clean bowl, pressing juices out of vegetables. Et voilà! Dog joy and chicken soup for humans from one set of bones.

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