Beer Chuck Roast

Perfect Sunday dinner idea.

This Beer Chuck Roast was cooked for five hours in a bottle of good beer. Some would say this is a waste of a perfectly good bottle of beer. I say it's a perfectly good way to showcase the versatility of beer...and beef.

Chuck is an economical and hearty cut of beef, typically tough and fatty, so the solution for a shredded, mouth-watering, flavor-packed encounter is to cook Chuck -- and similar cuts -- slowly in liquid....like beer.

I have also used wine, cola and ginger ale but yesterday was a beer kind of day.

For the record..I didn't plan a Beer Chuck Roast post but I sat down to eat dinner and the plate screamed "take my picture." So I did and wrote a post.

The plate didn't really scream...personification.

First, I added a thin coating of olive oil to my Dutch oven and seared the beef on both sides. Then I added one roughly chopped sweet Vidalia onion and minced garlic, about 2 or 3 cloves. Once the onions became translucent, I poured in the beer and simmered for four hours. I added carrots and simmered another hour. I served this deliciousness with broccoli and mashed sweet potatoes. Yum.

My beer braising choice...16 Mile Blues' Golden Ale. I was curious about the name of this brewing company so, as I've been known to do from time-to-time, I did a little research. 16 Mile Brewing Company tells me that "The 16 Mile Brewing Company name harkens back to the late 1700’s when Georgetown (Delaware) was still known as Pettijohn’s old field, a rather isolated town, centrally located in Sussex County. The area was “16 miles from anywhere” in the county and was the best place for farmers, merchants, and politicians to meet to conduct official business."

Now I know.

Corned Beef & Cabbage

So….It was my turn to cook on Tuesday and as an early St. Patrick’s Day treat, I made Corned Beef & Cabbage. When we think Corned Beef & Cabbage we think Irish…right? Well, not exactly. When times were tough in Ireland, beef was considered a delicacy and cows were used mostly as a dairy source. The Irish traditionally enjoyed bacon joint with their cabbage and potatoes and it wasn’t until the mid 1800’s that Irish-Americans, thanks to their new Jewish pals, began to substitute the more readily available corned beef, which is similar in texture to bacon joint.

The Corned Beef & Cabbage recipe I used instructed me to “buy a corned beef brisket with the flavor pack included.” What? I had no idea what this meant but figured the smart people at allrecipes.com knew what they were talking about. So I sashayed into Genuardis thinking I would have to spend the better part of an hour looking for a piece of meat sporting a Ramen Noodlesque flavor packet. To my delight, I found an entire case of this salt-brine cured beef, each complete with a spice packet (basically pickling spices...crushed bay leaves, coriander seed, peppercorns, allspice, mustard seed, cloves).

Beef Brisket is prepared like any other tougher cut of meat, by braising – cooked for a long time in liquid – and the result is meat that is melt-in-your-mouth tender. The recipe I used called for cooking the brisket for at least 8 hours in a slow cooker and this produced a most scrumptious result!

Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage
Allrecipes.com

Ingredients
1 medium onion, cut into wedges
4 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 pound baby carrots
3 cups water
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 (3 pound) corned beef brisket with spice packet, cut in half
1 small head cabbage, cut into wedges

Directions
Place the onion, potatoes and carrots in a 5-qt. slow cooker. Combine water, garlic, bay leaf, sugar, vinegar, pepper and contents of spice packet; pour over vegetables. Top with brisket and cabbage. Cover and cook on low for 8-9 hours or until meat and vegetables are tender. Remove bay leaf before serving.

Foodie brought some Irish beer and we had an arugula salad served in the lovely traveling salad bowl. For dessert, we had some of my home-made Irish potatoes. A grand evening!

Trivia: Corned Beef & Cabbage was served at what President’s Inaugural Dinner?



Thank you to kitchenproject.com and about.com for the history of CB&C and Google images for the photo of the menu.

Julia Would Be Proud!

If you have not seen the movie Julie and Julia please do yourself a favor and watch it (perhaps on one of these lazy, snowy days we’ve been having). It’s the delightful saga of Julie Powell’s 365-day, 564 recipe journey through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking cookbook. Meryl Streep – who was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance – transports us right back to the 60’s with her spot-on performance of Julia Child that Rolling Stone reviewer Peter Travers described as “Streep at her brilliant, beguiling best…” and Amy Adams is charming and genuine as Ms. Powell.

Our Tuesday dinners resumed last night (hooray!) and it was Foodie’s turn to cook. She made Boeuf Bourguignon from Julia Child’s cookbook. This recipe blends beef, onions, carrots, bacon, spices and a whole bottle of good red wine into the most delectable stew that you will instinctively and immediately want to devour but will force yourself to eat slowly to appreciate the absolute goodness and complexity of the dish! I posted the recipe on the "Recipes" page.

As the recipe suggests on page 315 of my food-stained copy of the book…this dish can be “prepared completely ahead, even a day in advance, and it only gains in flavor when reheated.” Foodie made this over the weekend (it takes a good five hours to prepare properly) and served it over noodles….pure heaven. We also had a fig, goat cheese and spring green salad in the lovely traveling salad bowl and just a few pieces of dark chocolate for dessert.

It was snowing when we left Foodie’s house feeling utterly satisfied…I could not help but to take a picture of the sister Mini Coopers. Enjoy the snow….be safe!

Grandmom's Meatballs

I grew up with my Italian grandmother and she made the best meatballs ever. I have never been able to replicate these scrumptious little spheres and my family and I speculate that her “secret ingredient” was the almond-scented Jergen’s Lotion she used after she washed her hands. To this day, that scent reminds me of my loving grandmother…a wonderful memory indeed!

We would ask how much of each ingredient she used and she would say – in Italian – “che sanno” – “who knows.” So over the years, we’ve experimented with fancy ingredients and always come back to the simple but fresh ingredients my grandmother used...that she probably purchased at the neighborhood Italian market, DeLuca’s.

Anyway, dear readers, I share my grandmom’s recipe with you, at least how I remember it. If my siblings or cousins have any other information, do chime in!

GRANDMOM C’s MEATBALLS
Ingredients
1 lb. of ground beef
1 egg
¼ cup of FRESH parsley (please don’t disrespect my grandmom’s recipe by using dried)
¼ cup of chopped onions
2 garlic cloves, minced
A few shakes of bread crumbs
Salt and pepper to taste

Chop parsley.

Chop onions.

Add chopped parsley, onion, garlic and egg to the ground meat.

Add breadcrumbs, salt and pepper.

Mix together.

Shape into 1-2” meatballs. You should get 10-12 meatballs from 1 lb. of meat...depending on the size.

Brown on all sides.

Simmer for at least TWO HOURS in tomato gravy…say it after me, GRAVY, not sauce, gravy. Serve on your favorite pasta. Tomato gravy works well on thin pastas, like spaghetti and cappellini. Chunkier sauces work better on ridged, hearty pastas, like rigatoni and penne.

Simple, but oh so good. I made five dozen for an upcoming party at my house.