Category Archives: beef

May 18, 2013

How to grill a steak

I have a very small niche talent, but it is a point of personal vanity. I can grill the perfect steak. Medium rare. Every time. Even after a few glasses of Chardonnay. Especially then.

A few years ago, King Daddy and I were going to sell the house we’ve lived in for 20 years. We have a very odd house. It has four full bathrooms, but a kitchen the size of a postage stamp. It has odd rooms that serve no discernible purpose. I think King Daddy and I had a few too many cocktails before we put in an offer, which was quickly accepted. But the house has one thing going for it that no other home in our fairly densely populated suburb has – a completely private deck surrounded by woods. After the house had been on the market a couple of months, it occurred to me one day as I was grilling out on the deck that it was quite possible – even highly likely – that our new place would not be so private. That we might not like listening to our new neighbors…or their screaming children. I would lose my private grilling space. We took the house off the market.

But I digress. So I’m going to tell you how to grill the perfect steak in one paragraph. That’s how easy it is.

Start by heating the grill to medium high. Let’s just use a 1-inch-thick filet mignon as an example as that is my favorite steak. Let it come to room temperature and then apply a liberal coating of Montreal Steak Seasoning (available at every supermarket in America). Spray the hot grates with oil and slap the steak down. Spray the top of the steak with oil. Now, let it go for 3 minutes. Turn it a quarter turn to get those grill marks and let it go another 3 minutes. Flip and repeat. Now touch it. Does it feel like a soft tennis ball? Then you’re done. Take the steak off the grill and let it rest, covered with foil, for 10 minutes.

This is what you get:

Perfectly grilled filet mignon topped with herb butter

The important thing here is the touch test. You can use a digital thermometer and take the steak to 135 degrees internal temperature. But if you learn the touch test, you’ll just look like such a Grill Goddess. Here’s a guide.

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May 7, 2013

Sriracha-marinated flank steak

So, King Daddy and I were at Taco Bell one day a few years ago and he decided to try the new Spicy Chicken Soft Taco. King Daddy loves spicy food and he considers it a good meal when sweat pops out on his forehead. But this was different. I watched him confidently take a big bite. His eyes bugged out. Not wanting to admit defeat, he took another one. Tears started streaming down his face. “I can’t eat this,” he said, painfully. As it turns out, Taco Bell discontinued the Spicy Chicken Soft Taco. I don’t know why.

Sriracha is another thing entirely. It has a nice gentle heat that lingers on the back of the tongue. It’s made from chili peppers, vinegar, garlic, sugar and salt and it’s half as hot as a jalapeno pepper. So not blow-your-head-off hot. It’s country of origin is Thailand, where I believe King Daddy and I will move after retirement just so we can get a good Bánh mì sandwich.

I generally do not like (fill in the name brand) cookbooks. They are always written to sell whatever the brand might be. But I have to say The Sriracha Cookbook that KD gave me for Christmas has turned out to be a pretty nifty find.

Sriracha-marinated flank steak

Author: Randy Clemons, The Siracha Cookbook

Recipe type: –

Cuisine: –

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 8

Sweet and spicy marinated flank steak.

Ingredients

6 cloves garlic
1 large onion, diced
1 small jalapeno
½ cup fresh cilantro, diced
2 tbsp kosher salt
Juice of 3 limes
Juice of 2 oranges
Juice of 1 lemon
⅓ cup Sriracha
¼ cup of tequila
¼ cup olive oil
4 pounds flank steak

Instructions

Finely chop or pulse the dry ingredients in a food processor. Add the fruit and other liquids. Mix until combined.
Place the meat in a large bowl or plastic bag and pour the marinade over the meat. For best results cover and refrigerate the meat for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight.
Allow the meat to warm up to room temperature before grilling (about 30 minutes). Remove the meat from the marinade and pat dry.
Preheat your grill to medium-high. Grill the meat for approximately 4-5 minutes per side or an internal temperature of 130 for a nice medium rare.
Cover with foil and let rest for several minutes. Once the meat has rested, cut in thin slices against the grain or chop in small pieces.

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April 16, 2013

My $100 tenderloin

Here’s how I justified buying a whole beef tenderloin for almost $100.

It was King Daddy’s and my 23rd anniversary. Never mind that I’d just seen Ina Garten preparing a luscious roasted tenderloin on The Chew. And I wanted to jump through the screen to grab a piece. There is nothing King Daddy likes more than a nice hunk of beef. For 23 years, King Daddy has put up with my OCD. Have I checked that the door is locked at least 9 times before leaving the house? Have I asked King Daddy repeatedly if the coffee maker’s off as we drive 180 miles on our vacation? Even though he’s complained bitterly about this, do I still have multiple Styrofoam cups of Diet Coke in the car at all times, fearing I will run out?

I actually rationalized this purchase by deciding that if I bought a whole tenderloin and butchered it myself I would end up with the bargain basement price of $6.50 a serving. If you are an impatient person, you can just scroll down to the finished product and the recipe. If you want to see how easy it is to take apart a whole tenderloin, follow along (and thank you – I was tremendously excited about this).

Here’s the whole tenderloin. If you do this yourself, there will be a moment where you stand before it with your very sharp knife and worry that you’re about to ruin this thing. Don’t be afraid. Here we go.

The first thing you do is take the “chain” off. It’s a long piece of meat you can literally separate with your hands. Some people think you can make stew meat out of this part, but I am not enough of a surgeon to do that.

There is a lobe of meat on the thick end of the tenderloin. You can also start to separate that with your hands. It’s that obvious. Cut it off, trim the fat and cut it into steaks. You should get three with some meat left over that will make dandy tenderloin kabobs. There are two smaller lobes on the other side. You know what to do. Then trim off the narrow, thin end of the tenderloin.

Look at all this extra meat! I freeze all of this in separate packages so that should my OCD get totally out of control I can appease King Daddy with some steak and eggs or grilled kabobs.

Take off the fat. Some of it you can literally pull off and some of it you’ll have to cut off with a knife. If you’re a purist you can render the fat, but I am not.

Remove the silver skin with a knife. It’s not edible and if you served a tenderloin at a dinner party with the silver skin still attached your guests would wonder what in the world you were thinking. If you turn the tenderloin over, you will notice some flaps of fat. Just pull those off.

And here’s the finished product. Ta-da! Start to finish, it takes about 20-30 minutes, depending on your fear level. So, now, without further ado, here is what you get after you use Ina Garten’s incredible recipe for Slow-Roasted Filet of Beef.

Perfectly medium rare throughout. King Daddy almost had a heart attack from the pure joy of it.

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April 14, 2013

Cheap steak

Grilled flat iron steak with chimichurri sauce

The acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree. Tonight in Knoxville, my budding chef son Noah is making flat iron steak for a little dinner party he’s throwing. Flat iron steak is the poor man and woman’s beef tenderloin. It hides out in the chuck section of the cow. Why is a tender juicy steak in one of the toughest parts of beef? God has a plan and sometimes that plan may include steak for everyone, even a poor college student.

I wrote about this beautiful piece of meat over on the Char-Broil Live site. The good folks at Char-Broil asked for an economical recipe for Tax Day. I hate tax day. But I was not going to throw out some goober recipe for Sloppy Joe’s (although I love them) or fish sticks (I actually hate those). My flat iron steak with chimichurri sauce actually weighs in at about $5 a serving for a family of four. Hike on over to the Char-Broil Live site for the recipe.

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April 4, 2013

Shepherd’s Pie

So today, as soon as King Daddy wakes up, we are off to the Great Smoky Mountains for our semi-annual Mayhew-Harbin-Mayhew family reunion. Of course, I have been up since 5:30 a.m. because it is my belief that when you go on vacation, you should leave the minute you get out of bed. Sadly, King Daddy does not subscribe to that belief.

We have grown this year at an alarming rate. The original group is the Tennessee Mayhews (Mark, Catherine and Noah), the Tennessee Harbin (Granbunny) and the North Carolina Mayhews (Josh, Tammy and Sydney). However, word of the hilarity that ensues when we get together has spread and this year the North Carolina Silversteins (my sister, Louise, and her children, Max and Ana), the Tennessee Shular (Bunny’s daughter-in-law, Rebecca) and the Georgia Utley (Jordan, Noah’s boyfriend) are joining us.

Food, of course, is our primary concern because we are, after all, in a remote area of the wilderness where the nearest grocery store is, oh, three miles away. So we must pack in all our provisions for three days so that every speck of counter space in our luxury cabin is covered with grocery bags. After all, we might starve.

Of course, I completely over-thought my main offering, which is supper tonight. I am not used to cooking for people who are highly concerned about where their next meal is coming from. So I made an enormous pan of Shepherd’s Pie because it is easy and because the ingredients will not break the bank.

By the way, here is a tip for you when cooking casseroles for a crowd. Never volunteer the ingredients. Invariably, someone will object to one or more of them on the basis that “they don’t like” fill-in-the-blank. For example, if someone says they don’t like onions I will look them straight in the eye and say there’s aren’t any onions in this casserole even though that is a bald faced lie.

Shepherd’s Pie (Serves 12)

2 pounds ground chuck

1 pound ground lamb

½ cup taco seasoning

1 medium onion

8 ounces fresh mushrooms, coarsely chopped

1 16-ounce bag frozen mixed vegetables

1 15.25 can white corn, drained

2 cans Campbell’s golden mushroom soup, undiluted

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

Salt and pepper to taste

Brown the chuck and lamb in a large sauté pan over medium high heat, draining excess grease. Add the taco seasoning, mix and place in a large bowl.

Sauté the onion in the same pan, adding a little vegetable oil if necessary, until it is translucent. Add the mushrooms and continue cooking until the mushrooms give up all their liquid. Add to the meat mixture along with the remaining ingredients.

Spoon the meat mixture into a 13 ¼ inch by 9 5/8 inch disposable pan (I bought the Hefty All-Purpose Pan with Cover). Top with mashed potatoes. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until the pie is thoroughly hot.

Mashed potatoes

7-8 medium to large red potatoes

1 stick butter

Whole milk

½ cup sour cream

Salt and pepper to taste

Chop the potatoes into chunks, leaving the skins on, and cook in boiling water until tender. Drain and add the butter. When the butter has melted, mash the potatoes with a potato masher until smooth. Begin adding the milk, and continue mashing until potatoes are the consistency you like. Mix in the sour cream with a spoon and salt and pepper to taste.

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February 13, 2013

Anne Burrell’s braised beef short ribs

I love situational ethics, don’t you? So when Noah was much younger, his adventurous eating gene hadn’t kicked in yet and I would make two dinners. For him, for years, it was mini cheese ravioli with butter. Or mayonnaise, salt and pepper sandwiches. I know. I think that second one borders on child abuse, but he really liked them. Then I made a grown-up supper for Mark and me. And Mark ragged on me mercilessly about Dammit Boy dictating his dinner.

For Lent this year, I am going vegetarian three days a week. “Good luck with that,” Mark said, not taking into consideration that the days of making two meals for supper is long gone. Mark is a meat maniac. He would brush his teeth with liver pate if it weren’t so expensive. But he didn’t say a word after wishing me luck. You know how that silent treatment goes. I filled the void thinking about vegetarian dishes he would actually eat. I stopped after anything involving portobello mushrooms, which is the only meat substitute King Daddy recognizes.

If I were a stronger person, I would not have done what I ended up doing. I would have shoved sticks and twigs down his throat and forced him to smile while chewing. But I am not a strong person and I ended up making Anne Burrell’s terrific recipe for short ribs and a big pot of chili, food I will not be able to consume but which will keep Mark from crying like a baby at dinnertime.

And you know what? How the screw does turn. While I spent five hours providing him with alternate meals, he did not say a word.

The recipe calls for bone-in short ribs, but I often find the ones at the supermarket are too skimpy. Costco has beautiful boneless short ribs that work just as well. Also, the recipe in Anne’s wonderful Cook Like A Rock Star includes horseradish, a nice kick. So I included it in the recipe on the blog, but the recipe on the Food Network site leaves it out. You choose.

Anne Burrell’s Braised Beef Short Ribs

6 bone-in short ribs (about 5 3/4 pounds)
Kosher salt
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 large Spanish onion, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 ribs celery, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 carrots, peeled, cut in 1/2 lengthwise, then cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 1/2 cups tomato paste
1/3 cup horseradish

2 to 3 cups hearty red wine
2 cups water
1 bunch fresh thyme, tied with kitchen string
2 bay leavesSeason each short rib generously with salt. Coat a pot large enough to accommodate all the meat and vegetables with olive oil and bring to a high heat. Add the short ribs to the pan and brown very well, about 2 to 3 minutes per side. Do not overcrowd pan. Cook in batches, if necessary.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

While the short ribs are browning, puree all the vegetables and garlic in the food processor until it forms a coarse paste. When the short ribs are very brown on all sides, remove them from the pan. Drain the fat, coat the bottom of same pan with fresh oil and add the pureed vegetables. Season the vegetables generously with salt and brown until they are very dark and a crud has formed on the bottom of the pan, approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Scrape the crud and let it reform. Scrape the crud again. Add the tomato paste and horseradish. Brown the tomato paste for 4 to 5 minutes. Add the wine and scrape the bottom of the pan. Lower the heat if things start to burn. Reduce the mixture by half.

Return the short ribs to the pan and add 2 cups water or until the water has just about covered the meat. Add the thyme bundle and bay leaves. Cover the pan and place in the preheated oven for 3 hours. Check periodically during the cooking process and add more water, if needed. Turn the ribs over halfway through the cooking time. Remove the lid during the last 20 minutes of cooking to let things get nice and brown and to let the sauce reduce. When done the meat should be very tender but not falling apart. Serve with the braising liquid.

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January 16, 2013

The best spaghetti sauce ever

Betsy, Kim and I were having a conversation today over our horseradish Cheddar, apple and bacon sandwiches at CRC about spaghetti sauce. Kim’s mom used tomato paste in hers, Betsy’s grandmother used the juice from the jars of tomatoes she put up every fall and I use canned crushed tomatoes. There is no “best spaghetti sauce ever” because the best spaghetti sauce is the one your mom or grandma made.

I got on here tonight to post a really good recipe for baked spaghetti, but when I went back to find the sauce recipe in the archives I figured out I’d never actually posted it. Here I have the “best spaghetti sauce ever” and I haven’t even posted the recipe. What a moron.

So here’s why this is the best spaghetti sauce in our family. We are meaty sauce people. We like a hint of tomato as a background note to meat, specifically ground chuck. We like the depth of flavor a good dose of dry red wine gives the sauce. I like to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food. And we like a lot of oregano. This may not be your cup of tea, but I am an award-winning spaghetti sauce cook at 5117.

Tomorrow, the baked spaghetti. Tonight, the sauce. And do I need to remind you how to cook the pasta? Here you go.

Spaghetti Sauce

2 pounds ground chuck

2 teaspoons salt

½ cup finely diced carrot

½ cup finely diced onion

2 large cloves garlic, chopped

1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes

1 cup dry red wine

1 ½ tablespoons dried oregano

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

Salt and pepper to taste.

Brown the chuck in a large Dutch oven over medium high heat, adding the 2 teaspoons salt. About halfway through browning, add the carrot and onion. Continue cooking until the vegetables are soft and translucent, the grease has disappeared and the meat is liberally browned. Add the garlic and cook for about a minute.

Add the crushed tomatoes, red wine, oregano and paprika. Lower heat to medium low and simmer for 30 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings with salt and pepper.

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December 20, 2012

Meat pies

So we will now begin the South in my Mouth Christmas Countdown of gluttonous snacks you will so regret eating on Jan. 1. This will culminate on Christmas morning with the celebrated Sausage Bagel, a source of great regret in the Mayhew household for more than 20 years. But we still keep eating them.

Filling the pies

But I digress. Noah has returned from college for the Christmas Break, bringing a ravenous appetite and the desire to go where no college junior has gone before in culinary realms. “Let’s make meat pies, Mom,” he says randomly one day. Well, alrighty then. Let’s make meat pies. Like any adventurous cook, he spurns the written recipe. We just go to my beloved Publix and begin randomly shopping for ingredients. Lamb. Ground lamb. An inspired choice. The usual suspects: carrots, onions, peas. But what to bind this meat pie mixture with? Noah instinctively heads for the soup section to snatch a can of Cream of Mushroom. I hesitate. I believe the addition of Cream of Mushroom soup will yield a mixture that resembles Alpo. But right next to the C of M is something that looks promising: Golden Mushroom condensed soup. What the hell. This turns out to be my best surprise discovery of the month, maybe the year. This stuff is awesome.

It is reassuring that Southern cooks never have to apologize for condensed soup of any stripe. We embrace it.

So we make the meat pies. They are tremendously good. We eat them all that night.

If you do not want to go to the trouble of making individual meat pies, you can simply put the pie dough in a regular pie pan, add the filling and top with the second crust. It will eat just as well.

Meat Pies

1 pound ground lamb

1 pound ground chuck

4 teaspoons taco seasoning

1 cup diced carrots

1 cup diced onions

1 ½ cups shoe-peg corn

½ cup frozen peas

1 can Campbell’s Golden Mushroom condensed soup

2 packages refrigerated pie dough

Shredded cheese (you pick)

1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Add 2 teaspoons of salt and a generous sprinkling of pepper to the lamb and chuck. Brown in a large skillet, draining excess grease. Add the taco seasoning and mix well. Reserve.

In the same pan, sauté the carrots and onions, adding a sprinkling of salt and pepper, until the vegetables are translucent and beginning to brown.

In a large bowl, combine the meats, the carrots and onions, the corn, frozen peas and the soup.

Unroll the pie dough and cut circles with a 3-inch biscuit cutter. The dough should yield 48 circles.

Place a generous tablespoon of meat filling on 24 circles. Top each with grated cheese and another dough circle, crimping the edges of the pie to seal in the filling. Brush each pie with beaten egg. Make a small incision in the top of each pie to let steam escape.

Bake for 25 minutes or until tops of the pies are golden brown.

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December 15, 2012

Sloppy Joe’s and Tater Tots

How does comfort food become comfort food? I don’t know. But comfort food falls into that category of things you eat over and over even though they may be humble. Processed, even. Sometimes found in your grocer’s freezer section. Or in a can.

For as long as we’ve been married, Sloppy Joe’s and Tater Tots have been the go-to meal when time is short, nerves are frayed, feet are sore and bones are tired. The Sloppy Joe’s must be made with Manwich sauce. People may tell you they have an award-winning homemade recipe for Sloppy Joe’s, but it will never stand up to the glory that is Manwich. Original, of course. The meat must be 80-20 ground chuck. Never ground turkey. The chuck must be browned in its fat until the fat disappears. Never drain chuck. The meat gets crispy browned bits because of it. Embrace the bits.

The buns must be one of two types: French or Hawaiian rolls. Buttered and broiled until brown. If you use French rolls you get one Sloppy Joe. If you use Hawaiian rolls you get three. We often use Hawaiian rolls.

The Tater Tots must be Ore-Ida. Either mini or regular-sized. They must be dusted with Cajun seasoning before entering the oven. Ketchup is the preferred sauce for dunking. Any kind of ketchup will do.

I know some of you are mocking me now. I can hear you. But try it. Just try the magic combination of Manwich on buttered broiled buns and Tater Tots. You will become a believer, I promise. Oh, to add insult to injury, Mark likes his with processed American cheese slices. No substitutes.

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November 12, 2012

Brisket chili

Brisket chili with cornbread croutons

Alrighty, I know this recipe presupposes that you happen to have some smoked brisket hanging around. And, yes, because I have two smokers and a terrific contraption from Char-Broil called the Grill Top Infuser, I did have some smoked brisket for this recipe.

But I want to suggest a couple of things to you. First of all, if you don’t want to bother with smoked brisket, you can just use a pound of ground beef. Browned, of course. The chili recipe is still a good one. But the other thing is that you go to your local barbecue restaurant and just buy some smoked brisket. Why? Because it makes a deeply satisfying chili that’s just a little different from the usual stuff.

And, yes, you want to attempt the cornbread croutons. Here’s the thing. They’re very delicate because cornbread, as it is wont to do, crumbles. So when you cut the cubes, you must delicately place them on a cookie sheet, drizzle them with melted butter and then just leave them alone. If you attempt to toss them, you will have cornbread crumbles. Which may be just fine, come to think of it.

Brisket Chili

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 cup diced red onion

¾ cup diced red pepper

2 tablespoons minced garlic

2 cups chopped smoked brisket

1 15-ounce can tomato sauce

1 15-ounce can kidney beans

1 10-ounce can Rotel diced tomatoes with green chiles

½ square unsweetened baking chocolate

2 tablespoons chili powder

½ teaspoons ancho chili powder

1 ½ teaspoons cumin

1 teaspoon oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the vegetable oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat and add the onion and red pepper. Saute until the onions and peppers until they are translucent and beginning to turn brown. Add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute.

Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer over low heat for an hour.

Note: The unsweetened chocolate doesn’t make the chili sweet. It just deepens the flavors. It’s a “umami” thing. Look it up.

Cornbread croutons

Leftover cornbread

Melted butter

Salt and pepper

Cajun seasoning

Cut the cornbread into cubes. Spread on a cookie sheet and drizzle with melted butter. Season with salt, pepper and Cajun seasoning. Bake at 400 degrees until browned and crispy.

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Category Archives: beef

How to grill a steak

Sriracha-marinated flank steak

My $100 tenderloin

Cheap steak

Shepherd’s Pie

Anne Burrell’s braised beef short ribs

The best spaghetti sauce ever

Meat pies

Sloppy Joe’s and Tater Tots

Brisket chili

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