Vegetable Beef Lo Mein

There’s something about eating noodles with chopsticks that, to me, has always seemed supremely exotic and fun. I know that sounds provincial, as quite literally half of the world eats noodles with chopsticks as an everyday occurrence and thinks nothing of it.

Growing up in the 80’s though, in suburban New England, films in which New Yorkers ate Chinese take-out straight from the box with chopsticks, always made me want Chinese food. Now, when I find myself in a standard American Chinese restaurant, I can’t pass up the lo mein. But, as with any food, I like to know what’s in it and where it came from, so I like to make my own Lo Mein at home.

This is a colorful dish, great to serve as a main course. The beef tenderizes as it marinates in ginger and soy sauce, resulting in satisfyingly tender chunks of beef. Bell peppers and snow peas add color and the udon noodles offer the perfect tooth.

Vegetable Beef Lo Mein – serves 4-6

1 1/2 lb well-marbled beef sirloin tips, cut against the grain into 1 inch cubes
1/4 C soy sauce
1 T grated ginger
1 8 oz package udon noodles
2 T olive oil
1 red bell pepper
1 orange or yellow bell pepper
1 C snap peas, de-strung
1 onion, chopped

Combine the ginger and soy sauce, and toss with the beef. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the noodles as directed. Drain, rinse and toss with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in the colander. Set aside.

Over medium-low heat, caramelize the onions for 10 minutes. Add the peppers and snow peas. Cook for an additional 10 minutes until the colors become vibrant, watching the heat to be sure not to burn the vegetables. Remove from heat.

In a deep sauté pan or shallow stock pot, bring the olive oil to a shimmer over medium-high heat. Add the beef, lower the heat to medium/medium-low and saute for 10 – 12 minutes, until the juices begin to thicken.

Add the noodles to the beef and toss. Turn off the heat, add the vegetables and toss.

Serve hot.

Beef Empanadas

I made a lovely locally raised, grass-fed top round roast the other day. I should say, it was lovely, until I tragically overcooked it. Horrors, I know.

What do you do when life gives you overcooked grass-fed top round roast? Make empanadas. That’s what I always say.

This is a good recipe for any leftover beef, overcooked or not. But, if the meat is a little on the dry or tough side, the acidity in the vinegar and tomato paste will help to break down it as it rests in the fridge.

It seems a little odd to add raisins to a meat dish, doesn’t it? Go with me on this one though. Raisins lend little bursts of sweetness, while cured black olives – I like oily, wrinkly Gaetas – bring a briny punch. Together as a team, they give empanadas a nice balance.

Beef Empanadas - makes 8

2 C diced roast beef
2 T olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, diced
3 green onions, finely chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
2 T vinegar
2 T tomato paste
1 t ground cumin
1 t smoked paprika
1/2 t granulated garlic
2 C all purpose flour
1/2 t salt
1/4 C shortening, chilled
1/2 C cold water
1/4 C raisins
10 cured black olives, pitted and minced (the brinier the better)
1 egg, beaten

Sweat the onions and diced jalapeno in olive oil on low to medium-low heat, being careful not to let them brown.

Combine the vinegar, tomato paste and spices in a small bowl.

In a larger bowl toss the meat with the spice mixture and sauteed vegetables. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Meanwhile, make the pastry: Pulse the flour, salt and shortening in a food processor until it has the texture of cornmeal. Gradually pour the water into the feed tube while the dough spins. Turn the dough out and form it into a log, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator and slice into eight discs. Roll each one out to about 7 or 8 inches in diameter, they should be about a 1/4 of an inch thick.

Remove the beef mixture from the refrigerator and toss with the raising and olive (we’re doing this after the big chill to avoid the raisins from macerating).

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Working one by one, scoop a slightly heaping 1/4 cup of the beef mixture onto one side of a round of dough. Fold the dough over and press the edges together. Starting from one end, fold the dough over itself along the edge and pinch it slightly to form a seal. Place each empanada onto a greased baking sheet.

Brush each one with the beaten egg.

Bake for 10 – 15 minutes until lightly golden in color.

Serve with a nice big dollop of sour cream and a nice big glass of sangria.

Ingredient origins: beef – Maine; egg – New Hampshire; vinegar and flour – Vermont; yellow onion – California; green onion and jalapeno pepper – Mexico; smoked paprika – Spain; olive oil, olives, tomato paste and sea salt – Italy; shortening, raisins, granulated garlic and cumin – unknown

New England Boiled Dinner

There’s always all kinds of hubbub over corned beef and cabbage this time of year. My grandmother used to make New England Boiled Dinner, which is similar. Made with more winter vegetables, it’s a whole meal in itself, including potatoes, parsnips and carrots.

The cabbage and potatoes take on the corned beef’s brininess, which is complemented by the sweetness of the carrots and parsnips, making this one-pot meal a perfect spectrum of flavor.

New England Boiled Dinner – serves 4 – 6

4 medium boiling potatoes
2.5 lb gray (nitrate free) corned beef brisket
1 small head cabbage
4 carrots
water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Place the corned beef brisket in a large oven safe dutch oven and just cover with water. Place on a burner and bring to a simmer over high heat.

Meanwhile peel the potatoes and cut into quarters. Cut the cabbage into eight wedges and remove the core.

Cover the beef with the cabbage and potatoes. Transfer the dutch oven to the oven and cook, covered for 1 hour.

Using tongs, gently lift the potatoes out of the liquid and submerge the carrots and parsnips. Cover again with the potatoes, being careful not to crush them. Return to the oven and cook for 1 hour.

Remove the corned beef and transfer to a cutting board. Allow to rest 10 minutes before slicing. Plate with cabbage, potato, parsnip, carrot, and little bit of broth. Serve hot.

Ingredient origins: Nitrate free corned beef – Massachusetts; Parsnips – Massachusetts; Potatoes – California; Organic Cabbage – Mexico, Carrots – California

Classic Meatloaf

Like many children of the 80s, my mother worked full time and cooked every dinner. Although my mother was (and is) an expert at getting home at 5 and having a nutritious and interesting dinner on the table by 7, it was decided at one point when I was in elementary school that my father would make dinner one night per week, in addition to his weekend morning pancake and bacon feasts.

This meatloaf made a regular appearance when my father cooked. Despite our family’s utter lack of interest in anything sports related, my father dubbed it “football” meatloaf because of its free-form shape. What’s great about free-form meatloaf, as opposed to meatloaf baked in a loaf pan, is that the air circulates around the whole loaf, preventing it from becoming soggy or saturated in its own fat.

I’ve taken it a step further and devised a drainage system by forming a little dish out of aluminum foil to catch the drippings and placing the “football” on a cooling rack to keep it off of the pan and prevent soggage. Also, I like to buy whole beef and grind it at home to ensure that what we’re forming into a loaf is actually “meat” and not the odds and ends of trimmings that often compile ground meat sold in stores. Sirloin works nicely, or even just stew meat.

As common as it is these days to make updated or “grown-up” versions of old classics, the idea makes me cringe sometimes. Why mess with perfection? Sure harissa, truffle oil, and chipotle peppers have their place. Just not in my meatloaf. Because once you start updating comfort food, it’s no longer comfort food. It then becomes a bizzaro, exaggerated carnival act of what had been a comfort food. And sure you could make a glaze, but free-form meatloaf forms a crust on its own. And it’s not a cake, okay? So just back off.

This recipe is the classic, quintessential meatloaf intended to be served with buttery mashed potatoes and (gasp!) perhaps a bit of ketchup.

No truffle oil (which by the way, is kind of 7 years ago). No garlic. No herbs. Nothing new-agey (not that truffle oil, garlic or herbs are new-agey). Just plain old meatloaf and mash.

Classic Meatloaf – serves 4

2 lb freshly ground beef
1 egg, beaten
1/4 C whole or 2 % milk
1/4 C bread crumbs
2 T tomato paste
1/2 t salt
1/4 C finely diced or grated onion
1 T Worcestershire sauce

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

To create the little dripping catcher, cut foil into a square about 12″x12″. It doesn’t have to be exact. Fold up the edges and fold the corners into themselves to create walls. Place the foil onto a baking sheet and place a cooling rack over the foil.

Using your hands, mix the ground beef with the other ingredients. Form the meat into an oval loaf and place on top of the cooling rack.

Bake for 1 hour or a little longer until it gets to 160 degrees in the center. Allow to rest 10 minutes before serving. Serve with buttery mashed potatoes and a green salad.

Ingredient origins: Organic Beef – unknown; Bread crumbs – New Jersey; Tomato paste – California; Salt – Maine; Onion – California; Worcestershire Sauce – California

Slow Cooked Beef Stock

It is raining, cold and windy here today. There are whitecaps out on the water and raindrops on the windows. It’s the perfect weather for making a nice soup. Homemade stock makes all the difference with soup. Sure, it’s easy to open up a carton of beef or chicken stock, but it’s just as easy to make a good stock at home, it just takes a little while longer.

A few simple ingredients arranged in the slow cooker, covered with water, and voila! 12 hours later, you have a rich, flavorful stock and a house filled with the aroma of homemade soup. What’s great about using the slow cooker for stock is that you don’t have to keep an eye on it or worry about it boiling over. Even set to high, the water content of the stock keeps it just under a simmer. Marrow lends sweet undertones to the stock and the veggies keep the beat.

Note: After a chat with our friendly butcher, I learned that marrow is sadly under appreciated these days and because it is, it’s always a good idea to ask the butcher for a fresh cut of marrow or soup bone if you’re buying it in a supermarket, because (horrors!) due to low demand, they often don’t replace the bones that are out in the refrigerator case and they could be a few days old.

Slow Cooker Beef Stock – Makes 4 cups

1.5 lb beef marrow bone
1 large potato, peeled
2 carrots
1 onion
1 celery
3 sprigs parsley
2 quarts water

Loosely chop vegetables and arrange the bones, vegetables, parsley and peppercorns in slow cooker.

Cover with 2 quarts water and cook on high for 12 hours.

Using a slotted spoon, remove bones and large vegetables from stock to prevent splatters. Pour the rest through a mesh strainer and into a stockpot or heat proof bowl (or whatever… it’s your kitchen). Discard bones and vegetables.

Allow the stock to cool in the refrigerator for at least one hour. Remove solidified fat with a slotted spoon.

Use the stock to make a tasty homemade soup, sauce or gravy.

Ingredient origins: Beef marrow bone – unknown; Organic potato – Maine; Organic Carrots – unknown; Organic onion – Washington; Organic celery – unknown; Organic parsley – Massachusetts; Peppercorns – India. As you can probably guess, a lot of these ingredients were purchased at a conventional supermarket, which is an unfortunate fact of life in winter in New England. Sometimes the best we can do is purchase as thoughtfully as possible, given the circumstances, so in this case I tried to keep to organic produce. Oftentimes though, even if an item is raised organically, the location of origin is not disclosed because the distributor buys from many different suppliers. I think it may be time though to consider signing up for a meat share