Recipe: Donnelly Swiss Steak

Donnelly Swiss Steak

Donnelly Swiss Steak over buttered noodles.

I snagged this Swiss Steak recipe from neighbor and Facebook friend Jackie Donnelly. She spends much of her time studying microflora in the nearby forests, so I suspected that anything which would lure her indoors had to be pretty exceptional. Serves 4 with lots of gravy to be mopped up. (Note: because the meat will cook fall-apart tender, you won’t end up with discrete flats of steak as in the traditional recipe using tenderized beef.)

Ingredients:
1 ½ lb or more beef chuck steak, with most fat trimmed
½ c all purpose flour
1 t Kosher salt
1 t granulated garlic or garlic powder
½ t ground black pepper
2 T olive oil
½ c red wine
1 can Campbell’s French Onion Soup
1 can Ro-Tel stewed tomatoes with chiles (original version preferred)
5-6 cloves of garlic, sliced thin

Method: season flour with salt, garlic powder and pepper and mix. Dredge steak in this flour to coat all sides. Heat oil in a pot (like the inner pot of an Instant Pot on Sauté setting) and brown meat on all sides. Pour over wine and simmer briefly. Add soup (undiluted) and tomatoes, mix in, bring to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Scatter garlic slices on top and cover; reduce heat to a low simmer and cook until meat is fall-apart tender (3-4 hours OR 45 minutes in Instant Pot with natural release).

Swiss Steak Chicago Italian

The flavor reminded me of Chicago Beef, so I couldn’t resist

Thicken the gravy: remove meat to a separate bowl with a slotted spoon; reserve. Add seasoned flour to the liquid in the pan in sprinkles, stirring constantly. Continue to add flour and stir until the liquid becomes viscous with fat bubbles. Return meat to the pan and stir to combine with gravy. Serve over mashed potatoes or noodles.

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Recipe: 1905 Salad

1905 Salad

1905 Salad.

Local bon vivant and restauranteur Vic Christopher said on Facebook that the 1905 Salad is his all-time favorite, so we had to check it out. It comes from Columbia Restaurant, a “Spanish-Cuban” chain in Florida. What makes 1905 Salad work is the funkiness of long-marinated garlic and dried oregano mixed at the table with parm, lemon juice and a generous dollop of Worcestershire. The salad ingredients themselves can be adapted to your taste; next time we’d definitely use romaine vs iceberg lettuce. Makes 1 main or 2 side salads.

Ingredients:

½ c good olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 t dried oregano
2 T white wine vinegar

2 c iceberg lettuce, torn into bite size pieces
¼ c cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
¼ c provolone or swiss cheese, julienne
¼ c baked ham, julienne
¼ c green Spanish olives
2 T grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 ½ t lemon juice

Method: combine first 4 ingredients to make “1905” dressing. Macerate at least overnight and ideally longer. At serving time, mix lettuce with half the dressing (reserve the rest for a future batch) plus lemon juice and Worcestershire. Add toppings and lightly toss before serving.

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Recipe: Thanh Long Garlic Noodles

Thanh Long Garlic Noodles

Thanh Long Garlic Noodles with a sprinkling of lumpfish red caviar.

Thanh Long is an upscale Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco, famous for its garlic noodles. That dish is currently $15 at the restaurant ($43 if you add four grilled giant tiger prawns) but we can make it at home for a buck or two. Thanks to Kenji and the folks he credits for sussing out the formula, a happy marriage of garlic+butter+umami. Serves 4 as a side dish or 2 entrée portions.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb dry spaghetti
20 garlic cloves, minced (about 1/3 c)
4 T unsalted butter
2 t oyster sauce
1 t light soy sauce
1 t fish sauce
2 heaping T grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese
Sliced green onions for garnish (optional)
Seafood add-ins such as fish roe, grilled shrimp, lox (optional)

Method: sauté garlic in butter in a large skillet until it is fragrant but not browned. Mix in the sauces. Meanwhile, cook spaghetti in a second skillet with just enough water to cover. Cook until it is barely al dente.

Garlic Noodles with Lox

Garlic Noodles go great with seafood, like some lox trim.

Transfer the cooked spaghetti to the pan with garlic butter mixture, with tongs or drained but reserving pasta cooking water. Add cheese and toss over high heat until cheese is melted; add a little of the reserved pasta water to make a thick sauce. Garnish with sliced green onions and seafood as desired. Serve immediately.

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Topping focaccia flatbread

Topping focaccia or flatbread with artichoke at Night Work Bread.

My excellent local bakery, Night Work Bread, offers a rotating menu of imaginative focaccia aka flatbread topping ideas. The base is a long fermented sourdough juiced up with a little yeast so it is light and fluffy but with a bit of a tang. My favorite topping is artichoke hearts, quartered and covering most of the surface; they’ve also featured tomato and thin sliced yellow summer squash among other things.

My Tomato Artichoke Focaccia

We placed tomato slices and artichokes on top before final rise; they stayed on top rather than becoming embedded.

I set out to recreate this focaccia topping using our Fast Focaccia recipe while also solving a problem. Night Works applies their flatbread topping halfway through the cooking process (that’s my theory anyway) which means the bread in exposed areas is pasty (see the center area in above photo) and some of the topping falls off before you can get it in your mouth. I tried putting the topping on before the second rise, with the dough in the baking pan, but the ingredients just sit on top as the bread rises.

My Tomato Garlic Focaccia

We used the “dimpling” method to press thin tomato slices into the dough before baking. Better! Thin sliced tomato, caramelized onion and garlic.

For the next bake I added topping after the final rise, just before the focaccia dough goes in the oven, and pressed it down into the dough with the “dimpling” action typically used to poke holes in focaccia dough before baking. This turns out to be the solution. The topping is embedded in the flatbread so it doesn’t fall off, and as a bonus the ingredients add flavor to the surrounding dough instead of just sitting on top.

I am happy that Trader Joe’s frozen Artichoke Hearts are back in stock because they are not overly moist so can easily crisp up during the bake. Moist ingredients, like the canned artichokes I used in a pinch when the Trader Joe product was out of stock, do not crisp up and can make the dough soggy. Going to make a batch tonight, possibly combined with some roasted fennel and a bit of red onion.

Cinnamon Sugar Focaccia

Today’s food porn: cinnamon sugar focaccia from Night Work Bread.

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World class fruit from Frog Hollow Farm

Frog Hollow Blood Orange

World class fruit: Moro Blood Orange from Frog Hollow Farm

“Farmer” Al Courchesne is an old friend, so when I say his Frog Hollow Farm sells world class fruit you can take it with a grain of salt. But it’s true! First time I met Al was at his stand at the Saturday Farmer’s Market in Ferry Plaza in San Francisco. After the market closed we went down Fisherman’s Wharf and deep into a pier warehouse where Al loaded a 55 gallon drum of some mysterious seaweed into the bed of his truck; he planned to spread it under his peach trees to feed them. Did this salt water slurry help to produce better fruit? I have no idea but it’s an example of his relentless pursuit of perfection.

A typical result is the magnificent Moro Blood Orange shown here. You can see that the fruit is juicy, fleshy and perfect in appearance. What you can’t see (I should have tossed a penny on the tray for scale) is that these oranges are as big as your head, or anyway as big as a “regular” (eg Valencia or Navel) orange, vs the smaller size of most blood oranges. And it tastes every bit as good as you would expect; I eat my blood orange sections with a saucer under my chin so I don’t lose a drop of the gusher of juice when you bite into it.

Frog Hollow Shipping Box

Arriving in the depth of winter, my Frog Hollow fruit was a welcome treat

Frog Hollow Farm is in Brentwood, CA, a community on the far east end of the Bay Area with hot, sunny growing seasons like the San Joaquin valley. You can find them at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market on Saturdays, but most folks will have to mail order from their website. The fruit is not cheap, so folks placing an order might be in the mindset of “I want the best possible product and I’m willing to pay for it”. And in perspective a food extravagance is an affordable luxury when you compare it to other luxuries like a Rolex, a cybertruck or a condo in the new Adelphi Residences in my town.

That town would be Saratoga Springs, NY, an upstate village which awakens from its torpor for a few weeks each summer to become the center of the horse racing world. The races attract a lot of wealth and in particular a class of wealthy individual for whom spending freely is a lifestyle choice; if you have that much money to throw around it must mean you or your horses are winning big.

We have Salt & Char, a high end steakhouse where you will struggle to dine for less than $100 per person (and why should you if you just hit the daily double). And Omakaze, where you can easily drop $200 on sushi so fresh it swims into your mouth. You could fill your table with Frog Hollow fruit for the same amount and have the comfort of knowing chef Bobby Flay, “Barstool Sports” guy Dave Portnoy or ex-NFL coach Bill Parcells (three locals who are frequently cited as embodying the pursuit of the good life) could enjoy no better fruit.

Looking for a special something for that hard to please someone? In search of a client gift that will truly stand out? Frog Hollow has you covered. Full disclosure, I did not pay for the fruit shown here but have happily done so on other occasions and so should you. World class fruit from Frog Hollow Farm is available here; that link will currently get you a 10% discount because even though you don’t mind spending it feels good to save.

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Man drools, bread rules.

Man Drools Bread Rules

Sourdough loaf that resisted my best efforts to ruin it.

“Man drools, bread rules” is a phrase Jeffrey Hamelman would bring out in his bread baking classes at King Arthur Flour when a dough was taking longer to rise than expected. This loaf is an case in point. After carefully following a process in several recent bakes and getting so-so results, this time I ignored most of my timetables and the result was just about perfect. The bread was in charge, not me.

I had some leftover starter from my most recent Cardamon Date Bread bake and was out of sandwich bread. It seemed like a logical plan to make a basic Batard using 100% King Arthur All Purpose Flour.

Right off the bat, my recently lively starter got an attack of the shies. After feeding then proofing overnight, some areas were shiny and bubbly but others looked like they had just been mixed. I spoon-combined these elements and gave it a couple more hours then proceeded with fingers crossed.

I mixed a very standard 65% dough and planned a nice long autolyze, then remembered I had to leave for an early evening meeting. Quickly kneaded the bread and back in the proofer. Came home 3 hours later to find i had risen… somewhat. Transferred to a Ziploc bag and refrigerated overnight.

Today Bread

Stop showing off, bread!

Next morning I shaped the loaf on the counter and forgot about it so it sat for 2 hours, not the 20 minutes or so which would be desirable. Transferred to a couche and again in the proofer, hoping for the best. 3 hours later the loaf had risen somewhat. The top inside the couche was jiggly, like a jello that moves when you shake the container, and a finger pressed into the dough made an impression which came back slowly which is what you want.

Went into a dutch oven preheated to 440 degrees with the usual +-15 minutes covered, 30 more minutes open and checked for doneness. 211 degrees on my probe, nice thump on the bottom, done as you see here. In spite of many efforts to sabotage, the loaf was just about perfect. Man/woman/he/she drools, bread/it rules.

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Taste test: Mirin and other Asian cooking wines

Mirin Taste Test

Mirin Taste Test: Kikkoman vs Morita.

We have too many bottles of Mirin, the sweet Japanese cooking wine. Time for a taste test to winnow down the supply. Kikkoman Aji-Mirin, the brand you probably have in your pantry as well, is the obvious keeper. Or is it?

The ingredients in Kikkoman Aji-Mirin according to the label are Glucose Syrup, Water, Alcohol, Rice, Corn Syrup, Salt. The most important ingredient for this “rice seasoning”, namely rice, does not appear till the fourth ingredient. The taste is overwhelmingly sugary with just a hint of a rice wine element. Boil it down, and you could use this on pancakes.

Compare to Morita Yuuki Mirin, a higher end product which is widely available including on Amazon (affiliate link!). It’s superior in every way. Yes, it’s sweet. But there is underlying complexity. You can recognize the clean dry taste of fermented rice and also a definite hint of alcohol. Ingredients for this one are Organic Rice, Organic Malted Rice, Salt, Organic Sugar, Alcohol. Different, no?

For a few more $$ you can get Osawa Mirin, a product that is aged 9 months and contains no added sugar. Ingredients are Organic Sweet Rice, Organic Distilled Rice Wine (water, organic sweet rice, koji seed), Organic Rice Koji (Rice, koji seed), Sea Salt.

Recommendation: if you have a bottle of Kikkoman Aji-Mirin, send it straight to the garbage and replace with one of the other two choices, That’s what we’re doing at Burnt My Fingers, and you know what penny pinchers we are. Since we already have a bottle of Morita we’ll use that up then treat ourselves to Osawa.

While we’re at it, how about a comparison to Xiaoxing, the go-to cooking wine for Chinese (especially Szechuan) recipes. It’s a very different product. To our palate it’s like a watered down dry sherry with salt added (to skirt any alcohol regs by making it a “cooking wine”). We would certainly consider an actual dry sherry as a substitute, and while we’re at it a nice cream sherry could probably stand in for Morita Yuuki Mirin. But the mirin is cheaper, so save the sherry for your drinking pleasure. Kampai!

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Recipe: Baba Ganoush with Yoghurt

Baba Ganoush

Baba Ganoush with Yoghurt.

I wanted to replicate the wonderfully creamy baba ganoush at Bon Appetit Cafe, my local Mediterranean (actually Egyptian) place. Adding a bit of high quality whole milk yogurt (like this from Argyle Cheese Farmer) may be the solution. The creaminess makes the babaganoush extra easy to spread and dip. Makes about 3 cups.

2 medium eggplants, a bit over 2 lbs
Olive oil
Smoked paprika (optional)
Ground cumin (optional)
¼ c tahini
2 T lemon juice
3 cloves garlic, minced
Cayenne or other hot pepper to taste*
½ t Kosher salt
¼ c Greek yogurt, plain made with whole milk

Slice the eggplants in half lengthwise. Brush the cut edges with olive oil then sprinkle with optional cumin and smoked paprika. (I didn’t have access to an open grill to make the eggplant smoky and thought this might add a bit of equivalent flavor.) Place cut side down on a Silpat or parchment paper on a cookie sheet and bake in 400 degree oven until eggplant is very soft. Let cool the scroop out the eggplant from the skin or squeeze it out into a bowl. Drain over a colander then transfer to a container and refrigerate, covered, overnight.

In the morning additional liquid will appear in the eggplant container. Drain. Add to a food processor along with minced garlic (you can chop it in the food processor before adding eggplant), tahini, lemon juice, salt and yogurt. Process until very smooth. Garnish with a sprinkle of sumac if you like. Serve with pita wedges or vegetables such as carrot, celery or bell pepper batons.

*At Bon Appetit Cafe they will ask you “how spicy do you like it?” I don’t think of baba ganoush as a spicy item but you can experiment if you like.

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Best oven temperature for baking bread?

Olive Bread Comparison

Acme Olive Bread at right, our copycat at left. We’re just a bit darker due to more whole wheat flour, something easily adjusted.

Lately we have been tinkering with our Acme Style Olive Bread recipe and wanted to see how close we were to the original. We purchased a batard of the Acme product on our recent trip to the bay area and froze it for the plane ride back. Then we baked our own and it’s in the ballpark! Taste, texture and tartness all very similar, and the crust added a finish without being “crusty”.

We baked this loaf in a cast iron dutch oven preheated to 440 degrees and this seems to be the best oven temperature for baking bread that is hard enough to stand up to a slicing knife but can be cut easily for sandwiches or serving. Our last batch had been baked at 470 degrees because we saw that in Steve Sullivan’s recipe on The Fresh Loaf, but that produces a much sturdier crust which does not match Acme’s. Their crust is a bit softer than ours even at 440 and were wondering if they bake as low as 435.

We also increased the hydration to around 65%, which resulted in a slack but manageable dough. Didn’t have any whole wheat starter so we added whole wheat flour to the sponge instead. After kneading the bread was proofed at 70 degrees for about 4 hours, transferred to a plastic bag for overnight refrigeration, then shaped and placed in a banneton and proofed maybe 3 more hours. The dough seemed delicate as we transferred it to the hot iron dutch oven, but it achieved good oven spring. And because the bread was not going to burn at 440 degrees, we were comfortable leaving it in the uncovered dutch oven a few extra minutes, cooking out any residual moisture for a lighter, airier crumb.

What’s the best oven temperature for baking bread? Do try this at home! Temperature within your cast iron dutch oven is completely within your control (assuming you trust your oven’s thermostat of course) and it is a useful exercise to tinker with variations of 5 or 10 degrees and see how you like the results.

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Taming the rare roast beast for Holiday 2024

Rare Roast Beast packaged

This Rare Roast Beast is about to be unwrapped and refrigerator aged overnight, then dry brined.

The grinch has kept the price of standing rib roast well north of $10/lb in our outpost, but our local market dropped it to just $6.99 last week for USDA Choice so we jumped at the chance to secure a five-rib small end roast for around $45. Now we need to prepare it for Christmas dinner in a manner that satisfies Dr. Seuss, who specifies that the roast beast must be cooked rare.

Last year we described the process we learned at Victoria Station cooking dozens of prime ribs every week. An aged whole roast is rubbed with Kosher salt and then blasted at high heat in a convection oven until it is medium rare at the ends, rare in the center, with a glorious crust overall. Results are consistently perfect, so of course we’ll try something different in our rare roast beast for 2024.

We’ve already made one decision in buying a small end roast vs the usual large end that has fewer ribs but more surface area on each cut for a more impressive presentation. They say the small end is more tender but I have never encountered a chewy prime rib that was Choice or better.

I am going to make one important modification based on Sam Sifton’s preparation method in NYT Cooking: I will refrigerator-age the roast for 24 hours on a rack, then rub it all over with salt and let this dry brine work overnight. I will then rub the roast with Sifton’s formula of salt and pepper mixed with flour because it’s all about the crust and a little flour could only make the surface more crusty, yes? (I will not follow Sifton’s advice to rub the ends with butter because I cherish my end cuts (“baseballs” we used to call them at Victoria Station) and want them as crusty as the rest of the beast.

The reverse sear method, which tempted me last year, was not considered in 2024 because I fear the hours at low heat this method requires (cook low and slow to desired doneness, then blast it to crisp the surface) might render out too much necessary fat. By the way, Sifton’s article (which is paywall-free at the link), has hundreds of tips from readers on reverse sear and other strategies.

The rest of the meal will consist of Yorkshire pudding, some sour cream spiked with Sau-See horseradish, green beans and, in an homage to House of Prime Rib in San Francisco, a Caesar salad. Looking forward to it.

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