Recipes to Rival - Steak Diane Flambé

This month's Recipes to Rival challenge was brought to us by Temperance of High on the Hog & Shawnee of Delishes Delishes.

This was actually a pretty easy dish to make though we could never get ours to flambé. The best hint I can give it to have everything together & ready to add to the pan before you start cooking since it comes together quickly. We used a 10-oz beef tenderloin cut into 4 thin steaks to serve the two of us. The meat was cooked perfectly & came out very tender. The sauce was just wonderful.

Steak Diane Flambé
recipe by
Frank Bordoni from Great Food Live

Ingredients

For the steaks
4x85g beef medallions
1 tsp Dijon mustard
freshly ground salt and pepper

For the sauce
1 tsp Butter, clarified
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp Shallots, finely chopped
50g button mushrooms, finely sliced
1 tbsp lemon juice
125ml double cream
1 tbsp Chives, snipped
50ml Brandy

Method
1. Rub the medallions of beef with the mustard, season with salt and pepper and set aside.
2. Heat a large frying pan over a medium heat and when hot, add the clarified butter and Worcestershire sauce.
3. Add the shallots and mushrooms, and push to the centre of the pan. Arrange the medallions around the edge. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring and tossing the mushroom mixture as you go. If you prefer your steak well done, give it an extra minute or 2.
4. Add the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.
5. Turn the steaks over and pour in the cream and chives. Tilt the pan slightly (away from you) and pour in the brandy at the far end. Now turn up the heat to high so that the brandy ignites. Swirl the sauce around in the pan and turn off the heat.
6. Put the medallions on 4 plates, pour over the sauce and serve.

Later today I'll share the recipe for the amazing onion & potato tartes tartin we made to go with it.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.
© 2007-2009 Kathy Lewinski

The world's most exotic meat?

We Minnesotans like our jerky, its the perfect snack for when you're out fishing, hunting or hiking. At last summer's Aquatennial Parade I was almost knocked to the ground by people trying to grab feel samples of jerky being thrown to the crowd. Heck, I've even been known to search out a small butcher shop in Duluth because they supposedly made great homemade jerky. So, when Jerky.com asked us if we wanted to try a sample of an exotic meat jerky we enthusiastically responded yes. Boy, when they said exotic did they ever mean it! We were certainly thrilled to have the opportunity to try Sasquatch Jerky.
Now, we've tried some interesting cuts & types of meat in our time but I never thought we'd get to try sasquatsh. I understand that fresh sasquatch meat can be a little tough because it is so lean but that doesn't make a difference once the meat has been dried for jerky. This jerky has been marinated in brown sugar & soy sauce before being smoked which gives it a sweet & salty flavor that we really loved. The meat itself is a bit gamier than say beef or turkey jerky would be but that's to be expected from such a wild meat. We love the fact the Jerky.com's jerky is all natural without a ton of over-processing so we could really taste the flavor of the meat. 

Apparently, sasquatch is quite hard to source so Jerky.com only has limited quantities available from time to time (they do currently have it in stock). The price is a bit dear at $549.99 for 8-oz but you can get it right now for $50 off & shipping is free. It's just the thing for those who feel like they've tried everything.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.
© 2007-2009 Kathy Lewinski

Roast Brisket with Melting Beans

This recipe from Jamie Magazine looked so tempting we couldn't resist trying it. A slow roast piece of beef glazed with a sweet glaze served over a bed of soft beans?  Bring it on. It would make a great weekend dinner as it cooks for 3 hours & 20 minutes but doesn't require a ton of hands-on time. Put it in the oven & just enjoy the amazing smells while it cooks & you do other things around the house.

I was worried that the brisket would be dry because we couldn't find a piece with a layer of fat still on it but wrapping it in foil halfway through cooking did the trick. (I thought of adding a layer of bacon to replace the fat but Matt thought the bacon flavor would overpower the brisket.) When Matt sliced us each off a taste of the finished meat we were thrilled with how juicy & tender it was. This method of cooking the meat reminds me a lot of how my dad makes his Memphis Ribs. Our only complaint was that the honey & brown sugar mixture didn't create as much of a glaze as we would have liked. Next time we'll save a little of it to brush on the meat before the last 20 minutes of unwrapped cooking also, we wouldn't thin it with any water like the recipe says to do, I've added these changes to the recipe below.

(Always slice your brisket against the grain or else it will be stringy & tough)

The beans are also cooked for a long time & flavored with chicken broth, onion, garlic & oregano. We used Rancho Gordo Yellow Eye Beans and they had a wonderful flavor, you can use any white bean of your choice. I liked eating a forkful of beans with each bit of meat. The recipe also called for a ton of slow cooked garlic to be served with the meat & beans, we skipped it & didn't miss it at all.

Roasted Brisket with Melting Beans
Adapted from Jamie Magazine

Brisket

1 1/4 - 1/2 lb brisket, with fat layer attached is possible
3 T yellow mustard
1/2 T Worcestershire sauce
2 T smoked paprika (not hot)
1 T chili powder
1/2 T garlic powder
1/2 t cayenne pepper
freshly ground black pepper
1/4 c honey
1/4 c brown sugar
1 T unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 300 F.

Mix the mustard, worcestershire, paprika, chili powder, garlic, cayenne and a few grinds of black pepper together. Add about 1/4 c water to make it into a paste. Rub the paste all over the brisket. Place the meat in a roasting pan with a rack. Roast for 1 1/2 hours.

Mix the honey, brown sugar & melted butter together. (Microwaving the honey for about 10 seconds before using makes it easier to use.) If the mixture seems too thick to brush on the meat add a little water. Place the meat on a double layer of tin foil big enough to wrap it. Brush all sides of the meat with the honey & brown sugar mixture, save a little of the mixture for a glaze later on. Wrap securely in the foil, place in the pan & return to the oven to roast for another 1 1/2 hours.

Unwrap the meat & brush with remaining honey & brown sugar mixture. Return to the oven & let roast for another 20 minutes.

Slice the meat thinly against the grain to serve.

Melting Beans

1 c dry white beans, soaked overnight
2 cloves garlic, grated
1 small onion, finely diced
2 c water
2 c chicken broth, plus more if needed
1/2 T dried oregano
1 1/2 T olive oil

Put all ingredients into a large saucepan & bring to a boil. Reduce the heat & allow to simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours until the beans are really tender. Remove half of the beans & mash them until smooth. Return the mashed beans to the pot & mix together.

Serves 4

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.
© 2007-2009 Kathy Lewinski

The Search for the Perfect Cream Scone

One of the things we discovered while in London last week was the joy of an afternoon cream tea.

A good cup of tea with milk & sugar plus current scones served with clotted cream & strawberry preserves. It was definitely the pick-me-up we needed after a long day of sightseeing.

When we got back home I decided to surprise Matt & bake him some fresh scones. The recipe I decided to use was from one of my favorite cookbooks, Small-Batch Baking. This recipe called for cream, egg & a lot of butter, a ton of butter, when I check them partway through cooking they were sitting in pools of melted butter.

They were tasty but a little doughy & struck as being more like a biscuit than a scone. So, that set me off on the search to find a scone recipe that would make them like we remembered.
My next stop was Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. I figured Martha would have the perfect cream scone recipe, because she's Martha after all. This recipe called for butter, though less than the other recipe, and cream but no egg (except a little as an egg wash).

These babies really rose (they had both baking powder & baking soda in them) though very unevenly, & were really flaky.  They were even more like a biscuit then the last ones.
Next step was to check the web. I found this recipe which used only cream as the fat. It's almost exactly the same as the recipe used by Sara Moulton on the Food Network.

This dough was so wet & sticky it was almost impossible to work with. The finished scones were more like sweetened bread than anything else. So, the baking continues....
I've gotten a few other recipe suggestions from some fellow foodies on Twitter, including Dorie Greenspan's recipe. I'm thinking scone 1 was the closest but the recipe just contains just too much butter perhaps I just need to modify it a bit. 
Do you have a favorite cream scone recipe?

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.
© 2007-2009 Kathy Lewinski

Chicken & Leek Pie

One of the highlights of our trip to England last week was a visit to Hampton Court, which is probably best known as a royal residence of King Henry VIII. One of the tours was of the Tudor kitchens which illustrated how the palace worked to feed 600+ people everyday. It was really fascinating.

One of the things we learned about was the invention of savory pies. Apparently the crust, which was just flour & water, was never meant to be eaten, it was just a serving container. You peeled the top off, ate the filling & threw away the pastry bowl. Boy, am I ever glad that's changed! As far as I'm concerned that flaky crust is as important the tasty filling.

This is another recipe from the Jamie Magazine. It was so good. The leeks just have a wonderful sweet flavor from the 30 minutes of cooking. The recipe calls for creme fraiche & we actually bought some for it but I think you could easily use sour cream or yogurt instead. Also it had you drain the gravy from the filling & serve it separately but we found that a totally unnecessary step. Matt thing this would be a great filling for homemade hot pockets.


Chicken & Leek Pie
(adapted from Jamie Magazine)

1 slice bacon, chopped
1 T fresh thyme leaves
1/2 T olive oil
1/2 T unsalted butter
2 large leeks, washed & trimmed. Chop the white end & finely slice the green
salt & pepper
14 oz cooked chicken, cut into chunks
1 heaping T flour
2 c chicken broth
1 T creme fraiche or sour cream or plain yogurt
1 sheet puff pastry
1 egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Over medium-high heat add the bacon & thyme to a large saucepan. Add the olive oil and butter & cook for a few minutes. Add in the leeks & stir for about 3 minutes to coat everything. Season with salt & pepper. Cover & reduce heat to medium-low. Let cook for 30 minutes stirring from time to time.

Stir the chicken into the leeks. Add the flour & stir again. Pour in the broth & the creme fraiche. Turn the heat up & bring to a boil. Season again if needed. Pour the filling into a large pie pan.

On a floured surface roll the puff pastry out until it is at least 1-inch bigger around on all sides than your pie pan. Trim to it fits over your pan with a 1-inch overhang. Carefully place over the top of the pie & press down the sides. Brush with the beaten egg. With a sharp knife add a few slits in the top of the crust (I forgot to do this & it really puffed up).

Bake for 35 - 40 minutes until the crust is golden brown.

4 servings.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.
© 2007-2009 Kathy Lewinski