me make food

A good roast beef hash sure fills the soul. Sometimes it is a bit of work to roast a beef, and Theresa would rather use the leavings for hot beef sammiches instead of hash when we make roast. I figured I would try a fast way to make some hash and chose between this prepackaged Hormel roast beef over a couple nice slices of roast beef from the deli.

Went with the plain in au jus one. The roast was flavorful, but was covered in a super beefy goop. When you have been working for years to perfect roasts, this is just not up to snuff.

The goop was just too much. The beef tasted awesome, but the goop made it have that flavor and it was just not up to par for us. Did two roasts over the weekend, in one pot. So we are going to have roast for day 3 tonight hash style. Will post.

That jug of marinade from the smoking gun will get used eventually, but it might take a while because I did not need to use that much of it. I went with my usual raute and blended up a whole red bell pepper and some spices. After I had dehydrated it and tasted it I was really impressed. The flavor was close to how mine usually turns out, but I noticed I did not add any salt and it did not matter. Sucky bagged some of it so it lasts a bit longer. mmmmmmm

That took a full day of smoking, but it tastes so good.

UPDATE:

In August of 08 I bought a smoker from a neighborhood guy who builds them. That first year I smoked a lot of stuff and on a meat smoking forum I saw someone mention pastrami. I had no clue is was just smoked corned beef. It changed my life

I picked up a couple packages of corned beef and soaked them in water overnight with a few changes of the water. That helps pull the salt out. Coated with crushed peppercorns and hickory smoked at 225 – 250 degrees for 8 – 10 hours till the internal hit 165 degrees. After it hits the temp I pull them and wrap in foil and cover with a big towel for a couple hours.

Some folks make fancy rubs with cumin and spices. I am perfectly fine with a crusty layer of peppercorns and smoke. I learned that you want a thin blue line of smoke, not billowing white clouds. I ate far more than I should of last night when it was ready. It was so juicy and the fat had dissolved so much. My mouth was burning when I went to bed.

I borrowed an electric slicer from one of Theresa’s coworkers a couple years back. It fell off a bench in my garage so I bought a new one for him and fixed the one he loaned me. It makes it so much easier.

Phone pic was in low light and that part looks black, it was a dark red. Also this is after I had seasoned it and let it rest for 30 minutes. It is squished in the pic, it did not shrink that much. Still that pic looks awesome as hell.

I have started doing this and it is awesome. 1 day is enough, but the one above has 3 days in the air in the fridge. I use skewers jammed into a foam plate so it can age on both sides. Wrap the steak in a layer of paper towel and stick in the fridge. My first time looked like this.

Why would you do such a thing? Well basically you are just working some moisture out to concentrate flavor. Wikipedia can take it from here:

The process enhances beef by two means. First, moisture is evaporated from the muscle. This creates a greater concentration of beef flavor and taste. Second, the beef’s natural enzymes break down the connective tissue in the muscle, which leads to more tender beef.
Dry aging of beef is rare in super-markets in the United States today due to the significant loss of weight in the aging process. It is found in steakhouses and certain restaurants.

At home 1-3 days is the range you want to be in. Even though I had the ribeye wrapped in paper towels, 3 days took its toll. The edges were really dry. one bite seemed like there were pieces of jerky in there. The flavor was insane though. This was a select grade steak from Russ’s and it tasted and melted like butter. I cooked it in 4 minutes over my rocket hot side of the grill after coming to room temp and coated with fancy ass salts and cracked pepper.

1 day is enough, two is awesome, and 3 days you tackled the cow in the wild and then laughed at it for 72 hours before eating. The paper towel protects the meat and you are going to sear the outsides anyway, so be not fearful of the nasties. That steak was ageing in the cotton carpeted plastic coffin before you picked it up.

May 1st Asiago sauce with chicken

April 30th Chicken and chilies. I no longer make it with heavy cream or cheese. Just a bechemel with some light soup cream.

April 27th mac and cheese

April 19th Beefy goop with homemade noodles

April 14th chicken and rice

April 8th chicken Caesar salad

Just wanted to try and make my own egg noodles. Sure, they are cheap, but I googled and made some.

Ingredients

* 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 pinch salt
* 2 eggs, beaten
* 1/2 cup milk
* 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. In a large bowl, stir together the flour and salt. Add the beaten egg, milk, and butter. Knead dough until smooth, about 5 minutes. Let rest in a covered bowl for 10 minutes.
2. On a floured surface, roll out to 1/8 or 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired lengths and shapes.
3. Allow to air dry before cooking.
4. To cook fresh pasta, in a large pot with boiling salted water cook until al dente.

Alton Brown did an episode on meatballs and we swooned over the Swedish meatballs and wanted to try it. Figured it was beef in a gravy on noodles so eeeeeeee

Well they were really strange. Really soft and just strange. I think it was the pork. Theresa somehow grabed pork side, which is what bacon comes from and I think it was not the best. Plus we ground up a lot of fat and prob did not need too. Maybe it was the bread, but it just did not seem right. Next time just beef.

I am still craving another Dinker’s burger. The charred patties had such a great flavor and I wanted to recreate at home. Figured a cast iron pan was my best bet. to increase the char I did two 2 ounce patties for each burger which I cut into perfect circles with a tupperware. One piece of cheese in the middle of the patties, and mine had 1 piece of bacon on it. Iron skillet browned the tiny buns to toast them as well.

Was it dinkers quality? Close, but these were in a whole nuther realm. They shrunk so much, got thick, and charred big time while not being over cooked. The KRAFT singles were way too big and made a cheeseslide which made them hard to eat. It was awesome. I plan on modifying them a bit, but that how we do burgers I be thinking.

^sorry I did not get a final pic

Got this idea from triple D when they visited Dixie Quicks (Site seems down) in Omaha. YOUTUBE of episode (recipe 2 mins in)
Mixing fresh peppers and onions into the sauce seemed like a great idea since we have modified the standard anyway.

We have been rocking the peppercorn steaks for a long time. It was getting a bit old and we decided to chill on them for a while. I saw the vid and knew we had to try it. I picked up the biggest NY strip I could find, some Anaheim peppers, and onion. I really did not check the steak enough and it was not a good cut at all Still decided to try it out because the sauce looked so interesting.

It has been grilling food show season and I had a hankering for a fresh ground burger. Picked up a chuck steak and ground it up. Theresa likes the burgers I make usually from reg ground beef from Super Saver and she let me mix in a bit of the stuff I ground for her into her two uber thin burgers. I went for a massive 7 ounce fatty cooked to a perfect medium. I ground all the fat on the steak and very lightly packed my burger. This made it pretty much fall apart on the grill, but I handled it very carefully and with only one flip it made it to my bun. Sauteed some mushrooms with some of the dried cayenne peppers I grew last year, salt, pepper, and then topped with a slice of pepper jack. Oh man was it good. As Chef Todd says, rocket hot with the lid open. I did not finish it all, but man was it good.