Spicy Thai Filet Mignon Salad with Ginger-Lime Dressing

Now that I am focusing on where my meat comes from, I have the pleasure of really great building blocks for meals.  Grass-fed beef is good. In the past, when I've been lucky enough to have a special piece of meat, I've done as little to it as possible to highlight and honor the amazing natural flavor.

With that philosophy, however, I start to miss out on all of the other flavors that have been used for centuries to make some of my favorite meat dishes.For this meal, I abandoned all reverence and marinated a beautiful piece of grass-fed filet mignon in lime juice, soy sauce and chili paste. Rather than mask the flavor, this marinade elevated the whole meal and made the experience better.

The main use for this meat was in a salad, a bit of a twist on a Thai beef salad with great mixed greens and tomatoes from Vermont and basil and chili peppers from our own garden. The meat also made delicious sandwiches over the rest of the week. This recipe will definitely go into the rotation as both a show-stopper on its own and a good staple for lunches.

Now that I am focusing on where my meat comes from, I have the pleasure of really great building blocks for meals.  Grass-fed beef is good. In the past, when I've been lucky enough to have a special piece of meat, I've done as little to it as possible to highlight and honor the amazing natural flavor.
With that philosophy, however, I start to miss out on all of the other flavors that have been used for centuries to make some of my favorite meat dishes.For this meal, I abandoned all reverence and marinated a beautiful piece of grass-fed filet mignon in lime juice, soy sauce and chili paste. Rather than mask the flavor, this marinade elevated the whole meal and made the experience better.

The main use for this meat was in a salad, a bit of a twist on a Thai beef salad with great mixed greens and tomatoes from Vermont and basil and chili peppers from our own garden. The meat also made delicious sandwiches over the rest of the week. This recipe will definitely go into the rotation as both a show-stopper on its own and a good staple for lunches.

Spicy Thai Filet Mignon Salad with Ginger-Lime Dressing (adapted from Bobby Flay)

• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 1 tablespoon chili paste with garlic (I used sambal olek)
• 1 tablespoon peanut oil
• 2 (12-ounce) filet mignons, sliced thinly
• Freshly ground pepper

Ingredients for Salad

• 1 head Bibb lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
• 3 cups mizuna leaves, torn into bite-size pieces
• 1/4 cup chiffonade Thai basil or regular basil, optional
• 1/2 English cucumber, halved and cut crosswise into 1/4-inch thick slices
• 2 carrots, julienned
• 5 radishes, thinly sliced
• 8 each yellow and red cherry tomatoes, halved
• Salt and ground black pepper

Ingredients for Dressing

• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon finely diced shallot
• 1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Whisk soy sauce, lime juice, chile paste, and peanut oil together in a small dish. Add the steaks, turn to coat, cover, and marinate for 30 minutes in the refrigerator. 
2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet.  Saute meat until desired temperature (about 3-5 minutes for medium rare). Remove from heat and let rest. 
3. Whisk ingredients from lime juice to salt & pepper together in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Let sit 10 minutes before using.
4. While steak is resting, combine all salad ingredients(lettuce through salt and pepper) in a large bowl. Toss with half of the dressing and season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a platter, top with the steak, and drizzle the remaining dressing over the top.

October Daring Cooks Challenge: Stuffed Grape Leaves

Our October 2010 hostess, Lori of Lori’s Lipsmacking Goodness, has challenged The Daring Cooks to stuff grape leaves. Lori chose a recipe from Aromas of Aleppo and a recipe from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food.

The recipe generously let us switch wrapping leaves to those which we could get near or us or would sounded more tasty.  I can't cry difficulty since my section of Brooklyn has, among other great places, Sahadi's. I will admit, however, that I just don't know if I like grape leaves.  For some reason, the idea never appealed to me, and I wasn't sure that I wanted to go through a lot of effort for something I might be lukewarm on. 

Aside from getting me excited about a challenge, the switch option also gave me a chance to make these a local delicacy! I traded the grape leaves for the beautiful collard greens that I got at our farmers' market and used beef from Sweet Tree Farm in Dummerston, VT.  Most of the other ingredients were tough to source locally, but at least the two stars of the dish would be from relatively nearby. 

The next exciting thing about this challenge is how big the payoff is for the not-too-exhausting amount of work involved.  Blanching the fresh collard greens was a bit of a pain, but after figuring out the wrapping system, I got a whole Dutch oven full of stuffed collard greens in almost no time at all.  The predominant flavors were the tangy tamarind and lemon juice (I actually used lime, shh!) and the sweet dried apricots that dotted the pan.  

This recipe got rave reviews all around and was extremely portable for leftovers.  They also freeze very well, so I have a little stash of stuffed collard greens in the freezer waiting for me.  

Grape Leaves Stuffed with Ground Meat and Rice with Apricot Tamarind Sauce/ Yebra

(Adapted from Aromas of Aleppo by Poopa Dweck and Michael J. Cohen. Published by Harper Collins, 2007)

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients for hashu/filling:

• 1 pound (455 gm) ground (minced) beef
• 1/3 cup (80 ml) (2 1/3 oz) (65 gm) short grain rice
• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) (6 gm) all spice
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) (6 gm) cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) (3 gm) kosher (coarse) salt **if using regular table salt only use ½ tsp.**
• ¼ teaspoon (1¼ ml) (1½ gm) white pepper
• 1 onion, chopped **optional**
• 1 cup (5½ oz) (150 gm) pine nuts **optional**

1. Soak rice in water, enough to cover, for 30 minutes. Combine meat, rice, allspice, vegetable oil, cinnamon, salt, white pepper, and if desired, onion and pine nuts, in a large mixing bowl. Mix well.

Ingredients for Apricot Tamarind Sauce:

• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) vegetable oil
• 6 dried apricots – or more if you desire
• 3 tablespoons (45 ml) tamarind concentrate
• ¼ cup (60 ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) (9 gm) kosher (coarse) salt **if using regular table salt only use 1.5 tsp.**

Ingredients for assembly:

• 1 pound (455 gm) hashu/filling (see recipe above)
• 36 preserved grape leaves, stems trimmed, drained, rinsed and patted dry or 1/2 to 1 bunch of collard greens depending on the size of your greens ( I got four wrappers out of each leaf I used)

Note: If using fresh leaves, plunge a few at a time in boiling water for a few seconds only, until they become limp, and lift them out.

1. Place a blanched leaf on a clean flat surface. 
2. Spoon about 2 tsp meat mixture onto leaf. 
3. Fold sides in.  Fold one side over and roll tightly.   Repeat with remaining filling. (You can freeze the stuffed leaves at this point.  Place on flat pan in freezer and then put in ziploc bag or container when frozen.)
4. Place dried apricots throughout your pan (see pictures above). 
5. In a large Dutch oven or thick-bottomed pan, place oil in the bottom. Nestle stuffed leaves in pan. 
6. Place apricots in between the stuffed leaves. Cover and cook over low heat for 5- 8 minutes or until the grape leaves begin to sweat.
7. Using all three tablespoons, place a little of the tamarind concentrate, if using, over the rolls.
8.  Combine lemon juice, salt, and water then add to pan, filling it ¾ full.
9.  Weigh down the grape leaves with a heat proof plate or board to prevent them from unraveling. Cover and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 40 minutes. Alternatively, place the saucepan in an oven preheated to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4 and cook for an hour.
10. Spoon cooking liquid over the grape leaves occasionally. You will know they are done, when the grape leaves are neither soupy nor dry.
11. Tilt pan sideways over serving platter, allowing the grape leaves to tumble out. Try not to handle them individually to reduce unraveling. Alternately you can try spooning them out very gently. (Spooning them out was fine in my experience). 

Red Curry Beef Stew

Spring may be peeking demurely around the corner in Brooklyn, but not too long ago, we seemed to be getting the Blizzard of the Year weekly.  To prepare for the most recent of those storms, I turned to the crockpot to keep us warm and fed during the blizzard days and the cold ones that followed.  Particularly, beef stew.  I have loved beef stew since I was a little girl, especially my grandmother's which I used to request as a birthday dish, even in May (the rest of my family fired up the grill....I guess I wasn't so seasonal then!).

This time around, I thought I would try to create a new twist, yet another attempt to bring one of my more simply flavored family dishes into my husband's stomach which, as is by now well documented here, craves Asian flavors.  In the cold weather, I also like some extra spice and so the Red Curry Beef Stew was born. 

With some lovely local red creamer potatoes, frozen green beans, and a zucchini just screaming for use, the dish came together in the crockpot quickly and allowed me to stare at the snow for the afternoon.  I've always got at least one or two cans of coconut milk and various jars of curry paste or bean paste around to make a quick basic coconut curry.  With all of the vegetables, it really is a one dish meal, but a green salad could lend some crunch and freshness to the meal if you so desire.  Feel free to experiment with the vegetables as well - the onions are really the only must here because they really add a lot of nice flavor. 

Red Curry Beef Stew

• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 2.5 lbs cubed sirloin tips (or any stew meat)
• 3 medium onions, thinly sliced
• 1 lb. red creamer potatoes, cut into chunks or left whole if small enough
• 1 can light coconut milk
• 2-4 tbsp. red curry paste (I like 4, but 2 gives good flavor without too much kick)
• 2 hot chilis, sliced (optional, remove seeds for lighter spice and omit entirely if desired)
• 3 tbps fish sauce
• 1 tsp. brown sugar
• 1-2 cups green beans, fresh or frozen (no need to defrost if frozen)
• 1 zucchini, cut into half moon slices

1. Heat olive oil in saute pan.  Add beef cubes and brown on at least two sides. 
2. Layer onions, beef, chilis and potatoes in crockpot (mine is about 3 quarts).
3. Mix coconut milk, curry paste, sugar and fish sauce well in a bowl.  Pour mixture over crockpot ingredients.
4. Turn on low for 7-8 hours.
5. Add beans and zucchini in last 30 minutes of cooking.
6. Serve with rice or noodles.

Clean Eating Comfort Food: Shepherd's Pie with Buttermilk-Chive Mashed Potato Crust

I've been doing a lot of indulgent cooking, but I have strayed from my commitment to indulgently healthy cooking.  I don't think those two have to be mutually exclusive.  I also generally disagree with the movement to use food-like substances to recreate indulgent favorites as lower calorie meals.  Enter Clean Eating.  I love this magazine.  I love what they stand for.  I have committed myself to turn to it more often this year for specific recipes and to reinforce the Clean Eating philosophy whenever I cook.

This week, I made the Shepherd's Pie from the Comfort Food issue.  I made it somewhat less healthy by using 85/15 organic grass-fed beef instead of ground turkey, but I've been craving beef recently so I went with it.  I also substituted butternut squash for the carrots because I had some extra squash to use up. Finally, I upped the garlic because rarely does a recipe meet my hands without some extra garlic thrown in to the mix.

In general, I really liked this recipe.  It was filling and comforting and still tasted clean.  My husband made his usual critique - it would taste better with curry powder or Asian spices of some kind.  It is not spicy, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have nice flavor.  I may try an Asian-inspired version to complement my meat loaf one of these days, but for now, this recipe will do.

 Clean Eating Shepherd's Pie  with Buttermilk-Chive Mashed Potato Crust (adapted from Clean Eating Magazine)

• 1 lb Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
• 2 cloves garlic, whole, plus 1 clove garlic minced, divided
• 2/3 cup buttermilk
• 1 tbsp fresh chives, chopped
• sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
• 4 tsp extra virgin olive oil, to taste
• 1 lb organic grass-fed ground beef (or lean ground turkey breast)
• 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 butternut squash, chopped (or 3 medium carrots, halved and sliced into half moons)
• 1 celery stalk, diced
• 1 tsp fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 3/4 cup frozen peas

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Bring potatoes and whole garlic cloves to boil in a pot of water set over high heat. Cook until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Drain well.  Mash potatoes and garlic with a potato masher (or your favorite mashing device) until smooth.  Add buttermilk and chives and season to taste with salt and pepper.  Set aside.
3. While water is boiling, heat 1 tsp oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add beef or turkey and cook, stirring often and breaking meat into small pieces with wooden spoon.  Cook until just done, about 8 minutes. Drain and discard fat, set aside.
4. Heat 2 tsp oil in same skillet over medium-high heat.  Add onion, squash, celery and rosemary and cook until soft, stirring occasionally.  Add reserved meat, broth and tomato paste and cook until liquid is absorbed, about 5 minutes. Stir in peas.
5. Transfer mixgture to a shallow 2-quart baking dish and cover with mashed potatoes in an even layer.  Run a fork over top of mashed potatoes in both directions or swirl with the back of a spoon.  Brush top with remaining 1 tsp oilve oil.
6. Bake in oven until filling is bubbling and top is golden brown, about 30 minutes.  Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Southwestern Beef Brisket and Broccoli Slaw

In lieu of resolutions, I've made a list of things I'd like to get done over a longer period of time than just 2010.  It allows me to dream a little bit bigger and think a bit outside of the box.  Two such goals, however, stick pretty close to come.  I'd like to keep trying new recipes to work through the mountain that I amass througout the year and to use the crockpot more since a busy schedule can sometimes thwart the original goal.

Over the New Years weekend, I got a good start on both.  Over at The Smitten Kitchen, I found a recipe for a Southwestern Pulled Beef Brisket which was the perfect creation for a lazy sunday.  I braved the harsh cold on the coldest day of the winter so far to procure 3.5lbs of beef brisket from Trader Joe's.  I'll spare the discourse on where meat comes from, but needless to say, I'm putting mroe faith in TJ's than I normally would for the sake of convenience once again. 

My wise auntie MJ told me that crockpot recipes actually fare best when more prep is done before the meal.  I completely agree.  The fix-it-and-forget-it part of the crockpot really just allows you to timeshift the work, and as with any good meal, a little advance prep can go a long way.  This recipe isn't terribly prep heavy, but the little things that are required make a big difference.

First, I seared the meat for about 5 minutes per side in just a bit of good olive oil.  Then, to the drippings, I added 6 smashed garlic cloves and one onion, sliced thin.  Once this got fragrant, I added a good dose of chili powder, ground coriander and cumin.  The fragrance just gets better! Next, I added the apple cider vinegar.  Smitten Kitchen warns to keep your nose out of the vinegar, but I have this weird vinegar love and so, for me alone, this again took everything a step up.  A little water added makes this concoction ready for pouring over the beef which is nestled in its little pot.

To this, I added about 6 ounces worth of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce.  Note this amount.  The recipe recommends 1-2 cans of chipotle peppers.  I found in my local grocery store that there are the 12 ounce cans which I buy and then some smaller value.  I believe the estimate in this recipe is thinking about the smaller cans.  6 ounces gave the recipe a lot of kick.  Not too hot and very enjoyable, but not for the faint of heart. We like spice here in Brooklyn.

The recipe also calls for whole tomatoes with which I substituted crushed tomatoes in puree. I don't think it made a significant difference and that's what I had lying around the pantry.  Finally, a bit of molasses is thrown in the pot as well.  I don't think it needs to be mixed because the heat and the bubbling make the sauce for you, but I did mix things up a bit just to make sure all of the great flavors got near the beef.

After 9 hours on low heat, the brisket fell apart at the touch of a fork.  The heat was gorgeous with a hint of sweetness and a bit of spice.  I served the sandwiches on whole wheat buns with a side of broccoli slaw (yes, TJ's came through once again with a pre-cut slaw mix jazzed up by me - recipe below).  Delicious and a great way to heat up a very cold night!

Broccoli Slaw

• 2 cups shredded broccoli slaw mix (found at Trader Joe's - made with stems and carrots)
• 1/2 cup finely chopped scallions, white and green parts
• 2-3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
• 1 tablespoon good olive oil
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Combine.  Toss.  Taste (the measurements are inexact since I dashed a bit of everything). Adjust. Serve.