Simple Steak. And Food Photography Gone to Hell.

So, the intent was to tell you about this simple steak I do, give you the recipe and shoot a couple pictures, so you know what the hell I'm doing.

Anyone who shoots food knows that this is a tricky affair in the best of circumstances. It is a dance of lighting and equipment and sagging, limp food and soup that looks vibrant and awesome in the pot and like little floating poop turds in the frame.

It is also about having to keep a hungry throng of people away from the food long enough to shoot it. Run out of the room long enough to grab a wide angle lens and the next thing you know, someone is snarfing down the haricots verts you painstakingly placed on a plate just the right way for the last ten minutes. And don't get me started on all the times the family has had to wait for a meal because "the light is good" and "I have to shoot this for tomorrow's post".

Last week, I actually found myself hovering over the dinner table, zooming the lens down on the kids eating and saying things like, "Okay, grab that piece of meat just like that and put it to your lips...nope, don't curl your finger like that...yep, just like that, but try not to wrinkle your nose...your nose, not your lips, no...don't laugh, please just one...oh, okay laugh, that's good, that's good...snap."


And that's when I get pictures of my daughter with food hanging out of her mouth, looking like a ferrel puppy. Sigh.


It's gotten so bad, the kids barely know how to eat without photo direction and a flurry of filler flash. They see a camera and they pose instinctively like little Pavlovian dogs. Which is why they have no problem dismantling any attempts I make at formal food photography. It is their great revenge.


So, this is one of the steak shots I got, and it's nothing special, but it's fine and it's good that it's fine because Lucy and Edie see that I am doing something that is not paying attention to them and they decide they want to be a part.

And within minutes, there are feet and body parts on my cutting board. Appendages and limbs and stinky kid feet in my picture.


And things are being moved around. Man-handled.


Shallots become noses because, well, shallots make good clown noses.


And the wine bottle was the Daddy and the tomatoes were the kids...or some crazy shit like that.


And then, they like forgot I was even in the room or that I was trying to do something IMPORTANT, they launched into an elaborate dialog between vegetable and glass container, er, I mean, "Daddy' and the Tomato "kids" It was riveting.


And then they ate the food I was going to shoot. That's nice. Didn't want to take that picture anyway.


And it's possible they were going to throw these shallots at me.


Are they humongous shallots or really small onions? I can't tell anymore.

Just eat the steak. Imagine it's awesomeness. Please.

xo YM

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Simple Steak

I served this steak with Duck Fat Tarragon Fries, which are simply french fries cooked in duck fat and salted and sprinkled with fresh tarragon after they have drained in a paper towel. Edie is a fan of the fries, so they get made regularly.

I usually use boneless short ribs for this steak recipe, but you can use any cut of good, fatty steak and get nearly the same result. It's all good.

Marinate the short ribs. I won't bother you with exact amounts, just eyeball it. Put them in a bowl, add a little olive oil, salt, pepper, thin slivers of garlic, a hand full of roughly chopped cilantro, a dash of light soy sauce, five or six shakes of fish sauce, a little sesame oil (not too much, it's potent stuff), a little squeeze of lemon and drop any left over lemon right in the bowl after squeezing. Get the ribs covered and soaking in the marinade.

Let the short ribs sit in the marinade for 20-30 minutes.

Heat a cast iron pan on high heat until it is very hot. Pick a steak out of the bowl with a fork, shake off excess marinade and put it right in the pan. It should sizzle. Do the same with the rest. Leave the steak to cook on one side until it has a nice char on it, 5 minutes. Flip the steaks over and char the other side. 5 minutes.

Turn the heat down to medium. Add the left-over marinade to the pan. Cook another 5 minutes (another 5 minutes for well), covered, and remove the steaks and put them on a platter. Let them rest for 10 minutes while you make a little gravy.

Adjust heat a little lower, so juices aren't boiling. Scrape up any little steak bits on in the pan and let them get in there with the marinade. Add a good size lump of butter to the juices, a little wine, maybe a finely chopped shallot, some capers. Taste for salt. Add herbs, if you like. Let sauce simmer a bit until meat is rested.

Serve steaks with fries and spoon gravy over both.

Continue Reading...

Cumin-Scented Beef Kebabs

I'm back from my self-imposed summer vacation, people.

The one where I intended to read a lot and get back to the kitchen and get a pedicure and get my ducks in a row, whatever that means, and prepare for Lucy going to the big school and getting caught up on all things not-internet-related. I also vowed to clean out and organize my entire house top to bottom. Yeah, right.

Truth be told, I meant to do all those things - I did, in fact, write and cook a lot, test recipes, try new ingredients - but I didn't actually read much, except the two pages I can get through before my head slams into the pillow at the end of the night from sheer exhaustion. So, I'm not much brighter than the last time you read me.



But I did get Lucy off to the big school, where we had to scream her name to get her to say "goodbye" to her poor, old, totally abandoned mom and dad. Truth is, I was not one of those bleary-eyed, sentimental parents hovering at the door, sobbing while their kids tumbled into their first class circle. No, I was elated. Proud that she was so ready. So happy. So in her own element. So big.


I thought I'd be mush. I was surprised actually. I thought, "Oh maybe this is how I'll feel dropping her off to her college freshman dorm room. Maybe I won't be crushed, abandoned, almost-empty-nested. Maybe I'll just be proud and happy that she is ready to make her way in the world." Uh. I'll settle for not laying on the floor of her dorm room and screaming "No, No...don't do this to me. You can't leave your mother. We have to grow old together" while half the freshman class looks on, thankful I'm not their parent.

Oh, and I never cleaned and organized my entire house. And I never got that pedicure. Some summer resolutions are left undone. I shall move those to-do list items to the fall. I want a pedicure so my toes will look great while I wear....boots. Nice.

Anyway, there have been a lot of changes here in these last few weeks - and I'll just tell you about them over the next few weeks of posts - but don't get your bunions in a bunch because we aren't pregnant, so it's not that. Geez...you guys always jump to conclusions.

Other than that, I have something for you to make. Something to get us moving out of our lazy, hot and altogether too short summer and into the crisp breezes and baskets of Macintosh apples of Fall. On to Halloween and princess costumes and steaming hot pies out of the oven and weirdly-shaped, rotting pumpkins in your window sill that you totally forgot, until the smell reminded you that it was still there and intense pleas for a certain parent to turn our apartment into a haunted house that can be enjoyed by all the neighbor children and also, I suppose those people who dress up their kitchen tables with gourds and corn stalks, like they have been french kissed by Martha Stewart and breathed in the very life force of crafting.

Bring it the on, you beast. I'm back and waiting for you.

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Cumin Scented Beef Kabobs
from Gourmet Magazine

To make the brief jump from Summer to Fall, I suggest a dish that does well on the grill or on the stove in a very hot cast iron pan. I've tried them three ways, grill, cast iron pan and broiler and the first two yield the best results. The broiler is serviceable, but you just can't get the right crunchy, oily texture, where the spices carmelize on the outside of the meat forming a hot, spice-infused crust for the soft, yielding meat inside. For the cut of meat, I like the boneless short rib best, but any nice fatty cut should work just fine.

These cumin-scented beef kabobs from Gourmet Magazine are easy, quick and great for a spicy week-night supper. Throw the meat in a bowl with the marinade the night before or morning of and put them in the pan for dinner that night after you kick your shoes off. A lightly grilled pita and greek salad will make for a scrumptious late summer meal. Or pair it with a thick and hearty white bean soup and thick crusts of bread for that blustery day.

Oh and also, meat on a stick is a big winner with my kids. It's way better than using a fork apparently. And after the meat is eaten, they make nice swords and impalers. Make extras cause you'll be standing at the fridge eating them at 11. And they work great in a lunch box.



Ingredients

* 1/4 cup olive oil
* 2 tablespoons finely chopped oregano
* 2 garlic cloves, minced
* 2 teaspoons ground cumin
* 1 teaspoon ground coriander
* 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
* 2 pounds sirloin flap steak or flatiron steak, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces

* Equipment: 12 (12-inch) skewers, soaked in water 30 minutes if wooden


Preparation

Stir together oil, oregano, garlic, spices, and 1 teaspoon salt in a bowl, then toss with beef. Marinate, chilled, at least 2 hours.

Prepare grill for direct-heat cooking over medium-hot charcoal (high heat for gas. Or heat a cast iron fry pan over high heat. Thread about 4 pieces of beef onto each skewer, leaving small spaces between pieces, then transfer to a tray. (For the fry pan, you can use the skewers but once I just cooked the meat up quickly in pieces and dropped the juicy pieces onto a stick for the kids to eat and carry around. Whatever works for you, will be fine.

Oil grill rack, then grill beef, covered only if using a gas grill, turning, until browned but still pink inside, 4 to 5 minutes. No cover for the cast iron pan, but same length of time.


Continue Reading...

Fear of Swine Meatballs

I'm back, people. And here to tell you I am not afraid of Swine Flu. I am, however, afraid of swine, um, I mean pork.

Or at least I was until a few years ago. I come from a world where mothers and grandmothers and generations of women before them believed that a single piece of under-cooked pork could fell an entire village. If one of the women folk saw any pink - perceived or otherwise - in a piece of pork, she would throw herself in front of my plate, as if she was saving me from on-coming traffic. And God forbid you had a little stomach ache after eating at the neighbors house, one of the women folk would get all worried and start calling the doctor, "It was Patsy's pork. I knew I saw some pink in my piece...For cryin' out loud, that woman's gonna kill someone with her pork butt."

Swine was never to be messed with. It was the meat that could kill.

From the time I remember, I believed that pork was a dry, tasteless meat that was akin to eating a sneaker. I never loved anything pork-related - except bacon, of course, which is like food of the Gods and if it didn't exist would make, I believed, killing a pig for food absolutely unnecessary.


Pig as I knew it, was served after a good hearty incineration in the oven until it was bone dry and throat-closing. You'd have to be drunk to eat this stuff and believe it didn't taste like shoe laces. I never had really succulent, juicy pork until I was well into my adult years and definately by accident because I would never have ordered it from a restaurant on purpose.

Think I'm nuts? If you don't believe me, all you need to do is go to a BBQ joint where there is always a disclaimer on a prominently-placed sign saying that pink meat is just fine in BBQ/smoked meat and is not a sign that your meal is underdone or that you will have to be admitted to the ICU several hours after paying your bill. Every BBQ joint has one of these. And there is a reason - someone from my family might be eating there.

So, when I was reading Matthew Amster-Burton's new book "Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater" - a fantastic and funny book that will give you some great ideas about cooking for and eating with your kids - he was going on and on about pork meatballs and I thought I would give them a whirl.

In the past, I have been faithful to Rocco DiSpirito's mom's recipes for meatballs, which involve a veal, pork, beef combo with breadcrumbs. (For the record, I also often make a variation of her marinara, which is both easy to make and lovely to eat.) Matthew suggests all pork and as filler, bread and milk in his meatballs.

He even brazenly says that the secret to good meatballs is more filler/less meat, which I had never even considered, so I tried out his theory and discovered that more filler, gives a lighter, fluffier meatball and the milk/bread filler is way easier to work with than the breadcrumb one.

The meatballs were awesome, but working with ground pork makes me a little crazy. There is always a child around here that needs to be held or breastfed or comforted or needs a juice just when I am up to my elbows in killer meat. And so, I was going to the sink a lot to wash my hands, which is fine except I kept getting raw pork meat all over the handle of the faucet and so, I'd have to wash my hands and then reach over to turn off the water, only to remember that I turned the faucet on with my swine-covered hands and I had probably reinfected myself. I washed my hands and the faucets, like 30 times.

I also kept having utensil issues. I kept forgetting which utensil I used on the raw meat, so I kept having to go in the drawer and get out a new one to use for the other food. I used about 30 different spoons, forks and knives just for the preparation of this one meal. I had to re-wash flatware just to get through dinner service. And even then, I wasn't sure that some of the swine hadn't lived through the surge of hot tap water and soap. I would've felt better running them through the dishwasher, but there was no time.

And then there was what happened to the gigantic wedge of parmagiano that we bought at Costco. I was adding the cheese to the meatball mixture when I realized that I grabbed the wedge with my hands all porky and probably contaminated the whole thing. I was horrified because (a) it was our only parm and (b) it was so huge and so expensive that to throw it out was like throwing cash right in the bin.

I was flumoxed. I kept staring at the infected edge wondering what to do: throw it in the bin or wash it off and hope innocent parm-eaters don't perish. It was a real toss-up - throw it in the bin, kill people. Throw it in the bin, kill people.

This should have been a no-brainer.

But I couldn't throw it away. It looked perfectly fine and I was bound and determined I would figure out a way to scrape off the bacteria and make it a viable hunk of cheese again. Surely 100 other people have googled this, right?

I did this neurotic dance as 4 children and 4 adults waited for their lunch - Bin. Death. Bin. Death. There's me, frozen, holding a contaminated wedge of cheese. I was a mess. Finally, I washed the cheese in hot water and stashed in a plastic bag in the fridge. I could deal with this later after the guests left. I had more than enough cheese in the meatballs. I still have no idea what happens to parm when you wash it. I'm too afraid to look in the fridge this morning.

As I write this, I'm pretty sure there is a spot on my counter harboring live and active raw pork bacteria, just waiting for me to touch it and infect everyone around me. Every once in a while I walk into my kitchen and just spritz the counter for good measure. I'm sure it will stay there for weeks. I'm contemplating having David rip up the counters and build me a new kitchen.

So, forget the swine flu. That's for amateurs. I have my own swine issues to deal with. Cooking with ground pork turns me into an obsessive-compulsive mess. It's in my genes, written into my DNA.

Still, the meatballs were great. But at least with veal I can pretend to be a sane person. I give you your choice here. Enjoy!

xo YM


PS: And thanks for all the e-mails gently telling me to get off my ass and post something. I love you all.
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Matthew Amster-Burton's Pork Mini-Meatballs
(Also known as The Yummy Mummy's Fear of Swine Meatballs)


2 slices of white sandwich bread, crusts, removed torn into pieces (or just a quarter loaf of the skinny Italian loaf, which was all I had)
1/2 cup milk
1 large egg, beaten
2 ounces grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (Not sure how much I got in before I contaminated the wedge)
2 tablespoons minced fresh oregano (I usd dried because it was what I had on hand)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 pound or so of ground pork

1. In a bowl, combine the bread and milk and mash with a fork until it forms a paste. Stir in egg, Parmigiano, organo, garlic, salt and pepper. Add the pork and mix (hands work well)until well combined.

2. Heat the olive oil in a large non-stick (or cast iron) skillet over medium heat. Drop 1 tablespoon dollops of meat mixture into the skillet. (The meat mixture will be soft, but don't worry about that, the meatballs hold together nicely.) Working in two batches, brown the meatballs on two sides, about 2 minutes per side and transfer to a plate.

Make your marinara (either Matthew's from "Hungry Monkey" page 142-3 or Mama's or your own favorite) and bring a large pot of salted boiling water to boil. Add your pasta and cook until al dente. Drain. Combine the pasta, sauce and meatballs. Serve.


Mama DiSpirito's Meat Balls

1/3 cup chicken stock
1/4 yellow onion
1 clove garlic
¼ cup fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley, chopped fine
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 lb ground pork
1/2 lb ground veal
1/3 cup plain breadcrumbs
2 eggs
1/4 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp salt
3-6 cups of Mama's Marinara or your favorite marinara sauce
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

1. Place the chicken stock, onion, garlic and parsley in a blender of food processor and puree.

2. In a large bowl, combine the pureed stock mix, meat, bread crumbs, eggs, Parmigiano-Reggiano, red pepper flakes, parsley and salt. Combine with both hands until mixture is uniform. Do not over mix.

3. Put a little olive oil on your hands and form mixture into balls a little larger than golf balls. They should be about ¼ cup each, though if you prefer bigger or smaller, it will only affect the browning time.

4. Pour about 1/2-inch of extra virgin olive oil into a straight-sided, 10-inch-wide sauté pan and heat over medium-high flame. Add the meatballs to the pan (working in batches if necessary) and brown meatballs, turning once. This will take about 10-15 minutes.

5. While the meatballs are browning, heat the marinara sauce in a stockpot over medium heat. Lift the meatballs out of the sauté pan with a slotted spoon and put them in the marinara sauce. Stir gently. Simmer for one hour.

6. Serve with a little extra Parmigiano-Reggiano sprinkled on top. Serve alone or over spaghetti (in which case, you will need 6 cups of marinara).

Yield: Serves 4 as antipasto or over spaghetti

Continue Reading...

Top Chef's Radhika Desai & Mark Bittman's Osso Buco

I rarely mention Top Chef on this blog, although I am hooked on the show, mostly because many of my readers don’t live in the States and don’t see the episodes we see and have no idea what the hell I am talking about.

But I will make a bit of an exception this week because of something that chef-contestant Radhika Desai said in this week's episode:

“I never use canned or aged ingredients," she said, referring to a segment that had them making a dish out of prepared and pre-packaged foods. “To me, that’s something a housewife with little time would use. It’s going to be difficult because we are used to using natural, flavorful, real ingredients.



I don’t actually think of myself as a housewife, whatever hateful thing that means, and I don’t feel like I speak for housewives, whoever they may be, but I think Radhika has been smokin' the crack during commercial breaks. I mean, I know there are lots of folks who only cook from packages and cans - I get that - but make no mistake, there is a lot of great, creative, fresh cooking coming out homes chock full of kids and busy families. Not everyone is pulling out the Campbells and the Kraft Dinner.

Has Radhika been sleeping through the food Renaissance of the last decade? Who does she think is watching Food TV and driving the careers of people like Rachel Ray and Paula Deen? If Radhika ever writes her own cookbook, it won't be chefs who buy it. It will be housewives and home cooks looking for alternatives to Hamburger Helper and Rice-a-Roni - people who want to cook simply with fresh, tasty ingredients or who want to enhance the pre-packaged food they are using. Rachel Ray built her career on this model.

Radhika might want to start developing that home-cook/housewife base now. You know, if she wants to sell any books.

And, because I want to drive this point home with a simple, time-friendly recipe, I give you Mark Bittman's stupidly good Osso Buco. "Any housewife with little time" can make it. This is a meat-falling-off-the-bone, marrow-filled orgy of veal shanks in a natural jus. It takes about two hours, but you only have to actively spend about 20 minutes cooking over the stove, the rest of the time the shanks are in the oven. It is simple and fabulous.

If you can't find good veal shanks at your local supermarket, head out to Costco or BJ's or any of those super stores. That's where I get mine. Oh and get out your pickle forks when you eat - digging into the marrow bones and pulling out all that succulent marrow and popping it in your mouth is a rare little treat.

Double the recipe and the next day you can use the soft chunks of meat and heavenly jus as a base for a hearty winter soup with pasta or beans.

Oh and I served this with a little Gremolada sprinkled over the top, also courtesy of Bittman. The Gremolada is just a little minced fresh parsley (1 tablespoon), minced lemon zest (1 tablespoon) and garlic (1/2 teaspoon) all mixed together and drizzled over the top just before serving. I had a bit of it leftover and I used that as a flavorful garnish on the soup the next day.

If you are suffering from the freezing temperatures this weekend, this Osso Buco is your winter remedy. Have a great one, house wives!

xxoo YM
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The Housewife's Osso Buco Revenge

Recipe by Mark Bittman

Yield: 4 servings
Time: 2 hours, largely unattended
Active Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 4 center-cut slices veal shank, 2 pounds or more
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
* 3 or 4 cloves garlic, lightly mashed and peeled
* 4 anchovy fillets
* 1 cup dry white wine, chicken or beef stock, or water
* 2 teaspoons butter, optional

Method

1. Heat a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat for a couple of minutes. Add the oil, swirl it around, and pour out any excess. Add the veal slices and cook until nicely browned on the first side, about 5 minutes. (For even browning, you can rotate the slices, but try not to disturb them too much.) Turn and brown the other side.

2. When the second side is just about completely browned, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and add the garlic and anchovies to the pan. Cook, stirring a little, until the anchovies dissolve and the garlic browns, about 2 minutes. Add the liquid and let it bubble away for about a minute.

3. Turn the heat to low and cover the skillet. Five minutes later, check to see that the mixture is simmering -- just a few bubbles appearing at once -- and adjust the heat accordingly. Cook until the meat is very tender and pulling away from the bone, at least 90 minutes and probably somewhat more; turn the slices every half-hour or so. (When the meat is tender, you may turn off the heat and refrigerate the dish for up to 24 hours; reheat gently before proceeding.)

4. Remove the meat to a warm platter and turn the heat to high. Boil the sauce until it becomes thick and glossy, about 5 minutes. Stir in the butter if you like, and serve the meat with the sauce spooned over it.

Continue Reading...

Leaving the House

It's like 10 minutes before we have to leave, but already Edie has pooped and is running around the house with her pull-up hanging off and poop drizzling down her leg and she's laughing because the poop doesn't bother her, but, like, she knows it bothers me, a lot, and so, I am running though the house shrieking after her, pulling wipes out of the container and streaming them through the air, like I am flying a kite, which I never would have really thought about, until Lucy shouts, "Hey Mommy! You're flying a kite!" and then, I realize I am, indeed, flying a kite and I think my kid might be a genius, or a poet or something, or just hyper-observant, and yet, I am quite sure I am the un-coolest thing on the planet, a knobby-kneed newborn fawn comes to mind, all appendages and legs and unable to catch the little child that is ducking and dodging me like a greased pig, a fawn chasing a greased pig, trying to hold on, but Lucy thinks this is way cool and she is encouraging Edie to "keep running...faster, Edie" and laughing so hard tears are forming in her eyes and in some celebratory gesture, she grabs some wipes off the counter and she's running through the house, naked as a jay bird, flying wipes in the air and getting ready to lift off into the clouds and on to outer space, and so Edie is running around the house, while I am running after her and kite girl is trailing behind, seeing blue sky and gentle breezes and long sandy beaches where there are none, and in that moment, I catch myself in the mirror trying to force Edie to straddle so I can wipe her, and I'm kind of bent over in this weird position and I notice that I look like a flamingo eating a fish, which as you know, is not the most flattering image that comes to mind and perhaps, not the sanest, but I really do look like a flamingo for some reason, and behind me, I can also see about $30 of wipes being tossed into the air while Lucy squeals, "It's snowing, Mommy! Blankets and blankets of snow..." and she whirls through the room like a snow ballerina, the kind on pretty pink jewelery boxes and Edie takes the pull-up from my hand and hurls it across the room and smiles at me, this coy, self-satisfied grin that tells me she is quite pleased with her own rebellion and that she made her point, loud and clear, and I scan the blizzard of wipes and realize, we aren't going anywhere. Not a chance in hell.

We are just here, naked or in semi-stages of un-dress, hair in knots, teeth un-brushed, and surrounded by a thick cluster of wipes that have laid to rest everywhere. And so, we go with that. We stay just like that. All imperfect and un-presentable. We shun pull-ups. We leave the wipes right where they are. We stage a rebellion and decide to just fly rockets into the sun. We decide not to worry about the things that worry us on other days.

We take a vote and the girls, all of us, decide to try to leave the house again later. Maybe. If we feel like it.

We shun the rules, baby.

I haven't given you a recipe lately, so here is a perfect one when you don't feel like leaving the house.

xxoo YM


Veal Stew with Cipollini Onions
adapted from a recipe by Giada De Laurentiis

Serves 4-6
Prep Time: 25-30 minutes
Active Cooking Time: 30-40 minutes
Passive Cooking Time: 45 minutes

14 cipollini onions
2 Tbsp olive oil
2.5 lb veal stew meat
salt and pepper
1/3 C flour
3 garlic cloves
1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves
1 1/4 C dry white wine
2 1/2 C chicken stock
7 or 8 oz can diced tomatoes in their juice
7 small red-skinned potatoes
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1/4 C fresh parsley for garnish

In a pot, boil the unpeeled cipollinis for 2 minutes. Drain and let cool. Cut off the root ends and peel (this is the biggest pain of preparing this meal but worth it, expect to take about 5 minutes to peel the onions).

Note: if the cipollini onions prove too time-consuming, you can easily just use 1 large onion cut into wedges. The cipollini's make it special, but it still rocks with regular onions.

Heat the oil in the stock pot, (preferably a dutch oven) over medium-high heat. Sprinkle the veal with salt and pepper and then coat with flour. Add veal to pot in batches and cook until browned on all sides (about 8 minutes total per batch). Set aside.

Note: You can do this ahead and just stow the crunchy veal pieces in the fridge while you play.

Add garlic and thyme to the same pot and saute for about 30 seconds. Add the wine and deglaze the pan, scraping up all the crispy bits after the wine comes to a boil. Simmer over medium-high heat until reduced by half (about 3 minutes).

Return the veal to the pot. Add the broth and tomatoes with juice. Partially cover and simmer on low-medium heat for 15 minutes. Add the onions, potatoes and carrots and simmer uncovered for about 45 minutes, the sauce will thicken as it cooks.

Stir in parsley, season with salt and pepper and serve in bowls with thick wedges of crusty bread. Continue Reading...

Dear Mr. Smoked Meat Man...

You are pudgy and your hands smell like cow and you wear a funny little paper hat, but damn it, I love you. And I love your meat.

Smoked meat, that is.

I'm talking about Schwartz's Montreal Hebrew Delicatessen, a place I did not know even existed until my worldy husband, the one who knew that people speak French in Montreal and the one who has had to listen to me speak in "zee French accent" ever since I learned this little fact, insisted we go.

He actually said, "You can't leave Montreal until you've had smoked meat." My man is very decisive about "zee beef". I was all like "What eez theez smoked meat you speak about, mon petite chou?"

This is when he starts to pretend I'm married to someone else.

Now, I know that going gaga over Schwartz's is a little like being a tourist in New York City and going gaga over the Carnegie Deli. I mean, yeah, the corned beef is good, but is it worthy of a blog post and a photo essay?

I mean, it's not like I found this little hole in the wall in some Montreal tenement where a little old lady hand-smokes sides of beef in her garage and her place can only accomodate like six people and a dog and requires a reservation four months in advance and like, 30 people total know about it and Demi Moore is a regular. Hell no, I discovered a place that like 10 million people discovered before me.

Somebody call Gourmet Magazine. I'm a freakin' trendsetter.

Everyone knows about Schwartz's and I know this because the Smoked Meat Man offered to take a picture with me holding a slab of meat, and any deli guy that wants to get in on the picture is a guy who gets his picture taken a lot. And the shot would have been great but my boob was hanging out and you know, no one needs to see my nipples. Again.

I will, however, share a little photo essay with you (below) that illustrates our time at Schwartz's which was absolutely, insanely scrumptious.

We're in Montreal for a bit, then on to Miami. We are with one of David's shows, which is always fun for the girls because they love playing on the stage, climbing the wardrobe racks and running around with backstage passes dangling from their necks, which besides being cute, is a strangling hazard waiting to happen.

David is out hobnobbing right now with someone famous "you are not allowed to blog about". Okay, honey, I haven't said a word.

Anyway, I'm drinking alone and watching CNN. That's not a bad thing, right?

xxoo YM


PS Thanks for the tip YM #2 in Toronto. What nut would order smoked meat "lean"? That seems rather blasphemous, doesn't it? I'm looking forward to the Poutine next, although I wish you hadn't told me it was actually "cheese curds". Always better to keep me in the dark about these things...

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Lucy and I Had a Heart to Heart Yesterday

About vaginas. Hers actually.

She was asking me questions about it and I was trying to remember all our plumbing and how it works and explaining babies and going to the bathroom and how it's all pretty complicated down there. And she was listening to me intently and then she looked at her vagina and then me and said this:

"My vagina is a long, dark tunnel with snails and a tiger."

Which I think is a damn good description of a vagina. Mine certainly has a tiger. Anyway, someone please call Eve Ensler and get this kid in the "Vagina Monologues".

No CSFB (Competent but Sexy Finnish Babysitter) so I leave you with a short post and a dish I made last night from Bon Appetite when my best friend from high school, Mary and her Mom, who was like my second Mom growing up, came for a visit yesterday. It was great to see them and this dish was quick and tasty.

A couple notes about the recipe - I put a little too much heat in the cabbage. Okay, way too much heat. I nearly set Mary and Rita's sinus cavities on fire. But I whipped up a second "no heat" batch and it was just lovely. You don't need lots of heat. It's sweet and vinegary and a nice compliment to the steak without the jalepenos. So, be light handed. Also, if you prep ahead, (cutting all the garlic, ginger etc.) the dinner takes all of ten minutes to get on the table. Oh! and make extra cabbage. It's divine and goes quickly.

I'm posting the recipe with only a little fiddling because the kids will be up any minute. I'll post again this weekend!

xxoo YM
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Asian Flank Steak with Sweet Slaw (adapted from Bon Appetite)

Prep: 30 minutes; Total: 1 hour

Servings: Makes 4 servings

Ingredients

1/4 cup dark soy sauce
5 tablespoons olive oil
5 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger, divided
1 garlic clove, pressed
1 1 1/2-pound flank steak
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
2 red jalapeños, thinly sliced into rounds (optional)
5 cups thinly sliced Napa cabbage (about 9 ounces)
3/4 cup chopped green onions, divided

Prep

Prepare barbecue (medium heat). Mix soy sauce, oil, 3 teaspoons ginger, and garlic in resealable plastic bag. Add flank steak and seal bag; turn to coat. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes, turning occasionally.

Stir sugar and vinegar in small saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves; remove from heat. Add jalapeños and remaining 2 teaspoons ginger. Place cabbage and 1/2 cup green onions in medium bowl.

Pour vinegar mixture over and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Let stand while grilling steak, tossing occasionally.

Grill steak until cooked to desired doneness, about 6 minutes per side for medium-rare. Transfer to work surface. Let rest 10 minutes. Slice steak thinly against grain. Sprinkle 1/4 cup green onions over slaw.

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The Hot Diggity Dog Challenge

I’m making this short today because I shouldn’t be blabbering on with you folks all day about vaginas and things that make vaginas feel tingly. I do have some standards. A few. Anyway, I’m on a writing deadline and you are serious distraction, my friends. A lovely distraction.

I’ve been memed by Evil Chef Mom who has asked me to write a six word memoir. And she has demanded that I be “funny”, “bizarre” and “touching”. No pressure or anything. Heres a recent picture of Evil Chef Mom:

And another:

So, here's my six word memoir, the six words that say everything about me:

Urine on floor. Cheese in potty.

Perhaps, I should work on the touching part...Well, I went with this one because it's the chaotic, crazy, totally adventure-driven, loud, imperfect and perfectly wonderful messiness of our lives that I love so much. Okay, I guess that's touching. And I even got food in there...

Now for your first challenge...

The six word memoir challenge is pretty difficult. It's not easy to sum it all up in 6 measly words, so instead of me memeing people right and left and shaming them into participating with my Catholic guilt arsenal (which is large and powerful) if you want to do it, just let me know in the comments section and I’ll post your sites and links this weekend, so people can check them out.

Now, challenge number 2: I want you to make your own hot dogs.

That's right you heard me. You can stop bitching about all the nitrates in the Oscar Meyer's and all those little pieces of intestinal backwash and guts scraped into a trowel by some minimum wage worker at the slaughterhouse that you know are taking up residence in your bratwurst. Now, you can free yourself of the salmonella-drenched innards thanks to my friend NTSC at The Art of the Pig - a man who really knows his way around a pork butt. Check out his blog - this guy is serious about charcuterie. The things he and his wife do in the kitchen are inspiring.

I love these dogs and so do the kids and they are pretty easy to make. Plus, because you have to do it in steps and let the meat sit over night in the fridge, it's manageable with kids streaming through the house pretending to be airplanes and knocking over the furniture because there's no last minute time crunch. The main thing is keeping the meat cold while you work with it. As always, I tested this recipe while breastfeeding and it can't be that difficult if I can do it one-handed.

It's time to up the game...What's it gonna be the meme or the dogs???

xxoo YM

Hot Dogs From Scratch

From The Art of The Pig, who got it from a course on Sausage Making at CIA.

Ingredients

10 oz lean ground beef

1/2 lb smoked fatty bacon, minced

1 Tbs salt

1 Tbs sugar

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp ground white pepper

1/4 tsp ground coriander

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1 pinch garlic powder (be generous, use more)

6 oz crushed ice

1 oz nonfat dry milk

Method

1. Place the bowl to the food processor in the freezer, place blade in ice bath.
2. Combine ground beef with seasonings, place in freezer along with bacon until semi-frozen
3. In the food processor place the meat and the ice; process to a smooth texture until the temperature reaches 40 F.
4. Add the bacon and process until well blended and temperature reaches 50 F
5. Add dry milk and process to mix in.
6. Pipe onto plastic wrap, roll, tie every 6 inches. Refrigerate overnight.
7. The next day poach in water at 170 F until internal temperature of 155 F; shock in ice water.
8. Unwrap and refrigerate until ready to use.

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Oxtails Are Kid Food...Who Knew? (and a few impromtu grumblings about Jessica Seinfeld's new Neurotic Food Bandit book)

I never had oxtails growing up, so I don’t think of it as the kind of food you serve kids exactly.

It’s not something you whip up for your kid’s 3^rd birthday party. And if you give your 5 year old a choice between say pizza or oxtails, chances are they’re not gonna scream, “Oxtails, please…pizza sucks!” That said, my kids love oxtail soup. I made it the other night and you’d think they hadn’t eaten a thing in days. They devoured it handily.

The truth is, this succulent little meal is perfect for a blustery October day. The meat gets so tender in the fatty broth and falls off the bone in little juicy clumps. The broth is dotted with slicks of fat, which might scream out to the cook for a good skimming with a ladle, but from a parents point of view, all that fat from pasture fed ox is like a booster for little developing brains. And frankly, as a devout meat lover, I would rather get my fat calories from a hardy soup than from a sugary cupcake any day of the week.

The girls are just squirrely about the meat. Edie pops those stringy pieces in her mouth and the juices run down her chin. She has her little fingers in the bowl again before I even realize it. Lucy loves "the juice" (which means broth in our house) and she gulps it down sloppily right from the bowl.

And since all the veg are dressed in this rich broth, they go down easy and more get eaten than anyone can count or measure (which is sooooo much better than the latest cookbook advice from Jessica Seinfeld/Neurotic Food Bandit, who purees her veg under the cloak of darkness and injects the stuff willy nilly into her kid's food whenever they're not looking. Ah! Thanks Jessica for going on Oprah and inspiring millions of women to trick their kids into eating better, which is so much easier than actually inspiring them to eat and cook great food...Okay, now I guess I have to officially and thoughtfully post about her book. Fair enough.)

Back to the soup - there are lots of ways to skin this cat, but my soup is pretty basic. If you want to make a stew instead of a soup, you can thicken the broth...and voila!...Stew. I use whatever veg is sitting around the old fridge. This is a snap.

Oxtail Soup
(makes for 6 people)

Ingredients

2 cups flour
Salt and pepper to taste
6 pounds oxtail, cut into chunks (approximately 12 chunks)
1/4 cup olive oil
4 cloves garlic sliced and mashed (or just make your life easier and use the jarred chopped garlic)
1 large onion chopped into chunks
Beef broth (I make my own, but a good organic store-bought brand is fine)
4 stalks of celery, chopped into chunks
4 carrots peeled and chopped into chunks (or use the pre-cut variety to save your sanity)
5 potatoes peeled and chopped into large chunks

At naptime:

In a shallow bowl, add the flour. Season well with salt and pepper. Dredge the oxtails in the flour, shaking off any excess. In a large stock pot or Dutch oven over high heat, add the olive oil, heat it up and throw those guys in. Brown on all sides, about 3 minutes per side.

When all of the meat is browned, remove the meat from the pan and set aside on a plate. While the meat is browning, dice the carrots and celery into chunks – don’t fuss, "rustica" or nice large pieces is fine. Stash them in the fridge for later. Slice potatoes and plop them in some cold water and stash in the fridge. Chop the onions into wedges.

Add the garlic and onion to the pot and sweat the onions. About 7 minutes or until they are just starting to get soft and translucent. Add the browned meat back into the pot. Add enough broth to cover the meat and allow room for the veg, which you'll add later. Bring to a simmer and simmer over low heat for 2 ½ hours. Go have fun and play with the kids.

An hour before dinner:

Take the carrots, celery and the potatoes out of the fridge and drain the water out of the potatoes. Drop them all in the soup pot and simmer for another 45 minutes. If you need to add a little water or extra broth, go for it. Salt and pepper to taste.

At dinner time:

Take the pot off the heat. You can serve the meat bone-in or flake it off with a fork and lop all the yummy goodness right into the soup bowl and let the juicy strands mingle with the veg. It’ll be hot, so make the kid’s bowl 15 minutes ahead and throw it in the freezer for a few minutes to cool it down. Mangia!

xxxooo YM

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