I'm looking for ideas. If you're the first one to suggest something and I make it on the site I'll send you a free eBook version of my book. Click here for details.
If you remember the end of the Ox Roast post, there was half a steamship round left when people were finally full. That gets sliced up and spends the night in the fridge, and we come back down Monday for sandwiches. Sounds like a perfect time for horseradish sauce.
Ingredients
2 egg yolks 1 tablespoon white vinegar 1 teaspoon mustard powder 1 cup olive oil 2 tablespoons prepared horseradish
Directions
Separate the eggs and keep the yolks. It's okay to throw out the whites. Really, it is. Eggs are about 12 cents each, you can get more.
Add the vinegar and mustard powder.
Add the oil gently, you don't want to separate the vinegar from the egg yolks. The vinegar mixing with the yolks is what makes the emulsion in the mayo.
Put the stick blender all the way to the bottom, turn it on and pull it straight up.
Transfer the mayo to a mixing bowl and blend in the horseradish.
And that's it.
This should be the last post about the Ox Roast until we do it again for Labor Day. Maybe by then I'll have caught up on my sleep. Maybe.
This post is purely self-indulgent. I said in yesterday's that I didn't expect many people to try to make it. This time, there's not even any food. It's just the best of the rest of the photos I took at the Ox Roast.
First up is the steam coming off the pool at 5 a.m. I'm glad I was busy with the ox, otherwise I would have had to explain to my kids why I didn't want to go swimming. On a day that barely made it to 70 degrees. Brrrr.
While we were getting the ox started, Hal got the pool ready for the first full day of swimming of the year. (It opened after noon the previous day.)
The beach club is on a hill leading down to the lake. It stays in shadow for quite a while after downtown lights up.
What is it with boys and fire?
Here's Ana (Hi sweetie!) playing with her freind Caroline.
And Winnie. (Hi to you too!) In the lake. Which was 60 degrees. BRRRRR!!!
"Oh look, refugees have swum ashore from a tanker." (That's Jack and Katie with Winnie.)
Despite the smiles, Winnie and Katie were shivering like crazy.
Ana decided to bail and head up to the pool. The heated pool. Smart girl.
The crowd was already pretty good by quarter after four.
Even the pool got pretty busy.
Winnie got in line early for some of the crispy goodness from the ox. Notice that it's cold enough to wear a jacket, but she insisted the lake wasn't cold. Riiiight.
Skipping ahead a few hours ...
The beach gets really popular around dusk.
The whole side of the hill gets crowded, too.
Okay, some of them stay up in the pool.
And why does everyone come down to the beach?
Yup, sunset over the lake. Even the carving crew stops what they're doing to come down.
This guy goes flying every couple of weeks, weather permitting.
When you get really lucky, the sun breaks through a low line of clouds right on the horizon.
We got lucky.
People know when it's almost time, and they all show up. It's like this most clear nights all summer.
And that ... is it.
I've got one more day's worth of pictures from the Ox Roast. That's the leftovers for lunch the next day. Nothing spectacular, so I'm going to post it on Saturday when (hopefully) people are outside enjoying the spring.
I'll admit right up front that not too many people are likely to try today's recipe. Unless you've got a whole day to kill, a crew of five, and 300 close friends to feed you're just not going to manage this one. But come along for the ride anyway to see how to turn 200 pounds of beef into an unbelievably good dinner in just 12 hours.
Ingredients
200 pounds of beef, trimmed to 4 steamship rounds 5 pounds of dry rub (secret recipe) 900 ears of corn 140 pounds of lump charcoal 50-gallon barrel, split lengthwise
Directions
We've been doing this party each Memorial Day and Labor Day for the last several years, and it gets bigger every time. We all chip in to cover the beef and corn, and each family brings a side dish to share.
The food prep starts the night before when Scott applies the dry rub to the beef. Then ...
5:00 a.m.
We meet down at the park to start the fire and load everything onto the two spits.
That's Scott getting intimate with the beef, and Tim going all Van Helsing with the wooden stakes.
5:40
All the beef is loaded up and over the fire.
For the next 12 hours, someone turns each spit a quarter-turn every 15 minutes.
6:30 a.m.
The fat layer is already starting to crackle.
7:00 a.m.
As the sun comes up, you can see that everyone came down the night before to reserve their picnic tables.
The beef is already starting to look good enough to eat. For the next 11 hours we all keep a close eye on each other to make sure no one starts snacking early.
I can't send the smell of it through the screen, but this clip might give just a little taste of the temptation we were facing all day. Listen to the crackle ... notice the fat dripping into the fire ... mmmmmm ...
7:40 a.m.
For the next four hours, this is all the activity you'll see down in the park.
That sign, in case you can't read it:
THIS IS A CELLPHONE FREE ZONE
VIOLATORS WILL BE PROSECUTED
THE MANAGEMENT
Noon
Dan starts wrapping and soaking the corn.
12:40 p.m.
The rest of the crew starts arriving after lunch. That's Dan on the right. (Yes, another Dan.)
12:45 p.m.
By quarter-to-one it looks ready to eat.
1:30 p.m.
The first batch of corn goes on the grill.
3:00 p.m.
Scott starts checking the internal temperature of the beef, so we can adjust the fire or the height of the spits to hit our 6:00 target
Cut the first hunk of beef down from the spit. Things got a little hectic here as 300+ people showed up, all wanting their roast beast right now.
6:30 p.m.
We're already into the third steamship round by this point. That's me holding the pan and Scott (yes, another Scott ... no, it's not confusing) working the knife.
Andy and Scott trim everything up to hand off to the slicers.
You might have noticed that lovely crust doesn't seem to be making it off the carving table. There's a reason we volunteer to carve each year.
Scott (the first Scott) and Pete work the two slicers (sorry, didn't get good pictures of them) shaving everything nice and thin. Vince showed up partway through dinner and hopped on one of the slicers.
7:00 p.m.
Everyone has gone through the line at least once, most of them twice. There's about half of the last piece of beef still on the spit, and the carving crew finally gets to set down and enjoy a meal.
I love horseradish, the hotter the better. When you buy it prepared you're pretty much stuck with what comes in the jar. But it turns out it's pretty simple to make your own. A knife, a food processor, two ingredients and five minutes later you're done. Awesome.
Ingredients
horseradish root vinegar (this is not an exact science, so no measurements this time)
Directions
Cut off a couple of inches from the end of the horseradish root and peel it.
I've seen this recipe done without peeling it first. I'm sure it makes no difference to the flavor, but you can see little brown specs in the finished product. I'll take an extra minute to peel it. But I'll do it quickly with a knife, not carefully with a vegetable peeler. The less time you spend handling fresh-cut horseradish root the better.
Now dice the root into chunks small enough to fit comfortably in your food processor.
Put the chunks in the food processor -- since I'm using a mini, I had to dice pretty small -- and run it until everything is finely chopped.
I've seen this done in a blender, but you'd have to make a pretty big batch for that to work well. I like the mini-chopper since I can do just enough for a single meal.
Carefully remove the lid from your food processor.
I'm completely serious about doing this carefully. I've seen recoemmndations to only do this outside. I think that's taking it a bit far, but don't expect this to just be run-of-the-mill food heat. If you get too close to the horseradish at this point it's like chemical tear gas. I thought because I didn't smell anything at arm's length that I might have gotten a bad root, so I stuck my nose right into the chopper and inhaled deeply. It felt like I'd been punched in the nose. Don't do that! Learn from my mistake.
The longer you process the root -- or even let it rest -- without adding vinegar the more heat it will develop. When it's hot enough for you, pour in just enough vinegar to cover all the root.
Process again to make sure everthing gets coated, then strain the vinegar out using a strainer or simply a paper towel over a bowl. (You might recognize this technique from the pages on rendering tallow and storing bacon fat.)
Once it's done draining, turn the finished horseradish out and serve with rare roast beef.1 And that's it.
1 If you think this is foresadowing an upcoming post, you've been paying attention. If you just can't wait, you can check out this earlier post for how to make pot roast. In fact, you might want to use that one anyway, unless you plan on spending 12 hours tending a spit over a fire. Subscribe using the link in the column to the right -- you won't want to miss this one.
I wanted to do twice baked potatoes for a cookout, but I wasn't in the mood for cheese. So I thought I'd do the same preparation, but using the ingredients I'd normally put on a baked potato. I wasn't sure how successful it would be, but everyone said it was better than the normal cheesy kind.
Ingredients
8 large Russet potatoes 1 cup bacon fat 1 cup sour cream 1 large onion 1/2 cup chives
Directions
Insert skewers in the potatoes and put them in a 400 degree oven. You can wrap them in foil, like I did in that link, or do them unwrapped, like I did here. While they bake, melt a couple of tablespoons of bacon fat in a pan. Shred the onion and cook until well browned.
Go through the chives to pull out any dead stems, then dice and set aside.
Dice the onions fairly small.
When the potatoes are done (about 45 minutes to an hour, the skewers come out without resistance) take them out and cut them in half.
Scoop out the inside of each half with a spoon. Leave just enough so that the skin retains it's shape. Take out a little more than you would if you were making potato skins.
Put the scooped-out potato in the same pan you did the onions in, and add the bacon fat, sour cream and onion. Mash everything together and check if you need salt and pepper.
If you recognize that tool I'm using, it's the same one I used for the chili a while back. I didn't want to like it, but I'm finding it makes a bunch of jobs easier. Thanks honey, you were right. (She didn't read it the first time I said that. I'll keep bringing it up until she says something about it.)
Once everything is mashed together, add the chives and mix gently. You don't want to crush the chives and turn the potatoes green.
Scoop the filling back into the skins. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and you can keep these for several days in the refrigerator before cooking them, or freeze them for several weeks. I can't say exactly how long. This is a brand new recipe and I haven't kept any of them around that long. When you want to serve them, reheat in the oven or microwave until hot. (See, I can use the microwave.) For a crispy top, finish under the broiler.
Back around the turn of the last century, the Tatin sisters in Paris invented an upside-down apple pie for their pastry shop. It must have been a success, since people are still making it over a hundred years later. If you like apple pie, except for the way the filling tends to run out when it's hot, you'll love this. The filling is almost entirely apple, and it holds it's shape really well when serving.
Ingredients
5-6 large, tart apples (ie: Granny Smith) 1/2 cup sugar 4 tablespoons (1/2-stick) butter 1 pie crust
Directions
Pre-heat the oven to 375°. While it's heating up, lightly grease a pie plate with butter.
Sprinkle half the sugar into the plate, until the bottom is completely covered.
Put the sugared pie plate in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the sugar is melted and lightly browned.
UPDATE: You might want to click that link about peeling apples. In a comment below, someone tried to use one of those apple coring tools and it did not go well.
Arrange the slices carefully in the first layer. This is going to be the top, so take your time.
Then fill the plate with the rest of the apples.
Sprinkle the rest of the sugar on the apples, then slice the butter and distribute it over the top.
Bake for 15 minutes until the apples are soft. UPDATE: A comment below reminded me to put a cookie sheet under the pie in case it boils over. I got lucky this time and didn't have any spillage. But if I'd had one more apple I would have included it, then I can guarantee it would have boiled over. So I got lucky.
Cover with a pie crust, and pinch the edge so the filling is completely sealed in. Prick the crust with a fork to let steam out.
Don't pinch the crust over the top of the edge like you do with a regular pie. And like I did above. (Oops.) Tuck the edges of the crust down inside the pie plate.
Bake for 15 minutes until the crust is golden brown, then cover with foil and bake another 10 minutes.
Since I got distracted and did the crust on the top instead of inside, I had to trim it. (You'll see why in a second.)
Cover the pie with a dinner plate and flip it over. This is why you can't put the crust on top of the pie plate, the dinner plate will keep sliding around.
Lift the pie plate off and let the pie sit for at least 10 minutes before slicing.
And that's it.
One of my favorite things about this take on apple pie is how well it holds together after it cools. You can slice a wedge and pack it in your lunch, and it will still be all together when you take it out to warm up in the microwave.
Be sure to check back next week when I'll be cooking like your great, great, great, great, great grandmother.
(Oh, by the way ... that vanilla ice cream in the first photo is home-made from scratch, too. I'll show that recipe in a couple of weeks.)
Pie crusts aren't all that hard to make, but they can be a bit time consuming. So if you're already busy with a big meal, it's tempting to just get a pre-made crust and add some filling.
With this trick, you can easily do the crust a day or more ahead of time. You'll save lots of time on cleanup, too.
Don't know what "sifting" is? Watch this quick video.
Oh, and how much is a "dash" of salt? I'm not sure, I just use the measuring spoon.
(Okay, it's about a quarter-teaspoon. If you've got "normal" measuring spoons you'll have that one.)
Now cut the butter into small chunks. Make sure it's nice and cold or it will stick to your knife.
This next step is much easier if you have a pastry cutter. If not, you can make do with a pair of butter knives. Cut the butter into the flour and sugar until coarse crumbs form.
If you don't have a pastry cutter and want to get one, get the kind with blades like in the link above. Don't get the wire kind that I used in the photo. Cold, hard butter pushes the wires to the side, and you want the butter to be cold and hard for this.
Don't overwork it or let the butter get too warm. You should have little lumps of butter coated in flour and sugar. These bits of butter will flatten out when you roll it, leaving little pockets when cooked. This is what gives pastry its light, flaky texture. If the butter melts, you'll end up with the consistency of al dente pasta.
Add the cold water and quickly form it into a dough. If the butter has gotten warm by this time, or if it's especially warm in your kitchen, you might want to put the flour/butter mixture in the freezer for 10-15 minutes before adding the water and making the dough.
Once you've made the dough, transfer it to a one gallon zip-top bag and put in the refrigerator for at least a half-hour. You need this time for the water to soak into the flour. Otherwise it will just steam out when you bake it.
Take the dough out and roll it into a circle, still in the bag. Most one-gallon bags are just about nine inches across, which is exactly how big you want the crust to be. This also saves you from having to put flour on the table and rolling pin, and dealing with the cleanup afterwards.
After it's rolled out, you can put it back in the refrigerator for two to three days, or freeze it and keep for several weeks.
When you're ready to use it, make sure the dough is nice and cold so it doesn't stick to the bag. Rip the bag open along the seams and pull the crust out.
And that's it.
One more day until you see what is made from pie crust and apples but isn't (quite) apple pie. Subscribe via the link in the column to the right to make sure you don't miss it. It'll make a great finish to your Memorial Day cookout, I promise.
When did you learn the word "apple"? No, I can't remember when I learned it either. But obviously I did.
I also can't remember when I learned to peel an apple. I remember seeing my mother doing it when I was little, usually making Waldorf salad. (Man, she liked Waldorf salad.) So I never thought about not knowing how to do it.
Directions
This would take about three pages to describe something that takes about 30 seconds to show you. So I'll show you.
Think you can do it faster? I'd love to see it. Drop a link in the comments.
Then you have to core it. (Do it in this order. If you slice it first and then peel it, it will take way longer.) You might have one of these apple corer and slicer tools somewhere in your kitchen. Mine is packed up somewhere down in the basement. I hate it. It only works of the apple is completely symmetrical, it takes a lot of pressure to cut, and cleaning it is a chore.
I know I promised the next two posts were going to be apples and pie crust. But I had to share.
I was sitting down to write the apple post and my wife asked me to make her some chicken salad. I had the laptop on the lap desk, my feet up on the table ... I was all settled in!
"Oh, but you make it so much better. And I already set everything out for you."
But ... the lap desk ... and ... yes dear.
So I went into the kitchen and mixed up the
two cups of leftover chicken, diced 1/2 cup of mini dill pickles, diced 1/2 cup mayonnaise
and brought her a sandwich.
As she was eating, I told her, "You know this is totally going up on the web, right?"
Quesadillas are one of my favorite ways to use up leftovers. They're basically an unwrapped wrap. Get the same tortillas you'd use for a wrap, add some meat, veggies and cheese, and toast for a couple of minutes.
Directions
You'll need a little special hardware. It might be possible to do quesadillas without one of these, but I haven't seen it done. So I'll just say "you need one".
Even though it's got a non-stick surface, I always lube it up with some bacon fat. It adds a little flavor and makes the surface a little crisper.
Put one tortilla shell in the bottom.
Add whatever fillings you want. Since it is divided into six pieces, you can even satisfy kids with different tastes at the same time. I'm doing two with leftover taco meat, two with tomato and onion, and two tomato and leftover chicken. (I said it was good for leftovers, didn't I?)
Next a layer of cheese. Or skip the meat and veggies and double up the cheese.
Another tortilla on top and close the lid tightly.
About two or three minutes later, as soon as the cheese or other fillings start bubbling out the side, pull it out.
Cut along the lines, and serve with sour cream, salsa or guacamole.
And that's it.
This isn't exactly the most complex recipe I've ever done. I was busy all week getting ready for my daughter's first communion party. When serving 50 people, sometimes the best thing you can make for dinner is a phone call. So that's what I did.
Stay tuned later this week for the first -- wait, let me check ... yup, the first desert I've posted here. (Unless you count the Irish Soda Bread.) Here's a hint: it includes apples and home-made pie crust. But I'll bet it's not quite what you think.
Unless you're really good friends with them, you probably wouldn't serve franks and beans to dinner guests.[1] And unless you're hosting a party for kids, your wife may not let you make tuna puffs or BP&J. But some things, no matter how much you love it, you have to admit to yourself that it just doesn't look good enough to serve to anyone else.
I'd like to believe this salad doesn't fall into that last category, but looking at the pictures I've got to say I'd be a little suspicious of it if someone else offered it to me. I could probably "fix" that by assembling it like a "normal" salad: lettuce on the bottom, then toppings, then dressing on top. But this is how I've eaten it ever since my aunt first served it to me out of a zip-top bag at a picnic when I was eight years old. So I'm not changing it.
Ingredients
Taco meat
1 pound ground beef 1 can (12 ounces) plain tomato sauce 1/4 cup chili powder (or taco seasoning) 3 cloves garlic (optional)
Salad
1 head iceberg lettuce 1/2 pound sharp cheddar cheese 1/4 large onion (about 1/2 cup diced) 4 Roma tomatoes (about 1/2 cup diced) 1-1/2 cups thousand island dressing 5 ounces (about half a medium bag) corn chips
Directions
Brown the ground beef in a frying pan with some salt, breaking the beef up as much as possible. (The same was as in the chili dog chili sauce recipe.) Add the garlic and chili powder (or taco seasoning) and the tomato sauce.
Cook until everything is heated through, then remove from heat and allow to cool while you prepare the salad.
If I really wanted to be strict with my mise en place, I'd shred the cheese into a bowl, but I had left it out too long by this time. When you shred warm cheese, it tends to start sticking right back together if you put it all in one big pile. So I shredded it right onto the lettuce.
I didn't use that entire block of cheese. That's about three-quarters of a pound, and I used a bit more than half of it.
Add the tomato and onion.
Toss everything together a little, then add the thousand island dressing.
Look at your bowl and realize that yes, you should have used the biggest bowl for this. (Damn, I hate when I do this.) The bowl can't just be big enough to hold everything, it has to be big enough to mix it around easily. When you're mixing, you generally want a bowl at least twice as big as you'd need just to hold all the ingredients.
Once you've got it in a big enough bowl, toss the salad until it is well coated with the dressing. Then add the corn chips.
(This is not product placement. You can't see what brand that is. These are not the corn chips you are looking for ... )
Add the taco meat and stir to combine.
You want to do the corn chips and taco meat last. Otherwise the chips will get soggy, and the warm meat will melt the cheese. If you're not going to be serving this right away, let the meat cool all the way before adding it, and don't include the chips. Bring the salad in a zip-top bag or a bowl with a tight lid, and add the chips when you're ready to serve.
And that's it.
1 Why is that, anyway? Why do we try to impress strangers, we'll at least straigten up for friends, but if we're just serving family they're lucky if we're not still in pajamas? I can't remeber where I got this line, but we'll spend money we don't have buying stuff we don't need to impress people we don't like.
If you have any recipes that you love to eat, but won't serve to guests, tell me about it in the comments below. I want to do a whole roundup of "too good for guests" meals.
Every now and then when I stop to think about it I wonder why ketchup is so much more popular than thousand island dressing. As far as I'm concerned thousand island is much more flavorful, and works on just about everything ketchup works on. Any fast food place that brags about their "secret sauce" is really talking about thousand island. (Oops, now it's not a secret any more.) One of my favorite uses -- and the one that gets the strangest looks -- is to use it instead of duck sauce with egg rolls. Mmmmmmm.
If you look carefully and shop around you may be able to find a brand that isn't mostly canola oil and corn syrup. But if you can't find a good one, this recipe is just what you need. It's way better than any bottled brand I've had, and only takes a couple of minutes to make a batch.
Ingredients
2 cups mayonnaise
Mayonnaise
2 extra large eggs 1-1/2 cups olive pomace oil 1 tablespoon white vinegar 1 teaspoon mustard powder
2 tablespoons tomato paste 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 2 cloves garlic 1/4 cup diced onion 1/4 cup diced pickle (sweet, dill, or combination) 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper 1 extra large egg, hard boiled (optional)
If you're making the mayonnaise from scratch, put the eggs, white vinegar, mustard powder and oil in your mixing cup in that order. Put the stick blender all the way to the bottom, turn it on and slowly pull it up to the top. Don't worry if it's not thick enough for a sandwich, this is going to be in dressing.
Rather than get the food processor dirty, add the onion, pickle, garlic, tomato paste and balsamic vinegar to the cup the mayo was in.
Process it with the stick blender -- it doesn't have to be very smooth -- then add it to the mayo and stir.
Check the taste and add black pepper if needed.
And that's it. You could eat this by itself, it's so good.
Regular readers might notice I did lettuce yesterday and salad dressing today. You might think that means I'll be doing some kind of salad in the next day or two. That's very observant of you. But I'll be you don't expect taco salad.
Okay, now you expect taco salad. This is another one of those "delicious but not pretty enough for company" recipes. Why do we do that? Have favorite recipes that we won't serve to guests? I've never understood that. If you have any recipes that you like, but you won't serve to guests -- or your wife won't let you serve it to them -- post it in the comments. I'm thinking about doing a collection of "Too Good for Company" recipes.
Some people swear by ceramic or plastic knives for cutting lettuce. The idea is that metal knives cause the leaves to turn brown at the edges faster. Actually, it's not the metal that does it. What happens is any cutting will cut cells, which then turn brown. If you want your lettuce to last longer don't cut it. Rip the leaves by hand.
I usually don't see the problem, though. When I buy lettuce, I have salad at every meal until it's gone.
Directions
First up, the core. You can cut this out if you really want to. But it's way easier this way:
Set the bottom -- the side you just pulled the core out of -- down and cut it in half.
Then in quarters.
You could stop now and serve what the trendy restaurants are calling a "wedge salad".
If you haven't seen it they literally take those wedges you see above and pour some dressing over it. Yeah, that's a salad. Okay.
But for normal people who aren't trying to impress anyone, it's better to do just a little more work and get the lettuce into bite-sized pieces. So put one half -- two quarters -- down flat, start at one end, and chop about an inch wide all the way across.
With apologies to Samuel Clemens, the difference between a hot dog and a chili dog is like the difference between a lightning-bug and the lightning. A hot dog is something you eat because you're hungry. A chili dog is a meal. But, just like most canned foods, the chili you get in a can isn't worth the time it takes to toss it in the microwave. (Oh, umm ... don't actually toss the can in the microwave. That's not what I meant. That would be bad.)
This chili is not the same as what you'd put on nachos, or eat on its own. First the primary flavor is onion, not tomato or pepper. Second, and more important, is that the meat has to be broken up much finer than normal chili. It has to be chopped fine enoug
