This dish became very popular with my staff and our friends. Very delicious and decadent, this dish will be very popular with your friends. I really hope you will enjoy it.
Ingredients ½ of a medium sized well-marbled chuck roast, cut into thin strips no longer that 2”
¾ lb. of bacon, cut up
Whiskey Beef and Bacon - 11/02/11
½ lb of red potatoes, thinly sliced
½ lb of carrots, thinly sliced
1 medium onion, roughly diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cups of whiskey
1 tbsp of rosemary
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
salt to taste
Heat up a large fry pan (or wok) and begin to fry the bacon with the garlic and onions. When the bacon is about medium done, begin to add the beef to sear. Take 1 cup of whiskey and begin to deglaze the pan with the bacon and beef and add the rosemary. Add the potatoes and carrots and continue to stir. Cover the pan briefly, checking and stirring every 5 minutes. After about 15 minutes, add the rest of the whiskey to finish. The fats from the bacon and beef combined with the whiskey makes a great and tasty glaze on the food. While still cooking, add the black pepper. Once the whiskey has cooked down, add salt to taste and serve heartily with some nice ale.
Many of the recipes posted of late were prepared and demonstrated at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. We cooked each of these dishes on an open fire.
I mentioned in an earlier blog that we did several unusual dishes for the final weekend at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. Among them were Whiskey Beef and Bacon Hash, Oxtail Soup, and Young Octopus with Saffron Rice & Lemon.
The nearby grocery store was having a special on octopus and I thought it would be an unusual cooking demonstration for our audience. Little did I know this dish would be so tasty. The timing is crucial; the saffron rice should be the first part of the preparation.
Saffron Rice with Lemon
Young Octopus with Saffron Rice and Lemon - 10/01/11
2 cups of white basmati rice
3 ½ cups of vegetable stock
½ tsp of turmeric
½ tsp of saffron threads
1 clove garlic, minced
1 lemon, zest and juice
¼ tsp sea or Kosher salt
Pour the vegetable stock into a medium sized pot with a tight fitting lid and place over high heat. While the stock comes to the boil, add the turmeric, garlic, lemon juice and half of the zest. Stir well and add the rice and salt. Bring to a boil, cover with a lid, and reduce the heat to low and cook for 12-15 minutes. Turn off the heat, but keep the lid on for an additional 5-10 minutes.
Young Octopus
½ lb. young octopus
1 cup rice flour
1 tsp of ground coriander
1 tsp of ground cardamom
¾ tsp of ground cinnamon
¾ tsp of fresh ground black pepper
½ tsp of chili powder
½ tsp of salt
3 cups of olive oil
Rinse the octopus in cold water and cut into thirds (roughly a tad larger than bite-sized). Once done, add all of the spices to the flour and blend well. Pour the oil into a medium sized pot and put on medium to high heat. The goal is to get the oil to 350 – 375 degrees.
While the oil heats up, dredge the octopus in the seasoned flour, until completely covered in flour and flash fry the octopus for about 10-30 seconds. Do not add more than two octopi into the pot to fry at a time, once it has curled up and cooked on all sides, remove from the pot and place on a paper towel to absorb the excess oil.
Once fully cooked, fluff the saffron rice with chopsticks and add to a plate. Add the octopus on top of the rice and use the remaining lemon zest on top of the dish. Now it is ready to serve.
Ingredients:
1 chicken, deboned
1lb leeks cleaned and cut into 1-inch pieces
4 pints vegetarian or chicken stock or water
1/2 cup long grain rice
One teaspoon brown sugar
Salt and pepper
bay leaf, parsley, thyme
1/4 lb chopped bacon
Fry up the bacon in a large saucepan and add the chicken once the bacon is about half done. Continue stiring until the chicken is about half done (7 minutes). Add broth/water and cover. Add three-quarters of the leeks, (green as well as white sections), herbs (tied together in a bundle), salt and pepper and return to the boil. Simmer gently for 2-3 hours, adding more water if necessary. Add the rice and the remaining leeks and simmer for another 30 minutes. Check for flavor and serve with a little chopped parsley. Serves 6/8 people.
Final weekend approached us very quickly and we cooked up several dishes. All unique and very tasty. People were surprised at the variety of ingredients we used. This recipe is the first of four recipes we did this past weekend. I will post each recipe separately.
Oxtail Soup
Oxtail dishes are found across cultures. From Northern Europe, across the British Isles, Ottoman Empire, Mediterranean, Arabic, and Far Eastern cultures have all used oxtail in a variety of dishes. Some dishes were primarily delicacies, but secondarily offered homeopathic cures to various ailments including back and hip pain.
The Chinese added shredded cabbage mushrooms, and carrots, among other vegetables to provide a heart stew. Arabic and Mediterranean cultures added tomatoes and chickpeas, while European cultures, including Italy even added wine or brandy to the dish during the post-Restoration period.
Oxtails were once inexpensive, but with their increased use in many cuisines, the price of oxtails has become expensive. Asian grocery stores offer oxtails at about a third of the cost of main stream grocery stores.
Oxtail Soup, made at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival 10/02/11
This is a favorite among my male friends as oxtails, when cooked properly, can take on a prime rib flavor and texture. This particular dish, was cooked over an open fire in a cast iron Dutch oven.
Ingredients:
3 lbs of oxtails
1 lbs of beef shoulder soup bones.
2 lbs red potatoes, thinly sliced
3 parsnips, peeled and shredded
1 lbs of leeks, cut into rings
3 sprigs of rosemary
1/4 cup of butter or oil
2 lbs carrots, thinly sliced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small can of tomato paste (optional)
Kosher or sea salt
Black pepper
Begin preparing the dish by adding the beef shoulder bones in a large pot with enough water to cover the bones and add 1 tsp of sea or kosher salt. Bring items to a boil for a half an hour. Remove and dispose of the bones and reserve the broth.
Heat oil or melt butter in a different soup pot. Once heated, add the oxtails to brown and slowly add the leeks and garlic; continuing to cook. Once browned, add enough of the new broth to cover the cover the oxtails by an additional 3 inches, water may be added to increase the amount of liquid. At this moment, one may add optional tomato paste. Let cook for 1 hour and stir occasionally. After an hour, remove the soup bones, but leave in the oxtails. Begin adding the potatoes, carrots and rosemary. Cook for an additional 20 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender.
This dish is very rich and if one’s constitution prefers a less rich version, one may choose to put the soup in a cooler and remove the excess fat from the top before reheating. Add additional salt and pepper to taste.
Lemon Basil Beef with Carrots - September 25, 2011
Our 5:00 pm show each day is different and we never repeat the same show. It is mostly improv – based as we don’t know what we are making until an hour before the show. We do this on purpose as it helps us come together as a team, provides an opportunity for my assistants and I to share ideas and to have a little bit of fun. This weekend, two of my assistants made up a song while cooking this dish; it was rather amusing.
Now some of the ingredients were made with the flavored salts and oils that were made earlier in the day. Those ingredients aren’t necessary and I will be writing the recipe keeping in mind that the specific flavored oils and salts are not available.
Ingredients:
1 lb beef (top round or chuck), hand minced (do not use ground beef for this recipe)
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp fresh basil, minced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
zest of one lemon
juice of one lemon
5 large carrots, sliced thinly on the bias (long slices)
sea salt and black pepper to taste
In a large fry pan, add the oil and heat up. Once hot, add the basil, garlic, and 1/3 of the lemon zest. Sautee and add the beef quickly. The oil should be hot enough that it sears the beef (think stir fry). Once lightly browned add the carrots and stir frequently. Add the lemon juice, another 1/3 of the zest, and salt and pepper. Once carrots are tender, remove from the heat and serve. Garnish with remaining zest.
