Social Commentary « (y)our food choices™

Thank you, Susan and Dan!

Forget about the hormone injected turkey and the Stovetop stuffing. I don’t need the boxed mashed potatoes, canned green bean casserole with fried onion rings, or the gooey sweet potatoes topped with multi-colored marshmallows. And please do not serve another jell-o salad with canned diced pineapple and cottage cheese. I don’t like it and I don’t want to eat it again. This is the same menu my family has been making every year for Thanksgiving since I was a child and even before. And I’m sure I’m not the only one in America who had to eat the exact same menu every forth Thursday in November. It’s not that I don’t like these things when they’re made from scratch, but when the definition of scratch means opening up cans of one thing and dumping it into a casserole dish with a packet of this and another can of that–I find it just plain wrong. The food the pilgrims ate did not come from cans, packets, and boxes, so why do Americans believe that by eating this processed food we are honoring the American settlers?

I’m sure I have already offended over half of my family for my blatant dislike for this so-called food. And if the choice is to eat processed food just to visit with family or not go home for Thanksgiving, I would choose to visit with family and eat what is available without a word of disrespect, but why does there have to be a choice? Why not choose to prepare items from their most natural state possible first before grabbing the can opener, or the box? Is it really that much harder to peel some potatoes, put them in a pot of boiling water until tender, drain them and then mash all together with butter, milk, salt & pepper?

I know that we are all busy this year and times are tough all around. We want to save time to be with our family, but also save some money. This Thanksgiving, I propose instead of going for the conveyance of the box, we learn to think outside of it. Only shop the perimeter of the grocery store, leaving the middle lanes alone, and if possible just the vegetable section. Selecting an organic Turkey and making the stuffing using bread from a bakery makes for a fine first step. Try sautéing some Brussels sprouts in brown butter and serving both sweet potatoes and russet potatoes mashed separately. No need to add tons of brown sugar and a bag of mini marshmallow to make the sweet tubers edible. And, let’s forget about the jell-o salad altogether. Why not a nice radicchio and apple salad with a warm apple cider vinaigrette, topped with bleu cheese and candied walnuts? To me that just sounds closer to what our ancestors ate, and probably was (minus the bleu cheese).

Apple Radicchio Salad w/ Prosciutto and Pine Nuts

What ever your Thanksgiving menu will be there’s one thing that even I agree should come out of a can. No, it’s not cranberries. Anyone who buys the canned cranberries and prefers them to fresh needs to have their head examined. It takes a whole five minutes to throw a bag of fresh cranberries into a pan with a little sugar, or honey, some cinnamon, a little citrus peel and some water. Crank up the heat until it bubbles, cook for 5 minutes and then let cool. That’s it. I’m a fan of canned pumpkin. I’m all for picking up a sugar pumpkin and roasting it, but if you’ve already made everything else from scratch, give yourself a break. The crust, however, should not come from the freezer section of a supermarket. If you haven’t made a crust before now is the best time to learn. Martha Stewart has videos and recipes galore for any training you may need. During the holidays your family members are going to appreciate the effort even more, so give it a try. Not only will you be amazed by how wonderful everything tastes, you’ll also appreciate that the food you’re eating is healthier for you, and that should give you another reason to be thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jason

Hearty Cold Weather Stews!

Jason cooks Julia's Boeuf Bourguignon!

We buy our beef from Michael Evenson, a California cattleman who keeps a small, humanely raised, pastured herd of cows that graze on a windy bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean on the northern coast. It doesn’t taste like beef as we’ve come to know it. Michael’s beef tastes rich and wild. It reminds us of the wild elk Steve’s dad hunts in Idaho. Michael’s cattle produce meat that is just a bit leaner, but the fat is rich and flavorful and free of antibiotics and hormones.

Classic Recipe

The Boeuf Bourguignon you see pictured here is Jason’s take on Julia Child’s classic recipe. It was perfect. We lucked out when we thawed a large rump roast (Julia’s first choice cut for the recipe) we’d been saving for just the right occasion. We used half of the monster roast to make shredded beef tacos. The other half became the most delicious beef stew I’ve ever tasted. Here it’s served over buttered pappardelle and finished with a dusting of chopped parsley.

Recreating Julia’s recipe here isn’t happening. But we’re happy to share this link to the recipe, offered at no cost by Julia’s publisher, Knopf Doubleday. Don’t be afraid of it. The finished product is worth every step.

A Favorite

Boeuf Bourguignon can’t be beat, but it isn’t an every week kind of recipe for most of us. We discovered this Bon Appetit stew recipe years ago on epicurious.com. It’s now a standard and we cook it often. The original recipe calls for lamb, shiitake mushrooms and Chianti. But we’ve adapted it to suit our tastes by using beef or wild Idaho elk, a variety of mushrooms and whatever non-oaky red wine we have on hand. The meat is the star of this dish, but flourishes of orange zest and kalamata olives make this savory simple stew worthy of any home cook’s repertoire.

Beef and Mushroom Stew with Tomato-Red Wine Sauce

Meat and Potatoes

olive oil

1 pound beef or other red meat, cut into ¾-inch cubes

6 ounces fresh mushrooms (shiitaki, button, crimini) stemmed, cut into ½-inch pieces

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

2 3X1/2-inch strips fresh orange peel (orange part only)

2 large garlic cloves, minced

2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary

1 14 ½-ounce can whole, peeled tomatoes

1 cup red wine (preferably one that hasn’t spent a lot of time on oak)

10 or so kalamata olives, pitted and halved

Heat the olive oil in a heavy large pot over high heat. Sprinkle the meat with salt and pepper and add to the pot. Saute meat until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Cook meat in batches to avoid steaming. Add mushrooms, onions, orange peel, garlic and rosemary. Saute until onion is golden, about 5 minutes. Crush tomatoes and add to pot with their juices and the wine. Bring the stew to a boil then reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer until the meat is tender, about an hour and a half. Add olives and simmer uncovered while sauce thickens, about 5 more minutes. Adjust seasoning and serve with your favorite starch. The original recipe recommends serving over orzo. It’s a terrific choice as is pappardelle, polenta, mashed potatoes, rice and grilled or toasted bread. It keeps well, tastes better as it ages over a couple of days and freezes for quick dinners later.

Like nearly every other “classic” recipe, beef stew is more a concept than a set of rules. Browning then braising, seasoning and serving – nothing could be simpler but the idea is to create big flavors. Experiment and see for yourself just how malleable the dish can be. Make it your own.

Cheers,

Steve & Jason