Alfredo Sauce

I first discovered Alfredo sauce back when Fettuccini Alfredo was all the rage back in the eighties.  I loved it then, and I love it now, so we make it at home from time to time. 

Now, this sauce ain’t exactly what you’d call light, but hey, you’re not gonna eat it every day, right!  Every once in a while with this rich, decadent sauce and you’ll be fine.  Goes great with Fettuccini, Rigatoni, and several other pastas.    

Alfredo Sauce

1/2 cup butter

2/3 cup heavy cream

1 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 teaspoon salt

dash of pepper

Heat butter in saucepan until melted.  

Add cream 

and allow to heat through, stirring frequently.  Remove from heat.  Add Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.  Stir until sauce is blended and fairly smooth.

Yes, it’s just that simple.  And some things in life should be, right?

Here we’ve served it with some nice Campanelle pasta.

Until next time,

Chris

Smoked Bison Brisket

Ingredients

1 Bison Brisket
8 oz marinade (Gold Buckle Brand)
2 oz Paprika
2 oz Granulated Garlic
2 oz Chili Powder (optional)

So if you know me very well at all you know that brisket has been one of my signature dishes for a long while.  Beef brisket.  Beef from a cow.  Well, a while back my wife (from Colorado) introduced me to bison meat.  Some folks call it buffalo, and that’s cool, but technically it’s bison in North America.  Anyway, we had bison burgers and a little later, bison rib-eye steaks.  Both were delicious.  Lean and very beefy flavored. 

So, I was at Central Market a while back, and I saw they had bison brisket for sale.  I just had to try it. 

The first thing that surprised me about the bison brisket was that it was rather small, just a couple of pounds.

But it looked like a complete piece of the flat (of a cow’s brisket) so I didn’t think that they had trimmed or halved it.  Perhaps the brisket muscle is just smaller on a bison, even though they are a bit of a larger animal than a cow.  (or maybe they harvest the meat from smaller ones.  Anyone know?)

I did some research, and what I found confirmed my suspicions.  Bison is very lean meat, and this includes the brisket as well.  Apparently it still has some tough connective tissue (collagen) like a cow’s brisket, just not as much.  The lesson here is I was going to have to use a much shorter cooking time to keep from drying out and overcooking this beautiful little piece of meat. 

I started out treating it like my normal brisket recipe, giving it a nice rub of paprika and granulated garlic, then marinating it in Gold Buckle brisket marinade overnight.  

When it came time to cook, I fired up my Weber kettle in smoker configuration, just half a chimney of charcoal and some hickory chunks.  

I got it settled in at about 225F, and I smoked the brisket for two hours. 

At this point, the meat was at about 160F internal temp, and I didn’t want to leave it on the smoker any longer for fear of it drying out.  But, it still felt a bit tough, so I knew there was still some collagen left to break down.  Solution:  I transferred the meat to the oven.

First, I boiled the reserved marinade liquid, then added it to the brisket in a casserole dish, hoping this would help keep the meat from drying out, as well as add additional flavor.  

I set up a very slow oven, 180F, and roasted the brisket (covered in foil) for an additional two hours.  At this point I removed it from the pan and let it rest for fifteen minutes. 

Then I sliced it up.  

The collagen had broken down beautifully, and the brisket sliced like butter, similar to one of my beef briskets that would have cooked for 18 hours or longer.  All this in only four hours. 

We served it with some roasted red potatoes and Cowboy Beans, and it was a hit.  

The brisket was every bit as flavorful as my traditional Texas-style brisket, and it a quarter or so of the time.  The only down side was the cost.  Bison meat can be quite expensive.  I paid over twenty bucks for this two pounds of meat, about the same as a 15 pound beef brisket when you catch it on sale. 

So, final verdict.  The taste is about the same as beef, so if you’re pressed for time, and money is no object (and if you can find it) then bison may be the way to go.  For me, I’ll probably stick with my beef recipe most of the time, and do the bison now and then for a change of pace. 

Until next time,

Don’t be buffaloed, try some bison!

Chris

Dutch Croquettes

A couple years ago the wife and I visited Holland, a very charming country with charming people and charming food and drink.  As you might expect, we spent a lot of time in charming little pubs drinking some of their charming beer and wine.  We also dined at such establishments quite often, and one thing that was always on the menu was meat croquettes. 

I wasn’t quite sure what to make of these tubular little fried cylinders of meat the first time I saw them, but I found I had to try them, and I definitely liked what I tasted.  Man, these babies were great.  Succulent and savory inside and crispy and crunchy on the outsize.  They made for a great lunch.  They were usually served with bread so they could be crushed up and eaten like a sandwich, but I just ate 'em straight up.

Well, come to find out, these things are one of the most popular food items in Holland.  They are so popular that all the McDonalds in The Netherlands serve their own version called a McKrocket. 

(yes, we tried these too, and they were delish.  Please don’t tell anyone we ate at a McDonalds, though.  (All in the name of food research, of course.))

While we were there, my wife bought me a Dutch cookbook to add to my cookbook collection, and when we got home I was delighted to find it had a recipe for Croquettes.  I whipped up a batch, and they were pretty good, I must say.  Good enough for the old Eat’n Man blog, so, without further ado, here ya go:

Dutch Croquettes

1 lb Lean Stewing Beef or Veal Shoulder, Cubed
3 Tablespoons Butter
1 Onion, Cut into Wedges
2 Carrots, Cut into Pieces
Couple Springs Parsley and Thyme
1 Bay Leaf
1 Mace Blade or 1/2 Teaspoon Ground Mace
Several Black Peppercorns
3-4 Cups Beef Broth
1/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
1 Egg Yolk
1 Teaspoon Finely-Chopped Parsley
A Few Drops Lemon Juice
Vegetable or Peanut Oil for Deep Frying

For The Breading

2 Cups Seasoned Bread Crumbs
2 Eggs
2 Teaspoons Olive Oil

Cut your meat into cubes and season with a little salt.  The traditional meat for Dutch Croquettes is veal, but this is a bit expensive over here, so I tried it with round steak and things came out just fine.  Use whatever stewing beef you like, or if you want to be uber authentic, go with some veal. 

Sauté the meat cubes in the butter for about five minutes or so, until nicely browned.  Add the Onion, Carrots, Parsley, Thyme, Bay Leaf, Peppercorns. 

return the beef to the pot... 

...and enough beef broth to cover.  

(note, the original recipe called for simply using water instead of beef broth.  This would of course work out fine if you want to do it, but I went for the broth for a bit more ‘beefy’ flavor)  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours or so, until the beef is tender and completely cooked. 

Remove the beef with a slotted spoon and mince it finely in a food processor.  

.

Strain the cooking liquid from your pot and reserve 1 cup of it. 

Melt more butter in a skillet and then sift in the flour and allow it to cook for a couple minutes.  

Stir in the reserved cooking stock.  Cook until thickened. 

 .

Add the egg yolk and stir vigorously.  

Remove from heat.  Stir in the minced beef or veal, 

then the parsley and lemon juice.  Stir everything up well until the meat and sauce are thoroughly mixed.

Spread the mixture on a large platter or baking sheet and cool it in the fridge for a couple hours. 

Divide the mixture into eight portions.  Shape these into cylinders by rolling and patting them on a cutting board. 

 .

Beat the two eggs with the olive oil and place in a shallow bowl.  Place the bread crumbs in another.  Roll each croquette in breadcrumbs, then the egg mixture, then in the breadcrumbs again.  

Place on a tray and chill until you are ready to cook. 

Heat the vegetable oil to 350F 

...and fry the croquettes for 5-6 minutes, 

...until they turn chestnut brown.  

Drain them on a paper towel, then serve immediately with some spicy mustard and a side of fries (or frites, as they call 'em in Holland)

 .

Until next time,

Hope you enjoy these ‘Dutch’ Treats.

Chris

Chipped Beef on Toast

You might be surprised to find this recipe on my food blog.  One, it’s pretty simple, and Two, it’s a much maligned dish in the eyes (or mouths) of many.  But I actually like the dish, and I thought it might be a fun if not obscure little dish to share with you. 

As it can be made with shelf-stable ingredients, this dish was a mainstay for the American military throughout much of the Twentieth Century.  It was from this environment that it developed its other moniker, “S.O.S,” which in polite circles is said to mean ‘Same Old Stuff,’ as the dish was served quite often, or ‘Save Our Stomachs,’ but of course, this being coined by servicemen, the more common, more crude meaning was ‘Shit on a Shingle.’

Apologies for using such a word on a food blog, but, I strive for accuracy.  We’ll move on now.

Chipped beef is a really interesting product.  It can be found at your local grocery store in the canned meat section, but it isn’t canned.  

It is merely sealed in a glass jar, as the beef has been dried and heavily salted, making it shelf-stable for perhaps years. 

You could of course make this recipe with non-dried beef, and it might be even tastier.  I have visions of someday making it with my smoked brisket, and I bet that would be good.  But here I will present you with the authentic, more or less, version that you would find in military mess halls or galleys.  This is the version that I first tried—not in the military, but at an aviation commissary that served a great deal of former military personnel.  When I’d seen it, I thought it didn’t look very appetizing, but so many people were raving about it, I had to try it.  I found it actually somewhat tasty, and started making it at home a short while later, usually for breakfast. 

Chipped Beef on Toast

3 Tablespoons Butter

2.5 Oz (1 Jar) Dried Beef, Shredded

1/4 Cup All Purpose Flour

1 1/2 Cups Milk

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce

1 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

2 Slices Toast

Melt Butter in a skillet.  

When it has melted, sift in the flour... 

...and allow it to cook for a minute or so, then stir.  

Add the milk... 

...and allow this to cook for a few minutes over medium heat, stirring it occasionally. 

Meanwhile, shred your beef.  I find a pizza cutter works well for this, 

but any old knife will work, or you can even tear it with your hands if necessary. 

Add the Cayenne 

and the Worcestershire 

to the skillet mixture, then add the beef and stir. 

Resist the temptation to add any salt to the dish, the beef has plenty of salt in it already.

   

Pour over toast 

and serve. 

Until next time,

Dissss-misssssed!

Chris