Carla Hall's Garlicky Meat Loaf 10.26.11

Halloween goes with Vampires goes with Garlic goes with Carla Hall's Garlicky Meat Loaf!

Today Carla tackles a classic, adds a bit of seasonal humor and a Holiday ingredient.  Lots and lots of garlic! I LOVE IT!

Carla's loaf is a pretty standard recipe, with a couple of exceptions...

Oatmeal replaces bread crumbs.  She runs them through a blender to grind them up a bit.  Then she soaks them in milk to add volume (and I believe to keep the grease from the sausage and hamburger from being absorbed).  You soak the oatmeal in milk for a couple of minutes which puffs the oatmeal dust up perfectly.

There are onions, carrots, horseradish and optional celery (which I added) in the loaf, so plenty of hidden vegetables.  Not exactly Daphne healthy, but anytime you can hide vegetables in something this tasty you are a step ahead.

And speaking of Daphne, the vampire teeth she wore during the group tasting was a pretty odd way to let her off the hook for eating meat today.  I mean she tried a hot dog... Is meatloaf any worse?

But I digress...

I made a few very tiny additions to the recipe.  Inside the meatloaf, Carla calls for ketchup.  I prefer the zippier taste of BBQ sauce.

A added a dusting of ground garlic powder on the top before adding the sauce.

I also used a very spicy sausage (recipe calls for 1/2 a pound added to a pound and a half of hamburger.

I also used a remote prob meat thermometer that measures the internal temperature of the meat prior while it is cooking.  I cooked until the temp read 160 degrees.  Carla's recipe calls for a 1 hour cook time.  I had formed my loaf pretty thick, so it took almost an hour twenty minutes to cook through.

And the verdict is DELICIOUS!  As good a meat loaf as I have ever had.

the horseradish, BBQ sauce and spicy sausage combines to make a tangy zippy flavorful meatloaf.  Certainly not too spicy, not painful runny eyes heat, but certainly a better meatloaf!

The Oats did indeed make a big difference.  Moist throughout and this morning, when I made my meatloaf sandwich for breakfast, it was just as juicy!

You can find Carla's version of this recipe on The Chew website by clicking HERE.

And the daily collection of recipes from the show (click here for that), you will see among them a recipe for haunted mashed potatoes.

I took the advice and served my meat loaf with smashed potatoes with roasted garlic.  Equally delicious!  Especially adding roasted garlic paste to the mix!

A comforting meal filled with enough garlic to ward of vampires and enough vegetables to justify a family feast!

Clinton Kelly's Beef Bourguignon 10.13.11

It's the stuff of legends.  The show did a wonderful tribute to Julia Child; leaving out a tribute to Julie Powell of the movie and blog, Julie and Julia fame.  I would be bold enough to say that since the movie came out and with the dish being featured so prominently, Boeuf Bourguignon has taken on near mythic proportions.

But, as Clinton pointed out, in reality, it's beef stew.  A really really good beef stew, but non the less, it's beef stew.

In France, the dish is considered a "peasant dish".  This means it is a dish made from the less desirable ingredients left after the land lords were paid their rent with the best.  So, easy to grow root vegetables, lesser fattier cuts of meat and what ever happens to be left becomes... Stew!

About the only luxury item would be the red wine that is used to braise the beef as it cooks.  Even that, in days of yore (in France) was a peasant drink as table wine was almost mandatory because of the condition of the drinking water.

Even in the city, this dish can be made with the table scraps left over from the rich folks tables.

Kind of de-mystifies the snooty way to say "Boeuf Bourguignon".  It's just beef stew.

The recipe Clinton uses is a classic.  Beef browned in bacon fat and the meat slow simmered (braised) in red wine.  You can see the recipe by following THIS LINK (click the blue letters)  I did make a few small changes...

First, the recipe calls for a "bouquet Garni".  That's kind of a tea bag filled with spices like bay leaves, thyme and parsley.  I used some fresh Rosemary and left out the Thyme.  As far as parsley, it is a very colorful garnish, but does not really add much to the taste.  So, these bigger spices could just be laid on top and you can easily skip the time consuming step of making the "bouquet Garni".  You just need to remember to pick these out of the dish before you serve it.

Next, the recipe calls for braising the meat on a bed of the vegetables.  This is fine and correct, but...

I think Daphne Oz missed a chance to make this a tad more healthy.  I simply doubled the amount of carrots, pearl onions and mushrooms... more veggies.  These veggies take on the flavors of the wine, the beef and the bacon and are delicious.  BUT, they also take on the color of the red wine broth.  By doubling the amount of veggies, I was able to make my bed for the beef to rest on, plus, as you can see in the photo above, I was able to add some of the veggies on the top to be steam cooked.  This adds a slightly different taste, but also allows for a more colorful presentation.  Makes the dish look more worthy of the mystique.

  
My next change was to used canned peas.  They were pre cooked, so adding them at the beginning of the 2-3 hour cook time would have made just liquid peas.  Again, that is actually fine, but you lose the unique taste of the peas and the color contrast of the peas and carrots for your presentation.  It's just prettier to add them during the last 10 minutes over the top (drain them).

BTW, in the last step of the recipe (follow THIS LINK (click the blue letters)), it is implied that you can and should stir the stew as it cooks.  Especially if you add half the veggies on the top, there is just no need and in fact you would lose the flavor, color and texture contrast that my method achieves.  Do not stir.

And finally, there is a HUGE hole in the recipe...

The broth left in the dutch oven you cook this in makes the most AMAZING gravy...

Gravy is easy... Remove the stew, leaving about 2 cups of liquid in the bottom of the dutch oven.  bring to a simmer, whisk in flour about a TBS at a time (I needed 4 TBS for my gravy) to thicken to your desired consistency

Serve with mashed potatoes (or butter noodles is good too).

AND DO NOT FORGET THE GRAVY!  Not as pretty, so you may want to serve in a gravy boat to be added individually, but the gravy is not to be missed!

Mario Batali's Beef Braciole With Potato Salad 10.12.11

I was drawn to this recipe from the glowing review of the potato salad.  Served warm with a dijon mustard vinaigrette, with raw red onions and scallions and seasoned with fennel seeds.  I was intrigued by the idea of the onions being softened by the warm potatoes.  No cooking of the onions.  As Mario explained, they retained their snap, with just enough wilt to take the raw onion taste out of the finished dish.

And what a winner!  This is a terrific cold weather potato salad.  Served warm, as you can see in the photos, the onions did soften up.

And what a beautiful salad.  The red of the potato skins, the complimentary red of the onions and the contrasting green of the scallions makes this just about the prettiest potato salad I have ever seen.  And with the white of the potatoes, the colors of the Italian flag will make this a saved recipe for my next Columbus day party (any excuse)!

I followed the recipe from the website exactly.  You can see that by clicking HERE.

I did take some liberties with the beef braciole recipe.  No good reason other than economics and that mario gave permission to experiment while he was making the recipe on the show.

An American braciole is a rolled meat dish.  I love rolled meat dishes.  The stuffing inside the meat acts as a marinade from the inside that seasons and flavors the dish while it cooks.  Always the best tasting meat, so filled with flavors!

Mario uses eye of round steak.  I had a couple of 6 ounce KC Strips (also called just strip steaks, NY Strips, Club steaks).  I used a meat mallet to smash them flat.  You only want the meat to be about 1/2 inch thick.

Mario uses sage leaves.  I did not have any, but I did have a few Basil leaves, so basil it is!

Mario also uses pecorino Romano cheese.  I had some feta left over.  Feta is a cheese I love, but do not keep in stock.  Once I had opened the package for a recipe, I was looking for a use for the rest before it goes bad.  This completely changed the taste of the braciole completely.  Not bad, just different.

There are some tips that Mario covers on the episode.  You can see clips, including this segment, on The Chew website for that episode (Click HERE).  Mario grilled his on the stove top... I grilled mine in my grill.

You can read Mario's recipe on The Chew website by clicking HERE.  But as Mario points out on the show, a braciole is a great way to use up leftovers.  Just a little bit goes a long way to making a steak into something special!

Mario Batali's Son Leo Sloppy Joes 10.6.11

No more canned sloppy Joe mix again!

This was a wonderful segment.  Mario had received a gift from his boys of the "Batali Brothers Cookbook:, a one of a kind published book (easily done via Kodak, Lulu or even if you just go to a Walgreen's store), made by the boys (with Mom's help) of family recipes the kids actually make.  What a great idea and I do hope when it gets a little closer to Christmas this idea is explored a bit more.

Today on the show (click HERE to view the episode), it was "All American Day".  My choices were beer brats, Spaghetti Carbonara and this.  I enjoyed all the segments.  The audience participation during one of the Jonas Brothers segment was perfect.  Great way to get them to stop squealing and have a bit of fun.  The beer brats segment was also terrific.

BUT, I was drawn to this idea.  By weight, more vegetables than beef.  And using ground Sirloin instead of a higher fat percentage ground beef, this is almost healthy and certainly healthier.

I did have three concerns... First, the sirloin in place of the ground beef.  Well, once all the juices from the raw tomatoes have broken down, this was plenty wet, moist and flavorful.  No concerns.

The second, while there is jalapenos in the recipe, that is the only hot spicy item.  When I taste tested the dish, it just did not have enough kick for me.  Just prior to serving, I added a TBS of Chili powder and a TBS of Taco Seasoning that I had laying about.  This extra kick added a LOT.

But, seeing that this was made by kids, I can understand the more mild flavorings.  For me, I like the pop!

And finally, sugar???  WHY???  You break down the raw tomatoes with a 45 minute simmer.  Plenty of time for the natural sugars in the tomatoes to infuse sweetness.  There is just no need so I skipped it.  Surprisingly enough, when my wife tried these she commented that they had a sweet taste.

For a almost healthy and certainly healthier dish, I was surprised to see this and lived very well without the sugar.  But that's just me and who am I to argue with Mario or his son.

I let my wife know what I had planned for dinner.  She volunteered to buy the chips, which is a rare treat for us.

To see the recipe, click HERE to see "Mario Batali's Son Leo Sloppy Joes".  You will never open that can again!