When people ask me if I'm ever afraid of running out of recipes to film, I usually joke that new recipes aren't the problem, it's running out of things to call them that's the real fear. Take this horribly named Spanish mustard beef for example. Least poetic name, ever.
Despite the awkward name, this fast and user-friendly wet rub did a fine job flavoring some carne asada I grilled recently (yes, that was redundant). I'm calling it Spanish mustard since I spiked the Dijon with a couple of my favorite ingredients of all time – smoked paprika and sherry vinegar.
Be sure to go find the real stuff (that it comes from Spain is one clue). If your marinade is only going to have a couple ingredients, you better make sure you're using top shelf stuff. The other two keys to this recipe are as follows: only let the meat marinate for about an hour, otherwise it may start to "cook" in the acid; and be sure to build a very hot fire.
Since this is a wet rub, we need the meat to sear and caramelize, not to steam in its own juices. After successfully grilling and slicing thin, against the grain, this can be eaten in hundreds of ways; all delicious. You'll see my tortilla delivery system, but everything from paper-thin rice paper wrappers to thick slices of grilled bread would be perfect.
This is also a fantastic marinade for thin-cut pork shoulder chops, or any of your favorite chicken parts. By the way, while you're grilling, sipping on a cold beer, or sangria, try and think of a better name. Enjoy!
Ingredients: 2 pounds thin sliced beef (any thin flap meat, skirt steak, flank steak, round steak, etc. 2 tablespoons Dijon 2 tablespoons smoked paprika 4 cloves minced, crushed garlic, optional 1/4 cup sherry vinegar 1/4 cup light olive oil salt and freshly ground black pepper to tastes
While I do think this penne pasta with beef neck sauce would be an amusing and delicious dish to serve at a vampire-themed dinner party, I'll admit my real motive was to attract some new visitors to the site using some of these extremely popular search engine key words.
Thanks to True Blood and the Twilight movies, America is vampire-crazy, and associated word searches on Google are very popular. So if you are reading this post because you thought it was going to be about vampires, or vampire movies, or vampire television shows, or vampire fashion, or vampire games, well, it's not. (See what I did there?)
This recipe does take a long time, but requires very little effort, and you'll be rewarded with a wonderful, richly-flavored sauce. The hardest thing will be getting some neck bones, but a quick conversation with your friendly neighborhood butcher should be all you need. Just be careful. For whatever reason many real-life werewolves actually make their livings as butchers. Look for the unusually thick ear hair.
By the way, speaking of search engine key words, I can't say for sure, but I think Lindsay Lohan, Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Aniston, and LeBron James would really love this pasta recipe. Enjoy!
Ingredients: 3 pounds beef neck bones (ones with some meat on them!) 1 onion 3-4 cups tomato sauce (a prepared pasta sauce would be the best choice) 1 cup water, plus more as needed salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste red chili flakes 2 tablespoon chopped fresh green herbs penne pasta and cheese
This red curry flank steak recipe represents a departure from my usual game plan regarding marinating meat for the grill.
I normally don't try to make the meat taste like something specific, rather just use whatever vinegar is nearby, some garlic, herbs, and whatever spices strike my fancy at that moment.
This time I actually had an idea. I love Thai food, and in particular red curry beef. If you've never had this amazing dish, it's basically chunks of beef stew meat cooked slowly in a spicy, aromatic red curry sauce until fork tender. It's clearly one of the top 50 recipes in the history of the world.
So, inspired by this classic Thai recipe, I decided to see if the same sort of flavors could be turned into some sort of marinade for flank steak. I'm so glad I did. The results knocked my socks off.
I made a point to use only ingredients found in your typical higher-end grocery store (like Whole Foods). I really hope you make the effort to find these items, since there really aren’t suitable substitutions.
One note about doneness – as I mention in the video, I like to cook the flank steak to about 132 on the grill which goes up another 5 or so degrees while it rests. This will give you something between medium rare and medium. Rare flank steak is very chewy, and I believe cooking it closer to medium gives a much better texture to the meat.
Having said that, it may look like the meat is a little rarer than that in the video. That's because I started cutting from the thick end, which is going to be rarer – but as you slice towards the thinner end, it will turn medium, and you'll even get a few slice of medium well towards the end.
For this reason flank steak is a perfect choice for a group, since the same piece of meat will provide a range of different doneness'. So, go find those not-so-exotic Asian ingredients and give this delicious beef flank steak recipe a try. Enjoy!
Ingredients: 1 whole beef flank steak, trimmed 3 tablespoon fish sauce 1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar 3-4 cloves crushed garlic 1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger 1 teaspoon hot sauce 1 teaspoon red curry powder 1/2 teaspoon red curry paste
Here's a video recipe of the new and improved stuffed bell peppers. I posted the written recipe a little while back, but wanted to provide a video tutorial also. There have been some significant and shocking changes, so I hope you're sitting down.
The peppers are now cut in half lengthwise, so that the meat/rice-to-pepper ratio is much more in our favor. The bad news is you must find evenly sized, and boxy shaped peppers so the halves cook evenly, but the good news is I just doubled your number of servings.
Also in this version we chose to use the classic green bell pepper. This recipe's roots can be traced back to the Great Depression, when farmers first began selling the unripe peppers out of necessity. Of course, we did what Americans always do when faced with a new variety of food, we stuffed meat in it.
I'll have to admit, I bowed to conventional wisdom, and called for the sweeter red bell in the cookbook, but as any true stuffed bell pepper aficionado will tell you, green is the money pepper. The bitterness of the green pepper serves as a perfect foil to the tangy, but subtly sweet stuffing.
Finally, after several attempts, you have here the final official Food Wishes stuffed bell pepper recipe. I hope you give it a try. Enjoy!
Ingredients: For the sauce: 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 onion, diced 1 cup beef broth 2 cups prepared marinara sauce, or other tomato sauce 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, optional For the peppers: 1 pound lean ground beef 1/4 pound hot Italian pork sausage, casings removed 2 cups cooked rice 1 cup finely grated "real" Parmesan cheese (Parmigiano Reggiano) 1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley 4 cloves garlic, minced very fine 1 can 10-oz diced tomatoes 2 tsp salt 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper pinch of cayenne 4 large green bell peppers
I reworked the stuffed pepper recipe for the cookbook, and this was the result. I've posted the written recipe below the photo, and I highly encourage you to try it out. Enjoy!
Stuffed Bell Peppers
For the sauce: 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 onion, diced 1 cup beef broth 2 cups prepared marinara sauce, or other tomato sauce 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, optional
For the peppers: 1 pound lean ground beef 1/2 pound sweet Italian pork sausage, casings removed 2 cups cooked rice 1 cup finely grated "real" Parmesan cheese (Parmigiano Reggiano) 1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley 4 cloves garlic, minced very fine 1 can 10-oz diced tomatoes 2 tsp salt 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper pinch of cayenne 4 large red bell peppers
Add the olive oil to a saucepan, and lightly brown the onions with a large pinch of salt over medium-high heat. Remove half and reserve for the stuffing. Stir in the rest of the sauce ingredients and bring to a simmer. Pour the sauce into the bottom of a large deep casserole dish.
Add all the filling ingredients to a mixing bowl, along with the reserved onions, and stir with a fork, or your hands, until the mixture is combined. Tip: you can cook a small piece of the filling to test the seasoning.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Cut the bell peppers in half lengthwise. Use a spoon to remove the stem, seeds and white membrane from each pepper. Place the bell peppers in the casserole dish, and fill each pepper with the stuffing. A little additional cheese can be grated over the top if desired.
Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake uncovered for another 20-30 minutes, or until the peppers are very tender. Exact cooking time will depend on size, shape and thickness of the peppers. Best to let rest for 10 minutes before serving. Serve with the sauce spooned over the top.
This video recipe for Beef Satay is the sixth in a series of videos I'm doing with grass-fed beef from Steve Normanton, focusing on how to cook the various cuts. This time I had some lovely looking sirloin tip to work with, and being in the mood for something Thai-ish, I decided to try some beef satay.
This video recipe is really more about the marinade than the meat, as this will work with almost any cut of beef. If you want to splurge, you can use tenderloin, which is super-tender, and really is a nice choice. If you're on the other end of the luxury meat spectrum, you can use a cheap cut like rump steak, or you can split the difference and use something in the middle, like this sirloin tip.
I'll sacrifice a little tenderness for flavor any day, and as long as you slice nice and thin, against the grain, you can't go wrong. As I show in the video, I like to put lots of meat on the skewer, so I can caramelize the surface without having to worry about the lean, grass-fed beef drying out.
All the ingredients, some of which may sound exotic, should be fairly easy to find in any large, higher-end grocery store. By the way, these skewers can be done with chicken or pork, and I can personally verify they are just as delicious. Enjoy!
Ingredients: 2 pounds thinly sliced beef 3 cloves garlic 1/4 cup brown sugar 3 tablespoons fish sauce 2 tablespoons soy sauce 2 tablespoons fresh very finely minced or pureed lemongrass 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger 1 teaspoon cumin 1 teaspoon turmeric 1 tablespoon ground coriander 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
This video recipe for Homemade Beef Stock is the fifth in a series of videos I'm doing with grass-fed beef from Steve Normanton, focusing on how to cook the various cuts.
Normally when I get my package from Steve, I look to see what I have to work with and then decide what recipe would best show off the meat. This time I had no such decisions to make. When I saw this beautiful box of bones I knew there was only one option – a classic beef stock.
You know I like my cartons of ready-to-use stocks and broths. For the busy home cook they offer an easy way to have an array of cooking liquids on hand, which significantly expands anyone's recipe repertoire. Those recipes that say "add 3 cups of beef broth, or water," don't really mean that.
But when beef bones are available, making your own is a great idea. Not only will you be thrilled with the flavor of homemade stock, but you'll save a ton over those handy, but expensive cartons.
One statistical oddity to share – after watching this video I realized there wasn't one humorous moment in the entire thing. No bad puns, no pithy observations, no obscure references, no intentionally mispronounced words, nothing.
When people ask me if I'm ever afraid of running out of recipes to film, I usually joke that new recipes aren't the problem, it's running out of things to call them that's the real fear. Take this horribly named Spanish mustard beef for example. Least poetic name, ever.
Be sure to go find the real stuff (that it comes from Spain is one clue). If your marinade is only going to have a couple ingredients, you better make sure you're using top shelf stuff. The other two keys to this recipe are as follows: only let the meat marinate for about an hour, otherwise it may start to "cook" in the acid; and be sure to build a very hot fire.
