Beef roasted over two fires

Well, we’ve had a few real nice warm fall days recently. I love setting my chair in the back yard to read, when its like that. Another thing I really love doing in the fall, is roasting beef over two charcoal fires, with a little mulberry wood added in for smoke.

Recently, I went to my local grocery and picked up two beef roasts, about two and a half pounds each and then lit two piles of charcoal in my grill. I seasoned up the beef and placed both roasts next to each other on a cast iron pan. In about an hour and a half, they were perfectly medium rare. Here’s how I did that.

2 2-1/2 lb. beef roasts, each with a layer of fat

Olive oil

Adobo seasoning

Cajun seasoning

Red pepper flakes

1 quart of beef broth

Flour

Smoked paprika

Preparation

Take the roasts and rub them with olive oil. Place them, fat side up, in a cast iron skillet. Season them with adobo seasoning and cajun seasoning. Don’t measure, just sprinkle both on heavily. Now sprinkle on some red pepper flakes. Let the beef sit at room temperature while you prepare grill.

You need a big enough grill, so you can light two piles of charcoal and still fit the cast iron pan between them, without being directly over the coals. To light the coals, make two piles of charcoal and then go break up some hardwood branches and pile the sticks on top of the coals. Light the sticks with a propane torch. The sticks will burn down and light the coals. I never use charcoal starter. I like my food to taste like wood smoke, not lighter fluid.

When some of the coals start to glow, place the cast iron pan with the beef, on the grate, centered between the two fires. Close the lid. My charcoal piles were fairly deep, so this cooked faster than I expected. In an hour and a half, it was ready. I pull the beef off when an instant read thermometer shows 120º in the center of the roast. When it does, put the roasts onto a platter in a warm place to rest while you make gravy.

For the gravy, place the cast iron skillet on the stove. You should have a nice amount of beef fat in it. Turn the stove on medium high. Add enough flour (and about a teaspoon of smoked paprika) to absorb the fat, but still be somewhat wet while you stir it.

Stir the flour for a couple of minutes, scraping up the stuff that stuck to the pan. Add beef broth, about a cup at a time, and stir. After each addition, bring it to a boil. Keep adding broth until you have a nice gravy, with just the right thickness. Taste and adjust the gravy for salt and pepper. Add the gravy to a bowl. Slice the beef thin and place it on a warm serving platter. Pour any juices from the beef into the gravy.

Serving

Serve lots of beef next to a large boiled potato, that has been broken apart with a fork. Cover both with gravy. Add some broccoli that was sautéed with garlic, some homemade bread, and open a good bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. Dinner is served.

Chicken pasta that I didn't know how to make

I had some frozen chicken breast strips in the freezer that I bought on a whim. When I arrived home from work the other day, I decided that I was going to use them in a pasta somehow. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do that, so I started making bread while I ran a few options through my head.

Well, when it came time to start cooking, I still didn’t know how I was going to cook this. I decided to just start, and make it up as I go. Here’s what I did. To my surprise, this came out quite tasty. The sweet of the Marsala was balanced by the bite of the red pepper flakes.

1-1/2 lb. frozen chicken breast strips

Olive oil

Adobo seasoning

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

1/4 cup finely chopped shallots

5 cloves of garlic, smashed and minced

1 tsp. red pepper flakes

1 tsp. basil

1 tsp. white pepper

1 cup sweet Marsala

1 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes

1 lb. corkscrew pasta

3 sprigs of fresh chopped tarragon

2 sprigs of fresh chopped oregano

5 fresh sage leaves, chopped

Preparation

Heat a large braising pan that has a tight fitting lid. When it is hot, add enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Sear the chicken breast pieces (right from the freezer is ok) on one side. Turn them over and sprinkle them with some adobo seasoning. Add the onion, shallots, garlic, red pepper, the dry basil and the white pepper. Stir and cover the pan.

Let the chicken cook this way for about ten minutes, but turn the chicken over and stir every couple of minutes. When you are not stirring, keep the lid on. You want the chicken and vegetables to steam together so the flavors can blend. After about ten minutes, add the Marsala and stir. Return the lid and let that simmer for at least ten more minutes.

Add the crushed tomatoes and the chopped fresh herbs. Stir and let that simmer, covered, while you put the pasta water on to boil. Stir the chicken often while you cook and drain the pasta.

Serving

Take a big pile of pasta and ladle on the chicken and tomato sauce. Sprinkle on some grated parmesan. Slice the homemade bread and set it out with lots of butter. Make a nice Greek style salad and open a bottle of spicy California Zinfandel. Dinner is served. I may not know how to make this, but it turned out good anyways.

Steak and vegetable fajitas

Well, I just returned from a camping trip in Michigan’s Hiawatha National Forest, which explains why there were no posts last week. Today I face reality and it is back to work.

Well, I mentioned this before, but last year, the pallet company I work for sold it’s plant and office, and we moved to a small rented office space in West Chicago. For you readers out of state, West Chicago isn’t near the city where bullets are flying. It is a suburb that is roughly forty miles west of the city. It is, however, a great town for Mexican food. I’ve often have great meals at Mr. Papa’s.

I also go to a Mexican grocery that’s right next to our office. It has Mexican music playing over the sound system and had an amazing selection of Mexican foods. Recently, I went to the meat counter and bought several thin flat steaks (about a pound and a half), and then got a little tub of their Mexican red sauce (salsa Mexicana) and a tub of their avocado dip. I like to make fajitas and do so quite often. Here’s one of the ways I prepare them, when serving a big group.

1-1/2 lb. thin beef steaks

Vegetable oil

Adobo seasoning

2 large red bell peppers

1 large green bell pepper

6 large jalapeños

4 medium onions

4 stalks of celery

Worcestershire sauce

Large burrito wraps

Corn tortillas

Hot Mexican red salsa

Guacamole

Shredded Mexican style cheese

1 bowl of lime wedges

Preparation

Cut all the vegetables in wedges or strips. Season the steaks lightly with adobo seasoning. Heat a very large cast iron pan (one of the big ones, that are difficult to lift one handed, even when empty) until it is very hot. Add enough vegetable oil to coat the bottom. Sear the steaks quickly on both sides and remove them to a cutting board. Let them cool while you cook the vegetables.

Let the cast iron get hot again. Add the vegetables and stir. Let them cook for about ten minutes until the onions soften, and stir every time you think of it. When the vegetables are hot and starting to soften, slice the beef steaks into strips and add them to the pan. Stir.

Squeeze on about four wedges of lime juice and shake on some Worcestershire sauce. Sprinkle on more adobo seasoning. Stir and turn off the heat.

Serving

Heat another large cast iron pan so your dinner guests can heat their tortillas and wraps. Spoon on some meat and vegetables on your warm tortilla and wrap. Add some guacamole, cheese and lots of red sauce. Roll or fold as appropriate. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Wash everything down with ice cold beer.

Pasta for the campground hosts

I’m in the midst of planning my next camping trip to the Hiawatha National Forest. I don’t know if we’ll ever develop a time machine, but if scientists are actually looking for a breakthrough, they have to look at how time speeds up, when you’re on vacation. I swear, when I’m camping, a week goes by in the span of a few minutes!

I’ve become friends with the campground hosts at the National Forest campground I heading to.  They are a couple, about my age, who campground host full time, sort of a working retirement. I usually have them over to my campsite for dinner, at least once while I’m there. Last year, I made this pasta sauce for them, and they really seemed to like it. Here’s what I did.

1 lb. hot Italian sausage

Olive oil

5 cloves of garlic, smashed and minced

1 shallot, sliced razor thin

1 tsp. basil

1/2 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. marjoram

Cajun seasoning

1 can of tomato paste

1 cup of red wine

1 28 oz. can of San Marzano tomatoes

1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese

1 lb. corkscrew pasta, cooked and drained

Preparation

Heat a medium sized dutch oven and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Add the sausage and break it up. Let that cook until it starts to loose it’s pink color. Add the garlic and the shallots and continue to cook until the sausage starts to brown. Stir in the basil, oregano, marjoram and sprinkle on a little cajun seasoning.

Add the tomato paste and the wine. Stir until the paste is worked evenly into the sausage. Add the canned tomatoes and break them up with a knife and fork. Let the sauce simmer gently, for about ten minutes, stirring often. Turn off the heat and stir in the grated parmesan.

Serving

Serve big piles of the pasta and bury them in this sauce. Add a fresh heirloom tomato salad (tomato wedges with olive oil, salt, pepper and basil) and set out a bowl of Italian olives.

I opened a bottle of Zinfandel, while the hosts brought over another bottle of red wine and some crystal wine glasses, for us to use during dinner. The pasta must have been ok, because they went back for seconds. (I did too, but we’ve come to expect that by now.)