Caribbean Dreamin'

It's snowing again (why this is a big surprise to me since this is winter in Montana, I have no idea) and I just keep seeing commercials on tv for vacations.

I found this beautiful flank steak, and just knew that I had to grill that beauty.  Of course, I have no grill and no oven.  I do, however, have my cast iron skillet and my induction burner.  I was very happy to discover that cast iron works on the induction burner, and even happier that I still have my skillet. I still miss my cast iron dutch oven every day.  I had to give it away along with several other items, or pay an additional $200 that I didn't have, when we were moving our stuff.  One day, when we are settled again, that is going to be one of my first purchases. But I digress.

Flank steak is a great (and delicious!) piece of meat, that is less expensive and cooks very quickly. The cut is a long, flat steak that comes from the abdomen of the cow, and is usually sliced thin across the grain to cook and serve. Because we live in a small room, and with the lack of an oven, grilling meat or burgers is not usually an option due to lack of ventilation because of the smoke. Maybe, that wouldn't be an issue when the weather is warmer where you can open the windows, but then again, you could grill outside when it's warmer. But in February in Montana...? Let's just say grilling outside is not going to happen, so you find a way of making it work.

Having been born and raised in the Bronx, I grew up around Puerto Rican food. If you've ever tasted Latin food, you know how good food can be, and one of the things that makes that food so good is a condiment called sofrito.

 Sofrito is a base used for flavoring in many Latin and Spanish foods for soups, stews and marinades. While recipes and ingredients will vary from region to region, sofrito is basically a mix of garlic, peppers and onion. Sofrito is so easy to make, and adds so much flavor, you will never look at meat the same way again.

To really get the taste into the meat, I rubbed the sofrito into the flank steak and left it to marinate overnight in the refrigerator.

When you are ready to cook, place some butter in your cast iron skillet, and set it on the induction burner (level 5) until the butter is sizzling and the pan is hot. Wipe of any excess sofrito from the steak and sear the flank steak on each side for 3 to 5 minutes, depending on the thickness of the cut. as you can see from the photo, I had to cut the steak into three pieces to fit it into the pan

Enjoy!!

  

 Sofrito

Equipment

Blender, food chopper, or food processor

Ingredients

1 bunch cilantro, remove stems

1 medium onion, peeled

6 cloves of garlic, peeled

1 green bell pepper, ribs and seeds removed

1 red bell pepper,ribs and seeds removed

Place all the ingredients in a blender or food processor (My little food chopper only has a 1.5 cup capacity, so I had to make this in batches), and process until everything is finely chopped. Place into a strainer over a bowl to drain any excess liquid. Whatever is not used can be frozen for two months.

Makes about 1 pint.

Love from the Stock Pot

Well, it's February, and I find myself fighting yet another cold. Haven't been able to post since last month because I haven't had a chance to cook anything.  Not to mention that I am making plans for when this season ends in three months. But, too many hours at work, too little sleep, and not enough good food definitely takes its toll on a body. Thanks to an understaffed kitchen (nothing new on that front for a lot of kitchens), I prep and man (woman?) the action station for both breakfast and lunch. What this means is that including setup and breakdown for both seatings, I get approximately 5 minutes out of a 9 1/2 hour day to hit the restroom until I leave for the day. It didn't help that one of our cooks in the kitchen slipped in the walk-in and broke her wrist, so I had to come in when I finally did get a day off. Today is actually a sick day for me, because yesterday I woke up with the whole sneezing and runny nose thing, and one of the glands in my neck was was swollen, making moving my neck, swallowing or talking (a huge part of my job) very painful.  I needed to nip this is the bud, and fast!

As much as I have been working to put money away for the end of season move, I needed a stockpot. I've always had my go-to remedies,before my traveller life, when I got sick and rarely have had a cold that lasted more than three days -

1. Eat curry
2. Do some exercise
3. Make soup

Now, maybe it's the Jewish girl in me, but there is something about the hearty chicken soup that my grandmother used to make when I was sick, or 'Jewish penicillin', that I remember. Part of it is the healthy ingredients and the love attached, but I realized as I grew up and started cooking for myself and family, that a big part of that 'cure' was watching the soup cook in the pot, inhaling the herbs and steam.  Ah yes, inhaling Grandma's soup was much better than standing over the boiling pot of water with Vick's Vaporub™ in it, with the towel over my head. And it tasted much better too!

So, determined to make soup, and not having the energy or patience to wait for the slow cooker, I decided I had to add a small stock pot to my culinary equipment. I went to our local Ace Hardware, looking to replace my cast iron dutch oven and, lo and behold, was introduced to a Le Creuset enameled stainless steel pot that was a fraction of the weight, and just looked too darned cute to pass up. This is a 6-quart pot in the color Oyster.

I didn't even know that Le Creuset made aluminum cookware, but this pot is light and cooks really well. As you can see from the inside, it's enameled inside and out. (Note: that is an Aloo Gobi (a cauliflower and potato curry) cooking inside. Remember remedy #1).

I stopped at our local supermarket on the way home, and voila, I was ready to make soup. Now, I loved my grandmother very much, but when I think of a comforting soup, I like to make something called a burgoo. Burgoo is sort of a soup and a stew that has many different origin stories, but I was introduced to Burgoo as a Kentucky dish. No two families make burgoo the same, because it always come down to a matter of taste, and what ingredients the person had at the time. Like a Brunswick or Mulligan stew, there is a mixture of meats involved and vegetables, and it takes a while to cook. I came up with my recipe years ago (as you can see from the old index card it is written on, and it has changed and evolved over the years, but the basics always remain the same. (This was actually a re-write of the recipe once the original card got too stained for anyone to read.)

The ingredients are listed in three groups, because different items are added at different times. This does require a lot of prep and a time commitment, but so worth the effort. It is comforting like one of Grandma's hugs. 

Burgoo

Equipment

Induction burner

6-quart stock pot

Ingredients

Stage 1:

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 tsp paprika

3 gloves garlic, crushed

6 cups water

1 pound stewing beef or steak

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Stage 2:

1 green bell pepper, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

3 potatoes, peeled and cut into 1" cubes

2 ears of corn, cut into 1" cob slices (This is approximate of course. I just whack at the cob and hopes it comes out close) 

1 can stewed tomatoes

1 16 oz can tomato sauce

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

3 Bay leaves

Stage 3:

1 cup green peas

1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced

1/4 cup barley

Instructions

With heat on medium (induction burner lvl 4), heat the oil and saute the onion with the paprika until they start to get translucent. Add the crushed garlic and stir for another minute or so, till the onions are slightly softened. Add the water, beef and chicken. Turn up heat and bring to a boil. Once the stock is boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer (medium low, induction lvl 3) and cover. Cook covered for 1 hour, checking after the first 10 minutes, to skim over the scum and residue from the liquid. Check back after another 10 minutes to make certain that all of the scum is skimmed off (the French term is escume, meaning to remove the scum, fat or other impurities from the surface of a liquid), and the broth is relatively clean.

After 1 hour, remove the meat from the pot and toss in all of the Stage 2 ingredients (peppers, corn, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, spices). Cube the steak and chicken into approximately 1" cubes and return to pot. Bring heat up and bring back to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat back down to medium low, cover and cook for another hour, stirring occasionally.

After the 2nd hour, add the Stage 3 ingredients (peas, mushrooms, barley), cover and simmer for another 20 minutes.

Think of it as a long distance hug from me. Feel better everyone.