Niu Rou Mian 牛肉麵 v.1

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Long time readers already know that I love love love love love noodle soup.  (For past entries, see here, here and here.)  Here is another version.  The goal was to make a bowl of Taiwanese niu rou mian (niu rou=beef, mian=noodle) but I didn't get the aromatics quite right.  Instead, I ended up with a very nice bowl of soy-braised beef noodle soup.  Not a bad compromise.  :)  I asked my mom for her spice proportions and she explained that most Taiwanese cooks use pre-bagged spice blends so I'm going to head to my local Chinatown and see if I can't find one of these magic bags of goodness. 

INGREDIENTS
BEEF MARINADE
2 lbs braising beef cut into chunks (you can use beef chuck, beef short ribs, etc.)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 green onions cut into 1 inch pieces

Mix all of the ingredients.  Allow to sit for 15 minutes.

AROMATICS AND SOUP
2 green onions cut into 1 inch pieces
1 inch piece of ginger peeled and crushed
2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine
1 teaspoon EACH of sichuan peppercorns and 5-spice powder
1 tablespoon EACH of fermented black beans and black bean/garlic sauce
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 cinnamon stick
2 star anise
a few dried red chiles
1/2 cup of light soy sauce
2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce
water

GARNISHES
Blanched Greens (I used broccoli rabe)
Minced Green Onions
Whatever else you like

(Very basic instructions)
1. Brown green onions and and ginger.  Brown marinated beef.  Deglaze with rice wine.  Add everything else from the "AROMATICS AND SOUP" section.  Bring to a simmer.  Skim broth to remove impurities.  Simmer until beef is tender.  Taste.  Adjust seasoning with soy and water.  Cool and refrigerate over night.

2. There should be a semi-solid fat cap on top of the soup.  Remove the fat cap.  Remove the pieces of beef and set aside.  Strain the remaining liquid.  Combine strained liquid with beef.  Set aside.

3. Prepare garnishes.  Boil noodles.  Add a touch of sesame oil to soup bowl.  Add cooked noodles.  Add garnishes and beef.  EAT.

X-Mas Eve Dinner

All right, a bunch of random stuff in here.  Christmas Eve was basically Meatfest.  For instance, this is what I had for lunch:

Food courtesy of Memphis Minnie's.  Other than the B+ sausage, the rest of the meal was uniformly awful.  Let's talk about the ribs for a second because this takes real talent.  First of all, the meat still had a deathgrip on the bone which would imply that it was undercooked, right?  However, the majority of the meat was already dry and stringy implying that it was overcooked.  I just don't get it.  Anyhow, several people had told me to avoid this joint but I just had to go see for myself.  BBQ FAIL.

In addition to the BBQ plate, we ate a ton of meat later that night.  I've been pretty obsessed with a cooking technique called "sous vide" which I'll detail in an upcoming post.  This post is dedicated to simply giving you an overview of the technique and my X-Mas Eve dinner.

Sous vide hanger steak.  One of the great things about sous vide is that it gives you a lot more control versus cooking over high heat.  For instance, say you like rare steak.  Normally, you might season it and throw it in a hot pan, right?  But notice...there is a ring of gray, overcooked meat surrounding the rare interior.  Compare this to sous vide cooking.  The temperature for rare steak is between 120 and 125 degrees Fahrenheit.  All you have to do when cooking sous vide is to set your water bath at the desired temperature, drop in your steak and the steak never cooks past the preset temperature.  This technique is used in many high end kitchens but it is also very practical for home cookery.  I've sous vide cooked two hanger steaks and they've both been amazing.  For the X-Mas Eve dinner steak, I flavored it with garlic cloves, thyme and a few bay leaves.  In addition, I also added a ton of butter.  I probably went a bit overboard with the butter but you do need some fat to help carry and disperse the flavors. After you cook it in the bag (I use Ziploc brand bags...I've read that cheap plastic bags use cheap plastic.  Whether or not this is true is beyond my knowledge but I figure it's only marginally more expensive to use brand-name plastic) you need to sear the steak because it comes out sorta gray.  After that, slice and serve.

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In addition to the hanger steak, I cooked a turkey leg sous vide.  I packed the bag with all sorts of aromatics...oregano, orange peel, garlic, ginger, star anise, a few cloves etc.  Very Christmas-y.  Throw in the turkey leg (rubbed with allspice and a bit of salt) and cover with duck fat.  BAM.  Turkey leg confit.  176 degrees Fahrenheit for 8 or so hours.  When cooked, I shredded the meat and folded it into some lentils. 

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Given how heavy the rest of the meal was, I decided that a light salad was necessary.  Lots of citrus in the market this time of year so that made my choice easy.  Mint, olives, a little red onion and romaine hearts finished it off. 

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This just gives you an overview of sous vide.  I'm doing research for an upcoming post which will be more detailed but I hope this whets your appetite for more.  Hardy har har.  :)

Kalbi/Galbi

I'm BAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCKKKKKKK.

Seriously, I'm back. I won't be posting quite as often because I'm not cooking quite as much but the blog is far from dead.

Today's post is from Croquet Day. Jorge decided to have a Croquet/BBQ so I pitched in by making kalbi. Kalbi (or galbi...my McCune-Reischauer is rusty) is a beef dish...marinated flanken style short ribs. I should mention something about the cut of meat. This is not your normal, boxy, rectangular short rib. The cut for this dish is done across the bone. Click here for a picture. You can find this cut of meat in Asian markets. If you don't have an Asian market near you, I'm pretty sure your local grocery store will be able to do it if you place a special order.

Anyhow, the marinade is really, really simple.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup of soy sauce
1 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of water
1/2 cup of mirin
1 small onion, roughly chopped
1 Asian pear, peeled and roughly chopped (There is an enzyme in the pear which helps tenderize the meat...if you're familiar with short ribs, you already know that they're quite chewy unless properly cooked or otherwise tenderized)
5 Tablespoons of minced garlic
3 tablespoons of dark (use Korean or Japanese) sesame oil
5 lbs of flanken style short ribs, cut 1/4 inch thick
Sesame seeds

Chuck the first 8 ingredients into a food processor or blender. Process. If you don't have a food processor, just grate the onion and Asian pear. It'll take a little more time but the result will be the same. Mix the short ribs into the marinade. Sprinkle in some sesame seeds and mix again. Marinate overnight.

When you are ready to eat, prepare your grill or use your broiler. Remove the meat from the marinade and rub off the excess marinade.

Cook. You'll need to be careful because there's enough sugar in the marinade so that the meat chars at a fairly high rate. However, I think that a bit of char is essential. It helps offset the sweetness of the meat and gives the ribs more character.

The dish is traditionally served in lettuce leaves. Take a lettuce leaf, add a bit of rice and then a piece of the cooked meat. Eat. I usually get some sort of fermented soybean paste whenever I'm in a Korean BBQ joint but I don't know what it's called.

I've seen all sorts of recipes for Kalbi. Ginger is sometimes used. Other times, rice wine vinegar is added. I also like to add some red pepper flake to mine.

For the nerds out there, I'm pretty sure that the enzymes in the pear which help break down the meat are bromelain and papain. Don't quote me on that but I'm pretty sure that I am right.

Time- 5 minutes to marinate the meat. However long it takes to cook.

Food Cost-
Beef- $5.00/lb. $25 bucks for 5 lbs.
Incidentals- 2 bucks. Will feed many, many hungry mouths especially if you do the rice/lettuce thing.

Shredded Beef Tacos with Chipotle-Tomato Sauce

I've been kinda bummed out with cooking...Just couldn't get inspired or excited, ya know? To fix the problem, I spent some quality time with my cookbook collection and found inspiration in the words and pictures of Rick Bayless and Diana Kennedy. For those of you who don't know, Bayless and Kennedy are the world's foremost Caucasian experts on Mexican cuisine. They've done it all, seen it all and, thankfully, have written it all down in a series of excellent cookbooks. In addition, finding quality purveyors of Mexican ingredients is quite easy in San Francisco so Mexican food is pretty easy to recreate. I am going to cook Mexican food until I am sick of it and long to taste the flavors of a different cuisine.

To begin, I decided on a series of tacos. The first is this shredded beef taco. I've taken a general recipe from Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen (it's a classic) and modified it to suit my tastes and what was available at the local upscale butcher. The recipe calls for pork shoulder but I found some terrific looking beef chuck so that's what I bought. And oh, this is my ghetto version. If you want to get fancy, you can roast the tomatoes and all that. But I wasn't feeling it and the ghetto version is still really tasty. Lastly, I'm terrible at re-warming corn (wait, you were gonna use flour? don't EVER return to my blog) tortillas...I guess they should be steamed but I don't have the patience. I wrap them in a damp paper towel and microwave them.



INGREDIENTS

1/2 of a white onion, diced
6 cloves of peeled garlic
2 pounds of boneless beef chuck, cubed
salt
3 chipotles in adobo (pretty easy to find...any well-stocked grocery store should have them)
10 ounces of diced, canned tomatoes
1/4 teapoon of freshly ground cloves
Olive Oil


Put 5 cloves of garlic, the meat, and the onion into a pot and cover with well-salted water. Bring to a simmer and skim off the nasty meat foam. You'll probably need to skim 3-4 times. Simmer until the meat is tender...It took me 1.75 hours. Allow the meat to cool (in the broth) and then shred with your fingers. Pour off the broth and set the shredded meat to the side. It's okay of there are a few onion/garlic bits mixed in with the meat.

For the sauce:
Blend the chipotles, the tomatoes, the remaining clove of garlic and the ground cloves. Just get it nice and smooth. Heat up a pan and add a few tablespoons of olive oil. You need to sear the sauce. Get the oil good and hot (add a drop of the tomato/chili sauce to see if it vigorously sizzles) and add the tomato/chili sauce. Here is a video:


After 5 minutes, the sauce will be thicker and darker in color. Don't let it burn. Add salt to taste. This step cooks the sauce and gets rid of the raw flavor.

Set the sauce aside. Heat up another pan and add a few tablespoons of oil. When the pan is hot, add the shredded meat. Allow it to brown a bit and then add in the sauce. Cook for a minute...just enough to let the flavors mingle. Meat is done!

Make tacos...garnishes might include pickled onions, fresh onion, fresh chopped cilantro, queso fresco, lime juice, any number of salsas...really, it's up to you. Have fun with it!

Time- Not much at all...2 hours to simmer meat, 10 minutes to make the sauce, 5 minutes to brown meat.

Food Cost-
Beef- 10 bucks...$5 per pound, two pounds total.
Chipotles- about a third of a can, 2 bucks per can, 66 cents.
Can of tomatoes- $1.25
Incidentals-50 cents.
Total- About 12 bucks. Not sure how many tacos I am going to get out of this one batch of meat.

LOLCat (they bring so much joy to my life...the "bukkit" is sort of a LOLCat insid):

Chile Rubbed Pot Roast

I kinda wanna speed through this post because the next post is one that I'm super excited about...let's just say it involves two jalapeno chiles, two serrano chiles, two fresno chiles, 30 thai chiles and 3-4 tablespoons of housemade chile powder. just a wee bit spicy.

I'm gonna get right into this one. The recipe is from Chef on a Shoestring. I have talked about this book in this post.

Everything you'll need:

Here's the meat. It doesn't have a lot of marbling so I was a bit worried that it would fall short in the succulence department. My fears were confirmed. While the end product wasn't dry, it lacked in beefy richness. Poop on the upscale butcher. If I pay $5.99 a pound for braising meat, it better turn out to be phenomenally delicious. It wasn't so, from now on, I'll stick with the Chinese dudes. This is a bit over 3 pounds of meat.In this step, I'm pre-salting the meat. I let it sit, salted, overnight. Just salt it, wrap it up and stick it back in the fridge. You're not looking for a ton of salt. I used maybe a teaspoon and a half per side. You can skip this step if you want.
When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Spice rub: 1 tablespoon ground cumin, 1 tablespoon of ground coriander, 1 tablespoon of ground chile, 1.5 teaspoons of cayenne, 1 tablespoon of ground black pepper. For the ground chile, I used guajillo chile powder. I also tossed in two teaspoons of ground chipotle chile powder. As always, I encourage you to freshly grind your own spices.Take the spice rub and rub it into the beef. If, like me, you the beef is completely seasoned but you have leftover seasoning, just sprinkle it into the pot at the tomato/beef broth stage.

Chop some vegetables. A few carrots, an onion and some celery. Because this dish is going to be cooked for a long time, leave the veggies in large chunks. If you cut them small, like a dice, they'll completely disintegrate. Also mince a bit of garlic. Here are some carrots:Heat up a large, ovenproof pot. Add oil and brown the meat:When the meat is browned on both sides, remove from the pot and toss in the onion and carrots. Cook until the onions have softened slightly. Then toss in the carrot and garlic and cook for a bit, say 30 seconds. Add around 1 cup of tomato puree or chopped tomatoes. Toss in a few cups of beef broth. Add the meat back to the pot. Sorta nestle it among the rest of the ingredients. You don't want to completely cover the meat in liquid. That isn't a braise....ummm, not sure what it then becomes....boiled meat? That's garlic on top of the meat...I forgot to add it with the celery. Cover the pot and place into the oven. Cook for an hour and 20 minutes and see if it's done. It probably won't be. When you take the pot out of the oven to check for doneness, taste the cooking liquid. Add salt and/or pepper. As for the doneness of the meat, I've made a video to help you out. I'm awesome like that.


Did that make sense? Anyhow, keep cooking it until it is tender. That's the only goal here. Meat so tender that you can eat it with a spoon. Spoon meat. Spoonable meat. Whatever, you get it.

Done! I recommend leaving this in the fridge for a day. The flavors will be better, and you can scoop off the rendered, hardened fat.

Time-Ridiculously low. Maybe 15 minutes of active cooking. Took me nearly 2 hours to cook the meat in the oven. Overnight pre-salting but VERY little active cooking time.

Food Cost-
Meat- $18.00 (I'm still pissed about this)
Veggies- $1.00
Tomato Sauce- $0.99
Broth-$1.25
Incidentals-$0.50
Total- $21.75. Probably got 6 servings out of this...22/6=$3.66 per serving. Not very Budget College Cook...sorry about that!

Text only link click here.

Lolcat:

Baked Kibbe 'n Bits 'n Bits 'n Bits

If you get the joke, pat yourself on the back!

Anyhow, I had a decision to make. Since I've won the $2.00/Day contest that I was recently in, should I soldier on with the same budget? I weighed a couple of things in my decision making. The first is that I didn't feel deprived at all while on the $2.00/day budget. Number two, I was prepared to do this for much longer than just a week and had prepared a list of possible dishes. Those dishes are still there and are still waiting to be cooked. My final decision was to cook as cheaply as possible but not try to maintain an arbitrary price ceiling...pretty much what I was doing before the contest started.

edit: George just got home and convinced me to go as long as I can on $2.00/day. I've agreed.
This is kibbe.

Here's how you make it. This recipe is pretty much stolen straight out of this stupefyingly good cookbook. The many arguments for eating more whole grains usually center around the well-documented health benefits; however, I think the best, most convincing argument of all is that they taste good! Well, to me at least. This recipe uses bulgur wheat (to some people...vulgar sweets, inside joke imo). At the store, you'll find different grades of bulgur wheat...they range from 1-4. The grades aren't in any way indicative of quality. Instead, they refer to the grind...the higher the number, the more coarse the grind. This recipe uses #1 fine grind although I think #2 would also be fine.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Measure out one cup of bulgur wheat. Here's what it looks like dry:
Bring a little over 1 cup of water to a boil. Add a large pinch of salt to the water. Throw in the bulgur wheat, give it a stir and turn off the heat. Cover the pot and leave the bulgur wheat alone for ten minutes.

While you're waiting for the wheat, rough chop one onion and throw it into a food processor. Blend. (I really love this picture...the onions look like snow!)

Take 1/2 of 1 largish bunch of Italian parsley. Pick the leaves off, give them a thorough wash to get rid of any dirt and throw them into the pureed onion. Blend again to combine the parsley with the onion. Add some seasoning. The recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin, 1/4 teaspoon of ground all spice and a bit of cayenne. I used 1.5 teaspoons of ras-el-hanout and a large pinch of cayenne pepper. Here's what you should have:
By now, the bulgur should have re-hydrated. You'll notice the fork. Just use it to loosen the grains...fluff them up. Here's a close-up:
Blend the onion mixture with the bulgur wheat. If you've got a mini food processor like I do, you might have to do this in two batches. Here's what you're left with:Add 1 pound of ground beef...this recipe is originally for lamb but beef is a fine substitute:
All right. Some of you are probably freaking out a little bit. Wheat grains and beef? WTF? It's not all that strange...if you've ever made meatloaf or meatballs, you'll know what I mean. Meatballs usually have breadcrumbs in them, right? This is just an extension of that...don't get your undies all in a bundle! Blend the meat and onion/wheat mixture. Blend it well. USE YOUR HANDS. Get dirty...have a little fun. and.........voila:
It's gonna need salt. Add a few heavy pinches. Whenever I make meatballs, meatloaf, I ALWAYS microwave a bit and taste for seasoning. That way, you'll know what you've got. Do this, taste for seasoning and add more if needed. I found that mine needed a little bit more cayenne pepper.

Take your seasoned mixture and spread it into a lightly oiled, oven safe pan. You can use some baking dishes if that's what you have handy.Cook until the middle is no longer pink. I cooked mine for 30 minutes and it was fine. You might need a little bit longer.
It shrinks a bit and also leeches out some oil. I chose to pour the oil off. Let cool for a bit.

While the kibbe is cooling, get some stuff ready for pita pockets. I had some romaine lettuce. I wish I had a tomato as well. Tear/cut the veggies into bite size chunks. Make a dressing for the romaine (and/or tomato)...if all you have is lemon juice and olive oil, that'd be fine. Doesn't have to be fancy, just squeeze the lemon over the veggies, drizzle a bit of oil and mix. Sprinkle with salt. I used tahini and lemon juice. For my taste, the lemon juice is key...it really helps perk up the kibbe.

Grab a pita bread and open it up. Stuff it with the dressed vegetables and some chunks/scoops of the meat. Here's what you should have: Closer:
Extremely close!
Man, these things are GREAT. I will be having another tomorrow.

Time: Let's see...I came into the kitchen, turned the radio on and started listening to the Rabin recording of Paganini #1...the mono recording, not the stereo. Did all the dishes and started cooking. By the time the concerto ended, the kibbe was in the oven. Wait...what? This isn't helping you? Classical music nerds are at an advantage here.

Food cost:
$0.37- Wheat
$2.00- Beef
$0.60 Incidentals
$2.97- Total...will serve PLENTY of people. Lots of pita pockets...

Steak a la Jorge

Today, the BCC has a special treat....A guest blogger! This post comes to you straight from the chiseled abs of World's Strongest Man Jorge

Steak a la jorge

You need a heavy pan to get good results. I am using a cast iron pan with grilling ridges, a normal cast iron pan would also work great (or of course an outside grill). Make sure the pan is very hot. With a weak stove like ours, I literally let it heat for 10 minutes on full blast.


This is about a 16oz boneless ribeye, which is a delicious and tender cut of meat. It's also on the expensive side, but not too bad at Costco, about $7 per pound First I pat the steak dry with a paper towel, then rub both sides with oil. Season both sides very generously with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.

Put the steak in the pan, at an angle so you don't have vertical grill marks. If you want crosshatch design, turn the steak 90 degress halfway through the first side cooking time. For a steak that is 1" thick you can do about 6 minutes per side for a nice medium rare.

Once the steak is done, it is important to let it rest on a plate for a few minutes. This lets the proteins relax and for the juices to soak back into the meat, so the steak is tender and juicy. If you're worried about the steak getting cold, then serve it on a hot plate.

Let's all give Jorge a round of applause. With any luck, I can get Carrie, Jorge's kitchen incompetent girlfriend, to do the next guest post. That'll be more exciting than Herr Mozart's suggestion that his next opera be in German! Jah!