The Chef Within

St. Patrick’s day is sort of like Thanksgiving; it’s the one day a year we might be inclined to buy corned beef/turkey.  There is certainly nothing stopping us from having it more often but since it might be on our minds more, this time of year, let’s talk about corned beef.

I suppose you could actually “corn” your own beef but honestly I’ve never done that. If that is important to you, you could probably hop on line and find some great information.  But this post will cover cooking the piece that has already been corned.  Corned beef is made from the brisket, which is a tougher part of the beef and requires long, slow cooking in liquid. 

Because I was making a special Reuben sandwich for quite a large group I opted to buy an entire briket (plus I wanted leftovers).  You can buy an entire brisket, like this, but most frequently you will find a smaller piece.  Whatever the size, the cooking method is the same. 

This was the size of the seasoning packet included with the whole brisket.  What joke!  This wasn’t enough for even a small cut.  So if you need to supplement the seasonings, take a look at what they include…

 and duplicate it. 

Or if you prefer the convenience of all the spices in one then use a can of pickling spice which is frequently used for cooking corned beef.

Once again, when trying to figure out what spices to add, refer to the label for ideas  and add any that are not already in the packet.  I figured more is always better in a case like this and as you can guess, this is not an exact science so just put in liberal amounts and you won’t go wrong. 

Once all the dry seasonings are in the cooking pan or crock pot, which is a great place for a cut of meat like this…

add some large pieces of onion, carrots and celery with a bay leag or two plus a couple of cloves of crushed garlic.

To these spices and fresh ingredients you will need to add some kind of liquid.  You can add water or frequently beer is used as the cooking liquid.  You can use a combination of the two.  For the entire brisket I used a total of about one quart of liquid.  I could have used less.  If you are cooking smaller pieces use lesser amounts of liquid because the meat will exude tons of its own juice as it cooks.  So you really don’t need alot to begin with.

The meat, seasonings and liquid are all placed in a roasting pan and then covered with foil or the lid of the pan.  Since the entire piece was so large I cut it in half before roasting.  Notice that the fat cap is on top. 

The brisket can cook all day long at a low setting in the oven 200-250 or you can cook it at 300 degrees for a shorter period.  I wouldn’t cook it at much higher a temperature than 300.  

Cook for several hours until the meat pokes fairly easily with a fork.  Remove from the cooking liquid and honestly, I’m not sure there is a use for the liquid.  You might want to chill it overnight to congeal the fat, then remove the fat, discard it,  strain the liquid and taste it.  If it tastes like something you might want to use for a soup or chili or another food, then by all means save it, even freeze it for the next opportunity. 

Once the meat is out of the liquid and has cooled a bit, cut off the fat cap and serve.  Be aware that this cut of meat needs to be cut crosswise, against the grain of the muscle  and cut thinly.  That ensures that the meat will be easier to chew.   If you are using the beef for sandwiches you might want to let it rest and chill overnight and then cut the meat crosswise, super thin, paper thin. 

Next time I want to share the recipe for the “Krazy Kraut” that I used to made this awesome Reuben.  It’s one of my favorites!

I often get the chance to help out at the culinary arts program at Boise State University.  It’s great fun to work with students and watch their learning curve grow over the course of their study.  Last time I was there a first semester student was working on a meatloaf.  She was standing at one of the stoves cooking up a small of amount of ground meat mixture.

I asked her what she was doing and she said she was cooking off some of her meatloaf mixture so she could tell if she had seasoned it properly.  I applauded her effort because so often we are all guilty of throwing together a meatloaf, taking it to the oven and then at the table, when we taste it for the first time, it may not have turned out the way we had hoped.  So the idea of cooking off a bit was really a great idea.  And you could cook your test amount in a sauté pan.  But what I shared with the student and I pass on to you is a very quick way to “taste test” the ground meat mixture.

Take a teaspoon of the mixture and set in on a plate or paper towel and take it to the microwave.  It will only need a few seconds before it starts to sizzle.  Let it cool a bit and then taste what you have so far.  Do you like the salt amount?  What about other seasonings that you might be wanting to emphasize?  Are you getting their flavor or do you need to add more?  Because you have taken this extra little step you can correct a full recipe of meatloaf, or meatballs before it is too late.

Fennel is one of those vegetables that I discovered later in life.  It has a deliciously mild taste (a slight licorice essence) and is a little spendy making it something that needs to be used carefully.  Fennel looks a little like celery. 

Most of the time when a recipe calls for fennel it is referring to the base or bulb at the bottom.  The stalks are removed. 

They can be thrown away but I like to save them for making a vegetable or chicken stock.  Just give them a good rinse, fold them in half …

and then  keep them in a havy duty plastic bag in the freezer.  This is my stock bag in which I keep leek tops and stalks of fennel.  They just accumulate in the bag and when you are making stock of any kind, just take what you need.  Because the tops are kept in the freezer they will last indefinately and nothing is wasted.

Once the tops are removed you can cut into the bulb in any way you like.  Normally I would recommend cutting the bulb in half lengthwise …

and then cutting in strips across the bulb. 

Then take your chef’s knife and cut very fine slices on a diagonal. 

The reason to cut on the diagonal is because you should follow the contour of the  core.  You can literally shave off the bulb on both sides and even across the top…

until there is nothing left but the core.  I suppose that could go in the stock bag as well.

In this case I used the fennel for a salad.  When fennel is raw, it can be rather tough.  That is why I prefer to slice the pieces very, very finely. 

It creates more pieces, distributes the flavor better throughout the salad.  If you were going to saute it then you could cut the pieces larger and they would naturally soften as they cook.

My favorite way of cooking fennel is to roast it in the oven.  Please refer to earlier posts on how that is done (click here).  In fennel’s case I would simply take the bulb that you cut in half and then cut that into quarters or sixths or eighths (depending on the size of the bulb)…

making sure every piece has part of the core attached to keep the pieces and layers together.  Roasted fennel is awesome and great with delicate tasting meats like chicken and fish. 

Because fennel has such a mild taste it can often be lost in dishes.  Personally, I like to prepare fennel one of two ways.  I think the flavor is best when it is raw or when it is roasted by itself.  When fennel gets mixed up with alot of other ingredients I fell like it looses it’s essence.  When it is raw or roasted that essence comes through more prominently.

Last week I catered a special event and for that I had made a fresh basil dressing.  I had nearly a full bag of basil leftover and all week kept thinking that I needed to store that in some way before it was too late.  I finally got around to it.

I was almost too late.  I sorted through the bag and broke off the leaves that were still usable.  There were some brown spots which don’t pose a threat but are more a sign of loss of flavor and pungency. 

There were leaves that were completely limp and brown.  Those I threw away.

I took the mound of usable leaves and gave them a coarse chop with a chef’s knife. 

Then I divided the chopped herbs amongst two storage containers. 

Each container was then filled with water but not all the way to the top.  You should leave about  1/2 inch headroom to account for expansion during freezing.  The containers are then covered and sent to the freezer.  This is a great tip for any herb and can be done in smaller portions but in this case I wanted to keep the quantity large for recipes that call for good amounts; like the dressing or a tomato sauce or breads and biscuits. 

When it is time to use the herb, simply remove the “herb block” from the container by running it under warm water and then set the block in a sieve and run cool water over that.  The ice will melt instantly and you will be left with fresh tasting herbs or at least as fresh as they were when they were stored.