Susi's Kochen Und Backen Adventures

 

Our "cold" days are pretty numbered living here in Arizona. Any kind of chill in the air has us running for jackets, boots and scarves along with warm comfort food like soups and stews. Maybe it's because our winter season is so short that these meals are looked forward to and beloved. We are quite spoiled with the weather in Arizona, especially during the fall/winter/spring months. What we consider "cold" is pretty laughable by the rest of the country's standards. However I'm convinced that in order to survive our extremely hot summers our blood thins and once the temperatures dip below 65 degrees we are just not equipped anymore to take the cold. It is pretty humorous to watch all of the tourists flocking to Arizona during this time of year. Most of the "natives" are wearing winter clothes, but you can pick out all the tourists sporting t-shirts, shorts and flip flops once the thermometer hits 60. It's a heat wave, especially if you've just arrived from North Dakota, Wisconsin or any other northern state. 

Taking full advantage of the temperatures dipping last weekend, my husband was craving beef stew. Not just any old beef stew, but Tyler Florence's Ultimate Beef Stew. I have made a few beef stews over the years and all of them were an improvement over my first encounter with "Dinty Moore", which my husband introduced me too while he was in the military. Beef stew can be extremely blah or it can be a fantastic, flavorful meal. Tyler's recipe falls into the latter category.

 

I promise to showcase all of the recipes, but today I'm concentrating on the Sauerbraten. Let me preface by saying that different regions in Germany will produce different recipes for this. Mine is simply a family recipe which might not be "authentic" by other German standards, but is a special recipe handed down from my dad to me. Sauerbraten simply refers to a beef roast that has been marinaded in a brine of vinegar, spices, root vegetables and red wine for a few days. The cut of meat is usually a tougher cut, like a bottom round roast and by marinading the meat in something acidic for several days the notion is it will help tenderize the meat. Most people will keep the meat in the brine for 3 to 4 days, but I've even heard of people leaving the meat in for a full week. After the meat is removed and dried off, it will get a good searing on all sides in a heavy pot. The marinade, along with the seasonings and vegetables is added to the meat, which is then cooked for a couple of hours on the stove top. After the meat is fully cooked you get to work on the gravy.

Many people know Sauerbraten with a thickened gravy containing gingersnaps, this is NOT the way it is prepared in the region of Franconia (upper Bavaria) where I grew up. We also don't add rasisins to the finished gravy, this is more of a rhineland addition. My gravy, which is just the way my family cooks it, is achieved by caramelizing sugar in a pan with butter, flour is added and finally some of the cooked marinade and red wine round out the gravy. German gravy is fairly thin and never gloppy like many American gravies tend to be. A final touch of a little red currant jelly (for sweetness) and creme fraiche round out this fantastic sauce. You can use sour cream, but keep in mind not to boil the gravy anymore or it will curdle on you, which creme fraiche wont. The finished roast is typically served with "Preiselbeeren" which are similar to cranberries or lingonberry jam along with dumplings and red cabbage (both of which I will be featuring in the next few days).

Meatloaf can garner strong reactions from a lot of people. In my experience, there are two camps, the ones that love it and always have, and the other ones that loath it, and think it's one of the worst foods ever invented, reminding them of awful cafeteria food. I tend to think that most people who have that preconceived notion have never tried a good meatloaf recipe.  In fact, I would bet that today's featured recipe would convert them all into meatloaf lovers.

Thankfully, our family likes meatloaf, even though there have been a few hits and misses over the years. Anything from sickeningly sweet glazes to plain under-seasoned and bland concoctions. And while no one ever complained much, we didn't know what a truly fabulous meatloaf should taste like until I came across Tyler Florence's version. To us, this is the "ultimate" meatloaf that everyone looks forward to when it's on the menu.


What makes this meatloaf so incredibly tasty and unique is Tyler's use of a homemade Tomato Relish both inside the "meat dough" and also as a glaze. The relish is not hard to make but does require a bit of planning ahead, since it is best not to incorporate the hot relish into your meat. In the past, I've made the relish a day ahead of time and stored it in the refrigerator until ready to use. The meatloaf itself does not call for a lot of fancy ingredients, but does use a mix of ground beef and ground pork. I usually use 93% fat free beef with the pork and the meatloaf turns out perfectly moist, but certainly feel free to use whatever you are accustomed to. Soaking the bread (which is your binder) in milk prior to adding, assures additional moisture in the loaf. And last but certainly not least, the meatloaf is covered with bacon before baking. I mean, come on, there is no way you can go wrong with this recipe at this point. I'm only advising you to use the thick-cut bacon, which can withstand being baked for 1 1/2 hours without shriveling into oblivion or turning to sawdust.

This meatloaf has truly been a family favorite for many years and since it finally cooled down to the low 90's last weekend, my kids have been begging me to make this. There is no way I would attempt turning my oven on for this amount of time in the summer, but this ended up being the perfect weather. I always serve this dish with homemade mashed potatoes and a vegetable on the side. This time my youngest chose my  Peas and Carrots "German Style" which I have featured on my blog before. So if you like meatloaf or even if you've been on the fence about it, I'm urging you to give this very special recipe a try. It makes for an awesome Sunday dinner with loved ones!


Not Your Mama's Meatloaf
(Adapted from Tyler Florence)
(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients:

Tomato Relish (make first):
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 bay leaves
2 red bell peppers, cored, seeded, and finely diced
2 tomatoes, halved, seeded, and finely diced
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 (12-ounce) bottle ketchup
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Meatloaf:
3 slices white bread, crusts removed, torn into chunks by hand
1/4 cup whole milk
1 1/2 pounds ground beef (I used 93 %)
1 pound ground pork
2 eggs
Leave from 2 fresh thyme sprigs
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 slices thick-cut bacon

Preparation:

For the tomato relish: Coat a skillet with a 2-count of oil and place over medium heat. Saute the onion, garlic, and bay leaves for a few minutes to create a base flavor. Throw in the red peppers and cook them for a couple of minutes to soften. Now add the tomatoes; adding them at this point lets them hold their shape and prevents them from disintegrating. Stir in the parsley, ketchup, and Worcestershire; season with salt and pepper. Simmer the relish for 5 minutes to pull all the flavors together. Remove it from the heat; you should have about 4 cups of relish. Let cool.

For the meatloaf: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the torn white bread in a bowl and dd the milk to just barely cover, swish the bread around in the milk and let it sit while you get the rest of the ingredients for the meatloaf together.

This is where you get your hands dirty! In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground beef and pork with 1 1/2 cups of the tomato relish, the eggs, and thyme; season with salt and pepper. Squeeze the excess milk from the bread and add the soaked bread to the meat mixture. To test, fry a small "hamburger" patty of the meatloaf until cooked; the patty should hold together but still have a soft consistency. Taste the patty for seasoning.

Lightly oil a cookie sheet (I lined mine with foil that I oiled). Transfer the meat mixture to the center of the cookie sheet and form into a log about 9 inches long and about 4 inches wide. Coat the top of the meatloaf with another 1/2 cup of the tomato relish. Lay the bacon across the top lengthwise.

Bake the meatloaf for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until the bacon is crisp and the meatloaf is firm (mine took the full 1 1/2 hours). Rotate the meatloaf while it's baking every now and then to insure that the bacon browns evenly Remove the meatloaf from the oven and it cool a bit before slicing. Serve with the remaining tomato relish on the side.

This week has been hectic. I'm expecting guests starting Friday and will be having house guests for the next several weeks. I'm more than excited about this especially since they are some of my favorite people in the whole world. So, besides getting ready to make our home as comfortable as possible for our visitors, we've had early releases, parent teacher conferences, and the start of soccer season for our youngest. In case you are wondering where I'm going with this, it is that dinners need to be quick during busy times while also being fairly nutritious and the family has to approve of them as always.

This is how I found the recipe for this Stir-Fry. Most of the components can be prepared ahead of time, and putting everything together literally takes only 20 minutes, or until your rice is cooked. This is another Cuisine at Home dish that has won everyone in our home over. It is also an extremely versatile dish. I'm thinking that pretty much any vegetable would work in this. I could see this meal prepared  with broccoli, zucchini, mushrooms etc. There are so many options to customize it to your families taste. This recipe makes 6 servings but my kids were fighting over every last scrap in the pan, so there was nothing left over.

The recipe starts by making the sauce. Store bought hoisin sauce, rice vinegar, honey and pineapple juice along with ginger, garlic and salt get mixed together and reduced to about half the amount on the stove. This is something that could easily be done ahead of time and all you would have to do is re-heat it when ready to serve. The sirloin steak gets sliced thinly, then placed in a bowl for a quick toss with some brown sugar,  canola oil and a little kick from red pepper flakes. The vegetables are: shelled edamame, red pepper and scallions, but like I mentioned above, use whatever suits your taste. The vegetables are another component that can easily be cut up ahead of time and refrigerated to alleviate dinner time rush. The marinated steak gets a quick sear in a hot pan for a few minutes, the vegetables are added and quickly sauteed without overcooking them because you still want a bit of crunch. Final touches include a tablespoon of sesame oil and sesame seeds. The stir fry is served over rice and the sauce is drizzled over the top to everyone's liking, this way you can add as much or as little of the sauce as you desire.

A fantastic, quick, healthy dish! I was hoping for leftovers, but my kids obviously had different plans for sure. This is certainly a meal that fits a busy lifestyle and since I will be fairly busy in the next few weeks stay tuned for more "on the fly" dinner ideas. It is certainly not necessary to go the take out route when you can fix a meal this delicious in just about the same time it would take you to order it. This recipe got the thumbs up all the way around and I hope you'll give it a try as well!

Sirloin Steak Stir-Fry

(adapted from Cuisine at Home)

(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients:

1 (8 ounce) jar hoisin sauce
1 cup rice vinegar
1 (6 ounce) can pineapple juice
1/2 cup honey
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/4 pounds sirloin steak, trimmed and thinly sliced
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2  red bell peppers, thinly sliced
1/2 cup scallions, thinly sliced
1 cup frozen shelled edamame, thawed
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
Toasted sesame seeds
Cooked rice

Preparation:

Combine hoisin, vinegar, pineapple juice, honey, garlic, ginger, and salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat and reduce to 1 1/2 cups, about 15 minutes.

Toss together sirloin, sugar, canola oil, and pepper flakes in a bowl to coat sirloin. Heat a large nonstick skillet over high heat, then stir-fry beef until browned, about 3 minutes.

Add bell pepper, scallion, and edamame; stir-fry a couple of minutes. Take off the heat and stir in the sesame oil.

Serve stir-fry with rice and prepared sauce on the side, then garnish with sesame seeds.

 

This recipe for Sloppy Joe has been cooked and served in our home for many years. Unfortunately I'm not sure where it came from anymore, so I can't even give credit. Since then, it has been shared with several friends and relatives who have come to love this dish as well. It is a great, healthier take on the classic comfort food. Sloppy Joe is another one of those foods, I did not grow up with. My husband on the other hand, had his fair share growing up. When I first found this recipe, after getting the request for this particular meal from him, I wasn't sure if his "refined" palate, that had only been exposed to the "Manwich" kind, would be happy with my version. I worried for absolutely nothing and he hasn't requested the canned kind since. This recipe is also a great way to "sneak" in a decent amount of vegetables, and even the pickiest of eaters will happily eat this as long as it is disguised as "junk food" and served on a hamburger bun with a sprinkle of cheese.

Burgers make for a great quick meal, and everyone in our house loves them. I'm always trying to find new ideas to make dinner time fun and interesting, and if I can add a serving of vegetables into the mix, even better. I love all kinds of Greek food, so when I was looking through magazines and blogs to put together my weekly menu, this Greek inspired burger caught my eye.

It comes courtesy of "Cuisine at Home", and makes for a great filling meal. Seriously, the burgers ended up being so big, we could only eat half a burger each and were completely satisfied. The burgers are made with ground chuck (I ended up using 93% fat free ground beef), but next time I will look for ground lamb instead to give it an even more authentic flavor. The burgers get a Mediterranean flair by adding garlic, oregano and marjoram to the onions, which are then sauteed before incorporating the mixture into the ground meat. The burgers are formed into a long and narrow shape (think mini meat loaf) to fit them onto a hoagie roll, but you could also serve them on a round bun. The meat is grilled on the BBQ, and right before removing, the cooked burgers are then topped with a wonderful feta sauce which is whisked together quickly in a food processor.

The sauce is a mix of feta cheese, cream cheese, yogurt, peperoncini peppers, scallions and lemon zest. The flavors compliment each other nicely and the sauce has a pleasant tartness to it. To complete each burger, red leaf lettuce, sliced tomatoes, and sliced cucumbers are added to each bun before topping them with the grilled burger. No further condiments were needed. 

The result, a great, very different tasting burger that was the perfect and quick ending to a long hot day. I simply served it with fresh watermelon and everyone left the table satisfied and happy. Definitely a recipe that I will be making again, especially since I will be making it with ground lamb the next time. If you are a burger aficionado, this recipe is definitely a must to try out!

4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled

4 ounces cream cheese

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1/4 cup peperoncini peppers, sliced

3 tablespoons scallions, thinly sliced

1/2 teaspoon lemon zest, minced

Salt and Pepper to taste

2 pounds ground chuck or lamb (I used 93% ground beef)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 medium red onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram

Salt and Pepper to taste

Prepared Feta Sauce

6 hoagie rolls

Red leaf lettuce

Tomato slices

Thinly sliced English Cucumber

Preheat grill to medium-high.

Process feta cheese, cream cheese, and yogurt until smooth. Add the peperoncini, scallions, zest, and seasonings. Pulse to coarsely chop, then set aside.

In a medium skilled heat olive oil. Add red onion and saute until soft. Add the garlic along with the spices and cook for another minute. Remove from the heat and let cool for about 10 minutes before adding to the ground meat.

After adding the onion mixture to the ground beef (or lamb) shape meat into 6 equal portions the size of your hoagie roll. Season with more salt and pepper. Grill burgers on an oiled grate for 4 minutes; flip and cook 2 minutes more (or cook the meat to desired doneness). 

Top each burger with a scoop of the Feta Sauce; grill another minute or until the sauce starts to melt.

Serve burgers on rolls with lettuce, tomato, and cucumber.

 

This burger is modeled after the traditional Cuban roast pork sandwich which is topped with sliced ham and Swiss cheese and I absolutely adore them. We have a little Deli here that makes one of the best Cuban sandwiches, everything is made from scratch using only local ingredients. It is a requirement to  order it every time I eat there, it is that good. 

This burger is so good, my 8 year old managed to eat almost a whole one all by himself and that is unheard off. I'm adding this to our regular burger rotation, and am already planning to make this at our next party. I served this burger with sweet potato fries since that is what I had on hand, but if you are trying to add even more authenticity then go with fried Tostones (fried green plantains). 

Dips or Salsas are always easy to send along but then again a lot of people think along the same lines so there is never a shortage of these either. He asked if I could figure something out he could take in a crock-pot, and always being happy to oblige, I looked through my giant recipe files and decided on an old stand-by; Block Party Beans. 

I have made this countless times for potlucks, barbecues, and neighborhood get togethers since it easily feeds a crowd and people respond very well to this version. The ingredients are mixed up very quickly and then just "hang out" in the crock-pot. You can also bake them in the oven or cook them on top of the stove, whatever suits you best and makes you happy.

Block Party Beans

~serves 12~

(Print this Recipe)

Ingredients:

 This year I set out to cook a St. Patrick's Day meal that still had all the "authentic" components but decided to put my own spin on it. Follow me the next few days for recipes that will turn any St. Patrick's Day celebration green with envy ;o)

First up I tackled Corned Beef. Corned beef did not originate in Ireland but is rather part of the Irish-American culture. In Ireland the meat is more like a bacon or ham where the corned beef became popular in the eastern United states when Irish Immigrants would use beef rather then pork in the traditional dish. Corned beef refers to the style of beef which is a brisket that has been brined and gets its color from the addition of potassium nitrate also called saltpeter.

The kids hate the way the brined, boiled piece of meat tastes, so I figured why not find a recipe for a baked, glazed Corned beef similar in style to a baked ham. Not just did I find a great recipe but the meat was moist with a hint of sweetness, and don't let that pickle juice turn you off. It just works, trust me. It got a big thumbs up from the kids. There was not one piece leftover, and all my corned beef hating kids couldn't get enough of this one.

Glazed Corned Beef

~serves 6~
(Print this Recipe)

Ingredients:

1 corned beef brisket (about 3 pounds)

1/2 medium onion, cut into chunks

1 medium carrot, cut into chunks

1 celery rib with leaves, cut into chunks

1 tablespoon mixed pickling spices*

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon whole grain mustard 

1/4 cup sweet pickle juice

* most corned beef briskets come with a packet of pickling spices, just add that 

Directions:

Place corned beef in a large Dutch oven; cover with water. Add the onion, carrot, celery and pickling spices. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 2 1/2 hours or until meat is tender.

Transfer corned beef to a 13-inch x 9-inch baking dish; discard all but 1 cup of broth and vegetables. Score the surface of meat with a shallow diagonal cuts.

Coming up tomorrow: Irish Colcannon Potatoes