It is not uncommon to know a dish, to eat a dish, to enjoy a dish and not know it’s name.  Or as in the case of many dishes to know a dish by one name that is overloaded – pigs in the blanket – sausage links in a pancake or beef filled cabbage rolls?  Barbecue – smoky, slow cooked beef? slow cooked pork or (as was the case in my suburban midwest upbringing) sloppy joes.

And so it is with Lomo al trapo – a Columbian (South American) diaper wrapped, salt encrusted beef tenderloin cooked in a fireplace.  For 25+ years I knew this only as ‘the log’ and only in the last year learned its real name.

We became acquainted with this dish through our good friend Claudia and her family when we lived in Columbia (South Carolina).  We were in our twenties and a dinner party was planned wherein Claudia’s visiting parents would join us at our home.  The instructions to us were simple:

• Buy a whole beef tenderloin
• Buy a large cloth diaper
• Buy 5 pounds of salt
• have butcher’s twine and a squirt bottle handy
• Have fire going in fireplace

Claudia’s dad, a surgeon, arrived and with cocktail in hand proceeded to deftly (and mesmerizingly) trim the filet, removing fat and silverskin.  The large cloth diaper was dampened and the salt poured atop the diaper in an even 3/8-1/2 inch layer.  The salt was spritzed with water until it caked.  With refilled drink, the filet was placed atop the salt and rolled jelly roll style and tied like a roast.

The entire assembly was then gently nestled into the wood burning fireplace taking it’s place amongst the burning hardwood and conversation turned to other matters.  My emotions gripped me as Claudia’s dad sat calmly by the roaring fire.  Will the diaper combust?  Will it be too salty?  Hey, that’s $80 of meat we just threw in the fireplace!  What happens if this goes south?

After 10-12 minutes we calmly turned the log, revealing a blackened cast which had become hard to the touch (with fireplace tongs).

Another 10 minutes and the log was removed (with welder’s gloves) to a cookie sheet and hustled to the back porch along with a chef’s knife.  The now hardened cast was cracked with a swift blow from the chef’s knife and the remaining cast peeled away to reveal a slightly charred filet and smelling incredible.

The filet rested for 10 minutes while the table was set.  The surgeon wielded the blade again, parceling the beef into serving size slices – the ends of the filet sat at a medium medium-rare while the center cuts were a perfect medium-rare.

I do not recall the balance of the meal but ‘the log emerged ‘ as a must cook dish.  Hints of smoke and char melded with the succulent tenderness of the beef.  A total winning dish.

We went on to make this dish throughout our remaining twenties and into our mid thirties.  The log became performance art food – an old craftsman toolbox with twine, spray bottle, welders gloves (and goggles for dramatic effect), a hammer, two chains (again drama), cloth diapers and a box of salt became the traveling log toolkit.  We cooked it in supper clubs, at the beach with friends, one time over charcoal and at guests’ houses.  We had minor challenges on occasion (a lesion in cast) but always emerged with a delicious dish that was unique, delicious and a bit intimidating to all involved.

I’m guessing that we made this 2-3 times a year for 10+ years.  And then it stopped.  I don’t recall a conscious decision to stop making it.  Kids happened.  Stories of the log circulated in the intervening years accompanied by warm memories and a distant desire to recreate the magic.

Earlier this year the stars aligned and ‘the log’ became the featured menu item for our first charity dinner.  The smoky, charred beef paired (mentally during menu planning) with the chipotle hinted, smoked cheddar scalloped potatoes.  As I was on the road the week leading up to said dinner I had occasion to ask a Columbian (South America) by birth co-worker about the dish.  As I described the dish, a smile emerged along with the dishes name – Lomo al Trapo!  He proceeded to share stories of the dish from his youth with zeal.

And so it was that we were able to fill in the blank on the first charity dinner with the proper name for this dish.  It had been well over 15 years since I last cooked it.  I had to take a mulligan on the first attempt to roll it, the fire had died down while preparing other dishes so we let it cook longer but in the end it satisfied on all counts.

This past weekend we gathered friends and families for a reunion of sorts and we were committed to cooking the log.  With almost 20 folks coming we doubled down with two tenderloins, a tripled recipe of the chipotle scalloped potatoes and a mound of asparagus.

General Technique

Wet diaper (or tea towel) and spread out on counter.  Cover with even layer of salt.

Spritz salt until thoroughly damp.  When you lift the corner of the towel, the salt will not run and will appear “cakey”

Place trimmed filet on salt.  Fold the thin end of the tenderloin back towards the center, trying to create a consistent density of beef before rolling.

With beef and diaper roll like a jelly roll away from you.  Before you finish the roll I fold the ends of the diaper in to capture the end flaps.

Tie off every two inches or so.

Place tenderloin logs on roaring fire.  Turn after 10-12 minutes.  Remove from heat after 18-22 minutes.

Although I don’t use a thermometer as a regular course of action I believe you should be able to pierce the cast with an instant read.

For medium rare you’re looking for 115-120 – remember that the beef will come up another 10-15 degrees while resting.

I always remove the cast fireside and take the unwrapped beef up to rest (10 minutes).  You can leave the cast on but you’ll need to take it off at a lower temp to ensure you don’t overcook it.

Lomo al trapo

 

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Ingredients

• 1 large cloth diaper (or tea towel)
• 3-4 lbs salt (just table salt)
• 1 whole beef tenderloin (5-6lbs)

Instructions

1. Trim filet
2. wet diaper with cold water
3. spread salt evenly over diaper
4. spritz salt with water
5. roll tenderloin in salted diaper like a jelly roll
6. tie off every two inches
7. place in fireplace
8. turn after 10-12 minutes
9. remove from heat and carefully remove salt cast
10. let rest 10 minutes before carving

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My thanks to Dr John for the excellent photography work – all photos in this round are his!

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As part of my ‘Fit by 50’™ program (walking every day) I’ve been tuning my podcast list.  I’ve recently added The Sporkful.  Each episode runs 20-30 minutes and Dan Pashman – the host – offers up adventures in food alongside his often contemplative and strong opinions on such.

Reading this week:

I’ve been reading The Third Plate by Dan Barber.  I’ve mentioned Dan before having seen a few of his TED talks.  The book expands on the content in both of his TED talks and the lush writing conjoined with vivid descriptions of his own farm and restaurant equals an enjoyable read.

One of Barber’s central theses is chefs can lead the way for broader society back to fresh food, prepared simply.  The idealist in me wants to believe that.  Regardless of the growing awareness of fresh, in the hands of agribusiness and in the face of convenience the jaundiced pragmatist in me is more skeptical.

Italian Beef

As a child differentiating between jus and juice both conceptually and verbally was a challenge. I don’t recall how often it was ‘Italian beef’ night as a child but I do remember my Dad arriving home from work with Styrofoam containers and a bag of rolls in tow. Each quart container was packed with thinly sliced née shaved Chicago Italian beef and jus. The beef was laid atop the open roll soaking in the jus until just a little bite in the roll remained. Italian beef night was so anticipated and revered and memorable. Until it wasn’t.

There was no explicit decision that Italian Beef night was over but it was. The thing about Italian beef was that it was a takeout dish. The shaved beef was not cut by hand but on a slicer. The subtle hints of Italian seasoning in the jus were the result of larger scale restaurant cooking. In short, this was not a food that was a deeply ingrained aspect of our heritage, it was a dish found at the intersection of convenience and awesome. The awesome never left, but convenience was abandoned with the move East. Italian beef was left at the curb.

A few years ago my sister in law showed up bearing a large styrofoam box containing authentic Chicago style Italian beef. A pound of shaved italian beef, quarts of jus, peppers and rolls ready to drop in the oven. It didn’t take long to be transported back to the days of my youth. The taste memory was so strong and complete.

[When fact checking this account with my mom she reminded me that my other sister in law brought homemade Italian beef to the beach several years in a row.  I have not cross checked with her on the approach but it will be interesting to compare notes]

It’s no secret that I can recreate this tomorrow by putting an order in at Portillo’s. Two days later that Styrofoam crate will arrive and the memories will begin again. I started working on a homemade alternative recently if only to pique my taste memories and to open the door to the potential of italian beef for my kids.

The first (and perhaps largest) barrier in making credible italian beef is the thinly sliced beef. Not many folks have a slicer like this belt drive beauty or even the more humble Chef’s Choice. Traditional italian beef is slowly cooked beef cooked until tender, cooled completely before shaving on a slicer and then reheating in jus. That’s the order of business and you can’t change it.
Creating italian beef at home then has to be evocative of the original without the slicer coming into play. You may recall the recently featured barbacoa being described as latin pot roast. Could we do the same treatment with italian beef?

The answer is a resounding yes. The results won’t confuse those that have had the real thing but the taste profile is very similar and the overall experience triggered the taste memory completely.

I oven roasted thinly sliced green peppers tossed in olive oil with salt and topped the sandwiches with store bought

Italian Beef

 

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Ingredients

• 1 Beef Chuck Roast 3-4.5 lbs
• 1 onion, sliced thinly
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed
• 2 tbs oil
• 3 tbs Italian seasoning
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 cup red wine (optional)
• 1 quart beef stock

Instructions

1. preheat oven to 275
2. heat oil in large ovenproof dutch oven
3. brown chuck roast on all sides
4. (it's easiest here if you remove the roast after browning to brown the onions)
5. over medium high heat saute onion with oil in a large ovenproof dutch oven until soft
6. add garlic, italian seasoning and red pepper
7. add red wine and loosen any crusty bits
8. add beef back to dutch oven and add stock
9. cook for 4-5 hours until beef is fork tender (you should be able to shred it with a fork)
10. remove beef to cutting board
11. strain remaining jus through a fine strainer and return to dutch oven
12. shred beef removing excess fat and sinew
13. return beef to pot
14. if you can afford to let this cool and sit over night it will concentrate the flavors
15. bring jus to just short of boiling

Serving

1. Top sub rolls with shredded beef and then ladle jus over top of sandwich
2. Top with oven roasted green peppers and store bought giardiniera

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I think about food a lot.  Eating it, cooking it, the history and evolution of it, the literary description of it and talking about it (often to the chagrin of my lovely wife).  I’ll have a meal that tickles some interest – in a cuisine or technique or a memory of meals past and run with it, reading, researching, cooking and eating down some rabbit trail of experience until the next topic emerges.  Weaving this into the fabric of everyday life creates and rekindles memories.

I started comestibl.es just over a year ago with the hope of documenting and sharing my continued explorations of the foodscape.  In the last year I’ve published over 50 posts ranging from where to buy asian ingredients to tales of epic dinner parties.  Countless other recipes were prepared only to be left on the cutting room floor.  I’ve lost my voice along the way (the dry spell of early ’15) only to find my back to the more relaxed place of today.  Work and real life have challenged my desire and ability to post regularly.   The darkness of the winter months challenged my photography skills.  The hectic pace of summer found me cooking without time or interest to post.

The upside has been rediscovering writing and photography.

The most surprising aspect of working on comestibl.es is the rekindling of memories of my life.  The ground beef hash of my childhood becomes Thai Curry ground beef (albeit not prepared in an almond colored countertop electric frying pan).  Making Pimento cheese stirred memories of childhood food wars.  And so it goes.

I look forward to seeing what the next year brings.  The summer has been filled with new dishes several of which will appear here over the next few weeks.

Thanks for visiting comestibl.es and being a part of this journey.

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I’ve been on a bit of a manic tear these last few weeks with new books and weblinks piling up in anticipation of some downtime.

Listening to this week.

I wrapped up  The Martian by Andy Weir on Audible.  I’ve started a new audio book but it hasn’t hooked me yet so I’ve switched on to some new podcasts.  I’m enjoying Gastropod, a podcast by Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley, two food focused writer/historians.  The first episode included a lengthy discussion with Bee Wilson, author of Consider the Fork, an examination of domestic cooking and eating tools and their evolution.

I totally love the passion that Wilson brings to her work and the Gastropod team has done a great job lining up and delivering on engaging topics and their masters.

Reading this week

Back in the day when preparing for a vacation I would gather books together that have been on my radar or lying fallow in the bedside wasteland.  I would narrow down the lot to a rough ratio of one book per day.  It’s been a while since I consumed books at that rate.  I now feel accomplished to get through a single work in a week.  Unfortunately my ambition has not kept pace with my consumption so I entered the week with four or five books in tow, including Lesser Beasts by Mark Essig which I’m enjoying but not plowing through.

I’m just starting Cusine and Empire which assesses culinary evolution in a  global context.  I have Food – The History of Taste queued up and have thumbed through it a bit.  The latter is a lavishly illustrated examination of the evolution of taste.  It does so by examining different cultural eras from the prehistoric through classical antiquity through imperial china and into post renaissance Europe and into modernity.  I can’t wait to get into it.

Favorite food themed link

I came across this on Flipboard.  It’s a photographic series by Dan Bannino which creates stunning still lifes of diets from selected celebrities and historical figures.  The arrangement is masterful and is sure to bring both adoration and a healthy chuckle.

Mushroom Pasta

I mentioned above the slightly manic tear I’ve been on with respect to food, cooking, food history etc.  I’ve been playing with a few ideas about some longer form writing and most of my energy is focused on food related ideas.  One such area of focus is on Umami – the fifth taste.  Umami is most closely described as ‘meaty’, it’s all about mouth feel and it is officially a taste along with sweet, bitter, acid/bitter and salt.

I have been playing in the kitchen a lot with Umami rich ingredients, concentrating the Umaminess of dishes.  Mushrooms, tomatoes and parmesan cheese are all high in glutamate.  Salt, which makes almost all flavors pop is particularly potent in concert with tomatoes.  Hmm, what to make with mushrooms, tomatoes, parm and salt?  Mushroom sauce and pasta of course.

I choose Portobello and Shiitake mushrooms for this dish.  Portobellos are substantial and contain high(er) levels of Umami compounds.  Shiitakes also contain high umami flavors.

I chose a slow simmer in oil for the mushrooms.  In essence I treated them as if I was stewing a cheap cut of beef and let them soften in a dutch oven for an hour or more.  I added a can of San Marzano tomatoes, a dash of salt and let that stew until the tomatoes broke down.

With a pot of boiling water ready to go the pasta cooked quickly and after draining tossed the pasta with the chunky mushroom based sauce.  Shaving parmesan atop the dish it went to the table.

There is no mistaking this as a meatless dish but it retained the mouthfeel of a hearty stew.  The earthiness of the mushrooms and the slightly acidic bite of the tomatoes nestled in the crevices of each pasta noodle.

This one will stay on the regular rotation for some time.

Variations:  some minced anchovy (also high in umami) would make an interesting addition – depending on the salt level of the anchovies you’ll need to adjust the salt contribution when stewing the tomato.

Mushroom Pasta

 

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Ingredients

• 2 large Portobellos, sliced
• 8 oz Shitake mushrooms, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, shaved or crushed
• 28oz San Marzano Tomatoes (whole or crushed)
• 1 lb pasta
• ⅓ cup olive oil
• salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Add oil to pan and heat over medium heat
2. Add mushrooms and stir, covering with oil
3. Adjust heat to low simmer and cook over low heat for at least 30 minutes
4. Add garlic and soften
5. Add tomatoes - if using whole, continue to stew until tomatoes soften
6. Prepare Pasta
7. Add pasta to sauce, serve with grated cheese

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Currently Reading

I am still reading  Lesser Beasts by Mark Essig.  As is often the case I’ll have several books going at once.

I’m wrapping up The Martian by Andy Weir.  I’ve been listening to this one on Audible.  As part of my attempt/commitment to get healthier by 50 I’ve been walking for at least 30 minutes every day.  Listening to a well narrated audio book and in particular those with a good story line makes that a largely effortless endeavor.

The Martian is science fiction for sure so may not appeal to all but it has an emphasis on engineering verisimilitude – e.g. very realistic or at least plausible descriptions of the efforts of an astronaut stranded on Mars and his efforts to survive.  Think McGyver on Mars if that’s your kind of thing.

Recently Watched

My lovely wife and I were seeking refuge from the heat recently and escaped to the basement for a mid-afternoon show.  The Netflix queue had this gem from Dan Barber wherein Dan talks sustainability, the cycle of life, the value of symbiosis in agriculture and the happy place of food that has taste and is sustainable.  Totally worth the 18  minutes.

Panzanella

And on to the matter at hand.  Panzanella is a traditional Italian (Florentine in origin) salad made with stale bread, oil and vinegar, tomatoes, onion and basil.  Perhaps too simple to even post a recipe for.

I suspect as with Pasta Fagioli that panzanella was borne out of frugality.  What does one do with a leftover heel of bread?  Soak it in water or add directly to oil and vinegar and let it soak up enough liquid to become edible again.

As with many recipes on comestibl.es we can take the inspiration of panzanella and present variations.

The goal here is to celebrate the clean flavors of the ingredients.  Tomatoes are the star of the dish while shaved red onion provides a contrasting bite.  The pop of basil offers up its refreshing fragrance and the vinegar accentuates the flavors in all.

If you’re staying traditional, mix this up and add stale bread and you’ve put an entire summer meal on the table in 15 minutes or less.

Never content with the basics I generally opt for intentionally crisped bread in the form of homemade croutons (olive oil sautéed bread) and an assortment of other garden fresh vegetables.  In the most recent making lightly steamed asparagus was chopped into the salad and topped with a healthy dose of capers lending an acidic and salty crunch.

A few other notes:

• vinegar choice – I have to admit that I may be the male Imelda Marcos of vinegar.  My cabinets abound with varieties of vinegar, balsamic, white wine, red wine, with fig, aged, malted, rice wine, white and apple cider.  Were I to reclaim the collected minutes of perusing the vinegar aisle in the market I’m sure that I could reread War and Peace or Ulysses.

I opted for a nice red wine vinegar here – I generally prefer the crisper mouth feel to a nice balsamic.

Don’t be bound by tradition here.  Almost all veg lends itself well to becoming your panzanella.

Panzanella - The summer of salads

 

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Ingredients

Dressing

• ⅓ cup red wine vinegar
• ⅔ cup olive oil
• salt to taste

Salad

• 2 cups bread cut into chunks
• 2 cups tomatoes cut into bite size pieces
• 6-10 leaves of basil, fresh, torn
• ½ red onion, finely diced
• 1 bunch asparagus
• 2 tbsp capers

Instructions

Dressing

1. Mix ingredients and set aside

Salad

1. Toss Bread in olive oil and sauté in pan until crisp, the less movement the more color you'll get
2. Steam asparagus for 5-7 minutes. Test with fork and run under cold water when a fork begins to easily penetrate. Goal here is to retain crispness.
3. Chop asparagus into 1 inch pieces
4. Mix remaining salad ingredients in large bowl
5. Add croutons and toss again
6. Top with enough dressing to coat ingredients without swimming in dressing
7. Serve and enjoy

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Currently Reading:

I’m currently reading Lesser Beasts by Asheville’s own Mark Essig.  This is my kind of book and a great kickoff to the summer reading list.  If you’re in Asheville consider dropping by Malaprops (they ship as well – we love local independent booksellers).

Thai Beef Salad

As with the Gai-Yang Thai Chicken salad, this is a dish that I make a lot of – 3 times last week as we entertained and worked through a lovely CSA basket from Matt and Casara out at Second Spring Farm. (Thanks Todd and Rita for sharing) I mean what a basket! The greens were gorgeous, kale, fennel and spinach abounded but the beets – beautiful rainbow beets that just yell summertime!

Back to the salad. As with many of the dishes that I cook I’m looking to evoke the overall taste and texture profile of a dish from my memory. That simply means that if you eat Thai Beef Salad with me more than once it will be different every time. Outside of my lovely bride (when denied the food of her people would just as soon subside on cereal as gourmet vittles) who stomached three variants of this salad last week I wouldn’t subject folks to the same dish or variants thereof as frequently.

Key elements of this salad include:

• Thinly sliced grilled beef – nicely salted with a char on the outside
• Salad – shredded cabbage, julienned kale, spinach chopped and traditional lettuce all work
• Veg assortment – shallots or red onion and cucumber are staples, roasted or fresh beets, grilled corn, carrots, mung bean sprouts and diced zucchini – in short, what you have, what is fresh and what you love can all take a place in this dish
• Dressing – I use a few variants of this dressing but the classic Thai flavors of lime and fish sauce, a touch of sugar and usually a shaved Serrano pepper or Thai bird chile with some minced kaffir lime leaf and cilantro provide the hot, sour, sweet combination that says ‘Yes Thai!’
• Nuts – a topping of lightly crushed peanuts, almonds or cashews elevate the dish again with another textural element that surprises and delights

Thai Beef Salad - Summer style

 

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Ingredients

Dressing

• 2 cloves garlic, pressed, minced or shaved
• 5 tbs fresh lime juice
• 5 tbs fish sauce (I prefer Red Boat but Tiparos works as well)
• 1 tbs sugar
• 1 serrano or thai chilie, super thinly shaved
• 2 tbps mint, fresh and chopped
• 2 tbs cilantro, fresh and chopped

Salad

• 2 lb London Broil
• 1-2 cups shredded red cabbage
• 1 cup romaine salad, torn
• 1 cucumber, seeded and sliced into half moons
• ½ cup red onion, finely diced
• 1 cup mung bean sprouts
• ½ cup carrots, shredded or finely chopped

Variants

• 1 cup rainbow beets, grilled and diced
• 1 cup zucchini, diced
• 1 cup tomatos, bite size chunks

Instructions

Dressing,

1. Mix dressing ingredients in small bowl, reserve

Salad

1. Prepare grill
2. Generously salt both sides of beef
3. If grilling beets, lightly oil and salt slices
4. Cook beef on grill until medium rare - one flip only will help with char
5. Set beef aside to rest (10 mins)
6. Add vegetables to large bowl and top with dressing, mix well
7. Thinly slice beef and cut into bite sized pieces
8. Toss beef into dressed salad
9. Top with crushed peanuts or cashews
10. Serve

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Be creative and celebrate the abundance of summer.  You’ll keep coming back.

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This mini-drama, the ‘what to do with leftovers’ drama plays out in kitchens across the world nightly*

I have a pet fascination with how folks handle this rather mundane task.  It is not the act of storing one’s food but the storage and subsequent retrieval of the vessels themselves that intrigues me.

Storing leftovers pose a few challenges:

1. Finding the correct sized container
2. Finding the lid for the identified container
3. Maximizing consumed storage space (in the refrigerator)

Food Storage – finding the correct container

Even the OCD amongst us has encountered the preview of hell on earth that is the food storage section of the kitchen.  You have the nice big pull out drawer in your newly redone kitchen and yet the square containers nest, if at all, awkwardly with the previous generation of round containers.  You’ve changed brands of storage vessels and have a mix of red, off-white and blue tops.  It is my contention that folks that can keep this organized would make awesome auditors for the GAO – ferreting out those pockets of wasteful government spending.

The frustration of finding the perfect container but no matching lid or even worse finding several possible lids none of which fit is way more painful than the missing sock syndrome.  It has come to pass several times in my life where I’ve declared food storage bankruptcy.  A fit of hopeless rage finds all such storage containers in a box headed for the Goodwill while a new set of matching containers and lids takes it place.  I’ve done the math and I can assure you that this path is way less expensive than therapy.  This new matching set begins with hope, an unproven confidence that this time will be different, better.  That a Grranimal like matching system will ensure that tops and bottoms always match.  That the tethered lid system (as seen on TV) will ensure that cleaning up after dinner will be quick and painless.

This has never happened.  I’m quite sure that if a cult of food storage nirvana promisers were to show up at that delicate moment that I’d be writing home from the commune in short order.

Food Storage – Maximizing Space

In the case of the zombie apocalypse we’re good on pickles

So let’s assume that we all have normal sized refrigerators and further assume that it contains an average collection of stuff (parenthetically I will add that my man-son when organizing our refrigerator the other day called out ‘In the case of the zombie apocalypse we’re good on pickles’ – a condition caused in no small part by finding a lovely eastern european market in Asheville.  I’m a sucker for Cyrillic labels).

If you save leftovers you’ll end up in one of the following groups (and I’m not judging here):

• The reused food containers for leftovers group (old spaghetti jars, greek salad containers etc)
• The tupperware group (this has subgroups of which we’ll speak)
• The pyrex/corningware group
• The ziploc/foil group

Two issues – finding and storing.  The perfect system (IMO) would be:

• infinitely nestable containers
• single lid size for all containers
• maximally efficient space consumption in the refrigerator

Without devolving into an infomercial like zeal I have guarded optimism that I’ve arrived at a solution.

Notwithstanding the dubious safety of placing a Le Cruset dutch oven full of steaming chili directly into the refrigerator,  unless you live a monastic life the fridge will groan under the gross inefficiency of storing food in cooking vessels.

Ziploc and foil storage – modulo the storage of leftover pizza which defies all known storage mechanisms went out just as mandatory seat belts came in.  Tin foil prices now rival those of gold, palladium and Kaffir lime leaves.  Ziplock bags get that shiny look when hot food is placed within – almost certainly a degassing of life impairing chemicals.

Pyrex is pretty close to optimal even if you’re not going for the Breaking Bad Construction Kit aesthetic.  It’s resistant to the staining power of Turmeric – which by the way if Billy Mays was still with us would be the ultimate challenge for the ‘oxygen power of OxiClean’.   My issue with Pyrex, unless you have ample storage space, is the stackability of the vessels.  Finally, I’m not sending Pyrex out into the world for school (or work) lunches.

Tupperware, Rubbermaid, Glad plastic containers with their promise of both nestability and matching lids tick a lot of boxes —until they don’t.  One night with a curry within and most containers of this ilk will assume a yellowish hue until its lid goes missing and finds its way into the trash bin.

Without devolving into an infomercial like zeal I have guarded optimism that I’ve arrived at a solution.

Go into a commercial kitchen and look at food prep containers.  Similar in shape and size to those found at the grocery store olive bar but in a more substantial gauge of plastic.  They are uniform in shape, a slight taper to the top and wait for it — the same size lids regardless of volume, 8oz, 16 oz and 32oz containers that vary only in height.  They nest uniformly and lids stack without end.  The stackability extends from the cabinet into the refrigerator.  Beef barbacoa broken into 8oz containers for lunch stacked atop of yesterday’s Korean scallion cuke pickles.

A few minutes on amazon and I had containers in 3 sizes carted up and on their way to me.  This is a good opportunity to form a buying club as the quantity of each may exceed your immediate and mid-term needs.  I split the lot into two and took half to the lake house where refrigeration is at a premium.

So far this new food storage system has worked out brilliantly. The whole collection occupies about 1/5th of the space of my once prodigious yet motley collection of tupperware.  Lunches have been low friction.  Big bonus points for the giveability – the per unit cost is such that delivering dinner to to others makes the ‘keep the containers’ which is somewhat more impractical with pyrex or your turmeric stained tupperware.

The containers are dishwasher safe (top shelf) and until someone comes forward and tells me that future generations health and welfare are in peril because of these containers I’m sticking with it.

I haven’t found these locally but you may find them at a restaurant supply house.

Here’s a few links to the ones I got at Amazon

Each man’s burden is the greatest man

• I’m admitting and acknowledging up front that this is a total first world problem.  Having enough food to have leftovers is a blessing.  Having one’s biggest challenge nightly to be kids homework and finding dishes to store leftover food is to be truly fortunate.  As an acquaintance once reminded me ‘Each man’s burden is the greatest man’

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With only the promise of rancor facing me on the meatloaf front and a personal desire to find some chemical heat to diffuse stress I settled on a Thai Curry Beef – made with burger meat instead of the more traditional whole muscle cuts.

In order to keep the grease within manageable tolerances I pre-browned the meat and sautéed the onions and drained the grease before proceeding with the sauce.

I put on a pot of rice before browning the meat.  By the time the sauce thickened and I added back the beef and onion mixture all was ready to serve.
It’s not much to look at in the picture but the fragrance of the kaffir lime leaves and the red curry paste colluded to create a distinctly thai flavored goulash.

I served it with a simple thai cucumber/onion salad.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Thai Curry Ground Beef

 

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Ingredients

• 2 tbs curry paste
• 2 tbs palm sugar
• 2 tbs fish sauce
• 3-4 kafir lime leaves
• 15 oz coconut milk
• 15 oz crushed tomatoes
• 2 lb ground beef
• 1 onion sliced thinly

Instructions

1. brown beef in a frying pan
2. add onions and continue to brown until onions become soft
3. drain beef and onion mixture and reserve
4. add 1 tbs oil of your choice and stir in curry paste
5. toss in remaining ingredients and let stew for a few minutes
6. add beef/onion mixture back in and stir to coat
7. serve over rice

3.3.3077

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I think truth in advertising would have said ‘Join the Schillings and Fr. Ed for a meal of untested recipes cooked without a net’

The reality is somewhere in the middle.

We went into the night of the auction expecting kind hearted and generous folk to pony up a few hundred dollars to benefit the school.  The bidding paused after passing into four digits and the auctioneer (in classic auctioneer form) offered both bidders the same package – which they graciously accepted.  With more money on the table between the bidders than I could imagine I remarked to the auction coordinators that this was a lot of money for burgers and ripple

After passing through a short lived panic over how to deliver that much ‘value’ I started making lists of possible menu ideas.  The family enjoyed the trial runs on several of the dishes.

It wasn’t until 6 days before the first dinner that the main course became clear – while reminiscing with friends at the lake I shared the story of our introduction to Lomo al Trappo – salt encrusted, diaper wrapped beef tenderloin cooked in a fireplace.  I haven’t made this dish for 15 or more years but knew that the wood fired beef would pair beautifully with the Smoked Cheddar scalloped potatoes with chipotle cream.

So the menu ended up like this:

• Pickled Shrimp (with crazy good shaved lemon)
• Applewood smoked bacon wrapped scallops atop a lime-cilantro sauce
• Lomo al trappo – the aforementioned filet
• Smoked Cheddar scalloped potatoes with Chipotle cream
• Grilled Asparagus with Bianco Sardo and Balsamic Fig drizzle
• Grilled Corn, Hierloom tomato and arugula salad
• Caramelized orange with rosemary on Greek Yogurt

My planning was a bit off as I was on the road until late Friday night so Saturday was spent prepping.  It sounds like a lot of work/food but knocking out the prep ahead of time made for a largely stress free dinner.

Lots of crowd pleasers in there.  The lemon dominated shrimp lent a fresh feel to the warm evening.  Bacon wrapped scallops are always a pleaser – the use of the nicely applewood smoked bacon transitioned all of our palettes into the smoky part of the dish – the sriracha/lime/cilantro mayo sauce was a creamy pop of heat and tart that elevated this classic dish.

The asparagus was resting in salted olive oil ready for the grill next to a prep dish of shaved Bianco Sardo.  The cheese is reminiscent of Pecorino  but more earthy.

I held the Lomo al Trappo prep until the guests were present.  Imagine a large cloth diaper covered in a half inch of salt.  Using a spray bottle, the salt is thoroughly wet until it cakes.  The trimmed filet is set on the leading edge and then wrapped in the salt in a jelly roll like fashion.  The fire pit had a raging fire going.  I hadn’t made the Lomo al Trappo in a long time, the diaper was too small so I took a muligan and laid out a set of overlapping diapers, reprepped the salt and rolled again to ensure a roughly even layer of salt encased the filet.

We went to the fire, welding gloves standing at the ready and laid it in the coals.  I returned to get the scalloped potatoes covered in handfuls of smoked cheddar and in the oven.  With Sam (the chef) at my side we negotiated the turn schedule on the filet – the mass of wet diaper (bad image I know) dulled the coals so with a bit of stoking the fire cranked up and the cast hardened around the beef.  Two or three turns and a total of about 25 mins in the firepit and we moved on to the cast cracking.

It was not the cleanest extraction I’ve ever performed but the crowed was pleased as a beautifully cooked filet emerged.  It went to the cutting board to rest while the asparagus hit the grill.

Salad was tossed with a light vinaigrette (only to discover the following day that the goat feta never made it onto the salad).  Potatoes emerged with browned and melted cheese.

Jocularity ensued tableside while the dessert course was being prepped.

Orange halves with a teaspoon of sugar and a pinch of chopped rosemary were cast into a hot frying pan where sugar was carmelizing.  The oranges bathed in the carmelized sugar for 4 to 5 minutes.  Each orange half was served atop a dollop of greek yogurt.  The remaining pan sauce was drizzled atop the dish.

There have been moments in my cooking life where I’ve paused, intimidated by the job in front of me.  The homemade smoked duck ravoli for 12 back in the Metrolina AIDS charity days or my first whole hog gave me pause.  This event suffered from none of that.  Good prep, great helpers and an appreciative crowd resulted in a relatively stress free night with only a few minor bobbles.

I’ll be working up several of these recipes in the coming weeks.

My thanks to Todd and Rita for generously supporting our school!

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Bulgogi Burgers

 

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Ingredients

• 4-5 scallions, sliced thinly (white parts)
• 2 tbs ginger minced
• 2 tbs garlic minced
• 2 tbs sesame oil
• 2 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tbs gochujang
• 1 tbs brown sugar (I used palm sugar)
• 1 apple, grated
• 1½ lb ground chuck

Instructions

1. mix all ingredient together
2. divide into six patties
3. grill over med-high heat - there's lots of sugars in here so keep an eye on it
4. serve on sesame bun with kimchi or scallion pickles

3.3.3077

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