Braised Corned Beef

As a youth growing up in the suburbs of Los Angeles, I had very little freedom in whether to participate in Jewish culture or not. My parents, being Jewish, insisted on me attending Hebrew school and worse, the dreaded Sunday school. For years, I was driven twice a week after regular school to a Catholic church, of all places, which our synagogue rented. There, I learned how to read and write in Hebrew. As a parent today, I look back on that part of my childhood and wish I was more serious about learning a second language. But at the time, all I could think about was "why am I doing this?".... and Lisa Mednick.

She dressed in killer mini-skirts, wore her hair long and giggled a lot. She was the ONLY reason I looked forward to Hebrew school. She was the ONLY reason ALL the boys looked forward to Hebrew school. Ok, I'll come clean. Lisa Mednick wasn't the only REASON I attended Hebrew school. I also wanted to celebrate my Bar Mitzvah. The Bar Mitzvah is the Jewish quinceanera only it takes place at 13 years of age rather than 15 and it is celebrated by both girls and boys. It involves reading Hebrew from the Torah (thus the requirement to attend Hebrew school). And of course, no Bar Mitzvah would be proper without a big party attended by friends and family afterward. There would of course be gifts - the biggest of which would be if Lisa Mednick attended.

She did :)

So yes, Hebrew school did have its upside...as opposed to Sunday school. Ugh. Nothing good came from that. Oh sure, I learned all about jewish culture and religion, sang songs about jewish slavery and water (seriously!!), and participated in tikkum olam (doing my part to better the world). Looking back, I guess there was some good that came from Sunday school. But at the time, I did it at the expense of my Sunday!! It was bad enough having to sacrifice two afternoons a week but a Sunday morning also? I missed Sunday morning sports on TV. I missed hanging with my friends. And most of all, I missed Lisa Mednick because for some reason, she wasn't in my Sunday school class.

Flash forward to the recent past and driving my son to Hebrew school and Sunday school. He hated it but I gave him the same argument that my parents gave me, "I did it, your grandfather did it, and you will do it!". I just hope there was a "Lisa Mednick" in his class too.

There was more to growing up Jewish in Los Angeles beside Hebrew school, Sunday school, and the Bar Mitzvah ceremony. There was, wait for it, Jewish food. No, it was not quite as celebrated as other ethnic foods such as spaghetti, meatballs and pizza. Or chow mien, lemon chicken, and what my dad lovingly called, "pot suckers". No sir! Celebrating Jewish food is to eat noodle kugel, kishke, and Gefilte fish. Doesn't that all sound yummy? NOT!! But to be fair, there are some great Jewish foods that have integrated nicely into the American culture such as latkas (potato pancakes), kreplach (matzah balls) with chicken soup, and what about cheese blintzes? Who doesn't love a good cheese blintz?

But my favorite Jewish food is the famed mile high corned beef sandwich that seems to be standard at ANY decent Jewish deli. A mile high corned beef sandwich is the standard by which all Jewish deli's should be judged, in my humble opinion. A corned beef on rye (don't EVEN bother asking for "lean") with a plate of kosher pickles served by an attitude laced waitress? ANY DAY OF THE WEEK FOR ME!!

What I find to be most interesting about my love affair with corned beef is that it also makes its way into my life from another source close to my heart - Irish culture. I have always thought it weird that corned beef is served on St. Patrick's Day. As a corned beef lover, I certainly don't mind and even encourage this behavior. But considering that there was no corned beef in Ireland during St. Patrick's days, it's just strange. In Ireland, at the time, it was all bacon. The case for corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's day comes from the time when the Irish came to America and settled in the New York neighborhoods with the Jewish immigrants. It was only natural that they both share in cheap cuts of meat, which brisket was at the time. And thus, a match made in Amerikay! Jews, Irish, and cheap meat - brisket.  Now I understand my obsession.

While I am not Irish, I do play traditional Irish music on guitar and have done so for quite a few years now. I have played in several bands and my current band just completed a series of gigs in various Irish pubs around town celebrating St. Patrick's Day. You can bet there was plenty of corned beef at the pubs where we played. Unfortunately we never were able to partake in the slabs of brined beef because we were on stage!!  It is now a day or two after St. Patrick's Day and I'm jonesin' for corned beef to satisfy both my Jewish roots and my Irish hobby.   And so here we go with my Post-St.-Patrick's-Day-Braised-Corned-Beef Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 3 lb uncured Corned Beef
• 1 cup Brown Sugar
• 1 Onion, sliced
• 12 Baby Carrots
• 6 cloves Garlic, peeled
• 2 bottles of Beer 

This is going to be super easy to prep. Since we are braising at a low temperature, it's going to take some time to cook though so make sure you start this early in the day. You can then set it and forget it until it's done.

• Pre-heat oven to 285 degrees.
• Season the corned beef with brown sugar.

• You will see the brown sugar "melt" into the beef immediately after you sprinkle it on. So don't be concerned if you don't see the brown sugar after you season the meat. It's there, it's just camouflaged.
• In a dutch oven lay down the sliced onions followed by the baby carrots and the garlic cloves.

• Place the corned beef on top of the veggies.
• Pour the beer into the dutch oven around the beef.

• Wrap aluminum foil over the top of the dutch and cover with the lid forming a super tight seal.

• Oops, wrong picture....

• Place in the pre-heated oven.  

After 6 hours, remove from the oven and let it rest for 15 minutes or more until the dutch oven has cooled down a bit.

Remove the beef to a serving platter and slice to your desired thickness.  I cut mine in half, wrap one side, and place in the refrigerator so that I can be sure to have some the next day for sandwiches.

To serve, place a few onions and carrots on a plate.  Place the beef on top of the veggies and pour some of the broth on top.  For color (and taste if you're into it), smear some upscale, designer type mustard on for dipping.

ENJOY!!

Broccoli-Chicken Casserole Served Three Ways

I was indulging in one of my favorite pastimes the other day, channel surfing food programs, when Chopped came on.  Just so you know, I wasn't always a Chopped fan.  It's not that it took a while for me to appreciate the difficulty in cooking under pressure with weird ingredients, it's just that Diner's Drive-in's and Dive's always took precedent.  Let's face it, greasy diners serving brisket and juicy burgers versus watching the contestant's expression of horror when they open up their baskets and find Mashed Potato Candy?  For what it's worth, burgers ALWAYS takes precedent, no matter what.  But I did come to appreciate the absurdity and hilarity (dare I say skill) in preparing a dessert with peanut brittle, marsala wine, wonton wrappers, and durian.  Durian?  Ever get a whiff of that?  Or what about an appetizer with canned haggis, smoked gouda, celery, and prunes.  Canned haggis?  How rude!!  No one cooks with canned haggis when the real stuff is available.

Recently, on one particular episode, the entree basket contained chicken breast, blue corn tortillas, Tuscan kale, and sea urchin.  Not too crazy and I was curious about the blue corn tortillas.  You all know about my fascination with Mexican food.  And so I watched as two of the chefs prepared blue corn tortilla crusted chicken breast.  I thought if two of the three chefs were using the ingredients for the same thing, there must be something to it.

First they baked the tortillas to harden them.  Then they crushed them into Panko sized crumbs. The chicken breasts were then coated with a seasoned flour mix followed by an egg wash and then coated with the blue corn tortilla crumbs.  Looked terrific.  So I thought I'd try it.

And it was a disaster.  Even my wife, who eats EVERYTHING I cook told me, "No thanks" when I suggested we heat up the blue chicken leftovers the next day.  I realized right then and there that I wasn't going to blog THAT dish.  Regardless of what some think, I am a bit discerning when it comes to blogging for you!!

Anyway, now what to do with the four leftover blue chicken breasts.  To be honest, I didn't even want to eat them. So they just sat in the refrigerator.

Until tonight...

By now you all should know about my wife's insistence on me using organic, free range, and humanely treated animals when I cook.  What I haven't mentioned is my kids' insistence on eating healthy.  When we are all together, ice cream is rarely on the dessert menu. It's usually non-fat frozen yogurt which to be fair, can be very tasty.  And to their credit, they don't just talk the talk - they walk the walk as well by doing bikram yoga, daily gym work outs, marathon running, rock climbing, etc.   I can sometimes get my son to eat hot dogs with me at baseball games.  And they'll all spare me no expense when ordering the most expensive steak at a fancy restaurant.  But for the most part, everyone in my family (except me) enjoys a healthy active lifestyle.  Check out step-daughter #2's blog for more info:  http://livingforit.blogspot.com.

So what to cook tonight...

I scour the refrigerator and see the aforementioned chicken. But aha! I also see broccoli, onions, mushrooms, yogurt, cheese...I got it!!  I'll cook a broccoli-chicken casserole and make it "almost healthy".   The "almost" comes into play with the, yes, you guessed it, cheese.  I love cheese.   My sister-in-law once told my wife that you can smother ANYTHING (including dog poop) with cheese and it will taste good.  I have two large golden retrievers and considering the size of their poops, I doubt any amount of cheese would help that stench.  But there is a lot of truth in cheese making food taste great.

So, broccoli-chicken casserole it is!!  I'll use yogurt as a filling.  That'll be the "healthy" part. I will also use cheese which will downgrade the casserole to "almost-healthy" but it should kick up the taste a notch or two. On the way, I'll also discuss an intermediate version, "mostly-healthy". There will be something for everyone today.

Ingredients:

• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 tbs butter
• 1 lb sliced mushrooms
• 3 tbs all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups fat-free milk
• 2 cups cooked, boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into cubes
• 16-oz broccoli florets (pre-packaed is ok, frozen is not)
• 1 6-oz container Greek non-fat plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup light mayonnaise
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 - 1/4 tsp pepper
• Up to 1 cup shredded cheese (optional)
• 1/4 cup Panko crumbs (optional)

This is a really simple dish to make. You can, if you choose, make it even easier to prepare by using pre-packaged sliced mushrooms and broccoli florets. That would be the "lazy" person's version. Or you can buy all fresh veggies and prep them yourself. I mentioned there are three versions of this casserole; healthy, mostly-healthy, and almost healthy. You can make the casserole   "healthy" by simply omitting the cheese. It can be made "mostly-healthy" by using 1/4 cup of cheese inside the casserole. Lastly, you can make it "almost-healthy" by using the cheese inside AND on top as a delicious layer of bubbly goodness.  Sorry kids, but you know which direction I'm taking. When dining at chez Mark, you will always get the "almost healthy" version of everything including broccoli-chicken casserole. 

And away we go....

• Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.
• Grease a 2-qt. casserole dish - you can use cooking spray ("healthy") or butter ("almost healthy").
• Heat olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
• Add chopped onions and sliced mushrooms to the skillet and cook until tender - about 10 minutes.  I used red onions but feel free to substitute white or sweet.

• Add 3 tbs of flour and stir constantly for 2 minutes to incorporate the flour into the veggies.

• Stir in milk, salt, and pepper, bring to a boil and simmer for 3 minutes or until the mixture has thickened and is bubbly.

• Add the chicken to the mixture and stir for 2 minutes.

• Add the broccoli to the mixture and fold in.

• Lower the heat to medium.
• Add yogurt and mayonnaise to the mixture and stir gently in order to maintain consistency and wholeness of broccoli florets and chicken chunks.

• Adjust seasoning at this point by tasting and adding more salt and/or pepper.  Obviously you can add other seasonings as well such as onion powder or garlic powder.
• If you are preparing "healthy" broccoli-chicken casserole, then transfer the mixture to a greased 2-qt casserole.  If you are preparing "mostly-healthy" broccoli-chicken casserole, then sprinkle 1/4 cup of cheese into the mixture and stir until the cheese is incorporated before transferring to the casserole dish.  If you are preparing "almost-healthy" broccoli-chicken casserole, sprinkle 1/2 cup of cheese into the mixture and stir to incorporate before transferring to the casserole dish.   Once in the casserole dish, sprinkle an additional 1/2 cup of cheese on top ("almost-healthy") followed by the Panko crumbs.  Here's my "almost-healthy" casserole.

• Now place in oven and cook until bubbly - 25 - 40 minutes depending on whether you are "healthy" or "mostly-healthy" or "almost-healthy".

I like to garnish my servings with salsa and/or Sriracha sauce.  Just seems to add that right amount of tanginess and heat that I like.  Your mileage may vary!

ENJOY!