Apr 2 - Corned Beef Hash 2

Corned beef hash again?!?!

Actually, since my first attempt at corned beef hash, I've been craving poached eggs.

I'm craving a fluffy, tender, silky smooth poached egg. Corned beef has is just a means to the end.

Corned beef hash... The last time the dish was a little dry so this time I added boiled cabbage and raw onions to add moisture to the mixture.

The Fixins
1/2 C Corned Beef, diced. (That's all I had)
1/2 C Cabbage, boiled and drained
1/2 C Potatoes, Frozen Southern Style Hash Browns (Didn't have fresh)
1/4 Small Onions, coarse chop
1 Clove Garlic
Tarragon
Thyme

Place ingredients in a food processor.
Corned beef, onions, garlic, thyme and tarragon.


Added potatoes and cabbage


This time I ran the food processor to really mix and grind the ingredients together as shown below.


Pan fry in a little butter


Now to the main point of my craving - poaching eggs.
As a gift, I received Julia Child's cookbook, The Way to Cook.

Her method for poaching eggs calls for piercing the egg at the "fat" end where the air sac is located. Next, the egg is submerged in boiling water for 10 seconds. This is supposed to help coagulate a thin film of egg white around the shell which helps keep eggs together when added to the poaching water.

Egg with the small hole at the air sac end.
Note: When I dropped the egg into the boiling water, egg white was shooting out of the hole so I panicked and plucked the egg out after 5 or 6 seconds.


A pot of water is brought to about a simmer where bubbles are barely forming.
2.5 T of vinegar was added to 1 quart of water. The water tasted like a very weak lemon. The acid helps the egg proteins to coagulate instead of spreading out.

The egg poaching away. When I cracked the egg into the water, it sank to the bottom and a small bit stuck to the bottom. I waited a few seconds and used a spatula to gently release the egg. The egg was poached about 4 minutes.


This is my control egg. Just an egg cracked into a custard cup and gently slipped into the water. Interestingly, the egg did spread out more. The vinegar appeared to help keep the egg from really spreading out into thin wisp. Also, note the water is fairly clean. Usually without vinegar there would be stray bits of egg white floating in the poaching liquid. This egg also sank to the bottom of the pan. I used the spatula to release the egg.


The Final Dish
Corned beef hash over toasted English muffin topped with the poached eggs.
The egg on the left is the control egg while the egg on the right is the 10 second boiled egg.


Overall, the corned beef has was a lot better this time around. The extra moisture helped. Surprisingly, Julia Child's 10 second boil method produced a nice looking egg that was very tender (melt in your mouth, sort of) and light. The control egg was fine, but not as fluffy and tender.

BONUS METHOD:
I remember working in a small diner where a customers would occasionally request poached eggs. The eggs were cooked in little metal cups. Since I didn't have any poaching cups, I used a buttered custard cup to cook the egg.

I brought the water to boil with the cup in place. I was worried the cup would crack if I placed the cup into boiling water.


The egg was boiled for about 5 or 6 minutes, covered. When I lifted the lid, I caught a slight whiff of hydrogen sulfide... One reason I really don't like hard boiled eggs.


The egg plated. Retains it's shape. Looks like a flying saucer.


The egg is cooked medium. It's pretty much a hard-boiled egg. Egg whites kind of dense. Not fluffy and tender. Note to self... don't use egg cups when poaching eggs. Julia Child's method and vinegared water is the way to go.

Apr 1 - Reuben Sandwich

Leftover Corned Beef = Reuben Sandwich today

A Reuben is a grilled cheese sandwich that has been "deluxed" with sauerkraut, corned beef and Thousand Island dressing. I believe the original Reuben used Russian dressing which I tried to find.

The Fixins'

2 Slices Rye Bread, I used Dark Rye
1/4 C Sauerkraut
Sliced Corned Beef
Swiss Cheese
1 T Thousand Island Dressing (and 1 T French Dressing)
Soft butter

Since I was trying two different dressings, I sliced the bread in half.
Apply soft butter to the outside of the sandwich bread.
On the inner surface, apply the dressing.
Spread out the sauerkraut and layer in the corned beef.
Top with Swiss cheese.
Toast in a frying pan

The finished sandwich


Overall, the sandwich had a nice buttery exterior. The sauerkraut was tangy and crisp, but not overly sour.

Comparing the two dressings. The Thousand Island added a nice creaminess to the sandwich and what I'm used to. The French dressing was too weak to stand up against the sauerkraut. French dressing is a red ketchup-like dressing. The French dressing is not as sweet as ketchup and is slightly more vinegary. However, it didn't stand up to the sauerkraut. I was hoping the French dressing's vinegariness would cut through the fattiness of the grilled cheese, butter and corned beef. Are those real words?

I wonder if I should have supplemented the French dressing with a little horseradish?
I need to research the difference between Russian dressing and French dressing.

Slow Roasted Corned Beef - Snow again!?!?

Snowing again today and today, Sunday, I was called into work.

I decided to slow roast a corned beef I purchased at Costco.

First, I washed off the corned beef and let the corned beef soak in clean water for about 30 minutes, usually I would soak overnight to draw out any excess salt. I don't know if a 30 minutes soak does a lot or not, but I gave it a shot.


The Costco corned beef is a USDA Choice brisket and usually not overly salty. Also, looking at the cross-section, it's nicely colored, lean and not tough looking (plump, not dry and stringy).


When I bake brisket, I usually give it a light mustard coating. This is a technique I picked up in a barbecuing class for smoked ribs, since I'm cooking the brisket low and slow I used mustard on the brisket.


The mustard was rubbed on all surfaces on the corned beef. Also, when cooked you don't get a mustard flavor in the meat, but it adds a little layer of flavor that's not overpowering.


Afterwards, I used 3 T of brown sugar.


The brown sugar is rubbed into all surfaces of the corned beef. The sugar gives a little sweetness and helps with browning. Of course you can use more sugar, but I tend to use less since I'm not looking for a heavy glaze as you would with a ham.


This is my first time using Guinness. I was looking in the fridge and found an old bottle of Guinness. Usually when I bake corned beef, I don't add any liquid but I wanted to try something different to see if the extra liquid would help tenderize the meat.


The brisket was placed in a 200F oven and allowed to cook slowly while I was at work.

Driving to work, I was amazed that there was snow on the road. This is more snow than we had during winter.


After 7 hours, the corned beef was taken out of the oven.


After a 10-15 minute rest, the corned beef was sliced.


Overall, the beef was good. Reminded me of deli counter lunch meat, but not as salty as luncheon meat. Also, no strong taste of pickling spice as you would get from boiling. The corned beef was firmer than a boiled corned beef.

I don't think the Guinness made a difference in flavor and the extra liquid did not change the texture of the slow roasted corned beef. Maybe the extra liquid helped draw out salt, but Costco corned beefs are generally more flavorful while less salty.

Spring +8 days = Snow ?

It's 8 days into spring and it's been snowing all day.
The ground temperature and surround is above 32F so nothing is sticking.

Spring Tulips are starting to bloom, but snow this late in the year?
Intersting that this year the tulips are a solid bright yellow... last year the tulips where pink and yellow. Must have to do with the pH of the soil.



For dinner I had one fresh chicken breast remaining... quickly made fajita tacos.

1/2 onion, sliced
1/3 bell pepper, sliced into strips
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper
1/3 C Salsa
1 T oil

Heated oil and sauteed the onions, garlic, bell pepper and chicken together with a few sprinkles of salt and a couple grinds of black pepper, about 5 to 7 minutes.

Added the salsa, stirred and covered to let the chicken finish cooking, about 3 to 5 minutes.


The Final Dish

Steamed the tortillas in the chicken mixture for about 30 seconds.

Dressed with green chile salsa, lettuce and the chicken "fajita" mixture.
Sprinkled a little shredded cheddar cheese for flavor.


Overall, very simple, quick and delicious. :-)

Casserole - Leftovers

Since the casserole from last night was sort of rice pudding like, I wondered if I can pan-fry the rice sort of like pan-frying polenta.

Pan-frying the rice - used a little oil and butter.


The Final Dish
The pan-fried rice cakes


The rest of the dish.
The chicken was cubed and mixed with cream of mushroom soup (that's all I had) so the chicken wouldn't be as dry. Also, I steamed more broccoli since I wanted more veggies.


Overall, the dish was okay. Nothing to rave about.

Casserole

Tonight is casserole night.
My goal was to make something simple and have enough leftovers for lunch.

I have two recipes in mind.

The first uses cooked ingredients and the second recipe uses raw ingredients.
I was torn between doing what I know would work, the first recipe, and just wanting to throw everything in at once and not worrying about it, but I only had raw ingredients.

Recipe 1: Chicken-Broccoli Divan

Recipe 2:Campbell's® Cheesy Chicken & Rice Casserole

My attempt at a casserole... I know I wanted broccoli and I had chicken so I looked at both recipes and combined techniques.

The Fixins'
1 can of Cream of Chicken Soup
4 chicken Breast, Raw
2 C Rice, uncooked
2 C Broth
2 C Broccoli, par-boiled
Black pepper
Garlic Powder
Grated Cheddar

Mix the soup, broth and add rice.
Add broccoli
Top with chicken breast, a little black pepper and garlic powder.


Bake 375 for about 45 minutes
Top with Cheddar and bake another 10 minutes


The Final Dish


Overall, the dish was not that good in terms of texture, flavor was okay. The rice was almost rice pudding like where the texture was very soft. The chicken was a little dry. The broccoli was actually okay considering the broccoli was cooked over 45 minutes.

My plan was not to spend the time cooking, but I knew I should have cooked everything before forming the casserole. Since I went down the no-cook path, my initial thought was to place the broth and rice on the bottom, cover with a thick layer of broccoli and mix the raw chicken and cream of chicken soup together to form the top layer.

What I did instead, since I forgot my initial plan, was mixed the broth and soup with the rice to form the bottom layer. I didn't have a thick layer of broccoli and the chicken was placed on top bare. That's when I remembered my initial plan. Oh well.

Next time I'll just spend the time cooking everything separately before combining to let the flavors meld in the oven.

In terms of time, it would have worked out the same and I would have had time to do the extra dished while the casserole was baking.

Light Dinner - Grilled Chicken with Ponzu Dressing

After a week of beef and "fancy" eating, I was in the mood for a light meal.

I remembered I had a bottle of Ponzu Sauce I found while walking through the aisles of a local Asian market.

Citrus seasoned soy sauce. Hmm... That sounds interesting. I like a squeeze of lemon or lime in my food. Also, I must be a sucker for pretty packages. I wonder if the kanji means "Buy me" or some other subliminal messages. :-)


I pulled out the George Foreman.
A few dashes of salt and a couple grinds, plus a couple drops of olive oil on a chicken breast.
Grilled about 5 minutes and done.


I dipped a piece of chicken breast in the Ponzu sauce and the other Kikkoman soy sauce.
The soy sauce is definately saltier and has a stronger malty aroma and taste.
The ponzu sauce is about half as strong as the soy sauce, but it also has a tartness to the flavor, from the citrus. Not bad. Would make a good dipping sauce for potstickers or tempura. However, for stronger flavored foods, I believe the subtle tartness would be washed out.

The Final Dish
Grilled chicken breast, a wedge of iceberg lettuce and orange segments (in fancy restaurants known as orange supremes - orange segments with the skin, pith, membrane and seeds removed)... dressed with a Ponzu dressing.


The taste was like a Chinese-style chicken salad without the puffy noodles and toasted almond slivers. A light soy sauce flavor was enhanced by the nuttiness of the toasted sesame seeds.

For the dressing, I just kept it simple.
1 T Ponzu
1/2 t olive oil
a drop or two of toasted sesame seed oil

Whisk