Braised Chuck Roast with Parsnips

Braised meats are something of a passion of mine, which was amplified in the cold of winter this year. That being said, a good pot roast is just as good as summer rolls around. I've recently become a big fan of beef chuck. It's inexpensive, versatile, and actually quite forgiving. Compared with brisket, chuck has a lot more marbling, keeping it moist as it cooks. This summer, we are trying out a new (to us) CSA program and have ended up with an abundance of root vegetables. This turned out to be a good way to use our parsnips, although I have also made it with potatoes instead.

My recipe is loosely based on Kenji's "All-American Pot Roast" from The Food Lab book. As with many of his recipes, there's a lot going on there that on a typical day, I don't always feel like doing. My personal spin is to boost the flavor by combining both styles of Chinese soy sauces (light and dark). As usual, I used Pearl River Bridge, which can be found in most Asian grocery stores. 

Ingredients

• 2 lb. chuck roast
• 1/2 lb. onion, sliced (about 2 small or 1 large onion)
• 1/2 lb. carrot, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 stalks celery, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 5 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
• 1 Tbs. flour
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 Tbs. dark soy sauce
• 1 Tbs. light soy sauce
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp. dry oregano
• 1 - 1 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 1 lb. parsnips
• Vegetable oil (can also use bacon fat)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F with rack in the middle position.

Heat some oil in a dutch oven or heavy saute pan on medium-high heat. If you want to kick it up a bit, you can use bacon fat here. Season the roast all over with kosher salt and black pepper. Sear the roast on all sides (including the edges) until well browned. Set aside.

Roast after browning

Add more oil as needed and turn the heat down to medium. Cook the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic with a bit of salt for a few minutes. Add flour and stir to incorporate, cooking a few more minutes.

Deglaze with red wine, stir well, and bring to a boil. Let the wine reduce a few minutes. Add the soy sauce, bay leaf, and oregano. Nestle the roast back in and top up with chicken stock. Bring to a boil and transfer to the oven. Cover with a lid slightly ajar. 

Ready for the oven

Cook for 2 hours, checking once to flip the meat over. While the roast cooks, peel the parsnips and cut into one inch chunks. Add the parsnips, cover, and cook one more hour.

If preparing ahead, let everything cool then chill in the refrigerator overnight. This will allow the grease to congeal to be easily removed. If not preparing ahead, remove the meat to a cutting board and skim the liquid as best you can. 

Meat after braising

Begin reducing the braising liquid on the stove. While this is happening, slice the roast. When the liquid has reduced to your desired consistency, return the meat to the pan. Turn the heat off and let stand for 20 minutes before serving. The roast goes well with crusty bread.

Sautéed Chicken and Bell Peppers

I'll be the first to admit I haven't been posting much lately. Usually, this means I've been busy and not cooking anything new or particularly interesting. A lot of times, I fall back on old standbys which have already appeared on the blog, such as char siu. Lately, I've been cooking a lot of simple and quick chicken dishes, some of which are devised out of whatever I happen to have at the time. Sometimes, they turn out really well, and I think it's time to highlight some of these humble dinner workhorses. Grilled chicken cutlets and Chengdu-style chicken (known as "five spice chicken" in our house) are two that have seen a lot of action recently.

This particular creation was an instant hit and immediately became a staple weeknight dinner. The first time I made it, I basically dumped all the ingredients into the pan at once. Instead of properly browning, the vegetables sweated, forming into their own sauce. As I've given more thought to it, I've cooked them the ingredients in batches (as in my standard way to cook fried rice). As such, I add a little chicken stock to form up a quick pan sauce at the end.

Ingredients

• 2 lb. (approx.) boneless chicken thighs
• 2 bell peppers (I use 1 green and 1 red)
• 1 large onion
• 5 cloves garlic
• Oregano to taste (optional)
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• Lime wedges for serving
• Olive oil

Rub

• 2 tsp. ground cumin
• 1 tsp. Spanish paprika
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. black pepper

Instructions

Start by preparing the vegetables. Cut the onions into slices, lengthwise. Cut the tops off the bell peppers, remove the core, and cut into strips. Finely mince the garlic. Set vegetables aside and cut the chicken into pieces about square inch -- 4-5 pieces per thigh. In a large bowl, combine chicken and all rub ingredients. Toss to coat well.

In a large pan (I use cast iron), heat olive oil on medium-high heat. Sauté the chicken in two batches until lightly browned. Set chicken aside. 

Turn the heat down a bit. Add all the sliced peppers and onion into the pan, adding oil as needed. Season with about 1/2 tsp. salt. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are softened and turning translucent. 

Add the garlic and cook a few more minutes. Return the chicken to the pan and add oregano, if using. Continue cooking until the chicken is cooked through. Add chicken stock and scrape up any browned bits. Let the stock reduce into a coating while continuing to stir. 

Serve with lime wedges to squeeze over. The dish goes well with rice, bread, or both.

Sausage and Napa Cabbage Fried Rice

It is safe to say fried rice is central to the mission of No Free Lunch. Not only was it a staple of my family's diet from when I was young, it can also be endlessly customized. Fried rice was my first recipe here (can you tell it's the same wok?), and I've done three more of them over the years. Most recently (in 2014), I wrote about how Pei Mei's Chinese Cook Book  led to me thinking more about fried rice and what really makes it good. To me, fried rice is about using humble ingredients to get something greater than the sum of its parts. Over time, I've settled into a go-to base fried rice recipe - the one I'm sharing today. 

This recipe makes use of some classic Chinese staples: napa, sausage, egg, and green onion. The amounts given here are flexible and can be adjusted to taste. The method of slowly cooking the sausage to render the fat is similar to how bacon is cooked. If Chinese sausage is unavailable (or if it is preferred), bacon could be used. Various other ingredients can also be added, such as shrimp or black mushrooms. 

Also, happy St. Patrick's Day. While we didn't have any corned beef and cabbage, I hope you enjoy this dish that also involves preserved meat and cabbage. I did have a Guinness with it!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lb. Napa Cabbage (about 1/2 head)
• 4 Chinese sausages (lap cheong)
• 4 eggs
• Dash of sesame oil
• 4 cups cooked rice
• 3 green onions
• Vegetable oil
• Kosher salt and white pepper to taste

Instructions

Slice the napa crosswise, into strips about 1/2 inch wide. Place the napa in a large bowl (I use this bowl for serving the fried rice later) and salt generously. Toss to coat. Let the napa stand for about 20 minutes. 

Take this time to prepare the remaining ingredients. Slice the sausages into thin disks. Crack the eggs into a bowl, beat with a fork, and add a dash of sesame oil and a pinch each of salt and white pepper. Chop the green onions. When ready, take a handful of napa, wrap in a dish towel, and squeeze out as much water as possible. Continue working in batches until all the napa has been squeezed out. Finely chop the napa and set aside.

Heat up a wok on medium heat. Add some oil and cook the eggs, constantly scraping the bottom. Cook until mostly solidified, but still soft. Set the eggs aside. Scrape out the wok. Still on medium heat, cook the sliced sausage. Toss frequently. The goal is to render out the fat in the sausages while not burning them. Tilt the wok to reserve the rendered fat in the wok and set the sausage aside. 

Turn the heat up to high and stir fry the napa. Depending on how fatty the sausages were, you may have to either remove some fat or add vegetable oil. Cook a few minutes, until lightly browned, and set aside. 

Add more oil to the wok, then add the rice and chopped green onion. Break up the rice as you add it to the pan. Stir fry for a few minutes, letting the rice stand briefly before tossing. Add the cooked napa, sausage, and eggs. Break up the eggs while adding them in. Cook a few more minutes, continuing to periodically toss the rice. 

Serve with condiments of your choice. As always, I recommend Worcestershire sauce, but Lao Gan Ma sauce is good if you like it spicy.

Birthday Special 2019

Welcome back to No Free Lunch, and happy 30th birthday to Ariel! 2018 came and went with amazing speed. A lot happened last year with our engagement, move across the country, and then my first semester in my new job. Fall 2018 turned out to be the busiest semester I've ever had. The blog laid sadly dormant during that time, but I'm hoping this year will be more fruitful. I continue to enjoy cooking with gas on a daily basis!

For Ariel's birthday, I produced what I think is my best cake yet. This time, I used Stella Parks' vanilla butter cake recipe, and it turned out great. The recipe discusses letting the milk, butter, and eggs come to room temperature before making the batter in order to improve the texture of the cake. Instead of two 8-inch layers, I made two 9-inch layers. I again made Mark Bittman's buttercream frosting with chocolate. I also improved the cake construction by trimming off the dome on the bottom layer. I do think this is worth doing to get the cake to fit together nicely. 

For dinner, our plan was to have our traditional birthday lamb kebabs with roasted mushrooms, but it turns out you can't buy lamb in Vermillion. We had chicken kebabs instead, and they were excellent, as always. 

Here's to a great 2019 -- there's a lot of excitement yet to come, and I hope to share some of it here. 

Cotoletta alla Palermitana

Every once in a while, I stumble onto a simple recipe that becomes an instant favorite. My yogurt-marinated kebabs and matzo-breaded scotch eggs were somewhat recent examples. Readers certainly know I'm a fan of schnitzels and all their international cousins. I happened upon cotoletta alla palermitana a few years ago reading a Wikipedia article about cutlets. In Italian, the name essentially means a Palermo-style cutlet. I had never eaten it, never heard of it, and certainly never been to Palermo. At first glance, a breaded, grilled cutlet sounds a little strange. Very little is written about it in English, so I read a few Google-translated recipes and tucked the idea away.

Fast forward to a several weeks ago. We had recently arrived in Vermillion, and I had just equipped myself with a new Weber grill. 

I decided to give the cotoletta alla palermitana a go, and it was a revelation. Think of it as a lighter and easier version of the more familiar wienerschnitzel or cotoletta alla milanese. No messing around with oil frying or egg washes, just throw it on the grill. The crunch isn't quite the same as a fried cutlet, but the grill still browns the coating nicely. I make it with boneless, skinless chicken thighs, but I am confident chicken breasts, pork loin, or veal chops would all do well with this preparation. Still, it's hard to beat the juiciness of the chicken thigh (as Jacques Pépin says, the best part of the chicken).

I've been having fun with the farm share boxes and figuring out what to do with everything. I served the cutlets with a ratatouille of onion, zucchini, garlic, and tomato from the farm box and eggplant and parsley from our garden. I sautéed the ingredients separately and let it simmer together, covered, while I prepared the cutlets.

Ingredients

• 2 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 6 pieces)
• Salt
• Black pepper
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 cup breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 sprig fresh parsley
• 1/2 lemon

Note this is actually more breadcrumbs than I needed, but I would rather not get too low while I am dredging. You could probably cut it down to about 2/3 of what I had and be fine.

Instructions

Preheat grill before preparing the chicken.

Put a piece of plastic wrap over the chicken and pound with the flat side of a meat hammer or a soup can. Pound to about 1/3 inch thick. Getting them very thin is less important than getting them to an even thickness. You can trim off any large pieces of fat before breading.

Season both sides with salt and pepper. Pour out the olive oil into a dish and generously brush both sides of the chicken with the oil. In a shallow bowl, mix the breadcrumbs, cheese, and oregano. Press each piece of chicken into the breadcrumbs, flip, and coat the other side.

Grill the chicken on high heat, placing the cutlets directly on the flame. Cook until browned on both sides and cooked through, flipping occasionally to get even browning. As the cutlets are relatively thin, I leave the cover open.

When done, chop the parsley and slice the lemon into wedges. Sprinkle parsley on the cutlets and serve with lemon wedges. 

Escargots in Compound Butter

Bonne fête from Vermillion! There's been a lot of changes here at No Free Lunch, and I've really fallen behind. I have some more posts in the pipeline where I'll talk a little more about that. For now, let's celebrate our sixth Bastille Day with escargots! Escargots have been a family tradition since I was very young, and we often have them for Christmas dinner. I've seen and heard of many different preparations for escargots, but the simple classic can't be beat. The most iconic preparation involves baking the snails inside shells, but lacking those, ramekins work well. Make sure to have lots of bread ready to absorb the delicious compound butter.

The butter is closely based on Jacques Pépin's recipe from Essential Pépin, including fresh parsley and chives from our garden. It ended up being a little too salty, so adjust to taste. The bread pictured is the baguette made daily at Vermillion's own Mister Smith's. Grandpa's French bread would be a great option, as well. 

We rounded out our dinner with pan roasted chicken thighs with mustard sauce (recipe forthcoming at some point!) and sautéed crookneck squash from this week's farm share.

Ingredients

• 20 escargots (1 small can)
• 1 cup white wine
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 sprig fresh parsley
• Breadcrumbs
• Bread, for serving

Compound Butter

• 1 stick butter (4 oz.)
• 2 Tbs fresh parsley, minced
• 1 Tbs fresh chives, minced
• 2 tsp garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
• 1/2 Tbs white wine
• A few grinds black pepper

Instructions

Drain the snails and inspect for any feed still inside them. If present, rinse it out. Bring the wine and stock to a boil in a saucepan or sauté pan. Add the parsley sprig and the snails. Lower the heat and poach for about 5 minutes. Remove the snails and store in the fridge until ready.

Combine the butter with the rest of the butter ingredients. This will work best if the butter has been left out to soften. Fold everything together. Both the snails and butter can be kept until ready to serve.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Divide the snails and butter into equal portions and place in ramekins. I used four, with five snails in each. Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top. Place the ramekins on a sheet pan and bake for 12 minutes. 

Serve with baguette slices.

Passover Musings

With another Passover coming to a close, I wanted to do a quick post on how things went, the food that was had, and my general thoughts on the topic. I'm always fascinated by the intersection of food and other aspects of culture and history. While I won't say I fully understand Passover, I get a little closer every year. What has struck me most is how literally the Passover dietary restrictions are taken. My previous assumption, admittedly not based on much, had been that it was all symbolic and more about the spirit of the law rather than the letter. The only analogue I really have are Chinese festival foods, which are highly symbolic and considered good luck based on either puns, visual similarity, or old legends. For example, you have long noodles symbolizing long life, wontons folded to look like gold ingots, and zongzi for Dragon Boat Festival (commemorating a legendary event). In these examples, the food itself isn't what's important, it's what they represent.

Passover is not like this. The story goes that, during the exodus from Egypt, there was no time for the bread to rise. Consequently, this is commemorated during Passover by eating only unleavened bread -- matzo. In the ancient world, the New Kingdom period of Egypt included, grain, usually made into bread, was the staple food. In fact, Egypt would later become the Roman Empire's main source of food, and its loss to Muslim forces in the 7th century was a major blow to the crumbling empire. Five grains capable of rising are known as chametz, and must be removed from the home. Traditionally, these five are wheat, barley, rye, oats, and spelt. Note that this doesn't include corn and rice, which would have been unknown to the Mediterranean world at the time. The part I have a hard time with is that these grains, in any form other than matzo, are all banned, whether or not they have anything to do with bread or not.

The other category of foods, which I've talked a bit about in the past, are kitniyot. This is a broader class of items that are sort of chametz-adjacent. This is where other grains, such as rice and corn, as well as legumes come in. Although the origins of kitniyot are a bit hazy, the most common reasoning I've heard is that people might confuse these items with the five grains, an explanation I find a little unsatisfying. Traditionally, Ashkenazi Jews (the majority in the United States) were prohibited from having these items, as well. A decision from the Rabbinical Assembly overturned this a few years ago, but many people, Ariel included, have been reluctant to introduce these foods into Passover after so many years of tradition. It's actually these that give me the most trouble, as I can't cook with beans of any kind, rice, or corn starch. A quick survey of this blog would show you how often I use those ingredients. With wheat flour also knocked out, alternative thickeners need to be found. This is where tapioca flour comes to the rescue.

This brings me to our Passover menu. I actually really enjoy the traditional Passover foods, and we don't have them often during the rest of the year. The problem is that monotony tends to set in by the end of the week. These included:

• Braised brisket: I used my own recipe again, with some adjustments. As I could not use soy sauce for seasoning, I added about half a can of tomato paste and some Worcestershire sauce. For thickening, I used tapioca flour. I got a bag of Bob's Red Mill from Kroger, but you can probably get it much cheaper at a Chinese store. To avoid using soybean oil, I seared the brisket with schmaltz.
• Chopped liver: Again, using my own recipe, including the homemade schmaltz. If you don't mind mixing milk and meat, you can go the French route and use butter.
• Gefilte fish: As always, get the frozen log rather than the jarred kind. One day I'd like to make my own, but that time has not yet come.
• Matzo ball soup: Made by Ariel, as usual. We may experiment with the timing on this in the future, and try to rescue the chicken before it completely turns to mush. 

My confidence in producing some "modern" Passover-friendly food to break up the week is growing. Breading things like scotch eggs or baked chicken with matzo meal generally works fine, and we often have grainless meals like swai fillets with roasted broccoli anyway. As I noted above, soybean oil, as well as canola oil, are technically kitniyot, but this is where we usually compromise if we're frying something. 

The undisputed winner of this year's Passover, though, was Brazilian cheese bread. I first encountered them years ago at Fogo de Chão, but have never made them at home. Ariel made them using Elise Bauer's recipe, and they were incredibly good and very addictive. Although I was assured there is no problem at all (tapioca is Kosher for Passover), eating them felt a little bit wrong to me. They're bread, aren't they? This is where the spirit/letter of the law distinction really hit me. Although the cheese bread puffs up in the oven, it's technically not leavened, so it's allowed. Either way, they are delicious and will definitely be showing up on our table again next year, and probably before then.

Matzo Breaded Chicken

Welcome to Passover 2018, dear readers. While today's recipe is nothing groundbreaking, I think it's important for me to chronicle my adventures in kosher for Passover cooking. Last year, I hit a real home run by adapting an old favorite, Scotch eggs, into a Passover-friendly version. I plan to make them again next week. This recipe is another adaptation of an old standby. 

I've been making this breaded chicken recipe for many years, with a post on it in 2015. This is basically unchanged, except for swapping the regular bread crumbs with matzo meal. I've also given the chicken an undercoat of matzo cake meal (much more finely ground matzo). This uses a variation on the classic flour-egg-breadcrumb coating used in dishes like Scotch eggs and Wiener schnitzel. Instead of egg, I use a mixture of mayonnaise, mustard, and Sriracha sauce to boost the flavor. One aspect of this that warrants experimentation in the future is the oven temperature. I had some difficulty getting the matzo meal to brown (you can see the light area in the photo), and ended up broiling the chicken a bit at the end to compensate. 

Carr Valley bread cheese contains no bread and is therefore
kosher for passover!

Normally, as I understand it, the first two nights of Passover feature a seder, a holiday dinner that involves, among other things, readings of the Passover story, songs, and vast quantities of wine. We decided to do that tomorrow night, and have a simple meal tonight. The main dish was the breaded chicken with an appetizer of garlic-flavored Carr Valley bread cheese we picked up in Wisconsin. I broiled it in the toaster oven, and it was rather good on a piece of matzo. Tomorrow's meal will feature braised brisket and matzo ball soup. I'm also planning to make chopped liver to have throughout the week. Making this chicken dish is a great complement to chopped liver, as you can reserve the chicken skins to make schmaltz. In fact, the skins are rendering as I write this post. See the chopped liver recipe for details.

Ingredients

• 5 chicken thighs, bone-in
• Matzo cake meal for breading
• Matzo meal for breading
• 1/3 cup Dijon mustard
• 1/3 cup light mayonnaise
• Squirt of Sriracha sauce or other hot sauce (to taste)
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare a sheet pan covered with foil. Remove the skin from the chicken and reserve for later use, if desired. Generously salt and pepper both sides of the chicken.  Spread cake meal on a plate and dredge chicken on both sides. 

Mix the mustard, mayonnaise, and Sriracha sauce in a bowl. Slather chicken all over with the mixture. 

Dump out the cake meal and spread matzo meal on the plate. Dredge the chicken pieces in the matzo meal and set on the sheet pan.

Bake the chicken until cooked through, about 30 minutes. I broiled the chicken for a few more minutes to get a little more browning on the coating.