...the eye of the beholder.

Ladies and gentlemen, foodie friends and gentle readers, is this a thing of beauty or is it not?


It is a thing of beauty to me, worth almost it's weight in gold. My appreciation stems from knowledge that few people have a source for solid leaf fat, fresh-trimmed. Not only fresh and fresh-smelling but from beeves raised on grass, free-ranging, no growth hormones, no genetic modifications.

I estimate there to be between 10 and 15 pounds of the stuff. By the time it is trimmed and rendered it will reduce significantly. Final yield may be 5 pounds or so. About 1/2 pound of that will be made into small blocks for the birds this winter. The rest I will use for cooking.

All you low-fat aficionados are having mild seizures at the thought, aren't you? I can hear faint echoes of your protests that we must have massively occluded arteries, sky-high cholesterol, be grossly overweight, horribly unhealthy! My sincere apologies to you all but none of that is true. When used properly, finely rendered beef fat can be a great addition to a cook's bag of tricks. The real trick is knowing how to properly use it....

Preparation of fresh leaf fat* isn't hard but it does take time and a really sharp boning knife. To clean and prepare the fat for rendering, cut off as much clean fat as possible. Be careful not to cut into any of the kidney tissue or remaining hunks of meat. Discard the meat scraps and organs. Cut the remaining clean fat into small pieces and dump them into a large, heavy pot. Add just enough water to cover by about a half inch, turn cooktop to low and bring water barely to a simmer. If it's hard to maintain a simmer, use a heat diffuser under the pot. It's important to keep the heat so low that the fat renders slowly without burning.

As the fat renders, the liquid level will go down. Keep the rendering fat covered at all times. I find it will take this much fat around 4 days to render out totally so don't start the process if you don't have the time. When there is nothing solid left in your pot but pieces of connective tissue and some bits of coarse fat, cool the pot's contents a bit and strain through several thicknesses of fine cotton towels. Set the container with the fat/liquid in a cool place, like a fridge or garage until the fat solidifies on the surface of whatever liquid is in the pot. Working quickly, pull the solid fat out of the pot, turn the bottom up and scrape off any coarse nasties you find on the bottom. Those can be tossed.

Break the fat up into pieces and put in a double boiler or nested pots over simmering water. Melt fat and pour into containers. I keep mine in the freezer and thaw as needed.

This rendered fat is used sparingly to sear meats and in larger quantities for mixing empañada dough or deep fat frying potatoes. When using it for frying, make sure you maintain an even heat so your taters don't soak up a lot of fat and get greasy-soggy. Keep a close eye on your fryer and make sure the fat doesn't reach smoke point or you might have a huge problem, a grease fire. After frying, cool fat slightly and strain well. Return what's left to a container and keep it in the fridge, covered tightly, until you want another batch of crispy and non-greasy fried food.

* Leaf fat is the fine white fat surrounding an animal's kidneys. It is very dense to protect the vital organs found inside and after rendering will be extremely hard. This can be used to make tallow candles if you are so inclined... they will burn almost as cleanly as beeswax and are a lot cheaper to make.

The Casserole With No Name

I don't think I have posted this one yet... I hope not. Sometimes memory fails and, since I didn't see it when going back through posts, I guess I will put it up now.

A reader would have figured out by this time that I really enjoy cooking. Sometimes, though, I just haven't time nor the spare mental energy to spend lots of time putting something tasty together. In those instances, casseroles and one dish meals are truly great. In addition, having to be at work (so to speak, since I work right here but it is a real job) at 3:30 in the afternoon makes preparing a fancy meal pretty much impossible. Never having been a fan of slow cookers nor casseroles, which I ate waaay too many of as a child, this is all new territory for me but I am learning. Maybe unwillingly, but needs must as the devil (or paycheck) drives. So, with that all as a frame of reference, here is the Casserole With No Name....

• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
• 15 ounces canned tomato sauce or equivalent fresh
• garlic powder, to taste
• black pepper, to taste
• 8 ounces dry egg noodles
• 8 ounces room temp sour cream
• 6 ounces room temp cream cheese
• 1/2 cup diced green chilis (jalapenos work very nicely, thankyouverymuch)
• 6 green onions, white and green diced fine (or just mince up half a white onion)
  
• 1 1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese

Bring a pot of water to a boil, add the noodles. Cook until al dente but not nearly to serving tooth. Remove from heat, drain and rinse well. Set aside.
Heat oven to 350F.
Brown the beef, making sure it is nice and crumbly. Pour tomato sauce over. Add the garlic and pepper, stir in well. Allow to simmer for 15 minutes or so until thickened.
Mix sour cream, cream cheese, onions and chilis together. It does help if you use your hand mixer to do this, makes the mixture nice and fluffy.

Find a lasagna pan or a casserole dish, 8 x 13 with 2" sides, either grease it with butter or use cooking spray.
Place all the noodles in the pan. Spread them out evenly.
Pour the beef sauce over the top.
Plop spoonfuls of the sour cream mixture on the sauce and spread it around almost to the edges of the pan.
Next, spread all that grated cheddar on top of the sour cream mixture.
Cover with foil and bake for an hour. Uncover, turn off oven and let dish sit for 15 minutes or so.

This is really good stuff as far as leftovers are concerned, too. Once the casserole has cooled, cut it up into squares and put them on a cookie sheet. Freeze until solid and wrap in foil or vacuum pack. It reheats really well and being in the freezer doesn't seem to do anything but improve the flavor. I think...)

Fort Hood* tragedy

The author wishes to note, with sadness, the shootings at Ft. Hood today. As of right now, 9 are dead, many wounded. 1 suspect in custody with 2 still at large.

For all families and friends of the victims, I express my deepest sympathy and most heartfelt sorrow for this tragic loss of life.


Update 4:45 pm CST: Victim count stands at 12. 1 shooter dead, 2 others in custody. Tragically, all were military personnel.

* Fort Hood, with about 40,000 troops, is home to the Army's 1st Cavalry Division and elements of the 4th Infantry Division, as well as the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 13th Corps Support Command. It is located near Killeen, Texas.

A Round Tuit

Having gone back to work this year, I have found that getting things posted here is hard to do. Balancing the necessities of daily life, some small occasions for socializing, while working 2nd shift.. that takes almost more organization and mental gymnastics than I can manage!

There are several recipes that need to be finished, many more I would like to post and a few rants and roses that could use some airtime.

I will get all this done but it will take me some time. Thanks for being patient with me and come back to check on anything new.

Shrimp Creole

Shrimp Creole

Another dish with as many variations as cooks, Shrimp (or chicken) Creole* simply invites experimentation. Once the basic elements of the trinity, tomatoes, peppers, herbs, stock, salt and sugar are dealt with, the preparation is only limited by the cook's own personal preferences.

Yes, the common elements of Creole, Cajun? The basic trinity: onion, celery** and bell peppers. The white trinity? There are various descriptions but the most elementary is onion, celery and parsnips. Tomatoes are vital even though they must be a fairly recent addition. Pepper is not native to the Western Hemisphere but adds a lot to the dish. Cayenne peppers are native and are absolutely vital in this dish. Herbs such as thyme and tarragon, perhaps with an addition of basil, give depth to the preparation. Butter? Yes. Citrus juice? Yes. Sugar, molasses or sorghum? Yes.

Shrimp Creole doesn't need a roux and this makes it an easy dish to prepare. It can simmer for hours and only develops more depth and flavor through that time. Put it in a slow-cooker, set on low and let it go for 8 hours or more? Heaven in the mouth.

Ok, fine... enough of the pontificating and on with the cooking.

Quick shrimp stock

• 2 pounds raw shrimp, shelled (don't toss those shells and keep the shrimp for your creole)
• 2 tablespoons butter

Melt the butter over low heat. Add the shrimp shells, stirring them around until they turn pink. Add a little more water than the amount needed for your recipe and simmer until the full aroma of shrimp has developed, 30 minutes or so. Remove from heat, cool and strain. Toss the shells and keep the stock in the fridge or freezer.

Now that the stock is ready to go, let's get on with the actual Creole....

• 1/2 cup oil
• 3 onions, chopped
• 2 large bell peppers, chopped
• 5 celery ribs, chopped finely
• 10 large tomatoes, peeled or equivalent canned
• cayenne pepper, to taste
• black pepper, to taste
• white pepper, to taste
• 1 T thyme
• 1 T tarragon
• 1 T basil
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• bay leaves
• 6 green onions, white and green parts chopped
• 1 c parsley chopped fine

Put your dutch oven on the cooktop, add oil and bring up to heat. When oil is shimmering, add onions, celery and pepper, Reduce heat and soften, about 45 minutes, stirring ocassionally.
Add the tomatoes and other ingredients down to and including the bay leaves.
Keeping heat medium low, simmer this mixture for 2 hours or until it has reduced by about a quarter and thickened.
At this point the sauce can be put in the fridge for up to 2 days. Keeping it will only improve the final flavor, so go ahead!
When it's time to serve your creole, bring the sauce back to the cooktop and bring up almost to a boil very slowly. Stir in the shrimp. Cook until shrimp are pink but be careful not to overcook them as they will be extremely chewy if too done.
Stir in green onions and parsley. Remove from heat.
Serve with a scoop of rice.

That's all there is to it! Go ahead and try a creole, experiment with herbs and proportions. After all, cooking isn't a science, it's an art...

* What or who is Creole? There is no easy answer but this old article may shed some light on the question: First Creoles

** I am not clear on the celery availability some centuries ago. There may be native varieties, such as celeriac and, if so, please let me know.

Missing things

Contrary to what you may have been led to believe by the title of this post, I haven't mislaid any cups of coffee, lost my spectacles, forgotten why I am in this room nor any of the other odd behaviors that lead my family and friends to consider me an endearing, if rather daffy, elder. As a matter of fact, it's been remembering things that is causing me to be missing things.

Earlier this afternoon, Himself, Waggywaggy and I went for a drive. We stopped to take care of an errand or two and, while leaving town, passed several fast food joints. Memories reached forth from some dark recess of my mind, beckoning to me, murmuring of lost places, nigh-on forgotten flavors and scents long vanished anywhere other than memory. Why memory was triggered on this particular day by those particular places is anyone's guess but, for whatever reason, I have been recalling many foods, eating places and special treats that I haven't thought of for years, along with some I think of often.

What would be some of the things I find myself missing? Are they sublime? Ridiculous? Somewhere in between? Yes to all but the valuation of the item itself bears no relationship to the value of the memory.

Who amongst us doesn't miss real, honest to goodness, chocolate syrup? Not chocolate-flavored high fructose corn syrup but real chocolate? Good old Hershey's® in the little brown and white can, opened with a sharp-ended can puncher, poured liberally over ice cream? The drip down the side of the can, surreptitiously wiped with a finger, to be savored as a small prize? Squirt soda or Crush grapefruit soda? The bite of grapefruit, partially balanced by the sweetness of real sugar? Over ice on a hot, hot summer day...

The original Chef Boy Ar Dee Ravioli and Spaghettios with Little Meatballs. I loved those even though I am a bit embarrassed to admit it. The ravioli didn't actually taste like "real" ravioli but, by golly, it was tasty just the same. The little meatballs were kind of chewy and not real meaty but those, too, I loved. The frozen dinners? Remember those old Swanson's dinners? Turkey and dressing, gravy, potatoes, cranberry-apple compote? mmmmmmmmmm Mooshing the dressing cubes up with the gravy made a perfect addition to the thin slices of turkey. The fish dinners with that round cod cake? I don't know what they put in that fish cake but that was just divine, at least to a 10 year old's palate. The "mexican" dinners with rice and enchiladas... fried chicken... salisbury steak....

Tomato soup from a can? "soup and sandwich, soup and sandwich..." Tomatoey goodness, tart and sweet at the same time. Rich, red nectar for the dipping of grilled cheese sandwiches. Sandwichs made, by the way, with real butter? Mmmmmmmmm, good.

Hot fudge sundaes. Fudge squares wrapped in wax paper, melted in a tiny pot, poured over ice cream, pooling around and beneath the frosty scoops of sweet, waiting to be lovingly spooned up.

BK Whoppers and Whalers, sandwiches the size of dinner plates. Real beef, real fish, huge portions from when fast food was actual food. The McD's fries, the original ones, crisp and hot with a vague hint of beefiness. An original Hardee's roast beef sandwich, topped with sauce, juicy and inviting.

Local memories, too. Spic-n-span tenderloins with pickles, onions and mustard. Those little bitty burgers that the elderly sisters downtown dished up. Condiments were available but don't ask for ketchup. They didn't have any and you'd get the evil eye for asking. Suzy-Q spiral fries. mmmmmm! Maid-rite sandwiches, the easiest tasty ever! Ground beef and chicken broth... that's it, really. Ice cream made on-site at Birdsall's, turtle sundaes, marshmallow shakes. Walking out of the ice cream parlor and smelling hot tar, licking that cone fast enough to keep from having ice cream drip down your arm. The bakery that made krispies so light they would melt in your mouth. Costa's restaurant's Greek specialties... Steaks at the Play Pen, the Athenian's Greek salads.

There are also memories of things I don't miss one bit. Horrible foods from the sixties and seventies on which I might decide to elaborate. Later...

Rarebit, anyone?

Welsh Rarebit or Welsh Rabbit? Regardless of regional variations, the name is an oddity and seems to have nothing whatsoever to do with Wales or anywhere else as far as I've ever heard. (Regardless of Looney Tunes, the dish has nothing to do with hassenpfeffer, even though that is simply German for "rabbit stew.") I adore any of the variations of this dish, being a huge fan of cheese, mustard, cayenne and beer.

Thanks to my dear friend, Tartiflette, I can present you with the basic recipe for Rarebit and two regional variations, Yorkshire and Scots. So, on with the cheeseing!

Basic Welsh Rarebit (the classic with cheese, mustard and ale)

This is supposed to serve two but around here it's barely enough for me! I like more cayenne, too.

• 2 slices bread
• 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
• dash salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire
  
• 1/2 ounce butter
• 3 ounces cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 tablespoon beer or ale

Mix all ingredients but the bread together. Set aside.
Toast bread lightly on one side.
Spread cheese mixture on untoasted side of bread.
Broil until cheese is melted and bubbly.
Enjoy hot!

Yorkshire Rarebit (crisp bacon and is made with Wensleydale*)

• 1 3/4 ounces butter
• 1 3/4 ounces plain flour
• 1 1/8 cup milk
• 1 1/8 cup black sheep ale or an ale of your choice
• 1 1/8 cup mature Wensleydale cheese
• 1 tsp. English mustard powder
• 2 slice streaky bacon, fried until crisp and crumbled
  
• few drops of Worcestershire, to taste
• 1 egg
• 4 Ciabatta rolls

Melt butter and add flour. Make into a roux, stir in milk and ale.

Stir over heat until a stiff sauce forms. Add the mustard powder and the Worchestershire, stir in and add the cheese. Stir until melted. When all melted, add the egg and bacon and stir.

Cut the ciabatta rolls into half and toast, top each piece with some of the cheese mixture and brown under the broiler. Serve with a little salad or as a savoury at the end of a meal.


Scotch Rarebit (Straight from Mrs Beeton, who evidently wasn't a big fan of punctuation. The cook is assumed to know what the proportions are to produce the desired result.)

• Rich Cheese, few slices
• Toast
• Mustard
• Pepper

Cut some nice rich sound cheese into rather thin slices.
Melt in a cheese toaster on a hot plate or over steam.
When melted, add a small quantity of mixed mustard and a seasoning of pepper.
Stir the cheese until it is completely dissolved.
Brown it before the heat or with a salamander.
Fill the bottom of the cheese toaster with hot water and serve with dry or buttered toasts, whichever may be preferred.
A cheese toaster has a hot water reservoir, the cheese is melted in the upper tin, which is placed in another vessel of boiling water, so keeping the preparation beautifully hot.
A small quantity of porter or port wine, is sometimes mixed with the cheese, and if it be not very rich, a few pieces of butter may be mixed with it to great advantage.
Sometimes the melted cheese is spread on the toasts and then laid in the cheese dish at the top of the hot water.
Whichever way it is served, it is highly necessary that the mixture be very hot and very quickly served or it will be worthless.



* As far as I'm concerned, there isn't anything made with Wensleydale that isn't absolutely delicious.