eG Foodblog Tag Team IV: Marlene, Dave, snowangel - Cold Turkey, Three Ways

[Abra]

No, Jason, don't waste tenderloin on this recipe. You want a really good chuck, that will pull into threads. Tenderloin doesn't shred well, and doesn't have either the marbling or the flavor to pull this one off. Plus, it's way too expensive for a braise. Just my opinion, of course.

[Marlene]

Is there any reason why you couldn't make butter braised beef, with say, an entire Beef Tenderloin?

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I doubt if tenderloin has enough fat in it. Brisket maybe.

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Isn't that point of using a whole pound of butter as the braising medium?

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No not really. Tenderloin is just not a braising cut. Not enough fat, expensive as Abra says, and it's tender all by itself anyway.

[Jason Perlow]

What about flank steak? Or London Broil?

[Kouign Aman]

Or venison? Or does the marbling issue come into play with game?

[Jason Perlow]

No not really.  Tenderloin is just not a braising cut.  Not enough fat, expensive as Abra says, and it's tender all by itself anyway.

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Yeah, but I've seen some haute preparations of braised beef tenderloin, so I know its not completely alien.

[little ms foodie]

I've stopped before, but I always hit the same wall and I'm interested in how other foodies deal with this (smoking foodies). The problem is that evening meals are special events, for my partner and myself and most eGulleters. Whether we're eating out or cooking, we savor the experience, and like to do this with a well-matched wine. And the wine and food lead me to cigarettes. In fact, I don't usually have my first cigarette until 6 or 7 pm.

Sam

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Welcome Sam!

Here in Seattle you can't smoke in restaurants or bars so that cures half your problem. If you make a smoke outside rule at your house I'll bet that will cure the second half!

[Marlene]

JAZ,Feb 3 2006, 04:20 PM].

If you're looking for a salty, spicy, crunchy snack (sweet too, so it covers all the bases), you could try these Spicy Walnuts (Marlene and Dave, they're the ones I brought to the Pig Pickin).

Blanch 1 lb. walnut halves or pieces for a minute or so. (Marlene, a second opportunity to blanch!) Drain.

Mix 1/2 cup sugar with 1/2 to 1-1/2 tsp. cayenne. (I use 1 tsp, but if you want them milder or hotter, use however much you like)

Pour the sugar mixture over the walnuts, along with 3 Tbsp. vegetable oil. Mix well.

Pour out onto a sheet pan, attempting to get them into a single layer. Bake at 350 for a half hour or so, stirring every 10-15 minutes. You want them pretty dark brown -- sometimes this seems to happen in about 25 minutes, and sometimes it takes a lot longer.

Remove from the oven and salt heavily. I think because of the sugar, they take more salt than other nuts. Let cool. (They're okay when warm, but not great. They need to cool to crisp up.)

They keep well -- you can freeze them for months -- and they're great in salads, too.

Janet, I want to make these this afternoon or evening. Grease the baking sheet or no?

[gini]

I've stopped before, but I always hit the same wall and I'm interested in how other foodies deal with this (smoking foodies). The problem is that evening meals are special events, for my partner and myself and most eGulleters. Whether we're eating out or cooking, we savor the experience, and like to do this with a well-matched wine. And the wine and food lead me to cigarettes. In fact, I don't usually have my first cigarette until 6 or 7 pm.

Sam

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Welcome Sam!

Here in Seattle you can't smoke in restaurants or bars so that cures half your problem. If you make a smoke outside rule at your house I'll bet that will cure the second half!

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What she said.

When I was living in Paris I doubled my smoking. There was also this hilarious moment in a bistro where my dining neighbor's smoke strated to waft over near me and mine over to him and we both looked at each other and laughed - we were getting second hand smoke from the next table over.

But I found that when I didn't let myself smoke inside, in restos or in bars, that standing outside in the snow was not so much fun anymore!

Try quitting in the winter - going outside at 7pm in the freezing cold to have a drag might jump start you. Also - I don't know if this will help you or not - but ask your partner to quit with you. There is strength in numbers!

[snowangel]

I'm finally back, and have been to the Asian market.

It's snowing like crazy and the roads are getting really slippery.

Big monkey wrench in my afternoon. My camera has died, and I suspect it is a battery issue. I'm trying to decide if I have enough time to run out and get one before the kids get home.

Actually, I really should just get the braise started and then go get a battery. So, I'm not going to be taking photos of the process. Marelene's will have to suffice.

Now, to get caught up.

[Abra]

Marlene, I'd use a Silpat, or at least buttered foil, for those nuts. With that sugar they're going to stick like a mother.

[Marlene]

Silipat makes sense. Remember I said 7 bags of chips? Ok, so two aren't showing in this pic. It didn't help that Lay's chips were on sale 3 for $5.00.

Another snack I really like when I have fresh crusty bread in the house is slices of bread with a nice olive oil and balsamic for dipping. This constituted lunch today.

Beef is braising. I confess, I've got it in the oven at 225. I promise Chufi, the liquid is barely moving, and I've got the lid a bit ajar. I had to go get Ryan and I have a total aversion to leaving an open flame going when I'm not in the house.

[snowangel]

No, it was not the camera battery. The Canon folks suspect that the mother board is fried. So, there will be no pics tonight. It's a PowerShot G1. I can trade it in, for $299, for a refurbished G6. Or, I can go shopping. Any thoughts? I seem to have some calamity during every blog. At least this wasn't a basement flood.

Meantime, I've gotten absolutely nothing done around the house, and am rapidly running out of time to do the braise. Better get cracking.

What I really want is a nice stiff drink and a cigarette.

[Jason Perlow]

No, it was not the camera battery.  The Canon folks suspect that the mother board is fried.  So, there will be no pics tonight.  It's a PowerShot G1.  I can trade it in, for $299, for a refurbished G6.  Or, I can go shopping.  Any thoughts?  I seem to have some calamity during every blog.  At least this wasn't a basement flood.

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The Powershot 620, which is a 7.1 Megapixel, has a street price of $350. Its the camera I currently use.

[Marlene]

I have this aversion to buying refurbished electronics. Seems to be you're spending $300 to buy someone else's problem. But then, it's been a while since I've been camera shopping.

This one is very similar to the one I'm using for the pics for this blog and it's $139.00. In fact, mine is an older version of this

If you really want to spend $300 you could consider this one. Canon

[Jason Perlow]

I have this aversion to buying refurbished electronics.  Seems to be you're spending $300 to buy someone else's problem.  But then, it's been a while since I've been camera shopping.

This one  is very similar to the one I'm using for the pics for this blog and it's $139.00.  In fact, mine is an older version of this

If you really want to spend $300 you could consider this one. Canon

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The A610 is the baby brother to the A620. Basically, the cameras are identical, but the A610 has only a 5 megapixel CCD whereas the A620 is a 7.1.

The Costco price is about par for the course in retail or mail order. Not everything they sell is a great deal -- in fact MOST of the stuff they sell the prices are about average. PCNation and Buydig.com have the A620 for less than $350.

Canon A620 on Froogle

[Marlene]

Yeah, I don't know all that much about cameras, but I do know she could get a better, new camera for the money they want for a refurbished one.

[Jason Perlow]

The refurb biz is complicated. I used to work for Canon, so I know that some items make sense to buy refurb and some do not, and as employees we got some pretty good deals from authorized shops that bought the refurb merchandise for resale -as- refurb merchandise. The more expensive items you can save a LOT of money by going with a refurb, like some of the high end lenses and manual pro level cameras (in the multi thousand dollar range) and digital photocopiers and things like that. Cheap consumer electronics makes no sense to buy refurb.

You also have to be careful from buying from the big retail camera stores, who will sell refurb merchandise as new. Its not as much of an issue with recent vintage models, but you'll find some stores who will sell a 2 or 3 year old model as brand new. With digital, its not as much as an issue anymore, but I remember a whole bunch of retail stores in the NY/NJ metro area who had their official Canon and Nikon reseller distributorships revoked for engaging in practices like that.

[Chufi]

Beef is braising.  I confess, I've got it in the oven at 225.  I promise Chufi, the liquid is barely moving, and I've got the lid a bit ajar.  I had to go get Ryan and I have a total aversion to leaving an open flame going when I'm not in the house.

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I think it'll be great..

I wish I didn't have to go to bed now.

But I must.

Happy braising Marlene and Susan!

[M.X.Hassett]

Great job everyone. Confession time Tue. I broke down and had 3 cigs after my palate shutdown after the Moet Hennessy Portfolio Tasting I did notice that my palate has slightly improved already, mostly on lighter floral notes. I still have not bought a pack and have been clean since Tue. Lets all hang in there.

[Toasted]

Everything looks great. I've been cooking up a storm too. Everything from potato salad to channa masala and then bananna bread. Keeps my mind off of smoking. It's been four days now and I'm doing ok. I haven't given in even once. However, I have been bitchy and I did search my summer pocketbooks on Wed. night just in case an old pack might of been left in there! God, I felt like such an addict. I feel much better today though. The best I've felt since I quit Sun. night. I feel better too- more energy and my cough is gone. Good luck to all the quitters. We can do it.

[snowangel]

Great job everyone. Confession time Tue. I broke down and had 3 cigs after my palate shutdown after the Moet Hennessy Portfolio Tasting I did notice that my palate has slightly improved already, mostly on lighter floral notes. I still have not bought a pack and have been clean since Tue. Lets all hang in there.

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Let's do hang in there. I've been a good girl since yesterday morning.

[snowangel]

Jason, on Saturday, I'm going to a camera store -- National Camera Exchange. They are very reputable and their prices are fair. One of the neat things is that the people there, unlike the people at Best Buy, are extremely familiar with all of the equipment, so I'll take a look around

I'm really sad about my PowerShot G1. I got it when it first came out (10/06, I think). 3.2 mp's. Something ridiculous like $1200. I guess it never occurred to me that these things would be sort of disposable. So, I'm going to do the internal debate of inexpensive (like under $200) or something a little better (like the A620). I've been spoiled with the G1 because although it is not an SLR, it can go very manual.

Any ideas for anything else I should be looking at? I could be pursuaded to go a bit over $300, but not much. I'm not working outside the home these days.

Today is not going my way. I was out of bay leaves, which I didn't realize until I started the braise, but I had to pick up Diana so stopped at the store.

Tomorrow, I'm going to meet up with my dad so I can borrow their camera until I figure out what to do. I don't want to do anything rash.

I'm so sad about my camera.

[Jason Perlow]

Jason, on Saturday, I'm going to a camera store -- National Camera Exchange.  They are very reputable and their prices are fair.  One of the neat things is that the people there, unlike the people at Best Buy, are extremely familiar with all of the equipment, so I'll take a look around

I'm really sad about my PowerShot G1.  I got it when it first came out (10/06, I think).  3.2 mp's.  Something ridiculous like $1200.  I guess it never occurred to me that these things would be sort of disposable.  So, I'm going to do the internal debate of inexpensive (like under $200) or something a little better (like the A620).  I've been spoiled with the G1 because although it is not an SLR, it can go very manual.

Any ideas for anything else I should be looking at?  I could be pursuaded to go a bit over $300, but not much.  I'm not working outside the home these days.

I did an awful lot of research when I bought the A620. It has more manual modes you can shake a stick at.

DPreview.com, which is probably the foremost digital camera review site, did a very comprehensive writeup on the A620 and gave it Highly Reccomended. Very few cameras get that level of endorsement from that site:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canona620/

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canona620/page14.asp

He also recently reviewed the brand new Canon S80 (which is also Digic-II based)and gave it "Highly recommended". It has 1MP more than the A620, however its macro mode is not as good, in fact he says its "mediocre". By comparison The A620 has 1 centimeter macro focus, which is ideal for food photography.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons80/page14.asp

[snowangel]

Thanks, Jason, for the links. I'm really, really leaning toward this camera. Let's move this discussion to a camera topic. Pick one and let me know!

Edited to add: I'm revising dinner plans for tonight. I got way too late a start on the braised beef. Stay tuned for details.

[Marlene]

Dinner tonight was Chufi's Butter Braised Beef. How can anything with that much butter possibly be bad? It wasn't. It was good.

I used blade steak cut into cubes.

I did use my Le Crueset braiser pan for both browning and braising. Starting out:

Once I got the hang of the browning thing, I got a nice browning effect on the beef (yes, I added more butter!)

I did start out braising on the stovetop, but as I had to go out and didn't really want to leave an open flame going, I popped it in the oven.

I braised it for 4 hours at 225.

it was decidedly tender and very buttery!

Served with mashed potatoes (excuse the crappy plating)

And peas! Yes, I know they're frozen. But they're green. And they count as a vegetable. (although WW in the days before the points system, made us count them as a starch. And now I'm really dating myself). Now I like my peas in a bowl, not on the plate. Why? well, because I like lots of butter with my peas, and by putting them in a bowl, the butter doesn't drain away all over the plate, and when you eat the peas in a bowl with butter you can get a bite of butter with every bite of peas!

Sorry, this bite shot's a little blurry:

I wanted to make JAZ's nuts as well so after dinner, I blanched and mixed up the nuts (I used walnuts with some pecan halves to appease the Southener in Dave)

These are just out of the oven and salted:

I had one warm and it was good. I think I might have gone a bit heavy on the cayenne though. I'm waiting till they cool down to really dig in.

Thanks to Janet and Chufi for the recipes!