Burgundy makes you think of silly things; Bordeaux makes you talk about them, and Champagne makes you do them.
~Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

More white, more chill, more raw drafts, more winter light, all with that sometimes dreaded V Day staring you down. So, don’t bring those cheesy dozen red roses home—instead, usher to the table a bodacious, succulent soul meant to warm your cockles. Peasant fare gone haute cuisine? Doubtful.

BOURGUIGNON D’AGNEAU (LAMB BOURGUIGNON)

1/2 lb thick bacon, cut into lardons (1/4″ x 1″)
1 T extra virgin olive oil

3 lbs lamb shoulder, cut into 2″ cubes, patted dry

1 medium carrot, peeled and thickly sliced
1 onion, peeled and thickly sliced
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
2-3 T all purpose flour

3 C dry red wine, such as a Côtes du Rhône or Pinot Noir
3 C beef stock
1 T tomato paste
3 plump, fresh garlic cloves, peeled and mashed
2 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf, crumbled

Braised onions
24 smaller white pearl onions
2 T butter
1 1/2 T extra virgin olive oil
1/2 C beef stock
Bouquet garni (parsley sprig, bay leaf, thyme sprigs, tied in cheesecloth)

Sautéed mushrooms
1 lb crimini mushrooms, quartered
2 T unsalted butter
1 T extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 450 F

Simmer lardons for 10 minutes in water, then drain and dry on paper towels. Sauté lardons in olive oil in a heavy large Dutch oven over low medium heat to lightly brown and crisp, about 2-3 minutes. Remove to a large side dish with a slotted spoon.

Heat lardon fat in same Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add lamb, well spaced, and sauté until nicely browned on all sides. Place the browned lamb in the dish with the lardons. Add the sliced carrots and onions to the same pot and brown, then pour out excess fat.

Return the lamb and lardons with the carrots and onions to the pot and season with salt and pepper. Then sprinkle with flour and toss again to coat the contents lightly. Set casserole uncovered in middle of preheated oven for 8 minutes, tossing once or twice.

Remove Dutch oven to stove top and reduce oven heat to 325 degrees.

Stir in wine and enough stock to barely cover the meat and vegetables. Add the tomato paste, garlic, thyme and bay leaf. Bring to a kind simmer on the stove top. Cover Dutch oven and set in lower third of oven. Again, bring to a gentle simmer until fork pierces meat easily, about 3-4 hours. While the beef is cooking, prepare the onions and mushrooms.

Braised onions
In a deep heavy skillet, heat 1 1/2 tablespoons butter with one and one-half tablespoons of the oil until bubbling in a skillet. Add onions and sauté over moderate heat for about 10 minutes, rolling them so they will brown as evenly as possible, remaining careful not to break the skins.

Add the stock, bouquet garni, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and simmer slowly for 40 to 50 minutes until the onions are perfectly tender but hold their shape, and the liquid has evaporated. Remove bouquet garni and set onions aside.

Sautéed mushrooms
Carefully wipe out skillet with paper towels and heat remaining oil and butter over medium high heat. Once butter has begun to bubble but not brown, add mushrooms. Toss until they brown lightly, about 4-5 minutes and then remove from heat.

When the meat is tender, pour the contents of the casserole into a sieve set over a saucepan in order to make a sauce. Wash out the casserole and return the beef and lardons to it. Distribute the cooked onions and mushrooms on top.

Skim fat off sauce in saucepan, and then simmer sauce for a couple of minutes, skimming off additional fat until reduced enough to coat a spoon. If too thin, boil it down rapidly. If too thick, whisk in a few tablespoons stock. Taste and if necessary, correct seasoning with salt and pepper.

Pour sauce over meat and vegetables. Cover and simmer 2 to 3 minutes, tossing and basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce several times.

Serve with potatoes or noodles, and topped with parsley.

Classical French cuisine, spanning the 19th and 20th century up to the birth of nouvelle cuisine, was characteristically defined by its sauces.  Sauces in French cuisine date back to the Middle Ages… and there were hundreds of them in the culinary repertoire.  In the 19th century the chef Antonin Careme classified them into four families, each based on a mother sauce.  These four sauces, or grandes sauces, were:

• Bechamel, based on milk and thickened with a white roux
• Espagnole, based on brown stock, usually veal, and thickened with a brown roux
• Veloute, based on a white stock and thickened with a white roux
• Allemande, based on veloute sauce and thickened with egg yolks and heavy cream

Chef Auguste Escoffier updated this classification in the early 20th century by adding sauces such as tomato sauce, butter sauces and emulsified sauces such as mayonnaise and hollandaise.

Sauces derived from one of the mother sauces is sometimes called a small sauce, or secondary sauce.  The most commonly used sauces in classical cuisine are secondary sauces since mother sauces are generally not served as  “stand alone” sauces.

As a student at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco Dayton was required to be both knowledgable and proficient in the preparation of both grandes sauces and their derivatives.  One of the sauces that he learned from the coterie of French chefs at the academy was demi-glace, a rich, glossy and intensely flavorful sauce prepared by hours of stock reduction.  The term demi-glace by itself implies that it is made with traditional veal stock.  The preparation in our kitchen, however, is a beef demi-glace, or demi-glace au boeuf.  We’ve found it impossible to find a purveyor of the veal bones necessary to make demi-glace but continue to be more than pleased with the rich and velvety texture and flavor of the demi-glace au boeuf that is derived from the beef bones we’ve been able to purchase through the meat departments of markets such as Whole Foods and Berkeley Bowl.

Be forewarned… making demi-glace at home is an extremely time consumptive proposition!  It requires many hours to roast the bones, slowly simmer the stock, strain the solids, skim the fat and then reduce the stock to its appropriate consistency.  However, the end result is more precious than gold and sumptuous to the palate as it is added in small quantities to sauces of all types.  It truly adds a higher dimension of flavor and distinction to even the most delicious of preparations!  Since a demi-glace or, in our kitchen, a demi-glace au boeuf is such an intense concentration of flavors it is always used sparingly in a dish, perhaps as little as a teaspoon… and rarely ever more than a tablespoon at a time.  A little goes a long way so the efforts to make it are rewarded for months and years before another batch needs to be prepared.  A great plus is that it keeps virtually indefinitely in the freezer.  We recently made another batch after not having to do so since the last batch was made five years ago!

The amount of the final product is dependent upon the size of the roasting pans and stock pots available in your kitchen.  We have two commercial 10 gallon stock pots and two large commercial roasting pans so we decided to make as much as we possibly could.  Our end result was appromimately 5 cups of intensely flavored demi-glace au boeuf, which we portioned into 2-oz containers and placed into the freezer for years of palate-pleasing pleasure!  Since our initial volume of liquids was large the process took three days from start to finish.  Know, however, that the preparation time depends on the amount of liquid that needs to be reduced so a lesser amount of liquid will require less time in its reduction.

Demi-Glace au Boeuf

Chef’s Note: The thirty pounds of beef bones and trimmings that we used because of the size of our roasting pans and stock pots is, unquestionably, daunting to most!  Therefore, we are additionally including a pared down version of Demi-Glace au Boeuf that is more approachable and manageable for the home chef… the technique is the same!

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Divide between two large roasting pans:

• 30 lbs beef bones with trimmings, particularly femurs and knuckles, if available

Chef’s Note:  Ask the butcher to cut the bones into small pieces with his meat saw… he’ll be glad to do it!

Roast for 1 hour, then add:

• 1 – 1 1/2 lb carrots, peeled and cut into 2″ – 3″ pieces

• 6 large yellow onions, unpeeled and quartered

• 1 bunch celery, leaves included, cut into 3″ – 4″ piece

• 4 heads of garlic, unpeeled and cut in half across the equator

Return to oven and roast an additional 1 hour, occasionally stirring the mixture as it roasts, then add:

• 2 8-oz cans tomato paste, 1 can for each roasting pan

Return to oven and roast an additional 1 hour… bones and vegetables will be very well-browned!

Transfer the bones and vegetables to the stock pots and deglaze the roastings pans with:

• 2 750 ml bottles of hearty red wine, 1 bottle for each roasting pan

Transfer the deglazed bits and wine to the stock pots.  To each pot add:

• 2 leeks, trimmed and coarsely chopped, greens included

• 1 bunch Italian parsley

• 3 – 4 fresh bay leaves

• 1 T whole black peppercorns
• 1 bunch fresh thyme

Heat a heavy 12-inch skillet over high heat.  Do not add oil.  Peel and cut in half at the equator:

• 1 large yellow onion

Stick each onion half with:

• 6 – 7 whole cloves

When the pan is sizzling hot add the onion, cut side down, and cook until caramelization and charring have taken place:

Add one half to each stockpot.  If you are utilizing one stock pot add both halves.  Fill the stock pots with water and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat so that the stock is barely bubbling:

Simmer for 24 – 36 hours, skimming to remove impurities as they rise, and adding water as necessary during the first 24 hours to keep the bones covered.

Chef’s Note:  With this large of a volume of liquid we allowed the pots to simmer overnight.  You can, alternately, turn the heat off at night, return it to a boil the next morning, reduce the heat and continue simmering and reduction.

 When reduced to the point that the bones are no longer submerged, remove the bones with a pair of tongs and discard.  Strain the liquids through a China cap, pressing on the solids with the back of a ladle to remove as much stock as possible.  Discard the solids and allow the stock to rest so that the fat rises to the surface.  De-fat the stock.

Chef’s Note:  At this point you have a wonderful, rich beef stock that can be used for sauces and dishes such as French onion soup.  It also freezes well for future use.

Strain through a fine sieve and return the de-fatted stock to a clean stock pot, bringing it to a simmer.  Reduce heat and continue reduction, skimming off impurities as necessary, until thick and syrupy, an additional 8 – 10 hours.  It is ready when glossy and coats the back of a spoon.  While warm portion it into small containers and refrigerate or freeze.  It keeps well when refrigerated, about six months and, as mentioned earlier, almost indefinitely when frozen.

For those who have smaller stock pots, roasting pans and oven space but are willing and wanting to prepare this incredible sauce, follow this scaled down version!

- Demi-Glace au Boeuf -

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  In a roasting pan place:

• 6 lb beef bones and trimmings

Roast for 1 hour then add:

• 2 medium yellow onions, unpeeled and quartered
• 2 medium carrots, cut into 2″ – 3″ lengths
• 2 celery stalks, leaves included, cut into 3″ – 4″ pieces
• 1 head of garlic, unpeeled and cut in half at the equator
• 2 fresh bay leaves

Roast for an additional 1 hour, occasionally stirring the bones and vegetables as they roast, then add:

• 4 T tomato paste

Return to oven and roast for an additional 45 minutes – 1 hour.  Transfer the roasted bones and vegetables to a 3-gallon stock pot.  Deglaze the roasting pan with:

• 1 1/2 C dry red wine

Transfer the deglazed brown bits and the wine to the stock pot and add:

• 1 leek, trimmed and coarsely chopped, green parts included
• 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
• 7 – 8 sprigs of parsley
• 3 -4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1/2 medium yellow onion with 6 – 7 whole cloves, caramelized and charred as above

Fill the stock pot with water and bring the stock to a boil over moderately high heat.  Reduce to a simmer, skimming off fat and impurities as they rise.  Simmer for 8 – 12 hours, adding water as necessary to keep the bones covered.  Remove the bones and strain the liquid through a China cap, pressing on the solids with the back of a ladle to capture all of the stock.  Discard the solids and allow the stock to rest, permitting the fat to rise.  De-fat the stock and return it to a clean stock pot or large saucepan.  Bring the strained stock to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer.  Continue to simmer, skimming often, until a gallon of stock remains, approximately 8 – 10 hours.  Strain once again and return the stock to a clean saucepan.  Simmer until the demi-glace au boeuf is thick, syrupy and glossy.  Yield will be approximately 1 – 1 1/2 cups.  Refrigerate.

Use creatively!  It truly does add great new dimensions of flavor to many dishes.  Demi-glace can be found at upscale markets and on-line as well.  It is very expensive but well worth the extra dollars for that exceptional dish that calls for it if you choose not to make your own.  We use it often and will be including it in upcoming preparations… Bon Appetit!

Copyright 2010 Via Aurea Designs, Inc., All Rights Reserved

One of my favorite classes to teach…The Secrets to Making Nutrient-Dense Stock…! I’ll be teaching tomorrow night, Thursday, January 28 in Alexandria, VA. Why do I love STOCK? It is nutritious, delicious, grounding, nourishing and nurturing. It is also a protein-sparer…which means one needs to eat less protein when you cook with STOCK. It is also chock full of easily absorbed MINERALS, which every body needs. And it is a wonderful way to make use of all the bones you have…an act in sustainability. STOCK made well is the foundation of good soups, sauces, and gravies. It is one of the first foods I suggest to moms when weaning their little ones.

Rich gelatin from beef stock made well.

You need good bones to make good STOCK…don’t try to make it from bones produced from cows on feedlots, or chickens in battery cages. First of all, it won’t work. Second of all, it won’t be nutrient-dense! Meat and bones from animals in CAFOs are nutritionally inferior. Perhaps most important, STOCK is healing food. One cannot get healing food from animals that were treated with antibiotics or hormones, or fed the wrong food, or, just plain not treated well.

Hope to see you in Alexandria. If you would like to register, go to the page that lists the Class Schedule for 2010.

Happy and Healthy eating!

beef tallow-a healthy fat to cook with!

This thought just came to me…why are you doing this? What person strives to become a chef by themselves…I have books but not the classroom to learn in…it’s darn near close to having the hamburger but no helper! Tragic.  (side note, why is it that he only has 4 fingers? think about it..get back to me) Of course this self-pity party only lasted a few short seconds and then in the words of Cher to Nicholas Cage I told myself to “snap out of it!”  School can teach me technique but not passion. So I press on…joyfully. Upcoming homework you ask:  Real bonifide chicken stock ( ok I’ve already done beef stock, but I have this great recipe and homemade chicken stock will truly set it off). For dessert..chocolate fudge marble bundt cake!  Jealous…you should be

(Chicken stock for the day:  Chicken, water, onions, celery, carrots, thyme, black peppercorns, and parsley stems)

While in culinary school and at work I have learned how important making stock is. Chicken, Beef, Veal, Vegetable and just about any other meat if you want to give it a go.  Whichever you choose it’s a great way to save money while increasing the flavor of your dishes.

A stock is usually made with the bones of meat with some vegetables and herbs/spices added to the mix.  The classic beef stock consists of beef bones that are roasted then a mirepoix is added (celery, carrots, onion) and caramelized then a bunch of water is added and the stock will cook for 8-12 hours. The same thing is done with chicken minus the caramelization of the vegetables and roasting (unless you’re Eric Ripert, he roasts the chicken…that’s why he’s awesome).  The herbs are debatable and most consist of thyme, bay leaf, and pepper….of course additions and subtractions can be made.  (Oh if you’re curious, a broth is made by using the meat and the bones).

So why is this stock so important?  I like to think of a stock as a great way to dispose of odds and ends in your kitchen. Restaurants have standards and want to keep their stocks tasting the same way every time because those stocks will later go into soups, sauces, or braising liquids but you don’t have to do this at home.   Have a few extra mushrooms that aren’t enough to put into a meal? Throw them into the stock!  Fresh herbs starting to look a little less than perfect? Walk the plank! I like to treat my stocks at home like a little garbage disposal.  Why throw a lot of that stuff into a compost bin, trash, or let it spoil?  Put it into a stock, you paid for the food so eat it!!

At home I make stocks on Wednesday and Thursday’s.  The beef ones I let sit overnight in a rather large stock pot.  I will start the chicken when I get home then cool down and bag before I go to sleep. A vegetable stock takes about 45 minutes so that’s easy! Make stock, stop throwing your food away, eat it! When a recipe asks for water 9 times out of 10 you can use stock to create something more flavor.

A few tips for making a stock at home:

1. Skim the fat as it rises to the top
2. Do not let it boil, a little bit of steam coming out of the pot is perfect
3. Do not stir it, this will give you a cloudy stock.
4. More tips/recipes here (click)

Right now I am making a stock that will go into a braised chicken recipe and then tomorrow I will take more stock and make a potato and leek soup.

There will be lots more coming up on this blog throughout the week for Hunger Action Week so stay tuned. If you like what’s going on here or even if you don’t and you hate me then just forget about that and donate to the United Way of King County.  My words, pictures, and recipes don’t matter. Making sure someone has something to eat for their next meal is important, you can help.

United Way of King County (click here)

Warning:  this method may upset some sauce purists.  But this is the way I learned it, and a subsequent taste testing with a classically prepared version decided what I thought instinctively when I saw the classic method as laid out by the master, Escoffier:

1. Make sauce espagnole by sweating mirepoix in fat, preferably clarified butter.  Add flour and cook to make a brown roux, stir in tomato paste to add colour and rich flavour.  Add brown veal stock and boil, then reduce to a SLOW simmer for 1-1.5 hours, allowing the sauce to reduce.  Skim occasionally to remove impurities.  Strain through a conical strainer lined with several layers of cheesecloth.
2. Combine 1 part sauce espagnole and 1 part brown veal stock and reduce by half.

Voilà, your demi-glace is ready!  It should be lump free, a glossy dark brown, and thick without being pasty.  (Yawn…)

Compare that with what Chef P taught us:

1. Reduce a high-quality brown stock by half.

Voilà, your demi-glace is ready!  It is ALWAYS lump free,  glossy dark brown, and thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.  It makes a contemporary, rich flavourful base with a lighter mouth-feel than the version above.

What are your instincts saying?

I used some of my demi to make this pink peppercorn diablo sauce — add crushed black & pink peppercorns and minced shallot to white wine.  Reduce by two-thirds over medium-high; strain.  Combine reduction with demi-glace and reduce to coat the back of a spoon.  Remove from heat, season with s+p and cayenne to taste and finish with a pat of butter for some last minute thickening and gloss.  I served it over grilled lamb chops, with braised endive and horseradish mash.

Then, in what only be called a HERCULEAN effort at the end of a very long day of stock making, I reduced the remaining demi-glace by half again, resulting in a lustrous, gelatin-packed glace de viande.  I covered it very tightly and put it in the fridge to await it’s final fate.  I think it knows what’s coming, though;  it literally quivers with fear when I open the door.

Ya’ll know that Thomas Keller is  my new boyfriend. Ever since Mark gave me his new cookbook,  Ad Hoc, for Christmas, I’ve been spending hours and hours with him. And, let me tell you, he’s not a cheap date. So, the other day I decided to make his Braised Beef Short Ribs recipe. That was after I spent two days making his beef stock because the recipe calls for five cups of it.

Let me pause here to say that at the end of the post I’m going to pass along a way to take Thomas’s rather complicated and time-consuming recipe and dumb it down for people like me who don’t have seven hours to make supper.

So you start, or rather Thomas starts, with a red wine reduction. The recipe requires you to dump one 750-milliliter bottle of dry red wine into your pot. This almost killed me as it goes totally against my nature as a girl who loves her wine. But I did it anyway. Then you add onions, carrots, leeks, shallots, mushrooms, garlic and a bunch of herbs and you cook it for almost an hour until it reduces to a thick glaze.

This is all you get after an hour. And this is not even to mix up with the meat. This is to go under the meat. Not to mention the fact that you throw away all the vegetables. After you brown the short ribs, you then mix up more onions, carrots, leeks, garlic and herbs with the wine reduction.  There is barely enough reduction to coat one carrot. You put the vegetables in the bottom of a Dutch oven, cover them with cheesecloth and lay the meat on top. You lay the meat on top. Not touching the wine reduction. Not touching the wine reduction that it took you an hour and $27 to make.

Then you add the five cups of beef stock that it took two days to make and you cover it with a parchment paper lid and braise the ribs for another two hours.

They were utterly delicious. However, I don’t know if they were seven hours worth of deliciousness. But I will make them again with some slight and lazy modifications. I will know how little meat a short rib has on it and find some more meaty specimens, probably at a local butcher rather than the grocery store. I will skip the whole red wine reduction entirely and drink a couple glasses instead. (I have a refrigerator magnet that says: “I love cooking with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.” That’s pretty much how I feel about the subject.) I will brown the short ribs, put them in the pot, add about 1/2 cup of wine, the beef broth, some aromatics like carrots and onions,  and herbs. I will use that parchment lid. That was a neat idea and it kept everything very moist.

I will celebrate the fact that Thomas Keller wants us to go the extra mile and produce as closely as possible his extraordinary food. But I’m not a very good girlfriend. I like him. He’s a great guy. I’m just not ready to go steady yet.

I’m sure this isn’t the last you’ll hear from me on the subject, but this is just to close out my recent rants about the bad habits of restaurant employees out there everywhere.

If you need a recap, here’s how it panned out on my end…

• A little background on my shellfish allergy before I write my next rant of a blog… • December 30, 2009 • 5 Comments
• Don’t ever eat anything anywhere anytime. •December 31, 2009 • 4 Comments
• More shocking & disguting revelations from your serving staff… •January 4, 2010 • 10 Comments

Admittedly, I was just “going off” in reaction to the mentioned articles, but it doesn’t excuse any of the deplorable actions described within.  I really appreciate the blog hits, feedback, & discussion on the issue… whether it was here on this blog, or via Facebook, Twitter, Pittsburgh Beat, or whatever venue a link was pimped upon.

In the last blog, I was tagged and deemed it by an entertaining blogger  named Charity that sits on the server side of the fence, and some things were explained to me.  She was one of the ones quoted in my rants, although she wasn’t confessing to disgusting behavior, just complaining about customers (which she has every right to do).  Apparently I’m adorable in a “oh my, isn’t he so naive” kind of way.  I commented there, really saying all I have to say on the subject for now.  I even saw a few encouraging words from another commenter, teleburst, who provided some cool links to his blog on being more accommodating to customers with special dietary needs.  Let’s hope he does eventually blog about allergies!

I love the blogs about how to be a better customer that are out there… I wouldn’t imagine that people would actually do some things like share drinks with free refills or leave a mess after their kid makes one…  But I guess it’s happening out there everywhere.

I know I mentioned discussing tips, but the mood has passed for now… I’m sure I’ll dive into it someday.  I need to do another goofy W(aL)D post soon.  Hits have been skyrocketing for my Sprint Short Codes post, there’s apparently still a problem that Sprint refuses to admit!  Oh well, until next time… Remember to tip your servers at least 20% for good service, unless they slip you some regular instead of decaf or beef stock when they tell you it’s vegetable stock.

]]> http://simplybeingwell.com/2010/01/02/upcoming-classes-january-and-february-2010/ Sat, 02 Jan 2010 02:40:01 +0000 simplybeingwell http://simplybeingwell.com/2010/01/02/upcoming-classes-january-and-february-2010/

Hello all,

Just wanted to let you know about the classes I will be teaching in January and February.

I will kick off the year with a  Lacto-fermentation class in Reston on Thursday, January 7, 7-9:30pm…a Secrets to Making Nutrient-Dense Stock class on Thursday, January 28, same time, in Alexandria. On Saturday, Feb 6, I will be teaching my NEW TECHNIQUES for Soaking Beans and Whole Grains class and on the 27, it will be a REAL Condiments (Lacto-fermented, of course!) class in Alexandria. For details on what the classes will cover and to register, see my SCHEDULE OF CLASSES page.

I look forward to cooking with some of you very soon! All the best to you for a wondrous, wonder-full, delightful, abundant, joyous and deliciously healthy 2010!

“I feel like I’m married to Thomas Keller,” I said to Mark after an eleven-hour day cooking from Ad Hoc. “You’re not married to Thomas Keller,” he said. “You’re just fooling around with him.”

This is Thomas Keller. He runs several restaurants, including the family-style Ad Hoc. He is universally considered the best chef in the world…in the world. And he wrote a book for home cooks. So I was more than excited when I got it for Christmas.

But the man is killing me. Killing me! The first thing I wanted to make was beef short ribs. But in order to make the beef short ribs, you really must make beef stock because store bought wouldn’t really do the dish justice. So yesterday I made beef stock according to Thomas Keller. This required, first, an early morning trip to the farmer’s market in freezing cold for beef bones because where else can you even find beef bones? The recipe says they should be meaty. I don’t know if these were or not but they were the only beef bones within 150 miles of Nashville.

So I get the beef bones home and put them in the oven to roast. This takes about an hour, during which my oldest friend, Stacy, calls from Chicago. We commiserate about our two sons going off the college next year and the fact that we are not ready to cut those apron strings. Just a few short years ago, when we had to bribe them with M&Ms to go Number Two in the potty, were were more than willing to let them go. But now, we’re not so sure. While I am talking to Stacy, I am cradling the phone on my shoulder as I repeatedly turn the bones to achieve  a uniform, dark color as steam gushes from the oven.

I, of course, haven’t read ahead in the recipe and realize that it calls for using both a conical strainer and cheesecloth. I have neither of these. So after the bones brown and I have them simmering away in a huge pot (never boil stock or it will become cloudy, heaven forbid), I run to the mall in search of strainer and cheesecloth. On the day after Christmas. What an idiot.

I secure said strainer and cloth from Williams-Sonoma in exchange for Noah’s first semester of tuition in college. It is now about 2 p.m. The recipe calls for simmering the stock for five hours, then adding the aromatic vegetables and simmering it for another hour. And, bear in mind, this is just one ingredient for another recipe.

So, here’s the stock simmering away. I will admit I did get a good long session of Farm Town in while I was waiting the six hours for the stock to be done. Finally, it was time to turn off the stove because you have to let the stock rest. I can assure you that by this time I was more pooped than the stock.

Ta-da! Here it is. Strained twice through the platinum strainer and designer cheesecloth. By now, it is eight o’clock at night. I started this at nine in the morning. Thomas Keller is killing me. This is not home cooking. But I did realize as I labored through this that I learned at least three techniques I’ll use a lot in my cooking. And maybe that’s the real lesson here. Plus, I got enough stock for the short rib recipe with some left over for other uses.

I freeze it in increments of one cup in freezer bags. And realize after all this that I’m not even hungry. I eat some cheese and crackers. I’m sure Thomas Keller is dining on those short ribs right now and he’s not even giving me a second thought. How cruel.

My family doesn’t eat a lot of beef so it is a treat to have a nice beef roast for Christmas dinner. I can’t remember where I found this recipe but it is fantastic so I wanted to share it with my foodie friends in case you want to give it a try for your Christmas dinner. I apologize that I don’t have a picture of the finished roast but this is so good that I didn’t want you to miss out on it and I won’t be fixing it until Christmas day. I did find a picture of a top loin of beef roast, though, so you can see what the cut looks like. It is the piece of beef from which New York Strip (or Kansas City Strip) steaks are cut. It’s a very tender cut of beef and cooks relatively quickly because of its flat thin shape. I highly recommend that you use a meat thermometer so that you don’t over cook it. I tend to roast it to 135 degrees internal temperature. The ends of the roast will be more done than the center so pieces can be cut to suit everyone’s taste. I am also including the au jus recipe that I use. Between the herbs on the roast and the wine in the sauce you end up with a wonderful au jus!

Whole Top Loin of Beef

Ingredients
1- 8 to 10 lb. whole top loin of beef
balsamic vinegar for brushing

Herb and Garlic Paste
2 T. minced garlic
2 T. chopped fresh thyme
1 T. chopped fresh rosemary
2-3 T. salt
1-2 t. freshly ground pepper
1 T. olive oil

Combine the paste ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

Au Jus
4 C. beef stock
1 C. red wine
1 lg. shallot, sliced thin

Mix the au jus ingredients together and set aside.

Mix together 1 T. cornstarch with 2 T. cold water. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Brush the balsamic vinegar all over the roast. Lay it fat side up on a rack in a shallow roasting pan. It must be on a rack so the roast stays out of the au jus. Coat the top, ends, and sides of the roast with the herb paste. Carefully pour the au jus mixture into the bottom of the roasting pan (don’t pour it over the beef). Place the roast in the middle of the oven and roast for 15 minutes. Turn the oven down to 350 degrees and continue roasting for 45-50 minutes more. After about 35 minutes, begin to the check the internal temperature in the thickest part with an instant read meat thermometer. Remove roast from oven when the meat thermometer reads 115-120 degrees for rare meat, 125-130 degrees for med-rare or 130-140 degrees for medium. Cover the roast loosely with foil & let rest for 15-25 minutes so the meat juices and internal temperature can equilibrate. Meanwhile pour the au jus from the roasting pan into a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Stir the cornstarch mixture into the hot au jus. Stir until thickened slightly.

Stock is a very important part of cooking because it’ll enhance the taste of a dish, sauce or soup.  I usually make a big pot and use smaller containers to store it in my freezer for future use.   I don’t put any salt in my stock so you can adjust the taste during your cooking process.

Ingredients: 

Beef neck or hip bone (with cartilage and meat attach to it)                       10 lbs

ask your butcher to cut it up to big pieces

Meat from Chuck or blade (big pieces)                                                                     4 lbs

Aromatic vegetables:

Garlic                                                                                                                                ½ cloves

Sweet onion                                                                                                                   1x

Leek                                                                                                                                  1x

Carrot                                                                                                                               2x

Red pepper                                                                                                                     1x

Fennel                                                                                                                               1x

Shallot                                                                                                                               6x

Italian parsley                                                                                                               1 bunch

Celery                                                                                                                                4 stocks

Bouquet Garni                                                                                                            2 bunches

Bouquet Garni is a bouquet of cooking herbs : thyme, oregano, savory, enveloped with bay leaves and attached by a small string.

You can buy from O & CO through mail order or from their retail locations.

http://www.oliviersandco.com/FO/

Pre heat oven to 450ºF and roast the bone and meat for an hour or until brown.  Take it out and let it cool off for a few minutes.

Under high heat on the stove, use a big pot (20 liters) & pour ½ cup of olive oil in it.  Cut up all the above vegetables and put it in the pot.  Gently stir it constantly until it begins to caramelize (natural sugar from vegetable turn brown and becomes sweet).  Use ¾ bottle of red wine to deglaze (a process using a liquid to remove cooked-on residue from a pan/pot).  When you can smell the alcohol is no longer in the liquid, pour about 15 liters of water in the pot.  This procedure would add intense flavor to the stock.  When you see the water is boiling, put it beef bones and meat to the liquid and turn heat down to medium low.  Let it simmer for at least six hours under low heat.  Skim all the fat from the surface and use a colander to filter out everything and drain the liquid to another container.  After the stock is completely cool off, transfer it to smaller boxes for storage in freezer. 

For Chicken stock: 

Replace beef with two to three stewing hens (each one should weight about three to four lbs)  and a white win to deglaze and follow the same procedure through out. 

For vegetable stock: 

Just triple the amount vegetable and use a white wine to deglaze.   

Note:  Please feel free not to use any wines to deglaze if you are a religious person or having wine allergy.

I love this meal – it takes along time to cook and tastes incredible.  It actually improves with time so that on day 3, the flavor is better.  I’ll make it on a Sunday, put it in the fridge, then eat it on Wednesday. This is my first shot at reducing the serving size.  Generally it was pretty damn good except too salty.  I left notes about future changes as I perfect the recipe for 1-2 servings.

TIME
I started about 11am and had the casserole in the oven by noon.  That includes prep and the initial cooking.  The casserole then cooked in the oven for 3 hours.  Prepping and preparing the final veggies was 15 minutes.

INGREDIENTS (shopping for the ingredients)

• 2 oz bacon (I did 2 slices but it should be 3)
• 1/2 lb beef stew meat (*don’t* use lean meat)
• 1/2 small yellow onion, diced
• 2 tsp flour (I used all purpose)
• 1/4 tsp pepper (I use tellicherry)
• 1 tsp salt (way too much, 1/4 next time) – I use Baleine fine sea salt.
• 1 cup young red wine (should have been 1.5 cups) – I used a pinot noir
• 1 cup beef stock (should have been 1.5 cups)
• 1.5 tsp tomato paste
• 1 clove garlic, mashed
• 1/2 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped (try upping to 1 tsp)
• 1 carrot, julienned
• 4 oz pearl onions
• 2 oz chanterelles mushrooms (I used crimini but a wild chanterelle is better)
• 3/4 tsp butter (up to 1 tsp next time)
• parsley sprig for garnish

PREP (about 15 minutes)
I chopped the bacon into ½” wide slices down the length of the bacon.   Next I chopped the onions pretty casually because I know they’re going to get dissolved in the cooking, so why be pretty?  Then I dice half the carrot –it’ll bake in the stew.  I’ll add the other half of the carrot toward the end of the recipe so it’ll have a crispiness.  Finally, I chop the beef stew meat into 1” cubes – nothing perfect because these suckers are going to melt away.  Just want to have a size that is edible in a bite.  I rinse off any blood and then dry the meat with paper towels so that they don’t have a watery sheen.  That helps the meat to brown better.  I mash the garlic clove.  Finally, I finely chop the rosemary.
I’m going to wait to do the mushrooms and pearl onions until later because it’ll be hours before I add them.

COOKING (about 45 minutes)
I’m going to try browning the beef by putting it in the oven.  Usually, I brown it on the stovetop.  So, I preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  I cook the bacon in the casserole pan on medium until it starts to brown – about 10-12 minutes.  I occasionally stir to make sure the bacon doesn’t crisp on one side.  I’m getting the oil fat out of the bacon without crisp frying it.  Oh, that smells good.
I remove the bacon with a slotted spoon, shaking off the bacon fat so it stays in the pan and not on the bacon.  I turn up the heat to medium high and when the bacon fat is just smoking, I brown the beef on all sides, a few pieces at a time.  Don’t put them all in at once – leaving space allows for better browning.  I remove the pieces to a plate as they are cooked.
Turns out I don’t have enough fat left over to cook the vegetables, so I add 1 tbsp of olive oil to the now empty pot, reduce heat to medium and sauté the veggies until wilted – 3-5 minutes – stirring occasionally to keep them from burning.
Then comes the ‘oops’.  I return the beef and bacon to the pan without taking out the veggies.  I meant to take out the veggies and put them aside while I bake the floured meats.  Anyhow, let’s see how it goes with the ‘oops’.
I add the salt, pepper and flour to the whole shebang, toss to coat it and then stick it in the oven, uncovered, on the middle rack, for 4 minutes.   I stir the veggies and meats around a bit and then return the casserole to the oven for another 4 minutes.
I take out the casserole and turn the oven down to 325 degrees.  The meat looks shiny, likes there’s a glaze on it.
Next: the wet part.  I add the tomato paste, rosemary, wine and beef broth.  The point is to cover the meat in wet, so if your meat is not covered (probably your pan is wider than mine), then add more broth.  Bring to a boil, cover and then put in the bottom third of the oven.    Ouch!  I burned myself moving the oven racks around…I think its time to drink the rest of the wine.

OVEN TIME
After 1 hour, I take a look at the casserole and it looks like its cooking down too quickly so I turn the temperature down to 275.
After 2 ½ hours, I look at the casserole again and the liquid has all but reduced to a goo.  I’m hungry (the smell is amazing) so I take a bite.  The flavor is intense – almost too intense.  Also, the beef is not quite done enough for my tastes.  So, I deglaze the pan:  I put the casserole back on the stove, add one cup of broth and scrape the bottom for all the goodies, bring the liquid to a boil without the cover (meanwhile scraping some more), then return the covered casserole to the oven again.
The casserole is in the oven for 3-4 hours until the meat falls apart.  You can tell when a fork can easily pierce the beef.  The slow cooking is what makes the connective tissue in the meat fall apart, so be patient.

STRAINING
To strain or not to strain – that is the question.  So, I’m doing an experiment where I split the casserole in half once its out of the oven.  One part I will strain and the other I won’t.  I hear the taste of the unstrained casserole will have a greasy taste.
To Strain: I separate the liquid from the solids by pouring the ingredients through a strainer and into a sauté pan.  I carefully scrape off the fat.  There wasn’t much fat so I let the liquid cool in order to separate the fat from the liquid.  That didn’t produce much.  So, I simmered the liquid to see if the fat rose to the top.  Not much.
My opinion – it wasn’t worth the time and energy.   There was a little less visible fat but not enough to change the taste.  I’ll skip the straining in the future.

PREPARING THE VEGGIES (15 minutes)
Next I cook the final veggies.  I boil the julienned carrots and pearl onions together for about 6 minutes.  Meanwhile I sauté the mushrooms in butter over medium heat, stirring occasionally.  I like to cook them enough so that the water in them evaporates – you get a more intense mushroom flavor.  I put the onions and carrots into a strainer and run cold water over them for a minute or so to cool them down.  Then I add them to the casserole, stirring them in over medium heat for about 5 minutes to warm them up.

DINING
The casserole is a beautiful velvety stew with meat that falls apart and a really intense flavor.  A little too salty but I’ll fix that next time.  I sat down at the table with a glass of the same pinot noir with which I cooked.   A baguette soaked up the sauce so nothing was left.  I add a little parsley to complete the visuals.  Perfect.

ALTERNATIVES

• Carrots sauteed in butter as a side dish instead of adding them at the end.
• Rice or mashed potatoes instead of a baguette

LEARNINGS

• Reduce salt to 1/4 tsp
• Add a 3rd slice of bacon to recipe
• Add about a cup more liquid from the beginning?
• Cook at 275 instead of 325 the whole time
• Deglaze at some point, probably around 1 ½ – 2 hours
• Only needs to cook 2-3 hours
• Don’t need to strain

Thoughts for format/layout:

I think I may need a different format going forward a la Cooks magazine – here’s what I did, here’s the outcome and here’s the best ‘Dine for One’ approach.  Need to figure out how to add this ingredients list as a side column as well as something that can be printed.

Going to turn most of that stock into a demi and already have a glace working with the glace foie sauce. English, do you speak it?!?!?! hahaah.

Eric

Onion soup is really all about how much time you’re willing to spend on it. Sure, you can get away with cooking the onions for 20-30 minutes, as so many restaurants do, but you’ll definitely notice. The onions will have a little crunch in the them, the soup might seem artificially sweet and the broth will be a bit watery.

So it should be said right away, don’t bother making this dish unless you’re willing to put in some time. Luckily, all the hard work gets done at the beginning when you’re slicing the onions. Everything after that is really just a matter of letting the ingredients shine on their own. Given their proper opportunity, the onions will be wonderfully sweet, the broth light but flavorful and, if I do say so myself, as good of an onion soup you’ll find this side of Les Halles (from where I adopted this recipe via Anthony Bourdain).

I chose to make the broth from scratch — and I’ll include my recipe — but I think you could get away with using one of the better premade brands (I’m a big fan of Whole Foods’ broths).

Ingredients

• One stick of butter (if you’re looking to cut sodium, I felt the no salt variety worked just fine)
• 2 red onions, thinly sliced
• 2 sweet onions (Mayan, Maui, Vidalia and Walla Walla are all wonderful examples), thinly sliced
• 3 brown onions, thinly sliced
• 2oz port wine
• 2oz balsamic vinegar
• 2 quarts stock (I used beef and that’s the traditional way, but substituting a dark chicken broth or even vegetable broth would probably work just fine)
• 4oz slab bacon, cubed (regular bacon would probably work fine, but you won’t get those nice cubes)
• 1 bouquet garni (mine consisted of cilantro sprigs, peppercorns, a bay leaf, rosemary and thyme)
• Mozzarella cheese and a crusty bread for topping

Instructions

In a large stock pot or dutch oven, melt the stick of butter over medium-high heat. Once it starts to brown, add the sliced onions, cover and sprinkle in some salt. It will probably seem like there’s more onions than can possibly cook, but with some stirring you should be able to coat all the onions in butter. Within several minutes, they’ll have started to reduce enough really start browning them. Remove the lid. This is where most onion soups succeed or fail. Either you’re patient and you let the onions cook down until they are sweet, probably more than an hour, or you move ahead before the sugars have been fully extracted.

In any case, after about an hour, the onions will resemble a brown-hued mess (see above). Give ‘em a taste. They should be sweet.

Once they’ve reached your desire of sweetness, add the balsamic and port. Let this cook for a couple minutes.

Add the stock, cubed bacon and bouquet garni. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, cooking uncovered for another 45 minutes to an hour. Remove the bouquet garni.

At this point, the soup can be served immediately or can be saved.

Service

In oven-proof bowls, add a thick slice of bread and cover it with cheese (mozzarella works great, but Gruyère is more authentic). Put the bowl under a broiler (I used my toaster oven) and allow the cheese to brown. You should get at least eight sizable bowls out of this.

How much time are we talking about: If you don’t make the stock, I’d set aside at least a couple hours to let this soup cook correctly, maybe as much as three. Like I said, though, the only heavy lifting is the slicing of the onions. The rest of it is just checking and stirring.

How much this will set you back: Seven onions, $3 ($.40); 2 quarts stock, $4 ($.50), 4oz bacon, $2 ($.25); loaf of bread, $4 ($.50); miscellaneous items, $4 ($.50). Total: $17 ($2.15).

Instructions for stock

4 lb beef bones (make sure they have marrow), 2 roughly chopped carrots, one roughly chopped onion, one roughly chopped celery stalk, bouquet garnit. In a 400-degree oven, roast the beef bones and onions on a lightly oiled cookie sheet for 45 minutes, flipping in order make sure all sides of the bones are browned. In a large pot, preferably about 8 quarts, add the bones, onions, carrots, celery and bouquet garnit. Cover with water. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for about four hours.

Remove the solids. Strain through a cheese-cloth and refrigerate. Once liquid has cooled, remove the fat that has solidified at the top of the container.

Yeah, puns are absolutely hillarious. Got to love them.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted up a blog, and I’m sorry, that is incredibly rude of me, and I do apologise. My only excuse is that I’ve been rather pre-occupied with various other projects as of late, and I apologise profusely!!

Right then, I’ll upload a few new recipes over the next few days, I’m still sans-camera, so you’ll have to imagine what the food looks like yourself, but trust me, I won’t post anything on here if it’s not delicious!

A few weeks ago I nipped down to my local Morrissons with £2 to get something to eat for my tea, expecting to maybe pick up a pack of pasta and some sauce, or something equally uninspiring, imagine the surprise when I saw in the reduced section of the supermarket diced venison for only 99p. I rubbed my eyes and looked again, it was still 99p. It still had a week and a half before it reached it’s used by date too!! As you can imagine, I snapped it up, and picked up a leek and some mushrooms whilst I was at it… I had the rest of the ingredients I would need for a delicious Venison and Red Pepper Stew at home! Here we go then!!

Venison and Red Pepper Stew

(Serves 2 as a main meal)

Ingredients:

• 300g diced venison
• 2tbsp flour
• 2tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 red peppers
• 1 leek
• 2 large field mushrooms
• 250ml beef stock
• 250ml red wine
• Sprig of thyme

Method:

1. Pat diced venison dry with kitchen paper and toss with flour.
2. Heat olive oil in a casserole dish and quickly brown the venison all over.
3. Add sliced onion and crushed garlic clove until golden.
4. Add finely sliced red pepper, sliced leek and sliced field mushrooms, and cook until vegetables start to soften.
5. Pour in the beef stock and red wine, bring to the boil, cover and then leave to simmer gently for about 2 hours, or until the venison is tender.
6. Alternatively simmer in the oven at 160C/Gas Mark 3 for the same amount of time.
7. Top up with extra stock or water as necessary.
8. Serve with mash and steamed brocolli.

I’d recommend drinking this with the same wine that you put in, or a nice ruby ale!

WHAT??  I can’t believe it’s already the end of the first quarter of culinary school!  It seems like just yesterday we were sitting through entire classes devoted to nothing but Stock.  And now here we are, showing off our shiny new skills with the quintessentially French Boeuf Bourguignon (of Julie and Julia fame).  Boeuf Bourguignon is a country food that uses tough cuts of beef and makes them tender by searing and then cooking for several hours with red wine (traditionally Burgundy) and brown stock.  Throw in some bacon, mushrooms, pearl onions, carrots, and herbs, and let it simmer in the oven until it falls apart with a fork.  Serve it over egg noodles or with some crusty bread.  Ahrghlllllll, so good!

This is actually a pretty simple dish to make, but it takes a LONG ass time from start to finish, especially if you don’t have any brown beef stock onhand (that alone takes 10 hrs to make!).   You can get the full recipe that we used here.  If it sounds familiar, it’s probably because the process is very similar to how you’d make the Coq au Vin from last week…

By the way, does anyone know if there is any such thing as store-bought brown beef stock?  I’m not talking about the watered down concentrated shit Swanson’s or Campbell’s makes  - I’m looking for the REAL stuff.   I once made the mistake of testing out Campbell’s beef stock to make a demi-glace, and it was not even CLOSE to the real thing.  It was like salt water with some beef flavorings… It didn’t have any of the important properties of a true stock.  Real brown beef stock has tons of body to it (cookspeak for natural thickness) from the dissolved collagen (which is also what turns it into a tan jello in the fridge – YUM!).  Plus it has zero salt in it, which is important because you never know what you’re going to use it for.  In the case of a demi-glace, where you reduce everything by half, starting with even a “low sodium” product will result in an inedibly salty, otherwise flavorless liquid that shatters rainbows and makes puppies cry.

If there is any such thing as a true beef stock on the market, it is my mission to find it.  And if not… well, I’m going to keep bitching about it until there is!

Pork and Shrimp Soup

¾  lb (340 g) egg noodles, cooked

4  tbsp (60 mL) oil

1  small onion, peeled and thinly sliced

2  slices fresh ginger, finely copped

½  lb (225 g) lean pork, finely shredded

2  oz (60 g) Chinese mushrooms, soaked in warm water 20 minutes and shredded

½  Chinese cabbage, shredded and blanched

¼  (110 g) bean sprouts

¼ lb (110 ) shrimp

3  tbsp (45 mL) soy sauce

4  cups (1 L) beef or chicken stock

1      Heat oil in a wok.  Add onion, ginger and pork and stir-fry for 2 minutes.

2      Add mushrooms, cabbage, bean sprouts and shrimp; stir-fry for 2 minutes. Stir in soy sauce and stir-fry a further 1 ½ minutes. Remove from heat and keep warm.

3      Bring stock to a oil.  Add half the pork mixture and bring to a boil again.  Add noodles and heat through.  Serve soup topped with remaining hot port mixture.  Serve 6

Source:  Chinese Cooking Made Easy

It’s starting to get cold here in Chicago, that means less grilling and more braising. My first braise of the season was a batch of beef short ribs. One of the most flavorful cuts. Nice and fatty, lots of bone marrow, what could be better?

First, I browned them in a big pot with some olive oil to get some nice color then set them aside. Then I added onions, carrots, celery, and garlic. After about 5 minutes, when the veggies were translucent, I dumped in two cups of red wine and let it boil for a few minutes. I added three cups of beef stock, a quarter cup of balsamic vinegar, two bay leaves, a tablespoon of coriander seeds, and a bunch of thyme. Let it come to a boil and added salt and pepper. Then I returned the short ribs, covered the pot tightly, and put into a preheated oven at 250 degrees.

After 5 hours in the oven to took the pot out and removed the short ribs. The meat was tender that the bones fell right off, it sent tingles down my spine. I put the meat in a dish and tented it with foil to keep it from losing moisture and strained the braising liquid into a bowl and let it cool to room temperature allowing the fat to rise to the top. I scraped off the fat and returned the liquid to a pot and boiled for about 45 minutes so it could reduce. Then I added a little corn starch slurry to thicken it up to a more velvety texture and added a bunch of chopped parsley. There was my gravy.

I made some creamy garlic mashed potatoes along with quickly stir-fryed carrots, onions, and haricots vert to serve alongside.

Once everything was ready I put the short ribs back into the oven at 400 for 10 minutes to reheat them and then plated everything up. It was one of the best short ribs I’ve ever eaten in my life! The perfect thing for a chilly night.

• 400g tin red kidney beans
• 500g minced beef
• some olive oil
• 2 medium onions
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 rounded tablespoon flour
• 2 heaped tablespoons tomato puree
• 500ml beef stock
• 1/2 red chili pepper, finely chopped (this can vary depending how hot and spicey you like it, the seeds make it very hot!)
• 1 large pepper, de-seeded and chopped
• salt

Heat the oil over a medium heat and gently cook the onion and the garlic for about 6 minutes. Then turn the heat up, add the beef and brown it well, stirring it around a bit.

Nect, sprinkle in the flour, stir it in to soak up the juices, then combine the tomato puree with the hot stock and add it gradually to the meat and onion.

Now and the chili and the red kidney beans, and bring them to simmering point. Put a lid on the saucepan and leave on a low heat for 1 1/2 hours. About 30 minutes before serving, add the chopped pepper, and add salt to taste.

(This recipe is based on that in “Delia’s Complete Illustrated Cookery Course”)

• For Shepherd’s Pie – Lamb
• For Cottage Pie – Beef

• Preheat the Oven to 350°F
• Boil the Potatoes until tender.
• Drain and mash with Milk and Butter with the Salt and Pepper. There should be no lumps. Use more Milk if needed.
• In a Dutch Oven, brown the meat.
• Top with the Herbs, Onions, Flour, and Vegetables (except the Mashed Potatoes) and mix well.
• Pour in the Beef Stock until it reaches the top of the mixture.
• Cover in the Mashed Potatoes.
• Sprinkle with Paprika and Cheese.
• Bake for 30-40 minutes.