Ground Veal - Stuffed Peppers

To kick off this Year of Meat, the first dish I prepared was an "old stand-by", my Grandma's Spaghetti and Meatballs.  It was a dish, that because my now near 97 year old grandmother never measures anything, took me several iterations to feel good about the result.  And now, it is a staple in the King household.  This blog is about meat, obviously.  So, I never did write about the Eggplant Parmigiana that I made last month.  But similar to my attempt with the Spaghetti and Meatballs, I interviewed my grandmother for the steps, the ingredients, the rough estimates of each ingredient, etc.  When did I perform the interview?  Last month.  Where did I perform it?  At my grandmother's house.  Why then?  Because it was the same day that while my wife and I were flying from Chicago to Boston, renting a car and driving 3 hours to western Massachusetts to visit her, my grandmother was making her homemade Eggplant Parmigiana and Stuffed Peppers.  And the food was absolutely amazing.  And since I am the only family member to have taken the time to "reverse engineer" her homemade spaghetti sauce and meatballs, I thought I ought to do the same for those two dishes.  And as I already mentioned, Eggplant Parmigiana is on the list.  And after tonight, so are the Stuffed Peppers.  Now, my grandmother made hers that night with Ground Beef.  But since I still had Ground Veal left in the Year of Meat, Ground Veal it was.  I did call Grandma to confirm that it would be an appropriate substitute.  She applauded the idea, and thus, I was off and running.

I bought the ground veal from my beloved Paulina Meat Market, put it in a bowl with diced onions and celery, dried basil and parsley, along with salt, pepper, an egg, some fresh Italian bread crumbs, garlic and cooked rice.  All of those ingredients were Grandma-approved, but the ratios and volumes were pretty much up for me to decide.  I hand mixed it all together, stuffed the filling into red and green pepper halves (internal seeds and stuff removed), poured a can of diced tomatoes over it all, covered it in foil, and baked at 325 for 90 minutes.

Much like the spaghetti and meatballs endeavor, there are things I will change.  I will use more salt, add some parmigiana cheese, and replace the diced tomatoes with the homemade pasta sauce.  I'll try Ground Beef and re-try Ground Veal, and I'll find the ultimate version.  That said, if I redid them exactly the same way next time, I'd be thrilled.

I've been counting down these cuts all year now.  And I'll keep doing it.  But in addition to the "big countdown" towards completing all 61 cuts, I now have only 1 veal cut left to go.  The end is drawing near.  And it saddens me greatly!

50 down, 11 to go!

Tomahawk Steak - Prize Winner

It's been a week since the conclusion of the 13th Annual Day of Meat, and to think about continuing through the remaining cuts of the Year of Meat, well, it felt a little anti-climactic.  With only 13 cuts to go (now 12), the light is at the end of the tunnel.  But with Day of Meat being such a huge night, moving past it sort of feels like a letdown.  Really?  No.  Not when Paulina Market publishes a contest for one of my remaining 13 cuts!  A contest?  You got it.

One of my remaining cuts was the Tomahawk Steak, a double cut Frenched bone Rib Eye that hearkens Fred Flintstone at a drive-in restaurant.  I had fun ordering it, asking for the biggest one they had.  I figured "go big, or go home", right?  So, what about the contest, right?  Well, Paulina is giving all its customers the opportunity to win Tomahawk Steaks for a year (one per month).  Let there be no mystery, I would LOVE to win this contest.  So what do you have to do to win?  Simple.  Cook a Paulina Market Tomahawk steak, take a picture of it (as creative as you want), and submit it.  Well, when you write a blog about every cut at Paulina, take a picture of it, and copy them on it, you can venture a guess that I planned to make this submission.  And here it is.

First, to the preparation. The first thing I did was prepare a Manhattan.  That has nothing to do with the preparation, but it set the stage for me, as it is a favorite drink of mine pre-dinner before a good steak.  Speaking of the steak, since the Tomahawk is just a good old bone-in Rib Eye, I turned to simple Kosher Salt and Cracked Black Pepper as my rub.  Nothing to detract from the deliciousness of the steak.  I had the Big Green Egg fired up hot (up over 600 degrees), and cooked it about five minutes per side.  Because of its thickness, I used a meat thermometer to ensure medium rare cooking and pulled it at 125 degrees internal temperature.  In hindsight, I probably could have gone to 130, but I'd much prefer a little under than a little over.  From past steak preparations, it wasn't hard to decide on sides.  My wife put together skillet potatoes, and we jointly prepared a water cress, radishes and blue cheese with shallot champagne vinaigrette.

We served the dinner with a 2004 bottle of Far Niente Cabernet Sauvignon, and enjoyed every bite, every drop.  No matter whether or not we "win" the Paulina Tomahawk Contest, I will say that we did win the real Paulina Tomahawk prize, and that was a delicious meal with a desire for more!  As for the picture, we thought we'd simply display our food before we ate it, but in a way that should resonate with anyone who wonders where they should buy their meat.  The answer is simple.

49 down, 12 to go!

Day of Meat - Pork Shoulder and So Much More!

It all started with the first Day of Meat.  August, 2002.  I was always a meat lover, but not much of a meat cooker.  I held the party, mandated that no non-meat products would be allowed (except beverages), and cooked meat.  Sure, I sprinkled some store-bought seasonings on pork chops, chicken breasts and steaks, but the flavor profile was immature at best.  Fun?  Absolutely!  Start of a tradition?  To be sure!  But gourmet?  Not so much.

A lot has transpired since August of 2002.  Last night, my wife and I hosted the 13th Annual Day of Meat.  The menu has evolved.  The methods of cooking have expanded beyond just the gas grill, and now include the Big Green Egg for smoking, the oven for baking, two slow cookers for, well, slow-cooking and back to the Big Green Egg for grilling.  All the rubs, marinades and sauces are now homemade.  And the preparation, cooking and care/feeding (literally) takes pretty much from 6:00 a.m. until we put our heads down to sleep after the party.  The 13th Annual Day of Meat was a legendary night.  And like every year, I always say that next year, I'll have to one-up it.  But I have a year to think about that.  Let's talk about last night's menu.

Now, to qualify to have a blog entry on this website, I needed to knock off one of the remaining Year of Meat cuts from Paulina Market.  So, let's start with that.  The Pork Shoulder.  I got the biggest one in the display case, which weighed in at a little under 10 lbs.  On Friday night, I put on a rub (a bit of a hybrid Pork BBQ Rub I got from some recipes and trial and error) and put it back in the refrigerator.  Yesterday morning, I got the Big Green Egg going at 275 degrees (low and slow), and on offset heat with apple wood smoke, let it go until it reached 160 degrees internally.  I then wrapped it in foil, and poured some apple cider into the foil, wrapped it tight, and put it back on the Egg until it hit 195 degrees internally.  I took it out, and let it rest for about 30 minutes or so with the foil slightly opened.  And then I started shredding (and snacking).  After removing the bones and fat, there was a heaping amount of pulled pork..  And man, was it good!  I've written about Fat Dan's BBQ sauce before.  Let's just say that I put Fat Dan's (which is a bit more of a Kansas City or Texas style and I must say I hate pigeon-holing it) against a Carolina BBQ recipe I discovered last year.  And across the board from the guests, there was love.  Some for the one, and some for the other.  It was great to see the appeal of two very different sauces, and how people gravitated to both in equal degrees.  Great stuff!

The menu included the following (for all of these, the meat came from Paulina Market, the ultimate partner for the Day of Meat):

• Honey Pork Sticks Slices
• Pepperoni Slices
• Bacon Wrapped Wieners w/ Chili Powder & Brown Sugar
• American Bacon Wrapped Canadian Bacon w/ Chile Powder & Brown Sugar
• Cocktail Meatballs (Slow Cooked in Homemade Chili Sauce and a Wisconsin Farm Cranberry Jam)
• BBQ Beef Brisket (Slow Cooked w/ Homemade Fat Dan's, Onions and Jalapeno Peppers)
• Grilled Boneless Chicken Breasts (Marinated in Homemade Teriyaki Sauce)
• Grilled Paulina Market Italian Sausage (Naked and Wonderful)
• Grilled Skirt Steaks (Marinated in Homemade Maple Chipotle Sauce)
• And of course, the Pulled Pork w/ Carolina BBQ Sauce and Fat Dan's

With the Day of Meat now a thing of the past for 2014, the focus returns to completing the Year of Meat.  And the remaining cuts are starting to dwindle.  I may need a break for a few days, but the focus will return.

48 down, 13 to go!

Beef Shanks - A Tropical Treat

Like so many cuts of meat that have come before, bone-in Beef Shanks were a new one for me.  And these, also like many cuts that have come before, are best slow cooked.  So, slow cooked I did.  First, I had to start with the shanks themselves.  At Paulina, these come in the 2 inch thick variety.  But my goal was to get some about half that thickness.  So, my friends at Paulina cut them in half for me (though the bone and all) and gave me 4 1-inch thick shanks.

Lightly seasoned with salt and pepper, I browned them in peanut oil for about 3 minutes per side.  After transporting them to the slow cooker awaiting the rest of the "stuff", I cooked up some carrots and onions in the same pan for about 6 minutes, added crushed garlic, star anise and bay leaves and cooked for another minute, and then added rice vinegar and soy sauce.  I transported all this on top of the shanks and set it on low for 8 hours.

Suddenly, 8 hours later, with smells throughout the house, I transported the shanks to a plate (meat falling and shredding off the bone).  I then strained the braising liquid, skimmed the fat and boiled the braising liquid until it was reduced in half.  I shredded the meat and mashed the solids (carrots, garlic, etc.) and put them it in a serving dish, and poured in the reduced braising liquid.  Served it with romaine lettuce leaves, mango salsa and fresh green onion.  Yummy, slow cooked deliciousness, tropical style.

47 down, 14 to go!