Tri-Tip in Black Pepper Sauce

I marinated a tri-tip beef roast from TJ’s in an Asian black pepper sauce and slow cooked it in the oven, much like the Easter brisket, in stages, with onions and garlic, and then used the drippings from the marinade to further make a sauce. It was quite richly-flavored, with a sneaky pepper afterbite.

I also made brown jasmine rice (I thought I had grabbed the white basmati, but oh well) to go with, and a garden salad (baby greens, cucumber, arugula, cherry tomatoes, and green onions, as well as some left over hard-boiled egg and the remainder of the red pepper (see below)) with vinaigrette.

G&T came to dinner (it’s Friday again, yay!) and brought the fixings for stuffed red peppers (stuffed with ground beef, rice, onions and green peppers, as well as mozzarella and Parmesan cheese, sage and thyme and other yummy stuff) and T assembled and cooked and baked them here. Even better, they brought a chocolate cake (mmm…..) and red wine (a Gundlach Bundschu ’05 Pinot Noir, one of our favorites! And, as if the evening wasn’t festive enough already, L joined us, too, and we played a lot of Rayving Rabbids 2, while listening to some well-needed rain falling outside.

Steak Burgers with Mushroom Gravy

A collaboration tonight: I made a garden salad with my vinaigrette, mixed lettuce greens, heirloom cherry tomatoes (all different colors and shapes), cucumber, green onions, and, because they are in season and totally buttery, delicious and CHEAP, a whole avocado for each of us!

By J’s request, I also made the oven crisped potatoes with rosemary, garlic, black pepper, salt and olive oil, I made last week, and reheated the butternut squash from last night. J sautéed mushrooms, onions and garlic in olive oil, fried up the steak burgers in the skillet, then made a gravy in which to further sauté the burgers and then serve over the top of them.

For dessert, another in-season treat: a fruit salad of just perfect fresh pineapple, slightly disappointing strawberries and a delectable little honey tangerine.

Easter Sunday Brisket + Butternut Squash Tutorial

My father and my step-mother visited recently, and while she was here, I was able to wrangle her mother’s brisket recipe out of her, much to my great pleasure, having enjoyed when she made it on several occasions. So, since J considers Easter a valid reason to make a nice big dinner, I thought it would be a good excuse to try the recipe. G&T joined us as well and so did L. For appetizer/nibbly bits, G&T brought cantaloupe wrapped with prosciutto and blue corn tortilla chips and hummus, as well as some red wine and dessert.

The recipe calls for 4 lbs of beef brisket, sliced onions, black pepper, Heinz chili sauce and bay leaves, and it takes over 4 hours to cook altogether, so I started it early in the afternoon. It takes lots of steps, but it’s worth the effort- it practically melts in your mouth! As well, I made a big tossed garden salad (G helped!), with tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions and mixed baby greens, with my homemade vinaigrette dressing, and some brown jasmine rice, cooked in mushroom stock and then tossed with the mushrooms that made the stock, after they were sautéed in olive oil with some garlic and fresh thyme from the garden.

At the same time that I started the brisket, I also baked a butternut squash, which lately has become one of my favorite squashes, much less foods, to my great surprise. Of course, the way I make it, it’s pretty much irresistible:

Mini tutorial: Butternut Squash

1. Peel and de-seed it and cut it up into small pieces
2. Layer it in a Pyrex dish with a bunch of sliced pats of butter (almost a stick) and cover liberally with five-spice powder, salt and black pepper.
3. Bake covered at 350°F for 45 mins or until it falls apart when poked with a fork
   
4. Let it cool some, and blend it in a Cuisinart / food processor with a little milk or butter until it reaches the desired consistency
5. Keep warm for an hour or two before serving… the longer you can let it stand before serving, the more the flavor develops. Reheat before serving if you can’t keep it warm the whole time.

YUM! For dessert, a big creamy peach Boston cream pie/cake concoction. Not the traditional Easter Ham by any means, but who’s complaining? Not like there were any leftovers!

Mothy’s Open Dinner Thread

As she suggested, here’s a thread where you all can list what YOU had for dinner on March 18, 2008. I’ll post my dinner later (as it’s not even noon yet, here…). I’ll update the tags regularly, so it will get indexed properly with the other posts.

Sushi House

Since J successfully managed to get out of jury duty, we went out for Japanese food to celebrate. I started with agedashi tofu, sake maki (salmon roll sushi, for those who are unfamiliar), and for my main course, I had a bento box with veggie tempura, beef teriyaki and gyoza. J had oshinko (which are pickled Japanese veggies), and a bento box, also containing tempura (with shrimp), beef teriyaki, tuna sashimi, and spicy tuna roll. We both had a seaweed salad to start with (wakame) and both our meals also came with miso soup, a green salad, and green tea. A nice change of pace, as J said, it’s something we couldn’t make for ourselves.

Stuffed Flank Steaks

There’s a butcher near where I live who prepares these great stuffed flank steaks, with cheese, roasted red peppers and spinach rolled up inside. They’re great just baked in the oven, and can be dressed up all kinds of ways. I kept it simple tonight and just put some olive oil, salt and ground blackpepper over them and put ‘em in the oven at 350° for 45 mins. I reheated the mashed potatoes from a couple nights ago, and they’re even better now! I also made one of our favorite salads, which is a mix of micro-greens (which are basically sprouts of all kinds of interesting veggies including broccoli, beets, and more traditional sprouts), Belgian endives, green onions, and as a new addition, finely grated carrot. I topped it all off with my homemade vinaigrette dressing (for which a tutorial is coming soon!). Simple but tasty.

Special bonus tonight: photos!

Penne with Tomato and Meat Sauce

The sauce started with some I made in January and froze that was made from patty pan squash and tomatoes from the garden (possibly those in the header!) as well as some home-made spicy meatballs. To freshen it, I fried some ground beef and crimini mushrooms in onions and garlic and olive oil, and added a little fresh asparagus left over from last week, as well a small can of tomato sauce and a healthy handful of fresh cherry tomatoes, topped it off with some fresh basil, and oregano, marjoram and thyme from the garden, and let it all simmer together for awhile to really develop some flavor. The penne’s a healthy flax/multi-grain sort, also from TJ’s. We’ve decided that the whole grain pasta tastes better, despite being healthier. Served with shaved Parmesan over the top, of course, in a big bowl.