Meat Off! And Meat, Oof!

I've said it before and I'll say it again. If you want to trick people into thinking you're a well adjusted member of society, have them over for dinner. They will think you're gracious and people loving, when in reality you are a borderline agoraphobic scrounge of the Earth who thinks humanity is doomed.

Okay. I'm not really that dismal. But I do like the fact that when people come to our home, I can socialize without having to put on shoes or breath fresh air.

A dinner party is even better if you have a theme. Yes, a theme. It doesn't have to be an all-out, everyone dress up kind of deal ala, "Murder At the Copa Cabana!", although that would make me want to be your best friend. No, I'm thinking something simpler, such as a taste test between organic and non-organic supermarket meat.

See, Greenbury Market sent me a gorgeous and generous package of organic rib eye steaks and boneless chicken breasts. It made me wonder, would I be able to taste the difference? Would my husband? Would my friends? And so the invites went out. Soon Jim, Leslie and little Nicholas showed up at our door.

The key to choosing good friends is making sure they're as dorky as you.

The purpose of this taste test dinner party has to do with just that: taste. I realize that there are many, many socially beneficial reasons for buying organic meat, and they make sense. But this only has to do with TASTE right now. Any more of a full discussion will take too much research and ignite way too much debate for my simple homecooking blog. Read: I'm lazy.

Contestant #1: A beautiful Greensbury Market rib eye. Look at that marbling!

We don't have a grill and that's a shame. When it comes to cooking rib eye steak I believe grilling is best. The second best way is to pan sear, so I fumigated our apartment with carcinogenic steak fumes in the interest of yummy.

Contestant #2: Supermarket rib eye. About 1 lb @ $11.43. Them's New York City prices, cowboy.

Since cooking the steaks kept me in the kitchen and away from my guests, I kept the rest of the meal simple. I threw the chicken breasts in a glass Pyrex, coated them with BBQ sauce and baked them at 425 for 15 minutes.

For sides I made potato salad the night before. I lifted a recipe from Julie at Kitchenography and did most of the prep for Laurie Colwin's creamed spinach earlier in the day. I also made a big green salad that we ended up not really needing but it was amazingly good. (The secret is toasted fresh pecans and this vinaigrette.)

I should note here that I made way, way too much food. I didn't make enough food for a dinner party once. ONCE. The Italian American police demanded I give back my DNA. We convinced them to give me another chance but it has scarred me for life. Never again!

We loaded up our plates, sat down, and dug into some very serious eating.



It probably will come as no surprise that the Greensbury Market steak had more flavor and a much nicer texture than the supermarket meat. It was a unanimous winner. I could even tell the difference in flavor with the fat. (Yes, I'm a fat eater when it comes to beef. It's mine and my future heart donor's favorite part.) The organic meat just sang with beef flavor on many levels, getting better and better in my mouth with each chew. The supermarket meat just kinda sat there and actually got blander with every bite.

The chicken was a different story. The texture and juiciness of the supermarket chicken was better, but I have to take the blame for this. I cooked the organic and the supermarket chicken together. Because organic chicken isn't pumped with stuff to keep it large and juicy, it is smaller and therefore turned out dry. My bad. I should've cooked them separately. Organic chicken doesn't need to be in the oven for as long.

Notice the tiny chicken breasts to the left. Those are organic. And later, overcooked by yours truly.

Even so, we all agreed the organic chicken tasted more like, well, chicken. But the texture awards went to the supermarket brand.

Our conclusion. Better beef is worth the price. And considering Greensbury Market rib eye is $13.99 (plus shipping) to my supermarket's $11.99 steak, there's not even that much of a cost difference.

Organic chicken, however is a toss up. Check your values, your taste buds, your recipe and your pocketbook to decide if it's worth it. I'll leave it up to you.

A thanks to Greensbury Market for the opportunity to sample their delectable goodies.

A thanks to Jim, Leslie and Nicholas for lending us their palettes.

A thanks to the Italian American police for letting me keep my DNA.

And a special thanks to anyone who has read this incredibly long winded post. You are a trouper and I love you. (Mom!)

A Mockery Of Apple Pie by Guest Blogger Fred

While I'm working on my Organic Vs. Supermarket meat post, enjoy this one by A Good American Husband, Fred. - Anne


A mock apple pie using Ritz crackers instead of apples, it's not right. But I wanted to create something worse, something wrong, not a mock apple pie but a mockery of apple pie.



My burlesque begins with a box or Ritz crackers bought at Target at the height of apple season. Sorry local farmers, my money went to Nabisco, a big-agra company dedicated to making the world obese, diabetic and in love with US Weekly.

I printed a recipe from the Kraft Korporate website and headed for the Park Slope Food Co-op, snickering as I selected the organic butter and free-trade cinnamon that I would later defile with crackers that lists soy lecithin as an ingredient. Of course I made the crust myself. Oh, the farce!



It didn't take long before I had my travesty ready for the oven. While it baked, I drew moustaches on pictures of Julia Child. When it emerged, it looked exactly like an apple pie, but I knew the rude lampoon that lurked beneath a light and flaky crust.


The best thing to do with a culinary grotesquery such as this is to smash it in the face of a starving Ethiopian. Lacking anyone fitting that description, I decided to feed it to dinner guests. By coincidence, Jim, Leslie and little Nicholas arrived at our place with a Sara Lee apple pie. The Good American Wife planned the evening as a side-by-side taste test for organic versus supermarket meat and poultry so I took the opportunity to add a dessert course.




Maybe I got the recipe wrong, but it didn't taste like apple pie. It was super sweet and kind of lemony. Not bad in it own way, but a complete failure as an apple pie. Let me put it this way - the leftover Sara Lee pie was all gone by the next day. Mine is still in the refrigerator.


You can find out more about the orgins of Mock Apple Pie here.

Mock Apple Pie from the Kraft Foods website

pastry for 2-crust 9-inch pie

36 RITZ Crackers, coarsely broken (about 1-3/4 cups crumbs)

2 cups sugar

2 tsp. cream of tartar

Grated peel of 1 lemon

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

2 Tbsp. butter or margarine

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

PREHEAT oven to 425. Roll out pie pastry and place in a 9-inch pie plate. Place cracker crumbs in crust, set aside.

MIX sugar and cream of tartar in medium saucepan. Gradually stir in 1-3/4 cups water until well blended. Bring to boil on high heat. Reduce heat to low; simmer 15 minutes. Add lemon peel and juice; cool. Pour syrup over cracker crumbs. Dot with butter; sprinkle with cinnamon. Roll out remaining pastry; place over pie. Trim; seal and flute edges. Slit top crust to allow steam to escape.

BAKE 30 to 35 minutes or until crust is crisp and golden. Cool completely.

A Flash In The Pan

Hello. Have you met my son? His name is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Weekend.

From Monday through Friday, you will never meet a nicer kid. He transitions from one activity to the next in a blink of his big baby blues. He laughs, he plays, he says the cutest things. We get a little grief when it comes to getting him dressed. (No s-irt! No pant! Mine! Mine! OW! OOOOWWWW!) (I assure you we are gentle and his clothes don't hurt. This is pure toddler drama.) But other than that, no problems at all from our smiley, active little boy.


Then comes the weekend.

He asks for things he knows he can't have then throws Code Red tantrums. If we try to distract him, sometimes it works, sometimes he gets angrier. Same goes for ignoring him and walking away. Toys are thrown. Tiny fists are furled. It takes two of us to get on one sock, then he pulls it off. He's demanding, agitated, prickly.

We figured there are a few reasons behind this behavior.

1. During the week, he has a pretty structured routine. While the weekend isn't excessively different, it's different enough to throw him off the beam.

2. During the week he's usually just with one of us, usually Fred. So he gets the undivided attention of one parent. But when both of us are around, he has to share attention with the other parent. And a 2-year-old and sharing? Not a winning combo.

3. He's TWO. It's what they do.

When I was pregnant my friend Shelly told me to get used to saying, "it's just a phase." So here we are. I'm sure with time and maturity he'll outgrow it and we'll find the right combination of giving him attention/ignoring bad behavior. And if that doesn't work, there's always my favorite parenting tool, Skittles.

There's also this Pan Baked Lemon Almond Tart recipe from Mark Bittman. Lemony sweet, billowy with a light crunch, its loveliness helps dull the piercing whines of 2-year-old who isn't allowed to pour his milk over our laptop.

Yes, it's that easy. Unlike parenting.

If you're looking for an Atkins friendly treat, here you go. Though I don't think I'd like it for anything other than a breakfast pastry. It's quite eggy, for one. And it doesn't hold it shape very well, which is fine first thing in the morning, but I want my deserts to work a little harder.

Pull yourself together, man! (OK, I should've let it cool longer. Still!)

Speaking of work, there is very little to do here. The most strenuous part for me was pulling my mini Cuisinart down from the cupboard to grind the almonds. Other than that, this is eyes-closed, one-arm-behind-the-back easy.

Ta-da!

It goes great with a black, roasty coffee cut with a splash of milk. It was the only thing on our dish, but a nice sage sausage or perhaps some glazed bacon would've rounded out the meal nicely.

Best of all, it's quick. So you can enjoy a warm, filling breakfast before rushing your little one outside, where distractions keep eruptions at bay. At least until nap time.

Mark Bittman's Pan-Baked Lemon-Almond Tart
The New York Times, October 7, 2009

4 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup ground almonds

1/2 cup cream

1/2 cup sliced almonds, more for garnish

1 lemon, zest and juice

2 tablespoons butter

Powdered sugar, for garnish.

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a bowl, combine eggs, sugar, salt, ground almonds, cream, sliced almonds, lemon zest and juice.

2. Melt butter in an 8-inch ovenproof skillet over low heat; when foam has subsided, add almond mixture to pan, tilting pan to distribute batter evenly. Continue to cook tart on stovetop until edges just begin to set, then put pan in oven and finish cooking, about 10 to 15 minutes more.

3. When tart is done, put it in broiler for about a minute or until just golden on top. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and sliced almonds. Serve.

Yield: 4 servings.

Served Up With A Side Of Ignorance

I wanted to do something cute with the title of this post and entwine it with the name of my featured recipe, an Asian noodle dish. I took the name of the recipe into Yeweng, my coworker who's from Malaysia by way of China. Here's our conversation:

ME: Do you speak Chinese?

YEWENG: Yes!

ME: (showing him the recipe) Can you tell me which of these words means spicy?

YEWENG: Um, that's Thai.

Hurrah! I'm an Asian bigot! It's called living the dream, folks.

Luckily Yeweng was a good sport about my blunder. Now I just need to cross my fingers in hope that the Park Slope Food Coop doesn't get wind of this and revoke my membership.

So. The dish. It came to me via CHOW and it's called Pad Kee Mao, also known as Drunken Noodles or Spicy Ground Chicken with Noodles. It's touted as a great weeknight dinner because it's quick. OK, I'm gonna pull the breaks on this one.

While most Asian stir fry dishes are quick when it comes to actually cooking them, the amount of chopping takes a lot of time for those of us with homecooking knife skills. In fact, a lot of "30 minute meals" work under the assumption that I have loads of diced onions, minced garlic, and julienned carrots just sitting around, waiting to be doused with homemade chicken broth. It's annoying because the chopping adds at least 15 extra minutes, depending on the dish. It's worth it and all but QUIT TRYING TO FOOL ME. I may be Asian insensitive but I know how long it takes me to thinly slice a shallot.

Ok. Calm down. Let's talk about this dish. DELICIOUS! There are so many layers of flavor, from sour lime juice and salty fish sauce to juicy meat and vivid red peppers. I had to sub ground turkey for the chicken which didn't make a difference. Leaving out the spicy jalapenos, however, did make a difference. This dish had a pull of sweetness that would've gone beautifully against some heat.

I left off the hot 'n spicy because I wanted Walt to try it, thinking he'd love the noodles. But see, the noodles had MEAT touching them and my son only eats meat in the most over-processed form of hot dog. My mistake for trying to serve him Food Coop organic grain-fed chicken that practiced Tantric sex while fighting the oppressive government of a small South American country. Next time I'll spray it with nitrates and cigarettes to make it more to his liking.

Ah, kids. You can't make them eat what they don't like, but you can continue to put new foods in front of them and end up eating two dinners. In that case I hope your dinner is this yummy Not Chinese dish of Pad Kee Mao.

Pad Kee Mao
from CHOW

INGREDIENTS

• 1 (14-ounce) package wide rice noodles
• 1/4 cup oyster sauce
• 1/4 cup fish sauce
  
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (from about 2 limes)
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 medium shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
• 3 medium garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 1 pound ground chicken
• 2 medium red peppers, thinly sliced
• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 medium jalapeno peppers thinly sliced
• 1 cup loosely packed Thai basil leaves
• NOTE: I used regular basil
  

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Place noodles in a large bowl and cover with boiling water. Soak for about 15 minutes, until loose and pliable but not soft; drain. Combine oyster and fish sauce and lime juice in a medium bowl, mix well, and set aside.
2. Heat oil in a large (12-inch) frying pan over medium-high heat. Once heated, add shallots and garlic and cook for 2 minutes or until softened but not brown. Add ground chicken and break into small pieces. Cook until chicken is white and almost cooked through, about 3 minutes. Add bell peppers and stir-fry just until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes.
3. Push chicken mixture to one side of the pan and add eggs to the center. Scramble with a spatula until eggs are set and don’t run, about 1 minute. Push eggs to the side and add reserved sauce ingredients. Once the sauce is boiling, add the drained noodles and toss to coat. Remove from heat, add jalapeños and basil and toss to combine; serve immediately.

The Pot Roast With The Most

Co-dependent herbs

The Barefoot Contessa has yet to let me down.

If the woman told me to add a stick of butter to a salad, I wouldn't hesitate. If she told me to do the Chicken Dance before putting a bird in the oven, I'd start jiving. I'd even use Miracle Whip if she asked, despite the fact that this condiment is a spit in the face to my beloved mayonnaise.

Fortunately, she doesn't ask any of those things. But she did does suggest that I add a ridiculous amount of chopped vegetables to pot roast for her Company Pot Roast recipe.

It doesn't look like much now, but I had a sore wrist and a mound of chopping to do.

Then she had me throw in a 28 oz. can of tomatoes on top of that. An entire can, juices and all! Followed by chicken stock, yes, CHICKEN stock. In a beef dish. Weird. But I did it.

Just when you think nothing will fit, you add more vegetables. But they do cook down.

Then you throw in a 4 lb chuck roast after all that. Somehow it all fits. Later, after hours and hours in a low oven, she had me puree these vegetables with some butter (YAY!) and flour.

The pot roast pre-puree. After puree it looks like a chunky tomato soup and well, it kinda is one. It's heaven over pot roast and mashed potatoes.

The result is that this is the best pot roast gravy I ever had. To die for and easy enough to do with an immersion blender. My only mistake was that the roast ended up in the oven about an hour longer than it needed. It was a tad on the dry side. Just a bit, though.

Now all I need is a butter drenched salad as a side dish.

Here's the recipe, courtesy of The Food Network

Happiest Of Happiest

Today is my birthday! I love my birthday. Getting older isn't always fun but hell, it's inevitable so I might as well get a cupcake out of it, no? Plus I get presents and special meals and lots of posts on my Facebook profile. Then I get to write posts like this on my blog and fish for even more birthday wishes. I am shameless.

My food today is as follows: Yeweng is taking me to lunch at one of my favorite places on the planet:

The Oyster Bar lunch counter, Grand Central Station, NYC

And tonight, Fred and I will try out our fork-skills at Brooklyn favorite A Di La. Can't wait!

Dinner Guest File 10-11-09

NAMES:
Amanda and Pete

OCCUPATIONS:
We'd tell you, but we'd have to kill you

LAST SEEN:
3 1/2 years ago at the Stesney dinner table

NEXT APPEARANCE
This Sunday at the Stesney dinner table.

SERVING
Probably The Barefoot Contessa's Company Pot Roast, but I'm not 100%. Any other good dinner party suggestions?