Joe's Special - a classic scramble

What do you cook when you're busy and don't want to mess with multiple courses? It's one-skillet recipes to the rescue! This dish, the iconic scramble Joe's Special, is especially welcome during the busy week before a holiday. My version of Joe's Special is quick and easy to prepare, calls for ordinary pantry ingredients and the finished dish is satisfyingly delicious. Win!

We first encountered Joe's Special in the late 60's at  Thirteen Coins Restaurant, a hidden Seattle treasure. Hidden? the restaurant eschewed streetside signage but was well-known for 24/7 service, upholstered swiveling captain's chairs at the counter, an open exhibition kitchen and an extensive menu. Some 40+ years later Thirteen Coins still lists Joe's Special on the menu; that's the staying power of a good restaurant and a classic dish!

Joe's Special has its own history, originating in San Francisco perhaps during the 1850's following the Gold Rush... or in the 1920s... or maybe the late 30's... depending on which source you believe. (link), (link), (link) Most recipes include onion, hamburger, spinach and enough eggs to hold it all together in a scramble. My version adds mushrooms and Parmesan cheese to the mix plus some green Tabasco to pop the flavor. 

  
This classic scramble is not a pretty dish, but Oh! My! It's! Good! Good for breakfast, brunch, lunch, a light supper or occasional late night meal; it's even a proven beat-the-hangover choice. Lately Joe's Special was a welcome solution to serving a tasty meal when the schedule overflowed with too many things more important than cooking. Definitely a one-skillet recipe coming to the rescue!

Joe's Special

4 eggs (or 1-2 eggs per person)

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. dried Italian seasoning (or use dried basil and oregano)

salt and pepper

hot sauce to taste (Green Tabasco recommended)

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 medium onion, small dice

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 pound lean ground beef

1/2 pound small mushrooms, sliced

4 cups fresh baby spinach (or 2 cups julienned kale)

1/2 cup fresh Parmesan shreds plus more for topping.

1. In a small bowl beat together the eggs, nutmeg, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper, and a generous splash or two of hot sauce. Set aside.
2. Use a large skillet and heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Cook the onions until they just soften, then sir in the garlic and cook until the onions turn golden.
3. Add the beef and mushrooms. Stirring occasionally, cook until the meat is no longer pink and the mushrooms give up some liquid.
4. Add the spinach (or kale) and cook until the greens wilt and the liquid in the pan has evaporated.
5. Lower the heat to medium-low; add the beaten eggs and cook, stirring often, until the eggs are done (slightly dry but still tender). Remove from the heat and stir in the Parmesan.
6. Serve immediately with extra cheese to sprinkle on top.

Coffee-Rubbed Cowboy Steaks with Chocolate Stout Pan Sauce

Red meat, anyone? Yes, please! Salads and roasted or grilled vegetables are undeniably healthy and tasty, and appear daily on my plate, along with some chicken or fish for protein. But every now and again I really crave beef. Visions of juicy chile cheeseburgers and thick well-marbled steaks dance in my brain. Even a well-flavored meatloaf sounds good. Okay, not as tempting as a perfectly cooked steak, but meatloaf does occasionally call my name. 

This week Food52's spicy Coffee-Rubbed Cowboy Steaks with Chocolate Pan Sauce hit the plate. A really good steak doesn't need much beyond salt, pepper and a quick sear over high heat to provide a tasty entree. But, when you begin with a rub packed with intense, tongue-tingling flavors and then finish with a rich, velvety pan sauce... oh! my! it makes the taste buds sing "hallelujah" with each bite. Yes, it was that good.

Hil took over dinner prep, with RL shining as salad-maker and #1 assistant. Me? I parked my crutches and sat at the kitchen table, sipping a cup of tea, while that cheery duo dealt with dinner prep. The aroma of warming spices and coffee was the first indication that dinner would be flavorful. Initially the familiar aroma of coffee filled the kitchen, with cumin and smoked paprika barely noticeable, but the scent of spices became more pronounced when the meat was seared over high heat. A meat thermometer helped achieve the desired level of doneness, medium-rare for this crowd. Removed from the oven at 120-125 degrees f,  the steaks were a perfect medium-rare after resting while the pan sauce was prepared.   

Photo: Checking the steaks for "doneness"

The steaks would have been a hit straight from the oven, but the pan sauce with a chocolate stout reduction and a dollop of butter added an amazing finishing note. It will be fun in the future to play with different flavored beers, spirits and herbs to see how much that changes the taste. We are definitely going to enjoy this preparation again. Thank you Hil, RL and Food52.   

Photo: Ready to reduce the pan sauce liquid by 50%

Spicy roasted cauliflower florets and a Greek salad provided some welcome crunch and healthy vitamins to the dinner, proving almost as popular as the rubbed and sauced slices of steak... almost. This was definitely a dinner to remember, and to repeat.  

Coffee-Rubbed Cowboy Steaks with an optional Chocolate Stout Pan Sauce

recipe from the Food52 Cookbook and online blog

serves 2-3

2 New York steaks, 1 to 1 1/2 inches thick
1 tablespoon ground coffee (not powder or instant)
1 tablespoon sea salt (less if you use table salt)
1 heaping teaspoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon coarse ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

2 teaspoons dark brown sugar
1 cup chocolate stout (taste test to find one you like)
1/2 cup beef stock
1 to 2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 tablespoon vegetable oil to oil the pan

1. Mix together the coffee, salt, paprika, black pepper, pepper flakes and cumin. Toast lightly in a dry pan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until fragrant. Empty immediately into a small bowl to stop the cooking. Mix the spices and brown sugar to make the rub.
2. Spread the rub all over the steak and let sit for awhile, at least an hour but overnight is better. If you hold it in the fridge, be sure to bring the meat up to room temperature before cooking.
3. Adjust an oven rack so the meat will be roughly 6 inches below the broiler element; preheat the broiler.
4. Heat a cast iron pan until it's really really hot ("a drop of water flicked into the pan should sizzle and bounce"). Add vegetable oil, wait a few seconds to heat up the oil, then carefully place the steak in the pan. Leave it undisturbed for 3-4 minutes to brown the bottom. 
5. Then move the pan to the oven and place it under the preheated broiler; broil to medium rare (about 125 degrees F) or desired doneness.  Transfer the steak to a warm plate or platter, tent with aluminum foil and let it rest while you prepare the sauce.

For the sauce:

1. Pour the chocolate stout into the skillet and stir over medium-high heat, scraping up all of the brown bits as you deglaze the pan. 
2. Add the thyme and the beef broth; whisk together and reduce by half over medium heat. Whisk in the butter. Taste and adjust seasonings.


To serve:
Slice the steak across the grain and drizzle a bit of sauce over top. Serve the extra sauce in pitcher or small bowl.

Brazilian Marinated Seaks with Chile Lime Sauce

Brazilian... really? while I can't vouch for the recipe's authenticity, I can imagine gauchos and vaqueros (link) knowing how to prepare a tasty steak. The idea and title come from Two Hot Tamales, and I'm not going to argue with that spicy duo. 

A 1 1/2-pound beef chuck roast sat on my counter, daring me challenging me to get creative, to move beyond the typical cold-weather pot roast, stew or chili. The calendar said it was officially Spring, the day was sunny and verging on warm; this was not a time for more wintery comfort food. I grabbed a knife and began the attack, moving forward without much of a plan. That small roast sliced neatly into four steaks, but then I had some concerns about the tenderness challenge.

Beef chuck comes from the shoulder of the cow, an area that is well muscled, heavily exercised, and has quite a bit of fat and connective tissue. It is known to be flavorful but tough chewy. One solution was to utilize a marinade. An acidic marinade can help tenderize a tough steak by permeating the meat and breaking down the connective tissues. I turned to this cookbook, an old favorite, for inspiration.

Red wine, lime, garlic and herbs - now that had potential. Flavorful? oh, yes! Chefs Milliken & Feniger recommend their marinade for rib-eye steaks, but a good rib-eye is already tender and I would hate to turn an expensive cut into mush. Chuck, however, seemed a good candidate for marination; chewy yet flavorful, affordable, and it was what I had on hand at the time. Done deal.

Lime juice and red wine are readily available acidic liquids and they did a fine job of tenderizing the chuck roast steaks in three and a half hours. Gauchos may not have time to marinate their meat for hours, but it was worth the wait for this city cook. The herbs and garlic added additional flavor and the resulting cooktop-grilled steaks were a major 4-star mealtime hit. The Chile Lime Sauce? Oh. My. Yes! don't skip the sauce, its bright tangy, citrusy taste was good enough to eat straight up off a spoon. We loved the fresh salsa/sauce on the grilled steaks, on rice, on grilled vegetables... 

I had forgotten my California marinated meat-grilling roots for a while, but I'm back on track now. We'll see this recipe again and again, the Capt. will insist on it. 

Brazilian Marinated Steaks with Chile Lime Sauce

Adapted from Cooking with Too Hot Tamales by Milliken & Feniger

4 rib-eye steaks (1 ½ -inch thick) (I used chuck steaks)

½ cup freshly squeezed lime juice

1/3 cup dry red wine

1 small white onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves, peeled

2 tsp dried oregano

1 large bay leaf

1 sprig of fresh rosemary

1 tsp coarse sea salt

1 tsp ground (white) pepper

Chile Lime Sauce (recipe follows)

Directions:
1. Place the steaks in a non-metallic pan large enough to hold them in a single layer.

2. Blitz the remaining ingredients in a blender to form a loose paste. Pour over the steaks, turning to coat both sides. Cover and chill for 4 to 6 hours in the fridge, remembering to turn occasionally.

3. Heat a cast iron grill pan over medium-high heat.

4. Remove the steaks from the marinade, shaking to remove the excess, and grill until done to taste, roughly 6-7 minutes per side for rare to medium-rare. Don't overcook the meat or it will become tougher.

5. Transfer to a platter, cover loosely with foil and let rest for 5 minutes so the juices redistribute. Serve with the Chile Lime Sauce.

Chile Lime Sauce

1 tsp coarse sea salt

1 small white onion, chopped

4 large garlic cloves, peeled

juice of 3 limes

½ bunch fresh cilantro, leaves only

tamed jalapeno rings, or maybe Sriracha, to taste (optional)

Combine all of the ingredients in a blender; blitz to form a paste. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Yields about ½ cup (also good as a sauce for chicken, pork, lamb or seafood, or slathered on a grilled panini or taco.)  

Iron Skillet Meatloaf

Photo: Chunks of crisp-crusted meatloaf  and stir-fried cabbage

I just realized that I might be a meatloaf snob. How did that happen when years ago any meatloaf was something to avoid? Meatloaf, "a mixture of smooshed up mystery ingredients and fat," has somehow morphed into a favorite winter entree. It may be a favorite but I am still reluctant to risk an unknown restaurant version that might be boringly bland, dry and crumbly, or horrors! greasy and edged with a pale, soggy crust. 

Ree's bacon-draped version is popular, but I'd rather enjoy the bacon by itself. Alton's ketchup-glazed crust doesn't tempt me. Nigella stuffs her meatloaf with hard boiled eggs and wraps it with bacon; mmmm, no thank you, that's a casserole not a meatloaf. A Marcella Rosene recipe for "Brown-Bottom Meat Loaf" (Pasta & Co. By Request, 1991), might have spoiled me for other versions. I occasionally tweak the original to reflect RL's input or what's available in the galley, but I never stray far from the original. Today's version omitted the usual minced carrots, substituted barbecue sauce for ketchup and swapped milk for half and half. No drastic differences here, no reason to mess around with a good recipe.      

It's all about meatloaf's Big 3: the flavor, the texture and the crust, a really crisp browned crust. A hot oven and a cast iron skillet will produce the best crust, yielding a meatloaf with a brown bottom and firm, structured sides. A quick flash under the oven broiler takes care of crisping up the top a bit. 

I can practice restraint when dining in public and use knife and fork plus my very best table manners, but at home I'll pinch off nibbles of crispy, browned crust, one after another. I love those crunchy edges and tend to ignore the soft, flavorful middle - at least until I visualize a sandwich. A cold meatloaf sandwich with an inch-thick slice of meat, slathered with grainy yellow mustard and creamy horseradish, topped with dill pickle slices and layered between dark rye bread, just might be more satisfying than a generous serving of meatloaf fresh from the oven. Maybe. It's a close contest.   

Tonight, mindful of portion control, I covered my small plate with a mound of stir-fried cabbage with onion and fennel seed, plus two puny chunks of delicious, well-seasoned, crispy-crusted meatloaf. Such restraint... RL went for seconds. Now I'll dream about cold meatloaf sandwiches until lunchtime tomorrow.  

Photo: Iron Skillet Meatloaf - minus one nibble of a crusty edge

Iron Skillet Brown Bottom Meat Loaf

inspired by a recipe in Pasta &Company by Request                              
Serves 4

                

1/2 cup onion, small dice           

1/3 cup jalapeño or poblano pepper, minced

1/3 cup celery, small dice        

2 fat cloves garlic, pressed

                  

2 eggs, beaten                                     

1/4 cup barbecue sauce

1/4 cup whole milk

3/4 tsp ground cumin

3/4 tsp each salt and black pepper

1/8 tsp chipotle or ancho chile powder

1/4 tsp sweet, smoked paprika (pimenton)

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1 pound ground beef 

1/2 pound pork sausage

1/3 cup bread crumbs 

10-inch cast iron skillet, well seasoned

Soften the diced onion, pepper, celery and garlic in a covered dish in the microwave OR in the skillet with a bit of butter. Remove and let cool.

Preheat oven to 375.

In large bowl, beat together thoroughly the eggs, barbecue sauce, milk, cumin, salt, black pepper, chipotle powder, smoked paprika and nutmeg. Add beef, pork sausage & bread crumbs. Knead together by hand until well incorporated. Add the cooled vegetable mixture and blend thoroughly.

Pack meat mixture into a compact round with a flattened top, slightly smaller than the cast iron cooking skillet. That way you can easily lift the loaf out of the drippings to serve. (OR you could use a standard loaf pan or several small loaf pans though the crust wouldn't be the same. Muffin tins would work for individual servings, but sandwich options would be difficult. Adjust cooking time as needed.) 

Either way, bake on a center oven rack at 375 degrees F. for 50 to 55 minutes, or until cooked through and the drippings run clear. When meat loaf is done, remove from oven and drain off the drippings. I like to return the skillet to the oven, move the rack up to the upper third and broil the meatloaf for a minute or two until the top crisps up a bit (optional).

Let stand for several minutes to firm up. Slice wedges or divide in half and slice off straight pieces from center to edge. Serve and enjoy.

                                                          

Beef Bourguignon , aka Beef Stew

We woke up to a hint of snow, a skim coat of flakes barely thick enough to frost the decks, bushes and lawn but not sufficient to blanket the landscape. This wasn't the snow event predicted by TV forecasters, not a real snow like the storms hitting the central and eastern states. No, this sprinkle of snow was just a reminder of things to come.

After several days of winds and hard rain this was a welcome weather change! By afternoon the clouds cleared, the sun came out and the temperature dropped into the mid-to-high twenties. Brrrr, time to layer on some sweaters and get busy in the kitchen with some comfort food cooking... easy-prep comfort food... beef stew kind of comfort food.

Friends are coming by tomorrow for a late lunch and a round of Mexican Train. I mentally skimmed the list of our favorite cold-weather soups, chilies, gumbos and the like, searching for something that would be a delicious but casual kitchen meal, a no-fuss menu to fit a flexible schedule. Richly flavorful Beef Bourguignon sounded like a winner; a dish that actually improves in flavor if prepared a day ahead. It helped that I had all of the ingredients in stock and didn't have to go out and play with the post-Thanksgiving crowds of shoppers still clogging the shopping center parking lots. 

The rest of the menu will be simple since stew is such a substantial main dish. I'm thinking hot spiced cider and deviled eggs for a warm-up nibble as people arrive, colorful marinated grape tomatoes and mozzarella balls as a salad...

...tiny red potatoes to add to the stew, some crusty French bread to soak up every last drop of that wonderful gravy...

 ...and an apple galette for dessert as we take a break midway through the game. (not pictured: RL added a towering pile of whipped cream to each slice, and no one protested.)

That's my menu, what do you serve with your beef stew?   

Beef Bourguinon

based on a favorite recipe found in Tyler Florence's cookbook, Real Kitchen.

Yields 3 quarts, about 8 servings

1 Tbs Canola oil
2 slices bacon (not maple flavored)
4 lbs chuck roast, dried with paper towels, fat trimmed & cut into large, bite-size cubes
Salt & freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup brandy (or port or marsala, etc.)
1 bottle hearty red wine (Pinot Noir, Merlot, Burgundy, etc)
1 can (14.5 oz) low-sodium beef broth
2 generous Tbs tomato paste (from a tube)
cheesecloth bag with 4" sprig rosemary, 6 sprigs thyme, 2 bay leaves
4 garlic cloves, chopped (or Gourmet Garden chunky garlic in a tube) 
2 cups pearl onions, blanched & peeled (or 1 bag frozen) 
1 pint white mushrooms, stems trimmed, large 'shrooms halved (or add some reconstituted, dried 'shrooms)
Pinch of sugar
2 Tbs unsalted butter (optional)
Gremolata garnish of freshly minced flat-leaf parsley and the zest of 1 lemon

Add the oil to a heavy-bottomed Dutch oven and heat over medium heat. Add the bacon strips and cook until crisp; remove to a paper towel and hold until ready to serve. Pat the beef dry again with paper towels, then add to the pot to brown in several batches. Sear the beef cubes on all sides in the bacon drippings, letting each side sit undisturbed until browned. Remove to a bowl and season each batch with salt and pepper.

Return all of the browned meat and their juices to the pot. Sprinkle the flour over the meat and stir to completely coat each cube until all of the flour is incorporated. Add the brandy and stir; loosen all of the browned bits on the bottom of the pan (there's a lot of flavor lurking there). Cook and stir to evaporate the alcohol. Add the red wine and beef broth; stir in the tomato paste; add the cheesecloth bag of herbs. Bring to a simmer and cook until the liquid begins to thicken and develops a sauce like consistency, about 12-15 minutes. Cover the pot and simmer over very low heat for 1 hour. Use a flame tamer/heat diffuser if needed to keep the pot at a low simmer instead of a hearty boil.

Uncover the pot; add the garlic, onions, mushrooms and the pinch of sugar. (The sugar will balance the acidity of the red wine.) Taste; season with salt and pepper as needed. Raise the heat slightly and simmer for another 40 minutes, or until the vegetables and the meat are tender. Remove the cheesecloth packet of herbs; stir in the butter to add a glossy finish to the sauce (optional). Sprinkle with the gremolata (minced parsley and lemon zest) and crumbled, reserved bacon just before serving.

Accompany with whole or mashed potatoes or buttered noodles, crusty bread or soft biscuits, You won't want to waste any of the delicious gravy!

Note: if you prepare the stew a day ahead, hold it in the fridge overnight and skim of the solidified grease before reheating and adding the finish of butter and gremolata.