Meat Archives - The FrangloSaxon Cooks

Grillades & Grits

September 5, 2018 by Carine Clary Leave a Comment

Grillades is the breakfast dish you make at night. Wake up, put the pot on to warm and start making the grits. In less time than it takes for people to stumble into the kitchen you will have prepared a delicious, complex and filling meal that will keep family and/or guests full for hours.

Although a classic brunch dish usually eaten out, it can be a lifesaver on holidays when you have lots of people but need something to feed the masses which can be served stoveside.

To start you must flour and saute the meat in batches like this: And note that you can also slice it into strips as I did before adding it to the gravy.

The meat can be beef, veal or pork but since it is a low and slow cooking dish I would opt for the cheaper cuts of beef or pork as veal’s delicate flavor would be really swallowed up in the sauce, or should I say gravy….and we know how southerners like their gravy. After you have browned all the meat set it aside and add the vegetables to the pot:

Cook for a few minutes until softened then add the beef broth. Stir well and to enhance the gravy I make a paste of the dredging flour and some balsamic vinegar like this:

Once everything is well mixed lay the meat into the gravy making sure it is covered then put the top on and cook until the meat is fork tender. When it’s done you can either serve or refrigerate for the next day.

The other critical component is the grits. Grits are simple as long as you follow a few simple rules. They should be stone ground, stirred well, and salted & peppered thoroughly…and fresh pepper too. The liquid can be water but for really delicious grits I use chicken broth and heavy cream. The heavy cream suggestion came from the owner of the Refuel Café on Hampson Street. He has the best grits in town and that’s why.

And even though the grillades are swimming in gravy, don’t forget to add some butter to the grits (as seen below, pooling around the edges). Eat this for a late breakfast and it’ll last you to mid afternoon. Happily!

Grillades

Author: Carine Clary

Cuisine: Creole

Ingredients

For the Meat Sauce:
2 lbs beef round
1 cup flour
6 tablespoons vegetable oil (or rendered bacon fat)
1 cup onion, diced
½ cup green bell pepper, diced
½ cup red bell pepper, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 stalks celery, diced
1 tsp. ground fennel
2 sprigs of fresh thyme or 1 tsp. ground
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
2 bay leaves
1 10 oz. can of beef consume
1 14 oz. can of diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons of the dredging flour
1 tablespoon of red balsamic (or wine) vinegar
For the grits:
2 cups grits
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream
salt and fresh black pepper to taste

Instructions

For the grillades:
Pound out meat until about ¼ inch thick, then dredge in flour.
Heat to medium a large pan and pour in oil.
Place in pan to brown on each side. Prepare in batches and set aside.
Add onion, green & red bell pepper, garlic and celery and saute for 5 minutes or until softened.
Add beef consume, diced tomatoes, fennel, thyme, paprika and bay leaves and give it a good stir.
Take the flour from dreadging & enough wine vinegar to make a thick paste then stir into sauce slowly to thicken.
Lay in the meat & make sure it's submerged in the sauce. Cover & cook on low for 2 hours or in the oven at 225 for the same amount of time. If you cook on the stove top check to make sure the bottom isn't burning.
For the grits:
Combine all ingredients, cook over a medium flame and stir continuously until done.

Notes

Be careful when adding salt if you use canned beef consume. The canned soup is very salty.

Prima Nachos

January 26, 2018 by Carine Clary Leave a Comment

Named after Louis, as in Prima, these nachos are at the intersection where Tex-Mex meets Trapani, as in Sicily. The Prima family traveled from Trapani, Sicily to the Quarter where their musical son first cut his teeth on the club scene. You can cut yours on these easy Italian style nachos that are extremely fast to make.

Nachos Tex-Mex origin comes from just over the border in Piedras Negras (which technically makes it Mex-Mex but we’ll ignore that for the moment). They were whipped up by Ignacio (Nacho) Anaya for some hungry military wives from Fort Duncan back during World War II and his original creation consisted only of chips, cheese, and jalapenos. It was an instant hit and cooks have been tweaking it with added ingredients ever since.

I like to keep the add ons to some kind of reasonable number leaving the “super loaded” specials for sports bars with fully staffed kitchens. Shooting here for tasty but simple.

To start you’ll just shake out that bag a’ chips onto a cookie sheet or cast iron skillet. Next you’ll cook up the sausage, warm up the refried beans, add the tomato, onion, olives & fontina, broil and attack!

I use refried beans since bean beans tend to fall off the nacho. As you can see in the picture below I added a couple of tablespoons of a chicken broth reduction to make them a little bit easier to put on the chips. If you don’t have broth just thin with some water.

Fontina cheese is used because it’s Italian and melts better than anything except Velveeta (but tastes a lot better than V.) If you don’t have it Pepper Jack or Colby work well. After the sausage is cooked you can move it to the side of the pan and warm the refried beans. Then get all the toppings together and start building the nachos.

Always put the beans and meat on first and add the others as you like not forgetting to add the cheese last.

Ready to go under the broiler:

Ready to eat:

The best part is that if you’ve got the ingredients on hand and aren’t photographing it like I am here it should take about 15 minutes start to finish.

And to quote Louis, there is no “Basta Basta” to these guys so assemble and enjoy!

Prima Nachos

Author: Carine Clary

Cuisine: Italian

Ingredients

Tortilla Chips
1 lb. hot Italian bulk sausage
1 cup refried beans, slightly thinned
½ cup sliced black olives
½ cup chopped tomatoes
¼ cup sliced green onion tops
Thinly sliced chilies to taste
½ cup grated Fontina cheese

Instructions

Spread chips out on a cookie sheet or cast iron skillet.
Cook sausage over medium heat until browned. Depending on how fatty the sausage is you may have to add a little olive oil.
Once the sausage is done, cut the heat and move it over to the side of the pan and add the refried beans to warm.
To assemble start with the refried beans, then add the sausage and finish with the olives, tomatoes, green onion tops and sliced chilies.
Top with the grated cheese and run under the broiler until the cheese is melted, then serve.

Notes

All the ingredient amounts are approximate. If you go exactly by the recipe you'll have enough for a large cookie sheet's worth of nachos but if you have all the fixings you can just play it by ear.

Pork Adobo St. Malo

December 8, 2017 by Carine Clary Leave a Comment

You’ve heard of ‘the other white meat’ right? Well this is the ‘other adobo’ as in Filipino Pork Adobo, not Mexican. I’m calling it Adobo St. Malo since it’s Louisiana Filipino Adobo and if that sounds strange to your ears then clean them out and get to larnin… because the oldest colony of Asians in the United States was populated by Filipinos in St. Malo, Louisiana.

St. Malo itself was founded by Jean St. Malo who led a group of runaway slaves escaping the Spanish in 1784, Louisiana being a Spanish colony at the time. They settled in the marsh on Lake Borgne and were soon joined by ‘Manila Men’ aka, Filipino sailors who’d been forced into service on Spanish ships. Swabbing decks and eating wormy hardtack had apparently lost their appeal, motivating the Manila Men to jump ship and make common cause with the escapees in St. Malo. More Tagalas as they were also called after their language, Tagalog, came to south Louisiana and settled in several villages near New Orleans. There were enough to support Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans in 1803, and when they weren’t fighting they were fishing.

They developed the market for what’s called sea bob – those tiny dried shrimp that come in plastic bags in Asian markets and are great for flavoring stock. They also supplied the French market with all the other kinds of fish the gulf provides. And they were well enough known to be profiled by Lafcadio Hearn in an article published in 1883. He described them as “cinnamon colored men, well knit and supple as fresh water eels.” I’ve never heard of a person or group of people described as having eel like qualities but the general tone of the article is complimentary so I suppose we should take it that way. He also described their Malay style houses with the thatched, hat shaped roofs built right above the marsh on stilts and some odd encounters with one legged chickens who had been disabled by the bites of carnivorous crabs.

Interestingly, the Manila men kept the fish camps as bachelor quarters and visited their wives in the city on market days which no doubt kept their marriages as fresh as the seafood they were selling. But on to the food!

The great thing about Adobo St. Malo is that it’s forgiving and by that I mean ingredients that can be more or less than what’s mentioned here and the cooking time is somewhat fungible. It’s almost impossible to overcook and perfect for a crock pot. It’s also perfect with chicken, duck or even goat. The only warning is to go easy on the vinegar or you will have to compensate with more honey or brown sugar in the final dish. Ideally the sugar should act to enhance the other flavors not be a bottled teriyaki corn syrup taste alike.

It’s one of those dishes that’s fast to set up and slow to cook allowing the chef (if it’s a she chef) to beat a retreat and emerge later wearing a Dorothy Lamour like sarong just in time to lift the lid off this savory sweet stew. Serve this dish in that dress and someone might just serve you a very nice dessert!

Pork Adobo St. Malo

Author: Carine Clary

Ingredients

2 lbs pork shoulder cut into chunks
½ of medium onion, sliced thin
5 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon chili flakes
2 tablespoons ginger grated
2 tablespoons peppercorns
honey or brown sugar to taste, usually about 2 to 3 tablespoons
1 bay leaf
½ cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar (or cider vinegar)
1.5 cup chicken broth

Instructions

Cut the pork shoulder into large chunks & add salt & pepper to taste.
Brown quickly in an oiled pan, then remove & set aside.
Drain excess fat (if there is any) then add onion & garlic. Cook over medium heat till clear. Do not brown.
Add vinegar, soy sauce, broth, bay leaf, hot pepper flakes, peppercorns & ginger.
Place pork back in the sauce, cover & cook over low heat for 30 minutes or until the meat is fork tender. You can cook on the stove top or in a 250 degree oven for about 45 minutes.
Remove pork & reduce sauce to desired thickness, add honey & return pork to pan.
Serve over rice and garnish with sliced pepper & green onion.

Chicken Rochambeau

January 7, 2017 by Carine Clary Leave a Comment

If they had Denny’s in France this would probably be the Friday open faced sandwich special. Hot, creamy, satisfying. Except it’s French so instead of cheese sauce it has Bearnaise and just to enhance your feelings of inadequacy they will place the toast on top of yet another sauce called Marchand de Vin. (That’s ‘wine merchant sauce’ in American) You can see it in the picture leaking from beneath like a busted fuel line in an old Chevy.

Leave it to the French to turn diner type comfort food into a dish called Chicken Rochambeau. It’s named after a General who fought under Washington in the Revolutionary War and I could retail his biography right here and impress you with my ability to regurgitate an encyclopedia entry but I won’t. Because you know what? I don’t think he ever ate his chicken. Chicken, yes. Chicken Rochambeau….Qu’est-ce que c’est? He probably would have loved it but I imagine he choked down the same gruel as the other patriots back at Valley Forge.

Still the name is distinguished and the dish is filling and I hate to admit it but that extra sauce on the bottom is a really tasty touch. Damn those French! Their culinary snobbery, while annoying, is usually justified. So here I will stop rambling get on with it.

What you have here is basically a stacked sandwich with two sauces. The easy part is toasting the bread and getting the meat on top. For the ham you may use deli slices or leftover New Year’s holiday ham. Next comes the chicken. I use a skin on breast, salted & peppered, drizzled with oil & a squirt of lemon juice and run in a 350 degree oven till the skin is brown & crispy, about 30 minutes. To ensure crispy skin dry it off with a paper towel before doing the other stuff. Leaving the skin on adds flavor to the final dish.

And just for the record the picture below represents what most people call ‘a chicken breast.’ It’s not. It’s actually half of a breast. So when the recipe calls for ‘a breast’ it means two of these guys.

Now to the sauces. Realistically no one will make an extra sauce unless it’s really easy so that’s how I’m making it here. This version of Marchand de Vin sauce, although lacking somewhat in haute cuisine authenticity, is really really easy and very fast. It also tastes good.

To do it make a roux then add some shallots and next the beef broth. When it’s smooth drop in a bay leaf, ground black pepper and some thyme (either a sprig or a pinch of powdered) and let simmer for about ten minutes to extract the bay & thyme flavors. If you have extra tarragon from the bearnaise sauce add some as well. And here’s where it gets fast. Instead of adding a lot of red wine and waiting for it to boil down you just add a few teaspoons of a nice thick red balsamic vinegar. Cover it, strain when you’re ready to assemble, and you have an acceptable approximation of one of the basic brown sauces of French cooking. You should make this sauce first, take it off the heat and let the flavors develop while you prepare the rest.

Following the directions below will yield a good Bearnaise Sauce – just don’t step away while the wine vinegar mixture is simmering. The point of boiling the wine vinegar, shallots & tarragon down to a couple of tablespoons is to concentrate flavor. This is what turns the egg yolks and butter into a great sauce. And be sure and add a full tablespoon or more of finely chopped tarragon to the final sauce before serving.

Once all this is done put a spoonful of the Marchand de Vin sauce on the plate, toast on top, then ham then chicken then Bearnaise then eat!

Chicken Rochambeau

Author: Carine Clary

Cuisine: Creole

Ingredients

For the sandwich:
1 chicken breast cut in half
4 slices artisan style sourdough bread or French bread
Salt & pepper to taste
1 cup Marchand de Vin Sauce
1 cup Bearnaise Sauce
Marchand de Vin Sauce*
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
Small diced shallot
Ground Pepper to taste
1 bay leaf
1 clove crushed garlic
Pinch of ground thyme (or 1 sprig of fresh)
3 teaspoons red balsamic vinegar
1 can Campbell's Beef Consume (or 1¼ cup beef broth)**
Optional tarragon if you have some leftover from the bearnaise sauce
Bearnaise Sauce
3 tablespoons diced shallots
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons chopped tarragon
1 tablespoon water
2 egg yolks
1 stick butter cut into pieces and chilled plus an extra half stick if you like a thinner sauce.
Extra chopped tarragon (about 1 to 2 tablespoons) to stir into the finished sauce.

Instructions

For the Marchand de Vin Sauce:
Melt butter & whisk in flour to make the roux.
Stir in diced shallot & seasonings then add beef broth & whisk until smooth.
Let simmer on low heat for 5 or 10 minutes.
Stir in the balsamic vinegar, cover & reserve for later.
Strain when ready to use.
For the Sandwich:
Dry off the chicken breast, drizzle with oil, add salt, pepper & lemon juice.
Place in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until brown.
Remove, let cool a bit and separate into pieces suitable for laying over the toasted bread.
For the Bearnaise:
Put the shallots, vinegar, tarragon, salt & pepper in a sauce pan and cook over low heat until only a couple of tablespoons of liquid remain.
Strain into a container and let cool.
Rinse out the sauce pan and put the cooled liquid back in with the two egg yolks.
Cook over low heat until thickened then start adding teaspoon sized chunks of cold butter.
Keep whisking in the butter bit by bit until you reach the desired thickness. In my case this is a little less than a stick, for others it may be up to a stick & a half. Play it by ear and stop when it looks right to you.
Assembly:
Put a spoonful of Marchand de Vin sauce on the plate.
Place toast on top & cover with ham and chicken.
Cover with a ladle of Bearnaise Sauce.

Notes

*Any leftover Marchand de Vin sauce is great spooned over a Salisbury steak (also known as a bunless hamburger and a popular Swanson's frozen dinner back in the day.)

**If you use Campbell's Beef Consume in the Marchand de Vin sauce be aware that it is very salty and adjust seasonings accordingly.

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