Just The Filling, Please

We made homemade Runza for Christmas eve this year with our usual Sausage Tortellini soup. Of course I had a bit more filling than bread so it went into the fridge.

Now Runza is a great idea but not so much at the local shop these days. They have amazing burgers but the Runza sandwich seems a little mushy and less than fresh these days especially when compared to these homemade beauties.

I made this filling and used Rhodes Texas Size frozen rolls for the bread component. They make perfect mini sandwiches but drives my blood sugar skyward due to the carby bread. Tonight I had just small bowl of leftover filling with a slice of American Cheese melted over the top for a really tasty, low carb dinner. It was so good.

Here is how I make my Runza filling:

1 to 1 1/2 pound ground beef 85%
1 package of coleslaw mix
1 medium onion, diced
1 tbls butter
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Salt and pepper.
Saute the onion in butter till translucent, add the ground beef and cook till no longer pink. drain if need but leave some fat to wilt the slaw you add next along with the garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Cook till the cabage slaw is tender crisp, sample to adjust seasoning, then set aside to cool.

After the rolls rise, flatten them out into oblongs, fill with a heaping tablespoon of filling and a 1/4 to 1/2 slice of  American Cheese. I especially like Kroeger brand as its thick and tasty. Seal the roll and place seam side down on parchment. Bake at 350 till golden brown. 

Lasagna Bolognese

Big big family gatherings demand big food and this fits the bill. A giant pan of Lasagna Bolognese. If I found this recipe on another blogger’s site and made the sauce right way with the left over ground beef I had from making Runzas. Another delicious endeavor that were devoured on Christmas Eve. 

An ambitious undertaking, making the pasta, doubling the recipe to fit the 12 by 18  pan and handling the hot pasta right out of the boiling water. You definitely need asbestos hands for this. Assembled in 5 grand layers, there is no ricotta here, just pasta and layers of Bolognese sauce and bechamel. I used every bit of all with about a pound of freshly grated Parmesan and a Romano. 

It baked in about an hour at 400 and did not disappoint. Lighter than regular with super thin pasta and lacking the heavy filling, I tried to get a post cut glamour shot but it did not hold its shape well unless I waited for it to cool completely. No chance of that. 

Here’s the recipe from Smitten Kitchen’s blog

https://smittenkitchen.com/2012/02/lasagna-bolognese/

Bolognese sauce
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped (1-inch pieces are fine)
1 large or 2 slim carrots, coarsely chopped
2 ribs celery, coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 pounds ground chuck, brisket or round or combination
1 1/4 cups tomato paste (from 2 6-ounce cans)
2 cups red wine, preferably hearty but really, anything you like to drink
Water as needed
2 bay leaves
A few sprigs thyme, tied in a bundle

Pasta
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 to 2 tablespoons water, if needed

Béchamel sauce
1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups whole milk
1 teaspoon table salt
1 clove minced garlic
Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper

To assemble
1 2/3 cups grated Parmesan cheese

Day 1: Make the bolognese sauce: In a food processor, pulse onion, carrots, celery, and garlic until finely chopped. Heat a moderate-sized Dutch oven (4 to 5 quarts) over medium-high heat. Once hot, coat the bottom of the pan with two to three tablespoons of oil. Once it is hot, add the chopped vegetables and season them generously with salt and pepper. Cook the vegetables until they are evenly brown, stirring frequently, about 15 minutes.

I’m going to insert my favorite Burrell-ism here: Brown food tastes good! Don’t skimp on the cooking times as this creates the big flavors the will carry right through to your plated lasagna. And now I’m going to insert my own-ism: Don’t worry about sticking bits of food or uneven pieces or anything. It’s all going to work out in the end.

Add the ground beef and seasoning again with salt and pepper. Brown the beef well and again, don’t rush this step. Cook for another 15 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the red wine, using it to scrape up any stuck bits in the pan. Cook the wine until it has reduced by half, about 5 more minutes. Add water to the pan until the water is about 1 inch above the meat. Toss in the bay leaves and the bundle of thyme and stir to combine everything, bringing it to a low simmer.

Here’s how the next 3 to 4 hours will go: You’ll keep a pitcher of water near the stove. You’ll stir the sauce from time to time. As the water in the sauce cooks off, you’ll want to add more but you don’t want to add more than 1 to 2 cups at a time or you’ll have boiled meat sauce (bleh) rather than something thick and robust with flavor. Taste it from time to time and add more seasoning if needed. Simmer for 3 to 4 hours.

You’ll have about 8 to 8 1/2 cups of sauce but will only need 4 for the lasagna. Discard the thyme and bay leaves and put half in the fridge for lasagna assembly tomorrow and the other half in the freezer for up to a couple months. Ours was still as good as day one after 6 weeks.

Day 2: Make your pasta: Combine all of the pasta ingredients in a food processor. Run the machine until the mixture begins to form a ball. You’re looking for a dough that is firm but not sticky. If needed, add water a drop at a time until it comes together. Place ball of dough on a lightly floured surface and invert a bowl over it. Let it rest for an hour. (You’ll have about 10 ounces or a little less than 2/3 pound of fresh pasta dough.)

Get your work area ready; I like to line a large tray with waxed paper. Dust the waxed paper with flour. Keep more waxed paper and flour nearby.

Working with a quarter of the dough at a time, run in through your pasta roller on the widest setting (usually “0”), then repeat this process with the roller set increasingly smaller (1, 2, 3) until the pasta is very thin. My Atlas machine goes to 9 but I almost always stop at 8 because this setting makes for thin, delicate pasta that’s not so fragile that I’m pulling my hair out with frustration trying to move it around.

If you find your dough sticking, lightly flour it. If it gets too big to handle, cut it in half. If the piece gets too wide for the machine or becomes annoyingly irregularly shaped, I re-“fold” the dough by folding the sides of the dough into the middle, like an envelope, and press it flat. Then, run the piece back through the machine with the open sides up and down on the widest setting again (0) working your way thinner. This allows the machine to “press” any trapped air out.

Lay your pasta on the floured waxed paper in a single layer, trying to keep the pieces from touching. Flour the tops of them and place another sheet of floured wax paper on top. Repeat this process with the remaining dough and as many layers of pasta you need.

Next, cook your pasta: Cut your pasta lengths into square-ish shapes. The fun thing about making fresh pasta for lasagna is that the shape doesn’t much matter; you’re going to tile together whatever you have and nobody will care if it took 9 or 16 bits to patch the layer together. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Have ready a skimmer, a large bowl of ice water and a large tray or platter that you’ve drizzled or spritzed with oil. Boil several of squares of noodle at a time for 1 to 2 minutes each (1 minute if you, indeed, went to the thinnest setting on your machine; 2 if you, like me, stopped one shy of thinnest). Scoop them out with your skimmer, swish them in the ice water and lay them out (still wet is fine) on the oiled platter. Repeat with remaining pasta. It’s okay to have your noodles touch; they shouldn’t stick together in the short period of time until you begin assembling but if you’re nervous, you can drizzle or spritz each layer very lightly with more oil.

Make your béchamel: Melt your butter in the bottom of a medium-to-large saucepan over medium heat. Once melted, add your flour and stir it into the butter until smooth. Cook the mixture together for a minute, stirring constantly. Pour in a small drizzle of your milk*, whisking constantly into the butter-flour mixture until smooth. Continue to drizzle a very small amount at a time, whisking constantly. Once you’ve added a little over half of your milk, you’ll find that you have more of a thick sauce or batter, and you can start adding the milk in larger splashes, being sure to keep mixing. Once all of the milk is added, add the salt, garlic, nutmeg (if using) and few grinds of black pepper, and bring the mixture to a lower simmer and cook it, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed.

* Yes, cold is fine. I divert from the proper béchamel method here as I’ve found that as long as you add your milk slowly, you do not need to heat it separately first. Hooray for fewer steps and pots!

At last, you may assemble your dish: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a 9×13-inch or equivalent rectangular baking dish, spread a generous 1/4 cup of the béchamel. I mostly use this to keep the noodles from sticking. Add your first layer of cooked noodles, patching and slightly overlapping them however is needed to form a single layer. Ladle 1 cup bolognese sauce over the noodles, spreading it evenly. Drizzle 1/2 cup béchamel over the bolognese; don’t worry about getting it perfectly smooth or even. Sprinkle the layer with 1/3 cup parmesan cheese. Repeat this process — pasta + 1 cup bolognese + 1/2 cup béchamel + 1/3 cup parmesan — three more times, then add one more layer of pasta. You’ll use 5 layers of pasta total.

There are two ways to finish the dish. You can simply sprinkle the top layer of pasta with your remaining parmesan before baking. This makes the crunchiest lid. I like a semi-crunchy lid and first spread 1/4 cup béchamel over the top layer of pasta before sprinkling it with the remaining cheese. It still gets crunchy — and has corners that are worth fighting over — but never unpleasantly so.

Bake your lasagna for 30 to 45 minutes, until bubbly all over and browned on top. You should do absolutely nothing but put your feet up and drink a glass of wine while you do; you’ve earned it. When it comes out of the oven, I like to let it rest for 10 minutes before serving it.

Do ahead: Lasagna can be prepared right up until the baking point a day in advance, and kept wrapped in plastic in the fridge. Theoretically, you could also freeze it at this point but I haven’t tried this. I’ll update this to say “go for it” if many people respond in the comments that they’ve done so successfully. Lasagna will also reheat well for up to three days, possibly longer but in my apartment, we’ve never had the chance to find out.

Sous Vide Bandwagon

Lot's of interested parties regarding the Sous Vide cooking we do at the Denich House. Its quite a foreign concept to some that you can cook a whole roast of beef  in a water bath and have it turn out so well. As for us and our house, a steak only gets cooked in the sous vide. This way I am assured that I won't completely ruin a nice cut of expensive meat and it will be tender and juicy but there can be some pitfalls.

This Christmas I cooked 2 New York Strip roasts. One over night in the sous vide and one for just 5 hours. They did not turn out the same at all and frankly I was a little surprised.

The over-nighter was cooked far too well. It could have been the long rest time or that it just cooked too long. I expected it to be more tender than the short cooked one but it was not and was done throughout. Too done. My oven was just not big enough to cook 2 roast this size but the 2nd roast was a bright medium rare through out even after a reverse sear and hold in the oven.


We purchased Benjamin a unit for Christmas this year, and Anova Stick Sous Vide. I am hoping it works as well as my oven for him and according to Nicholas it will. He uses his quite a bit also.

I rarely use the vacuum sealer any longer as water displacement and freezer bags does a great job at containing the meat. I have used the method for everything from chicken to lobster tails with great success. This roast last night was my first over cooked disappointment. Not sure what happened but I have no reason to cook a roast like this that long. Those cooking times are reserved for tougher cuts like a brisket.

New York Cheescake recipe

New York Cheesecake

Ingredients:
5 large eggs, room temperature
2 cups (one pint) sour cream, room temperature
4 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
8 tablespoons (one stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest





Directions:
Generously butter the inside of a 10-inch springform pan. Wrap a double layer of heavy-duty aluminum foil tightly around the outside bottom and sides, crimping and pleating the foil to make it conform to the pan. This will help to prevent water seeping into the pan when you put it into the bain-marie. Position the baking rack in the center of the oven; preheat the oven to 300* Fahrenheit.
In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the eggs with the sour cream until well blended.
In a medium-sized bowl, beat the cream cheese with the butter until smooth and creamy.

Add this to the egg-sour cream mixture and beat until smooth.
Add the sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, lemon juice and lemon zest and beat thoroughly, about 2 minutes.

Pour into the prepared springform pan and place in a roasting pan (or other pan) large enough to prevent the sides from touching. Place in the oven and carefully pour in enough very hot tap water to reach halfway up the sides of the springform pan.

Bake for 2 hours, 15 minutes, or until the cake is very lightly colored and a knife inserted in the center emerges clean. Remove from the water bath and carefully peel the aluminum foil from around the pan. Let stand at room temperature until completely cool, about 4 hours. Refrigerate, covered, until well chilled. For best flavor and texture, this cheesecake is best chilled overnight.

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Better Living Through Bionics

You may or might not know I have diabetes, type 2. I struggle daily to keep my sugar under control with my treatment plan that includes diet and medications including some night time insulin.   I began to see an endocrinologist a few months ago to get me back on track and manage this illness more thoroughly.  He suggested a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) but lamented the cost and that our new insurance would not cover the device and monthly expense.
I had nothing to lose so I called my company and they actually do cover some of the cost and had a company I needed to use. The device came last week and I put it to use right away. No more finger sticks! Yay me! It monitors my sugar every minute and I check several more times a day than I did sticking my fingers. The sensor lasts 2 weeks before needing a change and my iPhone tracks it all! The downside is  I occasionally catch the sensor on the door jamb and there is a needle there so it hurts a bit.  I think the next one needs to move a little more posterior.

I am so happy to live in this age and be a part of these scientific wonders. Monitoring has been revealing some interesting insights to my daily life and nighttime activity. Turns out that bedtime snack is a huge deal and prevents me from dipping pretty low while sleeping. I look for more protein based snacks during the day to prevent spikes and refrain from foods when I am running high. As you can imagine, this feeds into my obsessiveness about my sugars, in a good way.

Pizzelles and family

Definitely an acquired taste, these are not for everyone as they have anise as the flavoring and not many love the taste of licorice. I do as an adult, but not so much when I was a kid. Most of the appeal for these cookies is the memory of making them with my mom, one at a time with a heavy iron that came from Fante’s in Philly.  The recipe was a closely guarded secret by mom although I am not sure why. I believe I saw it on the packing that came with the iron. 

There are several varieties and flavors now and I have made gingerbread pizzelles but these elicit the fondest memories. 

I had the recipe printed on dish towels after mom died but it wasn’t in her had, she had typed it on a card. Too funny but typical. I had a hard time telling from her recipes which ones she wrote and which ones I wrote for her. Very similar penmanship. 

The debate recently with my cousins on Facebook centered around using he heavy single iron or an electric that makes 2 at a time and quite quickly. I use the electric although my gas range would do the job well, I’m afraid I would crack my granite counter with the iron.  

So here goes with minor variations from the original recipe mostly dealing with the flavoring. I use anise extract, seed, fennel seed and today, star anise powdered by hand. Star anise is quite strong so a little went a long way.

Pizzelles

6 eggs

2 1/4 cups sugar

2 sticks of butter, melted and cooled

1 tbl baking powder

1/2 teas baking soda

8 cups flour

1 tbl anise extract

2 teaspoons crushed anise seed

1 teaspoons crush fennel

1 star anise ground. 

Combine eggs and sugar and beat with mixer till ribbons form.  Add the cooled butter and beat thoroughly. Add the crushed seeds and extract and mix in. In another bowl, combine the baking powder, soda and flour.  Add the flour in batches. The dough will be quite stiff. Check the flavor, the time to add more is now.  I used a 1 ounce scoop to fill my baker and cooked till light brown. On the electric, the steam will lessen. Remove the cookies to a wire rack and let cool. They will crisp up as the dry. Store in a zip lock bag. I usually make just half a recipe at a time and yes cousin Bob, I use my Kitchen Aid.