Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen

Located on Cane Creek Road in Lake Lure is a farm run by the Crocker family.  Kathleen and Larry Crocker have been raising cows and pigs for many years.  Origninally they used the meat for their own consumption, but there was so much interest in what they were doing they began raising their animals for commercial consumption.  The meat from Vandele Farms is USDA approved, but most importantly, it is chemical, additive and antibiotic free.  Their beef is pastured and given a supplement of vegetarian, chemical free feed.  Take a look at their website and the gallery of pictures showing pigs frolicking in the fields.  There is something to be said for meat from animals who have been treated humanely.  I, for one, feel good about buying farm raised meat and supporting my local economy.

From that beautifully marbled beef chuck I made my Daube de Boeuf Provencale.  The long slow cooking rendered the beef tenderly delicious.   The origin of the word daube comes from the French name of the cooking vessel, a daubiere, in which the beef stew is cooked.  The vessel is shaped in such a way that it traps the moisture that is released in the cooking process and keeps the stew moist.  You can achieve the same results in any heavy covered casserole by placing a round of parchment paper over the beef mixture.

I have looked at many daube recipes.  The Provencal origin of the recipe dictates that it should include olives, but many of the recipes I saw do not include olives.  If you are an olive lover, do include them.  But be aware that they do impart their distinctive flavor to the dish.

I am flying to Anchorage, Alaska today to join David on his motorcycle trip.  I will post when I can.  The guys are going halibut fishing while in Homer, Alaska so I am hoping to get pictures of the catch and the preparation of the fish.  We will journey from Alaska to Vancouver, where I will meet up with  a fellow blogger.  I am excited to meet her.  Then it is on to Bend, Oregon where we will check out some of the wineries and enjoy the scenery before we girls fly home.  An adventure awaits!

DAUBE DE BOEUF PROVENCALE

3 lbs beef chuck, cut into cubes
1 cup red wine
2 tablespoons brandy
5 tablespoons  olive oil, divided
2 slices bacon, diced
1 large onion, minced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 large carrot, grated
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 (32 ounce) can whole tomatoes, with juices
12 green olives, pitted and halved
1/4 cup white mushrooms
1/4 cup chanterelle mushrooms
1/4 cup shiitake mushrooms
3 fresh parsley sprigs, chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste

Place beef, wine, brandy and 3 tablespoons oil in an airtight container and refregerate at least 2 hours (overnight is best).

In a large frying pan, cook bacon over medium heat; remove bacon and set aside, reserving drippings in pan.

Remove beef from marinade, reserving marinade, and blot dry.  Brown at medium heat in bacon drippings with 2 extra tablespoons of olive oil if needed in 3 to 4 batches.  Set beef aside on plate as browned.  Sweat onions, garlic and carrots in pan for 5 to 6 minutes.  Add browned beef, reserved beef marinade, bay leaf, thyme, tomatoes and olives.  Bring to a boil.  Cover with a round of parchment paper and the lid and place in a 350 degree oven.  Bake for 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

During the last 15 minutes of cooking, sear mushrooms in a separate frying pan over medium-high heat in 2 tablespoons oil.  When beef is complete, remove from oven and stir in mushrooms and parsley and season with salt and pepper.  Thicken with a slurry of flour and water if needed.

Printable recipe

Add the cooked stew to the casserole to which you have added a handful of white cheedar cheese and then sprinkle the top with another handful of white cheddar.  Place the second piece of pastry on the top and rustically seal and bunch the pastry together.  Give the pastry an egg wash and put it back in the oven to brown and puff.

I am planning a get together for all of our friends here in Florida before we head back to North Carolina the first of April.  I would like it to be a pool party.  We have a lanai with a pool.  It is lovely to look at, but it is always too cold to use while we are here and that is driving me crazy.  What is the sense of having a pool if you can’t use it?  So I decided to invite people over at the end of the month to gather around the pool on the lanai and have cocktails and a buffet dinner.  I do not expect anyone to swim, but at least we can enjoy the ambiance.

So I am testing recipes.  This first recipe for chipotle maple barbecued beef brisket is very crowd friendly.  There are a few steps involved, but it can all be done ahead of time.  I have found that when a recipe has many components, it increases ithe flavor complexity greatly.  A large beef brisket is first massaged with a dry rub, placed in a marinade and marinated overnight.  Then a barbecue sauce in made with wonderful ingredients like chipotle chilies, maple syrup, apple cider, and crushed tomatoes.  The brisket is briefly charred on the grill and then placed in a large iron skillet or casserole with the sauce, marinade and beer and cooked for three hours in the oven.  At this point, after it has rested, the beef can be shredded and returned to the sauce.  I will do this the day before the party.  It will be served in a chafing dish with slider rolls or warmed tortillas on the side.  I used pita bread for our meal because it was what I had in the pantry.  It will also be accompanied by a delicious sweet potato salsa which I will tell you about in my next post.

CHIPOTLE MAPLE BARBECUE BEEF BRISKET ( recipe from Sarah Foster’s Fresh Every Day)

1 3 1/2 to 4 pound beef brisket, at room temperature
2 tablespoons Quito’s Butt Rub (recipe follows) or store-bought barbecue rub
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 cup Chipotle-Maple Barbecue Sauce (recipe follows) or your favorite bottled sauce
1 cup beer

1. Sprinkle the brisket with the butt rub.  Stir the brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and vinegar together in a shallow dish; pour over the brisket and turn several times to coat the meat evenly.  Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours or overnight.  Bring the meat to room temperature before cooking.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and prepare a hot fire in a charcoal or gas grill.

3.  Remove the brisket from the marinade and place it over the hot coals to sear until the outside is slightly charred, 4 to 6 minutes per side.

4. Place the seared brisket in a large cast-iron or other overnproof skillet or casserole and pour the marinade over it.  Stir the one cup of barbecue sauce and the beer together and pour over the brisket.  Turn to coat the brisket evenly on all sides.

5. Cover the skillet with aluminum foil or a lid and roast the brisket for 3 to 3 1/2 hours or until it pulls apart easily with a fork.  Remove brisket from sauce, let it rest covered with foil for 15 minutes and then shred with a fork.  Return it to the sauce.  It can be served now or cooled and refrigerated for future use.  Reheat gently over a low heat or warm in the oven.

QUITO’S BUTT RUB

Sarah explains that Quito is a barbecue aficionado from Tennessee who has won many contests on the barbecue circuit.

Makes about 1/2 cup

2 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Combine the paprika, black pepper, salt, garlic powder, chili powder, brown sugar, and cayenne in a small jar or an airtight container and shake to mix.  This spice rub will keep in a cool dry place for up to 6 months.

CHIPOTLE MAPLE BARBECUE SAUCE

1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
3 chipotle peppers in adobo, diced
1 cup white vinegar
1/4 cupWorcerstershire sauce
1/2 cup apple cider
Juice of 2 lemons
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons Colman’s dry mustard
2 teaspoons sea salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

Combine the tomatoes, maple syrup, brown sugar, chipotle peppers, vinegar, Worcestershire, apple cider, lemon juice, garlic, mustard, salt, and pepper in a heavy bottomed saucepan and stir to mix.  Bring the sauce to a boil over medium-high heat.  Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 to 35 minutes, until the sauce is thick and reduced by about one quarter.  This sauce will keep refrigerated in an airtight container, for up to 2 weeks.

Printable recipe

This dish was inspired by Mary of One Perfect Bite.  Mary consistently turns out one beautiful dish after another on a daily basis on her food blog.  Everything she posts is worthy of consideration and her photography is stunning.  She recently posted a recipe for minced chicken with oyster sauce that was served on a bed of rice.  I loved the presentation and the flecks of red and green peppers which studded the meat.  She mentioned using the meat mixture in lettuce wraps and I knew I had to try it.  Although I love white rice, for the foreseeable future, we are avoiding white rice, white bread, white potatoes etc.  My guiding principle in serving food is COLOR.  Bright orange, bright red, bright green, dark leafy vegetables and vibrant red strawberries, blueberries and navy blue blackberries are all in my current lexicon.

I decided to use a package of organic ground beef that I had just purchased to make Mary’s recipe.  The only other change I made was adding water chestnuts to it for added crunch.  We loved it and there was even enough left over for a whole wheat tortilla wrap the next day.  I will be making this often.  With it I served roasted butternut squash which I seasoned with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper and ground cumin.

GROUND BEEF LETTUCE WRAPS

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 red onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 pound of lean ground beef
6 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
1/4 cup diced water chestnuts

Leaves from one head of Bibb lettuce, washed and spun dry.

Heat a wok or large fryig pan over medium high heat.  Add oil and heat until it shimmers.  Add onion and garlic and saute briefly being careful not to burn the garlic, about 2 minutes.  Lower the heat to medium and add the ground beef.  Cook, breaking up pieces until it is no longer pink.  Drain off fat.  Stir in oyster sauce, soy sauce and pepper.  Dissolve conrstarch in chicken broth.  Add to pan and cook and stir until thickened.  Stir in diced peppers and water chestnuts.  Serve in lettuce cups.

Speaking of colorful food, what do you think of pink?  Pink grapefruit that is.

This is our neighbor Bill’s tree.  Here is the sign that he posted by his mailbox.

How lucky we are to have such a great neighbor.  His pink grapefruits are delicious.  And guess what?  Mary of One Perfect Bite even has a recipe for Pink Grapefruit Salad Dressing on her blog today.  Think I will give it a try.  Thanks Mary.

Printable recipe Ground Beef Lettuce Wraps

Once a month one of our local restaurants, Larkins on the Lake, hosts a wine tasting dinner.  We always attend.  The prices are reasonable ( $25.00 a person ), the sommelier is knowledgable, and the food is excellent.  If there is a wine that we are particularily fond of they are generous with the pours and we have never left feeling deprived of a good meal.  One of the food selections this month was Braised Beef in Polenta Cups with Plum Chipotle Sauce.  The chef has offered to share recipes with me, but I have been so busy that I have not asked him.  But I could not get this dish out of my mind.  I can just imagine it as an interesting appetizer at any get together.  It would also be adaptable to so many fillings.  If you were pressed for time you could get some barbecue from your local smokehouse or you could make it vegetarian with a black bean salsa.  The combinations are endless.  So I decided to experiment.

First I made polenta by following the directions on the package.  Once it was thick, I poured it on to a wax paper lined sheet pan with high sides.  I refrigerated it overnight.  Once it was cold, it was easy to cut out into 2 inch rounds.  Then using a 1/2 teaspoon measure or other spoon, you scoop out some of the center.  These will hold in the refrigerator until you are ready to warm and fill them.

Once heated you can fill them with anything that appeals to you.  Since I had a busy day yesterday shopping with my blogging buddy Penny of The Comforts of Home ( go to her website to see where we went),  I put a chuck roast in the crockpot with a little Barbecue sauce and beef broth and left it all day.  It was fork tender by the time I heated the polenta cups.

I shredded the beef and placed spoonfuls into the polenta cups and then topped them with a sauce that I made from plum jam, a little barbecue sauce and a bit of chipotle powder.

They were every bit as good as the polenta cups we had at the restaurant.  The recommended wine with this appetizer was a Southern Belle Shiraz, Australia, 2008.

BRAISED BEEF IN POLENTA CUPS WITH PLUM CHIPOTLE SAUCE

For the Polenta: (Adapted from the Food Channel)
8 cups chicken stock
2 cups polenta
3 tablespoons butter

Note:  I halved the recipe for just the two of us and used a smaller sheet pan.  I got about 24 2-inch polenta rounds.

Bring chicken stock to a simmer and whisk in polenta.  Cook according to package directions until polenta is thick.  Add butter.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with wax paper.  Pour polenta onto tray and spread evely to 1-inch thickness.  Cool to room temperature and place in refrigerator, covered until ready to use.  (At least two hours).

When polenta is chilled and firm, remove it from the refrigerator and cut it into 2-inch rounds with a biscuit or cookie cutter.  Scoop out the centers with a 1/2 inch measuring spoon or any small spoon, being careful not to make a hole in the bottom.  These can be prepared a day or two in advance.  When you are ready to fill them you can warm them in a 250 degree oven until they are hot.

For the Beef:
3 to 4 pound Chuck roast
1/2 cup barbecue sauce
1 cup beef broth

Brown the beef on both sides in a little olive oil.  Place in crockpot and add the barbecue sauce and the beef broth.  Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.  Remove from crockpot and shred with two forks.

For the Plum Sauce:
1/2 to 3/4 cups plum jam or preserves
1 to 2 tablespoons barbecue sauce
1/8 tsp. chipotle powder of chili powder

Heat the three ingredients together in a small saucepan until the jam is like a glaze.

Assemble:
Top the warmed polenta cups with the shredded beef.  Spoon the jam sauce on top and sprinkle with parsley.

I hope this has inspired you to get creative with this recipe.  I would love to hear some of your ideas.

Printable recipe