Steak Diane

Bev had gotten a couple of rib eyes out of the freezer and decided she wanted Steak Diane (because of the flambé I suspect) so we began looking at recipes and settled on the one from Food.com.  Per Wikipedia - “Steak Diane is an American dish of a pan-fried beefsteak with a sauce made from the seasoned pan juices, generally prepared in restaurants tableside, and flambéed. It was popular in the middle of the 20th century, but was considered dated by 1980.”

Bev’s favorite steak is a filet and her least favorite is ribeye because of the amount of fat in them so I decided to see if I could help this by trimming the outside and removing the big fat layer between the two muscles.

The recipe below has the sauce ingredients doubled so we would have plenty for the pasta we used as a side dish (last of the leftovers from the blogger party).

Steak Diane – Saveur 

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. canola oil

4 (4-oz.) filet mignon steaks

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

3 cups beef stock

4 tbsp. unsalted butter

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 shallot, minced

8 oz. oyster or hen-of-the-woods mushrooms, torn into small pieces

½ cup cognac or brandy (we used 1/3 cup brandy)

½ cup heavy cream

2 tbsp. Dijon mustard

2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp. hot sauce, such as Tabasco

2 tbsp. minced parsley

2 tbsp. minced chives

Instructions:

1. Heat oil in a 12" skillet over medium-high heat. Season steaks with salt and pepper, and add to skillet; cook, turning once, until browned on both sides and cooked to desired doneness (see notes), about 4 to 5 minutes for medium-rare. Transfer steaks to a plate, and set aside.

2. Return skillet to high heat, and add stock; cook until reduced until to ½ cup (1 cup for me), about 10 minutes. Pour into a bowl, and set aside. 

3. Return skillet to heat, and add butter, garlic and shallots, and cook, stirring, until soft, about 2 minutes. Add mushrooms, and cook, stirring, until they release any liquid and it evaporates and mushrooms begin to brown, about 2 minutes.

4. Add cognac, and light with a match to flambé; cook until flame dies down.  Below was supposed to be a flambé shot but it didn’t pick up the flame.

5. Stir in reserved stock, cream, Dijon, Worcestershire, and hot sauce, and then return steaks to skillet; cook, turning in sauce, until warmed through and sauce is thickened, about 4 minutes.
 6. Transfer steak to serving plates and stir parsley and chives into sauce; pour sauce over steaks to serve.

Notes:

1. I cooked the meat to less than medium rare then took them to the desired temperature when I added them back into the gravy.

2. Trimming the steaks like this worked beautifully and Bev loved the ribeye this way - I gave her and Pat the leaner center pieces and I ate the outer ones. 
3. Because I doubled the sauce ingredients, my times were all longer than the ones in the recipe. 

4. Next time I will add a thickening agent as the sauce was too runny for the pasta.

Like Salisbury Steak, Steak Diane may now be out of style but it’s easy to see why both dishes were popular at some point.  I don’t remember ever making or even eating Steak Diane and I didn’t know what I was missing.  It was pretty easy to make, totally delicious, and a big hit with all of us.  It will be made again, but next time, I think it will be served with some smashed potatoes.  We also had some broccoli but after eating what was on my plate, I was too full to eat any.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

6/16/14 event date

Smothered Pork Chops

We made this dish once before but I apparently didn’t blog about it, as it was nowhere I could find it.  Since we considered it one of the best we’ve ever eaten, I wanted to be sure I documented it this time.  The recipe comes from Tyler Florence and is reproduced here.

Smothered Pork Chops - slightly adapted from Tyler Florence

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons onion powder

2 tablespoons garlic powder

1 teaspoon cayenne

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

4 pork chops, 3/4-inch thick, bone-in (I used 1” boneless)

1/4 cup olive oil

1 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup buttermilk

Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, for garnish

Directions:

1. Put the flour in a shallow platter and add the onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne, salt, and pepper; mix with a fork to distribute evenly. Pat the pork chops dry with paper towels to remove any moisture and then dredge them in the seasoned flour; shaking off the excess.

2. Heat a large sauté pan or cast iron skillet over medium heat and coat with the oil. When the oil is nice and hot, lay the pork chops in the pan in a single layer and fry for 3 minutes on each side until golden brown. 

3. Remove the pork chops from the pan and add a little sprinkle of seasoned flour to the pan drippings. Mix the flour into the fat to dissolve and then pour in the chicken broth. Let the liquid cook down for 5 minutes to reduce and thicken slightly. 

4. Stir in the buttermilk to make a creamy gravy and return the pork chops to the pan, covering them with the sauce. 

5. Simmer for 5 minutes or until the pork is cooked through (143* for me). Season with salt and pepper and garnish with chopped parsley before serving.

As before, they were very good, especially with the sautéed mushrooms I added to mine.  We served them with some smashed new potatoes and steamed broccoli for a fine meal.  Note:  broccoli at our place is cooked, so it loses it's bright green color.  Also I made double the above gravy recipe to ensure plenty for the potatoes.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

6/13/14 event date

2014 Blogger Party – Antipasto Salad

This will be my last post from our blogger party and I’m only doing it because it ended up so differently from my original plan and I had a learning experience.  The plan was for me to make the antipasto on Saturday morning using a recipe from Epicurious.

I had already made the vinaigrette and assembled the other ingredients:

2 medium red onions (which I ended up forgetting to use)

4 hearts of romaine, torn or chopped

2 (8-oz) jars roasted red peppers, julienned

4 (6-oz) jars marinated artichoke hearts

2 cups pepperoncini

2 jars brine-cured olives, different kinds

1 lb cherry tomatoes, halved

2 lbs provolone, 1/4" julienne

1 lb pecorino, shaved

2 lbs salami, 1/4' julienne

1 ½ lb cappicola, sliced thin, rolled and sliced

1 ½ lb prosciutto, sliced thin, rolled

1 container anchovies, served on the side

My plan was to chop up the lettuce and mix it with half the dressing then arrange everything else on top and drizzle the remaining dressing over it, but since I was doing other things I asked Dave Scott if he would make it and he quickly agreed.

After he got all of the meat and cheese cut up and we were discussing the next steps, he said “if it were me, I’d ….”  Knowing he spent a significant amount of time learning to cook Italian, I quickly advised that it was him and please proceed.

He took about half the meat and cheese, cut it into smaller pieces, added it to the pan and emptied the pickling juice from all of the jarred veggies, saying it would be good for them to pickle the meat and cheese for about an hour.

When about ready to serve, he drained the juices from the pan and mixed the lettuce with the meat and cheese along with some of the vinaigrette, then topped with nearly everything else mixing it into the top part of the salad and finally added the rolled up prosciutto and shaved Pecorino Cheese.

Note: The red onions were supposed to be cooked lightly, cooled and added to the mix but I forgot them - we did add some raw the next day.

I thought it was outstanding and way better than what I would have done, mostly due to pickling some of the meat and cheese and I thought it was even better the next day even though the lettuce had wilted a little.  Thanks Dave for the great job.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

6/7/14 Event Date

Post-Blogger Party Breakfast

As in the past, we provided lodging for the blogger party attendees who traveled too far for it to be a one day event and in this case three couples stayed with us and one stayed with Bev’s sister, Pat.

For this trip the Hofer’s had asked, via email, if they could provide breakfast for the overnight guests.  Once before they had stayed two nights and laid out a delicious gourmet dinner so I nearly injured my two typing fingers trying to reply so quickly with a resounding yes to the breakfast offer. 

The menu was:

Mimosa’s of orange juice and Prosesca

Triple Cinnamon Scones (provided by Penny the scone queen)

Oven fried bacon, imported from Nueskes in Wittenberg, WI

Corn cakes (a Hofer family tradition)

Blueberry maple syrup and homemade butter (yep, they made it on site)

Scrambled eggs with mushrooms

Mixed fruit of strawberries and blue berries

Lots of coffee

This is the assembly line plating operation and my plate.

Wow what a way to wrap up our weekend events - Penny’s scones were a delicious beginning and as always, the Hofer boys put on an outstanding meal.  I wish they would all come and do it every month or two.  Not only was the meal great but the cleanup crew had the kitchen in very good shape as well.  Thanks all for a wonderful morning.

Everyone got on the road around noon and I’m glad we didn’t have to drive anywhere – Bev took a nap and I sat comatose in my chair for a while – awake but still comatose.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

6/8/14 event dates

Blogger Party 2014 – Let’s Eat

The 2014 version of our blogger party is now in the books and it seemed to be a big hit – I’m sure I had a good time.  This year’s event took place on June 7, 2014 at our "Almost Heaven South" dock on Tellico Lake with 23 folks attending.  With the theme of an East Tennessee Italian Fest and the menu built around a pasta bar, we decided to also eat it European style with several courses spread out over the afternoon. 

I didn’t even take my camera to the dock so I’m in hopes that those who did will do a post on the event and the dishes they provided.  David & Laurie sent me their shots so I’ll use them here.

We began visiting and eating a little after 1pm with appetizers of Frutta di Mare - Cold Seafood Salad (Stu & Sandy Hoffer), pizzas cooked on a ceramic cooker (John & Anna Mae Makela), and antipasto salad (Dave Scott & Larry - mostly Dave with a separate post coming).

Course #2 was composed of Chicken Marbella (Meakin & Sam Hofer – My Carolina Kitchen), linguini with Alfredo Sauce (Laurie & David Myers – Big Daddy Dave), linguini with Spicy Tuscan Sausage Ragu (David & Penny Klett – Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen), and Meatballs (Nancy & Ron Cardwell).

Course #3 contained penne pasta and elbow macaroni (purchased in error) with four sauces – Cold Tomato Pasta Sauce (Stu & Sandy Hofer), Puttanesca Sauce (Alexis & Chris Grove – Nibble Me This), Walnut & Sage Butter Sauce (Jackie & Dave Scott – Inspired By eRecipe Cards), and Bolognese Sauce (Bev & I).

Course #4 was desserts and they were Italian Crème Cake (Pat & Steve Lafon) and Strawberry Tiramisu (Penny & David Klett) - no shot of it.

We had an assortment of drinks including Italian Campari Orange Spritzer, margaritas and a couple of other concoctions that I missed out on.

I thought everything was delicious and when Bev asked about my favorite, I couldn’t pick one.  I wasn’t looking at the clock but would guess the meal took us around 5 hours to complete and I’m pretty sure no one left hungry.  Most folks stayed until around dark but a hard core group lasted until around 11pm – we wanted to make sure no one tried to steal the leftovers and there were no half empty bottles of wine remaining.  Please tune in to the blog’s mentioned above as I‘m confident some photos will show up.

Not only was the food delicious but we had a great opportunity for fellow bloggers and friends to get to now each other better. 

I’m sure you can tell by just looking that we had a fine array of excellent food and we so appreciate all that was done by everyone to make the day a success - thanks to some discussions, a theme already seems to be developing for next year.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South

.

Larry

6/7/14 event dates

Blogger Party 2014 - Bolognese Sauce

As you may recall, the theme for this years party was an East Tennessee Italian Fest and the menu was built around a pasta bar thanks to the suggestion from Dave Scott.  My primary contribution to this effort was a Bolonese Sauce using the recipe from Ann Burrell, which I had last made four years ago.

The sauce takes about five hours to make and is based on a philosophy of slowly enriching it with layers of flavor.

Bolonese Ala Ann Burrell

Ingredients:

2 large onions, cut into 1-inch dice

4 large carrots, cut into 1/2-inch dice

6 ribs celery, cut into 1-inch dice

8 cloves garlic

Extra-virgin olive oil, for the pan

Kosher salt

6 pounds ground chuck

4 cups tomato paste

6 cups hearty red wine (2 bottles)

Water

6 bay leaves

2 bunches thyme, tied in a bundle

High quality extra-virgin olive oil, for finishing

Directions:

1. In a food processor, puree onion, carrots, celery, and garlic into a coarse paste. In a large pan over medium heat, coat pan with oil. Add the pureed veggies and season generously with salt. Bring the pan to a medium-high heat and cook until all the water has evaporated and they become nice and brown, stirring frequently, about 15 to 20 minutes. Be patient, this is where the big flavors develop.

2. Add the ground beef and season again generously with salt. BROWN THE BEEF! Brown food tastes good. Don't rush this step. Cook another 15 to 20 minutes.

3. Add the tomato paste and cook until brown about 4 to 5 minutes. Add the red wine. Cook until the wine has reduced by half, another 4 to 5 minutes.

4. 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. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer, stirring occasionally. As the water evaporates you will gradually need to add more, about 2 to 3 cups at a time. Don't be shy about adding water during the cooking process, you can always cook it out. This is a game of reduce and add more water. This is where big rich flavors develop. If you try to add all the water in the beginning you will have boiled meat sauce rather than a rich, thick meaty sauce. Stir and TASTE frequently. Season with salt, if needed (you probably will). 

5. Simmer for 3 1/2 to 4 hours.

Notes: I made a double batch so all of my times up to the simmering process took longer.  The last hour,  I added some oregano, thyme, black pepper, and crushed red pepper to taste.  I made it Wednesday before the Saturday event then skimmed the fat and reheated it in the crockpot.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

6/5/14 event date

Fixing A Steep Bank

We have a small area beside the house that is steep and shady making it hard to grow grass and mow, so we decided to do something else.  Since Bev is always looking for new places to put plants (she can’t control herself at a plant sale), we decided to terrace it using the common wall stones in use today.  I forgot to get a shot before we began, but this is what it looked like early on.

I hired some guys to build the walls and back fill in early spring, then we haired a neighbor kid to do the planting and spread the mulch to get it to this point and I’m confident many more plants will follow.

This is a shot from the top and we still have the section below the wall to plant and mulch.

The area is now ready for the blogger party.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

6/3/14 event date

Madison Attends The Prom

Most of my regular readers likely know that our 16 year old granddaughter has lived with us now for 20 months and you may also recall that she has a boyfriend (Anthony) in the Los Angeles area who she met online.  He and his dad made a trip here last fall and she went out there for this past Christmas.

While here in the fall, Anthony asked if Madison could come to his prom this year and, after spending several days with him and his dad, we agreed it would be okay.  While we were RVing in South Carolina and she was staying with her parents, they bought her a dress then when we returned, Madison and Bev went shopping for the rest of the ensemble.

The six days between our return from SC and her flight to LA were a whirlwind of activity including hair color, pedicure, spray tan, etc. to get her as ready as she could be when she left.  And this is the result.

I have to believe Anthony was very happy to have this beauty on his arm at his prom.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

5/31/14 event date

A Simple Yet Delicious Potato Dish

This very easy potato dish is a must try for all potato lovers or even just potato likers.  But before I get into the dish, let us first have a little potato discussion, specifically little potatoes – I apologize if I’ve posted this before.

When potatoes grow the plant puts on several potatoes but one at a time, so when they are dug there will be everything from fully grown to pea sized tubers on the root system and commercial growers harvest them all at the same time.  Therefore, when you see them in the grocery store and the small ones are labeled as new potatoes, they almost never are and are likely the same age as the big ones setting beside them.  These are larger than I like for the dish but all I had on hand - note the places where the skin was damaged during harvesting but healed over (yellowish places).

About the only way to get new potatoes (just a couple of days out of the ground) is to get them from a local grower you know or at a farmers market.  You can tell if you have new potatoes as some of the skin will come off when you wash them.  This is before washing and note the skin has rubbed off just from harvesting and transporting them.  These are larger ones left after using the smaller ones below.

And why should you care, you asked – good question.  The answer is that the new ones taste better – why you asked.  Like corn, the sugar begins turning to starch as soon as they are removed from the plant so the new potatoes are a little sweeter and perhaps a little creamier – enough so that you can tell the difference – maybe a taste test is in order.  The following recipe works for new or just small potatoes - it's pretty complicated so read carefully J

New Potatoes Browned in Butter

3-4 potatoes per person, smaller than a golf ball or cut in half if larger

1 stick of butter – more or less depending on potato quantity

1. Gently wash the potatoes, trying not to remove the skin (if new potatoes), and cut in half if needed.

2. Par boil in salted water until fork tender and drain well in a colander.

3. Melt butter over medium high heat and add potatoes in a single layer.  Lightly brown and turn, repeating until they are browned on all sides - the crispy outside is the key to the dish.

4. Garnish with your favorite and serve.

I forgot to get a shot in the pan, but these are the leftovers from our first batch.  The leftovers work really well with eggs the next morning.

For the next batch, we tossed in some green onion bottoms then tops and served them with some onion smothered pork chops.

I’d never had this until I met Beverly and as simple as it is, it is one of my favorite potato dishes and I’ve grown potatoes just so we can have it.  If you like potatoes, I know you will like it and if you can get your hands on some new potatoes, you’ll like it even better.  If all you can get is large new potatoes just cube them about golf ball size.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

5/30/14 event date