The Essential James Beard Cookbook (19 page)

VIENNESE GOULASH

MAKES 6 SERVINGS

The principal flavoring for a Hungarian goulash is paprika, which should also be Hungarian and of the best quality. Hungarian paprika has much more flavor than the standard type and is well worth buying for any dish requiring paprika. You’ll find it in specialty shops that sell spices and herbs. [
Editor: Hungarian paprika is now available in supermarkets, usually in red cans.
]The difference in this recipe, which is a Viennese variation, is the paste of caraway seeds, garlic, and lemon zest stirred in for the final cooking time, which gives a fresh and spicy flavor.

4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

6 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced

¼ cup sweet Hungarian paprika

¼ cup dry white wine or cider vinegar

3 pounds beef rump or chuck roast, cut into 2-inch cubes

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon dried thyme

½ cup tomato purée

¼ cup all-purpose flour

2 cups
Beef Stock
or canned beef broth

1 tablespoon caraway seeds

Grated zest of 1 lemon

2 garlic cloves, chopped

Cooked egg noodles, for serving

Heat the butter and oil in a Dutch oven (not uncoated cast iron). Add the onions and sauté until golden over medium heat, stirring them so they do not stick to the pan or brown, about 6 minutes. Mix in the paprika and wine. Cook for 4 minutes. (Spices such as paprika and curry powder should always be cooked a little in fat, to bring out the flavor and prevent the raw taste that occurs when they are not cooked first.)

Push the onions to the side of the pan, add the beef cubes, a few at a time, and sear them on all sides. Don’t overcrowd the cubes or they will reduce the heat too much and not brown properly. Transfer them to a plate as they brown.

When all the beef is browned, return it to the pan, season to taste with salt and pepper, add the thyme and tomato purée, and simmer over medium-low heat until the liquid is reduced to a glaze, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle the beef with the flour, and toss with a wooden spatula until the flour is well colored. Add the beef stock (there should be just enough to cover the meat) and simmer, covered, until the beef is tender when pierced with the point of a knife—about 2 hours.

Meanwhile, grind the caraway seeds, lemon zest, and garlic to a paste with a mortar and pestle. When the beef is cooked, stir this paste into the goulash and cook a further 10 minutes to blend the flavors. Serve with the noodles.

DEVILED BEEF BONES

MAKES 2 TO 3 SERVINGS

When you carve a standing rib roast, leave some meat on the rib bones and you can turn them into crunchy deviled beef bones. If you freeze the bones from 2 or 3 roasts, you should have enough for a meal—3 or 4 ribs a serving. When you are ready to cook them, thaw them until they have reached room temperature, then cut the ribs apart, leaving some meat between them.

8 to 10 beef ribs from rib roasts

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

2 tablespoons tarragon vinegar

2 to 2½ cups very fine fresh bread crumbs

Sauce Diable

Have the ribs at room temperature. Preheat the broiler. Combine the butter and vinegar in a deep soup bowl and put the crumbs in a pie plate. First dip the ribs in the butter mixture, and then roll them in the crumbs, pressing into the bones so the crumbs adhere. Arrange them in a broiler pan, leaving space between them. Broil 6 or 7 inches from the heat so they cook very slowly and the crumbs don’t burn. Keep turning the ribs with tongs until you get a good crisp brown coating on all sides. The cooking time will be 15 to 20 minutes. Serve hot, with the sauce.

Editor: You don’t have to wait until you have leftover ribs from beef roasts, as uncooked beef ribs are sold at supermarkets and wholesale clubs, especially during the summer grilling and winter holiday seasons. Season the ribs with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper and bake in a preheated 400°F oven until browned, about 20 minutes. Let cool completely, then follow the recipe as directed.

BROILED STEAK

Steaks should be bought by thickness, not by weight. Because of the variance in size and shape between different cuts, it is very difficult to gauge how much a steak is going to weigh. It’s my feeling that a 1- to 1½-inch steak is the minimum thickness for broiling; anything thinner is better sautéed. Then, of course, there are times when you splurge and get a very thick steak of 2½ to 3 inches. However, for now, let us take a 1½-inch steak as our example.

When you buy a steak, you must consider the grade. The better the grade, the tenderer the cut. Prime is the top grade, but most of this goes to restaurants. Choice is the grade you are likely to find in your meat market and it is the best buy. When picking out steak, look for meat that is deep red in color and well marbled with cream-colored fat. If you can, have the steaks specially cut for you rather than picking up a ready-packaged steak in the supermarket. The butcher will weigh the steak after cutting it to the thickness you want.

Allow roughly 6 to 8 ounces of boneless meat per serving. If you are not buying a boneless cut like the eye of the rib or eye of the sirloin, but rather a larger bone-in steak such as a sirloin or porterhouse, estimate ¾ to 1 pound of meat per serving to compensate for the weight and waste of the bone.

You don’t have to buy individual steaks for everyone. A large bone-in sirloin steak of 4 pounds will feed 4 people nicely if you carve it at table, first cutting around the bone and then slicing it diagonally into ½-inch strips. If you’re just cooking steak for yourself, however, you are better off with a small club steak, a rib or eye of the rib, or a strip steak from the loin. If it is rather more than you want to eat, don’t worry. Cold steak makes great sandwiches.

Broiling Method for Any 1½-Inch Steak

Preheat the broiler. Trim excess fat from the steak, leaving a rim about ½ inch thick. Slash the rim to keep it from curling.

Brush the broiler rack with oil or rub it with some of the fat trimmed from the steak. Salt and pepper one side of the meat and arrange it, seasoned side up, on the rack of the broiler pan. Before putting the steak under the broiler, press it with your finger. It will feel very soft. Remember this later when you test the cooked steak.

Put the broiler pan under the broiler with the surface of the steak 3 inches from the heat, or as close to 3 inches as possible.

For a very rare steak, broil for 8 to 12 minutes, 4 to 6 minutes a side. For a rare steak, broil for 10 to 14 minutes, 5 to 7 minutes a side. When I’m broiling a steak, I sometimes give it an extra half minute on the first side, because it doesn’t really begin to sear until it has been in the oven for a half minute. Halfway through the cooking time, turn the steak with metal tongs, not with a fork, which would pierce the flesh and let the juices escape, and season the second side before broiling it.

There are two schools of thought about how often to turn a steak during cooking. Some people like to sear one side, turn and sear the second side, turn it back again and cook on each side for the rest of the cooking time. Frankly, I don’t think it does anything for a steak to keep turning it back and forth. Once is enough.

About 2 minutes before the end of the cooking time, test the steak to see if it is done to your liking. There are three ways you can determine this. One is to remove the pan from the broiler and insert a meat thermometer horizontally through the side (not in the top) of the steak to the center, but not touching the bone, if there is one. The internal temperature for a very rare steak is 120° to 125°F and for a rare steak 130° to 135°F. (Medium, if you must, would be 140° to 145°F.)

The second way is to make a little cut in the meat near the bone or the rim of fat with a small sharp knife and check the inside of the meat. If it is done the way you like it, that’s fine. If not, return the pan to the broiler and continue to cook the steak for a minute or so longer.

The third test, which is one professionals use and you
w
ill gradually learn to rely on, is to press the center of the steak lightly with your finger (it won’t burn you), remembering how it felt when raw. A rare steak will feel firm on the surface but soft within. Were it to be medium, the steak would feel slightly resistant, and a well-done one, perish the thought, would be quite firm. Practice touching steak broiled to the state you prefer and you’ll soon become accustomed to testing this way.

When your steaks are broiled, put them on hot plates or a hot platter, or if you are going to carve a large steak at table, on a carving board. I like to put a pat of butter on a steak the minute it comes out of the oven, either plain unsalted butter or butter mixed with an herb such as crushed rosemary or thyme (use a ratio of about ½ teaspoon dried herbs to 2 tablespoons butter, see
Compound Butters
.) The butter melts and runs over the meat, mingling with the juices when you cut into or carve the meat and making a little sauce. If you are carving the steak into slices, spoon some of the luscious mingled juices and butter over each serving.

A good steak needs little or no embellishment. You can sit down and eat it just as it is, or you can have broiled tomatoes or broiled mushrooms with it or a green salad, or you can shoot the works and have potatoes or French fries, a green vegetable, and a salad. That’s up to you. If you wish to be really elegant, you might have a
Béarnaise Sauce
, sautéed potatoes, and a vegetable or salad.

Timings for Steaks of Other Thicknesses

•
FOR A STEAK 1 INCH THICK:
Broil 2 inches from the heat, 3 minutes a side for very rare; 4 to 5 minutes a side for rare.

•
FOR A STEAK 2 INCHES THICK:
Allow the longer broiling time given for a 1½-inch steak, broiling 3 inches from the heat.

•
FOR A STEAK 2½ TO 3 INCHES THICK:
Broil with the surface of the steak 5 to 6 inches from the heat and allow 20 to 35 minutes total broiling time for very rare; 30 to 40 minutes for rare.

With an extremely thick steak you must allow time for the heat to penetrate and warm the interior, even though it does not actually cook it. You’ll have a fairly charred surface and a rare interior. The lowering of the rack compensates for the longer broiling time.

STEAK AU POIVRE

MAKES 2 SERVINGS

One of the simplest of all sautés is a
steak au poivre
, which is now popular throughout the world, although I can remember the time when you found it only in France. Gradually, people became so enamored of this delicious combination of pepper-flavored beef and Cognac, with sometimes a little cream, that you find it served from New York to Seattle. Sautéed potatoes, a green salad, and a good red wine are all you’ll need with this delicious steak.

The best cut for individual steaks au poivre is the loin strip, otherwise known as a shell steak, a
faux filet
, a sirloin strip steak, or a New York cut, according to what part of the country you live in. This is the loin steak without the smaller part, the fillet, and usually with the bone trimmed away, although sometimes a little bit of the bone is left on. The steak should be 1½ inches thick.

To cook the steaks you will need a heavy-duty skillet or sauté pan, 12 inches in diameter—it must be large enough to accommodate the two steaks, side by side, with some room left over. They must not be squeezed together.

2 loin strip steaks, about 1½ inches thick

1½ tablespoons whole black peppercorns

1 teaspoon or more kosher salt

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

¹
⁄
₃
cup Cognac or bourbon