The Essential James Beard Cookbook (21 page)

Wipe out the skillet with paper towels, add 4 tablespoons of the butter and heat until bubbling over medium-high heat. Add the cucumbers and mushrooms and sauté, tossing and turning, until the cucumbers are soft and the mushrooms lightly browned, about 8 minutes. Mix in the flour. Gradually add the cream and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened, about 3 minutes. Mix in the tomato purée and season with salt and pepper. Keep warm while sautéing the beef.

Melt 4 tablespoons of the butter in another heavy skillet and heat until the foam subsides. Working in batches, sauté the beef slices on both sides, for 2 to 3 minutes a side, or until nicely browned on the outside but still rare inside. Do not overcook. As they are cooked, sprinkle them lightly with salt and arrange them on the bed of potatoes. Cover with the cucumber-mushroom sauce and serve topped with French-fried onion rings.

SAUTÉED HAMBURGERS

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

The hamburger, as we know it, along with the hot dog and the ice cream cone, supposedly came into being at the St. Louis Fair in 1904. Certainly by the time I was growing up, in the early part of the twentieth century, we often took chopped meat patties, well seasoned and sometimes mixed with onion, to the beach and either broiled them or cooked them in an iron skillet on a rack over the coals. We served them on the kind of round bun a hamburger goes on, and sometimes we had onion on them. I suppose some of our friends might have had ketchup, too, though our family wasn’t too keen on ketchup, nor am I now.

A good hamburger is one of the most basic meat dishes you can make, but even here there are one or two tricks you should know. In my opinion, hamburgers are best pan-fried or sautéed in a heavy skillet in oil, a combination of butter and oil, or clarified butter, all of which can be heated to a higher temperature without burning than plain butter. I think this gives a juicier, crustier hamburger than broiling, and it is easier to control the degree of doneness. You will need a heavy cast-iron skillet, or whatever you normally use for sautéing (with a nonstick skillet, you won’t need much fat, just about 1 tablespoon for flavor), and a large spatula for turning the hamburgers.

2 pounds chopped beef, preferably top round or chuck

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons peanut oil, or equal amounts of oil and butter or clarified butter

Divide the meat into 4 equal portions, seasoning it to taste with salt and pepper, and form it gently and lightly into patties with your hands, almost tossing it back and forth. Be careful not to press or overhandle the meat. Too much handling makes for heavy, solid patties, and that is not what you want at all. The meat should just hold together. You can make your patties round or oval, thick or fairly flat, according to how you like them. For rare hamburgers, make them thick. For medium, make them thinner. They won’t be perfectly shaped. They’ll be sort of free-form, but that’s all right. Taste is more important than appearance.

Heat the oil, or whatever you are using, in a heavy skillet. There should be just a film of fat on the surface. When it is hot, but not smoking, put the patties in the pan and cook briskly on one side for 4 minutes over fairly high heat until good and brown. Turn them carefully with a large spatula and cook 4 minutes on the other side. Press the browned surface gently with your finger. See how much firmer it is than uncooked meat. Then press the sides. These will be less firm because the center meat has not cooked as much.

At this point you can almost gauge how near to done the hamburgers are. Reduce the heat slightly and, if you like them rare, give them 2 more minutes on each side. Press them again and you’ll find they are slightly resistant to the touch. Transfer them to hot plates and serve at once. When you cut into the hamburger and find it done to your liking, remember the way the patty felt when pressed. This is a very simple test, but it will give you confidence in the message your fingers can send to your brain.

OLD-FASHIONED MEAT LOAF

MAKES 6 TO 8 SERVINGS

To my mind the most delicious meat loaves are made with a combination of ground beef, veal, and pork. The veal adds a gelatinous quality, and the pork richness and fat, which keep the meat loaf juicy. (If you have a food processor, you can grind the meats yourself.) This simple recipe can be varied to taste by using different seasonings and combinations of ingredients. It should not be baked in a loaf pan, incidentally. A meat loaf, if molded and baked free
-
form on a bed of bacon or salt pork, sheds excess fat and makes a more firmly textured loaf, whereas, if baked in a loaf pan, it becomes much too moist and is sometimes not easily sliced. Hot meat loaf may be served with rice or puréed potatoes and a good homemade tomato sauce, brown sauce with mushrooms, or onion sauce. Cold meat loaf is good with a potato or rice salad, some pickles and relishes, or just a sharp horseradish sauce.

¾ cup fresh bread crumbs, made in a food processor or blender from day-old bread

½ cup heavy cream

2 pounds ground beef round or chuck, preferably ground twice

1 pound pork shoulder, ground twice

1 pound veal shoulder, ground twice

1 large yellow onion, grated

2 carrots, finely shredded

4 to 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 teaspoons kosher salt

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon crushed dried rosemary

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

½ teaspoon Tabasco

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

3 large eggs, slightly beaten

12 strips bacon or rindless salt pork

Soak the bread crumbs in the heavy cream in a small bowl for 5 minutes. Combine the beef, pork, veal, onion, carrot, garlic, salt, mustard, rosemary, pepper, Tabasco, and nutmeg in a large bowl. Mix in the eggs and soaked crumbs, combining thoroughly. Make a bed of bacon or salt pork strips in a shallow baking pan, reserving 4 or 5 for the top of the loaf. Form the meat mixture into a firm loaf with your hands and place it on the bed of bacon or salt pork. Put the remaining strips across the top.

Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 1½ to 2 hours, depending on how thick you have made the loaf, and baste several times with the pan juices. If you want to serve the meat loaf cold, wrap it tightly in aluminum foil and weight it as it cools, until firm. It will taste rather like a French country pâté.

Editor: Unless you are purchasing your meat from an old-school artisan butcher, it is difficult to get twice-ground meat. If you wish, buy standard ground meat, freeze until firm, then pulse in batches in the food processor fitted with the chopped blade until it is a bit finer. To check for doneness, a meat thermometer inserted in the center of the loaf should register 165°F.

ROAST BREAST OF VEAL

MAKES 6 SERVINGS

Most people stuff and braise breast of veal (see the following recipe), but I’ve found that it is absolutely delicious roasted until crisp and carved like a flank steak, with the little bones reserved for munching. If you want to flavor it with an herb, tarragon would be my choice, but frankly I think good veal needs no seasoning other than a little garlic.

One 5- to 6-pound breast of veal

2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh tarragon (optional)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Rub the veal with the oil, then with the garlic and the tarragon, if using. Place the veal on the rack of a broiler pan, and broil approximately 4 inches from the heat until the veal is nicely browned—about 20 minutes. Drape aluminum foil over the pan and roast in a 400°F oven for about 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Carve the meat from the bones across the grain on the diagonal in medium
-
thick slices, removing only the top meat. Cut the bones apart and serve with the sliced meat.

STUFFED BREAST OF VEAL

MAKES 6 SERVINGS

Hot or cold, a stuffed breast of veal is both spectacular and as simple as any dish can be. This is the least expensive cut of veal and the braising process makes it very tender and flavorful. A good butcher who has been trained to bone meat properly will be able to bone the breasts and cut a pocket in it for the stuffing, so that when stuffed it may be formed into a good shape that will slice easily.

If this is not possible, buy the breast unboned and merely have the pocket cut in it—you can remove the little rib bones after the meat is cooked by breaking them away from the joints and pulling them free from the flesh. In either case, you will need some bones for the braising—either those removed from the breast or a veal knuckle or some veal neck bones. Side dishes could be tiny new potatoes browned in butter and a purée of green beans. Drink a Beaujolais.

One 6-pound breast of veal with bones

For the Stuffing

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

8 tablespoons olive oil

3 large onions, peeled and finely chopped

¾ pound bulk pork sausage

½ pound smoked ham, finely chopped

1 cup fresh bread crumbs, made in a food processor or blender from day-old bread

1 truffle, finely chopped, canning liquid reserved (optional)

1 teaspoon dried thyme

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

2 eggs, slightly beaten

For the Braising Mixture and Sauce

Softened butter, for the roasting pan

Bones from veal breast or 1 pound veal knuckle, veal bones, or veal neck with bone

1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped

1 carrot, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 bay leaf

1½ cups Veal Stock (see variation,
here
),
Chicken Stock
, or dry white wine

1½ cups peeled, seeded, and finely chopped tomatoes

1 cup pitted black Mediterranean olives, such as Kalamata

½ cup pine nuts

¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Using a thin bladed knife, cut the bones from the breast meat in a single slab; set the bones aside. Starting at the thick end of the breast meat, cut a deep, wide pocket into the meat.

To make the stuffing: Heat the butter and 3 tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet. Add the onions, and sauté over medium heat until just limp, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl. Add the sausage, ham, bread crumbs, truffle and 1 tablespoon of its canning liquid, if using, thyme, 1½ teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon pepper, and the cloves and nutmeg. Blend the stuffing well and mix in the eggs. Stuff the pocket in the breast, molding with your hands so that it is fairly even in shape.

Secure the stuffing by sewing up the pocket with a trussing needle and fine string or by closing the opening with small metal or bamboo skewers. Heat the remaining 5 tablespoons oil in a heavy skillet and brown the stuffed breast on both sides over medium-high heat. Butter the bottom of a roasting pan large enough to accommodate the breast. Arrange the veal bones, onion, carrot, garlic, and bay leaf in a bed in the bottom of the pan.

Lay the breast on this bed and add the stock and tomatoes. Cover the pan with its lid (or a double thickness of aluminum foil) and braise the meat in a preheated 325°F oven for about 2½ hours, or until a meat thermometer inserted into the veal registers 170°F. If the liquid reduces too much (it should be just sufficient to cover the vegetables), add more stock or wine.

Transfer the cooked meat to a hot platter. Skim the fat from the pan juices. Purée the pan juices and vegetables in a food processor fitted with the metal chopping blade or in a blender with the lid ajar. Reheat the purée in a saucepan with the olives, pine nuts, and parsley, bringing the sauce to a boil and then simmering it for 5 minutes. Carve the veal crosswise into slices about ¾ inch thick and serve with the sauce.

Editor: Beard also recommends serving the breast of veal cold: “Slice it, and serve with a spinach salad dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, and a touch of soy sauce, with finely chopped onion, a little chopped garlic, and a handful of pine nuts added just before it is tossed. Or you might vary this and have the cold meat with a dish of hot macaroni and the reheated sauce from the veal, plus a salad of Bibb lettuce and raw mushrooms.”