Shredded Beef Sandwich with Jus

 Despite  an overwhelming love of Arby's, I don't think you can count me as a roast beef sandwich connoisseur.  That's not to say I wouldn't like to become one!  This sandwich has me well on my way.

The root of the reason  is that I've never been much of a beef eater.  However, Pure Beef has changed my eating red meat drastically.  Whether it was because my mother never cooked much red meat (not so much as a meatloaf, from my recollection) or the frightening plethora of names given to the beast or that the first steaks I tried to cook came out like leather or a slight fear of all meats not totally well-done (gotten over that, thank god)....  Whatever the case may be, red meat has never really been on my radar.

Pure Beef rocked  my world.  Not only did Lynne Curry arm me with some serious knowledge, the recipes are bloody lovely.  She has created an avowed beef fan.

I have now picked up things like oxtail, shank, brisket strips, short ribs and beef bones.  I've yet to do a 'real' pot roast and I'll probably never grill a T-bone but it's a helluva step forward!

It was oxtail that first got me started on this sandwich I share with you now.  As I've noted before, Sanagan's is a great place to pick up meat in Toronto.  Unfortunately, the pic above was taken with grocery store oxtail purchased long before my love for Sanagan's began.  I think it's worth examining here, however, for the novice beef-eater.

Oxtail is not actually ox meat but the tail of the cow.  The nice folks at Sanagan's sell their oxtail in nearly-whole form but were kind enough to chop it into user-friendly 'discs' for me much like what you see above.

Oxtail can be browned and braised like short ribs or stewing beef.  But for the ultra-easy, I went for my slow cooker on this occasion.  Leftover sauce and meat from any of the above cuts or even a roast would be excellent companions for a crusty bun.  The below recipe is an extrapolation of that loveliness but in a less labor-consuming form.


Shredded Beef Sandwich with Jus

Creates enough for a bunch of sandwiches plus some snacky, hot-beef eating.

Please note: While not labor-intensive, this is still a two-day recipe. Plan ahead.  This dish could alternatively be made with beef shank.

Day 1

2 lbs oxtail
3 cups beef broth
1/2 onion, chunked
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1/2 Tbsp mustard powder
1 1/2 tsp Worcestershire
1 tsp whole peppercorns
6-7 sprigs fresh oregano
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
water

Feel free to brown the meat first if you're feeling motivated.  I was in a rush.  I dumped the raw oxtail in the slow cooker.  Add all successive ingredients and enough water to cover by an inch or so.  This is not a science; don't worry too much.

Cook on high for five hours.

Carefully strain liquid into a separate bowl.  Remove meat from the solids and discard the remaining vegetables and spices.

Now for the messy part.  Oxtail has a lot of fat and collagen on the bones; separate it with your fingers to pluck the nuggets of meat out.

Refrigerate the meat and the liquid separately and come back tomorrow.

Day 2

This is the quick day--give yourself approximately 30 to finalize and assemble sandwiches.  The following ingredients are noted for one sandwich.

1 1/2 cups reserved beef liquid

3/4 cup reserved beef

1/2 demi baguette, sliced lengthwise
aged gouda or other strong cheese
1 Tbsp horseradish
butter


Oxtail has a ton of collagen--your liquid should now be a bowl of jello.  Remove the tallow (beef fat) and reserve for another use (this a super-stable natural fat--go fry/sear stuff in it!). 

Chunk out an approximate amount of the beefy gelatin into a small pot.  Turn on the heat to simmer--it will turn back to liquid the moment it warms up.  Reserve the rest of your gelatin for another use--further sandwiches, braising liquid, jus for another application, or freeze for fall soups!  This is true stock at its best.

Keep the pot simmering until it reduces by about 3/4.  You will be tempted to add salt at first.  Do not; a reduction salts itself.  This will take 20-30 minutes depending on your heat and volume of liquid.

While that's going, slice some nice thick pieces of gouda for one half of your baguette and butter the other half.  You may definitely use another cheese here but it needs to be strong to stand up and be recognized among the beef and the horseradish.  Throw these under a broiler to toast.

Nuke the beef to rewarm it (technical!).  Shred with your fingers some if it still appears in larger chunks. 

The buttered half will be done first--pull it out and smear with horseradish.  Apply the warmed beef. 

Pour your jus into a side dish so you can dunk the sandwich.  Pull out your bubbly, cheesy sandwich top, assemble, and CHOW DOWN.

A Traveling Crockpot Dinner

 

While this is my first formal post about it, the Traveling Crockpot has actually been in my life for some time now.  A group of four gals get together once a month (mostly) where one of us hosts a dinner.  Really, it's an excuse to find our fanciest recipes we've always wanted to try out but couldn't justify (or had time for) making on a Tuesday night after work.  

My second Traveling Crockpot dinner was summer-themed (the first was a Middle Eastern Feastern!).  Located here are my personal photos...which, as usual, kind of suck.  But!  Happily, our group includes Mrs. Becky whose talent populates Little Siddall Studios with much more pleasing visual fare.

To Drink

Mango Balsamic  Spritzer with Mint

I'm not even going to try with a photo for this one; it was too lame.  Check out Beck's.

Don't get weirded out about a drink with vinegar in it.  It brings a totally unique brightness to the flavors.  If you live in Toronto, you can get excellent mango balsamic at Crescendo (two locations).

This drink could probably use a high-ball glass.  The structure is that of a mojito, but the two drinks share nothing else.

1 drink

1 tsp mango balsamic vinegar

2 sprigs mint

1 oz orange liqueur

3/4 oz vodka

Crushed ice

gingerale

 Strip the mint and muddle the leaves with the vinegar in a cocktail shaker.  You want a lot of mint; if your sprigs look measly, don't shy away from adding more.  

Top with enough crushed ice to fill your glass.  Add the orange liqueur and vodka (go for the good stuff!  I used Patron's orange liqueur and Grey Goose vodka).  Shake, and pour ice and all into the glass.  Top with gingerale to fill the cup.

To Start

Cold Apricot Soup*

Scallop-Mango Ceviche

Again, "real" photo here.

The ceviche was a big guessing game.  I googled a half a hundred recipes and cobbled together my own.  Use more mango than you think, make sure the scallops are bite size (I should've trimmed down even my bays), and toss in acid briefly.  All those recipes recommending 4-8 hrs are going to turn your scallops into rubber.

Main

Seared Pork Chop with Chipotle Butter and Avocado Mousse

Mango-Kholrabi-Radish Slaw

The chops are seared in a hot pan with butter and a little oil to keep it from burning too fast.  Don't use a nice olive oil--use a grapeseed or something else with a high smoke point that will allow you to sear the chops super-hot each side for just a few minutes to get that golden-crisp exterior.  A barbeque would be equally as awesome but I don't have access to one of those.

My chops were centre-cut, bone-in, local pork affairs purchased at the awesome Sanagan's in Toronto's Kensington Market.  Leave the bone in--it helps with moisture retention and is quite easy to eat around with this cut.

Chipotle Butter**

1/4 lb butter, unsalted, softened

3 chipotles, seeded and minced

several dashes liquid smoke

honey, to taste

cracked black pepper

good, flaky salt, such as maldon or fleur de sel, to taste

The butter in this recipe is unsalted for two reasons.  1) You need control over the salt to get the right balance.  2) The texture of crispy flakes of good salt are wonderful.

Put the butter, chipotles and liquid smoke in a large bowl--you'll want room to whisk vigorously.  Add approximately 2 Tbsp of honey, 1 Tbsp cracked black pepper and 3/4 Tbsp salt to start.  

Whisk together all ingredients until smooth.  This will take time to come together--it may seem like you'll whisk forever at first.  Be patient.  

Taste, add as needed, whisk.  Taste, add as needed, whisk. 

Avocado Mousse

1 avocado, very ripe

2.5 Tbsp heavy cream

juice of 1/4 of a lemon

You could make this mousse much more complicated.  I had enough flavors on the plate with the coleslaw and the butter and I didn't want to take anything else away from those amazing porkchops.  So this just became a fatty foil for heat and acid elsewhere on the plate.

Get the avocado into a bowl; doesn't matter how.  Add the cream.  Whip like the dickens.  Again, this will take time to come together.  Near the end, when it's almost perfectly smooth, add the lemon juice to keep it from browning.

Mango-Kholrabi-Radish Slaw

1 mango

1 kholrabi

5 radishes

acid

oil

1.5 tsp sugar

Matchstick the fruit and vegetables.  The kholrabi tastes very much like cabbage.  If you can't find one, actual cabbage would do; they're even the same color.  I found pretty little Easter Egg radishes for the rest of the color in this dish.

Mix the acid (I used a calamansi vinegar from Crescendo(as mentioned above)) and the oil.  Get creative here if you like--an avocado oil would be awesome, for instance.  Or use lime juice if you have leftovers from the ceviche.  I like a 2:3 acid to oil mix, personally, which may be a little heavy on the acid depending on your palette and what you're using.  Taste and adjust as necessary.  You'll need a little sugar but not too much--a nice ripe mango adds plenty here.

Dessert

Goat Cheese Pudding with Strawberry Rhubarb Compote

Another recipe not my own. While it's not photogenic, it's unbelievably good.  The singularly excellent recipe is here at Food & Wine.  I've made it twice, excellent results both times, but you must have some kind of acid (like the raspberries in their version) to cut this.

The compote was my own.  You simmer strawberries and rhubarb and a bit of water and a bit of sugar together for a long time.  I can't tell you anything more about that.

Bon appetite!

*I love the guys behind Real Food Has Curves which is sadly no longer updated.  I'm just so glad they left the links live on this old version of the site.  Their new materials exist here.  Also, having the thyme added to the apricot soup was crucial, imo, though they list it as optional in the original recipe.

**This is what's called a compound butter.  You can basically take any mash of flavors that appeal to you and use them in a compound butter.  Other suggestions would include rosemary, anchovies and garlic.  Sage.  Lemon and thyme.  Basil and black pepper.  Roasted garlic and chili flakes.  You get the idea.

To store excess (the recipe above provides plenty of excess), dob butter in a log-ish shape on a length of plastic wrap.  Use the plastic to make a neat log, twist off the ends, and toss in the fridge.  Lasts a good long while.

Compound butters can be used at room temperature, smeared on bread, dobbed on meats, as the gloss-and-fat addition to a sauce, cold disks to melt over your hot veg, as the fat to fry an egg in...  The list is pretty ridiculous.

Seafood soup

I am pleased to announce that I'm getting good enough with my cooking to ad-lib a fair number of dishes.  For instance, the braise holds no fear for me.  The sear is my friend.  If I read several renditions of a single recipe, I can usually fake it pretty well directly after.

So, inspired by various turns on cioppino, I decided to tackle a seafood soup of sorts.

The name still bothers me, I admit.  Not appetizing at all.  So try not to read the title and keep looking at that photo instead.

Seafood Soup 

4 Tbsp butter
1 shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup fennel, diced
1/2 Tbsp sweet paprika
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups fish stock
1 Tbsp tomato paste
glug white wine
1 cup bell pepper, diced
1 jalapeno, minced
1/4 lb 30-40 shrimp, shelled
1 fillet barramudi, diced to approx. bay scallop size
1/2 lb bay scallops
2.5 lbs mussels, cleaned
parsley, for garnish


Add butter to pan, gently softening shallot, garlic and fennel for a few minutes.  Add paprika and seasonings, stirring another minute until fragrant.

Add stock and remaining ingredients, minus mussels and parsley.  Cook at a gentle simmer for 4 minutes.  Add mussels, cover and cook for another six minutes. 

Discard mussels that do not open and distribute soup to plates, garnishing with parsley.

Serve with crusty bread (covered in garlic?!) for sopping.