Beef and Brussels in the Dutch Oven

One thing I’ve enjoyed a lot lately in my cooking is to challenge myself to take an ingredient or a dish that I hated as a kid and see if I can do it well enough to say, “I like it!”  This week, it’s brussels sprouts!

Like all the others (asparagus, broccoli, etc...) I didn’t dive in without some research. I got a lot of ideas.  This would be a momentous occasion.  I didn’t want it to just have it be a simple side dish.  I thought about various meats that would help make it a main dish, and In the end, I thought that the bitter tones of the sprouts would go best paired up with beef.  Many of the recipes I checked out included bacon as well, and I liked that combination.  So, I stuck with that as well.  Portobello mushrooms are very beefy, too, so that was an obvious one, too.

There was a lot of various ways of cooking them, too.  Most of my friends and my research warned against overcooking them.  In the end, I decided to do it like a stir fry.

Beef and Brussels in the Dutch Oven

12” Dutch oven
24-28 coals underneath


1/2 lb bacon, chopped

1 lb fresh brussels sprouts
1 lb of beef, in steak or cubed/sliced as stir fry
1 medium onion
1 green pepper
1 large portobello mushroom
2-3 cloves garlic
salt
pepper
paprika
oregano

Gorgonzola cheese

This was actually a pretty easy one to do.  I started by lighting up the coals.  When they were hot, I put about 22 underneath the Dutch oven, and put the bacon pieces into it.

While that was cooking, I prepared the meat and the veggies.  I sliced the meat up first, and sprinkled it with salt, pepper, and paprika.  I let that sit while I sliced, chopped and minced everything else.  Finally, it all went into the same bowl, with a few shakes.

I let that bacon cook pretty crisp, then pulled it out.  I amped up the coals and let the drippings get really, really hot. I tossed in the meat and veggies.  I gave it a stir right away, and then would alternate stirring with letting the beef and the veggies sear.  I cooked it all until the meat was medium and the veggies were just a little soft.  Then, I pulled it off the coals.

I served it all served up with some sprinkles of the gorgonzola on top, alongside some roasted potato chunks I’d done in a 10”.  Wow.  It was all delicious!  Another childhood terror conquered!

Next?  Probably squash...



Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Deconstructing the Hamburger!

OK, it’s time for our next deconstruction challenge, to see if anyone is up to the task.  A few weeks ago, we did the beloved PBJ.  This week, we’ll tackle another traditional american dish:  The hamburger!


So, how do you do this?  How do you tear it apart?  How do you put it back together?  What could you possibly do with this that hasn't already been done a million times before?

Well, first of all, let’s look at the basic ingredients of a traditional hamburger:

• Ground beef
• Ketchup
• Mustard
• Cheddar (or plastic) cheese
• Onions
• Pickles
• lettuce
• Mayonnaise
• And, of course, the bun

Now, imagine that you were on an episode of “Chopped” or “Iron Chef” and you were just given a basket full of those ingredients and told to cook something with them.  What would you do?  I suppose that not all of these are required, and you might think of even more to add to the mix.

What will your deconstructed burger taste like?  Look like?  Your time begins...

...NOW!




Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.




Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Salmon Dietary Challenge

I had a very interesting Dutch oven cooking challenge this last week. My family and I have been traveling cross-country to visit my parents in Indiana. My folks are getting a bit "on in years" and we came out to visit and help out.

 

Mom, especially, has been quite thrilled by the book, and so, Jodi encouraged me to bring a Dutch oven out with us so I could cook for them one night. We all decided it would be great to do it in celebration of my dad's birthday. The tricky part is, both Mom and Dad have some quite specialized dietary needs. Mom gets sores in her mouth, so she can't eat things that are too acidic, or even too salty. Neither of them can have foods that are too fatty, and Dad can't have too much sodium (the salt thing again).

For his birthday, Dad chose salmon.

 

So, here are my parameters:

• 1 - a salmon dish, with small portions.
• 2 - Little or no salt
• 3 - for Mom, little or no acidic flavors
• 4 - Little oil or fats.
• 5 - Still have it be flavorful and visually appealing.
• 6 - Do it all in only one Dutch oven

That all added up to quite a challenge. I tackled the challenge and came through nicely.  I baked a loaf of swirled bread. Then I roasted some potato chunks and finally cooked the salmon pieces atop the potatoes. The fish was served topped with a salad of fresh sweet peppers and other veggies.

As I cooked it, however, and as I thought about it afterward, I thought of how I could have made it even more flavorful and robust, and have stayed better in the parameters. Here's that plan:

 

Dietary Challenge Dutch Oven Salmon

12" shallow Dutch oven

15-18 coals below

• 1 medium yellow onion
• 3-4 cloves fresh garlic
• 2 sweet peppers, different colors
• 2 Roma tomatoes
• 2 stalks celery
• Dash of salt
• 1 Tbsp butter

22-24 coals below

• 4-5 portions salmon
• 1 Tbsp butter
• Liberal shakes of thyme, sage, cilantro
• Dash of salt
• Dash of pepper

10-12 coals below
16-18 coals above

• 6-8 small red potatoes 
• Dash of salt
• Dash of pepper 
• Dash of paprika
• 1 Tbsp butter

The first step is to light up the coals and get the Dutch oven ready to sauté the veggies.  Get the dutch oven really hot. While that is heating up and readying, dice up the veggies and mince the garlic.  My idea is to sweeten the onions and tame and enrich the flavors of the veggies by sautéing them in butter.  Start with the onions and the garlic.  Once they're translucent, add the peppers. Finally, add the celery and tomatoes. Once the veggies are done (and I'd go until there is some carmelization on the onions), pull them out of the Dutch oven and set them aside.

 

While the veggies are cooking, season the salmon with the flavorings, and quarter the potatoes (I leave the skin on). 

Then, refresh the coals, and get the Dutch oven really hot again, still using just bottom heat. Really turn up the heat. Melt the butter on the bottom of the Dutch oven, then put the salmon filets on. It should sizzle and sear instantly. After a minute or two, turn them over and let the other side sear. Let each side get a good brown going on.  Since you won't have a lot of salt to carry the flavor, you'll use the sear and the herbs instead.

When the salmon is nicely brown, but not necessarily cooked all the way through, pull it off. Melt the last of the butter and toss in the potatoes, with their seasonings. Stir it all up, to evenly coat everything. Adjust the coals for a 350 degree bake, and set the oven on the heat.

After about ten minutes, the potatoes will be starting to cook through, but not done yet. Layer the salmon pieces on top of them, and the sautéed veggies on top of the salmon. Bake it for another 10-15 minutes.

And there you'll have it! A delicious, flavorful meal, with relatively little fat and sodium, and little acidic flavors, all cooked in a single Dutch oven.

 

Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Dutch Oven Deconstructed PBJ

The challenge before us, as put forth in the last post, is to deconstruct a classic Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich.  The idea is to take the ingredients of that well-known comfort dish, and recreate something new with them.

When I first approached this challenge, I was a bit at a loss.  I did have some ideas, but they weren’t really coming together.  I talked with my wife about a few of them, and none of them seemed to impress, either.

Part of my dilemma was to decide what part of the meal it would be.  My ideas didn’t seem to be substantial enough to make it a main dish, and it was too weird to be a side dish.  I mean, what sort of main dish would a PBJ go with?  It’s not like picking a good wine for your meal.  There are no rules, here.

I finally settled on the idea of it being a dessert.  That felt right.  It would work.  But then, how to do it?  Nothing I thought of really worked in my head, and nothing seemed to appeal to my wife, either.  Then she mentioned something about peanut butter cookies.  I ran through those ingredients in my head (like peanut butter, of course, and flour and egg for the bread), and it started to snap into place.  A dessert, based on the cookie, with a glaze of the jelly on top!

Then I started thinking about chocolate.  I don’t usually add chocolate to my PBJ’s.  But, I thought, it’s my dish, I can add to it as I please.  I decided to do some sort of chocolate crumb crust below the cookie.  Jodi suggested a chocolate sauce on top, which I, initially, resisted.  But, who can resist a chocolate sauce for long?  I mean, get real!  It really turned out to be the perfect topper.

In the end, it really did taste great, and evoked the flavors of the original, while taking it to a new place.  That’s the goal of deconstruction, isn’t it?  A success!

Plus, I learned to pay more attention to my wife!

Here it all is:

Mark and Jodi’s Dutch Oven PBJ Deconstruction Dessert

10” Dutch Oven
8-10 coals below, 12-14 coals above

8” Dutch Oven
8-10 coals below


Crust:

• 1 wrapped package Graham Crackers
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 1 small brick bakers chocolate
• 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
• 6 Tbsp melted butter

Cookie center:

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 3/4 cup Peanut Butter (Crunchy or Smooth)
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Jelly Topping:

• 1 cup grape jelly
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp mint leaves
• 1/2 tsp ground fennel seeds

Drizzle:

• 8 oz Chocolate Chips
• 1/2 cup Heavy Whipping Cream

I started out by lighting up the coals.  Once they were getting a little white, I put some on the Dutch oven lid to begin preheating it.  Actually, I did that part somewhere in between working on the ingredients.

The next step is to chop up the graham crackers.  I actually used a blender.  Jodi mocked me, because I usually try not to use electrical appliances when I dutch oven.  She thinks that’s silly, but since they are not allowed in cookoffs, I try not to use them at home as much as possible.  But this time, I was going to be using a table mixer for the cookie anyway, so I figured I use a blender for the crackers, too.  I mixed in the other ingredients and pressed the resulting mud into the bottom of the 10” Dutch oven.

Then, I mixed all of the other ingredients in the table mixer, whipping it up nicely.  I spread that over the crumbs, being careful not to disturb that level as I did.

Finally, I mixed the topping ingredients, and spread that in a thin layer over the top.  By this time, the lid was pretty hot, so I went out and adjusted the coals, top and bottom, and began baking it.

I didn’t know what to expect, so I checked it about every 10 to 15 minutes.  It ended up baking for about a half hour to 45 minutes.  The center was the last part to cook, and it was pretty jiggly right up to the end.  When that was pretty solid, I took it off the coals and brought it inside.  Then I went on cooking the rest of the meal, which was a basic chicken and potatoes pot with biscuits on the side.

When it became close to time to serve the dessert part of the meal, I still hadn’t decided on the chocolate sauce.  Jodi made the choice for me and cooked it up.  If I had done it in the Dutch ovens, I would have used pretty much the same process she did, but simply done it in my 8” Dutch oven.  I would have added the two ingredients and stirred them until the chips melted and it all blended with the cream.  Easy, quick, and delicious.

As I said, it turned out to be the perfect topping!  Really, the dessert was great.  It really was a perfect combination of the flavors of the traditional peanut butter and jelly sandwich, while adding the chocolate and the other flavors to take it in a new direction.

So-- That's my entry in the challenge!  I hope some others are up to it as well, and I'm eager to see what comes out of it all!  A new challenge will be coming soon!



Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

The Dutch Oven PBJ Deconstruction Challenge

I’ve been hearing a lot more about “Deconstruction” of late.  I know that, as a foodie buzzword, it’s been around for a long time.  I want to explore it a bit, here at the black pot.

I had also talked to Andy over at Back Porch Gourmet, and he’s up for some challenges, too.  John, of mormonfoodie.com fame, is the one who initially told me about it and what it all means.  To clarify that, I wrote a squidoo lens about food deconstruction, here.

I’m going to set out some food deconstruction challenges.  Andy and I have already chatted a bit about this, but we want to make it open to everyone!  I've got ideas for three or four specific challenges, and I’d encourage any suggestions (just post a comment). For me, it’s going to be a chance to stretch myself as a chef, and really explore art and the nature of self-discovery and self-expression.  Here are the rules of the challenge:

• Start by planning well.  Contemplate the ingredients of the original dish.  Contemplate new ways of treating them, preparing them, combining them.
• Create a new dish using those ingredients.  You may choose to add ingredients.  You may choose to only use the original set.  It’s up to you.  Explore.  See how far you can get from the original dish, or see how you can remain true to its basic character. Learn.
• Blog about it.  Explain your approach and your thoughts.  Remember to interlink.

Here is the first challenge:

The classic child’s PBJ.

Basic ingredients:

• bread (flour, salt, yeast, water, honey)
• peanut butter (peanuts, salt, sugar, toxic chemicalz)
• grape jelly (grapes, pectin, sugar, more harsh chemicalz).

Shake it up!  See what comes out!  Share!

Future challenges may include the apple pie, a chocolate cake, and some sort of meat dish.

Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

The Newest Dutch Oven Challenge

A few weeks ago, I posted up a new Dutch Oven challenge for Andy, and anyone else that wanted to join in.  The ingredients for this one were:

• Meat: Beef
• Veggie/fruit: Leeks/scallions/green onions
• Spice: Cinnamon

So, last weekend, I undertook the challenge.  The process confused me, and in many ways, until I actually did it, I wasn't sure what I was going to do.  In my mind, I was going to make the beef and the onions, and then do a dairy-based sauce with nutmeg and cinnamon.  My main confusion was in how to handle the roux for the sauce.  In the end, the process I chose worked, but I might do it differently if I ever do this one again.

By the way, if any of you out there can come up with a good name for this dish, let me know, 'cause I'm stumped.  For now, it's...

That One Dish that Mark Made for the Dutch Oven Challenge

12" Dutch Oven

A lot of coals under (for the first steps)
10 coals below
16 coals above (for the final steps)

• 2-3 tbsp oil
• 2-3 tbsp flour

• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 1 med onion, diced
• 3 scallions/green onions, chopped
• salt

• 1 lb ground beef
• pepper

• 2 large potatoes, quartered and sliced
• 1 sweet pepper, diced

• ~2 cups milk
• nutmeg
• cinnamon
• more flour, if necessary, to thicken

I started out by making the roux out of equal parts of oil and flour in the open dutch oven, on bottom heat only.  For some reason, my coals were very slow lighting that day, and so it took quite a while to make even the blondest of a blonde roux.  It was also pretty runny. 

Once that had cooked a bit, and browned just a little, I added the second set of ingredients, to sautee.  I wasn't sure how well it would sautee with the roux still in the pot, but Alton did it once, and it seemed to work, so I guess it was OK.  This was a large part of my aforementioned confusion.

Once the onions were translucent, I added the ground beef and let that brown.

When the beef was pretty much cooked through, and all stirred up, I added the potatoes and sweet peppers.  At this point, I covered the dutch oven and set up the coals for baking/roasting, with top and bottom heat, as listed above.  I let the potatoes cook a bit, stirring things up occasionally.

When I could see that the potatoes were starting to cook, but not done (maybe just a bit firmer than "al dente"), I poured in the milk.  I didn't measure it, but rather just guestimated.  I poured it in until it came up to "halfway" covering the meat and potatoes.  In other words, there was enough milk that I could see it rising as I poured, but the level of the milk was nowhere near the top of the food.  I stirred in the nutmeg and the cinnamon, and let that cook and simmer some more, covered, until the potatoes were done.

I did add just a little more flour for a bit of thickening, but it didn't need much.  In retrospect, I'd probably do more roux at the beginning.

I Served it up on two slices of the artisan bread I'd made the day before, following this Dutch Oven bread recipe.  The tangy bread and the meat made a magnificent combination.

The taste was delicious, and my son pronounced it "Amazing".  I'd say this challenge was a success.  Any other takers?!






Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.



Mark's Other Blog Posts: A Performance for LDS Youth!

A Second Dutch Oven Challenge

Last month, my pal Andy challenged me to a cookin' duel, cast iron chef style.  The rules were simple, We each chose three ingredients and the other person had to make a one-pot meal that included those ingredients.  It was a lot of fun, and generated a lot of interest.

So, I'm doing it again.  Here are the rules for this round.  Most of them are the same, but I'm going to change them up a little bit, however.

• It doesn't have to be a one-pot dish.  As long as all of the ingredients end up on the same plate, I don't care how simple or complex the process is.
• Once again, the players can add any other ingredients they choose, but the final dish must include all three preset ingredients.
• The recipe must be your own original creation.  Search the web and the cookbooks for inspiration, but do your own thang.  Here and here are some good posts on making up recipes.
• Rather than require Andy, or anyone else, to come back with a challenge for me, I'm going to also do these same three ingredients.
• I'm going to open this one up to everyone that reads this blog.  Check out the list, and if you're in on the challenge, cook it up.  Then, email me with either your recipe (and pics, if you take any) or a link to where you wrote it up on your blog or website.

So, here are the new challenge ingredients

• Meat: Beef (any cut or form of it you want)
• Veggie/fruit: Leek, scallion, or green onion, etc...
• Spice/flavoring: Cinnamon

I'm also going to post this to the IDOS forums, and see what excitement we can stir up there.





Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.



Mark's Other Blog Posts: A Singing Gig!, Thoughts About God