It's that time of year when you might have a crazy amount of leftover brisket in your fridge after celebrating the Jewish New Year. Brisket can be super tasty, but too much brisket is... well, just TOO MUCH BRISKET. Following is a recipe for a beef brisket chili that I've come up with to get through the massive amounts of leftover brisket I have after barbecue competitions. I usually don't add additional spices to that chili because the smoked brisket is already jam-packed with seasonings and smoke... but a typical Rosh Hashanah brisket is not overly seasoned. So I have included my standby chili spices. Interetsed? Read on for the recipe. 

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This meal really packs a flavor punch. The sweet and salty steak rounds out the spicy and tangy soba for a great weeknight dinner. We split this between two for dinner, but it would be very easy to double for a larger group. The chuck eye steak is great in this dish and is also relatively inexpensive. There is a lengthy explanation of the process here, but simply cut to the chase below and make it this week! 

Ingredients for Scallion Grilled Steak:

• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1/4 cup Tamari sauce
• 2 Tablespoons Rice Wine vinegar
• 1 Teaspoon Fish sauce
• 3 Tablespoon sugar
• 3 minced scallions (white and green parts) + 1 chopped scallion for garnish
• 1 Tablespoon canola oil
• 1 lb chuck eye steak 

Ingredients for Spicy Basil Soba:

• 2 Jalapenos, cored and seeded
• 3 cloves garlic
• Juice from 1/2 large lime (approximately 2.5 Tablespoons)
• 2 Tablespoons dry white wine
• 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 cup snow peas
• 1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 8 oz soba noodles
• Salt to taste
• 1 cup washed basil leaves

Process for Steak Marinade:

• The night before you're eating, prepare the marinade
• In a medium bowl whisk together the minced garlic, tarmari, rice wine vinegar, fish sauce, sugar, 3 minced scallions, and canola oil. Set aside.
• Remove any long or large strips of fat from the check eye steak. Reserve for oiling your grill grates.
• Slice the chuck eye steak into 1/4-inch thick strips, slicing across the grain of the meat. Discard any large pieces of fat.
• Put the steak strips in a zip-lok bag, pour in the reserved marinade, and mix well. 
• Squeeze out as much air form the bag as possible, seal, and set in the refrigerator overnight (12-24 hrs)

Process for Grilled Steak and Soba:

• 30 minutes before you're ready to eat, take the steak out of the refrigerator and bring to room temperature
• Get your grill going to medium-hot (you can hold your hand an inch above the grill grate for 4-5 seconds before pulling away).
• Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the soba, and cook for 5-6 minutes. Drain, set aside (you will reheat these in a skillet later). 
• In a blender combine the jalapenos, garlic, lime juice, wine, and brown sugar. Blend until liquified, 30-60 seconds. Set aside. 
• When the grill is preheated, scrape the grates clean, and oil the grates with the reserved fat from the chuck steak (if you don't have much fat, just use some canola oil on a paper towel).
• Place the strips of beef perpendicular to the grill grates laying the long strips across the grates to keep the meat from falling through.
• Keep the grill cover off, and grill for 4-5 minutes being watchful for any flareups
• Using tongs turn each strip of beef over and grill for another 4-5 minutes. 
• After a total of 8-10 minutes, you should have some nicely caramelized beef! Remove to a plate, and cover loosely with foil for 5 minutes.  
• While the steak is grilling, warm the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.
• Sautee the snow peas and red bell pepper until starting to brown slightly, about 5 minutes.
• Add the reserved sauce from the blender, cooked soba, and basil leaves.
• Stir/toss to combine well, and cook for 1-2 minutes. Just enough to heat everything through. 
• Plate the soba combination on two plates, top each with half the beef strips, and garnish with the remaining chopped scallion and a pinch of salt. 
• Enjoy! 

 

What does one do with 5 quarts of left over chili from taste tests? Make chili and egg quesadilla's for breakfast (of course).  This was sure to be a "Hungry Man's" breakfast and it did not disappoint. Beef Chili, Scrambled Eggs, Grated Jack Cheese, a bit of fresh Salsa, Whole Wheat Tortillas, and then topped with Cholula. Check out the production process below... and look at that Cholula spiral! Oh My!

I've posted a few different types of fish and shrimp tacos here over the past year, but this version with Black Sea Bass fillets (Long Island local at the Windsor Terrace Farmer's Market) and grill-roasted Tomatillo salsa were perhaps my favorite seafood tacos to date. Its hard to go wrong with fresh fish, tomatillos, lime, and cilantro... but still, this was pretty killer.

First up, the salsa. During lunch while i had the grill going for some bratwursts (yum), I coated some red onion, tomatillos, and a jalapeno in a little oil and black pepper, and grilled them over a very hot fire for about 10-15 minutes. I then tossed  them into a food processor with lime juice, cilantro, garlic, olive oil, and salt and pepper. Here's a gallery of the process: 

I tossed that in the fridge to keep fresh until dinner, and then marinaded the Black Sea Bass in a super simple lime, olive oil, and cilantro mix. This sat in the fridge for about four hours, after which I brought it to room temperature, sprinkled a little kosher salt and ground coriander on top, and pan-fried it in a cast iron skillet for about 3 minutes per side. I then lightly pulled it apart along the natural flaking lines (discarding a few bones as i discovered them), and served it as-is on the table. Honestly i was somewhat amazed at how flavorful this fish was... truly outstanding! A few shots of that process: 

So then it was simply a matter of condiments. We picked up some fresh salsa from Union Market, along with sour cream, whole wheat flour tortillas, and also chopped up a little avocado. Assembly is a snap with the only word of caution being "smaller is better." A few shots of the assembly items and the final product: 

I also fried up some homemade corn tortilla chips from a batch of corn tortilla's we had in the freezer. Insanely easy to do, and even more insanely delicious. A warm and salty corn chip really, really, really rocks:

I did two things this week that everyone should do in the next 5 days:

1. I went through every condiment in the fridge and tossed everything either older than 4 months or unused in the past 3 months
2. I sharpened our knives

Tossing the old condiments was liberating. We have space in the fridge for the first time in two years. I LOVE it. And sharpening our knives was perhaps the best food-related thing i've done in 2010. Holy crap, you have no idea how good your knives actually are! Bring them in or sharpen them yourselves... either way your next slicing task will actually be fun. Honestly. 

Walking through Prospect Park yesterday morning I was met with a bright blue sky and a very brisk breeze. Fall had arrived - its since completely left in favor of a return to summer - but at the time it put me in the mood for a bratwurst. I can get busy with almost any sausage (what did he just say?), but I adore a bratwurst with onions and peppers on a fall afternoon... or better yet, enjoying one at a saturday Oktoberfest with a stein of beer. Unfortunately its a little early for that, but once i had bratwurst on the brain, I had to cook one up.

This approach yields a perfectly juicy and crispy bratwurst sandwich. After all was said and done, I was quite pleased with myself! Its super easy, and really terrific. The only error on my part was not confirming i had a spicy brown mustard in the fridge. After everything was assembled I found a fridge with only dijon in it. It worked out fine, but definitely pick up a bottle of Gulden's! Here's a gallery of the process followed by my super-simple recipe: 

Ingredients:

• 16-24 oz of beer (a local oktoberfest if you can find it, aka Brooklyn Brewery)
• 4 bratwursts (i just found boar's head at the grocery, but i'm hopeful some of my favorite local pork farms will have them soon)
• 1 white onion, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced (no rings, you want long strips)
• 1 red bell pepper cored, seeded, and thinly sliced
• 4 big sandwich rolls (heroes, hoagies, etc.)
• 1 Tablespoon cooking oil (canola, olive, etc)
• Brown/spicy mustard 
• Pickles and chips as sides

Process:

• Put the beer, onions, and peppers in a medium sized pot large enough to fit the four brats, and bring to a boil
• Reduce the heat to medium, toss in the brats, cover and cook for 20 minutes
• Meanwhile get your grill going to hot*
• After 20 minutes, drain the entire pot into a strainer reserving the brats, onions, and peppers
• Throw the brats on the grill, and cook for 3 minutes on each side or until they are golden brown with a few charred bits
• Remove the brats from the grill and let sit for a few minutes (they will be insanely hot right now)
• Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon oil (any oil will do) in a skillet over medium-high heat
• Toss in the reserved onions and peppers, and sauté for 5-8 minutes until they start to caramelize/char a bit
• Now you're ready to assemble.
• Open up each roll and pile on a bed of the onion/peppers mixture
• Add a bratwurst on top of the onions, and lather on some spicy brown mustard
• Serve with chips, a pickle, and a cold bottle of the same beer you cooked with

* If you are without a grill (OMG!), you could easily pan fry these for the same amount of time in a dry, smokin' hot cast iron skillet. Cooking these over high heat will give you that crisp exterior crunch you're looking for.