I’m late this week, I usually try to have this out the door in the late Monday morning but because it’s 2020, our internet went out this morning. So I’ve relocated across town to the house I grew up in. It’s ironic. Not just because I’m a genXer and EVERYTHING is ironic, but because that’s the topic of this Weekly Menu. Read on to find out about that, and about how badly I edit when the interwebs throw a wrench in my process.
This week’s menu is a filling, rich autumn weekend meal. Sure, it can absolutely be a weeknight dinner, but a couple of the dishes require the sort of long slow cook that are perfect for a slowly chilling autumn day – where the smells from the kitchen are great, and the warmth of a slow oven comforting instead of cloying.
Every family has “That Meal.” It’s the one your mom, dad, your gran, oma, or abuela always makes when everyone comes home.
Depending on your culture and you families tastes it could be almost anything.
For my family it was always my mom’s pot roast. You could almost guarantee that it would be simmering away in a crock pot when you walked into my parents’ house after a shared ride back from college, a transcontinental or trans-Atlantic flight, or one of those winter nights leading up to the holidays when everyone one is slowly trickling in from every corner of the country, county, and world.
Mom’s pot roast is rich, slightly sweet, loaded with umami flavors, and delicious and a complete 1970’s train wreck of convenience foods and labor-saving appliances. Mom’s original recipe calls for dried onion soup mix, ketchup, and simmers all day in a crock pot.
I’ve spent years trying to reproduce it with scratch ingredients. I failed.
Don’t get me wrong, the result – which is the centerpiece of this week’s Weekly Menu are delicious. It’s pretty close. We get the same deep browned flavors, the layers of umami, the unctuous, slightly sweet sauce that’s the result of a long braise that turns a tough cut tender.
But it’s not mom’s pot roast. How could it be?
A few notes: If you’ve been reading along with these newsletters over the past month or so, you’ve probably noticed I use a lot of fresh thyme. Get yourself a pot. A few sprigs really enliven a lot of dishes, and it’s an entirely different flavor than dried thyme.
I mention a lot of specific equipment (for example one of today’s dishes makes use of a blender) - if you’re interested in equipment recommendations, check out the Equipment page at my other project, The Chicken Thigh Guy.
Further note: I do get a very small fee if you purchase anything though those links – but those recommendations are purely based on what I’ve been using.
Finally, I had intended to add a paid subscription option in the next few weeks. I may still add the option for those of you who want to help support this project, but for the time being, all editions of The Weekly Menu will be free to all subscribers. Please share with your friends and family, or just that guy you know who won’t shut up about his new big green egg.
Without further ado …
Cauliflower Soup with Pickled Fruit and Nuts
Late season produce means brassicas. There are three different varieties in this week’s menu – but this one, cauliflower is one of the most versatile. You can roast it, boil it, even something that people incorrectly and heretically refer to as cauliflower rice.
It’s not rice.
In this case, blended with butter and a quick vegetable stock, it makes a smooth, simple, but intensely flavorful soup. I top it with a sweet and sour mix of pickled nuts, fruits, and the stems of the cauliflower for contrast and crunch.
Serves 4 as an appetizer course or two as a main
45 minutes, 15 minutes active
1 small head of cauliflower (approx. 1 lbs)
4 tbsp butter
2 ribs celery
1 bay leaf
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 small white onion
1 tsp white pepper
1 tsp kosher salt plus additional salt to taste
Trim the stem and roots and half the onion.
Make a light vegetable stock: Place the onion, thyme, bay leaf, and celery in a pot with 2 ½ cups of cold water. Bring to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes.
Bring a large pot of well salted water to a boil.
Trim the cauliflower, removing any green parts, (reserve the stems for the garnish) and cut into approx. 2-inch pieces.
Add to the salted water and cook until very tender – approximately 30 minutes.
Drain the cauliflower discarding the water, and transfer to the container of a high-speed blender.
Add butter, and 1 cup of the light vegetable stock.
Process until very smooth.
Return to a pan on the stove. Add additional stock until your desired texture is achieved. Season with salt and add 1 tsp finely ground white pepper.
To serve, ladle into bowls and garnish with pickled fruit mixture and herbs/brussels sprouts leaves.
Pickled Fruit Garnish
¼ cup pistachios
¼ cup dried cherries
¼ cup rice wine vinegar
¼ cup water
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp granulated sugar
Cauliflower stems
Julienne the cauliflower stems and add to a non-reactive bowl with the salt and sugar. Allow to sit 15 minutes.
Add remaining ingredients and allow to rest at room temp for one hour. Drain liquid before using.
The Sportsman’s Pot Roasted Red Cabbage (Almost)
This dish is loosely adapted from a recipe by Stephen Harris, Chef of The Sportsman gastro pub in Seasalter, Whitstable in the UK. I first came across it as early reviews of the pub’s cookbook started popping up and have played around with the technique ever since. It’s weird. It’s simple. It’s really delicious. The recipe as found in the book has additional accoutrements – and is frankly amazing – but the base technique is genius in itself. Simply cook big chunks of red cabbage with butter in a tightly lidded heavy pot. It magically turns it into luscious, sweet, bright purple gold.
Also, check out the book. It’s one of my favorites of recent years. Makes me want a pint, or a few, and all the foods.
Serves 4
90 minutes, 10 minutes active
1 medium head red cabbage
2 tsp salt
¼ lb. unsalted butter
4 tbsp crème fraiche or full fat Greek yogurt
4 sprigs fresh thyme
Quarter the cabbage, removing the tough outer leaves.
Season the cabbage pieces well with salt.
Add the cabbage and butter to a heavy pot with a tight lid, such as a Dutch oven.
Cover, and place over a medium heat until you hear the butter begin to sizzle. Reduce to a low flame and cook for 60-90 minutes or until tender throughout.
To serve, sprinkle with salt and pepper, fresh thyme leaves, and add a dollop of crème fraiche or yogurt to the plate.
Caramelized Brussels Sprouts with Cider Glaze
The third brassica on the menu for this week is a quick sweet and sour cider glazed Brussels Sprouts. For most of my life sprouts were practically a much-maligned urban myth. They were the brunt of jokes – the kind the comedians of my grandparent’s generation made. Supposedly they were smelly, soggy, sludgy green that every kid hated, and every mother predicated eating them with leaving the table. I’d never even seen them until my late teens.
Now, most Americans and (I assume) others, are exposed to a thousand different chef-ey versions. Fried, roasted, pan seared; dressed with cheese, and or little crunchy bits of bacon, puffed rice, buffalo sauce. I love it, but it’s almost de rigueur in certain sort of incredibly prolific restaurant: You must have your cheftastic aged beef burger with exotic cheese and homemade tomato product. You must have a bowl of ancient grains topped with avocado. There’d better be a kale salad or there’ll be a riot and you’ll have that roasted or fried brussels sprout app, or sharable side, or contorno. If you don’t, the Yelpers WILL MAKE YOU PAY.
“Good, but no brussels sprouts. No orange for my Blue Moon. 3 demerits.”
This is just a quick side but the technique outlined here is important to getting really great sprouts (and in fact almost any green veg.) Friends, let me tell ya, BLANCH YOUR GREEN VEG . Sure, it’s fussy, it’s something you read about in overwrought long food essays, it’s suspiciously French. It also makes all the difference in the world. Feel free to play around with this – if you’re using it as more than an accompaniment, adding some fried almonds, bacon, breadcrumbs, almost any texture element would make this a great dish all on it’s own. You could even throw it over a bowl of ancient grains. Ancient like that package of Faro you bought three years ago and never used.
Serves 4
20 minutes
1 lb. Brussels sprouts
½ cup sweet cider
1 tsp cider vinegar
1 tsp bacon fat or neutral oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil and prepare a bath of ice water.
Trim the sprouts, cutting away the stem end and any discolored leaves.
Halve each sprout.
Drop the spouts into the boiling water and cook for 30 seconds.
Remove and place immediately in the ice water to shock/chill.
Remove the spouts from the ice bath, drain, and dry with a towel.
In a thick pan over high heat, add the oil or bacon fat.
Arrange the sprouts cut side down in the pan and cook until they begin to brown.
Add the cider and vinegar and cook, stirring constantly, until the liquid has reduced to a thick glaze that coats the sprouts.
Season with salt and pepper.
Not Quite Mom’s Pot Roast
This dish has haunted me for years. There isn’t any real reason I had to recreate it. Mom’s original recipe is almost perfect. I think I mostly wanted to show myself that I could. The technique I use here, a slow open braise, produces some of my favorite dishes – whether beef, chicken, or even vegetables. The dry heat of the oven adds layers of browning flavors, while the actual cooking is moderated by the slow evaporation of the liquids the meat is bathed in. The results are soft, luscious pieces of meat – a normally tough cut turned buttery tender – and a rich sauce where the original ingredients almost disappear into sum that’s far greater than its parts.
This recipe is a little involved and involves a few extra steps, but once done, it’s pretty much a fire and forget. The long slow braise in the oven allows you time to do whatever you want. Rake leaves, make the rest of dinner, take over a small country. Dinner will be waiting.
A couple of notes. You can, if you so desire, take a bunch of short cuts here. You could use ketchup instead of making the ketchup like tomato sauce I outline here. You could use premade onion soup. You could even follow my mom’s original recipe – which is reproduced above. Almost any path you take its gonna be delicious.
Serves 4
4-6 hours, 45 minutes active
2 lb. beef chuck roast
2 large white onions
2 cups beef stock
1 can (14.5 oz) peeled diced tomatoes or equivalent fresh
½ cup cider vinegar
½ cup light brown sugar
2 cloves garlic
2 whole cloves (spice)
2 allspice berries
1 bay leaf
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 baking apple, peeled and seeded, and chopped – core included
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp fish sauce or Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tsp cornstarch plus 1 tbsp water
Make ketchup. Basically.
Peel, trim, and quarter one onion.
Peel the garlic.
Add the onion, garlic, sugar, vinegar, tomato, 1 tsp of salt, and tomatoes to the container of a blender and process until smooth.
Bring to simmer over a medium flame.
Cook until thickened and reduced to 2 cups.
The following recipe requires 1 cup of this mixture – but halving the recipe is difficult as there isn’t sufficient volume to blend well. Reserve the remaining sauce and use as you would ketchup – it’ll keep in the refrigerator for several weeks
Make onion soup.
Peel, trim, and slice the remaining onion very thinly.
Add the sliced onion to a pan with 1 tbsp butter and 1 tsp kosher salt.
Cook over low to medium heat, stirring often, until very well caramelized (20- 40 minutes), occasionally deglazing the pan with small amounts of beef stock.
Once the onions are dark, add 2 cups beef stock, and simmer briefly, scraping the bottom of the pan.
Put it all together.
Preheat your oven to 300°F.
Quarter the chuck roast, and tie into medallions using kitchen twine.
Pat dry with a towel, and season well with salt and pepper.
Sear both sides in an oven proof pan. Remove from the pan.
Add 1 cup of the ketchup mixture, and all of the onion soup to the pan.
Add the fish sauce or Worcestershire sauce, the bay leave, and a sprig of thyme.
Bring to a simmer, and return the beef to the pan, ladling some of the sauce over the beef medallions.
Cook uncovered for 4-6 hours, turning the meat once, and basting occasionally.
To finish, remove the beef and set aside.
Skim off as much fat as possible and bring the remaining sauce to a simmer.
Add a slurry of 2 tsp cornstarch and 1 tbsp water to the simmering mixture and stir well until thickened.
Return the meat to the mixture to warm.
Serve over egg noodles or spaetzle, generously dressed with sauce.
Note: I pretty much always use homemade stock. I make my beef stock by by rubbing beef bones, celery, sliced onion, and carrot with tomato paste, roasting until dark brown, and the simmering for hours in clean water.
If you don’t want to tackle homemade, look for better quality stocks. Don’t use powdered or cubed bullion - they’re too salty.
Stovetop Fancy Apple Crisp
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If you’re from the midwest, you’re practically born knowing how to make apple crisp. It’s in the water. Changes your genes. Maybe it’s just absorbed from the air. This apple crisp is just like moms. Except it’s not at all. Instead of the classic midwestern version – this one attempts to put the same flavors in textures into a more flexible more intense format that’s easy to play with and modify. Instead of a single baked dish, this version uses separate components that are plated together to create a simulacrum of the original. A luscious apple compote topped with an aggressively crunchy rolled oat and butter brickle topping that’s sweet, crunchy, and salty all at once.
Serves 4
45 Minutes
4 green baking apples
1 tsp Chinese five spice powder
1/2 cup sweet apple cider
½ tsp cinnamon (ideally, fresh grated)
1 cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 cup rolled oats
5 tbsp unsalted butter, divided
1 tbsp AP flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1 oz apple brandy (opt)
Peel, core, and dice the apples.
Retain several large pieces of the peel, and cut into long, very thin strips with the point of a sharp knife. Place the peel strips in cold water and refrigerate until ready to plate.
Toss the apple pieces with five spice powder, cinnamon, 2 tbsp sugar and 1 tbsp AP flour.
Add 1 tbsp of butter to a pan over medium heat.
When the butter has stopped foaming, add the apple mixture and cook, stiring constantly for about 2 minutes.
Add the cider, and reduce to a simmer. Cook until reduced to a thick filling.
Refrigerate until ready to plate.
Toast 1 cup of rolled oats in a dry pan.
Add 4 tbsp unsalted butter to a pan over low heat.
As soon as the butter has begun to melt, add 1 cup of sugar.
Cook undisturbed until the mixture has melted and browned to a light caramel color.
Using a metal spoon, incorporate the toasted oats.
Immediately pour out onto a silpat or other silicone mat and cook.
Once completely cool, break into small pieces or quickly pulse in a food processor.
To serve, top the apple mixture with the brickle, garnish with some of the curled peel, and add a dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. As an Ohioan, I am required to recommend Greater’s or Jeni’s. I would even if I was from some other state. I swear.