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Kalbi (Beef) Tacos Sous Vide with Ridge Vineyards Buchignani Ranch (Alexander Valley) Zinfandel 2017

• ¾ cup soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
• Several grinds black pepper
• ½ medium pear, peeled and diced
• ½ cup canned diced pineapple
• 2 cloves garlic, diced

Combine marinade ingredients in bowl of a food processor and pulse until fairly smooth.

Brush both sides of 1-¾ pounds flanken style beef short ribs with marinade. Reserve remaining marinade in a small jar in the refrigerator. Place in a 1 gallon vacuum seal bag. Using the pulse setting on your vacuum sealer get as much air out of the bag as possible without pulling the marinade into the sealer. Use the seal setting to seal the bag. Note: this is not a recipe with which I would use the immersion method to get the air out of the bag. I worry about leakage and the zip-loc bag holding up for such a long sous vide session.

Around breakfast a day before you want eat the tacos, place bag in a very large pot (it just fit in my 12 quart stockpot). Put your sous vide machine in the pot. Set the temperature to 130° and the timer to 36 hours.

About an hour before you want to serve dinner, put reserved marinade in a small saucepan over high heat. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low. Allow to reduce to a glaze. Remove from heat and set aside.

When marinade has cooled add 1 tablespoon to ¾ cup Sriracha Aioli and mix well. 

Heat a grill pan over high heat. Remove ribs from water bath. Open bag. Transfer ribs to a paper towel lined cutting board and pat dry. Brush both sides of the ribs with marinade glaze. Sear ribs on both sides in the grill pan and transfer back to the cutting board (sans paper towels). Allow to rest briefly. If the meat fails to fall of the bones, cut meat from them. Chop meat roughly. 

Serve with warmed taco size soft flour tortillas, the aioli, steamed rice, and my Asian Slaw or my Asian slaw with pears. 

I assemble my tacos by smearing some aioli on the tortilla, topping it with rice, beef, and slaw in that order. Helen goes beef, rice, slaw, drizzle of aioli.

We drank a Ridge Vineyards Buchignani Ranch (Alexander Valley) Zinfandel 2017, which was a great match. Medium strength bouquet. Good depth with medium finish. Dark red and black fruits. Blackberry, raspberry, and spice and dill (American oak). A dash of pepper on the finish. Very very good. In prime drinking form now and probably will last another 3-4 years.

Multicooker Beef Stew with Smith-Madrone (Napa Valley--Spring Mountain District) Cabernet Sauvignon 2019

• 1 pound beef chuck cut into 1-inch pieces
• ½ medium onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon flour
• ¾ cup red wine
• 1 ½ cup water
• 2 teaspoons Better than Bouillon reduced sodium Beef Base
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms, rinsed and cut into small pieces
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ teaspoon dried Italian parsley
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• 1 large Yukon Gold potato, diced
• 2 medium carrots, sliced into ¼-inch rounds
• ¾ cup frozen peas
• 1 package Better Than Gravy Beef flavor

Set multicooker on brown setting. Season beef with salt and pepper. Add drizzle of olive oil to multicooker pot. When it starts to shimmer, add half of the beef. Brown on both sides. Remove to a paper towel lined plate. Repeat with other half of the beef. Add onion to pot and sauté until translucent (about 7-8 minutes). Add garlic and tomato paste. Sauté for a minute. Add wine and bring to a boil. Boil 3 minutes. Add water. beef base, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, mushrooms, parsley, onion and garlic powders, and a grind or two of black pepper to pot. Return beef to pot.

Put lid on pot. Set mode control to pressure cook (high) and set timer to 25 minutes.

When timer expires, unplug the multicooker and allow to sit for about 10 minutes. Release any remaining pressure and remove lid. Add potatoes and carrots. Plug the multicooker back in and replace lid. Set mode control to pressure cook (high) and set timer to 15 minutes.

When timer expires, unplug the multicooker and allow to sit for about 10 minutes. Release any remaining pressure and remove lid. Plug the multicooker back in. Set mode control to brown and bring liquid to the boil. Add peas and cook for 3 minutes. Add gravy mix and stir thoroughly. Cook 1 minute.

Serve. I made some biscuits to go with the stew. I made some honey butter for the biscuits by mixing 3 tablespoons of salted butter with 1 tablespoon of local Malibu raw honey and 1 teaspoon of New Zealand Honey Co. Raw Manuka Honey.  

I still use my trusty Fagor multicooker. Sadly, you can't get them anymore, but the Zavor LUX 4 Quart Multi-Cooker is a good substitute.

We drank a 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon from our good friends at Smith-Madrone Winery. Deep purple. Powerful bouquet. Intense flavors with a long finish. Drinkable now with smooth tannins, but there's plenty of structure to support cellaring. If I drink another bottle in the near future, as I'm very likely to do, I would loosen it up a little by double decanting and allowing it to breath for about 30 minutes. Plenty of rich, dark fruits. Black currant, blackberry, and black cherry. There's also a green element that I associate more with left bank Bordeaux than Napa cabernets. Herbs and green bell pepper. Complex. Tasty. Excellent.

Some recent wine tasting notes

Had a @ThreeSticksWine 2019 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir with beef stroganoff. Great match. Bright cherry and raspberry. Floral notes on the nose. Smooth tannins. Good acidity. Balanced. Accessible but drink young. Good food wine. Well done. pic.twitter.com/XqMZgXWkiV

— Steve Bainbridge (@PrawfBainbridge) June 25, 2023

Had a @RidgeVineyards 2013 Rousten Cabernet Franc with pork loin chops in a Marsala mushroom sauce. Lovely wine. Black cherry, blackberry, spice. Great depth. Complex. Long finish. Exceptional. #wine #winetasting pic.twitter.com/uEkCaAWi9h

— Steve Bainbridge (@PrawfBainbridge) June 25, 2023

Sweet Potato Noodles with Beef and Mushroom Stir-Fry

• 1 medium sweet potato

Sauce

• ¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce
• ½ tablespoon low-sodium Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon onion powder
• green parts of 2 scallions, sliced thinly
• 2 teaspoons grated ginger
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 teaspoon Siracha
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch

Stir-fry

• 8 ounces sirloin, sliced thinly
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• ¼ teaspoon cornstarch
• white parts of 2 scallions, sliced thinly
• 1 clove garlic, sliced thinly
• 4 ounces Shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• ⅔ frozen chopped spinach

Preheat oven to 425°.

Peel sweet potato. Trim off ends. Cut in half. Spiralize using the 3 mm shredder blade. You should get noodles about the size of linguine. Place on a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat. Bake for 8 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Combine sauce ingredients in a small bowl, whisk well, and set aside.

Combine beef, soy sauce, and cornstarch in a bowl. Mix well and set aside.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Drizzle in a teaspoon of peanut or canola oil. Add beef and sauté 2 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove to a paper-towel lined plate to drain.

Reduce heat to medium and add scallions and garlic. Sauté 2 minutes. Add mushrooms and sauté until they begin to brown, which should take about 5-6 minutes. Add spinach and sauce. Mix well. Cook 1 minute. Add noodles, tossing to combine. Add beef. Toss. Serve.

We drank a 2020 Ridge Vineyards Three Valleys. Lovely. Blueberry, plum, pepper. Made an interesting match.

 

Sweet Potato Zozzona

The spiralizer fad is long over, but it still makes good food. I liked this a lot.

• 1 medium sweet potato
• 2 ½ ounces guanciale diced (pancetta is an acceptable substitute but American bacon is not)
• 3 ounces Italian sausage (I prefer sweet but hot works great too)
• 1 shallot minced
• 2 gloves garlic sliced thinly
• ½ tablespoon tomato paste (I prefer Mutti)
• ½ white wine
• 1 cup passata (I prefer Mutti)
• big pinch basil
• big pinch Thai basil
• ½ ounce Pecorino Romano grated finely (use the imported stuff not the American ripoff)
• 1 egg yolk
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 425°. Peel the sweet potato, trim off the pointed ends, and cut the potato in half. Spiralize using the 2 mm straight blade. You should end up with a bunch of "noodles" roughly the size and shape of pappardelle. Put the noodles on a sheet pan lined with a silicone baking mat. Bake for 10 minutes.

Mix Pecorino, egg yolk, pinch of salt, and a few grinds of pepper in a small bowl. Set aside.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Drizzle in a teaspoon of olive oil. Add guanciale and sauté until the fat renders and the meat begins to brown, which should take around 5 minutes. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate to drain, leaving fat in the skillet. If using bulk sausage, add to pan and break up. If using cased sausage, remove casings, add to pan and break up. Cook until sausage begins to brown, which should take 6-8 minutes depending on how much you broke it up, stirring occasionally as you go. Remove to paper towel-lined plate to drain.

The fat and drippings are key ingredients so leave them in the pan. If you must, however, you drain off all but about a tablespoon.

Add shallot and garlic Sauté until they take on a slight coloration, which should take about 2-3 minutes.

Add tomato paste. Sauté 45 seconds. Add white wine, bring to a boil, and cook 1 minute. Add passata (use the passata remaining in the jar within a week or freeze). Add basil. Return guanciale and sausage to pan. Add cheese mixture to pan.  Stir well. Cook 1 minute. (If sauce gets too thick, add a few tablespoons of water.) Add sweet potato, mix thoroughly, and serve in big pasta bowls. Top with extra Pecorino.

We drank a 2018 Villa Antinori. The robust fruit made a nice contrast to the tomatoes in the sauce, while the bright acidity offset the richness of the sauce.

Warm Potato Salad

• 2-3 Yukon Gold potatoes (totaling about a pound)
• 4 slices thick cut bacon
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon minced shallot
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 ½ tablespoons whole grain mustard
• ½ tablespoon Dijon mustard
• finely snipped fresh chives to taste
• dried Italian parsley to taste
• onion power to taste
• salt and pepper to taste

Slice the potatoes on the thick setting (¼") of a mandolin. Put the potatoes in a large sauce pan and add enough water to cover by about half an inch. Add 1 tablespoon of the vinegar and a big pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a rolling simmer, and cook until just tender but not at all mushy (about 15 minutes). 

Meanwhile, cook the bacon in a medium skillet over medium heat. Drain on a paper towel lined plate. Enjoy one piece as a reward for your hard work and crumble the remainder.

Drain potatoes and add to a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients and combine gently but thoroughly.

Optional add-ins: caraway seeds, celery seeds, hard boiled eggs, capers, cornichons, sweet gherkins

Tarragon rub

I used this tonight on some sous vide pork chops. The pork chop recipe will go up tomorrow.

• 2 teaspoons dried tarragon 
• 1 teaspoon dried Italian parsley
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon freeze-dried green peppercorns
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon onion powder

Combine in a mortar and pestle. Grind to a fine powder.

Shrimp fra diavolo

Dinner Friday night was shrimp fra diavolo over spaghetti.

• 6 ounces spaghetti cooked in 3 or 4 quarts of well salted water for 9 minutes (just shy of al dente) (as far as supermarket brands are concerned, I prefer De Cecco), drained but not rinsed.
• 1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes, drained (lately I have been using Carmelina e San Marzano organic)
• 187 ml dry white wine (I keep a few 187 bottles of either Sutter Home or Woodbridge red and white wines on hand for cooking purposes. I wouldn't drink either, but it saves money when you don't need a whole 750 ml bottle of whine.)
• 1 cup Rao's Arrabbiata Sauce
• 6-8 fresh basil leaves
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
• 8 ounces extra large shrimp
• salt 
• pepper

Chiffonade the basil.

Put diced tomatoes and half of the wine into a wide bottom sauce pan. Bring to a boil and reduce wine by half. Remove pan from heat and stir in the jarred sauce. Add half the basil. Set aside.

I buy IQF frozen shrimp (the "fresh" shrimp at your supermarket is actually thawed shrimp). I defrost them overnight in the refrigerator. Reel. Devein. Rinse. Dry. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat a 4-quart sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil. When oil shimmers, add garlic and sauté for 30 seconds. Add shrimp. Let shrimp cook for 1 minute without moving. Flip shrimp over. Cook 1 minute. Add the sauce and spaghetti, mixing well. Cook 2 minutes.

We drank it with Bottega Gold Prosecco. I love Prosecco with spicy food, especially spicy Italian food. The bubbles, acidity, and slight residual sugar make it very refreshing. The Bottega Gold is an especially nice example. It suggests apple, white peach, and Meyer lemon.

Quasi-East Asian Meat Sauce with Penne Pasta

Seasoning Sauce

• 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Red Boat fish sauce
• ± 1 tablespoon Sriracha (to taste)
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sake
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 teaspoon mirin
• pinch red pepper flakes (to taste)
• black pepper to taste

Meat Sauce

• ½ cup finely diced carrot
• ½ cup finely diced celery
• ½ cup finely diced onion
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon grated ginger
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 5 ounces ground beef
• 5 ounces ground pork
• ½ ounce dried shiitake mushrooms, reconstituted, and chopped very finely
• 1 teaspoon Better Than Bouillon Beef Base Bouillon

Other

• sliced green parts of 2 scallions
• 6 ounces penne pasta prepared as per package directions 

Mix seasoning sauce in a measuring cup. Add enough water to bring total liquid to ¾ cup and set aside.

Heat a 4 quart sauté pan over medium heat. Add 1 teaspoon olive oil. Add beef and pork. Season with salt and pepper. Brown meat. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate to drain. Do not wipe out pan.

Add another teaspoon of olive oil to pan. When oil begins to shimmer, add carrot, celery, and onions. Cook until onions are translucent and carrots have softened (about 10-12 minutes). 

Add garlic, ginger, and tomato paste. Sauté for 2 minutes (do not let garlic burn). 

Return meat to pan and add mushrooms. Add seasoning sauce. Raise heat to high and bring to a boil. reduce heat to low and allow to simmer until sauce thickens to your taste (probably around 20 minutes).

Serve over penne pasta topped with scallions.

We drank a Saldo Zinfandel. Black cherries, blackberries, briars, pepper, anise. Yum.

 

Simplified Coq au Vin

• 1 ounce porcini mushrooms reconstituted in 1 cup hot water
• ¾ cup diced carrot
• 2 chicken legs (preferably free range, organic, and air chilled)
• 1 quart sweet brine
  • 4 tablespoons pickling salt 
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 quart water
• 2 ounces diced pancetta
• 4 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced thickly
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried Italian parsley
• 1 large shallot, minced
• 4 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
• ½ tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon Wondra® flour
• 1 tablespoon brandy
• ¼ cup red wine (I keep some 187 ml bottles of Woodbridge® Merlot around to cook with)
• 1 teaspoon Better Than Bouillon Organic Reduced Sodium Roasted Chicken Base

Put chicken in a large zip-top plastic bag with the brine. Put in refrigerator for 2 hours. Remove chicken from brine. Pat chicken dry with paper towels. Season well with salt and pepper.

Drain porcini mushrooms in a sieve over a bowl. Rinse the mushrooms, dice them, and set aside. Strain the reconstituting liquid through a coffee filter into a measuring cup. If necessary, add water to bring liquid up to 1 cup.

Put carrots in a microwavable bowl, add 1 tablespoon of water, cover and microwave on high for 3 minutes. Set aside.

Heat a 4 quart sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil. When the olive oil begins to shimmer, add chicken skin side down. Cook 6 minutes. Turn and cook an additional 2 minutes. Remove to a plate.

Reduce heat to medium and add pancetta. Cook until browned and crispy (abut 6 minutes). Using a slotted spoon, remove the pancetta to a paper towel-lined plate to drain.

Pour all the fat into a small dish. Return 2 tablespoons fat to pan and heat using the medium heat setting. Add cremini mushrooms and season with thyme, parsley, and salt and pepper. Sauté until well browned (about 7 minutes). Add shallots and garlic. Sauté for two minutes. Add tomato paste and sauté for 1 minute. Sprinkle with flour and stir well to combine. Increase heat to high and add brandy. Reduce to a glaze. Add wine, the strained liquid from the mushrooms, the reserved carrots and porcini mushrooms, and chicken base. Bring to a boil. Nestle chicken legs into liquid, cover, reduce heat to law and allow to simmer until the thighs reach an internal temperature of about 170° (about 15 minutes). 

Check the thickness of the sauce. If it is too runny for your taste, remove the chicken to a plate and boil until reduced to your preference. (You may also want to add a teaspoon of flour, well whisked in.) Otherwise, allow chicken to rest uncovered in the sauce for 5 minutes before serving.

I served the coq au vin with Alessi mushroom risotto prepared as per package direction s, except that I used 1 tablespoon of the reserved fat from sautéing the chicken and pancetta instead of olive oil.

We drank a The Prisoner Pinot Noir (Sonoma Coast) 2019. I liked it despite the fact that it is an unusual Pinot Noir. If I had tasted it blind, I might have thought it was a Zinfandel. Robust. Black cherry and blackberry. Plums. Well integrated oak notes.

Taco Seasoning Mix

• 1 ½ tablespoons paprika
• 1 ½ teaspoons chili powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 ½ teaspoons corn starch
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano
• ¼ to ¾ teaspoons cayenne pepper

Mix well.

I prefer Morton & Basset spices.

Depending on how much cayenne pepper you add this recipe makes about 3 to 3 ½ tablespoons of seasoning mix. In turn, how much cayenne pepper you add depends on how much heat you want. It also depends on whether you used sweet or hot paprika.

Speaking of paprika, I do not recommend using smoked paprika. Smoke is not a flavor I want in my tacos.

I will usually use around two tablespoons for a pound of ground meat. I typically add 1 tablespoon to the meat as it fries and stir it in to bloom the spices. After botting up excess fat with paper towels, I’ll add a half of a cup of water to the meat, bring it to a boil, and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Let the water reduce to a glaze. While the water is reducing, I’ll taste both the liquid and the meat, and then add additional seasoning as needed.

Spaghetti al Tonno with many shortcuts and a Daou Rose

This is about as easy as things get and very tasty:

• 8 ounces spaghetti cooked per package directions and drained. Do NOT rinse.
  • I have been using Rustichella D'Abruzzo lately and like it a lot.
• 1 6.7 ounce jar Tonnino Tuna Ventresca in olive oil, drained and flaked. Do NOT rinse.
  • Jarred tuna is much preferred over canned. The pieces are bigger and the tuna has better texture.
  • Ventresca is the belly of Bonito del Norte (albacore). It's the best part of a great tuna.
  • Oil packed is preferable to water packed or pouch tuna, as it has a moister texture and richer flavor.
  • Tonnino is my favorite brand. It's meaty, clean tasting, and has huge flakes. If you can't get the Ventresca a jar of Tonnino Tuna Filets makes a good substitute.
  • If you're made of money, Nardin Bonito Del Norte Ventresca Fillets is even better but I'm not sure it's worth paying 4x more than what you pay for Tonnino.
• ½ cup roasted tomato bruschetta mix 
  • This is a key time saver. Otherwise, you're dicing tomatoes, and garlic, and so on.
  • I got mine fresh from Bristol Farm's deli department.
  • DeLallo is a very acceptable jarred alternative. 
• 1 cup micro greens rinsed, dried, and loosely packed
• zest of 1 lemon
• ½ tablespoon of lemon juice
• big pinch of salt
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• red pepper flakes to taste
• ½ teaspoon fish sauce
  • Red Boat is the brand of choice

While pasta is cooking, combine all the other ingredients in a medium to large bowl and lightly toss to combine. Add spaghetti and toss to combine. Add extra virgin olive oil to taste. Use a very good oil. I use California Reserve Miller’s Blend.

We drank a 2019 Daou Rose, which is a blend of Grenache and Sauvignon Blanc. Light. Well balanced. Easy to drink. Peach, melon, and citrus notes.

By the way, have you downloaded my cookbook?

Bavette Steak with Sherry, Mustard, and Green Peppercorn Sauce and Ridge Three Valleys 2019

Helen and I get two meals a week from each of Home Chef and Hello Fresh. Usually we eat them Monday through Thursday and cook from scratch on Friday and Saturday. This week, however, we delayed one of our Hello Fresh meals to Friday night: Bavette Steak in Sherry Shallot Sauce with Crème Fraîche Mashed Potatoes & Roasted Green Beans. It's a pretty good menu kit, but I've made some substantial tweaks that I think significantly improve it.

Start with the Bavette steak. Bavette is a fancy name for a cut taken from the bottom sirloin butt. It comes from a part of the cow near the flank steak, which it resembles. Hello Fresh recommends sautéing the steaks for 5-7 minutes per side. I find the result very unsatisfactory. It's not very tender and easily gets past medium-rare.

Here's what I do instead:

• I give the steaks a quick bash all over with my Jaccard 48-Blade Meat Tenderizer. 
• I then dry marinade the steaks by rubbing them all over with a mix of 2 parts kosher salt, 1 part black pepper, 1 part onion powder, 1 part garlic powder, and 1 part Creole seasoning.
• I then vacuum seal each steak in its own 1 quart plastic bag using my Weston Vacuum Sealer. 
• The bags go into a large 12 quart spaghetti cooker filled about ⅔ full of hot water along with my Breville Joule Sous Vide. I set the sous vide's temperature to 133° and the timer to 100 minutes.
• I preheat a Le Creuset Square Skillet Grill Pan to 375° (as measured by my infrared thermometer).
• After removing the steaks from their bags and patting them very dry with paper towels, I sear them for about 90 seconds on each side. I let them rest and then slice them thinly against the grain.

Hello Fresh gives you two packets of crème fraîche for the mashed potatoes and 1 of sour cream for the sauce. I use one the packet of the crème fraîche for the sauce and put the sour cream and the other packet of crème fraîche in the potatoes.

As for the sauce, I melt a pat of butter in a nonstick skillet. I add a half tablespoon of chopped shallot and cook, stirring, until softened, 1-2 minutes. I then add a teaspoon of minced garlic and cook for 30 more seconds. Next I add 2 teaspoons of the provided sherry vinegar and 1 teaspoon of dry sherry. I let that mix reduce by half. Then goes in the packet of beef stock concentrate, ¼ cup water, and a half tablespoon green peppercorns. Simmer the sauce for a couple of minutes, remove from heat, mix in the reserved packet of crème fraîche, 1 and a half teaspoons of Dijon mustard, and 1 tablespoon butter. Return to heat and simmer until it thickens slightly, stirring to combine. Season with salt and pepper.

I prepare the potatoes as directed, except for swapping in the packet of sour cream.

Instead of roasting the green beans, I microwaved them in their bag (cutting a small hole in the top first) for 3 and a half minutes.

I like my version a LOT better.

With it we drank a Ridge Vineyards Three Valleys (Sonoma County) 2019. It's a blend of 73% Zinfandel, 13% Petite Sirah, 10% Carignane, 3% Mataro, and 1% Alicante Bouschet. (I always wonder whether that 1% really matters.). It was delicious. Full of fruit and youthful vitality. Blackberry, raspberry, briars, and warm spices. A note of pepper on the finish. Not a vin de grade, but a great match for steaks or BBQ in the short term. Grade: A-

Beef Hot Dish

• ½ pound ground beef (not ground sirloin, which is too low in fat)
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 shallot, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• ½ pound cremini mushrooms, rinsed, trimmed, and diced
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 tablespoon Wondra® flour
• 1 package Better than Gravy, Beef Gravy® mix
• 1 cup water
• ½ tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• ½ cup frozen peas
• ½ cup frozen carrots
• ½ package frozen Ore-Ida tater tots or frozen Ore-Ida diced hash brown potatoes
• ½ cup freshly grated cheddar cheese
• salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375°.

Brown beef in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Blot pan with paper towel without disturbing any fond that developed.

Reduce heat to medium. Add shallots to the pan and sauté for 1 minute. Add garlic and tomato paste. Sauté an additional 45 seconds.

Add mushrooms and thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until the mushrooms have softened, given up their liquid, and begun to color. Sprinkle with flour.

Whisk together gravy mix, water, and Worcestershire sauce in a small bowl. Add to pan. Return beef to pan. Add frozen peas and carrots to pan. Mix well to combine.

Put the potatoes in a bowl add 1 tablespoon olive oil and salt to taste. Mix.

Raise heat and bring to a boil. Transfer mixture to a lightly greased 8x8 baking dish. Top mixture with cheddar cheese and potatoes.

Transfer to oven and bake until potatoes are golden brown and mixture reads at least 160°. It should take about 25 minutes. If the potatoes don't brown in that time, stick them under the broiler element for 5-10 minutes.

Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Choose a pleasant red wine but don't push the boat out too far.

Morel Mushrooms in Cream Sauce on Pappardelle

• 2 tablespoons butter, divided
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 8 ounces dried pappardelle pasta
• 8 ounces fresh morel mushrooms (I got mine from Oregon Mushrooms, a very reliable source)
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• ¼ teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 1 tablespoon dry sherry
• 2 tablespoons crème fraîche
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon fresh chives, chopped into ¼  pieces
• freshly grated parmesan to taste (use a good imported Italian cheese)

Cook pappardelle according to package directions, stopping one minute before it reaches the al dente stage. Reserve 1 cup pasta water. Drain but do not rinse pasta.

Melt one tablespoon of butter in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat. When the butter stops foaming, add olive oil. Add the mushrooms and thyme leaves to the pan. Season with salt and pepper. Sauté for about 6 minutes. Push the mushrooms out to the outer edges of the pan and add the shallots and garlic to the center of pan. Cook 1-2 minutes (do not let garlic brown). Mix mushrooms and aromatics thoroughly. 

Add sherry. Allow the sherry to reduce to a glaze. Add crème fraîche. Remove pan from heat and stir in the heavy cream. Mix well. Add pasta and cook 1 minute. Add other tablespoon of butter and mix well. If sauce is too thick, dilute it will small additions of the reserved pasta water.

Garnish with chives and parmesan.

Serve with a Chardonnay or, better yet, a Central Coast Viognier.