All posts by Drunken Chef

How to Cook "American Style", Recipe

Sauerbraten

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INGREDIENTS

5 pound Pot Roast

2 lagre onoins

1 cup red wine vinegar

1 cup water

1 tablesppon salt

1 tsp black pepper

1 tablesppon brown suagr

1 head of garlic

2 bay leaves

2 tablespoon vegetable or olive oil

10 ginger snaps very finely crushed in a zip top bag for the gravy

DIRECTIONS

In a large zip lock bag, add the vinegar, water, whole garlic cloves, brown sugar, bay leaves, salt, and pepper. Chop two large onions and add that to the bag. Add the meat, squeeze out most of the air and close it tight. Place the meat in the refrigerator. Marinate the meat for a least 5 days.

On the fifth day, place the meat in a Dutch oven. Then pour in the marinade over the top. Bake at 325 for 6 hours.

Gravy: Crush the gram crackers in a zip lock bag. I use a meat tenderizer, but a small pan works well too. On stove, stir the crushed gram crackers into the cooked marinate and meat juices. Heat the gravy up on medium high heat until the gravy simmers and thickens. the gravy should coat the back of a spoon. If necessary add more crunched cookies one at a time until the sauce it the perfect consistency .

Insta-Pot directions: Add the meat and marinate to insta-pot. Turn on to the stew setting. Set the time for two hours. Let it cool on the “Stay warm” setting one hour.

When you can open the lid without having to let out any steam remove the meat and make the gravy right in the insta-pot. I add the crushed cookies and stirred them in. Then turn on the pot to sauté and stir until it simmers. Done. Unplug and Serve.

Serve with red cabbage, potato dumplings and beer!

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LUNCH

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Some mornings the coffee just does not perk fast enough. I guess that’s why so many people prefer the Keurig. Its instantaneous coffee. I can no longer drink the coffee from it. To me the coffee from a Keurig taste likes it was made with instant coffee. I rather wait for a good pot coffee. I suppose too if you can’t wait for a pot of coffee to perk to might have trouble waiting 5 days for your sauerbraten to marinate. Yes, my meat has now been marinating 5 days and toady is the big day I get to cook it! I hope it turns out to be worth the wait.

I will share the sauerbraten recipe with you today at lunch. Having never made it before I may need to tweak it a bit, so I am waiting to taste it first before I send it to you, my dear readers. Remember the first rule of cookery: try it before you server it. That’s why I will post the recipe having eaten eat first.

Last night, I peeled, boiled and riced some potatoes. Today is also potato dumpling day. This is to go with the sauerbraten. I also went to the supermarket last night for a jar of pickled red cabbage. Who knew they would be out? They always had this red cabbage stuff when I didn’t need it. It is not as if it is that popular of a food item here in New York. They were out of a lot of stuff. What? Ugg. Apparently they are having a hard time getting deliveries. I will try another place on my way to work this morning. I do not love shopping at the crack of dawn or do I? Considering what I have been doing for this “cookbook hobby” of mine perhaps I am beginning to think I am masochistic. Nah! I just need that dam cup of coffee. Come on cook already!

So pictured below is the potatoes I made last night. It looks like rice right? I guess that what happens when you boil potatoes. Then you have to let them cool to room temperature and put it through a potato ricer (pictured below).

Well I’m to work. Enjoy your day and enjoy your own lunch!

The Drunken Chef (Russ) 

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The Morning Ritual

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Good morning. I started my morning by flipping my meat for sauerbraten and squeezing my bag of goo for friendship bread. Then making coffee. Some would say I’m living the dream and life doesn’t get much better!  I say I still could have used that $700 million dollar lottery ticket and do some real good.

Last night was salad and meatballs for Jennifer (pictured above). She ate the meatballs but not all the salad. I had leftover steak from the Carriage House Restaurant, a salad (I made) and roasted potatoes. I’m am sorry to say but I like my steak better but this was good.

After dinner I cleaned up and made Minestrone soup. This is lunch for the crew at work. I hope it tastes as good as it smells. I have not tried it yet. I can add salt or whatever at work if need be when I do finally taste it. I never usually serve a dish to a guest with out tasting it first…

Well I’m to work. Enjoy your day and enjoy your soup! The Drunken Chef (Russ)  

How to Cook "American Style", Recipe

Minestrone Soup

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Minestrone Soup   

Serves 6 – 8

SPECIAL IMPLEMENTS

Large Pot

INGREDIENTS

4 cups chicken broth (no sodium/salt)

4 cups tomato sauce

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 Large onion, chopped

2 large stalks chopped celery

2 large carrots, diced

1/2 cup red wine (optional)

1 cup canned kidney beans, drained

1 (15 ounce) can green beans

2 cups baby spinach, rinsed

3 zucchinis, quartered and sliced

1 tablespoon Italian Seasoning (marjoram, thyme, rosemary, savory, sage, oregano, and basil

2 – 4 tsp Chicken Bouillon instead of salt (depending on taste)

Fresh ground black pepper to taste

1/2 cup seashell pasta or Ditalini (the little round tubes)

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese for topping

1 tablespoon olive oil

DIRECTIONS

In a large stock pot, over medium-low heat, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sauté garlic for 1 to 2 minutes. Add onion and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes. Add celery and carrots, sauté for 1 to 2 minutes.

Add chicken broth, water and tomato sauce, bring to boil, stirring frequently. If desired add red wine at this point. Reduce heat to low and add kidney beans, green beans, spinach leaves, zucchini, Italian Spice mix, chicken bouillon and pepper. Simmer for 30 to 40 minutes. For best results refrigerate overnight then reheat the portions needed.  

Fill a medium saucepan with water and bring to a boil. Add macaroni and cook until tender. Drain water and set aside.

Once pasta is cooked and soup is at a simmer (reheated if the next day) place 2 tablespoons cooked pasta into individual serving bowls. Ladle soup on top of pasta and sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top. Drizzle on olive oil and serve with bread.

NOTES: Don’t forget the Salad and/or Saltine Crackers

The Drunken Chef (Russ)

Recipe

Old Fashioned Chicken Soup

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This is my traditional chicken soup recipe. Made in a large stock pot over the stove. When its done you can always add Matzo ball or noodles or extra vegetables like bok choy. enjoy.

INGREDIENTS:

6-7 pound whole chicken (remove neck and liver from cavity)

5 quarts water

½ tsp. dill

½ tsp. white pepper

¼ tsp. thyme

¼ tsp. marjoram

1 Bay leaf

½ tsp. rosemary

½ tsp. Savory

2 medium onions (quartered)

2 large carrots (peeled and quartered)

1/2 pound baby carrots (diced)

1 large parsnip (peeled and diced)

2 celery stalks (quartered)

4 celery stalks (diced)

5 or more chicken bouillon cubes instead of salt to taste

1 tbsp. Fresh parsley (chopped)

DIRECTIONS:

Place the chicken in a large stock pot. Pour in 5 quarts of water and put on high heat. Add½ tsp. dill, ½ tsp. white pepper, ¼ tsp. thyme, ¼ tsp. marjoram, 1 bay leaf,

½ tsp. rosemary, ½ tsp. Savory, 2 medium onions (quartered), 2 large carrots (peeled and quartered), 2 celery stalks (quartered). Bring to a boil. Cover and turn to low and cook for 2 hours. Allow to cool for a few minutes and remove chicken to a platter. Pour broth through a large strainer removing all the solids and discard to garbage. Return broth to pot and add

1/2 pound baby carrots (diced), 4 celery stalks (diced), 1 large parsnip (peeled and diced)

1 tbsp. Fresh parsley (chopped). Return to a slow boil.

Cover chicken and allow to cool until you can safely handle it. When chicken is cool cut off breasts and save in a zip lock bag to make chicken salad.  Next carefully remove all the dark meat from the chicken discarding the skin bones and cartilage. Dice dark mean on a clean cutting board and return to soup. When the vegetables have softened add 5 or more chicken bouillon cubes and taste for saltiness. Add more if necessary. Serve HOT.

NOTES

The first thing I add to the soup is two or three and handfuls of fine egg noodles. Next I sometimes add Matzo balls.

How to Cook "American Style"

Chicken Matzo Ball Soup

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Good morning. I think this is still the morning. Its dark out so who knows. I made coffee and I flipped over my meat for the sauerbraten. So it a good start to the day.

Last night I stopped on the way home for bread. I came home with my loaf of bread and heated up meats balls and spaghetti. I ate and watched Jeopardy. Then I added 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of milk to my friendship bread starter. It still lives. Then I flipped over my meat for the sauerbraten and went to bed. Side note: I didn’t win the lottery of $700 Million dollars. It was someone in California. As the French say: say la vie.

On a positive note, yesterday’s lunch was Chicken Matzo Ball Soup. I cheated and used my insta-pot again. I also used 2 boxes of no salt chicken stock that was on sale for $1.99 each. To this, I added 3 whole chicken breasts (with the bone). To the stock, I added 1 Carrot diced, 1 Celery Stalk diced and 1 tsp Chicken bouillon (instead of salt). I turned on the pot and set it to broth. This is high pressure and 25 minutes of cooking time. I let it cool down for 30 minutes before opening it up. While is cooling I mixed up package of Matzo ball mix. The package is nothing more than matzo meal and baking soda ,but its all premeasured and packaged so I don’t have to worry about the matzo meal going stale. To that, I added ¼-cup vegetable oil and two eggs. Let it sit in the regenerator for the rest of the time (20 minutes) then added golf ball size pieces of dough to the soup along with a cup of fine noodles. I turned on the Sauté setting until the soup simmered. Then I hit cancel. I put on the lid to the the insta-pot and pressed the “keep warm” button. I let those balls cook like that for 35 minutes.   

When I finally tasted it, it seemed to have turned out perfect. Soft vegetables in a tasty and rich broth that complimented the light matzo balls and fine egg noodles. The true test is if Maryanne’s mother approves. Maryanne was going to bring some to her. This is comfort food at its best. The only thing missing was maybe a grilled cheese sandwich. Hmmm…maybe I can have any leftover soup with grilled sandwich today.

Well lets hope I can stay awake long enough to cook dinner tonight. Keep following along all week to see how this Sauerbraten thing turns out. Until tomorrow wishing you a happy and healthy hump day!

The Drunken Chef (Russ)

Blog Post, How to Cook "American Style"

The Sauerbraten Saga Begins

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Good morning. It’s Tuesday October 5th 2021 and too early in the morning for me to be up but I am. I am still not sleeping well. I seem to wake up at 4:30am every day. Then I have to be up an hour later for work so I can’t fall back to sleep. Maybe when we turn the clocks back I will be able to fall back to sleep.  Enough about my problems. There is cooking to be done.

Last night I started the sauerbraten marinating. The beef (two small chuck pot roasts) is marinating in a vinery mixture of: 1 cup red wine vinegar, 1 cup water, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, two onions, a tsp of black pepper and a whole head of garlic. I squeezed it all into a zip lock bag. (see picture above) This needs to marinate for five days so it will not be until Friday before we will see and taste the fruits of our efforts. I will also be making some side dishes. I will write more about that tomorrow. Rich, from my office, has requested applesauce to go with his. This seems to be a reasonable request so apple sauce for Richie it is.

I also made moms meatballs and sauce last night. I served them with spaghetti. Mine is the one that has parmesan cheese on it. It was yummy but I feel like I gained ten pounds. I miss my teenage metabolism. Lunch today will have to be low calorie soup and a salad.

That all for now good readers. Follow along this week and see how this Sauerbraten saga plays out. Until tomorrow wishing you a happy healthy Tuesday!

The Drunken Chef (Russ)

Blog Post

The Monday Morning Bl-auh-s

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Yes, it’s Monday and many of us probably have a case of the Monday morning blahs. I used to get them a lot more when I was younger and would rather be home then going to school however now that I am older I greet Monday in a new way. I see it now an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to brighten someone’s day. That is exactly what I will be doing today. Brightening three people’s day with a bag of goo called friendship bread. It also a selfish reason because it makes me feel good trying to make someone else happy.

Oher then that it will be your typical rainy Monday. One where I have to work as no one has hit the lottery, including me (sigh). Which brings me to the second thing I will be doing today. That is buying a lottery ticket or two. It is, after all advertised at $670 million dollars. Even if I wind up with half of that money in my pocket, I think I could retired from my current job and start that culinary school/restaurant! I might even get me one of those electric powdered cars from that Tesla Guy.

Oh! That Picture above. Dinner last night. No big whoop. Steak, salad, potato. (Boring – been there did that). Shhh don’t tell anyone but the Sauerbraten is coming…

Until tomorrow wishing you a happy healthy Monday!

The Drunken Chef (Russ)

Blog Post

The Sunday Morning Post

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Good Morning. I have my coffee and my sanity so we are moving in the right direction. Today I think I will search out a new farmers markets for some vegetables and fresh apples.

Update: It is day 22 of the friendship bread original starter. I did a live baking demo on Instagram of this batch. I am posting some pictures (above) of the second batch. Jennifer wanted smaller loaves to take to her class. Three more lucky people will get a crack at this amazing breakfast treat, or is it dessert. If you make it let me know when you eat it and how or when you eat it.

I also went out to eat twice this weekend. Well once we went out and once we brought food in. On Friday, Scott, Ally, Jennifer and I went to the Babylon Carriage House. Babylon is the name of a town here on Long Island. It always creeps me out to be in a town named after a place in the bible. I don’t know why. It just does. Anyway, we started with the autumn salad pictured below. It was, what’s the word, yum-a-riffic.  I will be recreating this salad next week at home in my kitchen.

Talking about salad dressing. I have to make several versions of Greek salad dressing.  I will being trying to create a new tasty salad dressing. There are after-all hundreds, maybe thousands, of Greek Salad Dressing recipes out there. Some good and some not so good. I am bored with the salad dressings I currently make so it is time for something new. My ingredient list will be: oil-packed anchovy fillets, garlic, egg yolks, Dijon mustard, freshly squeezed lemon (or lime) juice, extra virgin olive oil, canola oil,  Parmesan cheese or feta cheese, freshly ground black pepper (or white pepper), salt and maybe some fresh herbs…Cilantro or parsley or watercress. Who knows what I will make but that’s cooking isn’t it?  You experiment or make a mistake and *poof* you have something new.

We went to one other restaurant this weekend. It was an Italian restaurant I used to love but the last two times it let me down by over cooking the pasta. That would be bad enough by itself but when said pasta is the main entrée, as in Fettuccine Alfred, it is unforgivable. This was the case BOTH times. Why do I order out anyhow? I’ll tell you. It’s because sometimes I just don’t feel like cooking but if you can’t find a restaurant that can cook as good as you it’s disappointing. At least there is still the Carriage house who has an amazing chef. There is also Emilio’s in Commack. They CAN cook Italian food properly. I will keep going there for now!!

I also had a steak at the Carriage House and Scout brought with him a marvelous wine.

Breakfast today was simple, a cheese omelet, hash browns and toast with butter.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday. May it be filled with good wine, good food, good friends and good health to you and your family!

The Drunken Chef (Russ)

How to Cook "American Style", Recipe

Beef Vegetable Soup

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Good Morning. Its a chilly morning here on Long Island New York. Thursday for dinner, I made one of my favorite soups, Beef Vegetable Soup. Just like always, it seems this recipe takes me back to my childhood. I remember how large my mother would cut up the carrots and celery. The reason of course was my brother and I, but mostly me. I remember not always liking the carrots in the soup so I would eat around them. That’s when she just stopped putting them in my bowl. I guess making them a nice large size helped her to avoid them. That’s a mom for ya! Always trying to make their children happy!! Thankfully tastes change and today I love carrots in soup and use them ALL the time. You can’t have a mirepoix without carrots and mom knew that. Today the only thing I have changed over the years is now I add baby bok choy to the soup in the last ten minutes of cooking. I am excited to share this recipe with you all and hope you enjoy it.

Beef Vegetable Soup  

Serves 6 – 8

SPECIAL IMPLEMENTS

Large Pot

INGREDIENTS

2 lbs. Beef Stew Meat (cut into large bite size pieces)

2 cups Celery (large cuts)

2 cup2 Onion (cut into 1 inch pieces)

2 cups Carrots (cut into 1 inch pieces)

4 medium Potatoes (peeled and cut into pieces)

8 cups of water

6-8 bouillon cubes (or 8 tsp of better then Bouillon)

¼ tsp pepper

 2 – 4 tablespoons of Olive oil

2 heads baby bok choy (optional)

1 package wide noodles (Optional)

DIRECTIONS

In a large pot sauté beef in small batches in olive oil until is browned and there no juices in the bottom of the pot. Drain off excess fat and then add onion and celery. Sauté until onion are translucent.  Add back in all the beef. Add water, carrots and potatoes.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Add baby bok choy if you like and simmer an additional 10 minutes. Serve Hot!

Serving suggestion:

Wide noodles; prepare wide noodles according to package directions and serve them in a separate bowl. Add a little olive oil or butter to keep the noodle from sticking together. This was your family members can then add as many or as few of the noodles as they like. Plus, when you refrigerate the leftover soup overnight. The noodles don’t get all soggy and absorb all that luscious beef broth.  

NOTES: Serve with crackers and butter.

The Drunken Chef (Russ)