Pirate Patterson's Pirate Recipes

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Pirate Pat's Burning Skillet

Recipe of the Week!
Eat like the Pirates Do!
(anti-acid not included)

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Fond Brun (Brown Beef Stock)
Demi-Glace
Sauce au poivre (Pepper Sauce)

Recipe 000613 © Pirate Bill "Turtle" Patterson - used with permission

'bout time, eh?

More on Stock

Well, well, well; after a somewhat lengthy respite, I return to these pages to confuse and confound you with witless words of culinary incompetence. Let it be known that most of us Pirate types have been working our fingers to the bone this spring in order to ready our Fair Maiden, Moby Duck, for this years' festivities. And a sight she is, indeed!

Resplendent in Technicolor shades of yellow, red, black and gold, the Old Girl looks better than ever. A kind of Blackbeard cum Warner Brothers motif. Anyway, that explains the lack of attention to this page.

I was born in the nation's "breadbasket." The Midwest. Iowa. And Iowa is synonymous with corn. Actually, Iowa forms the nations' "cornbread basket" with Kansas forming the "breadbasket." That leaves the great state of Wisconsin as the nations "cheese basket," Florida as the "prune basket," Texas as the "gun basket" and California as the nation's "fruit basket" with San Francisco, naturally, as its' capital.

But I digress. James Beard never missed a meal and was once quoted as saying, "can I have some more potatoes?". Furthermore, he loved sweet corn. He once compared it to pate de fois gras as a first course of the highest order. A rather heady comparison if you are a corn farmer. And it is that beguiling flavor of just picked sweet corn that makes Iowa corn-fed beef the culinary treasure that it is.

Most cattle are fattened on grass or other grains prior to slaughter whereas select stockyards in the Omaha area deal with nothing other than corn-fed critters. It is this commitment to quality that gives rise to such institutions as the Metropolitan Steakhouse in downtown Seattle; far and away the finest steakhouse in Western Washington, in my opinion. You can buy this miraculous beef for home consumption if you take the time to search it out. It isn't cheap but is well worth the added price. My favorite cut of corn-fed beef is a center-cut rib steak, referred to in some circles as a Delmonico steak, named for the 19th century restaurant, Delmonico's, in New York City.

Properly, the steak should be an inch and a half thick, secured with cooking twine, seared rare and served with a rich, creamy pepper sauce. Purists will scoff, of course, but if we didn't have a sauce, we wouldn't have a recipe would we?

Let us begin with beef stock. Specifically, BROWN beef stock.

Fond Brun (Brown Beef Stock)

You will need the following:

A large, stainless steel stock pot. Taller is better than wider. Please don't use aluminum, people, it just isn't a good thing.
A large stainless roasting pan. Same goes for aluminum here as well.
A whole bunch of beef bones, maybe 10 pounds. The meatier the better. If you can find good, fresh MARROW bones, get 'em. If you are flush, throw in some oxtails. They make incredibly rich stock.
3-4 onions, halved and stuck with 6-8 whole cloves.
6-8 medium carrots, quartered.
6-8 celery stalks, quartered.
2-3 whole heads of garlic, unpeeled, halved.
1 bouquet garni:
1 large leek, dark green portion removed, split lengthwise and well rinsed.
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme.
3-4 sprigs fresh FLAT LEAF parsley (if the curly kind was worth anything then Denny's wouldn't put it on your plate).
5-6 Bay leaves.
15-20 black pepper corns.
Couple of cups red wine. Doesn't need to be expensive but should certainly be good enough to drink.
Salad oil.
A nice chunk of lean salt pork, soaked to remove excess saltiness and well browned-optional.
More red wine-optional.

Drizzle the beef bones with about 1/4 cup oil and roast in a preheated 450 degree oven for about 45 minutes, stirring the bones occasionally to insure even browning. While the bones are browning prepare your bouquet garni by making a sandwich out of the herbs and the leek halves and secure with twine.
When the bones are starting to brown, add the carrot, celery and onion. Roast for another 30-45 minutes. Remove from the oven when the contents are nicely browned or "caramelized" and dump everything in your pot.
Deglaze the roasting pan with the red wine being sure to scrape all the bits of brown stuff lose. Cook down by at least half, you don't want the juice to be too "winey." Add this to the pot along with the garlic heads.
Fill the pot with COLD water to within 1 inch of the top. If you fill it to the top it will boil over and make a big mess. You can add red wine at this point if you like, perhaps a half bottle. I prefer not to.
Bring to a boil but not a hard boil. A soft, rolling boil. Skim the gray yuck-yuck that rises to the surface as it boils and cook in this manner for about 30 minutes.
Reduce the heat to barely simmering and cook for 6-8 hours, skimming occasionally. You may need to add more cold water periodically but you want end up with a roughly 50% reduction.
About two hours before the stock is done cooking, add the bouquet garni. About an hour prior to completion add the pepper corns and the optional salt pork.
Strain the stock through a fine mesh sieve or cheese cloth rinsed with cold water and wrung. I don't think wrung is a word but it should be.
Allow to cool somewhat and put it in the fridge to cool completely. This makes it easy to remove the solidified fat from the surface of the stock. It will take several hours at least and probably overnight.
I just looked up 'wrung,' It is a word. 'Wrang'', however, is not a word.
If you take your finished stock (fat removed) and bring it back up to a simmer you can do one of two things:

1. put it into freezable containers for future use or,
2. make "demi-glace". If you freeze it, put some in quart containers for soup and stuff like that and put some in ice cube trays for adding to sauces or whatnot. Most ice cube trays are in 1 ounce measures, so recipe calculations are simple. Put your stock cubes in a zip-lock bag and you are in business.

Demi-Glace

(D.C. Smith calls this 'liquid meat')

This is the basis of many French style sauce preparations and can be simple or complex. I will give an abbreviated version that works nicely for home use.

Beginning with about 1-2 gallons of stock in a large (obviously) pot add

1 or 2 of those little cans of tomato paste and perhaps a half bottle of cream sherry (this is MY way of doing things, other recipes vary).
Slowly reduce the stock over very low heat for several hours until the demi-glace coats the back of a wooden spoon. It should be reduced by at least half depending on how rich the original stock was.
Skim while cooking and strain again in the aforementioned manner.

Now lets' make that pepper sauce.

Sauce au poivre (pepper sauce)

You will need the following:

1 SUPERIOR QUALITY sauce pan, about 3 1/2 Quart. Ideally, you would use a copper or stainless sauce pan with a stainless interior. DO NOT USE ALUMINUM. Be careful if you use ENAMEL, it can scorch easily. You can use those PYREX sauce pans if you want, just watch the heat. What ever you use it should be thick, heavy and conduct heat readily. And, no, you cannot use cast-iron.
2 T minced shallots
1 cup red wine vinegar or 3/4+ cup Champagne vinegar and 2 T Balsamic vinegar to flavor.
3 T black pepper corns.
3 T green pepper corns, canned, drained and rinsed.
2 Bay leaves
2 cups demi-glace Extra heavy cream. If you can get the UN-homogenized stuff, do so. It is worth it. Don't bother with regular whipping cream. It sucks.
Soy sauce.
Salt.
Sugar.

Begin by cooking the shallot in the vinegars over LOW heat. You want to cook this down until it is nearly dry without browning or burning ANYTHING. You have to keep an eye on what you are doing.
Add the demi-glace, pepper corns, bay leaves and begin reducing over VERY LOW heat. Stir the sauce occasionally with a clean WOODEN spoon. The sauce should not boil. Rather, bubbles should rise to the surface and almost struggle to burst. Taste the sauce periodically. It should be almost overwhelmingly piquant and make you sneeze when sniffed or tasted. Seriously.
When the demi-glace is reduced by AT LEAST HALF, add the cream, about a cup. This is where you have to really pay attention. Too much heat and the sauce reduces too quickly takes on a scorched, boiled milk flavor. It will also get too thick. Keep the bubbles very small and just barely breaking the surface; continue to reduce.
Taste the sauce often as it reduces. If it is too piquant, add some more cream. If it is too thick, add a splash of red wine or maybe one of those stock cubes.
If the flavors are too 'sharp,' add a pinch of sugar. If it needs salt then I like to add just a touch of soy sauce. It gives nice color and an added dimension that you just don't get from plain salt.
Remember: sugar softens flavors and salt brings them out. You will most likely have to experiment with this sauce several times to get it just the way you like. With all the reductions that go into it, it is easy to screw up.
When the sauce is at the correct consistency (it should be like thin pancake batter) take it off the fire and incorporate a pat of COLD butter and pour over your steaks. Remember to let your steaks 'rest' at least 3-4 minutes after cooking.

Traditionally, the French have served Burgundy with beef and Bordeaux with lamb. To you and I that means Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon (or Cabernet blends) respectively. The Pinots from our neighbors in Oregon are outstanding and very affordable compared to their French counterparts.

Expect to pay $25-$30. But you are worth it aren't you? Besides, the French equivalent would be at least double that much. Serve your filet de boeuf au poivre with simple steamed new potatoes tossed with butter and fresh herbs.

Your veggie should likewise be simple and straightforward. Simple steamed baby green beans are the perfect accompaniment but then again you could have an ear of corn.

XOXOXO TURTLE


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