Meats

Pulled Beef Babka

pulled beef babka ready to eat.jpg

Today’s stormy and snowy weather in the Northeast was already predicted several days ago.  The first snow of the season is exciting, especially when it greets us before Thanksgiving.  Although Thursdays typically are spent in the car, I sorted out my day to start early and finish in the early afternoon, before the storm was to hit.

I arrived home just as the snow was beginning to accumulate and I headed to the kitchen.   My kitchen faces the backyard and as I cook,  I can enjoy the snowflakes and the changing landscape.   With my head full of new recipe ideas and the snowflakes arriving furiously, I began to cook in the snow.

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The idea of a savory pulled beef babka has been consuming me.  I had already prepared pulled beef to serve Friday night and I had been mulling over the simplest way to transform some of the pulled beef into a savory babka to serve for Shabbos lunch.  One of my favorite shortcuts is to prepare one dish and serve it in a multitude of different ways.  Pulled beef is that type of recipe.

I thought long and hard about how to prepare this simply with minimal cleanup.  And, I think I nailed it.  Because, it really was simple to prepare.  And, it was easy to clean up afterward.  Best of all, the pulled beef babka was delicious and gorgeous.

Now, let’s see what my fifteen Shabbos guests say!

INGREDIENTS

1 lb. pizza dough or challah dough
1/2 cup barbecue sauce
2 cups thinly shredded  Pulled Beef

 

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

On a large piece of parchment paper, roll the pizza dough out into the thinnest rectangle that you can.

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Spread the pulled beef onto the top of the rolled-out dough, leaving up to an inch of dough all around.

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Roll the dough jelly-roll style until completely rolled up.

Cut the roll in two lengthwise down the center.

Carefully twist the two jelly roll logs together, trying to keep the twists together as much as possible.  If some of the pulled beef protrudes, don’t worry.  Those pulled beef pieces on the surface will caramelize during baking and will add extra flavor and texture.

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Carefully place the parchment paper into a loaf pan, trimming the edges if necessary.  Stick some extra pulled beef and brush extra barbecue sauce on top.

Bake until golden brown, about 40-50 minutes.

pulled beef babka ready to eat

Remove from the loaf pan and slice. Serve warm.

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TIPS

Prepare a large batch of  Pulled Beef and serve the rest over rice or farfel

Tear open a paper bag and work over the inside of the bag.  Roll everything up after this messy preparation to save cleaning up loose flour and dough bits.

 

Sliders with Onion Slices and Frizzled Beets

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Most of the time, we eat sliders without the bun.  And, most of the family enjoys their burgers and sliders very well-done.  That means that the burgers need some pretty exciting accessories to keep them moist and interesting.  This burger started out as an experiment and ended up with rave reviews.  It is a well-done burger that still has character and juiciness.

When thinking about how to dress up an ordinary burger, of course, onions came to mind.  After all, onions make just about everything exciting.  They are sweet and hearty, flavorful and versatile.

And, as you know,  I have become an unwitting ambassador for beets.  Beets are maligned and ignored, mostly because of the unfortunate texture that many people have encountered in their childhood.  Thankfully, beets are making a comeback, mostly because boiled beets are a very small part of the beet preparation pie-chart.  In reality, beets are beautiful and exciting with a variety of textures depending upon their preparation.  They are inexpensive, widely available and are best eaten raw or roasted.  Beets are truly are one of the most exciting vegetables available.

This recipe starts in a pan on the fire and ends in the oven.  It is forgiving and will wait for you.  The end product is a juicy well-done slider atop a soft, succulent onion slice with drizzled beets on the top.

Enjoy!

 

SUPPLIES

food processor

INGREDIENTS

1-2 beets, shredded
1-2 onions
all-beef sliders

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

By hand or using the shredding blade on the food processor, shred or grate beets.

Slice the onions and place on the bottom of a baking dish.  Pour water to coat the bottom and halfway up the onion slices.  Place in hot oven.

Heat sliders and shredded beets in fry pan.

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Turn sliders until both sides are well-cooked.  Carefully place sliders, frizzled beets and some of the pan drippings on top of the onions in the baking dish and place bake in the oven.

Bake for 15 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven.

Simply Magical London Broil

There are some dishes that need garnishing and extra sauces once cooked.  This is not one of them.   This London Broil roast is ready to serve and self-garnished with baked onions and scallions.  It is simple enough for a weekday dinner and “wow” enough for Shabbos or that special celebration.  It uses the simplest of ingredients, technique and presentation and yet, it is delicious, succulent and beautiful.

Magical baked london broil with Celery on cutting board.png

INGREDIENTS
1 small (2-3 pound) London Broil
1 red onion, diced small
1-2 bunches scallions, cut small
handful of french fried onions (optional)
juice of one lemon or lime
4 stalks celery
salt
pepper
1/3 cup water

DIRECTIONS

Let London Broil come to room temperature.

Slice celery into thick chunks.

In a roasting pan or pyrex dish, place celery chunks and then place London Broil fattier side up.  Squeeze citrus on both sides of London broil and season with salt and pepper.

Pour 1/3 cup of water around London Broil and then top London Broil with diced onion and scallions.

Magical baked london broil with Celery-raw.png

Cover pan tightly with foil.

Bake at 300 degrees F for 3 hours. London Broil should be fork tender when done.   Allow meat to rest for at least 10 minutes before slicing on the bias.

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Perfect Lean and Moist Brisket

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This Shabbos, we were expecting a houseful of company. Our guests were a motley assortment of meat eaters and lean eaters. That left me in a quandary as to how to prepare a menu to satisfy all tastes.

I prepared a vast assortment of simple Rainbow Roasted Vegetables including cabbage, cauliflower, rainbow carrots, eggplant and zucchini.  As the main dishes for Friday night, I prepared lemon zinger chicken and this lean and moist brisket.

This recipe doesn’t require marination.  It also doesn’t call for any oil. What it needs, though, is time.  Plenty of time.  Three hours of cooking time.  Oh, and onions.  Plenty of onions to keep it moist.

The low and slow cooking keeps the flavor and moistness.  The sliced onions create a flavorful and tender blanket of moisture that replaces the fat and protects the tender beef.

This is a gluten-free and low-carb recipe that is suitable for Pesach (Passover), too.

Simple and moist onion-covered brisket

INGREDIENTS

3-4 pound top of the rib beef roast or lean brisket

2-3 onions, sliced thin

lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
pepper
minced garlic or garlic powder
paprika
powdered ginger
onion powder

dash of cayenne pepper (optional)

1 cup zinger tea

 

DIRECTIONS

Make a cup of zinger tea, squeezing out the tea bag to release as much flavor as possible. Add half of the tea to the bottom of the pan. Place roast in pan. Pour rest of tea over roast and generously sprinkle seasonings on top of the roast.

Place fattier side of the brisket up so that fat keeps the meat tender during cooking. Smother the roast with a layer of very thinly sliced onions, pressing into the roast. Cover tightly with foil.

Let brisket come to room temperature or place in oven on delayed cook mode.

Set oven to cook for 3 hours on 300 degrees F. Let roast stay in oven until the oven cools down, at least for a half hour.

Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.   Refrigerate before slicing.

Kaitlyn’s Simple and Delicious Chili Recipe

Kaitlyn loves to make chili for her family.    Her husband, Aaron, has some Texas roots and that may account for her family’s penchant for chili.

Aaron loves his chili with plenty of cayenne pepper and Avigail and Yehuda don’t seem to mind the heat in their chili, either.

Kaitlyn refers to their chili as cholent (traditional beef stew served on Shabbos) and the kids devour it.    After all cholent is a beef casserole and so is chili.  Perhaps we can even consider cholent to be a Shabbos chili.

If  prefer milder chili, you can easily adjust or eliminate the hot pepper, chili seasoning and cayenne pepper to accommodate your heat index.

This recipe has become of of my favorites because it is simple to prepare and can be served in so many ways.  Best of all, it freezes well.

chili-up-close

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