Jerk Steak and Mango Salsa

Jerk Steak on a bed of Mango Salsa -
served with roasted potatoes in a curry-cheese sauce

Dating back a number of years I have a dish I call Caribbean Chicken.  Well, in our meat farm share, Urvi and I got a nice 3/4 lb cut of a marbled chuck steak.  Chuck is one of my favorites to marinade and I figured Caribbean Steak would be in order.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find guava juice - the main ingredient of the Caribbean marinade.  So I went with a New Englander's winter version of a jerk marinade.

Jerk Rub
- Jamaican Yellow Curry Powder
- Garlic Powder
- Allspice
- Ground Cloves
- Black pepper
- Celery Salt

Marinade
-  1/2 red onion -chopped
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup of apple cider
- habenero sauce

Slice the steak in half
dredge in mixed rub
drop into marinade
marinade for 24 hours

Mango Tomato Salsa

1/2 red onion - chopped
1/2 mango - chopped
3 tomatoes - chopped
1 pkg of orange Badia sazon
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
sauce

mix together
let sit for 1 to 24 hours

Polar Vortex Stew: New England Beef and Barley Slow Cooker Stew

Winter is here and there's a polar vortex out there.  I run to and from track practice on Tuesdays.  So, it's late when I get home and I was going to be cold.

So I planned ahead and made crock pot stew.

2 lbs of beef stew meat in 1/2 - 1 inch cubes
3 medium potatoes - chopped
4 medium carrots - chopped
2 medium onions - chopped
1 cup pearled barley
7 cups of homemade veggie broth
1/2 glass of merlot
2 bottles of Wolaver's Organic Brown Ale
1 tbsp of sage
1 tbsp of thyme
1 tbsp of rosemary
1 clove of garlic crushed
salt
pepper

put everything in the crock pot
put on low for 8 hours
serve with marble rye

Carbonade Cantabrigian: A Cambridge twist on a Belgian Classic

At 4pm, the skies opened. All I could think was: "Thank god, that means I can cook again without making the house 100 degrees." The only question was what will I cook.

While we only spent a few hours in Brussels three things stood out: the beauty of the Grand Place, the Royal Palace and Carbonade Flamande. We ate Carbonades, awesome steak tips stewed in Belgian brown ale at a cafe on the Grand Place with fries and Charles V brown ale.

So, as I was excited to finally cook again - I created the Cambridge, MA twist on it. I took the stewed tips, floured them and then seared them before serving them with beer gravy. My roommate-for-a-month, Andrew, and I both loved it.

Carbonade Cantabridgian

Ingredients

1.75 lbs Top Round
2 small yellow onions
2 cloves shallot
1 22-oz Belgian brown ale. (I used Cambridge MA's own Pretty Little Things St. Botolph's Town)
1 12-oz Witte or Weiss (I "made mine a Smutty" with Portsmouth's Smuttynose Summer Weizen)
1 tbsp Paprika
1 tbsp Tumeric
1 tbsps Oregano
2 tbsps Worcestershire Sauce
Flour
3 tbsp taragon
Margarine
Salt
Pepper


1. put cubed beef in a crock pot set on low
2. atop the beef put diced onions, diced shallot paprika, tumeric, oregano, Worcester sauce, salt & pepper
3. Pour in entire bottle of brown ale
4. stew for 2 hours

5. in a bowl mix 1/4 cup of flour and taragon
6. with a slotted spoon pull out steak tips and toss in flour and targon
7. sear tips in a pan over medium-high heat on lite oil
8. put seared tips aside

Weiss Gravy
9. in pan that you seared tips, put in margarine and flour to start gravy
10. slowly stir in half of bottle of weiss beer over medium heat
11. drink other half of the beer
12. continue stirring until hot

I serve the Carbonades topped with Weiss Gravy next to roasted potatoes and sauteed leaks.