Chopped BBQ Brisket Sandwiches

Food Category: Southern Comfort, PG
Difficulty: Easy

BBQ Brisket Sandwiches

I chopped leftover brisket from last night (just on the cutting board, using a big knife) & added last night's leftover sauce with additional bottle BBQ sauce.

Serve on lightly toasted sesame buns with mustard & dill pickle relish.

Served with potato chips, sliced cucumbers/carrot sticks & Ranch dip.

Texas Brisket, Beans & Potato Salad

Food Category: Southern Comfort, PG
Difficulty: Easy

Texas Brisket

I must give Paula Deen credit for this delicious brisket recipe & cooking method. I follow this recipe with the following exceptions: I've never used the bay leaf & I don't add the extra beef broth when cooking the brisket in the oven. Sometimes I cook the brisket on the grill: sear meat over high heat, place into a disposable heavy aluminum roasting pan, add the broth, cover tightly with heavy duty foil & grill over indirect heat for 3-4 hours. I have a 3 burner gas grill & turn off the middle burner & set the outer burners to the lowest setting.

Either way, the meat is very tender & finger-licking good. Yes, brisket is a finger food -- who doesn't sample it while cutting for the ta-da presentation?

Drain the fat from the pan juices & add mix equal parts with your favorite bottled BBQ sauce. Serve as a side to the meat or as a sauce later for sandwiches.

Red Beans

Simply make in the crockpot according to package directions. Add 2 slices of bacon while cooking for a little pork fat action. Season with salt just before serving.

Potato Salad

Peel, cut into small cubes & boil until cooked thoroughly
(estimate one medium potato for 2 servings)

To the drained & cooled potatoes (approx. 2.5 lbs) add:
bacon crumbles (6-8 slices of bacon)
finely chopped red onion (1/2 medium onion)
chopped Kosher dill pickles
2-3 chopped boiled eggs
2-3 stalks of celery & leaves, finely chopped
freshly snipped parsley & chives
3 parts light mayo: 1 part mustard (for the "dressing")
salt & pepper to taste

Leftover Potential: Potato salad will hang in the fridge for a few days. Leftover beans can be run through the food processor with "taco" seasoning for use in Tex-Mex dishes: burritos, nachos, bean dip, etc. Beans can be frozen and added to soups/chili at a later time. I always aim to have lots of leftover meat. Chop for brisket sandwiches, shred & add "taco" type seasonings to make tacos, enchiladas, burritos, fajitas, etc. Freeze and add to soups later.

Sandwiches

Food Category: G-Rated, Bum Lovin'
Difficulty: Easy

Plain old sandwiches & chips for dinner. Browned turkey, pepper jack, red tipped lettuce, sliced Kosher dill pickles on whole wheat. Served with Cool Ranch Doritos, Funyuns, cucumber slices, carrot sticks & dill/sweet pickle spears.

Leftovers

My fridge was full of leftovers & needed to be cleaned out before I can "cook big" again. This particular leftover night was kind of like eating out at a restaurant where everyone orders something different off the menu. Except, we eat at home & the menu is limited to what's in the fridge. And, I still have to do dishes.

To round out 4 meals, I baked two potatoes & one sweet potato in the oven.

Man had leftover Schnitzel & a baked potato.

I had leftover turkey & stuffing with a baked sweet potato.

Laze-E had a salad (yes, that is shocking & a most recent development) & a baked potato.

MiniMe had leftover spaghetti.

Jägerschnitzel mit Bratkartoffeln

Food Category: Food Porn

Difficulty: Moderate

Did you see that? Not Just Schnitzel finally has Schnitzel on the menu for dinner! About damn time, huh? For all those hits I've had looking for "schnitzel recipes", I sincerely apologize to the googlers for not delivering sooner. But, I promise, it will be worth the wait.

Tonight, we are having Jägerschnitzel. Most of the time, the Schnitzel part of this meal is breaded & pan fried, but occasionally not. I'm leaving off the breading for tonight & just pan grilling the meat. The Jäger part of this meal means that the Schnitzel is covered in a delicious onion & mushroom gravy.

I've tried to take lots of pictures so you know what you are aiming for. I also highly recommend prepping everything before you begin to cook anything. This includes pounding the pork, slicing potatoes & prepping the salad.

If any of the natives reading this want to add comments or suggestions, we are all ears. FrauRose (Kathy?) or Oma? Any words of wisdom?

How to make Jägerschnitzel:

I have taken 6 Schnitzel cuts of pork - I asked the German Metzgerei (butcher) for 6 Schnitzel & this is what he gave me. You have my permission to begin with pork cutlets or thick sliced pork loin. I marinated the meat overnight with Braten seasoning. Knorr has some products you can purchase over the Internet. If you are in Germany, you can find Braten, Schnitzel, Kotlett, &/or Grill seasonings at any local market.




Pound the schnitzel until uniform thickness of about 1/2 inch. Pan fry in a bit of evoo & set aside in a warm oven until the sauce is ready. You might want to start the sauce first & get it going before you cook the schnitzel.

For the Jäger sauce, wash & slice one large container of mushrooms & finely chop one large onion. Sautee onion in 2 T evoo & 1 T of butter until about 1/2 cooked.

Then add the mushroom and cook on med-high until almost all the liquid evaporates. Mushrooms will reduce in volume by about 1/2. Below is a picture of what the mushrooms look like before.
After the mushrooms cook down, add about 8 oz (250 ml) of dark beer, preferably a German Dunkel. Usually I use a medium to dry red wine, but decided to make a beer sauce tonight. MiniChick (Hi, Laura) convinced me to use beer. Peer pressure at its finest.

The picture above shows what the mushrooms looked like right after adding the beer. Notice the color and texture change. Continue to cook until the beer reduces by about 1/2 in volume. Once the beer & mushrooms look like this (below), add 8 oz of beef broth & 8 oz of light cream.

Reduce heat & continue to cook until the volume of liquid reduces again by 1/2 & the sauce begins to thicken. This might take about 20 minutes. Once the sauce looks creamy & thick, it is done. Remove from heat.

And, while you are cooking the sauce & juggling the schnitzel, you'll need to start the potatoes. Peel, cut in half lengthwise & slice (1/2 moons) at least one medium potato per person. Place in a microwave safe bowl, cover with plastic wrap & nuke on high for 7-10 minutes. You want the potatoes to be about 1/2 cooked.

Meanwhile, heat 3 T evoo over medium-high heat. Add potatoes to hot oil & top with 1/2 of a chopped onion. Cover at let the potatoes cook for a few minutes. You will need to stir the potatoes frequently, cover when not stirring.


Below is a pictures of the potatoes that are about 1/2 way done. There is still quite a bit of steam being released and a few of the potatoes are starting to brown up nicely. Don't worry about really brown potatoes, that's what provides lots of flavor.


Below is a picture of the Bratkartoffeln cooked to HausFrau perfection. They will have lots of color & will all be cooked through & be fork tender. Season with Bratkartoffel seasoning. I'll have to work on deciphering the seasoning blend. Right now, the best I can tell from the bottle in order: salt, paprika, onion powder, curry, pepper, marjoram, ginger, celery salt, & dry mustard. And a few other ingredients that totally got lost in my German & Chemical translation.


I had some leftover bacon crumbles in the fridge that I tossed in with the potatoes. You can cook bacon in with the potatoes & probably should, but that's not how I made them tonight. Maybe next time I'll add the pork fat like a proper HausFrau should & take pictures for you.

To plate the meal like it would be presented at a typical German restaurant, put the potatoes & schnitzel on one plate & top the schnitzel with the Jäger sauce. Sprinkle with freshly snipped chives. If you want to be all fancy-pants, you can also garnish with a bit of lettuce, cucumber, tomato and either orange or lemon slice.


I rounded out this meal with a side salad which is very typical for a full German meal. For a quick dressing, add 1 T mittelscharf mustard (or Dijon) & 1 teaspoon of sugar to a bottle oil & vinegar dressing. I used Newman's Own Basalmic Viniagrette because that's what I had, but I think a more bland dressing would work best. Toss dressing with lettuce greens, thinly sliced cucumber & (if you can get it) pickled shredded carrots & red cabbage.

Serve with a dark beer if you made a beer sauce. Red wine if you made a wine sauce. Either way . . .

Guten Appetite!

Pizza

Heat & Eat pepperoni pizza & side salads.

This was only one step above frozen pizza because it was the refrigerated kind from the commissary.

Yes, I actually made a commissary run yesterday & that's precisely why I didn't have time to cook. 2+ hours of total driving time, 2 hours of shopping, 2 shopping carts full . . . $618! Which is my new official record.

What that means for us? My freezers, fridge and pantry are stocked full & I will be cooking lots of exciting meals.

Starting tomorrow.

In true HausFrau spirit, we did have homemade croutons on our salads:

I make croutons out of odds & ends pieces of bread that I collect in a Ziploc freezer bag for a few months. I save all the dried out & stale bread ends from whole wheat, worthless white, hamburger buns, etc, until I have enough to make it worth my while. Or until we run out of croutons in between commissary trips.

To make the croutons:

• lightly butter both sides of bread, I used I Can't Believe it's Not Butter, Mediterranean Blend
• sprinkle with your favorite flavors: garlic & onion powder, seasoned salt, Parmesan cheese
• cut into bite sized cubes
• lightly coat a baking pan with evoo
• place bread cubes on the baking pan, single or double layer
  
• bake at 200F for about 2 hours, turning occasionally

You want to dehydrate the bread, not make toast, so bake the croutons low & slow. Whole wheat and other dense breads take longer to bake.

Sometimes, these croutons actually find their way onto a salad. Most often, they are immediately consumed right out of the oven.

Turkey & Stuffing

Food Category: PG, Southern Comfort
Difficulty: Easy

Turkey

• one Butterball turkey breast roast, with all visible fat removed. I rolled back the elastic netting, trimmed the fat, then rolled the netting back in place
• rub generously with McCormick Turkey Rub
• top with sprig of fresh rosemary

Stuffing

• Stove Top Cornbread Stuffing Mix
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 celery stalk + leaves, finely chopped

• Layer stuffing mix into a covered baking dish & place turkey breast in the middle
• Cover & bake at 350F for approximately 90 minutes (meat thermometer 170F)

Served with:

• mashed potatoes
• frozen petite green bean cooked with a bit of evoo & wate
• Boston Market jarred gravy

Leftover potential: Extra turkey makes great club sandwiches. I have enough meat & potatoes leftover for another meal for 1-2 people. Everything except for the stuffing can be frozen & added to soup later.