MEALS ON WHEELS

Spring has sprung, at least in some parts of the country.. it's still a bit cold in NY, but for me it's just my kind of weather. With spring I love to have colorful meals. This means that I go looking for something new, something fun and full of color. I see many around me eating wraps, all kind of wraps with vegetables in them, some with meats; so I decided to make this my inspiration: I need to come up with some kind of wrap, without the bread, full of color and flavor. Actually it was not that difficult: if you deconstruct the vegetarian wraps for example, you can reconstruct a completely satisfying wrap using only vegetables or a combination of veggies and meats. Add to that the fact that I am getting a bit adventurous at the store, looking for new cuts of meat, and thinking about new ways to cook them. The other day I got a new cut of beef that I never cooked before: a beef flank. I got the inspiration from a dish mammina used to make with veal scaloppini, and I thought, why not? Can we make that? Just as my husband always asks.

BEEF WRAP

                                            

The idea of this dish is very simple, a lean sheet of beef, an herbs  spread, roll, tie, cook. Well, actually it's a bit more complicated than that. But never fear, you know I don't like to complicate things, so we'll make it easy. The beef flank I got was thicker on one side, so I tried to butterfly it a bit on that side, but ended up cutting the whole slice from it. I ended up with two pieces, one large and a smaller one. This made me change my original plans. Instead of making one whole roll, I'll make two, and change the filling. I wanted to make it with boiled eggs inside, but this new plan will help me get over my apprehensions about the technique of tying up the meat roll. The bigger one will have only the pesto filling, and the smaller will have the egg. It will be easier to tie up. It was a real experiment, but we ended up with excellent results. You'll need:

1 beef flank, fat trimmed
1/2 bunch each: parsley and dill
1/2 medium onion
3 garlic cloves
1/2 cup each: carrots and celery, pulverized in the food processor
1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese, more if needed
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
2 tbsp oil, canola for example
1 hard boiled egg
1 or 2 small handfuls of bread crumbs

Spread the beef flank on a cutting board and check if it has a part thicker than the rest. With a sharp knife, make a transversal cut to even it up. You'll get another slice of beef, thinner, but large enough to serve our purpose (about 7 X 6 inches). With the flat side of a mallet beat both pieces, hitting the center and going out. If you feel that you need to tenderize the bigger piece, beat it with the other side of the mallet first. In the food processor, work the parsley, dill, onion and garlic into a paste, add the carrots, celery, cheese and some bread crumbs to hold the pesto together. Spread the pesto on the meat, and add some more grated cheese if you want. 

                                                 

Make sure that the pesto doesn't reach all the edges of the meat, so it doesn't spill out when you roll it.  Roll the meat and tie it with kitchen twine. To tell you the truth that was the first time for me to tie a roll of beef, so I did my best. It was OK. It held the meat tight, did not spill the filling, and stood there until I removed it. 
                                           

Spread the remaining pesto on the small piece of meat, peel the egg, cut the tips and place it in the center of the meat. Close it to cover the egg and tie it. In a rectangular pan, preferably non stick, heat the oil and sear the meat roll on all sides until well browned. Add the tomato sauce plus half a can of water. Stir to combine, you may add a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Bring to a boiling on medium high heat, then cover with foil and continue cooking undisturbed for about one hour in a 375 degree oven. 
                                             

Remove the meat and reduce the sauce on medium high heat, if needed. Remove the twine, slice the beef and serve with the sauce on the side. You'll have beautiful, colorful and delicious wheels of beef, stuffed with herbs and egg.
                                          

STUFFED MEATBALLS

Since I had all the ingredients on hand, I decided to make a kind of meatballs I wanted to make for a long time. I used to make it in a loaf pan, and I asked my husband to look for it in the cupboard over the fridge, but he insisted it was not there. So I had to improvise: instead of a meatloaf, I'll make one with each egg. I had already five hard boiled eggs, so I'll make them into meat balls, they'll be huge, but no problem. I used almost the same ingredients I had for the pesto, and a mix of ground beef and turkey. You'll need:

1 lb each: lean ground beef and ground turkey
1/2 bunch each: parsley and dill
1/2 medium onion
3 to 4 garlic cloves
2 celery stalks
5 baby carrots
1 cup each grated Parmigiano and bread crumbs
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Hard boiled eggs

In a food processor beat the parsley, dill, onion and garlic until they almost form a paste. Transfer to a big bowl. Pulverize the carrots and celery, add them to the bowl. Work the meats also in the food processor, to have a smoother consistency. Mix all the ingredients in the bowl with the grated cheese and the Worcestershire sauce. Add bread crumbs until you feel that the mixture is homogeneous enough to form the meat balls. At this point, I was really tired so I decided to make only a sample of the meatball stuffed with egg, and just form the remaining mixture into fingers that I'll cook in the oven with the meat. Take a big chunk of meat mixture in the palm of your hand, work it by applying light pressure to have a compact mixture, spread it on the palm of your left hand, put the egg in the middle, bring the edges up to cover it. You may add some more meat mixture to be sure that the egg is completely covered with a good layer of meat.
                                                     

 Place on a baking sheet and cook in the oven for about 20 minutes, turn once when it is browned on one side. remove from the oven when it is browned all around. Let stand, then slice. You'll have a meat loaf with a nice surprise in the center. 

                                           

TWEAKING THE CLASSICS

Growing up our traditional meal consisted of one kind of vegetables, some protein, mainly chicken or beef, and some carbohydrates, rice or pasta depending on the vegetables. Most of the time, we used to have rice, and pasta was the side dish for moussaka. The rule was that vegetables were cooked in tomato sauce with beef cubes. This way the "poor" would stretch a low cut of beef to serve a big family and to cook it for a long time to become tender. For the "rich" having meat in the vegetable dish, meant that they have a higher status, since they would also serve some kind of meat or chicken separately. In our house, it was a mix, sometimes we had separate meat, other times we had it in the vegetables. From day one I was somewhat uncomfortable with this arrangement. Yes, I ate what I was served, like all of us, but I had a strange feeling about it. When I was old enough to sort out my preferences, I discovered what it was: I did not like the taste of the meat in the vegetables, nor the  vegetables with the meat flavor. It took me a while to convince my mom of my opinion, but at the end she did it. We started serving the vegetables without any beef in them, and kept the protein separate. It was a huge step for our family, apparently serving veggies without any meat in them was something bordering the scandal. But mom was not someone who would accept any social convention sitting down: if it was not good for us, she would never do it. So now that I am in control, I never put any meat in my vegetables, when I cook them the traditional way, i.e.: in tomato sauce. It took my husband a while to accept that, only from the "social" point of view, since veggies for him are not a priority, and he likes to get his protein whole and separate from everything else.

As we are going now through an adjustment period, I am aiming at preparing simple menus, mainly classics, so that my husband would not go back to cheese and waffles. One day it's grilled beef with okra and rice, another day is veal Milanese with penne al forno, and today it's chicken and a salad. 

                                                      

Remember the new cut of beef that I discovered last month at the store? Well, this time I simply sprinkled some salt and pepper on it and grilled it on the stove. In 5 minutes I had dinner ready.

                 

For the veal Milanese, it took a little longer: my husband loves it, so I made a big batch. Just marinate the veal slices in a tbsp of onion/garlic mixture with some salt and pepper, add a beaten egg to the bowl, mix flour and bread crumbs (a 1/3 to 2/3), drench, and fry. I also prepared 2 dishes of baked ziti, cooked one and kept the other in the freezer for later. Simply cook the pasta, prepare a tomato sauce with a drop of oil, a tbsp of onion/garlic mixture, mix it with ricotta and grated pecorino Romano cheese, and sprinkle with grated mozzarella. Bake.

                                           

Today it was much simpler: we had chicken rotisserie, home made and a salad. I had a Cornish game hen that seemed a bit large for two, so I decided to use the rotisserie. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper, in and out, and drizzle some lemon juice. Let it stand for 10 minutes then put it in the rotisserie. For the salad, I tried to make something different in the presentation and the flavors. It's basically using what you have, and dress it according to your taste. I used to put some chopped red onion or scallions because mom loved it, today I didn't. You'll need:

1 (15 oz) can of corn
2 large tomatoes
3 small cucumbers
2 avocados
1 small lettuce
1 red frisee
2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp dried mint
1 tbsp each oil and lemon juice
Salt to taste

Chop the tomatoes in small dice, peel and slice the cucumbers and drain the corn. Mix them with the cumin, the oil and 1 tbsp lemon juice. Chop the lettuce, rinse and dry it, transfer it to the serving platter. Transfer the vegetables over the lettuce in a circle, leaving the center. Chop the avocado, arrange the red frisee around the center, and transfer the avocado pieces to the center of the platter. Drizzle with lemon juice and sprinkle with dried mint.
You can use fresh cilantro instead of the mint, but I didn't have any today, so I improvised.
                                                

And for dessert a simple fruit salad: just chop the fruits you have at hand and be creative with the arrangement. I used kiwis, strawberries, papaya, pineapple and grapes.