Good Food

Cooking with Beef

I really became familiar with beef and steaks in the true North American form back in 1969 when I worked as a Chef at the Hotel Vancouver in British Colombia.

I was only 20 years old. I worked at the Timber Club, and we had a large menu with a lot of beef and steaks from the broiler and also from the main kitchen. It was very interesting because the names of the different dishes were taken from the common terms in wood vernacular. Like Brochette, which means "Bull of the Wood," or the general foreman.

This was 30 years ago, and beef then was a lot different than it is now. It was a lot better in my opinion. It was more marbled, more tender, more flavorful. The structure of the meat was different.

Today it is hard to find tender and good marbled beef meat; the meat is too lean, so the flavors are not there as they used to be, and the cuts are also different.

When we got beef back then, we hung the meat for one to three weeks depending on how fresh it was. Take, for example, the Beef Wellington we served at the Panorama Roof in Hotel Vancouver--it was so tender you could eat it with a spoon! Those days are gone, to my regret. Everything has to happen so fast today.

But I am not saying that you cannot get a good steak or beef. A good, experienced butcher will help you to pick out what you need.

Filet of Beef Wellington (Serves one person)

4 to 5 ounces medallion of beef tenderloin
2 ounces goose or duck liver pate
3 tablespoons mushroom duxelle
2 tablespoons finely chopped mushrooms
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
1 tablespoon finely chopped red onions
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt & pepper

Saute lightly in a hot frying pan:

1 tablespoons butter
3 to 4 ounces puffed pastry dough
1 egg yolk
pinch of salt & pepper

Cut a pocket from the side of the medallion. Stuff with the goose or duck liver pate. Sear the medallion in a hot frying pan with the butter very quickly and cool off on a paper towel. Cover the medallion with the mushroom duxelle. Wrap the whole thing in the soft puffed pasty dough. Brush on the egg yolk with a pastry brush.

Bake in a pre-heated oven (400 degree F) for approximately 15 minutes, or until the dough is puffed up and finished.

I like to serve steamed broccoli, sauteed mushrooms, sugar glazed onions and oven-roasted small red potatoes with Beef Wellington. And a good red wine sauce with finely chopped sauteed portabella mushrooms.

A good wine for this meal is Chateau Bonnet (Andre Lurton) from the property of Grezillac in Gironde, France. This is a Reserve wine.

Or try a Brochette "Bull of the Woods" at your next barbecue. You need some long skewers, or "brochettes." Metal is best.

Brochette "Bull of the Woods"

cubes of tender beef meat 2 x 2 x 2 inches
large mushroom caps
squares of green bell pepper
squares of onion

1 cup inexpensive red wine
1 tablespoons crushed pepper
1 crushed bay leaf
1/3 cup olive oil
4 cloves
4 crushed juniper berries
1 teaspoons thyme
salt

Mix all the ingredients together and add the beef cubes; let the mixture marinate overnight, until the next evening. Make the brochettes: meat, mushroom, bell pepper, and onion. Repeat this until you have all the pieces on the brochette. Prepare and cook some long grain rice. (It should be cool, so you can do this beforehand.)

Before serving saute the rice in butter and chopped onions, and keep it hot when you prepare the brochettes.

Barbecue the brochettes. When they are done, move them to a serving dish, and then heat up two ounces of whiskey in a ladle or a small sauce pan. Set fire to the whiskey and pour it over the BROCHETTES while the whiskey is burning--this will add an extraordinary taste to your dish.

Serve the brochettes on a bed of rice with your favorite salad on the side. Try Jacob's Creek Shiraz with this meal, it's a wonderful wine from Eastern Australia.

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