Comfort food
My ultimate comfort food is beef-and-greens and gingerbread. I can give you an exact recipe for the gingerbread, but beef-and-greens is... a little less precise. For a euphemism.
Ingredients:
1 lb Beef which can be sliced into slices about a sixth of an inch thick and half an inch across - London broil, etc.
1 bunch Collard greens
Tamari
Sherry, golden or cream
Garlic
Olive oil
De-stem collard greens. Fold the leaf in half and stack all subsequent leaves on top of it. Slice leaves across stack, about 1/2 an inch wide. Set aside. Cut beef to specifications above. Put olive oil in pan, which should be sauteeing temperature, so that it gets browned but not cooked through (the beef). The olive oil should cover the bottom of the pan, but not thickly. Put garlic in, but don't let it brown, just let the oil take some of the flavor. Put in beef. Brown. Splash in tamari, then sherry. The tamari should be pretty thick, enough to cover most of the beef. Probably two good splashes? The sherry should be about the same quantity. It's really a matter of taste. You can add more tamari later, so it's not so picky as the sherry. Anyway, turn down the heat and add the greens. They will pile up on top of the beef way above the rim of the skillet - it's okay, just clamp a lid on and they'll go down pretty quickly. Stir once the greens are stirrable. Cook till greens are desired level of done-ness. If it isn't salty enough, add more tamari.
Gingerbread
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour cake pan well.
1. mix:
2C and 2T unbleached white flour, not self rising.
1/2t salt
1/2t cloves
1 3/4t baking soda
1T ground ginger
1T cinnamon
1t cardamon
2. In separate dish, melt 9T butter and mix in 1 1/2C corn syrup.
3. Mix together well the dry ingredients and the butter/corn syrup. Then add 1 large egg and 1C milk. Beat well.
4. Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until top springs back up when pushed lightly. Cool 10 minutes in pan, then turn out onto cooling rack.
Anise Cream:
Beat 1 medium size carton of heavy whipping cream with 1t ground anise until stiff. This makes a lot, so if you make that much, have people over. Otherwise your cream goes runny again and won't return to stiffness, and then you have anise drizzle. Still tastes good, doesn't look nearly so pretty.
Ingredients:
1 lb Beef which can be sliced into slices about a sixth of an inch thick and half an inch across - London broil, etc.
1 bunch Collard greens
Tamari
Sherry, golden or cream
Garlic
Olive oil
De-stem collard greens. Fold the leaf in half and stack all subsequent leaves on top of it. Slice leaves across stack, about 1/2 an inch wide. Set aside. Cut beef to specifications above. Put olive oil in pan, which should be sauteeing temperature, so that it gets browned but not cooked through (the beef). The olive oil should cover the bottom of the pan, but not thickly. Put garlic in, but don't let it brown, just let the oil take some of the flavor. Put in beef. Brown. Splash in tamari, then sherry. The tamari should be pretty thick, enough to cover most of the beef. Probably two good splashes? The sherry should be about the same quantity. It's really a matter of taste. You can add more tamari later, so it's not so picky as the sherry. Anyway, turn down the heat and add the greens. They will pile up on top of the beef way above the rim of the skillet - it's okay, just clamp a lid on and they'll go down pretty quickly. Stir once the greens are stirrable. Cook till greens are desired level of done-ness. If it isn't salty enough, add more tamari.
Gingerbread
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour cake pan well.
1. mix:
2C and 2T unbleached white flour, not self rising.
1/2t salt
1/2t cloves
1 3/4t baking soda
1T ground ginger
1T cinnamon
1t cardamon
2. In separate dish, melt 9T butter and mix in 1 1/2C corn syrup.
3. Mix together well the dry ingredients and the butter/corn syrup. Then add 1 large egg and 1C milk. Beat well.
4. Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until top springs back up when pushed lightly. Cool 10 minutes in pan, then turn out onto cooling rack.
Anise Cream:
Beat 1 medium size carton of heavy whipping cream with 1t ground anise until stiff. This makes a lot, so if you make that much, have people over. Otherwise your cream goes runny again and won't return to stiffness, and then you have anise drizzle. Still tastes good, doesn't look nearly so pretty.