The face of the sky is totally covered by a pale--almost platinum--curtain of clouds, Lake Erie is the color of gunmetal, and the coolness in the breeze verges on uncomfortable. THIS is autumn in Cleveland, Ohio.
I was driving home from work under all the Cleveland clouds, listening to a soft English voice sing along with a wistful chord progression on a solitary acoustic guitar. It was Nick Drake! He was one of those brilliant-before-his-time and sadly-plucked-from-our-midst-too-soon kind of songwriters. The disc jockey came on the air and said, "It's just a Nick Drake kind of day out there."
And so it is. It's also a "warm my brittle bones with comfort food" kind of day out there. When I made some Beef Bourguignon for a family yesterday, it got my gears turning towards hearty, meaty braises. Then my mind wandered to thoughts of my mother's veal paprikash, and Hungarian fare seems just right for this chilly early fall weather, so I pulled my grandmother's beat-to-death Hungarian cookbook from the shelf. I love this cookbook: The Cuisine of Hungary by George Lang. It contains absolutely no frills, no pictures, no luxe ingredients, but no bad advice, either. (The author cautions against the trend of trying to "Frenchify" recipes by indiscriminantly adding wine. "Frenchify"! I LOVE the total absence of pretense!) The author also claims that many of these recipes can be traced to sources reaching back to the 1600's or earlier.
One such ancient recipe must certainly by Tokany, which I think I will try tonight, if only for the appeal of the cooking method, which is referred to as "Mongolian waterless braising". (In other words, the meat stews in its own juices, but what a wonderfully exotic way to describe it). The essence of the recipe is beef shoulder, onion, and marjoram.
I'll give you the full report and a more complete recipe outline for Tokany later. But the general plan is to put Nick Drake's last album "Pink Moon" on in the background, find a scratchy sweater, tsk-tsk at the dogs vying for scraps, and enjoy the evening, in spite of the dark and gathering cold.
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MY (almost) TOKANY* (for 4)
ReplyDelete*I did not do a purely dry braise because I couldn't find a fatty enough cut of beef. (Well, I guess America's TRYING to be healthy). Also, Tokany evidently does not feature garlic and I did not use it, but I'm adding 3-4 cloves of minced garlic here because I think it gives slow braises a more rounded flavor and I think the overall dish would have benefited from it.
-4 slices of bacon
-1 lb of beef. I used top sirloin round, cubed
-1 Spanish Onion, chopped
-1 small green pepper, chopped
-1 Hungarian pepper, chopped
-3 cloves garlic, minced
-1 T hot paprika
-1 t salt (I actually added more later...I like it salty)
-1 t dried marjoram
-1 C port (here's where I killed the dry braise)
-1 T sour cream or Greek yogurt
-1/8 C heavy cream
Preheat oven to 350. Cook bacon and render fat. In a dutch oven on the stovetop, use bacon fat to sweat the onion over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add peppers and wilt about 2 minutes more. Add paprika, garlic and spices to hot fat and vegetables. Add remaining spices, port wine, and beef. Mix well, remove from stovetop. Put the cover on the dutch oven and put in oven for an hour (or longer if you've used a tougher cut of beef). When done, add sour cream or yogurt and heavy cream. Mix in just just before serving. Add more salt to taste, if desired.
I served this over brown rice.
Sounds delicious. I still dream of your Beef Wellington, by the way. (hint, hint)
ReplyDeleteOK, OK...we're overdue for a dinner party! I'd love to cook for you again soon :)
ReplyDelete