“He Who Controls the Spice Controls the Universe”

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Any fellow scifi fans remember the quote in my title?  Haha, that also made me think of the Shokugeki No Soma (Food Wars) episode where they had to use spices to make their own curry.  Ok, so my spice usage level is probably still at a beginner/intermediate level, but, they make my stomach happy, and that is a large part of MY universe.

My apologies for being MIA on my blog for a while.  Over the Christmas holiday, I got caught up with playing a new Mario and Zelda game.  I finally beat those games, and I was ready to go back into my regular routine and actually get shit done and be productive.  But my husband…THAT guy…  He built himself a new computer recently, so he passed on his old computer to me.   He also recently started playing Final Fantasy XIV again after a 3 year hiatus.  I used to play too, but I stopped shortly after I started.  He kept bugging me to play again, since I now have a computer capable of playing it, thanks to him.  Sooo, I’ve been sucked back into the world of gaming, and obviously it is all his fault.  Once again, I have a long backlog of photos and ideas for this blog…but I’ve been a little busy leveling up.  And my husband hasn’t even played WITH me.  We sit NEXT to each other, but his character is more than 20 levels higher than mine.  Ugh.

But on a more productive and healthy note, we both recently started an athlete training class at a local gym.  It’s similar to CrossFit, and it is kicking my ass.  The first time I went, I kid you not, I puked during my work out.  At least I made it to the bathroom.  But, my body has gotten so weak, stiff, and flabby since I had my daughter, and it is really weighing me down, mentally, and physically.  So even though I really dislike exercising, I will give it my all, since it is necessary for my well-being.

So back to the main point of this post.

When you ask a Chinese person about favorite comfort foods, one response will likely be niu rou mien, or beef noodle soup.  There are so many kinds of beef noodle soup.  Even within one restaurant, there may be several kinds on the menu.  They may have a clear and light soup, a spicy and heavier soup, soup with just beef chunks, soup with tendon and beef, etc.  There will likely be a selection of different noodles too, like thick and chewy, thin, hand pulled, etc.

I don’t live very close to any good Chinese restaurants that serve beef noodle soup, so I wanted to try making my own.  Since I am lazy and don’t always make it to the nearest Asian grocery store, I wanted to make a soup out of ingredients found at mainstream grocery stores.  However, the spices and sauces I used were all previously bought online, or from Asian stores, so I don’t know if you’ll be able to find everything at regular stores.  The recipe below is for my take on spicy niu rou tang, or beef soup.  It is a rich, hearty, and slightly spicy beef soup.  I did not add noodles since we are on a low carb lifestyle (sniff sniff), hence niu rou tang, instead of niu rou mien.  But, if you are not watching your carbs, Chinese beef soup is delicious with noodles and rice.

I got 4-5 lbs of beef short rib.  I patted them dry, then rubbed a five-spice blend all over the meat.  I’ve used chuck before, and it tasted great and was a lot cheaper, but I prefer the fattiness, taste, and texture of short ribs.  If I’m going to comfort myself with food, and can’t include noodles or rice, then damn it, I’m going to splurge on the meat.

This is part of the backbone of my soup.  I have bay leaves, black peppercorns, cinnamon sticks, star anise, Thai chili pepper, and Szechuan peppercorns.  I went easy on the spicy components since my household is not into painful, numbing, and ulcer forming spicy foods.  There is a kick to my soup, but it’s more of a warm feeling and maybe drippy nose spicy level.

I wrapped the spices in a bit of cheesecloth for easy retrieval.

Here is another part of the backbone of my soup.  I roughly chopped up some green onion, ginger, shallot, and peeled some garlic.

This messy bowl of mystery liquid is the last part of the soup’s backbone.  It’s a mixture of soy sauce, chili oil with black bean sauce, rice wine, chili crisp sauce, sesame oil, and sugar.  Again, I went easy on the spicy sauces, but if you like your mouth, throat, and stomach to be on fire, then knock yourself out.

For the vegetable part, I chopped up mushrooms, onion, and carrots.  If you get a beef noodle soup at a restaurant, it will likely only come with a few pieces of leafy greens.  The focus is on the beef soup and noodles.  But, I wanted to make my soup heartier and more nutritious, so I added a lot more vegetables.

I first browned the beef short ribs in bacon fat, because… bacon fat.  It took a few minutes to brown each side.

After the beef browned, I added the soy sauce mixture, a quart of beef stock and enough water to cover the beef.  I also added the pouch of spices, and the other aromatics.  Let it come to a boil, then I turned the heat to low, covered the pot and let it simmer for about 2 hours.

After about 2 hours, I skimmed off the oily scummy stuff floating on top.  Then I added the vegetables and covered the pot again.  I let it cook for another hour or so, until the beef was super tender.

This is my giant bowl of comfort.  I garnished my bowl with some green onion and cilantro.

Chinese Beef Soup

Ingredients
– 4-5 lbs beef short rib
– five-spice powder blend
– 1 lb of carrots (about 6 carrots)
– 1 onion
– 1 large family pack of mushrooms
– 1 shallot
– 1 bunch of green onion
– about 3 inches of ginger
– 1 head of garlic
– 1 Thai chili
– 3 bay leaves
– 1/2 tsp whole Szechuan peppercorns 
– 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
– 3 star anise
– 2 cinnamon sticks
– 1/2 c of soy sauce
– 2 tbs chili oil with black bean sauce
– 2 tbs rice wine
– 1 tbs chili crisp sauce
– 2 tbs sesame oil
– 3 tbs sugar
– 1 quart of beef stock

Directions
– Tie the cinnamon sticks, star anise, black peppercorns, Szechuan peppercorns, bay leaves, and Thai chili in cheesecloth.
– Reserve some of the green part of the green onion for garnish.  Roughly chop the rest of the green onion, ginger, and shallot up.  Peel and leave the garlic cloves whole.
– Chop the mushrooms, onion, and carrots into big bite size chunks.
– Mix the soy sauce, chili oil with black bean sauce, rice wine, chili crisp sauce, sesame oil, and sugar in a bowl.
– Pat the beef dry and rub a five-spice powder blend all over the meat.  Brown each side of the meat in a heavy pot.
– Once the beef is browned, add the beef stock, soy sauce mixture, spice bag, and aromatics.  Pour enough water to cover the beef up.  Bring it all to a boil, then turn the heat to low, cover the pot, and let it gently simmer for about 2 hours.
– Skim off any oily scum floating at the top of the pot.  Add the vegetables, cover the pot, and let it gently cook for another hour, or until the beef is super tender.
– Garnish the soup with green onion and cilantro.  
– To make my Chinese comfort food dreams come true, cook some Asian style thick noodles to add to the soup!  

Crusty, Burnt Shit Happens, Deal With It

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The other day, I did some experimenting using my French oven.  First of all, let me clarify what a French oven is.  Many of you have probably heard of Dutch ovens.  They are heavy duty pots, with tight fitting lids, often made out of cast iron.  A French oven is a type of Dutch oven.  It is a heavy duty cast iron pot, with an enamel coating over the cast iron.  They are easier to clean and maintain, since they won’t rust or require seasoning.

So anyways, I was making a version of Scotch egg the other day.  It was a medium boiled egg, wrapped in a layer of cheesy ground beef, wrapped in bacon.  I made these giant balls of fatty protein, then I fried them in my French oven.  They tasted great, but they left a huge mess in my pot.  After I dumped out the extra cooking oil, I found an appetizing crust of burnt bacon, cheese, onion, and beef stuck to the bottom of my pot.

I was quite annoyed.  I gave a few half-hearted swipes with my dish sponge, but that shit was not going anywhere.  Some of you might think the pot is ruined.  Some of you might go crazy with the steel wool, which will most definitely ruin certain types of pots.  Some of you (I really really hope not) might even throw away the pot.

But there is a much better way.  One that does not require any hard scrubbing or cussing (after the initial burst of annoyance).

Enter good ol’ sodium bicarbonate aka baking soda.  I sprinkled about half a cup of baking soda over the mess.

I poured enough water to cover the crusty bottom and turned on the heat.

After the water heated up, the baking soda mixture got real bubbly and foamy.  It also had a nauseating smell of really burnt meat, but that’s beside the point.  I let the water bubble for about 15 minutes and then gently scraped the bottom of the pot with a wooden spatula.  It was quite satisfying to feel the spatula peel off the bits of crust in that murky water.

I poured out the now chunky foam water.  After I washed the pot with regular dish soap and a sponge, it was once again shiny, crust free, and ready for another go.  And I also need to go to the store and buy a new box of baking soda.

There are other methods to clean burnt crap off pots.  But this method works well for me.  If you’ve had luck with other cleaning methods, do share!

I Made a Vision of Love

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I don’t know about you guys, but my fridge is completely covered.  Some of the coverage comes from stray splatters of food, but fortunately, most of the fridge is covered with holiday cards, birth announcements, wedding invitations, photo booth strips, etc.  I love seeing that chaotic collage of cards and photos everyday.  Seeing how well everyone is doing gives me the warm fuzzies, and it reminds me of how fortunate we are to be in touch with so many old and new friends.

So, my point is, the outside of my fridge is prime real estate.  When we get a new card, it is a big production to rearrange everything to squeeze in the new addition.

Cue in Valentines Day.  My daughter had her first Valentine’s Day party at her school.  She was excited for days, and made her own cards to pass out at school.  I remember celebrating Valentine’s Day as a little kid.  It was a fun event, decorating the paper bag and bringing it home, full of cards and treats.  As expected, she came home yesterday, super happy with her baggie full of stuff to show me.  But, there is no way I will rearrange the fridge doors to cram on a whole class worth of cards.

Good thing I am an impulsive craft supply shopper, and I hoard craft supplies.  I was at Target last week, and I stopped by the dollar section.  I was weak that day.  I normally try to avoid that section, but these cute clothespins caught my eye.  I decided to make some kind of clothesline for my daughter’s Valentine’s cards.

I looked through my random leftover supplies from previous projects, and found these little wooden hearts and circles.

I painted the circles white, and the hearts red.  I did first paint the hearts white, like a coat of primer.  That way the red paint looks brighter.  Then I glued the hearts on top of the circles.  I happened to have a can of glossy acrylic sealer.  It’s not necessary, but I had some, so I used it.  I like how it gives the shapes a shiny, smooth coat.  It’s hard to see in the photo, but believe me, they are shiny.

I got a few removable mounting squares that are double sided, and some ribbon.

I cut out several strips of ribbon, and hot glued them to the back of the circles.  Then I stuck a mounting square on top.

Then I stuck the circle hearts to my daughter’s closet door.  Tadaa, cute clothesline for cards.

My daughter doesn’t know I did this yet.  I’m looking forward to seeing her face brighten up when she sees this later.

I will probably keep this up all year so she can hang up her own birthday cards, holiday cards, and artwork.

The mounting squares are removable, so you can also stick the clothesline to the wall or a cabinet door.  If you don’t have little wooden circles and hearts lying around in your house, you can also use large decorative buttons, small plastic toys, decorative tiles, flat glass beads.  Just make sure the mounting squares can hold the weight.

Celebrating the Cock, CNY Style

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Xing Nian Kuai Le!  Happy New Year!  This year, we celebrate the year of the cock, or rooster.  I get a lot more excited for Chinese New Year than regular New Year since Chinese New Year is celebrated for 2 weeks.  In Taiwan and China, many stores close for days, and people are off school and work, so they can spend the time with family and friends.   For me, Chinese New Year usually means lots of family meals, parties, and lion dance.

This is my lion dance troupe, East Rising, at the Library of Congress, for a performance last Saturday.  Lunar New Year is our busiest season of the year, and we get invited to perform at various functions every weekend for a couple of months.  It’s not a rockin’ New Year party without a noisy and exciting lion dance ushering in good luck and happiness.  For more information on East Rising, check out our website and Facebook page.

Friday was Chinese New Years Eve, and my family came over for dinner.  We had a large meal of roast duck, crispy pork belly, whole steamed fish, braised pork belly, shrimp and tofu, chicken stir fry, snow pea shoots, pickled vegetables, and nian gao (rice cakes).  I will share with you my whole steamed fish, braised pork belly, and pickled vegetable recipes.

A traditional dish to eat during Chinese New Year is a whole fish.  The saying nian nian you yu means may you have an abundance every year, and the word for abundance is a homophone for the word fish.  I wanted to try making the whole fish this year.  I rarely cook fish, and when I do, it’s usually frozen and already in fillets, so I was a little nervous.

I went to Wegmans on Friday morning to get a fresh fish.  The seafood counter was pretty intimidating for an inexperienced fish cook like me.  Luckily, the staff manning the counter were friendly and knowledgeable, and hooked me up.  I asked for a whole white fish without a strong fishy taste, and the lady steered me to the bronzini.  I picked one and it was already gutted, but they scaled it and removed the fins per my request.

I prepped my aromatics earlier in the day so they would be ready for cooking.  I thinly julienned (or in other words, cut them into matchsticks) ginger, green onion, garlic, and chopped up cilantro.

When I was ready to cook the fish, I rinsed it and wiped it dry.  Then I seasoned the inside and outside with salt and pepper, and stuffed half of the cilantro, garlic, ginger, and green onion into the cavity.  This was not the ideal steamer to use for a whole fish, but it worked.  I sprayed cooking spray on the steamer first.  You can also MacGyver a steamer by placing the fish on a heat proof plate, and place the plate on top of a small bowl to keep the plate above the water.

I poured a little water in a wok and let it come to a boil.  Once the water boiled, I turned the heat down to medium low, and I placed the steamer in the wok (make sure the water does not touch the fish), and covered the wok.  I steamed the fish for 10 minutes.  If you don’t have a wok, a big pot will work fine.

While the fish steamed, I got the sauce ready.  I let oil, soy sauce, rice wine, mirin, and sesame oil come to a boil.  Then I added the rest of the cilantro, green onion, garlic, and ginger.  Let it cook for a few minutes until everything smells absolutely fantastic and the aromatics get cooked.

Here is my steamed fish on the serving plate.

Pour the hot sauce and aromatics right over the fish.  I love eating this dish with white rice.  The sauce tastes so freaking good poured over rice.  I was very pleased with my first attempt at steaming a whole fish.  This looks like an impressive dish to serve at a dinner, but it’s so simple and you really can make this anytime.  When my grandma was alive and we visited her in Taiwan, she made fish for every dinner.  If I lived closer to a grocery store with a decent selection of fresh fish, I would definitely make this more often.

Meat is also a big part of a Chinese New Years Eve dinner.  I decided to make a braised pork belly.  It takes about 3-4 hours of cooking time for the meat to become super tender, but it’s low maintenance and quick to put together.  This recipe was inspired by Serious Eats’ chashu pork for tonkatsu ramen.  The braising liquid is gold.  DO NOT throw away the braising liquid after you finish cooking the pork.  I often make extra so I have plenty of liquid to marinate soft boiled eggs afterwards.  After I finish marinating eggs, I will pour the marinade over rice, noodles, or in rice porridge (congee).  The sweet and savory sauce with that deep, rich, porky goodness is absolutely delicious.  If you don’t plan on using the sauce immediately, then freeze it in portions for future use.

I got a 4.5 lb tray of sliced pork belly from Costco.

I roughly chopped up green onion, ginger, shallot, and garlic

I dumped the aromatics into a large pot with water, soy sauce, mirin (sweet rice wine), rice wine, and sugar and brought it to a boil.  Then I added the pork belly that I cut into 1 inch pieces.  The pork will probably not be submerged.  That is ok.

You can cook this in the oven, or on the stove top.  If you continue in the oven, transfer the entire pot with the lid on, but slightly ajar, to a 275ºF oven.  Let it cook low and slow for 3-4 hours.  Give it a stir every hour, and take it out once the pork is cooked to your desired tenderness.

If you cook this on the stove top, just cover the pot, but leave the lid ajar.  Turn the heat down to low, and let it cook low and slow for 3-4 hours.  Give it a stir every hour, and turn off the flame once the pork is cooked to your desired tenderness.

Here are the unctuous, melt in your mouth morsels of fatty pork.  You can serve it as is, or if you want to kick it up another notch, broil or use a blowtorch to char the surface.  They are delicious wrapped in steamed buns, over rice, in ramen, etc.

As I mentioned earlier, I keep the braising liquid.  There will be a thick layer of pork fat on top, so use whatever method you want to get rid of that.  I like to let the liquid cool in the fridge, then just peel the hardened fat off in pieces.  It’s gross, but effective.

I soft boil eggs, but if you prefer medium or hard boiled, knock yourselves out.  Once the eggs are boiled to the desired doneness, put them in ice water to stop the cooking process.  Peel them, and then marinate them in the braising liquid for at least a day.  They’ll turn into a shade of light brown, and taste infinitely better than plain boiled eggs.  Once the eggs are ready, I like to keep the liquid to pour over hot rice, noodles, or mix it into a pot of congee (rice porridge).  There are plenty of other tasty applications as well.

Whenever I make this braised pork, I usually make a side of pickled cucumbers to go with it.  This is a quick pickle and it’s NOTHING like the dill pickles you are used to seeing served with sandwiches.  I really dislike dill pickles, they just taste nasty to me.  This Asian pickle is sweet, sour, spicy, and salty, but with flavors of rice vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil.  This tangy pickle goes well with the fattiness of the pork belly.

I thinly sliced an English cucumber.  I prefer English cucumbers because their skins are thinner, their seeds are smaller and more tender, and they don’t get as watery as regular cucumbers.  I happened to have carrots, so I also sliced up a couple of carrots.

I heated up the water and dissolved the sugar and salt in it before mixing in the rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, chili oil, and sesame seeds.

I let it marinate for at least a day before serving.

Ready to eat with my braised pork!

Happy New Year!  Happy Eating!

Steamed Whole Fish
Ingredients
– 1 whole white fish, I used bronzini (cleaned, gutted, scaled, fins removed)
– 1/3 bunch of cilantro
– 1/2 bunch green onion
– 3 cloves of garlic
– 2 inch knob of ginger
– 1/4 c soy sauce
– 2 tbs rice wine
– 1/4 c neutral tasting oil
-1 tbs sesame oil
– 1 tbs mirin

Directions
– Chop up the cilantro.  Divide the cilantro into 2 piles, one of the stems, the other of the leafy parts
– Thinly julienne the garlic, ginger, and green onion
– Rinse and pat the fish dry.  Season the cavity and the skin of the fish with salt and pepper.  Stuff the cavity with the stems of the cilantro, and half of the ginger, half of the garlic, and half of the green onion.  Place the fish on a greased steamer basket or heat proof plate.
– Pour a little water into a wok or large pot.  Once the water comes to a boil, turn the heat to medium low.  Place the steamer or plate in the wok, but make sure the water does not touch the bottom of the steamer or plate.  Elevate the plate with a small bowl if necessary.  Cover the wok with the lid, and steam for 10 minutes, or until the fish flakes easily.
– While the fish steams, combine the oil, soy sauce, sesame oil, and mirin in a small saucepan or pot.  Once it comes to a boil, add the remainder of the garlic, ginger, green onion, and cilantro.  Cook them for a few minutes until they wilt and smell fragrant.
– Once the fish is cooked, move it to the serving plate, and carefully pour the hot oil mixture on top of the fish.

Braised Pork Belly
Ingredients
(Note: this makes a lot of braising liquid, enough to marinate about 2 dozen eggs.  If you don’t want so much liquid leftover, you can scale down the amounts, just keep the proportions approximately the same.)
– 4.5-5 lb sliced pork belly
– 1 c water
– 1.5 c soy sauce
– 1.5 c rice wine
– 1.5 mirin
– 3/4 c sugar
– 1/2-1 bunch of green onion
– 1 head of garlic
– 1 shallot
– 3-4 inch knob of ginger

Directions
– Roughly chop the green onion, quarter the shallot, slice the ginger, and peel the garlic.
– Cut the pork belly into 1 inch pieces, or to whatever size you want.
– Combine everything but the pork belly into a large pot.  Bring to a boil, then add the pork.  Cover the pot with the lid slightly ajar.
-If you are using the oven, put the pot into a 275ºF oven.  Stir the pork every hour, and cook for 3-4 hours until the pork is extremely tender.
-If you are using the stove, turn the heat to low.  Stir the pork every hour, and cook for 3-4 hours until the pork is extremely tender.

Asian Pickled Cucumbers and Carrots
Ingredients
– 1 English cucumber
– 2-3 carrots
– 1 c water
– 1/2 c sugar
– 1 tbs salt
– 1/2 c rice vinegar
– 2 tbs soy sauce
– 2 tbs sesame oil
– 1 tbs chili oil
– 2 tbs sesame seed

Directions
– Thinly slice the cucumber and carrots, and place them into a bowl
– Microwave the water until warm, and dissolve the sugar and salt first.  Then add the rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, chili oil, and sesame seed.
– Pour the mixture over the cucumber and carrots.  Let it sit in the fridge for at least a day before serving.
– The liquid can be reused to pickle more vegetables, but note that it will be watered down due to the water released by the vegetables.

Say, Man, This Salmon is Fatty AND Healthy!

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Contrary to the impression you may have gotten from most of my posts, I do cook healthy food.  When I tell people about the high fat low carb diet we are on, most of them think we always eat fatty foods like bacon and cheese.  While bacon and cheese are indeed high fat and low carb, salmon and broccoli are also perfect for the low carb lifestyle.

Tonight, I baked salmon in a sesame, soy, honey sauce, with a side of broccoli.  It is a simple and quick dish to make, and only requires one pan.  It is also very versatile, and you can use whatever sauce, seasoning, and vegetable you want.  This is a good dish to make on the weekdays when you are just trying to chill after work, but still want a healthy and hearty meal.

I like to keep a pack of frozen salmon fillets in the freezer.  They sell these already cut and packaged individually so they are convenient and quick to defrost.  You can also use fresh salmon and cut it into pieces yourself.

I used to make individual foil packets for each piece of fish.  While foil packets make clean up easier, I don’t like how much foil is wasted.  So I started putting all the salmon on a baking dish, and covering the top of the dish with a piece of foil.  Here are four salmon fillets on a greased 9×13 baking dish.

I mixed up a marinade of soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, mirin, and honey.  For those of you who are not familiar with mirin, it is a Japanese sweet rice wine.  I poured the mixture over the salmon and marinated it for about an hour.  If you are short on time or patience, a 15 minute soak will be good, but 60 minutes is even better.

I used parboiled broccoli.  Sometimes I buy large family packs of pre-cut and pre-washed vegetables and end up not using it all.  If I know I won’t be using the vegetables up before they rot, I parboil and freeze portions for future use.  Parboil means I dropped the broccoli in boiling water for a few minutes until partially or fully cooked.  Then I drop them in ice water to stop the cooking process and to preserve that bright green color.  So basically, I am pre-cooking the broccoli, so the next time I use them for a dish, they don’t take so long to cook.

If you use raw broccoli or another vegetable, be sure to cut them into small pieces so they cook through and you don’t end up with crunchy raw chunks.

I kept the broccoli simple and just seasoned with salt and pepper.  Then I put them directly on top of the salmon.

Wrap the top with foil, then pop it in a 400°F oven and cook for 25 minutes, or until the salmon is cooked through.

Tasty, healthy, and simple

Here are some other ideas:
– teriyaki salmon, top with green beans, carrots, and broccoli
– lemon pepper garlic seasoning, thinly slice a lemon over the fish
– miso paste, soy sauce, sesame oil, minced ginger marinade, top with diced tofu and spinach, sprinkle cooked salmon with sesame seeds and green onion
– white wine, lemon, herb sauce, top with diced tomato and mushroom

If you are not watching the carbs, this meal would be excellent with a side of rice, quinoa, other grain, noodles, or pasta.

Baked Asian Style Salmon with Broccoli
Ingredients
– 4 salmon fillets 
– broccoli florets 
– 2 tbs soy sauce
– 1 tbs sesame oil
– 1 tbs mirin
– 1 tbs rice wine
– 1 tbs honey

Instructions
– Place the salmon on a greased baking dish.
– Mix the soy sauce, sesame oil, mirin, rice wine, and honey in a small bowl, pour over the fish.  Let it marinate for 15-60 minutes.
– If using raw broccoli, make sure the pieces are small.
– Drizzle a little oil over the broccoli and season with salt and pepper, then pour the florets over the fish.
– Wrap the top of the dish with foil, then bake in a 400°F oven for 25 minutes, or until the fish is cooked through. 

Oh Snap!

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Cheesecake.  How I wish I could have some.  But alas, I am back on the low carb lifestyle for the time being.  I ate too much cheesecake (amongst other things) over the holidays.  Sure, a little extra insulation is helpful for the bitter cold winter days, but it’s not so good when my actual winter clothing can’t fit comfortably over my natural insulation.

But, that doesn’t mean YOU can’t make and enjoy this delicious cheesecake.  For my family’s Christmas lunch,  I made a gingersnap caramel cheesecake.  It had a spiced gingersnap crust, creamy New York style cheesecake, and topped with a layer of sweet and buttery caramel sauce.  It was very good.  I miss it.

For this cheesecake, I used a water bath.  I’ve mentioned that I prefer crispier crusts, and every time I’ve used a water bath, I found that it made the crust softer.  But, they still tasted fantastic, and I wanted to show you all how to use a water bath.

In my Peppermint Bark Cheesecake post, I listed some of these cheesecake making tips.  Since they are pretty helpful, I will write them again.  Or in this case, copy and paste them. 
-Let all the ingredients sit to room temperature first.  
-Don’t over mix.  Too much air in the batter can cause cracking.
-Don’t over bake, the middle of the cheesecake is supposed to be a little jiggly.  It will set as it cools down.
-Let the cheesecake cool gradually.  Once the oven is turned off, just leave the cheesecake in the oven with the door ajar for at least an hour.  Sudden temperature changes can cause cracks.
-Chill the cheesecake before serving. 
-Even if the cheesecake cracks, no worries.  Get creative and delicious with sauces and toppings.

Here are about 6 oz of gingersnaps.  I’m no expert on commercial gingersnap cookies.  I just grabbed whatever box I saw at the grocery store.  They tasted ok, but nothing special.  So I added some turbinado sugar, ground ginger, and cinnamon to the food processor.

After pulsing, I ended up with about 2 cups of cookie crumbs.  If you don’t have a food processor, you can always pound the cookies with a rolling pin or hammer.  Just, don’t crack your counter.

I mixed the cookie crumbs with melted butter, and pressed them into a greased springform pan.  I did pre-bake this crust, but it’s not necessary.  You can see I wrapped the bottom and sides of the springform pan with foil.  In fact, I used 3 layers of foil as a precaution.  Later, when I bake the cheesecake, I’ll be placing the cheesecake in another pan of hot water.  The springform pan does not have a watertight seal, so the foil will keep the water from soaking into the cheesecake.

Like I mentioned in my Peppermint Bark Cheesecake post, I found a great cheesecake recipe a few years back.  Sometimes, I’ll switch up the ingredients depending on what I’m making, but this time, I followed the original recipe pretty closely.  So here is my cream cheese and sugar in the mixer.

The milk joins the party.  Mix gently, you don’t want to beat too much air into the batter.

The eggs go in.

Last up is the vanilla extract, flour, and sour cream.

Here is the cooled gingersnap crust already covered with foil and on top of a pizza pan.  You can use a different pan, just make sure the cheesecake sits flat on it, and it’s high enough for a layer of water.

Pour the cheesecake batter in.

Put the pans into a preheated oven at 325°F.  THEN pour hot water into the pizza pan, or whatever pan you use.  This is much safer and cleaner than trying to balance and shuffle a pan full of hot water and cheesecake all the way to the hot oven.

After an hour, turn the oven off.  Don’t take the cheesecake out yet.  Instead, let it gradually cool in the oven, with the door cracked open.  So, this time, I did not end up with any cracks in the cheesecake.  However, there were a lot of ugly air bubbles that popped on the surface, and I was a dumbass and accidentally gouged out a hole.

Good thing I had a jar of caramel sauce ready to go.  Remember when I made truffles and caramels to give away over the holidays?  I made several batches of caramels that I screwed up, and as a result, I have a lot of caramel sauce in the fridge.  You can use your choice of caramel sauce for this cheesecake.  But don’t be intimidated in making the sauce yourself.  Actual caramel candies piss me off, but caramel sauce is quite simple to make.  Try Ree Drummond’s recipe, it’s yummy and easy.

Gingersnap Caramel Cheesecake

Gingersnap Crust
Ingredients
– Approximately 6 oz gingersnap cookies
– 1/4 c turbinado sugar
– 1 tbs ground ginger
– 1 tsp cinnamon
– 6 tbs melted butter

Directions
– If using a water bath, first wrap the sides and bottoms of the springform pan with a few layers of foil.
– Pulse the cookies, along with the sugar, ginger, and cinnamon until they become crumbs.  They will make approximately 2 cups of crumbs.
– Mix the crumbs with the melted butter.  Press the mixture into a greased springform pan.
– Bake at 375°F for about 10-11 minutes.  Let the crust cool.

Cheesecake (Original recipe here)
Ingredients
– 32 oz of regular fat cream cheese (4 blocks)
– 1.5 c white sugar
– 3/4 c milk
– 4 eggs
– 1 c regular sour cream
– 1 tbs vanilla extract
– 1/4 c flour
– caramel sauce

Directions
– Let the ingredients sit out to room temperature.
– Mix the cream cheese and sugar until smooth.
– Gently mix in milk.  Then mix in the eggs.  Then mix in the sour cream, vanilla extract, and flour.  Careful not to over-beat the batter.
– Place the springform pan onto a pizza pan or other pan.  Pour the batter onto the cooled crust.  Gently knock out air bubbles. 
– Put the pans into a preheated oven at 325ºF.  Pour hot water into the pizza pan.  Bake for one hour.  After an hour, turn the oven off, and leave the oven door cracked open.  Let the cheesecake sit in the oven for at least an hour.
– Run a knife around the pan to loosen the cheesecake before opening the pan latch.
– Put the cheesecake in the fridge to chill until ready to serve.  Pour the caramel sauce over the cheesecake prior to serving.

Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun

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It’s been a while since my last post.  The holiday season was a ridiculous rush of parties, activities, and visits as usual.  It’s also the peak of the sick season, where we lovingly pass the current popular ailment around and share in its misery and various bodily fluids.  Living with a five year old who goes to school provides us with an endless array of fun family ailments.  My husband gave me two new games for Christmas and my birthday.  I’ve already rescued Princess Peach, but I am still working on saving Hyrule.  I haven’t had much time to game over the last few years, and I’d forgotten how obsessed and addicted I can get.  It was very hard to put down that controller.

But enough with the excuses.  It’s about time to get back into a routine.

Let’s talk about cheesecake.  A few years back, I’d been obsessed with baking cheesecakes.  Then I discovered how easy no bake cheesecakes can be, so I obsessively made no bake cheesecakes for a while.  Baked or not baked, I love them both.  Over the holidays, I made a couple of cheesecakes that were pretty freaking good.  The one I will share in this post is my Peppermint Bark Cheesecake.  It’s a rich minty cheesecake on a chocolate mint cookie crust, covered with a thick layer of melt in your mouth peppermint bark.  Ok, I will admit, it was a screw up that turned this cheesecake into “peppermint bark cheesecake.”  It was supposed to be a regular mint chocolate cheesecake topped with a chocolate ganache.  But I used too much chocolate in the ganache, and it turned out really thick, and the result was more of a peppermint bark.  It worked out quite well though, because come on, it’s two luxurious and delicious desserts in one.

You might be thinking, oh, the holidays are over, I’ll save this recipe for the next holiday season.  I ask you this: When is it ever a wrong season to eat chocolate and mint?  This is also a good way to get rid of a few of those candy canes you somehow acquired.  Yeeeeah, pantry cleaning is a good reason to make this cheesecake.

Oh yeah, this was the first time I ate a slightly warm cheesecake.  I made the cheesecake for some friends, but it had not chilled enough when I served it.  It was tasty, but the flavors were kind of muted.  I ate some of the leftovers after it chilled overnight, and it was like I was eating a different cheesecake.  So I learned an important lesson.  Always make cheesecake ahead of time with plenty of chill time.

Here are a few other tips on making cheesecakes:
-Let all the ingredients sit to room temperature first.  
-Don’t over mix.  Too much air in the batter can cause cracking.
-Don’t over bake, the middle of the cheesecake is supposed to be a little jiggly.  It will set as it cools down.
-Let the cheesecake cool gradually.  Once the oven is turned off, just leave the cheesecake in the oven with the door ajar for at least an hour.  Sudden temperature changes can cause cracks.
-Chill the cheesecake before serving. 
-Even if the cheesecake cracks, no worries.  Get creative and delicious with sauces and toppings.

My sister gave us a box of Trader Joe’s mint chocolate sandwich cookies.  I decided to use these instead of my usual Oreos.  But if you have mint Oreos, those will certainly work too.  Or you can also add a little mint extract to regular Oreos.  I smashed a bunch of cookies up with my rolling pin, the creamy filling included.

Here are my smashed cookies mixed with melted butter that I pressed into a greased spring form pan.  I pre-baked my crust.  You don’t have to, but I prefer my crust to be crunchier.  Oh another important lesson here.  I forgot to put the springform pan on top of a baking sheet before placing it in the oven.  My springform pan does not form a tight seal due to a few dents, and some of the butter leaked out and dripped to the bottom of my oven.  Burning butter smokes and stinks.  It was not pleasant.

The cheesecake I made is based off a recipe I found a few years ago on Allrecipes.  This here is my cream cheese and sugar getting beat up.

Then I added the milk.  From this point on, don’t go crazy with your mixer.  Keep the mixer on a speed that is just high enough to mix everything together.  We don’t want to beat a lot of air into the batter.

Here are my eggs joining the party.  A lot of recipes tell you to mix the eggs one at a time.  I get the reasoning that one at a time allows each one to become fully incorporated.  But I am the lazy sort, and I usually dump them all in at the same time.  I have not noticed any significant difference in taste or texture.  I’d probably get a bad grade if I went to culinary school though.

Here we go, mixing in the sour cream, flour, mint extract and vanilla extract.

I poured the batter into the pre-baked crust.  I gently knocked the springform pan against the pizza pan to try and get some of the air bubbles out.  I did not use a water bath.  Many people recommend placing the springform pan in a pan of hot water while baking.  The steam is supposed to keep the cheesecake from cracking.  But water baths also make the crust a lot softer than I like.  Plus, I’ve had cheesecakes crack even when using a water bath.  So, whatever.

After an hour of baking, I turned off the oven.  The cheesecake is still a bit jiggly in the middle, but that is ok.  It will set as it cools.  I left the cheesecake in the warm oven for at least an hour (I’ve left it in there for 5-6 hours before).  I ran a knife around the cheesecake before popping the latch open.  Ok, so here you can see a nice big crack.  It happens.  No problem, because I will be covering that up with a thick layer of chocolate.

Here is a simple ganache.  I heated up heavy cream, and poured it over dark chocolate chips.  Stir it until the chocolate melts.  You can add some mint extract if you want an extra hit of mint.

After I poured the chocolate over the cheesecake, I topped it with crushed candy canes.

Tadaa!  Peppermint Bark Cheesecake.  This is not very sweet since I cut out some of the sugar, and I used dark chocolate.  But I will warn you, it is rich.  This is not a case of the bigger the better.  A small slice is probably enough to satisfy most of you.

Peppermint Bark Cheesecake

Mint Chocolate Crust
Ingredients
– Around 26 mint chocolate sandwich cookies
– 6 tbs melted butter

Directions
– Crush the cookies into crumbs with whatever method you prefer, be it the food processor, rolling pin, or wine bottle.
– Mix the cookie crumbs with the melted butter.  Press the mixture to form a crust in a greased springform pan.  Place the springform pan on another baking sheet in case of leaky butter.
– Bake at 375°F for about 10-11 minutes.
– Let the crust cool before pouring cheesecake batter in.

Mint Cheesecake
Ingredients
– 32 oz of regular fat cream cheese (4 blocks)
– 1.25 c white sugar
– 3/4 c milk
– 4 eggs
– 1 c regular sour cream
– 1 tsp vanilla extract
– 2 tsp mint extract
– 1/4 c flour

Directions
– Let the ingredients sit out to room temperature.
– Mix the cream cheese and sugar until smooth.
– Gently mix in milk.  Then add the eggs (all at once, or one at a time.  You decide)  Then mix in the sour cream, mint and vanilla extracts, and flour.  Careful not to over-beat the batter.
– Pour the batter onto the cooled crust.  Gently knock out air bubbles. 
–  Bake at 325ºF for one hour.  After an hour, turn the oven off, and leave the oven door cracked open.  Let the cheesecake sit in the oven for at least an hour.
– Run a knife around the pan to loosen the cheesecake before opening the pan latch.
– Once the cheesecake is mostly cooled, pour the ganache over the top.  Put the cheesecake in the fridge to chill until ready to serve.

Peppermint Bark Ganache
Ingredients
– 3 c dark chocolate chips
– 1.5 c heavy cream

Directions
– Heat the heavy cream on the stove until it starts to boil.  Don’t let it keep bubbling or it’ll boil out of the pot and you’ll have a mess. 
– Pour the hot cream over the chocolate chips.  Stir until you have a smooth chocolate sauce.  Pour over the cheesecake.
– Top the chocolate ganache with crushed peppermint candies.  Smashing them in a Ziplock with a rolling pin works well.

O Oreo, O Oreo, How Sweet and Oh So Frosted!

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I love eating holiday cookies.  But I have absolutely no desire to stand around in the kitchen for hours mixing, rolling, baking, cooling, and cleaning.  After discovering how easy it is to dunk Oreos into melted candy to make Pokeballs and Halloween treats, are you surprised to see my holiday edition Oreos?  My daughter wanted to give presents to her classmates, so I busted out the Costco box of Oreos (can you tell I’m a big Costco fan?), candy melts, and Christmas sprinkles.

I heated the bowls of candy melts for 30 second intervals using 50% power and stirred after each 30 second session.  It took about 3-4 minutes to melt completely.  The last two times I used candy melts, I took the advice of several sites and added a spoonful of shortening to the melted candy.  The shortening is supposed to thin out the melted candy and make it smoother to work with.  This time, I wanted to melt the candy without using the shortening to compare the results.  The candy melted just fine, but the texture was a little thicker to work with.  I ended up with slightly thicker candy coats over the cookies, which is not necessarily a problem.  But as a result, I could not coat as many cookies as I thought I would.  I used a full bag of green melts, a 3/4 bag of red melts, and a 3/4 bag of white melts, and I was able to coat about 3.5 sleeves of Oreos.

I covered each cookie in candy, and used a fork to fish them out and knock off any excess candy.  As I kept working, the candy would cool and harden in my bowl, so I just popped the bowl back into the microwave for 30 seconds or so on 50% power.

The candy coats harden quickly, so work fairly quickly to decorate the cookies.  My daughter had a fun time helping.  I would dip the cookies, and she would decorate them.  I managed to decorate a few of them too.  I put them on my silicone baking mats to harden, but parchment paper or wax paper works too.

Now for the clean up.  So now you have melted semi hardened candy stuck to the bowl.  Do not soak the bowl in soapy water.  The candy will seize and turn rock solid, and then you will have to chip away the chunks and scratch the shit out of your bowl.  Yeah, been there, done that.

Instead, microwave the bowl until the candy melts again.  Scrape out as much as you can with a spoon.  Then use a paper towel to wipe up whatever is left.  See the scratches on my bowl?  That’s from when I was a candy melt newb.

For those of you too lazy or busy to bake holiday cookies, this is a fun and fairly fast way to break out a plate of festive cookies at the holiday party.  It’s a great project to do with the kids too.

Cookies ready to pass out at school.

Oompa Loompa Doompety Doo Aww…!@$%

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I’ve always appreciated homemade presents.  It shows that someone put effort, care, and time into creating something special for me.  During Christmas time, I like giving homemade presents, and I usually have a lot of ambitious ideas.  But going into sweatshop mode from November (or even earlier) to December can be pretty stressful.  Over the years, I’ve been experimenting with fun projects that are also fairly easy to make, especially since time is so limited with a little kid around.

A couple of years ago, I made Minion ornaments for my friends’ kids.  It was fun, but filling the plastic balls with yellow paint was a bigger pain than I expected.  I messed up several, so I couldn’t give away as many as I wanted.

Another year, I made jars of homemade hot chocolate mix.  That was an easy present to prepare.  I used Alton Brown’s recipe and made several large batches to fill a bunch of jars.

This year I decided to venture into the world of confections.  I will not pretend to know much about making candy.  In fact, I was quite nervous since making candy requires a lot of attention to details, and it’s harder to recover from any screw ups in the process.  In the past, I’ve made truffles and peppermint bark…and I had a 50/50 success rate haha.  But I decided to give it a shot and make dark chocolate truffles and soft caramels.

I searched for various truffle recipes, and I decided to use Ree Drummond’s truffle recipe.  She has a great step by step photo tutorial, so check it out.

The truffles were not difficult to make.  I got a can of condensed milk, vanilla extract, 8 oz of semi-sweet chocolate, and 8 oz of dark chocolate.  That will be for the soft ganache interior.  For the hard chocolate shell, I got more dark chocolate, in the form of chips.

I used the double boiler method to melt the chocolate.  Basically I put a small amount of water in the pot, place a glass heat proof bowl over the pot.  Heat the water and keep it on a simmer.  The steam melts the chocolate in the glass bowl.  I melted the 4 bars of chocolate and can of condensed milk.

Mmmm, it’s coming together.

Here is the big blob of melted chocolate and condensed milk.  Stir in 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract.  The vanilla will make the chocolate blob glossy looking.  It kind of looks and feels like a huge wad of melted Tootsie Roll.

I covered the bowl up and put it in the fridge for about 2 hours until the ganache hardened, but was still soft enough to scoop and form into balls.  I used a melon baller to scoop out little balls.  I also used exam gloves so I didn’t make a mess of melted chocolate.

Here is a tray of what looks like large rabbit poop.  At this point, you can roll the ganache balls in various toppings, and be done with it.  But I wanted to cover them with a hard chocolate shell.  Ree Drummond used milk chocolate for her coating, but I had a bag of dark chocolate on hand, so I used that.

I melted 2 cups of dark chocolate chips in the double boiler.

Then I dropped the ganache balls in the melted chocolate, rolled them around, and fished them out with a fork.

While the chocolate was still wet, I sprinkled some of the balls with sea salt, chocolate sprinkles, and Christmas sprinkles.  Making the balls bite sized gave me around 70 truffles.  I stuck the trays in the fridge to harden, and then I transferred them to a container.  They will keep for weeks in the fridge, but they should be brought to room temperature before serving.

Now on to the tricky caramels.  I finally bought myself a candy thermometer, which can also be used for deep frying (yay!), so I wanted to break in the thermometer.

I looked at various caramel recipes, and decided to try the Kitchn’s soft and chewy caramels.  If you are interested in making the caramels, read the instructions closely.  The Kitchn has a good guide with photos.  It’s not a difficult process, but it does require close attention.  Like I mentioned earlier, I have very little candy making experience and knowledge.  I followed the recipe as closely as I could, although my first batch says otherwise.  My first batch turned out to be a caramel sauce, even after a night in the fridge.  It tasted ridiculously good, but it’s not what I had in mind.  So after some cursing and reviewing the recipe, I made a second batch.

This is my heavy cream, butter, and salt warming and melting in the small saucepan.

Here is the corn syrup, white sugar, and water bubbling away.

Here is the candy mixture after I added the warm cream, butter, and salt.

I poured the finished mixture into a 7×11 glass dish with a greased piece of parchment paper.

After cooling and hardening for most of the day, I was pleased to see a solid block, instead of a dish of mush.  The caramels were still a lot softer than I wanted, but they tasted super delicious, all buttery, sweet, and melt in your mouth.  If I attempt another batch, I’ll have to see if I can make them a little firmer.

I cut them into little bite sized squares, and wrapped them into squares of wax paper.  I ended up with around 70 squares of caramel.

I ordered a pack of 24 little boxes from Amazon for the candies.  The boxes were a perfect size for 4 truffles and 6 caramels.  More could be crammed in, but I was going for a nice presentation.

One reviewer on Amazon decorated her box like snowmen, and I thought it was a cute idea.  Of course a classic gold ribbon is also elegant and easy to do.

I am not going to write recipes for the truffles and caramels.  I followed the original recipes very closely, so check out Ree Drummond and The Kitchn for their recipe and guides.  Maybe in a few years, I will have more experience to try experimenting with my own candy recipes, but for now…I’m done.  Happy holiday crafting!

Got Beef? It’s What’s For Dinner.

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For Thanksgiving, I refused to make turkey.  I like crispy skinned turkey wings, deep fried skin, and smoked legs at the fair.  But, if I have a choice, then turkey falls to the bottom of my to eat meat list.  For Thanksgiving, I wanted to make a meat dish that was out of the ordinary, and not poultry.  After some thought, I decided to make a beef tenderloin.  Beef tenderloin is simple to prepare, tender and juicy, and makes a pretty presentation.

However, beef tenderloin is not a cheap cut of beef.  So make this dish for people you really like or really want to impress, or both.  Costco has whole untrimmed tenderloins and trimmed tenderloins.  Trimmed means the connective tissue surrounding the tenderloin and chunks of fat are already removed.  The frugal shopper in me really wanted to get the whole tenderloin because it was significantly cheaper than the trimmed version.  However, I trimmed a tenderloin years ago, and I remember it looked like I tore chunks out of it with my teeth.  I decided that more time, less cursing, and less wasted meat > diy beef tenderloin.  If I wasn’t trying to prepare 6 other dishes, then I would have trimmed my own beef.  But time was of the essence, not to mention my sanity.  So I bit the bullet and shelled out the $$$.

I decided to make a red wine shallot sauce to go with the meat.  I made the sauce the day before to save time on the day of the party.

Here is my bowl of sliced shallots and minced garlic.

I cooked the shallots and garlic in bacon fat, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

Cook the shallots and garlic on lowish heat until it turns into a fragrant mushy brown pile.  Set the cooked shallots aside.  This is actually my second take.  My first bowl of shallots and garlic had to go in the trash because I wasn’t paying attention, and ended up burning the shit out of it.  I tried to salvage it, but it was truly burnt and unpalatable.

I made a roux with butter and flour in the same saucepan that I cooked the shallots.

I added red wine, beef stock, and tomato paste to the roux, and let it come to a boil.  Then I turned the heat to low.

So I had let the sauce simmer away for at least 10 minutes before I thought about tasting it.  It was ok, but definitely lacked something, so I threw in a sprig of dried rosemary and a small handful of dried thyme sprigs.  I dry a lot of my own herbs, and I leave them whole since the herbs lose some of their flavor once the leaves are ground up or crushed.

The sauce bubbled away for another 15 minutes or so.  The dried herbs were a good move, and the sauce tasted much better.  I also had to add a little sugar to the sauce.  I know next to nothing about wine, and I just grabbed a bottle that was given as a present.  After simmering away, it was still a little too tart, so some sugar was needed.  I fished the herbs out, and added the cooked shallots and garlic.  Once the the sauce cooled down, I put it in the fridge for the night.  Sitting overnight also allowed the flavors to meld together more.

So here is my large phallic looking strip of raw meat.  This baby was about 5.5 lbs.  On the day of the dinner, I patted the meat dry, put it on my roasting pan, and rubbed it generously with Montreal steak seasoning.

I heated up a huge pat of bacon fat on the roasting pan, and browned the tenderloin.  This is just to brown the outside, not to cook it.  This phallus meat was too large for my tongs to handle, so I ended up putting on a glove and manually flipping the meat every few minutes to brown each side.

Once the outside was browned, I put the pan in a preheated oven at 375ºF.  I stuck a meat thermometer in the thickest section to make sure I did not overcook the meat.  I actually did not keep track of how long the meat took to cook, but it was approximately half an hour or so.  I  just let it roast until the meat thermometer read 130ºF, which is medium rare.  I sliced the meat after letting it rest for 15 minutes.

While the meat rests, heat up the sauce and add the meat drippings.

Sliced tenderloin before saucing.  Notice that the meat is more medium and medium well towards the thinner end.  My mom does not like bloody meat, so the end pieces were good for her.

Red wine shallot sauce over roasted beef tenderloin.  This is an elegant meat dish to serve on a special occasion, and bonus points for being fairly simple and hard to screw up (unless you don’t pay attention).

Roast Beef Tenderloin with Red Wine Shallot Sauce

Red Wine Shallot Sauce
Ingredients
– 1.5 cups sliced shallots (about 3 shallots)
– 1.5 tbs minced garlic
– bacon fat or oil for cooking the shallots
– 3 tbs butter
– 3 tbs flour
– 3 cups beef broth
– 1 cup red wine
– 1 tbs tomato paste
– 1 sprig dried rosemary
– small handful of dried thyme sprigs
– sugar to taste
– salt and pepper to taste

Directions
– Cook the sliced shallots and minced garlic on low heat in the fat of your choice.  I chose bacon fat.  Let it cook down until the shallots turn dark golden brown and mushy, stir occasionally.  Put the cooked shallots in a small bowl.
– In the same saucepan, melt the butter.  Once the butter melts, add the flour.  Stir the mixture until it turns golden brown.
– Add the broth, wine, and tomato paste to the roux, and give it a stir.  Turn the heat up to let it come to a boil, then turn the heat to low.
– Add the dried herbs, and let the sauce simmer for 20-25 minutes, or until it thickens to your liking.  Taste the sauce.  Depending on the wine and broth you use, you may need to add sugar, salt, and pepper.  Strain the herbs out.  Add the cooked shallots and garlic.
– If you are making the sauce ahead of time, put the cooled sauce in the fridge until ready to use.  When you are ready to serve the sauce, heat it up on the stove.
– Stir in the drippings from the roast beef.
– Pour over the sliced beef, and or set the bowl aside for guests to pour their own sauce.

Roast Beef Tenderloin
Ingredients
– 5 lb trimmed beef tenderloin
– Montreal steak seasoning
– bacon fat

Directions
– Pat the tenderloin dry, and rub it generously with steak seasoning.
– Brown the tenderloin in bacon fat on the roasting pan.
– Put the pan in a preheated oven at 375ºF for about 30 minutes or so.  Use a meat thermometer to ensure you have a perfectly roasted piece of meat.  Stick the thermometer in the thickest part of the meat.  Beef tenderloin tastes best when cooked to medium rare.  So once the thermometer reads 130ºF, take the meat out of the oven.
– Let the meat rest for 15 minutes, and slice thin to serve.