Teriyaki beef jerky

This is my favorite beef jerky recipe, by far, but I will admit, I do not like strongly flavored beef jerky. I like a good flavor, but I want the beef flavor to come through, too, and I don't want it too salty, either.

I first start by slicing the beef into about 1/8" slices. They are probably somewhere between 1/8-1/4". I use my meat slicer, and set it on 5 (which tells you absolutely nothing!), so the actual thickness is my best guess. It doesn't really matter, though. Cut it as thick or thin as you like. The thinner you go, the less pliable it will be when dried. I like mine pliable and chewy. Make sure you cut across the grain. It's a lot easier to eat beef jerky that's been sliced across the grain.

In my experience, the best meat for jerky is eye of round. It's cheap, and lean. Two things you want in good beef jerky. A quality piece of beef is wasted on jerky. I buy my eye of round in 6 lbs. cuts from Smart Foods, a restaurant supplier. It's usually right around $2.00/lb. If I'm lucky, it goes on sale.

Beef jerky generally dries to about 1/3 it's original weight, so a 6 lb. eye of round will make about 2 lbs. of jerky.

After I slice my eye of round, I put it in gallon size Ziploc bags. I usually need two bags. 

For the marinade, I use my teriyaki sauce with just two adjustments: I cut the cornstarch and water in the recipe by half, and for a 6 lb. eye of round, I double the recipe. After I simmer the sauce, I let it cool to room temperature. I then add half the sauce to one bag of meat, and half to the other. I seal the bags, then lay them out on a cookie sheet and into the fridge for 48 hours. To make sure every piece is getting a good swim in the drink, I slosh the meat and marinade in the bags 2-3 times/day.

When it's time to dry the meat, I drain it on baking racks I set in the bottom of my sink. A colander works for this, too. While it drains, I set up the dehydrator.

I have a simple Presto dehydrator. I've had it for years. It was cheap, and it works great. I see no need for an expensive one.

There is really only one trick to jerky. Don't over or under dry it. It took me a while to figure out how to tell when it's done, and for me, it's about color, cracks and pliability. When it's getting close to done, the color turns much darker. When you bend the jerky, where the connective tissue is, it will be white, almost spider web-y looking. Check both sides. They should both have that spider web look.

The meat will still be pliable, but you will be begin to feel a more resistance. When you get to that point, it's done, or very close. You can go a little longer, if you wish, but be careful you don't go too far. If you do, you risk tough, dried out meat that's a little rough on the jaws.

I think anyone who makes jerky has to do one batch of overly dry jerky to fully appreciate finding that sweet spot of doneness. None the less, I've never had to throw away jerky, no matter how dry.

After drying, in theory, it's shelf stable. I still keep mine in the fridge. I've kept it in the fridge for a week with no issue. I've never had it last longer than a week, so I can't tell you how long it will last beyond that. I suspect a couple weeks, but if you have jerky sitting in the fridge beyond a week, you need more meat-loving friends.

Marinated cucumber salad

Tired of lettuce based salads, and a long time lover of cucumbers, I decided it was time to switch up the salad routine around here, and bump us from our lettuce rut. Enter my marinated cucumber salad. All the freshness of summer, with the sweet citrus flavors of an orange and poppy seed marinade.

This salad is best made the day before you wish to serve it, and marinated overnight. The longer marinating time allows for the vegetables to soften slightly, and for the flavors to marry well.

The grape tomatoes are firm, and allow for a little 'burst' of flavor. They also look great, and add a lot of beautiful color to the dish.

Ingredients:

Salad
1 large cucumber, edges forked, and thinly sliced
10 ounces of grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 red onion, halved, then thinly sliced
1 ripe avocado, diced
3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
Basil leaves

Dressing
2 ounces olive oil (I use Barouni olive oil from Joelle)
2 ounces white vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon orange juice
1/2 teaspoon poppy seeds

Directions:

Into a gallon Ziploc storage bag, add all your prepared vegetables.

Add the dressing. Press to remove most of the air from the bag, and toss the bag to coat its contents. Marinate overnight, or at least 12 hours. Turn the bag over a few times as it marinates, to make sure all vegetables in the bag get a nice 'swim' in the marinade. Prior to serving, transfer salad to a decorative bowl, toss, garnish with basil leaves and sprigs, and serve as a side to any grilled meat or other main dish.

Brown Butter Buns...

In our house, the cookie dude is not me. My husband has taken on that role, and has tweaked and massaged his recipes to the point of perfection. This recipe is probably his crowing glory, though his peanut butter cookies are legendary.

For me, baking cookies is like making 3 dozen tiny cakes. I'd rather make one big one, and call it good.

Two ingredients make these cookies the powerhouse they are: browned butter and sea salt flakes.

If you are unfamiliar with how to brown butter, I suggest you take a look on YouTube for a tutorial. I could provide one here, but there are plenty online. The trick with browning butter is to refrain from going too far. It will go from nutty perfection to cremate faster than you can take a breath to say, "oops". The second it reaches your desired level of "brown", you must get it out of the pan you just heated it in, and make sure to use a silicone spatula to get all the browned bits up from the bottom and sides of the pan. If it goes past nutty perfection to cremate, it will smell burned. Don't use burned butter. It will ruin your cookies. Start over. Better to under brown your butter vs. over brown it in this recipe.

I suggest Land O' Lakes butter anytime you need to brown butter. It has less water content than less quality butters, and won't spatter. Both will work, but our best results with this recipe are a direct result of Land O' Lakes.

I also say this with every dessert recipe I share: don't substitute ingredients. It's dessert. It's not meant to be healthy or sugar-free. There are superb sugar-free recipes online. This isn't one that's meant to be sugar-free. *However*, I am always prepared for someone to create a sugar-free version of one of my recipes and prove me wrong. I welcome it! But if you want stellar results, follow the recipe as is.

Once you have your browned butter, it must cool to room temperature, completely. If it's still warmish, let it set until it's completely cool. Once it's completely cool, here's the recipe that will change the way you think chocolate chip cookies should taste. At the recommended size, this recipe makes approximately 5 dozen cookies:

Ingredients:

260 grams all-purpose flour*
1-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
200 grams solidified browned butter, at room temperature (roughly 2-1/4 to 2-1/2 sticks, but weigh it)
300 grams dark brown sugar (light brown works, too, dark just makes for richer flavor)*
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups semi-sweet morsels
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (we use pecans)
Sea salt flakes

*If you are not using nuts, increase flour to 270 grams

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl, stir and set aside.

To a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add browned butter and sugars. Mix on high speed until smooth and creamy - about a minute. Reduce speed to medium, add egg + yolk and vanilla. Mix until just combined. Reduce speed to low and add chocolate chips and nuts and mix until just incorporated.

Roll into 1-1/4" balls, or use a 1 tablespoon scoop, slightly rounded (that's what the cookie dude in this house does), place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet, and bake until *very* lightly golden around the bottom edges, approximately 11 minutes, but oven temps vary, so watch them.

Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle with a few sea salt flakes.

Allow to cool for 2-3 minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool a bit more. Do yourself a favor, and eat them warm.

The cookie dude recommends scooping all the dough balls onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet, covering with plastic wrap, and freezing until solid. Once frozen solid, transfer dough balls to a large Ziploc bag, and store in the freezer. When you want cookies, bake just the number of dough balls you will eat fresh from the oven. No more day old cookies! I whole-heartedly concur with his recommendation!

Ollas for the garden - part two

The finished project was pretty straightforward to wrap up. Unfortunately, with fires raging in our state, and other areas of focus, I wasn't great about images for part two, so for that, I apologize.

As I mentioned in part one, the top pot is completely water sealed. I used Rustoleum Ultra Clear water sealant. It worked like a charm.

I used two coats on the inside, and two coats over the paint on the outside, though I added the outside coats over the painted surfaces after I'd adhered the pots together. I left the rim bare of both paint and sealant, because I felt it would create a better seal with the silicone, and it did.

Before adhering the two pots together, the drain hole in the bottom, unglazed pot must be plugged. You can do this several ways, but in my experience, the best option is to tape off the hole from the outside, then add about 1/2" of concrete into the bottom of the pot. I have also used hot glue, which works okay, but I don't think it's a long term solution.

To adhere the two pots together, I smeared a thin layer of silicone on the bare rim of the top pot, making sure to completely cover the entirety of the bare rim. I then ran a bead all around the rim on the bottom pot. I upturned the top pot, and set it on the bottom pot. I then ran another bead around the outside edge, and smoothed it with my finger. I used painter's tape to create an edge, so it wouldn't look sloppy, but this wasn't really necessary.

In the images I've included in this post, the top pot hadn't yet been water sealed or adhered to the bottom pot. The two pots are simply dry fit, but this gives you an idea of the finished look.

The entire reason to water seal the top pot is to keep the roots low. I didn't do this on my first and second generation of ollas, and I found the roots were barely below the surface. Unless the olla was topped off all the time, these top residing roots would dry out. This didn't seem to be an issue for my basil, but it was for my tomatoes. Tomatoes are water hogs, and they do not like inconsistent watering. With the roots so high, watering wasn't as consistent.

Adding the water sealed top pot as a reservoir, and burying the ollas with 2-3" of the sealed reservoir under the soil surface, the roots would stay lower, and likely not dry out, as the bottom pot would always (in theory) be full as the water level in the reservoir drains into the bottom, unsealed wicking pot.

For the pots I painted white, I also painted some clay coasters white. Before water sealing the coasters, I stamped them with a custom design. My husband always calls my garden "Shangrila". We live in Bend, Oregon, and the numbers at the bottom are the days of the months in which my beloved dogs were born. Jet 8/23, Ty 7/11 and Kindle 7/5. I love things with meaningful content. Here you can see the lid resting over the "fill" hole for the olla, which is simply the drain hole of the pot...