This hind-leg cut provides steaks and roasts, bone-in or boneless. The steaks include the tip (also promoted as sirloin tip and often sold sliced for stir-fry); top round, which provides more tender steaks than bottom round; round or bottom round, which comes with a round bone; and eye round, which looks like tenderloin and has very little fat.
All these steaks, with the exception of the eye, are oval in shape and contain more connective tissue than the uptown cuts. The muscle fibers are firmer and the grain in the meat more pronounced. Rump steaks also come from this downtown neighborhood. So does the cube steak I used for Chicken-Fried Cube Steak with Pan Gravy (see Index).
These steaks benefit from marination, from being cut into cubes or slices before cooking, and from moist-heat cooking. They are receptive to strong flavorings, as you will discover when you prepare Nicole’s Moroccan Steak Casserole or Siam Country Steak. The Best Ever recipe Italian Beef Sandwich, calls for thin strips of tip or top round poached in a seasoned broth.
The key to poaching successfully is patience. Usually the liquid is brought to a boil before the meat is added. From then on the cook must keep a watchful eye, and attentive ear, to be sure the liquid remains at a simmer. If subjected to a rolling boil, the meat surely will toughen and—in one of Mother Nature’s practical jokes—emerge tasting very dry.
A lean cut of steak like eye round will always be more pleasing if accompanied with a liberal portion of sauce. In this recipe, the sauce is a combination of sweet onion and cream accented with mustard and cayenne. My wine choice is a red wine from the Medoc region of Bordeaux.
4 eye round steaks, (about 5 ounces each), cut ½ inch thick
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium sweet onion, preferably Vidalia, cut into large dice
1 sprig fresh oregano or ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
½ cup dry white wine
½ cup heavy (or whipping) cream
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
¼ teaspoon white pepper
Pinch of cayenne pepper, or more to taste
1½ teaspoons Dijon mustard
Salt, to taste (optional)
1 tablespoon minced fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
1. Pat the steaks dry, then coat lightly with oil. Set aside.
2. Melt the butter in a medium-size saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook until soft, about 4 minutes. Add the oregano and wine, raise the heat to medium, and simmer until the wine is nearly evaporated, 4 to 5 minutes.
3. Add the cream and bring to a boil. Simmer for 1 minute. Stir in the vinegar, white pepper, cayenne, and mustard. Remove the herb sprig, transfer the mixture to a food processor, and process for 30 seconds, or until blended. Pour the sauce into a small saucepan and season with salt and more cayenne, if desired. Set aside.
4. Heat a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, add the steaks and cook until seared and crusted, about 2 minutes. Turn the steaks, season with salt, if desired, and cook 2 minutes more for medium-rare or 2½ minutes for medium. Transfer the steaks to a cutting board and let them rest while reheating the sauce.
5. Divide the sauce among 4 warm plates and top with whole steaks or cut them into ½-inch-thick slices. Garnish with the parsley.
SERVES 4
The Italian beef sandwich is one of the culinary glories of Chicago, enticing to both blue-collar workers and celebrities alike with its simple, even primitive, charm. Shaved beef, a soft roll or miniature bread loaf, juice, and the marinated vegetable condiment known as giardiniera are all it takes to make great eating.
3 cups beef broth
¾ teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
¾ teaspoon dried Italian herb seasoning
I large clove garlic, crushed with the side of a knife and peel removed
½ cup Gibsons Hot Pepper Giardiniera (page 201) or bottled
Crushed red pepper flakes, to taste (optional)
4 Italian buns or soft rolls, 6 to 7 inches long
1 pound tip or top round steak, cut into thin strips
1. Combine the broth, black pepper, Italian seasoning, and garlic in a medium-size saucepan or a 12-inch sauté pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, lower the heat, and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Strain the broth. (This may be done ahead. Store it in the refrigerator, tightly covered, until needed.)
2. Coarsely chop the giardiniera if the pieces are large. Stir in the red pepper flakes if a spicy sandwich is desired. Slice the buns lengthwise without cutting them completely in half. Set aside.
3. Using a meat pounder or the side of a cleaver or large knife, pound each strip of meat until very thin. Bring the broth back to a boil, then reduce the heat to a bare simmer and add the meat strips, a few at a time. Cook until they are brown and have cooked through, about 1 minute. Stir with tongs or chopsticks as needed to keep the slices apart. Do not let the broth return to a boil or else the meat will toughen. Remove the pan from the heat.
4. Drizzle 2 tablespoons of meat broth over the inside of each bun. Divide the beef strips among the 4 buns and moisten each portion with 2 more tablespoons of broth. Top with 2 tablespoons of giardiniera. Cut each bun in half crosswise and serve with plenty of paper napkins.
SERVES 4
Asian cooks understand that while marinating less tender cuts of meat, such as round steak, helps to tenderize them, the technique used to cut the steak can be equally important. In this dish, cutting the broiled steak into thin slices across the grain helps achieve a more tender texture.
2 medium to large cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 large jalapeño, stemmed and minced with the seeds
⅓ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
2 eye round steaks, (6 to 8 ounces each), cut ¾ inch thick
4 ounces green beans, cooked until crisp-tender
3 scallions, white part only
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup fresh bean sprouts
1½ cups cooked long-grain white rice, hot
1. Using a mortar and pestle or a chef’s knife, mash the garlic. Add the salt and continue to mash until the mixture has a paste consistency. Stir the lime juice, soy sauce, and sugar together in a small bowl until the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the garlic paste, jalapeño, and cilantro.
2. Arrange the steaks in a shallow dish just large enough to hold them. Pour ⅓ cup of the marinade over the steaks, reserving the remaining marinade. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours, turning the steaks once.
3. Cut the green beans on the diagonal into 1-inch pieces. Cut the scallions into 1-inch-long julienne strips. Set aside.
4. Preheat the broiler.
5. Remove the steaks from the marinade and discard this marinade. Broil the steaks until seared and well browned on one side, about 4 minutes. Turn and broil 3 minutes more for medium-rare or 4 minutes for medium. Transfer the cooked meat to a cutting board and cover loosely with aluminum foil.
6. Heat a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. When hot, add the oil, then the scallions. Stir-fry until they begin to brown, about 45 seconds. Add the bean sprouts and continue to stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add the green beans and 2 tablespoons of the reserved marinade. Stir to mix and cover the skillet. Steam until the vegetables are softened, about 45 seconds.
7. Carve each steak across the grain into thin slices. Arrange a scoop of rice with the stir-fried vegetables on the serving plates. Top the vegetables with the slices of the beef. Drizzle any reserved marinade over the meat and rice.
SERVES 3 OR 4
Here is steak for a party, with sauces inspired by ingredients indigenous to Africa and the Caribbean. (For more than four guests, cook an eye round roast and carve it into thin slices.) Garnish each plate with rice and an assertive green vegetable like chard or beet greens. Pour a robust red wine such as Zinfandel or Merlot.
4 eye round steaks, (about 6 ounces each), cut ¾ inch thick
1 teaspoon ground ginger
¾ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 small ripe avocado
1 scallion, white and some green, minced
Salt, to taste
Hot pepper sauce, preferably Tabasco
¼ cup smooth peanut butter
⅔ cup low-sodium chicken broth
1. About 4 to 8 hours before cooking the steaks, pat them dry and place them in a 1-quart plastic storage bag. Combine ½ teaspoon of the ginger, ½ teaspoon of the red pepper flakes, ¼ teaspoon of the black pepper, 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice, and 4 tablespoons of the oil in a small jar. Cover and shake well, then pour this marinade over the steaks. Close the bag tightly, place on a plate, and refrigerate. Allow 30 minutes for the steaks to return to room temperature before cooking them.
2. Pit, peel, and dice the avocado. Transfer to a small bowl, add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil, 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice, the scallion, the remaining ½ teaspoon ginger, ¼ teaspoon black pepper, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon hot pepper sauce. Mash and stir to combine the ingredients, cover the surface with plastic wrap, and set aside. (If making the sauce more than 30 minutes before cooking the steak, refrigerate it.)
3. Spoon the peanut butter into a small saucepan. Add the broth, the remaining 1½ tablespoons lemon juice, remaining ¼ teaspoon red pepper, and pinch of salt. Bring this mixture to a boil, stirring to combine the ingredients. Lower the heat and simmer until the sauce thickens, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.
4. Preheat the broiler.
5. Remove the steaks from the marinade and pat dry. Place them under the broiler and cook until seared and nicely browned on one side, about 3 minutes. Turn and cook 2½ minutes more for medium-rare or 3 minutes for medium. Meanwhile, reheat the peanut sauce and adjust the seasoning. Taste the avocado sauce and adjust the seasoning.
6. Pour ¼ cup of peanut sauce onto a warm serving plate. Place a steak on the sauce and top with a generous dollop of the avocado sauce. Repeat with remaining steaks and sauces and serve at once.
SERVES 4
ADDING FLAVOR
One of the wonders of steak is that for all the taste and flavor it possesses, it also welcomes an extraordinary variety of seasonings, flavorings and sauces. Here are some from my repertoire:
Nicole’s Moroccan Mix (page 149)
Pan Sauce (page 46)
Gibsons Roasting Salt (page 84)
Six-Shooter Spice Rub (page 37)
Infused Horseradish Oil (page 108)
Handmade Caper Mustard (page 168)
Mustard Butter (page 168)
Composed Butters (page 46)
I trace the boom in popularity of Southwest recipes back to the moment when someone discovered you can prepare a combination of ingredients that once took hours of hand labor with a mortar and pestle in seconds using a food processor. The more widespread distribution of various chilies and tomatillos, such as are used in this red devil sauce, has helped, too. Pile some Celery Seed Coleslaw (see Index) on each plate.
1 top round steak (1¼ pounds), cut 1¼ inches thick
1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil
8 ounces tomatillos
8 ounces tomatoes, peeled, cored, and seeded (see page 142)
¼ cup chopped scallions
1 clove garlic, quartered
1 canned chipotle chili and 1 to 2 teaspoons of the juice
¼ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter or vegetable oil
1. About 30 minutes before cooking, rub the steak all over with the olive oil. Set aside at room temperature.
2. Bring a saucepan of water to a boil. Peel and discard the husks from the tomatillos. Put them in the boiling water and cook until the color changes from bright to faded green, about 5 minutes. Transfer the tomatillos with a slotted spoon to a colander and cool under cold running water.
3. Cut the tomatoes into chunks. Put the tomatoes and tomatillos in a food processor. Add the scallions, garlic, chipotle, sugar, salt, and vinegar. Process until smooth, about 1 minute. Add chipotle juice, to taste. (Or mince the tomatoes, tomatillos, scallions, garlic, and chipotle by hand with a knife, transfer to a bowl, and stir in the sugar, salt, vinegar, and chipotle juice.)
4. Melt the butter in a small saucepan until it bubbles. Add the tomatillo mixture and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until reduced by a third and somewhat thickened, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool. (Sauce may be made ahead, covered, and stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.) Serve the sauce at room temperature.
5. Preheat the broiler or prepare coals for grilling.
6. Cook the steak until seared and well browned, about 7 minutes. Turn and cook 5 minutes more for medium-rare or 6 minutes for medium. Transfer the steak to a cutting board, cover loosely with aluminum foil, and let rest for at least 5 minutes. If serving at room temperature, allow the steak to cool completely before slicing.
7. Carve the meat on the bias against the grain into thin slices. Arrange slices on plates so they overlap slightly. Drizzle a line of sauce down the center of the meat or spoon a puddle on one side of the plate.
SERVES 4
PEELING TOMATOES
Anyone, like myself, who has virtually destroyed a tomato in trying to cut away its tightly clinging skin, will appreciate knowing this chef’s trick. Bring water to a boil in a medium-size saucepan. Add the tomatoes and blanch for 20 to 30 seconds to loosen the skin. Transfer the tomatoes with a slotted spoon to a colander and cool under cold running water. Core and peel the tomatoes, cut crosswise in half, and remove the seeds. Cut it into chunks or dice as directed in the recipe.
My wife and I have a friend, a college student from Thailand named Jane, who grew up in a restaurant family and is studying design in hopes of creating restaurants one day In the heat of summer, her air-conditioning failed, and we took her in. It was nothing special, but she insisted she owed us something and promised to return the next week to prepare a Thai meal. She did, making several delicious dishes, none of them more memorable than this rustic creation. (In answer to a question you soon will pose: Yes, the quantity of garlic is accurate and, no, you do not cook it.) Serve the steak with plenty of rice and cooling vegetables such as raw cucumber slices and chilled iceberg lettuce.
2 boneless rump or butt steaks, (about 10 ounces each), cut ½ inch thick
1 teaspoon McCormick’s Barbecue Seasoning
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce (nam pla; see Note)
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
2 large cloves garlic, cut into thin slices
1 tablespoon thinly sliced chilies
1. Pat the steaks dry and place them in a shallow dish. Sprinkle the barbecue seasoning on the steaks and rub it into both sides of the meat. Drizzle the oyster sauce over the meat and rub it over the surface of both sides. Cover the dish and refrigerate for 24 hours.
2. Allow the steaks to come to room temperature while preparing coals for grilling or heating a ridged grill pan.
3. Combine the fish sauce and lime juice in a small dish. Set aside.
4. Grill the steaks until seared and nicely browned on one side, about 2 minutes for medium-rare or 2½ minutes for medium. Turn and cook 2 minutes more on the second side.
5. Transfer the steaks to a cutting board and let rest for 5 minutes, then carve them into thin slices. Arrange the slices on a platter. Drizzle the fish sauce-lime juice mixture over the meat, garnish with the garlic slices and sliced chilies, and serve just warm or at room temperature.
Note: Thai fish sauce (nam pla) is available in Asian markets, specialty food stores, and some supermarkets.
SERVES 4
Crispy orange beef is a Chinese culinary masterpiece, and like many masterpieces, it is deceptively simple. The traditional recipe has the meat cut into fine shreds, marinated, cooked, and cooked again until the pieces become caramelized. My version is simpler yet full of the flavor of orange. Serve the meat with rice steamed with orange peel or fried rice.
1 tablespoon minced orange zest
½ cup fresh orange juice
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon sesame oil
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 top round steak (about 1¼ pounds), cut 1 inch thick
½ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup plus 2 teaspoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1. Combine the orange zest, juice, honey, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, sesame oil, and red pepper flakes in a shallow nonreactive dish or pan just large enough to hold the steak. Stir well and add the meat. Cover with plastic wrap and marinate for ½ hours at room temperature or for up to 12 hours in the refrigerator, turning the meat once.
2. When ready to cook, combine the salt and ⅓ cup cornstarch in a shallow pan. Remove the steak from the marinade, pat dry, and dredge in the cornstarch mixture until coated on both sides. Set aside. Strain the marinade, reserving the liquid.
3. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until the oil shimmers. Add the steak and cook until seared and well browned on one side, about 5 minutes. Turn and cook 5 minutes more for medium-rare or 6 minutes for medium. Transfer the steak to a cutting board and let it rest for 5 minutes.
4. Pour the oil from the skillet and return to a burner. Stir 1 tablespoon of the marinade in a small bowl with the remaining 2 teaspoons cornstarch. Pour the remaining marinade into the skillet, add the cornstarch mixture, and whisk over medium heat until the mixture thickens, about 2 minutes.
5. Cut the steak on the bias across the grain into ¼-inch slices. Return the slices to the skillet and turn to coat with sauce. Serve at once.
SERVES 4 TO 6
Sweet-and-sour sauce is not a specialty only of Asian chefs. The Italians, for instance, have been adding it to meat, game, and vegetable dishes for centuries. Here, the beef is braised in the marinade while the sweet-and-sour sauce is added as seasoning. Soft polenta is the ideal accompaniment.
1 boneless beef bottom round or rump roast (about 2½ pounds)
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
2 large carrots, coarsely chopped
2 large ribs celery, coarsely chopped
1½ cups dry red wine
¼ cup olive oil
2 teaspoons juniper berries, crushed
2 bay leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
2 large cloves garlic, chopped
Grated zest of 1 lemon
¼ cup golden raisins, plumped in warm water and drained
¼ cup chopped pitted prunes
¼ cup pine nuts
1. One day in advance or on the morning of serving, cut the meat into 2-inch chunks and place in a nonreactive dish. Add the onions, carrots, celery, and red wine. Cover and refrigerate overnight or at least 8 hours, turning the meat once.
2. Remove the meat from the marinade and pat dry. Heat the oil in a large heavy pot over medium-high heat until hot. Add the meat and brown on all sides, working in batches so as not to overcrowd the pan, 4 minutes per batch. Discard the pan grease. Return the meat to the pan and add the marinade and vegetables. Add the juniper berries and bay leaves. Bring the mixture to a simmer, reduce the heat to very low, cook, covered, at a bare simmer until the meat is tender, about 1½ hours.
3. Remove the meat and discard the bay leaves. Pass the vegetables and cooking juices through the fine holes of a food mill or purée in a food processor to make a sauce. Return the sauce and meat to the casserole. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Just before serving, combine the sugar, vinegar, garlic, and lemon zest in a medium-size skillet. Heat over medium heat until the sugar is melted, about 1 minute. Add the raisins, prunes, and pine nuts. Bring the mixture to a boil, pour it into the casserole and stir over low heat until the sauce is thoroughly hot. Serve immediately.
SERVES 6
Rightly or wrongly, central European cuisine has the reputation of being rich, heavy, and dull. This recipe is none of the above. A sprightly main-course soup, it has very little fat and no thickeners and offers a tongue-tingling array of pepper flavors, including the paprika so prized by Hungarian cooks. My preference is to make this soup in a pressure cooker, even when not pressured by lack of time. It will be equally tasty, however, made by the conventional method.
1½ pounds boneless round steak, cut ¾ inch thick
1 medium onion, preferably a sweet onion such as Vidalia
1 medium green bell pepper
1 medium red bell pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon sweet paprika, preferably Hungarian
½ teaspoon hot paprika, preferably Hungarian
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon caraway seeds, briefly toasted (see Note)
6 cups beef broth
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 teaspoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon salt
6 ounces wide egg noodles
Sour cream
1. Pat the meat dry. Trim away any excess fat and cut the meat into ¾-inch cubes.
2. Cut the onion in half and coarsely chop one half. Thinly slice the other half. Set aside. Core, seed, and cut the bell peppers in half. Cut one half of each pepper into chunks and the other half into ¼-inch strips. Set aside.
3. Heat oil in a pressure cooker or large heavy saucepan over medium-high heat until it shimmers, about 3 minutes. Add half the meat and brown on all sides, about 4 minutes. Transfer to a bowl with a slotted spoon. Add the remaining meat and repeat.
4. Add the chopped onion and bell pepper chunks to the pot. Stir frequently until the vegetables soften, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the sweet and hot paprika, black pepper, and caraway seeds and stir for 1 minute. Pour in the beef broth. Add the bay leaves, garlic, and tomato paste. Return the meat and accumulated juices to the pot.
5. Cover and seal the pressure cooker, if using, and bring to full pressure over high heat. Regulate the heat and cook for 20 minutes. If using a saucepan, simmer, partially covered, for 1 to 1½ hours. Release pressure and uncover the cooker. The meat should be cooked through and tender. If not, re-cover the pot, bring back to full pressure, and cook for 5 minutes more.
6. Pour the soup through a colander into a bowl, leaving as much of the meat as possible in the pot. Pick out the meat cubes in the colander and return to the pot. Discard the bay leaves and vegetables in the colander as well as any remaining in the pot.
7. Add the onion slices and bell pepper strips to the pot and pour the broth back in over the vegetables and meat. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to low, and simmer, uncovered, until the vegetables are just tender, 7 to 8 minutes.
8. Meanwhile, bring water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add the salt and noodles and cook until the noodles are just tender. Drain the noodles.
9. Spoon ½ cup of noodles into each of 6 soup plates. Ladle the hot soup over the noodles and serve at once. Pass the sour cream at the table.
SERVES 6
Note: Toast the caraway seeds in a small skillet over medium-low heat, tossing often, until aromatic, about 5 minutes.
PEELING GARLIC AND SHALLOTS
Mash garlic by placing it under the flat side of the blade of a chef’s knife and hitting the blade sharply with the side of your hand. The peel will pull away easily from the crushed clove. Peel shallots by taking off the first layer of the shallot with the skin. You lose some, but you’ll save time because the skin by itself is very hard to pull away from the shallot.
Nicole Bergere, who runs a specialty bakery in Chicago, has a gift for cooking up show-stoppers. Certainly a one-pot casserole meal made with rump steak and vegetables doesn’t seem like gourmet fare. But when Nicole brings it to the table and opens the pot, everyone within smelling distance starts sniffing. Impolite, perhaps, but they just can’t help themselves. The remarkably exotic aromas from her spice mix only begin the seduction, though. Tasting, you encounter contrasting textures of meat and vegetables with the graduated sweetness of meltingly soft sweet potato, pieces of baked banana, and pitted prunes. There’s more to say, but, as usual when Nicole’s casserole is served, my mouth is full. For an accompaniment consider serving beer. If wine is to be poured, seek out something simple but fruity, such as that old standby “hearty Burgundy” or a Zinfandel from California.
1 rump steak, (about 1¼ pounds), 1½ inches thick, cut into 3- to 4-inch chunks
3 tablespoons Nicole’s Moroccan Mix (recipe follows)
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, cut into ¼-inch slices
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into ¼-inch-thick slices
1 eggplant, peeled, quartered lengthwise and cut crosswise into ¼-inch-thick pieces
10 to 12 pitted prunes
4 medium cloves garlic, slivered
1 large baking potato, peeled and cut into ¼-inch-thick slices
2 medium carrots, peeled, quartered lengthwise and cut crosswise into ¼-inch-thick pieces
1 medium zucchini, quartered lengthwise and cut crosswise into ¼-inch-thick pieces
2 medium bananas, peeled and quartered lengthwise
1. Place the meat in a bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of the spice mix and toss with your hands until all the pieces are well coated. Set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the meat and brown the pieces on all sides. Transfer to a cutting board and cut each piece in half horizontally.
4. Coat the bottom of a 3-quart Dutch oven or enameled cast-iron casserole with 1 tablespoon of oil. Arrange the onion slices on the bottom in a single layer. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of the spice mix over the onions. Arrange the meat, cut side down, on top of the onions. Add the sweet potato slices, sprinkle with 1 teaspoon spice mix. Add half the eggplant pieces and 1 teaspoon spice mix. As you arrange the layers, fill in the gaps with prunes and slivers of garlic.
5. Spread the baking potato slices over the eggplant and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon spice mix. Add the remaining eggplant and the carrots in a single layer. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon spice mix. Finally, make a layer of zucchini pieces and bananas, topped with the remaining 1 teaspoon spice mix. Drizzle the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over the top layer.
6. Cover the top layer with a sheet of aluminum foil and press down to make the layer even. Cover the casserole with a lid and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the casserole from the oven. Remove the lid and tilt the casserole. Using a bulb baster, remove juices from the bottom and drizzle them over the top. Replace the foil and the lid and bake for 30 minutes more.
7. Baste again, then bake for 15 minutes more. To check for doneness, push a long thin knife into the casserole in several places. It should pass through the layers easily. If not, re-cover the casserole and bake for 15 minutes more.
8. Remove the casserole from the oven and keep covered until ready to serve. Lift off the lid, allow the aromas to escape, then cut wedge-shaped portions from top to bottom. Spoon some cooking juice over each portion.
SERVES 5 OR 6
Use this nose-tingling seasoning for Nicole’s Moroccan Steak Casserole or in small amounts to flavor meatballs, meatloaves, hamburgers, mayonnaise or soups.
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons coarse salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons turmeric
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
Combine the cumin, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, paprika, turmeric, and the ground pepper in a small bowl and stir until thoroughly mixed. Transfer to a 1-cup jar with a tight-fitting lid or 2 empty spice bottles and label it. Store at room temperature.
MAKES ABOUT ⅔ CUP
For the sake of those eager to dine, here is 10,000 years of agricultural history telescoped so that it can be read in the time it takes to cook a minute steak.
The shift of early humans from hunters to farmers began during the Neolithic era as man began tending both plants and animals. It was Greece, or what became Greece, where the first oxen were domesticated. Some credit the Egyptians, who worshiped cattle as gods, with inventing the branding iron.
When their turn came to rule the world, several millennia later, the Romans put forth a candidate for the title “inventor” or “discoverer” of the pleasures of beef. He was Lucius Plaucus, a “Roman of rank,” who was ordered by the emperor Trajan to perform the menial task of cooking the animal sacrifices to Jupiter. He tasted the burned meat and became the chief proponent of the original nouvelle cuisine. Pretty soon the Temple became the top restaurant in town.
Eating meat as the centerpiece of a meal, however, didn’t evolve in Europe until the late Middle Ages, and even then the practice of city folks buying portion-controlled pieces of beef was as unreal as cities without walls. There wasn’t even a word for butcher until the Romans came up with beccaio in the thirteenth century.
Elsewhere, with population more dense, people ate easier-to-produce, higher-yielding plants. The European diet before the Industrial Revolution included only 10 to 25 percent calories from meat.
The only important steak-related event in Europe before the invention of chateaubriand by Montmireil, chef to the nineteenth century French writer and diplomat François-René de Chateaubriand, was the occupation of Paris by Wellington’s beef-eaters after Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in 1815.The English soldiers met and were immediately conquered by something the Parisians called bifteck. The wily French served it with a vegetable the English feared, the potato. Cut up and boiled in fat until it changed color and got crispy, these frites fooled the English sentries every time.
Meanwhile, in the former British colonies, meat, in the form of wild game, was readily available. Before the Civil War, per capita meat consumption exceeded 175 pounds per person. (Today the figure for beef and pork combined is about 115 pounds.)
According to Thomas De Voe in The Market Assistant (1867), the first famous steak house in the United States may have been a public house on Chapel Street in New Haven, Connecticut, popular with travelers in the early nineteenth century. The host, a man named Butler, always prepared his famous “broiled beefsteak.”
“You would find him, with his white cap and apron on, before a heap of live hickory coals, in front of the great wide old-fashioned chimney, having a long handle attached to a large double (hinged) gridiron and a fine steak fastened up in it, so that he could keep the steak turning, first on the one side then on the other, that not a drop of the fine gravy should drip off.”
Cattle, though, came before the steak houses. Columbus, Cortés, and Coronado all vied for the honor of becoming the Americas’ first cattle baron. The longhorn literally ran wild in what would be Texas for centuries. But the continent’s first cattle drive occurred far to the north—in Massachusetts, in 1655, when cows were marched eastward from Springfield to Boston.
Let’s fast-forward through time and move west to Ohio and Illinois and eventually Iowa, where there was ample land to grow crops to feed cattle and create a beef industry on a scale never before conceived. Prior to the Civil War, the meat business was, according to John D. Hicks in The American Nation, a “local affair.” A local butcher bought a cow from a local farmer, one of them slaughtered it, and it was cut up and on sale the next day. Problems included lack of choice and even lack of product. Railroads were used to transport live cattle to slaughterhouses in cities along the eastern seaboard, but loss of animals by death and the high cost of transport when only a portion of the carcass was usable sharply limited this practice.
The war, as wars always do, inspired advances in technology and a desire to develop the West in its aftermath. By 1873, a Chicago packer named Nelson Morris, who had made a small fortune selling cattle to the Union army during the war, was amassing a large one sending dressed western beef from Chicago to the East. In that pre-income tax year, his firm grossed $11 million.
Also taking a cut was Gustavus F. Swift, a cattle-buyer from the East who set up shop in Chicago in 1875 and funded the development of an improved refrigerator car that made it possible to transport meat safely in summer as well as winter. Philip Armour came to Chicago in the same year and also took advantage of the city’s possibilities as a transportation hub. He used the new Union Stockyards to prepare beef and pork for shipment abroad as well as to domestic destinations.
With improved technology and surging immigration providing both labor and customers, and with eager railroad executives virtually underwriting processing and shipping facilities, the meat industry was in a position to expand rapidly. One avenue was to buy the descendants of the conquistadores’ longhorn cattle cheaply in the Southwest and have drovers, soon celebrated as cowboys, drive them to railheads in the Midwest. Kansas City prospered. So did other processing centers along the Missouri River, including Sioux City and Omaha.
Even though hit by economic downturns, the industry had its way until Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, a polemic novel set in the slaughterhouses, published in 1906, caused people to turn away from red meat for a time. Depression struck the beef industry hard in the aftermath of World War I, and lower sales, in turn, led to sharply decreased demand for grain. The farmers had barely recovered when the Great Depression of the 1930s hit.
World War II and its aftermath was prime time for the beef industry, with the steak represented as the best fuel for strong bodies and the unofficial symbol of American prosperity.
Now, more than half a century later, health and diet concerns broadcast through the media and in books since the mid 1960s have led to both a shrinkage in the amount of fat in American meat (27 percent less in beef, according to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association) and less consumption. Beef sales declined from a high of 74.7 pounds per capita in 1985 to 61.5 in 1993.
Since then, however, the trend has been steadily upward, with 1996 consumption projected to reach 65.2 pounds and the increase of customer traffic at steak restaurants well ahead of other categories.
