Category: Meat & Poultry

Pepper-Crusted Roasted Beef Carpaccio

There’s a misconception when it comes to cooking beef that every roast needs to be braised. We’ve all become so accustomed to brisket—the long, slow cook, lots of liquid, meat that practically falls apart when you look at it—that sometimes we forget there’s a whole other way to cook a roast.

And honestly? Some cuts are even better when you don’t braise them.

Tender roasts can be dry roasted low and slow, almost like a giant steak. Instead of cooking them until they fall apart, you cook them gently just until they’re beautifully medium rare, then slice them thinly against the grain. French roast, ribeye roast, London broil and silver tip can all work beautifully with this style of cooking.

For this recipe, I took that idea one step further and turned a shoulder roast into my take on beef carpaccio—except instead of serving the beef raw, I gave it a serious pepper crust, seared it hard and then roasted it low and slow at 225°F until the center was perfectly rosy.

Once chilled, I sliced the beef as thinly as I could. I don’t have a deli slicer at home, and if you don’t either, here’s a little trick: place the slices between parchment and gently pounded them thinner with a meat mallet. It gives you those beautiful, delicate slices that you want from carpaccio while still keeping the beef cooked (I skipped this step because I cut it pretty thin with my knife!).

I layered the beef across a big platter and finished it with a drizzle of silan, juicy pomegranate seeds, micro arugula, crispy capers and shallots that I quickly pickled in red wine vinegar. The silan brings sweetness, the shallots bring acidity, the capers bring that salty crunch, and the pepper crust keeps the whole thing savory.

It’s festive and dramatic enough for a Yom Tov table, but what I love most is that it shows just how versatile a good roast can be.

Because sometimes you don’t need another braised brisket. Sometimes you just need a really good piece of beef, a lot of cracked pepper, and a meat thermometer.

Pepper-Crusted Roasted Beef Carpaccio

Pepper-Crusted Beef
1 (3 lb.) shoulder roast
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon coarse butcher-grind black pepper
2 teaspoons medium ground black pepper
2 tbsp oil

For Serving
1 large shallot, very thinly sliced
½ cup red wine vinegar, or enough to cover
Pinch of kosher salt
Capers, drained and dried well
Oil, for frying
Good quality olive oil, for drizzling
Silan, for drizzling
Pomegranate seeds
Micro arugula
Smoked flaky salt

Pat the roast very dry with paper towels. Season generously with salt and peppers. Heat a large cast-iron skillet or heavy-bottomed pan over high heat. Sear the roast on all sides until deeply browned and crusted.

Transfer the roast to a 225°F oven (uncovered!) and roast until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part registers 130°F for medium rare. Remove from the oven and allow to rest. Refrigerate until completely chilled.

Meanwhile, place the thinly sliced shallots in a small bowl. Add red wine vinegar, season with a pinch of salt and allow to pickle for at least 20–30 minutes. Drain well before serving.

For the crispy capers, heat a thin layer of oil in a small skillet. Add the well-dried capers and fry until they open slightly and become crisp. Transfer to a paper towel to drain.

Once the beef is thoroughly chilled, slice it against the grain as thinly as possible with a very sharp knife. If the slices are thicker than you’d like, place them between sheets of parchment paper and gently pound with the flat side of a meat mallet until thin and delicate. Cut particularly large slices into smaller, organic pieces as needed.

Arrange the beef over a large serving platter.

Drizzle lightly with silan and olive oil. Scatter the pickled shallots, pomegranate seeds, micro arugula and crispy capers over the beef. Finish with flaky salt and serve.

Depending on the size of your roast, this can make 2-3 platters, adjust topping amounts accordingly. Reserve any extra meat for roast beef sandwiches.

Related Recipes:

Muhammara Carpaccio
Smoked Salmon Carpaccio
Spring Eggplant Carpaccio
Tomato Carpaccio
Simanim Carpaccio
Melon Carpaccio

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Baharat Braised Roast with Butternut Squash & Dates


There are certain spices that just smell like comfort to me, and baharat is one of them.

Baharat literally means “spices” in Arabic, and it’s a warm, aromatic Middle Eastern blend typically made with spices like cumin, coriander, black pepper, allspice, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves. Every blend is a little different, but that warm, earthy flavor is exactly what I want when the weather starts to cool and I’m craving something cozy and slow-cooked.

And this roast is COZY.

I wanted to create a braised roast that felt perfect for Sukkot and fall without going in the typical sweet-and-sour direction. Baharat gives the meat so much depth, while orange juice and zest brighten everything up, and silan adds just enough sweetness without making the dish feel cloying.

Then there’s the butternut squash and dates. As the roast braises, all those beautiful flavors work their way into the sauce. The squash goes in later so it gets tender without completely falling apart, while the dates soften into the braising liquid and add these little pockets of caramel-like sweetness.

And can we talk about how pretty this is straight out of the Dutch oven? Golden butternut squash, glossy dates, deeply browned meat and that rich, spiced sauce—it’s exactly the kind of centerpiece I want to bring to the table for Yom Tov.

Baharat-Braised Roast with Butternut Squash & Dates

4 lb Delmonico, Chuck or French roast
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 tbsp olive oil
8 large shallots, peeled and halved
5 garlic cloves, smashed
2 tbsp baharat
2 tbsp tomato paste
1½ cups dry red wine
1½ cups beef or chicken stock
Juice and zest of 1 large orange
2 tbsp silan
2 bay leaves
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1½-inch chunks
6 pitted Medjool dates, halved

Pat the roast completely dry. Season all over with the salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sear the roast for 4–5 minutes per side, until deeply browned on all sides. Transfer the roast to a plate.

Add the shallots, cut-side down, and cook for 4–5 minutes, until deeply golden. Add the garlic and baharat and cook over medium heat until fragrant. Add the tomato paste to the pot and saute for 2 minutes, stirring, until the tomato paste darkens and begins to caramelize.

Pour in the red wine, scraping up all the browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Simmer for 2–3 minutes. Add the stock, orange juice, orange zest, and silan. Stir well. Return the roast to the pot, along with the bay leaves and thyme. Cover tightly and transfer to a 325°F oven. Braise for 3 hours, or until fork tender.

Remove the pot from the oven and carefully nestle the butternut squash and dates around the roast, pushing some of the pieces down into the braising liquid. Raise the oven temperature to 350, cover and return to the oven for another 30 minutes or until the squash is soft but still holding its shape.

Transfer the roast to a cutting board and let it rest for 15–20 minutes. Remove the bay leaves and thyme stems. If the sauce is thinner than you’d like, remove the squash and dates and simmer it uncovered on the stovetop for 5–10 minutes until glossy and slightly reduced.

Taste and adjust the seasoning. You can add another teaspoon or two of silan if you want a slightly sweeter finish.

Slice the roast against the grain and arrange it on a large platter with the shallots, butternut squash, and dates.

Related Recipes:

Baharat Pumpkin Butter
Baharat Roasted Spatchcock chicken With Tzimmes

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How do you put love into a sandwich?


For my daughter, Esther, who left for seminary yesterday.

How do you put love into a sandwich?
How do you have it say I’ll miss you more than words
Not because of how you help me every Friday
Peeling the potatoes or making the basil dip
Not because you take your sister to the library after school
Or because you babysit when I’m out
and make chocolate chip cookies for late night snacking

How do you have it say I’ll miss you because
You light up the family chat
and you’re my favorite concert buddy
I’ll miss how your eyes light up when you try a new dish that I made
Or when You surprise me with an amazing word at Boggle
I’ll miss your sarcasm
and how you always know the right thing to say

How do you put a prayer in a sandwich?
For everything I ever wanted for myself I want for you and more
To show you that even more than I’ll miss you,
I want you to have this opportunity for yourself to learn and grow
and realize just how amazing you are
and to give the world a chance to experience it too.

 

How to put love in a sandwich

2 slices whole grain sourdough
extra virgin olive oil
flaky salt
arugula
sour pickles, sliced into strips

Meat:
1 lb. London Broil
extra virgin olive oil
Montreal steak seasoning

Rub the steak with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning. Broil or grill over high heat for 6-8 minutes on each side. Rest for 10 minutes and slice thinly against the grain.

Marinated Onion:
1 small red onion, thinly sliced into half moons
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Mix and marinate for as long as you have!

Sundried Tomato Mustard:
3-4 sundried tomatoes packed in olive oil, minced
1/4 cup whole grain mustard

Mix!

To assemble:
Toast the sourdough in a pan with olive until crispy on both sides. Sprinkle with flaky salt. Smear with sundried tomato mustard, and then pile high with arugula, pickled onions, pickles, and meat!

Related Recipes:

The BEST Meat Sandwich

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The Lamb Chop That Converted a Lamb Hater

I have never been a lamb person, and if you’ve been here for a bit, you probably know that. The two single foods I have an aversion to? Lamb and goat cheese, and for similar reason – they taste like barn. Yup. BARN. Like one of my followers said: it tastes like licking a barn wall.

I get it. I really REALLY do.

Then, last week at my Busy at the Belvedere pop-up, something happened. One might call it a nightmare. My boss delivered a box of lamb chops to the restaurant, and said, “I want you to use this for your appetizer of the week next week.” I had already decided to make cherries the star ingredient of the week’s menu, and it made for a natural pairing. But how could I cook something I would never actually eat?

So I decided to get out of my comfort zone and cook a lamb dish that I WOULD WANT TO EAT. And that meant figuring out exactly what I didn’t like about lamb and finding a way to change it.

The answer, at least for me, was in the marinade.

I seasoned the lamb with garlic, lemon zest, cumin, celery seed, olive oil, salt and pepper and let it marinate for several hours. The lemon and garlic brighten the meat, the cumin adds warmth, and the celery seed brings in a subtle, savory herbal note.

And the celery seed wasn’t there by accident. I wanted the lamb to have a flavor connection to the celery root purée and the fresh celery salad on the plate. Celery seed is incredibly concentrated compared to fresh celery. It has a deeper, earthier, slightly grassy flavor with a faint anise-like quality. Used sparingly, it gives the lamb a subtle celery backbone without making it taste like you dumped celery salt all over it. It also happens to be a great spice for rich meats. Its herbal, slightly bitter character helps balance the richness of lamb and gives the marinade another layer of savory depth.

And no, celery seed doesn’t magically remove the gaminess from lamb or tenderize it. The marinade isn’t performing some kind of culinary exorcism. The salt, aromatics, lemon and spices, combined with proper cooking, are what helped create a more balanced flavor.

Most importantly, it worked. I liked the lamb. Actually, I really REALLY liked the lamb.

The chops were juicy and deeply flavorful without having that aggressive gaminess I had always associated with lamb. The cherries brought sweetness and acidity, the celery root purée was silky and earthy, the fresh celery kept everything bright, and the pistachios added crunch.

I had managed to make a lamb dish that I would actually want to eat. And that got me thinking about food aversions in general.

I recently heard that when babies are introduced to a new food, it can take as many as 18 exposures before they decide whether they like it. Eighteen! We expect a baby to taste broccoli once, spit it out, and somehow make a lifelong determination about broccoli. Yet as adults, we do exactly that.

We try something once. Maybe we have a bad experience. Maybe it was poorly prepared. Maybe we tasted it at the wrong age or simply weren’t ready for it. And then we declare: “I don’t like that.” We write foods off all the time.

Now, I’m not suggesting you force yourself to eat something you genuinely hate 18 times. Life is too short for that. But I do think there’s something to be said for being willing to try again. Because sometimes you don’t hate the ingredient. You hate the way it was prepared. Sometimes you haven’t found the right combination. And sometimes, apparently, you just need to cook the lamb yourself.

This dish was my experiment in doing exactly that. I took an ingredient I had avoided for years and built a plate around flavors I already knew I loved: cherries, celery, pistachios, lemon and herbs. And somewhere between the first bite and the last, I realized I had officially converted myself.

Maybe I’m not a lamb hater after all. Maybe I just needed the right lamb chop.

Marinated Lamb Chops

8-10 lamb chops, 1–1½ inches thick
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried thyme (may sub rosemary)
1/2 tsp celery seed
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
½ tsp black pepper
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, grated on a microplane
Zest of 1 lemon

Mix the celery seed, cumin, thyme, salt, pepper, olive oil, garlic and lemon zest. Massage the mixture into the lamb chops. Cover and refrigerate for several hours.

Grill the chops for 2 minutes per side and finish in the oven for 2-3 minutes or until medium rare.

Celery Root Purée

2 lb celery root, peeled and cut into chunks
1 leek, white and pale green part, chopped
2 celery stalks, diced small
1 small shallot, diced small
2 tbsp olive oil
1½–2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
salt and pepper, to taste

Sweat the shallot, leek and celery in olive oil over medium-low heat without browning.

Add the celery root, salt and enough stock to almost cover. Simmer gently, covered, until completely tender, about 20–25 minutes. Blend the vegetables until extremely smooth.

For restaurant service, pass the purée through a chinois or fine sieve. You want it smooth enough to swipe across the plate without breaking.

Cherry-Celery Salsa

2 cups fresh cherries, pitted and diced
1-2 stalks celery, finely diced
1 small shallot (or 1/2 small red onion), finely diced
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp honey
1 tsp sumac
salt and pepper, to taste

Mix and dress shortly before serving.

Red Wine Cherry Reduction

3 cups fresh cherries, pitted
1 large shallot, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp lamb fat (or olive oil)
½ cup red wine
1½ cups lamb or beef stock
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper, to taste

Sweat the shallot and garlic in lamb fat until soft but not browned. Add the cherries and simmer for 8 minutes, stirring often. Add the red wine and reduce by about half. Add the stock, honey and thyme. Simmer until the cherries are very soft and the liquid has reduced to a glossy sauce consistency.

Blend in a high powered blender and strain through a fine mesh sieve.

Pistachio-Sumac Crumble

1 cup chopped raw pistachios, toasted
2 tbsp flaky salt
2 tbsp sumac
zest of 1 lemon

Stir to combine.

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Sweet Heat & Herbs Chicken

It’s been a busy week here so no words of wisdom, just a delicious pan of chicken! Love y’all!

Sweet Heat & Herbs Chicken

6 pieces bone-in chicken
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup honey
2-3 tbsp harissa
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp sweet paprika
2 cloves garlic, minced
Zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup capers
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup parsley, chopped

Method:

Read the oven to 375°. Place the chicken in a baking dish, Season with salt and pepper. Mix the paste ingredients in a bowl and spread over the chicken. Cover with foil and bake for one hour. Uncover, raise the oven temperature to 425° and bake for 20 to 30 minutes, basting occasionally.

Related Recipes:

Honey Harissa Corn Ribs with Preserved Lemon Labneh
Crispy Rice Salad with Harissa & Preserved Lemon Dressing
Apricot Harissa Chicken
Maple Harissa Sweet Potato Wedges

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