A Three Course January Picnic with Friends

Paper-Thin Rare Roast Beef with Balsamic Drizzle and Roasted Red Peppers and Arugula

Potato Pie

Macerated Tomato Salad

Giant Sea Salted Oatmeal Cookies with Fig Jam and Goat Cheese

 

 Rare Roast Beef with Roasted Red Peppers and Arugula

This is so easy, and so tasty, it is unbelievable.  It is basically just assembling quality ingredients and serving. The HEB in our tiny town carries house roasted rare roast beef in their Deli case.  I ask them to slice it extra thin (a #1 on their scale of thickness which is about 1mm) and to please not crumple it, but treat it as they would prosciutto and stack it with parchment paper between each slice.

Fire roasted, jarred red peppers are readily available everywhere these days. Buy a quality brand and dice the peppers yourself.

A good quality olive oil is essential—and Maldon salt can’t be beat as a finishing salt. As far as balsamic vinegars go, try to stay away from the giant bulk bottles sold at large discount stores, and instead look for small bottles of aged vinegar that are also readily available and do not cost the earth. Several brands are Terra Verde from Texas Olive Oil Company in Dripping Springs, Texas, Balsamic Vinegars of Modena from Oliviers & Company (online), and an aged Alessi which is available at upscale grocery stores.

Rare Roast Beef with Roasted Red Peppers and Arugula

Serves 4

• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• ½ teaspoon coarse kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for sprinkling
• 4 cups baby arugula
• ½ cup diced roasted red peppers
• 12 thin slices rare roast beef
• Maldon sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

 

Dressing: In a small bowl combine first 4 ingredients. Dressing can be made in advance.  Refrigerate, bringing to room temperature before serving.

Salad: In a medium bowl, toss the arugula and roasted red peppers with approximately 2 tablespoons of the dressing.  Set aside.

To serve: Arrange 3 of the roast beef slices, slightly overlapping if necessary, on individual plates. Sprinkle with Maldon salt and use a pepper mill to grind additional pepper over all. Drizzle with the remaining dressing, dividing evenly. Mound some of the arugula salad in the center of each plate, and serve.

For a picnic:

Dressing:

Prepare dressing a day ahead and place in a small screw-top jar. Remove from the refrigerator about an hour before you leave for the picnic.

Beef

Several hours before you leave on your picnic arrange beef on 4 individual dinner plates, cover beef with a round of parchment, stacking plates on top of each other and then wrap all four plates in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate till it is time to leave for the picnic and then pack in an insulated container for transport. Proceed with the directions above.

Salad

The day before the picnic, pack arugula and roasted red peppers in separate containers and refrigerate. Before you leave for the picnic remove from the refrigerator and pack in an insulated container.

To serve

Once at the picnic, toss the arugula and red pepper with the dressing. Remove the plastic wrapping and parchment rounds from the plates containing the beef. Sprinkle with Maldon salt, grind pepper over and drizzle balsamic over beef. Mound some of the arugula salad in the middle of each plate.

Note:  The beef should be tender enough that you do not need a knife, but to be safe, pack knives for each person.

Potato Pie

Nothing is better and more comforting than the richness of buttery potatoes seasoned liberally with salt and pepper, coated with thyme scented cream and encased in flaky pastry crust, this entrée is decadence upon decadence upon decadence. But amazingly enough, a serving has less than 500 calories.

The potato pie is totally transportable, good hot or at room temperature, and leftovers the next day are heaven!

Potato Pie

Serves 8

Pie Crust

• 1 cup butter (2 sticks), cubed and chilled
• 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 8 to 10 tablespoons ice water

 

Filling

• 4 strips thick sliced bacon
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• ⅔ – ¾ cup heavy cream
• 3 baking potatoes (about 10 ounces each), peeled
• Coarse kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• ½ cup grated Gruyere cheese

 

Pie Crust: Place flour and salt in the food processor, pulsing lightly to blend.  Add butter and pulse till butter is the size of peas.  Drizzle in water, pulsing briefly after each addition. Keep adding water until the dough just begins to gather into larger clumps. Dump out mixture onto a lightly floured silicone pastry mat, and form into one large ball. Divide the ball in two pieces, shaping each into a flat round. Wrap with plastic and refrigerate for one hour.

NOTE: Prepare the filling while the dough rests.

Remove 1 of the rounds to a floured Silicone Pastry Mat. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to round large enough to fit into a 9-inch pie pan with a tiny overhang. Gently fit the rolled dough into a pie pan, and refrigerate while you prepare the filling.

Note: Because I don’t trust anything not to stick (Murphy’s Law is always at work around my house) I spray the pie pan with Pam.

Filling: Preheat the oven to 375°F. Place a large rimmed cookie sheet on the middle rack of the oven.

In a skillet over medium heat, cook the bacon until crisp. Drain well on paper towels. When cool, either chop or crumble the bacon.

In a small saucepan, heat the thyme and cream over low heat to a bare simmer. Turn off the heat and let steep for 30 minutes. Remove the thyme sprigs.

Using a mandolin, slice the potatoes in 2mm rounds. Remove the pie crust from the refrigerator, and arrange the potato slices in concentric circles on the refrigerated crust. Season the layer generously with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Sprinkle the layer with a quarter of the chopped bacon. Repeat the process until all of the potatoes have been used. (You should not have more than 4 layers, 5 at the very most.) Top the potatoes with a layer of grated cheese and gently pour the cream over the entire pie. Do not overfill with the cream, ⅔ cup may be all that is needed.

Gently brush a small amount of water on the edge of the pie dough in the pan. Roll out the remaining round of refrigerated dough, then cover the pie with the dough, leaving a ½ – ¾ inch overhang, folding the top layers edge over and under the edge of the bottom layer. Crimp the edges. With a sharp knife cut 4 somewhat large and 4 small slits in the top crust in a decorative pattern.  Place the pie pan on the hot aluminum baking sheet in the oven. Bake the pie until the crust is browned and crisp and the potatoes are cooked through, about 50 to 60 minutes. (Test doneness with a sharp knife in one of the large slits.) Remove the pie from the oven and let rest on a wire rack 15 – 30 minutes before cutting into wedges and serving.

Macerated Tomato Salad

Macerated Tomato Salad

Serves 4

• 1-pound Campari tomatoes
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon red-wine vinegar
• 8 fresh mint leaves, sliced thin
• ½ small red onion sliced lengthwise
• 4 handfuls baby lettuce mix

 

Slice onion crosswise into very thin half circles. Soak in a combination of ice water and red wine vinegar for 30 minutes.

In a small bowl combine the sugar and the salt. Set aside.

Cut the tomatoes into ½ inch-thick slices and arrange in two to three layers in a shallow round glass dish. Sprinkle each layer with the sugar/salt mixture and some of the thinly sliced mint.

Mix together olive oil and red-wine vinegar and drizzle the tomatoes with the mixture. Cover and let the tomatoes stand at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.

Drain the onion slices.

Divide the lettuce between 4 plates, top with the sliced tomatoes and sprinkle with the drained onions.

For a picnic:

Keep onions in ice-cold liquid till you get to the picnic spot.

Cover the glass dish containing the tomatoes with a secure lid or seal with plastic wrap.  It is fine if the tomatoes macerate for a few hours.  Use a large fork or slotted spoon to lift them out of their liquid and proceed as above.

 

Giant Salted Oat Cookies with Soft Goat Cheese and Fig Jam

This is the perfect picnic dessert, or a perfect anytime dessert for that matter. Crispy. Creamy. Tangy. Salty. Sweet. The giant Salted Oat Cookies are a snap to make.  Everything is done in the food processor, dumped into a bowl and scooped out with an ice cream scoop. You can purchase fig preserves and add grated orange zest and a bit of orange juice, but if figs are in season, try the recipe below. There is a wide variety of goat cheese at grocery stores these days, and everyone has their opinion as to which one is best.  I like to use Montchevre available at HEB.  This company was founded in 1988 by Michel Betin, Jacqueline Brassier, Arnaud Solandt and Jean Rossard. It is now the leading goat cheese manufacturer in the US.

• 8 ounces goat cheese at room temperature
• Fig Jam
• Giant Salted Oat Cookies

 Fig Jam

• Zest of two large Navel oranges
• ½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 3 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
• 2 pounds fresh (not overly ripe) ripe Mission or purple figs

 

Cut figs in half lengthwise, then cut each half in thirds.

Place the orange zest and orange juice in a 5-quart heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven. Add the sugar, vanilla bean, and figs to the pot. Cover and bring to a full boil over medium heat. Stir the boiling mixture for 1 minute until sugar dissolves.

Lower the heat, and at a full simmer, cook the mixture uncovered for 1 hour (it may take a bit longer depending on the intensity of the simmer), stirring occasionally. After 45 minutes, refrigerate a small amount of the liquid to see if it becomes syrupy like a freshly opened jar of unrefrigerated, purchased fruit preserve.

Continue cooking just until the liquid starts to gel when cold. If the liquid is too firm, add extra orange juice, cooking for a minute, and test it again. Discard the vanilla bean and refrigerate till ready to use.

Note: If jam seems too thick when ready to serve, thin with a little additional orange juice.

 

Giant Salted Oatmeal Cookies

Makes 18 cookies

• 3 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ pound cold unsalted butter
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ cup lukewarm water
• Coarse sea salt

 Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper. Cut two additional sheets of parchment the same size as the sheet pans.

Halve both sticks of butter lengthwise, then cut halves in half lengthwise. Slice in large dice. Place the oats, flour, brown sugar, and kosher salt in a food processor fitted with the steel blade and pulse until the oats are coarsely ground. Add the butter and pulse until the butter is the size of peas.

Dissolve the baking soda in the lukewarm water and drizzle it over the crumbs in the food processor. Pulse until the mixture is evenly moistened and when pressed will hold together.

Scoop 2 tablespoons of dough (approximately 18 scoops) dividing them between the two cookie sheets.  An ice cream scoop works great for this.

Evenly space 9 balls on the prepared sheet pans. Place another sheet of parchment paper over the cookie balls in each pan.  Use a flat round heavy object that is a least 3” in diameter to flatten each ball into a round no thicker than 1/8 inch. The cookies will have jagged edges and be a bit rustic.

Spray the top of the cookies lightly with Pam and sprinkle with coarse sea salt, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Store in airtight container until ready to use. These cookies will stay crisp for several days.

Note: Norpro 2-tablespoon scoop is available on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Norpro-703-Grip-EZ-2-Tablespoon-Stainless/dp/B000SSVRYM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1517277393&sr=8-3&keywords=2+tablespoon+ice+cream+scoop