Category: Meats

Mrs. Heins’ Barley Hot Dish

A few years ago I bought a used cookbook published in 1962 by the Ladies Aid of the Eidskog Church in Ortonville, Minnesota. Ortonville is a small city in western Minnesota founded by Cornelius Knute Orton and incorporated in 1881. Four years later, Scandinavian immigrants in the area began worshipping together in their new church. Services were conducted in Norwegian until 1942.

Like many churches in rural areas, Eidskog experienced shrinking membership in the past few decades. Finally, after 130 years of serving their congregants and community, the church was forced to close. Hoping that the church furnishings could continue to be used by another congregation, Eidskog advertised in The Lutheran that it was closing and wanted to contribute items to any interested church.

The ad caught the eye of Dick Jackson, a member of a new congregation in River Falls, Wisconsin, that was planning a church building. Jackson and his wife met with people from Eidskog and recommended that Hope Lutheran Church accept the generous gift offered by the Eidskog congregation. The River Falls Journal published the story on November 11, 2015. Today, Hope Lutheran is a vibrant congregation with kitchen equipment and even the pews from the church built 130 years ago by those immigrants on the prairie.

I treasure the cookbook put together by the Ladies Aid of that old church. There are eighteen sections in the book, each headed by a verse from the Bible. The last two sections are not recipes but rather useful notes for housewives. “Stain Removal” includes a tip for removing cod liver oil stains, which brought back a memory of dodging the spoon when Mom dosed us with that nasty stuff from the brown bottle. “Household Hints” is organized as a series of “Did you know” questions, and I may test the one suggesting “That hamburger fried in ketchup gives it a barbecue flavor.”

Many of the recipes remind me of potlucks of long ago, and not all of the memories are pleasant. For example, there are seventeen recipes for salads made with Jello or gelatin including the infamous Jello Carrot Salad. However, even the salad section has lots of recipes I would like to try, and as might be expected in a Lutheran Ladies Aid cookbook, the hot dish section is loaded with intriguing possibilities.

One that tempted me used barley instead of the noodles or rice so often found in potluck dishes. I hesitated to try it when I saw that one ingredient was a can of green peas, but I am glad I made it. The barley lends a satisfying texture missing from rice or noodles, and the combination of vegetables is delicious. You might want to make it for the next potluck you attend. If you think “hot dish” is too pedestrian, you could call it Beef and Vegetable Stew, since that is what it’s like.

INGREDIENTS:

2 tsp. shortening
1 1/2 lbs. lean ground beef (at least 85% lean)
1 small onion (2 to 2 1/2 inches in diameter)
1 large or 2 medium ribs of celery
3/4 cup pearl barley
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 green bell pepper (about 3 inches in diameter)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can green peas
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2 – 3 T water

PROCEDURE:

Coat a large skillet with the shortening and cook the ground beef over moderate heat until it is no longer pink. While the meat is cooking, clean and chop the onion into a quarter-inch dice and the celery into half-inch pieces.

Preheat the oven to 375º and lightly grease a three quart casserole.

Add the onion, celery and barley to the meat along with the salt and pepper and continue cooking for about five minutes. Wash the pepper, cut it into quarters and remove the seeds and white membrane. Chop the pepper into a half to three-quarter-inch dice.

If the skillet is large enough, add the pepper, tomatoes, peas and the can of mushroom soup to the meat mixture. If it is not, combine everything in a large mixing bowl. Rinse out the cans with two or three tablespoons of water, stir everything together and spoon the mixture into a three-quart casserole.

Cover and bake for 1 1/2 hours.

NOTES: This recipe is from a Lutheran cookbook. Feel free to add a little more salt and pepper or even a few drops of hot sauce if you prefer a spicier dish.

Do not drain the vegetables, as you want the flavor and liquid in the dish.

Finally, a sincere thank you to Mrs. Heins for her recipe and to all her friends who worked so hard at Eidskog and in so many other churches to share their favorite recipes with latecomers like me.

Grilled Rib Eye Steaks

Nearly sixty years have passed since I cooked my first rib eye steaks on a charcoal grill. I had bought them with money I earned from working at the local radio station, WHSM, as a treat for my family. I had taken my Christmas Ball date to the the Blue Heron supper club where we had both enjoyed our steaks, so my motive was perhaps not entirely altruistic.

Alas, my version of charcoal-grilled rib eye steak was not quite as appetizing as the chef’s medium rare steaks brought to our table by an envious waiter. They were so tender you could almost cut them with a table knife and bright pink on the inside with attractive criss-cross char marks on the outside. A pat of butter melting over each steak made it clear that we were having a gourmet dinner.

My first attempt at grilling rib eye steaks convinced me that I had much to learn. I had to fetch paring knives for cutting them. They were the same gray inside as my mother’s pot roast but with the texture of a leather-soled boot. Instead of criss-cross char marks, each steak was a uniform black on both sides. I did put a pat of butter on each one, but even with that elegant touch, the only reason the steaks got eaten was my father’s rule that “You eat what’s put in front of you.”

Except for an unfortunate attempt to grill some bear meat, I confined myself mostly to grilling less challenging meats like hot dogs, chicken legs and hamburgers until long after I was married.

Once married, we managed to dine quarterly or at least semi-annually at a supper club serving decent steaks, so my enthusiasm for a tender rib eye was regularly satisfied. We also were fortunate in having friends who knew how to grill steaks. Unfortunately we were all chronically short of funds, so “tube steaks” were more often served than meat chopped off the loin of a steer. However, Alan cooked some fine steaks in Virginia as did John in Kentucky and Earl in Wisconsin.

It was Earl who taught me the three really important things to remember when grilling a rib eye or other good steak. First, rub it with a judicious amount of seasoning you like; second, have a really hot fire; and third, adjust the cooking time according to the thickness of the steak. To those three I add a fourth: When you spread the charcoal, add a few pieces of apple, maple or cherry wood to give the meat a hint of smoke flavor.

Many of our guests compliment me on the steaks, so we must be doing something right. Of course, it might be that my inability to get dinner done on time is the explanation. As Socrates is supposed to have observed 2,500 years ago, “The best sauce for food is hunger.”

I think, however, that if you follow the guidelines listed above, you will wow your diners with some fine rib eye steaks.

INGREDIENTS:

As many steaks as you need, 3/4 to 1 inch in thickness
Your preferred steak rub or seasoning

PROCEDURE:

Remove the steaks from the refrigerator thirty minutes before starting the charcoal to let them come to room temperature. Make a mound of charcoal large enough to provide at least two inches of coals below the steaks. Light the charcoal.

Rub the steaks on both sides with your preferred rub.

When the mound of charcoal is eighty percent gray, spread the coals in a circle large enough to accommodate the steaks. Sprinkle the wood or wood chips around the coals. Put the grill over the charcoal. Use a damp paper towel to remove any foreign materials from the grill, then arrange the steaks over the charcoal.

If the steaks are three-quarters of an inch thick, turn the steaks after three minutes. Turn them again after three and a half minutes and remove them from the grill.

If the steaks are an inch thick, turn the steaks after four minutes. Turn them after four and a half minutes and remove them from the heat.

Your steaks should be medium-rare.

Serve with baked potatoes, kasha or pilaf.

NOTE: Be careful not to use too much seasoning. An eighth teaspoon is plenty for each side of a three quarter-inch thick steak and a bit more for the thicker steaks.

If you want your steak medium well done, add one minute to the cooking time for each side. Don’t even think about well-done.

Incidentally, here are the steaks before I grilled them. Note the light seasoning. The bottom one is the finished steak in the photo at the top of the post.