welcome friends welcome back to our kitchen for the stuff in our cupboard
series pandemic edition today I'm going to make a riff on a braciole recipe I really
love braciole and I found to freezer-burnt flank steaks deep in our freezer and I
wanted to use them up so I used one a little while ago in a pasta sauce and
today I've decided I am gonna try to make a braciole with what I have and it's
gonna be sort of a make-do situation but I'm sure it's gonna be fine so in here I
put some bread crumbs and that's bread crumbs left over from our homemade bread
the no need bread just added some parmesan which I normally put in I've
got pecorino I don't normally put pecorino in but I
didn't have enough parm so I'm gonna mix those two and see what happens normally
I would use fresh basil um I don't have any so dry basil it is and a little bit
of black pepper so these are the ingredients I'm working with for the
stuffing and I'm just gonna whiz these together okay looks good so how are you
guys doing it is April 2020 we're still going through these social distancing
measures here in Canada the grocery stores are sort of coming back but I
gotta tell you shopping is a bit of a pain in the ass right now long lines
because they're only letting so many people into the store which is a good
thing but you really have to you really have to plan and think about what you're
buying and make sure that you're not making a wasted trip because you may end
up in that line and not find what you're looking for which is really kind of
strange cuz you know we've just came out of a period where you could buy anything
you wanted any time you want it but you know we'll get through it and if you're
having trouble getting through it please call somebody if you need someone to
give you a hand to buy stuff just pick up the phone and and ask somebody for
help you know if you're going through difficult times just pick up the phone
and call somebody there's always someone out there who is going to be able to
help you okay so I'm just going to slice off the worst of the freezer burnt
the really dried bits I don't want them in the Brazil and there's just a little
bit on the surface and just take your time with the butterflying it doesn't
have to be perfect you know if you can sort of cut it in half you've you've
done a good job okay I'm not too great with my butterflying
I don't do it that often don't worry if it's not perfect it will be fine
so I'm gonna get rid of this freezer burnt steak wash my hands and then we'll
move on now I would normally put mozzarella in here in the spirit of
making do I had some ricotta so I'm gonna put that in I just wanted a melty
cheese something that would you know kind of bring all of the other things
together as a almost as a binder so I don't need much just a couple of
spoonfuls and I'm gonna rub that in and
then we put the filling on and I've probably made way too much filling for
this size steak this recipe really is for a larger piece of meat now I'm gonna
put the extra bread crumbs into the sauce so there's no cross-contamination
here everything's going to get cooked at the same time don't worry okay now roll
this up
and a little bit of butcher twine one two three pull it tight one two three
never gonna release now this flank steak was pretty small so I'm just going to
use this small brazier you could do it in any Dutch oven any pot that is oven
safe that has a lid because we're gonna braise this once it's once it's all
fried up so this is hot we are just going to brown off the outside of the
flank steak just to get a little bit of color on it and you'll notice I've cut
off the ends of the butcher twine you don't want it to butcher twine hanging
out and you just want to turn it to sear all the sides build up some nice color
in the bottom of the pan and I think that's good so I'm going to pull that
out and set it aside and in I'm gonna put an onion and half a red pepper now I
wouldn't normally put in a red pepper usually I'd put in mushrooms I don't
have mushrooms what God is half of a red pepper and I wanted to add something
just a little bit more to the onion so I thought I'd go ahead and put it in see
what happens I think it'll be fine and we just want to soften those onions a
little bit and they're pretty much there so next I've got some tomato paste
and I'm gonna put that in and let that fry it a little bit with the onions
I'll just stir that around just to caramelize it a little bit now normally
I'd put in red pepper flakes or peperoncino I'm out I don't have any so
I've got our own hot pickled peppers that we've pickled last summer
using the peppers in our garden so I'm going to throw one of those in whole and
I'm gonna pour in some red wine it'll just be glaze the pan smells wonderful
so I'm gonna put the flank steak back in in the middle I've got a can of tomatoes
and I'm just gonna pour those in just all around it this is the leftover
stuffing now put that in as well and everything that was left on the cutting
board get that in there too okay throw on a
lid so the oven is preheated to 300 degrees Fahrenheit I'm gonna put this in
and I'm gonna let it braise see you in a bit whoa that smells great so he not
real brittle oh it's a bridge all using what we had okay so it's a pretty tiny
piece of oh pretty tiny piece of flank steak and the thing is really it's that
the sauce the sauce that you know tomorrow will be fantastic for pasta or
just putting over bread so it's just once again any carb you've got feel free
to put it on there look at that pretty good so it's okay jewel so I'll just
I'll just cut this up you taste yep you don't even need to I don't even need a
plate I'm just gonna take my fork in take that one perfect so flavors great
mm-hmm I like the UM I like the cheese and the whole
and and go ahead finish your story and then I've got a question for you the
meat is a little bit tougher it's Dewey yeah then you would expect it's not
tough yeah you're right it's chewy but not like it's not yes not difficult it's
just you notice that you're chewing it a little bit more but it's incredibly
flavorful there's so much flavor going on in there so the cheese the cheese
doesn't taste like the standard cheese that I'm accustomed to so tell me more
so I put in parmesan and I put in pecorino oh and I would usually put in
mozzarella but we didn't have any so we had ricotta
so are you oh I put in a swearing of ricotta because it melts it and it would
keep it all together pull it all together cuz otherwise you'd end up with
chunks of things yeah so you know I made a bunch of substitutions because we had
to deal with what we've got the reality those four if you if you substitute well
in something that's similar it's fine it's fine it just doesn't taste like
what you think is supposed to be that recipe it's a whole new recipe it is it
is but it it's just as good mm-hmm it's just a little bit different and through
those happy accidents you know like Bob Ross said wonderful things happen all
right happy little access a little accidents and you're I want a little
cloud great a little cloud comes you have a little cloud and then you've got
this great sauce and so you can serve this sauce over whatever you're eating
with it you could have rice you could have potatoes you get a pasta and you
have that sauce tomorrow on rice potatoes your pasta and it's
absolutely incredible there you go so two meals so don't be afraid to make
substitutions if you have a dish that you really want to make and you don't
have some of the stuff just it'll work think about what its role is in the
recipe and find a substitute that works yeah you got this Thanks stopping by
stay safe stay healthy see you again soon
you