Farsumagru Saia

            This is another dish I tailored to accompany a fine wine. I found this pairing to be particularly beguiling. The Farsumagu is scrumptiously divine by itself, but is enhanced by the spectacular sauce designed to stand up to the intensity of SAIA Nero d'Avola!

            Nero d'Avola is a grape grown in Sicily which produces a dry red wine, sort of like Chianti on steroids, if you'll pardon the non-wine terminology. SAIA is produced by Antonio Moretti on the estate Feudo Maccari in the extreme Southeastern tip of Sicily. See the red blob on the map. The volcanic soil and cooler sea breezes produce an interesting grape which is hand-harvested and after a long maceration on the skins and fermentation, is aged for 15 months in Oak. The result is a deeply colored and voluptuous wine. This wine needs to be carefully decanted for at least a few hours, and will gain in nuance as the evening progresses (if it lasts that long!).

Saia Nero d'Avola

            Interestingly, one side of my Mother's family has the name: Saia, although they emigrated from Cefalú well over a century ago. I circled Cefalú on the map to show that it is nowhere near the estate of this wine. As I researched "Saia", I discovered that the name is an ancient Arab word for the viaducts built to hold water during the scorching summer months. I never knew that! Now to the dish:

            Farsumagru is simply a roulade of meat with a savory filling. There are many incarnations of it, since it is found all over Sicily. Often made with veal, I chose to use beef to achieve a deeper flavor. The stuffing is the key here. Traditionally we would expect a certain few ingredients and then additional support. The customary fill is hard cooked eggs, sausage and Caciocavallo cheese. I have enhanced that with ham, olive paste and a few minced mushrooms. The Farsumagru will braise in sautéed onion, ham, mushrooms, carrots, beef stock, tomato paste and our Saia Nero d'Avola wine, with a few sprigs of rosemary and parsley. After braising, we'll strain the liquid and add it to a roux of equal parts butter and flour. We will favor this gravy with a splash of Marsala and a tablespoon of butter. Then we will slice the roulade and place it on a bed of couscous and cover with the gravy.

            The photo of the ingredients shows round steak in the foreground and then from left to right: Mushrooms, Parsley, a Sausage patty (my homemade Italian Sausage), sprigs of Rosemary, hard cooked Egg ready for slicing, about ¼ pound of Ham, a Carrot, large Vidalia Onion, Tomato paste, Couscous and Pecorino cheese. To the right are ingredients for a simple salad: Radishes, Capocollo Ham, smoked Caciocavallo cheese, Lettuce and for the dressing, Lemon and the finest Olive Oil.

            A word about the cheese: Caciocavallo will be very difficult to find. In fact, the cheese store that sometimes carries it around here only had smoked caciocavallo the day I shopped for this dish. That's pretty good, but I didn't want the smoked flavor in the filling, so I replaced it with a Pecorino (sheep's) cheese. While caciocavallo is a Sicilian cow's cheese, it has a sharp pungency not unlike a pecorino cheese. I bought the smoked cheese anyway and used it in my salad!

            Special Note: I'm sure anybody can roll and tie a piece of meat better than I. My wife Sandy was always in charge of this, since I am so inept. I apologize ahead of time!

Ingredients:

       For the Farsumagu

            1 thin piece of Round Steak (braciole cut)... mine was less than 1/2 pound

           ¼ lb. Ham (ham steak has a better flavor, but deli ham would do in a pinch)

            1 Italian Sausage (if you use a link, remove from casing)

            ½ large Onion

            2 cups Beef Stock

            1 medium Carrot

            6 small Mushrooms

            1 hard cooked Egg

            1 raw Egg

            about ¼ cup Breadcrumbs

            Olive Paste

            ¼ lb. Caciocavallo (or a meltable pecorino) cheese

            1 Tbs Tomato Paste

            ¼ cup Red Wine

            1 Bay leaf

            3 sprigs each fresh Rosemary and Parsley

            ½ cup Couscous

            ¼ cup Pecorino Romano cheese, grated

            Butter

           Splash Marsala wine (Porto or Sherry would work, but this is Sicily!)

            Salt, Pepper and Savory

Method:

1       Gently pound round steak to make an even oval shape and thickness.

Beginning the filling

2       Sauté ¼ onion (small dice) and 3 mushrooms (small dice) in regular extra-virgin olive oil. Meanwhile, mince half the ham and the sausage and place in a medium bowl. When the sauté is finished, add to the bowl. Season with a little salt, pepper and a pinch of Savory. After this cools a little, mix in a beaten egg and enough breadcrumbs to bring together.

Ready for rolling!

3     Lightly coat the beef with Olive Paste. Place sliced hard cooked eggs in a line on the Paste. Then spread the ham filling over this, and finally top with chopped cheese. Carefully roll and tie the meat.

4       Preheat oven to 350 F.  Warm a casserole with 1 Tbs each Butter and Olive Oil. Carefully brown the rolled meat on all sides. Get some good color on it. Meanwhile, chop ½ the carrot, remaining 3 mushrooms and remaining ham into larger dice. 

                                          

        When meat has browned, remove it and then add the chopped ingredients to casserole, browning them and scraping up all the browned bits into the mixture. (A splash of brandy can help here.)

        Now add the red wine and tomato paste and blend well. 

Red wine and Tomato Paste added

    Then add about 1¼ cups of the beef stock (you want to reserve about ¾ cup for the couscous). Place the beef roll on top of this sauce and add bay leaf and sprigs of rosemary and parsley. The casserole is now ready for the oven. 

Ready for Oven

       Cover and place in the 350 F oven for about 2 hours. After one hour, gently turn the roll onto its other side and add more liquid if it needed.

5       While the Farsumagru bakes, put the reserved stock into a small saucepan and add the remaining ½ carrot, chopped into very small dice. 

    

      Grate about ¼ cup of Pecorino Romano cheese and reserve. About 20 minutes before beef is done, bring stock and carrots to a gentle boil and cook, covered.

6     I had a salad and some garlic toast. This is the time to prepare salad ingredients and place in refrigerator to crisp up nicely. Squeeze about ¼ cup lemon juice and reserve for the dressing. For the toast, I mixed a small bowl of the finest Olive Oil and added some chopped garlic and a teaspoon of sea salt and mixed well. 

For Garlic Toast

         

     

        I cut my bread and placed it in the toaster, ready for toasting at the last minute.

7      When the meat is done, remove it to an ovenproof pan and cover meat with foil. Place it back into the turned-off oven to keep warm. 

         At this point add the couscous to the stock & carrots, turn off heat and cover.

8       Strain cooking liquid and reserve. Add about 1 Tbs each of soft butter and flour to the casserole over moderate heat and stir constantly, scraping up as much as you can. 

        After about 5 minutes, add the cooking liquid and mix well, making the gravy. After the gravy has come together, add a splash of Madera, if you wish, and a Tbs. of butter.

9       Turn on the toaster. Toss the salad with lemon juice and Olive oil and sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Add most of the Romano to the couscous and mix well. When toast is done, brush on the garlicked olive oil and sprinkle the remaining Romano over this.

10     Slice the Farsumagru into ¾" thick slices.

11     Spread the Couscous over the entire plate. Place Farsumagru slices, overlapping, down the center and cover both with lots of that wonderful gravy. Enjoy!! (I know you will... these flavors are great!)

12     Enjoy with Saia Nero d'Avola. If you can't find it, I would recommend Borolo or a fine Barbera d'Asti rather than a different Nero d'Avola, because these would be closer to the explosion of flavor found in Saia.

- Love Dave

Just an Experiment! Linguini & Clam Sauce

     This is not my June recipe. That'll be up in a couple of days. I was in a market Saturday during a big thunderstorm, trying to avoid going out into the rain. Wandering around to kill time, I chanced upon some fresh littleneck clams that looked really good. As I was going to be at a concert on Sunday, I decided that Sunday night would be perfect for Linguini and Clam Sauce, since it is so easy and fast to make. While I was preparing the meal, I took pictures of the various steps...I guess it's a habit now :) 

     Looking at the pictures I wondered if I could just show them, with minimally descriptive titles, instead of the usual recipe. This is probably only good for such uncomplex meals as this. Oh well, here goes. Enjoy!

Cleaned and Chilled

Cook in Butter and Wine

Removing Clam Meat

Final Batch Left in Shells

Beginning the Sauce

Add Strained Poaching Liquid

Toss Linguini and Clams in Sauce, add Parsley

     Well, that was almost as easy as making the meal. I picked up a pack of fresh linguini which cooks in just two minutes. Talk about fast food... and this with no chemicals or mystery meat!

- Dave

Pork Chops Teodoro

I named this dish for my Uncle Ted, whom you read about in an earlier blog post. It wasn't easy to create a dish to reflect him because he had so many gastronomical interests. So I gave up on that and just tried to picture him when he visited me or talked to me. Every year he would stop in and bring a large braided garlic chain when the season was over. Then he would always tell me that garlic could be used in unusual combinations but, he annually admonished me, never use too much!! So in that spirit, here is a simple dish (he would have liked that) using garlic and apple (he would have liked that) and named Pork Chops Teodoro. I guarantee he would not have liked that name, but I overrule him here because I like the sound of it :)

Regaleali

To add a little style to simple pork chops, I'll highlight two wines. The first will be our dinner wine, but about 1/4 cup of it will also be used to create a braising sauce. This wine is from Sicily and from the estate of the Tasca D'Almiritas, named Regaleali. Ironically, this is just a little way from the tiny town that both my grandparents on my Father's side emigrated from around the turn of the 20th century. This is an unusual white wine for Italy (I know, I know: Sicily is not Italy...just for now). Generally you expect Italian whites to be crisp and brittle (think Pinot Grigio: think it, don't drink it). But this Regaleali White is full and complex. A really enjoyable wine!

Jerez-Xéres-Sherry D.O.

The second wine will only be poured over just as you plate the dish. Use a little or a lot, whatever you can afford. This is Lustau's Pedro Ximénez sherry. If you've never had this sherry, you're in for quite a surprise. It's made from the Pedro Ximénez grapes and is a dark, very sweet and rich wine with hints of chocolate and figs. Its D.O. is in the Cadiz province of Andalusia. Pour some over ice cream and you can really sparkle up a dessert - seriously! It works perfectly as a sauce in this dish because it contrasts well with the spiciness of the Creole rub applied to the chops.

I chose to accompany the chops with a simple side of brown rice, but with some chili sauce added at the end of the cooking period. I happened to have some excellent home-canned chili sauce given to me by a dear friend (thanks Irene!).

Finally, I was treated to a visit from my granddaughter just as the meal was nearing completion, so she stayed to try it out. She loved every part of it! This was a little shocking to me because there was stuff here she doesn't generally like, such as "cooked fruit." So either this dish is a real winner, or that little girl is growing up and branching out. See what college will do!

the cook's martini is not required, but recommended

Ingredients:

2 boneless Pork Chops

1 firm-type Apple, peeled, cored and sliced into thick slices

1 Onion, roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic, split

1 Tablespoon Ketchup

Any spicy Rub for chops

fine Flour for chops

1/4 cup White Wine

Pedro Ximénez Sherry

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

2 Tablespoons Butter

Brown Rice, for two

1 Tablespoon Butter

1/4 cup Chili Sauce

Equipment:

1 large heavy-bottomed fry pan (not teflon)

1 Oven-safe casserole pan

1 small saucepan for the rice

"coring" garlic

Method:

1      Dry the chops and rub with a spicy seasoning. I used a commercial Creole product that's pretty good. Then dredge them in a fine pan-searing flour. Chop the onions into big chunks. Split the garlic cloves. If there is a green fold in the middle of the clove, carefully remove it. It will be bitter. Peel and core the apple and slice into rather large slices (you don't want them to turn into applesauce!), reserve.

ingredients prepped

2      Preheat oven to 325 F.

3      Heat a frypan and add 1 Tbs Oil and 1 Tbs Butter. When it is hot, sear the chops until a nice crust forms on each side. I find a cast iron pan works best for this. Remove the chops and reserve.

Searing chops

4      Add another tablespoon of butter and then sauté the onions until they soften a bit. Scrape up the bottom of the pan. 

Add the garlic and sauté for another minute or so. Then add the white wine. After a few minutes, stir in the ketchup. 

After another minute transfer this sauce to an oven-safe crock (like Corningware™). Then layer the apples over the top of this, 

and finally the pork chops.

5      Cover, and place in the center of the oven. Set the timer for 30 minutes.

6      Prepare the rice by placing rice and water and 1 Tbs butter in a sauce pan.

7      At the 30 minute mark, bring the rice to a boil, fluff with a fork, cover and let cook, untouched, over moderate heat so it is just boiling. Set the timer for 25 minutes.

8      At the 25 minute mark, add the chili sauce to the rice, mix with a fork, and judging from the consistency, allow to cook a little longer (probably 5 more minutes). When most of the liquid is gone, turn off heat and let sit, covered, for about 5 more minutes.

9      While the rice is resting, remove chops from oven and uncover. Place a chop on each plate. Carefully remove apples, one at a time, and place next to chops. Drizzle a little PX sherry over both pork chops and apples. Place the rice on each plate and serve with that beautiful Regaleali Bianco. Enjoy!

- love Dave

Poached Shrimp-Crusted Cod with Sauce ‘Franc’

  I just returned from a few weeks in the South. As I was driving North from Louisiana, my brother called my car to inform me of the death of my Aunt Rose at 94. Aunt Rose was married to my Uncle Frank (see earlier post) and outlived him by decades. Remembering that I had promised to name a recipe for Uncle Frank (who was from Louisiana), and with those flavors still on my palate, I began to assemble a dish in my mind loosely based on a wonderful meal I had eaten just the night before.

            We are going to make a Creole-like sauce to cover a poached fillet of Cod, and serve it with Saffron Rice. Now cod is not a fish you would expect in Louisiana, but, as with all recipes, I believe that it is better to use ingredients you can obtain best locally. Not that North Atlantic cod is local to us in the Niagara Frontier, but fresh-caught cod is about as good as we can do at this time of year. I wouldn’t hesitate to change the fish if something better came along! The sauce is the star of this dish, and it takes a while to prepare, but could be done ahead of time.

Most of the Ingredients

Ingredients:

  One Cod fillet for each plate (fish can have skin or be skinned, it’s up to you)

  6 medium raw Shell-on Shrimp for each plate (25-30/lb size)

  One small Shallot, diced

  ½ cup White Wine

For the sauce:

  A medium-dark roux of 3 Tbs. each butter and flour.

  3 Tbs. Olive Oil

  1 medium Onion, chopped

  2 small (or one large) stalk Celery, chopped

  1 small (or ½ large) Green Bell Pepper

  1 small Hot Pepper (your choice!), cut in half, lengthwise

  1 # can of diced or crushed Tomatoes (fresh, if it’s summer where you are)

  1 Tbs. of minced Garlic (a garlic press is perfect)

  ½ quart Chicken Stock (Veggie stock or homemade Fish stock would work)

  1 Bay Leaf

  ¼ teaspoon each: Thyme, Savory, Cayenne, White Pepper

Finishing Ingredients

  ½ teaspoon each: Sugar and Salt

To finish sauce:

  1 Tbs. Butter

  Big dash Worcestershire Sauce

  Dash of Hot Sauce (to your taste)

  2 or 3 Tbs. chopped Parsley

  2 Green Onions (white part) sliced thin

For the rice:

  Uncle Ben’s™ regular converted Rice (use quantity you need)

  Water (quantity as indicated on box)

  1 Tbs. Butter

  Pinch Saffron (if threads) dissolve in small amount of hot water. (1/8 tsp if powdered)

  ¼ cup of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Method:

1 Begin the Sauce: Gently sauté onion, celery and bell pepper in 3 Tbs. Olive Oil. When the onion is transparent, add the garlic, hot pepper and then the tomatoes. Cook for a couple of minutes. Mix all dry ingredients together in a small bowl. Add just a pinch to the cooking tomatoes and stir in. Then stir in enough stock to cover tomatoes and add the Bay leaf. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer. At this point make the Roux.

Saute the "trinity"

Cook. I used Anaheim Peppers

Add tomatoes

2 Make the Roux: In a small shallow pan, melt 3 Tbs. butter. When it has melted and is foamy, add 3 Tbs. flour and mix in thoroughly. With heat on medium-low, continue to cook the roux, stirring almost all the time: it will burn easily….if that happens, throw out, clean up and start again. It pays to watch the roux carefully! As you cook the roux you will see it start to color after about 15 minutes. Continue to cook until it is the color of dark walnut. If you were making Gumbo, you’d go all the way to mahogany!

After 10 min

After 20 min

3 Continue the Sauce: Move the sauce off-heat. Add the roux, stirring carefully. Return the sauce to heat, stir in the dry ingredients and let simmer for about half an hour more.

4 Prepare the Shrimp:  Bring to a boil enough water to just cover shrimp (do not add shrimp yet!) Add shallots and let this cook for a few minutes. Prepare a bowl of ice-water. Now add the shrimp to the boiling water. Only let them cook until they color, probably only a minute or two! (They will be cooking later in the sauce, so don’t overdo them here.) Remove the shrimp immediately to the ice bath. This will stop the cooking and make them easy to shuck. Reserve liquid. When they have cooled, shuck them and de-vein (if necessary). Dry them on paper towel and reserve.

Preparing Shrimp

5 Complete the Sauce: Take the sauce off the heat. Pour in just a little shrimp cooking liquid. Remove the bay leaf and the hot pepper. Using a hand (immersion) blender, and on the lowest speed, begin to blend the sauce. As you progress, slowly keep increasing the speed until the sauce is reasonable smooth (you don’t want any tomato lumps left). Return the sauce to the lowest of heat, stir in Worcestershire and hot sauce and begin the rice.

Adding shrimp liquid

"Zizzing" Sauce

6 Cook the Rice: Rice takes about 25 minutes and will wait for a few more. This should give you plenty of time to cook the fish and finish the sauce. Mix water, rice and butter in a small sauce pan, cover and quickly bring to a boil. Then stir with a fork to make sure rice is separated, re-cover and lower heat to medium low, where rice will be bubbling gently. Mix Saffron (if using threads), and let dissolve. Grate cheese, reserve. Begin the fish.

7 Cook the Fish: Sauté non-skin-side of fish for a minute or two in a little butter (even if fish is skinned), then carefully turn fillet and let sauté on skin-side for a few more minutes. Add wine and cover, lower heat and let poach until just done (about 5 or 6 more minutes). While fish is poaching, finish sauce.

Poaching Cod

8 Finish the Sauce: Taste sauce. If it is not hot enough, add more hot sauce. Then add reserved shrimp and also parsley and green onions, let simmer until ready for use. Just before plating, swirl 1 Tbs. butter into sauce.

9 Finish the Rice and Plate: Just before rice enters resting phase (last 5 minutes) stir in the saffron and fluff with fork. Just before plating, add cheese and fluff with fork. Place a little sauce on plate. Carefully move fish to plate putting it on top of the sauce. Place shrimps on top of fish and then spoon a little more sauce over shrimp. Add rice to plate and any vegetables or garnish. Enjoy!!

Poached Cod with Sauce "Franc"

My side was an Avocado and Tomato sprinkled with salt, pepper, fresh lemon juice and a few drops of superb Tuscan Olive Oil. I paired this dish with one of my favorite white wines, Sancerre from the Loire Valley.

 - Love, Dave

Pork Tenderloin Judi

Tenderloin with Pears and Port

To me, cooking always seems to be a tussle between architect Mies van der Rohe's, "Less is more" and chef Pasquale Carpino's, "The more you put in, the more you find!" 

This was brought into focus at a recent luncheon with several friends. A beautiful Pear Salad was brought out for Judi. It featured a lovely pear standing upright in the center of greens. Later in the meal, Judi offered me a taste of the pear. (Now here I should confess that this pear was probably very good in the salad setting.) Unfortunately, when my brain processed the impressively tinted centerpiece pear, it expected a softly subtle flavor, perhaps hinting of a fine Port. Instead, the pear seemed to have been marinated in a harsh salad dressing with a myriad of confusing and overwhelming spices! I smiled and said something like, "Hmmm, very interesting, I can't seem to identify the flavoring." (Sorry, Judi. I always try to be polite.) My impolite interior voice was screaming, "WTF, how could anyone do this to a pear!" Because pears are among my very favorite fruits, I probably am just a touch overprotective! At that very moment, I decided to place a properly braised pear into an affable meal and name it for Judi, who deserved a better pear!

We are going to put a slightly pungent rub on a pork tenderloin and roast it with sautéed vegetables and a very little liquid in the pan, almost braising it. Meanwhile we are going to braise a pear in Port and very little else. Then, while the meat rests, we are going to combine the liquids and cook them down into a thin syrup and spoon over the pork, vegetables and pears. I have some homemade beef stock on hand, so I will use that as my liquid.

Douro Valley, Portugal

When I was younger, Port always conjured up visions of a Wino sitting in a gutter and drinking from a bottle in a paper bag. That was well before I really learned of Port. If you are unfamiliar with the pleasures of a fine Port, you are in for a grand discovery.  Port, or Porto, is a fortified, slightly sweetish wine, only from the Douro Valley in Portugal. Other wines, most sickeningly sweet and cloying, from all over the world, are sometimes called Port. Stay away from these. 

Vintage Porto is only made in certain years (when the stars and grapes align). For this meal I'm using a rather recent Vintage Porto. You could cellar this wine for a lot longer than I have left to live, so I'm drinking it now! It is very good and not overly expensive. A good Porto can be very expensive. Sip on this in the evening while watching 8½ and experience The Good Life.

Equipment:

You will need a large sauté pan for the vegetables, a medium, shallow roasting pan for the meat, and a small sauce pan, just wide enough to hold a pear.

Ingredients:

Raw Ingredients

For the Pork

1 Pork Tenderloin

2 large Mushrooms, thickly sliced

1 small Onion, diced

1 clove Garlic, minced

4 to 6 oz. Cauliflower broken into small florets

¼ cup Old Bay^™ *

splash of Port

½ cup of stock or water

2 Tbs. Butter

1 Tbs. Olive Oil

salt and pepper to taste

For the Pear

1 Bosc Pear, not too ripe

Everything Prepped

¼ cup stock or water

1 tsp Brown Sugar

½ cup quality Porto

¼ tsp Lemon Zest

1 small Cinnamon stick

pinch salt

* you can rub the tenderloin with anything you prefer. I am choosing not to use certain spices that I would normally, such as cinnamon, because in this meal, it is already in the Pear Sauce and so there would be an over-abundance of this flavor if it were on the Pork too. We want a contrast here.

Method:

1 Rub meat with Old Bay^™ seasoning. Preheat oven to 375^o.

2 Sauté Mushrooms in the Butter and Oil until they start to color, then add Cauliflower, Onions, Garlic, salt & pepper and sauté for a couple minutes more. 

Saute Vegetables

Add a splash of Porto and ½ cup Stock. Bring to a simmer and pour into shallow roasting pan. Place tenderloin on top. 

Ready for the Oven

Roast for about 20 minutes, then turn the Pork, also turn cauliflower and add a little more liquid if needed. Check again after 10 more minutes: you want a small amount of liquid to be always in the pan, but not too much. Total roasting time is about 40 minutes. Pork should be 160^o . Try not to overcook this cut.

3 Meanwhile, peel Pear and slice into quarters lengthwise, remove stem and core area. Bring stock to boil in small sauce pan dissolving Brown Sugar, then add Port, Cinnamon stick, Lemon Zest and pinch of salt and bring to the edge of a boil, add pear slices and reduce heat. 

Braising Pears

Simmer until Pear just yields to a fork. A Bosc Pear, depending on its ripeness,  will hold up to probably 15 minutes of braising. A Bartlett will tend to cook fast, so watch these carefully. You don't want pear mush. Turn Pears a few times to color all sides. When Pear is ready, remove and reserve. Discard Cinnamon Stick but keep cooking liquid simmering.

4 When Pork is finished, remove it and the Mushrooms and Cauliflower to a plate with the Pear, cover with foil and keep warm for about 5 minutes.

5 Strain remaining juices from roasting pan into the simmering Pear braising liquid and reduce this sauce over high heat until it is the consistency of a thin syrup, correct seasoning.

6 Slice the tenderloin into medallions, surround with Pears and Vegetables and spoon sauce over meat and Pears. Serve with a soft wine. I've chosen the 2007 Masi Ripasso Veronese, a good food-friendly wine: smooth and simple on the palate!

Served here with home-pureed Butternut Squash

Charlie Campanelle Update

Sam, Charlie (the meal) and Sean

No, that's not Charlie (the kid) but it is Charlie (the meal). To see if he still liked it, I thought I would try the meal out on Sean and his friend Sam (that's Sam on the left). I feed them every so often. It was still appealing to them, but I think 13-year-olds prefer their sauce smoother. Next time I'd use the hand blender before I added the beef!