Comfort Food

Lately, I’ve been feeling nostalgic for the food I grew up with.  When I moved away from home and to Provo, I was exposed to a whole variety of ethnic food that you can’t find in places like the small mid-western town I grew up in.  You got Big Boy, fast food, "Mexican," and "Chinese."  That was it.  Oh, and lots of little cafes and diners too. 

But Japanese, Indian, Italian, Ecuadorian, Afghani, Brazilian, Malaysian, Korean, Vietnamese, real Chinese, French, Thai, etc.  These were all kinds of food I’d never tried before I left Michigan.  So, for the last several years, I’ve been expanding my palette.  I’ll try most things at least once, though I may never try them again.

But here in Redmond, you can’t throw a rock without hitting either seven Starbucks or 9 restaurants serving foods of Asian origin (mostly Japanese and Thai).  And though I enjoy those cuisines, they wear a bit thin after a while.

My mom, who I love dearly, is a very good recipe cook.  She can make anything from a recipe.  But, by her own admission, she isn’t a kitchen improviser the way that I am.  I seem to have this innate understanding of how food works, and I just seem to be able to make it fit together.

But as I mentioned before, I’ve been craving some of the food I grew up with.  My mom used to make Lemon Chicken (which isn’t anything like the lemon chicken you get at a Chinese Restaurant).  I’ve been craving meatloaf (which is strange because I always hated my mom’s meatloaf).  But one of my favorite dishes that my mother made was Beef Tips over Buttered Egg Noodles.

If you’ve never had this dish, it probably sounds a little weird.  It’s stew-sized pieces of beef that are braised in a brown gravy, then poured liberally over egg noodles.  It’s really, really yummy.  And REALLY mid-western.  I called my mom to get the recipe, but she couldn’t find it.  So, I did a little tinkering, and came up with a pretty good recipe of my own.  Here goes.

2 Lbs of Stew Beef
1 1/2 C Water
1/2 C Flour
2 T Beef Bouillon Granules
1 t. Dried Parsley
1/2 t. Dried Thyme
1 T. Cornstarch
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Canola or Vegetable Oil

Preheat the oven to 275-300 degrees

Throw the beef and flour in a Ziploc bag and shake to coat the beef.  In a large, oven-proof vessel (I use an enameled cast iron pot, but anything that can be used both on the stove and in the oven will work), heat up the oil and brown the floured beef.  While the beef is browning, combine water, beef bouillon, parsley, and thyme in a separate pot and bring to a boil.  Combine the cornstarch and some water in a small container and shake to create a slurry (I use a tiny gladware container for this).  Pour the slurry into the boiling mixture a little at a time and let it come back up to a boil to thicken.  Once it’s the consistency of a very loose gravy (it’s going to cook a lot longer, so don’t over-thicken) pour the gravy into the skillet.  Cover tightly and place in the oven for 2-3 hours or until fork tender. 

Serve over buttered egg noodles.  Makes enough for four people if you’re having other dishes or two if you’re not.  (Living alone, I rarely go to the effort of making a full, balanced meal when I cook.  I usually make just one dish and eat enough of it to make me sick.)

The processed ingredients, the dried herbs–they’re so indicative of the mid-western housewife cooking style from mid-20th century.  Normally, I wouldn’t be caught dead using ingredients like that in my cooking.  But sometimes, you just want to go back home. 

For me, this recipe reminds me of sitting at the big dining room table in our old Michigan home that had been built in 1914.  It was probably late fall or winter.  Maybe the Christmas decorations were out (Christmas was huge at our house.)  There was certainly snow on the ground.  Maybe I had just gotten back from Swim Practice or would be rushing out to play practice.  Jake or Megan and I would argue over who got to sit in the "one place"–the side of the table where there was only one chair instead of two.  Dad would fake us out by pretending to throw the loaf of bread while still holding on to the end of the bag.  Mom would make fruit salad out of canned mixed fruit, mandarin oranges, and sliced bananas.  Megan would belch loudly enough to peel the wallpaper.

Good times.