Shredded Beef Brassiole Subs

Shredded Beef Brassiole Subs

If you are having a crowd over for Super Bowl Sunday, skip the chili and serve these Italian inspired shredded beef (brassiole) subs. What could be better at half time than subs topped with shredded beef that has been slow cooked with parsley, garlic, parmesan cheese and pine nuts then topped with sautéed mushrooms and melted mozzarella. The best part is you can make the beef up to two days in advance and just heat it up at game time.

Servings: 12-16 Servings

Shredded Beef Brassiole

2 1.25 Lb Skirt Steaks or Flank Steaks *

2 C fresh Italian Parsley (not the curly kind)

4 Cloves of Garlic

2 TBS Olive Oil

¼ C Grated Parmesan Cheese

¼ C Pine Nuts (Optional)

Canola Oil for browning

8 C of your favorite Tomato Sauce

Sautéed Mushrooms

1 lb White Mushrooms (sliced thin)

1 TBS Olive Oil

½ tsp Kosher Salt or ¼ tsp Table Salt

1 clove Garlic (minced)

Other

Sub Rolls or Baguettes

Shredded or Sliced Mozzarella

Place your steaks in the freezer for 30 minutes.  This will make it easier to cut them.

Using a very sharp knife, cut each steak into two very thin steaks.  You may want to have your butcher do this for you. You will end up with 4 steaks.

Place the parsley, garlic, olive oil, and cheese in a food processor and pulse until it forms a paste.  Spread ¼ of the paste over each steak, then sprinkle with the pine nuts.  Starting with a long end roll up the steaks with the filling in the center.  Secure the meat rolls with tooth picks or string (see photo).

In a heavy sauce pan heat about 2 TBS of canola oil over high heat, and brown the brassiole.  Do not overcrowd the pan or they will not brown properly. 

After you have browned your brassiole place them in a large pot with enough tomato sauce to completely cover them. Bring it up to a boil then lower it to a light simmer. They must cook slowly for several hours in the tomato sauce to complete the cooking process and tenderize.  You can do this on the stove top but you must stir the sauce frequently so that it does not burn, about 4-6 hours.  I prefer putting the brassiole in a 325°F oven in an oven proof pot for 4 hours to 6 hours stirring every hour. You know they are done when you can shred the ends.

While the brassiole is cooking you can sauté the mushrooms. Clean and slice the mushrooms thinly. Heat the olive oil in a medium frying pan over medium high heat. When the oil is hot but not smoking add the sliced mushrooms, minced garlic, and the salt. Stir until they are tender.

Put a heaping mound of the shredded brassiole on a sub roll, a Kaiser roll, or a baguette. Top with some sautéed mushrooms and mozzarella. If you like your cheese melted place the sub on a cookie sheet and place it under the broiler until the cheese is melted and bubbling.

* PRONTO SUBSTITUTE

Skirt or Flank Steak – If you prefer, you can substitute a pork tenderloin for the beef. You will need to cut it in a spiral and then pound it thin.  

To print a copy of this recipe go to Shredded Beef Brassiole Subs.

Sweet Treat on a Stick

While in Beijing I enjoyed a local treat where they put fruit on a long stick and dipped it in a hard candy shell. I could not identify the small round fruit that I enjoyed but they also had grapes, strawberries, and some other unidentifiable fruit. If you have a sweet tooth you would be sure to enjoy this delicacy. 

Foods I Would Not Eat In China

Gecko

There were certain foods that I would not eat—not even on a bet. When I was in the market bazaar in Beijing I saw the most exotic choices for food that I’ve ever experienced in my life. These deep fried treats for the Chinese included scorpions, starfish, seahorses, beetles, and geckos. I also avoided street vendors in general because of concern about food safety.

Seahorses, Scorpions, Starfish

Beetles

Hot Pot in Beijing

Hot Pot

By far the meal that was the most fun and tasted great was Hot Pot in Beijing. It is similar in concept to going to a fondue restaurant in the US where you cook your food in a hot broth. The similarity ends there. The pot, as you can see in the picture, is a tall cone filled with hot coals that is surrounded but a pot that is divided into two sides. On one side is a simple plain broth on the other side is a very spicy broth which is where I cooked most of my food. You are given a sesame dip that reminded me of thinned out Tahini paste in which I added scallions and cilantro.

Throughout the trip my chopstick skills increased dramatically, but thankfully with this meal they gave us a slotted spoon in which to cook the meats which melted away in the broth once you cooked them. I was able to use the chopsticks to fish out the vegetables and tofu. The meal consisted of the following meats and vegetables:

• Thin sliced mutton, beef, pork
• Scallions, Mustard Greens, Chinese Cabbage
• Tofu
• Potatoes

The taste of the food was exceptional. The meat melted in your mouth and was spicy from the broth but was smoothed out by the taste of the sesame dip.

They also served sesame buns that were moist, tender and were infused with the taste of sesame throughout.

Sesame Dip

The Chinese do not serve water or any drinks with their meals. If you want water you can order a bottle of room temperature water, no ice, or a bowl of hot water. If you want tea you can order it separately. For this meal we enjoyed tea that was infused with the sweet taste of dates. It was a perfect complement to the spicy flavors of the meal. If one of these restaurants existed in the US I would visit it frequently.

Sesame Rolls

Breakfast in Beijing

Qing-Feng Steamed Dumpling Shop

My host family took me out to breakfast at a local breakfast restaurant in the suburbs of Beijing called the Qing-Feng Steamed Dumpling Shop. It was like nothing I have ever experienced for breakfast before. This restaurant was known for their steamed buns and I was able to watch them prepare the dumplings through the window.

Staff making dumplings

Steamed Pork Dumplings

The meal we ate was more like what I might order for dinner at home. We had steamed pork and vegetable dumplings which were incredible. They just melted in your mouth-I have to learn to make them when I get back home. We also had oil bread, which remined me of the fried dough from the fair or Pizza Fritta which Italians make, and Wonton soup. What I did not mention was any sort of beverage. That because they don't serve beverages with most meals. But that will be another posting. Needless to say I did not get my caffeine that morning.

Oil Bread

Wonton Soup

Favorite Chinese Fast Food

There were some days where I had an upside down day, eating my big meal at lunch with colleagues and a small meal at night. I was lucky enough to be only a couple of blocks from a mall with a food court, Chinese style. While I tried many thing, by far my favorite Chinese fast food was a barbecued pork bun. Picture a crispy bun, hot out of the oven,  covered with sesame seeds and stuffed with sweet, tender barbecued pork and onions. I fell in love with this dish after my first bite and enjoyed this treat on more that one occasion . This gets 5 stars for fast food in China.

Beijing Roasted Duck

Duck being carved

The last two days of my China trip were spent in Beijing with a coworkers family. This was certainly the highlight of my trip. The Lu's were the most wonderful people. If the weren't taking me somewhere they were feeding me. Their hospitality reminded me of my own Italian family. My first night with them we went to a local restaurant and had my favorite meal of my trip-which they told me was a typical New Years meal. The meal started with a chef coming to the table with a Beijing Roasted Duck, or as were call it Peking Duck, which is now considered one of China's national foods. The chef carved it right at the table and it was served with paper thin pancakes, hoisin sauce, scallions, and slivers of cucumber. The meat is sweet but the best part is the seasoned crispy skin which dominates the flavors of the dish. I've prepared this at home myself but this was the first time I've seen it served in the traditional manner. This was definitely a 5 star dish.

The presentation

Needless to say there was much more food. We also had a chicken dish, a beef dish, and a dish with bamboo shoots and mushrooms. While all of them reminded me of some of the dishes were would get a Chinese restaurant here, they were by far superior to anything I've ever eaten in the US.

The duck was served on a paper thin pancake with scallions, cucumbers, hoisin sauce and then wrapped up

The chicken, beef dish, and bamboo shoots with mushrooms

One thing I must explain about the family I stayed with, they do not speak English. We communicated with hand signals, phrase books and a handheld translator that Miss Lu used to translate from Chinese to English (it did not always translate very well). Despite the language barrier we were able to communicate and have a wonderful time together.

Octopus Frenzy

One of the most unusual items I had to eat in China was Octopus Frenzy. Picture a sweet danish topped with two fish balls stuffed with octopus sprinkled with dried fish flakes. It may sound undesirable to some, I found it edible but not something I would ever order again. Eating in China reminded me of an old Italian cookbook that I purchased. Both countries went through great periods of poverty when the population learned to eat every part of every animal. This frugality kept the poor alive and fed. While many of these traditions were dropped when the Italians came to the US a few were kept such as baccala, the salted cod, or the octopus salad that are commonly served for Christmas Eve.

Ordering at a Shanghai Restaurant

Spicy Deep Fried Green Beans with Ginger

Before I went to China I was very apprehensive about going to restaurants. How will I know what to order?

The answer has been very simple, just look at the pictures. I was lucky enough to have a restaurant down the street from my hotel that has good food and a simple ordering process. The menu has pictures of each dish and an English translation. They give you an ordering sheet and you check off the the number of the items you want to order. This is very handy since everything else on the ordering sheet is in Mandarin. The waitress then takes your order sheet and the food starts to come, but not the way we are used to in the US. Basically they bring you your food as it's ready. For example one night I ordered spicy deep fried green beans with ginger, shrimp dumplings, and dessert parfait. Well the first thing that came to the table was the dessert parfait and a pot of tea. They do not serve water with your meal so I ordered a beer which did not come until the end of the meal. Then ten minutes later the beans were served, and five minutes later the shrimp dumplings. While the food was good this style of serving takes some getting used to.

Menu

The other thing that made it easy to eat was the food court at the Mall down the street. They had sit down restaurants, a bakery, Cold Stone Creamery, a fast food tempura stand, and my favorite, the barbecued pork bun stand.

Now there are plenty of things I would never eat but there was a huge variety of excellent food available. I can even go down the street and get a pizza if I so desired.



McDonalds



Fried Pork Cutlet Sandwich Value Meal - $4



Oriental Pearl Tower


After 5 days of Chinese food I decided that I wanted some American food. I took the subway, which was amazingly easy to navigate, to the Oriental Pearl Tower which has become the symbol of Shanghai. Everything in the subway system is done in both Mandarin and English, including the announcements on the train. When I got out of the subway there was a McDonalds so I though I would give it a try. The menu was very similiar to the US with the addition of a fried pork cutlet sandwich and corn in the Happy Meal. Since I don't like Big Macks I opted for the pork. It was amazing. The pork was breaded and fried and it was very spicy with an oriental flair-the bun even had black sesame seeds on it. The fries were just as good as the ones back home but were a bit saltier. If they had this sandwich at home I may actually go to McDonalds.

You'll notice from the picture of the Pearl Tower that the polution in Shanghai is pretty bad. This photo was taken at noon on a cloudless day. I'm told that this is typical during the winter. From the viewing tower I was only able to see about 1/2 mile.

Deep Fried Sweet & Sour Whole Fish

Deep Fried Sweet & Sour Fish

Whenever you take a whole day tour in China, lunch is provided. The food is tailored for tourists-translation is that it's pretty bland and not good by Chinese standards. Our meal at the Suzhou No.1 Silk Factory included 9 different dishes and was unremarkable except for the deep fried sweet and sour whole fish. As you can see the head was prominently displayed on the plate. The fish was battered and deep fried and was covered by a sweet and sour sauce. The meat was tender and just fell off the bone. It had a wonderful taste and I would definitely have it again.


9 Course Lunch



China Tea

Juliet Jasmine Tea

Juliet Jasmine Tea Buds

The Chinese take their tea very seriously. I had the opportunity to attend a Chinese tea ceremony where they brewed 6 different kinds of tea for me. I was able to try everything from green tea, to oolong, to black tea. Each was brewed in a different way using different type of pots and all were serve straight up without any milk or sugar. The most unusuall tea was the juliet jasmine tea. As you can see in the photo it looks like a large flower bud. What they actually do is wrap the jasmine tea around a jasmine flower bud. You drop it in hot water and watch as the jasmine leaves slowly uncurl and the jasmine flower is rehydrated and blooms in the water. It was so good I had to buy some to bring back home.