Oakhill Potatoes

This recipe for Oakhill Potatoes is an old one. I prefer to call them Brunch Potatoes because, not only are they an excellent addition to your brunch buffet, but they also have bacon and eggs in them!

This is a forgiving recipe that you can customize based upon what you have on hand. When I made them this week I used Melissa’s Baby Red Potatoes that I boiled and thickly sliced, and Gruyere cheese. Because I used Gruyere, I added a few gratings of fresh nutmeg. For an entirely different taste, use white cheddar or Monterrey jack. You really cannot go wrong with bacon, eggs, and potatoes. 

Oakhill Potatoes

12 ounces Melissa’s Baby Ruby Gold potatoes,

boiled until just fork tender

3 tablespoons butter

1/2 onion, diced (I used a red onion)

1 clove garlic, diced fine

3 tablespoons flour

1-1/2 cups whole milk

1⁄8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup grated cheese

2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced

4 slices bacon, fried crisp, drained, and crumbled

1 Tablespoon chopped parsley

1 Tablespoon chopped scallions

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, melt butter. Saute onion until translucent. Add garlic; saute for 1 minute. Push vegetables to the side and stir in flour; cook for 1-2 minutes. Add milk, whisking constantly. Cook until sauce just begins to thicken and add cheese, grated nutmeg (if using, see text), salt, and pepper, stirring until cheese has melted. Remove from heat.

Thickly slice potatoes and place into the bottom of a well-greased, ovenproof 1 to 1-1/2 quart casserole dish. Sprinkle bacon, scallions, and eggs over the potatoes and top with cheese sauce.

Bake for 30 minutes; garnish with parsley.

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Pork Steak Rub

My time is generally not my own, but I managed to grab a few hours over the weekend, pulled the cover off of the grill, and fired it up for the first time this season. I hadn't planned on turning any of this into a blog post (hence the excruciatingly bad photos), but I made the most delicious pork rub that I just had to share.

What I made were pork steaks that both we and dad enjoyed over the course of two days. If you're not from the St. Louis metro area, pork steaks may be foreign to you. They are simply steaks sliced from a whole pork butt, cooked “St. Louis-style,” which has come to mean “grilled and sauced.”"

If you haven't tried a pork steak, it is probably time that you did, but, if not, this rub will work on any pork-y thing that you plan to grill.

You can dial the heat up or down according to your tastes, but I found this to be spot on. Coat your pork steaks on all sides with the rub, place them in the fridge, covered, and let them hang out for 4-8 hours. Then sear both sides on the grill, hmmm, about 3-4 minutes per side until they look like the bottom photo, then put them into a roasting pan (I just used a 9” x 13” baking pan), douse them liberally with your favorite barbecue sauce, cover the pan tightly with foil, put them into a 300-degree oven, and forget about them for three hours. During the last half hour of cooking, if the sauce is too runny, remove the foil, and let it thicken up a bit.

At this point you can plate them, or refrigerates them to warm up the following day. Personally, I thought ours were significantly better on the second night. 

Pork Steak Rub 

(Enough for 4 large pork steaks)

 1 tablespoon smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon espresso powder

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder

1-1/2 teaspoons dark brown sugar

1-1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt

1-1/2 teaspoons garlic powder

1-1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon chili powder

3/4 teaspoon onion powder

Pinch of cayenne

Whisk all ingredients together in a small mixing bowl.  Rub liberally over pork steaks 4-8 hours prior to grilling.

Mix keeps for 2 months.

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Slow Cooker Bolognese Sauce

I love a good Bolognese, and for years I was treated to one as, in addition to being the major fish cooker in the house, Mr. O.P. was also master of the Bolognese. He'd collected, over the years, that old Time Life Treasury of Great Recipes"series of books, each set of which came with one hard bound book telling about the cuisine of the featured country, along with a smaller, spiral bound book of recipes. He would spend an entire day making sauce (largely, I think, because he was easily distracted during his course of duty, and also because he was the slowest vegetable dicer I think I've ever seen). At day's end, though, we were rewarded with a restaurant-quality sauce to enjoy (and massive cleanup, all of which was done by me because of that damnable rule we'd put into place when we'd first married about “one cooks, the other cleans”). And when I talk massive, I'm not just kidding around. The sauce was made in a large batch in a stock pot the size of a hot tub. It simmered all day long, tiny bubbles of red sauce exploding at the top, sending little specks of red sauce all over the top of the stove, all over the nearby cabinets, running down the side of the stove, and all over the floor. The last time I cleaned up this mess I swore that Paul Newman was the man for me, and embraced his Sockarooni Sauce not long after.

Then along came this crockpot Bolognese, and I had to give it a try. Now, generally, crockpot recipes are quick and easy. This one is indeed easy, but not at all quick as you might imagine as there is a boatload of chopping before everything can be put together. But once that is accomplished, and all ingredients are safely contained in the crock, beneath a splatter-saving lid, all you have to do is go about your day for the next six hours as the sauce slowly becomes delicious.

I used my medium-sized, 4-quart slow cooker for this recipe. Feel free to double or triple if you want a lot of sauce, increasing the size of your crockpot in the process. Bear in mind that for things to cook properly, the crockpot needs to be 2/3s full and no more.

Buono Appetito!

Slow Cooker Bolognese Sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 onion, diced fine

2 celery ribs, diced fine

1 medium carrot, diced fine

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 pound ground chuck

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 teaspoons sugar

2 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

1 bay leaf

1/2 cup red wine

1 (28-oz.) can crushed tomatoes

1/3 cup heavy cream

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat olive oil and saute onion, celery, and carrot, and until tender. Add garlic and tomato paste stirring constantly for 30 seconds. Transfer to a 4-qt. slow cooker.

In the same pan vacated by the vegetables, brown beef; drain. Return beef to pan and stir in kosher salt and seasonings. Stir in wine, and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, 7 minutes or until almost all liquid has evaporated. Add to slow cooker with tomatoes and stir to combine.

Cover and cook on LOW 6-8 hours. Stir in cream. Check sauce; it should be thick and creamy. (If a thicker sauce is desired uncover and cook 30 more minutes.) Discard bay leaf.

Serve atop the pasta of your choice.

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