Day 11 Beef A La King** or what can take the place of chipped beef.
Day 11 Beef A La King**.
Hello, Dears! Continuing our journey through Peg Bracken’s I Hate to Cook Book and I have to say that this one was an interesting meal. It seems to be that the idea of chipped beef is not as popular as it probably was in Peg Bracken’s day. After hunting around I did manage to find it, but it wasn’t easy. Now a little note about chipped beef, it is dried beef but it is not beef jerky although I was beginning to lose hope and think I would have to substitute jerky after all. Apparently, they do still make canned chipped beef, but I am thinking it was cheaper in Peg’s day. It had to be because I couldn’t imagine that she would use extremely expensive items in her meals. The tone of her cookbook just doesn’t seem as if that was the idea. After all, if you hate to cook AND plan to spend a lot, why not just go out to eat? When I found it the cost for the whole family this size I would have needed quite a lot of it and that dipped a little much into my food budget. Part of this journey has been to create a plan, complete with a monthly budget that also managed to shave some money off of our current food budget for a family this size.
In case you're wondering “well, chipped-beef is not beef jerky, what is it?” Well to put simply it is a meat dried and salted sometimes smoked and thinly sliced. Think pepperoni, but it isn’t it is beef. I am sure I could have used pepperoni and maybe that would make an interesting flavor. But, the book says beef, so it seemed wiser to stick with beef.
Then I began a search to decide what to use for a substitute and I discovered that I could replace it with deli roast beef. Afterall, after buying the cans of dried beef, her directions included boiling the dried beef in water. Ok, so WHY? It made sense if I was going to use dried beef, but since it was going to be reconstituted anyway, what if I could find a substitute? I don’t think Peg Bracken would have begrudged me the chance to make it faster and cheaper.
My consolation is that no one knew how this was supposed to really taste and so fibbing here and there or making do was really rather important. At the end of the day, however, I loved this recipe and really think that for those of us that aren’t blessed with a lot of skill in the kitchen (or for those of you that are) this really is a great recipe. It reminded me a bit of another recipe the family enjoys which involves creamed eggs on toast with cheese sprinkled over the top (it’s better than it sounds). This is a lot like that recipe, but the roast beef makes it stand up on its own very well. Which of course we need in order to impress others when we know that secretly we would rather be doing ANYTHING other than cooking, or impressing anyone for that matter, but we all have to eat, might as well make it decent. So there we are, and here it is:
Beef A La King Beef**
4 Servings
Ingredients
• 1 can condensed chicken noodle soup, undiluted
• 1 can condensed cream of mushroom, undiluted
• 2 hard boiled eggs
• 1/4 lbs. chipped beef or thin sliced deli roast beef
• 1/2 green pepper
• 3 tablespoons chopped pimento
• 1 teaspoon minced onions
• 1/3 cup grated cheese or Parmesan cheese
• 1 small can mushrooms
Directions:
Slice or dice the hard boiled eggs. Combine everything else and Heat over low heat in a boiler over water or stir slowly in a pot on the stove if you do not have a double boiler. Just do not leave this alone, it will scald itself and then you have to clean the burnt mess and the remainder is not edible. Serve over toast, English muffin, biscuit, or rice. You can even touch up the plate with a few sprigs of parsley and there, you look the grand chef. If you want to be impressive I would use some bakery bread like sourdough bread, and if you can get it on sale that is even better. If you are feeling rather in the mood to actually make some bread, then go for it. This leaves a lot of space for experimentation and exploration. I wouldn’t do too much though, because you and I both know that sometimes simple is best.
This would be good with a parfait or fruit in a bowl and even a small side salad. This was so much fun to make.
Stay tuned when we ask ‘Why is this called A-La-King? Will there be seconds? Thirds?” "Will her kitchen put up with any more of her clanging around and run off with another home?"
Please let me know what you think of this? Did you try it? What changes did you come up with? Please comment, rate, share. Until next time have fun and stay Flamboyant my Flamingo friends.
**Bracken, P. (1960). The I hate to cook book. (pg. 11). New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.
