B2 THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2022
HOME & LIVING
How to make a real Italian beef
BY STEPHANIE BREIJO
Los Angeles Times
Tyger Williams/The Philadelphia Inquirer-TNS
Susanna Foo begins cooking her wild mushroom dumplings with porcini mushroom and truffle sauce
at her home in Villanova, Pennsylvania.
Overcoming age-related
cooking challenges
BY SARAH GANTZ
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Cooking at home is a mood-booster, exer-
cises muscles and the mind, and can help us
maintain a healthy diet, especially as we age.
But with age-related medical conditions
come new challenges in the kitchen. People with
dementia or memory loss may worry about for-
getting the roast they put in the oven. Perhaps
the meals you used to prepare for a family of
five no longer make sense for a solo diner. Ar-
thritis, lost muscle mass, decreased height, and
vision problems can all affect how you cook.
Here are some tips to get the most out of
home cooking.
Consider what you’re cooking
Research shows that people who cook for
themselves eat out less often and consume less
fast food, said Julia Wolfson, an associate pro-
fessor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health who studies food systems and
food policy. That can be especially important
for older adults, whose metabolism has slowed
and who may be at risk for type 2 diabetes, high
blood pressure, or high cholesterol — all medi-
cal conditions that are influenced by diet.
But, Wolfson said, “Just purely the act of
cooking itself does not equal healthy eating.”
Get the most out of home cooking by plan-
ning meals that balance protein and high-fi-
ber vegetables with fat and carbs. Think about
portion sizes, and the amount of salt and sugar
you use. For instance, packaged spice blends of-
ten contain lots of salt. Making your own spice
blend may be one way to cut down on salt and
amp up flavor.
Stock the freezer
In a 2020 study, Wolfson and her former col-
leagues at the University of Michigan found that
older adults were more likely than the general
adult population to cook for themselves at home.
But people’s relationship with food can change as
they go through different life stages, such as chil-
dren moving out or the death of a spouse.
Preparing and eating a favorite meal associ-
ated with fond memories can be comforting.
Make the meal you love, then freeze leftovers in
individual-serving packages, rather than in one
large container. You’ll have dinner for the fu-
ture and reduce the amount of time you have to
spend cooking.
Load the slow cooker
Slow cooker meals are perfect for people who
may have balance or strength issues that limit
their ability to cook on the stove. Bending and
lifting to use the oven can also become challeng-
ing with age.
Slow cookers sit on the counter, are designed
to be left on all day, and are a good way to pre-
pare larger meals that can be frozen, said Heath
Jones, an occupational therapist with Wesley
Enhanced Living Main Line, a senior living cen-
ter in Media.
Eliminate access issues
Put everything you use most frequently in
easy-to-reach spots, Jones suggested.
Plates and cups don’t have to live in high-up
cabinets. Leave them on the counter.
Reorganize the refrigerator so that the items
you need are within easy reach, without needing
to bend down or dig to the back of the fridge.
And when it’s time to replace your fridge, con-
sider one with the freezer on the bottom or side,
rather than on top.
Simplify cleanup
Disposable kitchen items, such as paper
plates and aluminum pans, can make the dif-
ference between eating a healthy home-cooked
meal or turning to processed foods. Too en-
vironmentally conscious to stock up on foil
baking pans, paper plates, and plastic utensils?
Line baking sheets with aluminum foil to avoid
baked-on food that’s hard to scrub off. Try sin-
gle-pan meals to at least reduce the number of
dirty dishes.
Channel stress into creativity
after a long day at work
BY ANAGHA RAMAKRISHNAN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Channeling your artistic
side can be good for your men-
tal health, but working in a
high-stress environment can
affect your creativity.
Not only can stress neg-
atively affect cognitive flex-
ibility and task switching,
according to Frontiers in Psy-
chology, uncontrollable stress
can lead to worse performance
on creative tasks. However,
art therapy reduces stress,
strengthens your creative
muscles, decreases anxiety
and depression, helps you pro-
cess emotions and increases
self-awareness, according to
Very Well Health.
A study published in the
National Library of Medicine
found that a nurse’s creativ-
ity can improve quality care,
leave patients with higher sat-
isfaction, prevent more inva-
sive procedures and empower
health care workers.
Forms of art therapy
There are many ways you
can express yourself through
art, as it comes in various me-
diums. Deciding where to be-
gin may be the tricky part, but
here’s a short list of ideas to
help you get started:
• Painting: If you are a be-
ginner, consider acrylic paint.
It’s easy to use and is one of the
less expensive options, accord-
ing to Draw Paint Academy.
For those with a little more ex-
perience, the academy recom-
mends oils or watercolors.
• Drawing: This medium
requires the least number of
supplies and is one of the eas-
iest to access — all you need
to get started is a pencil and a
piece of paper. If you want to
liven up your piece, use col-
ored pencils or markers. For a
project more intense or darker
than graphite pencils, pick up
some charcoals. Also, using a
pen can allow you to be more
precise with your lines and
drawings.
• Baking and decorating:
This outlet is not only great
for your creativity, but tasty as
well. All you need to do is look
up a cake recipe, find ingredi-
ents in your grocery store and
start baking. If you’re making
cookies or cake, try decorating
them with homemade or store-
bought icing. You can even buy
plain cookies and cakes from
the store and decorate them
yourself.
• Photography: This me-
dium allows you to appreciate
the extraordinary in the most
ordinary of things. A steaming
cup of coffee on a window sill
can suddenly become a dra-
matic photo with one click of a
button. You don’t have to own
a fancy camera either, consid-
ering any smartphone could
do the trick. Just open up your
camera, click away and you’ll
be surprised on how many
moments you’ve captured.
• Collaging and scrapbook-
ing: After clicking away all
of your photos, try making a
collage or scrapbook out of
them. This can allow you to
appreciate your photographs
and make something new out
of them.
• Make your own greet-
ing cards: Is someone’s birth-
day coming up? Do you want
to send someone you know
a thank you card? Consider
making your own greeting
cards. A personalized card can
leave the recipient even more
touched by your gesture. Grab
a piece of paper, fold it in half,
write your message, and add
drawings or stickers to deco-
rate it.
• Create a mosaic: Consider
collecting medicine caps or
other disposable items from
your hospital and create a mo-
saic with what you’ve gathered.
One nurse shared on TikTok
that she collected med caps
from her patients for four
years. She plans to create a
mural to remember all the pa-
tients she cared for.
In addition to star Jeremy
Allen White’s months of train-
ing at restaurants, including
Santa Monica’s Pasjoli, much
of the realism so many have
attributed to TV’s “The Bear”
is due to the culinary supervi-
sion of chefs Courtney Storer
and Matty Matheson, who also
played handyman Neil Fak on
the show. The culinary produc-
ers devised on-camera dishes
for the FX on Hulu series and
also served as inspiration and
sounding boards within the
writers room.
For Storer, the onscreen de-
piction of the Italian beef would
need to be perfect. The former
Jon & Vinny’s chef grew up eat-
ing the sandwich with Christo-
pher Storer, her brother and the
show’s creator. It’s an item that
contains memories of celebra-
tions, of game days, of family
get-togethers. As a child, years
before taking her first kitchen
job at Sonny’s Express in Park
Ridge, Illinois, she would order
a beef there and break it into
pieces to make it last throughout
the day. For years after moving
to Los Angeles, she questioned
whether she should open a beef
shop herself — and whether An-
gelenos would embrace or even
understand it if she tried.
Then came “The Bear,”
her brother’s longtime labor
of love, and a time for her be-
loved beef to shine. For some,
it would be their first introduc-
tion to one of Chicago’s greatest
culinary exports.
She and Matheson created
two versions for the show: one
more traditional to a classic Chi-
cago beef shop, representing
how Richie and the crew would
originally make it, then an-
other using Carmy’s fine-dining
techniques, which he’d try and
employ on Day One of his re-
turn. Carmy’s method incorpo-
rated cheffier methods, such as
browning the beef before roast-
ing it to layer more flavor and
deglazing the pan with red wine.
“I really enjoyed making
the beef with Matty because
we didn’t look back at recipes,”
Storer says. “We were like, ‘What
would we want to eat?’ Or, ‘How
would this chef that comes from
fine dining come in and give a
spin on something that’s done a
specific way all the time?’”
They shot the pilot at the
iconic Mr. Beef on Orleans,
in Chicago, then built a work-
ing kitchen on a stage in L.A.
that re-created the space but
gave themselves more room
for easier camera maneuver-
ing — all while still re-creating
the cramped, claustrophobic
kitchen feeling, which ratcheted
up the tension throughout the
season. Roughly 30% of Storer’s
role was sharing her years of
restaurant experience, helping
the writers and actors make the
show as realistic to chefs’ lived
experiences as possible. The
other 70% of her role was cook-
ing on set, preparing the food
that would appear onscreen —
and every day there was a food
shot. The scent, she says, was
torturous to the cast and crew
— especially on the day that
called for braciole, a highly aro-
matic dish of rolled steak in to-
mato sauce that cooks all day.
They’d walk by and say, “We just
wanna know that we can eat it.”
So how do you make a proper
Italian beef? Storer shared her
recipe and gave us a demon-
stration in her kitchen (see the
video above). She says the rec-
ipe is very forgiving. She used
beef chuck in her demo, but
she’s also used top round or top
sirloin roast. She suggests that
you choose the cut of meat that
best fits your budget. The bread,
however, is a critical compo-
nent. It should be soft, Amer-
ican-style French bread, not
crusty sourdough. As for the
giardiniera, Storer chefs hers
up by using fennel bulbs in ad-
dition to the traditional carrot,
celery and cauliflower, but she
says that what you find jarred in
your local supermarket or deli
should work fine.
‘THE BEAR’
ITALIAN BEEF
SANDWICH
Time: 1 hour 30 minutes, plus
several hours chilling time
Yields: Makes 8 sandwiches
This is the home version of the
renowned sandwich featured on
the FX on Hulu series “The Bear.” Its
onscreen recipe was developed by
the show’s Chicago-raised culinary
producer, Courtney Storer — sister
of “The Bear’s” creator, Christopher
Storer, and former culinary director
for L.A.’s Jon & Vinny’s — alongside
chef Matty Matheson.
Courtney Storer uses beef chuck
in the video demonstration
above, but she’s also used top
round or top sirloin roast. Storer
browns her meat with a quartered
onion and a head of garlic halved
horizontally; she says you can also
brown the meat separately and
then sauté six sliced garlic cloves,
or even skip the browning step
altogether if time is short.
Left to right, Jeremy Allen White
as Carmen ‘Carmy’ Berzatto,
Lionel Boyce as Marcus, and
Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Richard
‘Richie’ Jerimovich in FX Net-
works “The Bear.”
Fox Networks-TNS
For the giardiniera, Storer says
that what you fi nd jarred in your
local supermarket or deli should
work fi ne. If you want to make
your own, any basic giardiniera
recipe will work — you soak your
vegetables with enough water
to cover them and about 1/2 cup
of salt for 8 hours or overnight,
then mix your drained vegeta-
bles with a cup of white vinegar
and a cup of olive oil, plus garlic,
dried oregano, red pepper fl akes
and black peppercorns, refrig-
erating it all for 2 days before
using. Storer distinguishes hers
by using fennel bulbs in addition
to the traditional carrot, celery
and caulifl ower. Many use sweet
red peppers as well. If you like it
hot, add jalapeño, sport peppers
or, Storer’s preference, serrano
peppers. She also likes to heat
the vinegar with the aromatics
(the garlic, oregano and spices)
and pour that over the soaked
vegetables with the oil.
Pack as much of the thinly sliced
beef as you can into the Italian
sandwich roll before dousing it
with jus and adding your choice
of giardiniera.
1 (4-pound) roast of top sirloin
or top round, trimmed of fat
2 tablespoons kosher salt, divided
2 teaspoons freshly ground
black pepper, divided
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 onion, quartered
1 quart reduced-sodium
beef stock
1 tablespoon beef bouillon,
preferably Knorr
2 tablespoons dried oregano
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 teaspoon red chili fl akes
1 tablespoon celery
seeds, optional
1 tablespoon paprika, optional
8 sandwich rolls, preferably
Turano, Gonnella or
Amoroso, or 3 soft
baguettes cut into thirds
1 quart giardiniera
1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees
Fahrenheit.
2. Pat the beef dry with
paper towels. In a small bowl, mix
together 1 tablespoon of the salt
and 1 teaspoon of black pepper.
Sprinkle the mixture all over the
roast and use your hands to rub
the seasoning into the meat on
all sides.
3. In a large, heavy-bottom,
oven-proof pan, heat the oil over
medium-high heat. Add the roast
and brown well on all sides, using
tongs to turn it as needed, 7 to 10
minutes total. Remove the meat
from the pan and rest it on a plate.
Leave any rendered fat in the pan.
4. Add the garlic and onion to
the pan and stir vigorously with a
wooden spoon until very fragrant
and just barely beginning to
brown, 30 seconds to 1 minute,
being careful not to let it burn. Im-
mediately pour in the beef stock,
and with a wooden spoon scrape
the bottom of the pan to loosen
any stuck-on bits of beef. Stir
in the bouillon, oregano, garlic
powder, onion powder, basil,
crushed chili fl akes, optional
celery seeds, paprika and the
remaining 1 tablespoon of salt
and 1½ teaspoons of pepper.
5. Return the beef to the pan
and turn it a few times in the
broth to moisten it all over. Slide
the pan into the oven and cook,
covered with aluminum foil, until
an instant-read meat thermome-
ter registers 125 to 150 degrees,
about 1 hour. Remove from oven,
let cool and then chill the beef
in the braising liquid — pan and
all — in the refrigerator for several
hours or overnight.
6. Remove from refrigerator
and, if desired, skim the layer of fat
from the top and discard. While still
cold, transfer the roast to a cutting
board and use a large, sharp knife
to slice the entire roast as thinly as
possible — inch thick or less (the
thinner, the better). Meanwhile,
return the pan with the jus to the
stovetop over medium-low heat
and bring to a simmer. Place the
sliced meat in the pan with the jus
and cook gently until the beef is
warmed through and no longer
pink, 10 to 12 minutes.
7. In the meantime, heat the
oven to 325 degrees and line a
baking sheet with parchment.
Slice the rolls lengthwise, partway
but not all of the way through the
equator, leaving the top and bot-
tom attached to each other with a
1- to 2-inch “hinge.” Lay the rolls on
the parchment, open side down.
Toast them in the oven until lightly
browned, about 5 minutes.
8. To assemble the sandwiches,
hold a roll in the palm of one hand
with the opening facing up and
the hinge resting in your palm.
Holding the roll over the pan
of meat, use tongs to lift a few
slices of beef out of the jus and
nestle them into the roll. Allow for
plenty of jus to moisten the bread,
spooning more of the liquid over
the meat if the bread is too dry.
Fill each roll with as much of the
beef as you can fi t — and then
add a little more. Garnish with
giardiniera to taste.
— Adapted from a recipe by
Courtney Storer.
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