Perfect Pot Roast

I tried  making a pot roast for the first time in December and I guess I didn't realize how long it needed to cook. I had dinner guest, it was tree decorating party, and the roast took for ever! And even when it was done it was still a little dry. I made some mistakes with the gravy too.

I gave myself plenty of time today and I ended up with a delicious, fall-apart tender, moist beefy roast and a gravy that was full of flavor. It was one of the best meals I have made since I started cooking.

I learned a couple of things along the way. Low and slow is the way to go when roasting beef. I also did some research about cooking with wine.I don't drink so I don't know a lot about wine, but I realize the type of wine you cook with is important. I learned the wine should be fruity, medium bodied and not aged in oak. An oak aged wine will give the food a woodsy flavor, and a full bodied wine will over power your sauce.

A pot roast is made with inexpensive cuts of meat, usually from the chuck or shoulder. Safeway was having a sale last week buy one chuck cross rib roast and get another free, so I bought two and made a delicious beef stew on Wednesday (my best yet) and today I made pot roast. I followed the recipe featured on the first episode of the new season of America's Test Kitchen

I started on Saturday by trimming the meat and splitting the roast in two. I tied both smaller roasts with string and then salted them. This was the only salt I used in the whole dish. I covered both roasts with a tablespoon of kosher salt each, wrapped them in plastic wrap and put them in the refrigerator. They stayed there, building flavor till Sunday. (This is the ATK way of prepping a roast beef, so I thought I would try it for pot roast. You can skip this step and salt the beef one hour before prep time and leave the beef out to come up to room temp.)

Sunday around noon I took the roast out, unwrapped them and left them on a tray to come up to room temperature.

I pre-heated my oven to 300 degrees.

In a large dutch oven I added two tablespoons of unsalted butter and let it melt. Then I added two sliced onions and caramelized them. next came one carrot diced and one celery stalk diced. i cooked them till they were soft.

Add two cloves of minced garlic and cook till fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Add 1 tablespoon of tomato paste, 1 cup of beef broth and 1/2 cup of dry red wine. Add one bay leaf and one sprig of time. Bring liquid to a simmer. Add both roasts and cover pot with foil to trap moisture and put on the lid. Put the dutch oven into the 300 degree oven and set a timer for four hours.

After two hours take the pot out and turn both roasts so the moist side is up and the dry side is submerged in the liquid. Put the pot back in the oven for the remainder of the cooking time.

After four hours take the pot out and remove the roast. Place on a cutting board and cover with the foil to retain the heat.

Pour everything in the pot through a sieve to catch the solids, into a large 4 cup measuring bowl. press on the solids to extract the any liquids and then place them in a blender. Check the measuring cup, you need 3 cups of liquid. If it's lower than that add beef broth to bring it up to 3 cups. I used an Oxo good grips measuring cup/fat separator so when I poured off the liquid the fat stayed behind and reduced some of the calories.

Pour the 3 cups of liquid into the blender jar and puree. Remember to put on the lid, cover the lid with a dish towel and hold the top steady with your hand. This will prevent any hot liquid splatter. Start slow and then switch to high speed to blend the solids and liquids together until smooth.

Pour the blender contents into a saucepan and heat until simmering. Add 1/4 teaspoon of chopped thyme, 1/4 cup of red wine and 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar.

Bring back to a simmer and allow to thicken while you slice the roast.

Cut the strings and remember to cut thick slices. Place on a platter and then cover with the gravy. Serve additional gravy on the side. Enjoy!

Beef Stew Again

We had some red wine left over from Thanksgiving so one December night I made a hearty beef stew again. I purchased some nice stew beef from Mollie Stone's Market. I used the recipe I posted in October with some experimentation. Mr. Joe's Beef Stew Recipe

Be sure to brown the meat well.

Cook the onion in the beef fat.

Add all the spices and garlic before de-glazing, allowing them to bloom. I used the left over wine, which had some nice peppery notes to de-glaze the pan.

 Add the beef and any juices and then bring to boil and let simmer for two hours.

Use fresh veggies, potatoes, carrots and pearl onions. Cut into bite size pieces.

Simmer another hour and then serve over noodles if you like.

Boxing Day

Boxing day was celebrated with shoping and an inexpensive beef eye-round, slow roasted to bring out the flavor. The roast was treated with salt the day before and then browned in a dutch oven. Afterwards it was slow roasted in a very low oven to help develop flavor and make the meat tender.

The roast was served with mashed potatoes, biscuits and some delicious mustard glazed carrots.

Christmas Ham

For Christmas this year I made a Holiday Ham. I started with a Safeway Pre-Glazed Spiral Sliced Ham and I followed America's Test Kitchen cooking method with a few additions of my own. The ham came out moist and full of flavor. I definitely recommend this cooking method. 

1.) Leaving the ham in it's plastic wrapper soak the ham in a large container (I used a small cooler) filled with warm water. Soak for about 90 minutes. If you want, change the water at the 45 minute mark. This brings the internal temprature of the ham up and reduces the heating time.

2.) Cover the ham at even intervals with whole cloves.

3.) Place the ham inside an oven baking bage and seal. Poke four holes at the top for ventilation. If you have an oven read thermometer place in the ham, but don't touch the ham. place the bagged ham in a baking dish or roasting pan face down.

4.) Heat the ham till it has an internal temp. of about 100 to 110 degrees. About 90 minutes

5.) Remove ham from oven and open bag. Fold bag all the way down to expose ham. using toothpicks attach pineapple rings and maraschino cherries to side of ham. Coat ham with a homemade glaze. I made one out of Ornage Marmalade, maple syrup and dijon mustard from ATC. Look for your favorite recipe.

6.)Place ham back in oven and heat until about 130 degrees. Remove ham and apply another coat of glaze. Remove ham from baking pan and place on platter. Add some of the ham juices to your simmering glaze. Slice ham off the bone and serve with remaining glaze as gravy.

Mr. Joe's Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

I found about 10 different recipes and techniques for making a Butternut Squash soup so I picked the ideas I liked, combined a few things and added my own touch to create this creamy delicious soup. This recipe makes the soup a day ahead. if you want you can skip the storage step and serve the soup the same day.

Ingredients:
1 Butternut Squash about 3 to 4 lbs
1 large yellow onion or 2 small onions
1 head of garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon bacon fat
1 carrot
1 rib of celery
1 to 2 cups of vegetable broth (see recipe)
1 to 2 cups low sodium chicken broth (total liquid 4 cups)
Sprigs of rosemary and thyme
pinch of saffron
pinch of cumin
bay leaf
Salt
Pepper
Nutmeg
Cream

1.) preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using a mallet and a sharp knife cut the squash in half. Place the blade on the squash and gently tap on the back of the knife with the mallet to cut the squash. Scoop out the cavity with an ice cream scoop and place the seeds and fibers in a small pot.

2.) Chop half of one large onion or one whole small onion and add chopped onion to pot. Include onion skins.

3.) Add 1 to 2 cups of water to pot and bring to boil then reduce to simmer. The amount of water you use depends on how much vegetable broth you want to make. You need a total of 4 cups of combined vegetable broth and chicken broth. This can simmer on low on the stove top for about and hour. As more vegetable scraps are produced add them to the pot and stir.

4.) Cut squash into quarters. Place on baking sheet, skin side down. Cut slash marks into the squash. Take head of garlic and slice in half long ways. Rub exposed garlic over squash. Coat squash with olive oil. Place garlic halves into squash cavity and add sprig of rosemary. Place any garlic skin and pieces of rosemary that break off into the simmering pot. Salt and pepper squash and place in oven at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.

5.) After 25 minutes flip the squash with a pair of tongs so the skin side is up. Using a large dutch oven or pot, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and one tablespoon of bacon fat (if you don't keep bacon drippings frozen in your freezer, substitute another tablespoon of olive oil.)

When oil is hot add other half of large onion, chopped fine or whole small onion (put onionskin in the simmering pot). Add a dash of salt to the pot.

6.) Cook onions until very soft, but not browned for about 12 minutes. Add on chopped carrot and one chopped celery rib to pot. Put any carrot peelings and celery ends in the simmering pot. Soften carrots and celery for about 6 minutes. Take simmering pot of stove and pour through strainer into bowl. Mash on solids in strainer to extract all the liquid. Discard solids. Measure vegetable broth. Add low sodium chicken broth to equal 4 cups of liquids. Add to dutch oven. Bring to boil and reduce to simmer. Add bay leaf. Add a dash of salt to the pot.

7.) Remove squash from oven and allow to cool enough to handle.

8.) Using ice cream scoop scrape flesh from skins. Skins will be soft and might tear so be careful not to add any to the soup. I like to hold the piece of squash in my left hand, protected by a dish towel and scoop with my right.

9.) Add the scooped squash to the simmering broth. Add the roasted garlic cloves to the broth by squeezing them out of their paper skin. Add a pinch of saffron and a pinch of cumin to the soup and allow to simmer about 20 minutes.

10.) Remove the bay leaf. ladle the soup in a blender jar or use an immersion blender. If using a blender jar only fill half way and blend in batches. Place a dish towel over the lid while blending. Use caution when blending hot liquids. - Optional - as you blend each batch add a small pat of butter to the blender jar.

11.) Blend each batch about two minutes until soup is thick and creamy. Place soup in a large bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve.

12.) Before serving place soup in large pot or dutch oven and warm over medium heat. using a plane grater scrape about 1/8 teaspoon of fresh nutmeg (or substitute ground nutmeg) then salt and use fresh ground pepper to taste. Serve in a soup bowl with a drizzle of heavy cream.