Perfect Pot Roast

The forecast for morning snow flurries and a cold Sunday afternoon inspired this Sunday dinner's menu. That and the $2.99/lb chuck roast at New Seasons (ever the bargain shopper...). This was the perfect meal to have after a cold and long 7-mile run--most of the work was done, just had to whip up a couple sides to go with it.

Steps to a perfect pot roast...

Separate the roast by the seam and cut away large knobs of fat. Salt and let the roasts sit (untied) for about an hour at room temp. Before using, tie with twine into little loaves so they cook evenly.

Melt a couple tablespoons of butter in a large Dutch oven. Throw 2 thinly sliced onions in to caramelize. After they are soft and starting to brown, add 1 chopped carrot and 1 chopped celery stalk. Add a couple of minced cloves of garlic, and then...

Add a cup of beef broth (thanks Stacey for the homemade broth!), half a cup of dry red wine, tablespoon of tomato paste, a bay leaf, and a sprig of thyme. Bring to a simmer.

Nestle those little loaves of cow yumminess in the liquid, cover with a large piece of foil and snugly tuck them in for the 3 1/2 to 4 hours of cooking time in a 300 degree oven. Top with the lid. Halfway through the cooking time, rotate the pot.

Yep, that's done. Yum.

And yes, I could barely pick it up without it falling apart.

A lovely Sunday dinner table set for four, complete with matching yellow plates (thanks CA mom!)

Not a bad way to end the weekend.

I made buttermilk mashed potatoes and roasted broccoli to go with it. I also made the gravy from the liquid and vegetables in the pot roast. Just separate the fat, add the veggies to a blender, put the defatted liquid in blender, add enough beef broth to bring content up to 3 cups and blend. Add to a medium size saucepan, and bring to a simmer. Add another 1/4 cup of the red wine, some more fresh thyme and a splash of balsalmic vinegar to brighten it up. I'm getting pretty good at this American cuisine stuff...well, thanks to Cook's Illustrated.

NYE Baking Extravaganza!

Happy 2011!

For New Year's Eve this year, we decided to have our friends over rather than going out spending tons of money trying to figure out the place to be at midnight. Too much stress...So, we had a party. Not at all stressful. Ha ha. For some reason, I wanted to add to that and start a couple of projects for the next day. Shawn requested that our first meal of 2011 be beef stew, as he's been craving it for a few weeks now and it seemed like a good do-nothing kind of day meal. Clearly I needed to make a loaf of no-knead bread.

And since we're trying to be conservative with our budget, but I still wanted a good breakfast on Saturday, I made my first attempt at English muffins. This was all on top of the other snacks I was making for that evening. Surprisingly, I had about an hour free before anyone arrived. I must be getting better at this planning thing.

America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book English muffins

1 recipe for American sandwich bread
Cornmeal

First you have to make the bread and let it do its rising thing (boring pics I've posted a bajillion times). Then you roll the bread into a 12-inch log and cut into 12 equal pieces. Working with one piece at a time, work each one carefully into small rolls. Spray with vegetable oil, cover with plastic on cornmeal-dusted pan and do some more waiting.

Here we are....waiting. After they have doubled in size again, flatten each into about 3/4" disk, and sprinkle liberally with more cornmeal. Cover with plastic and heat up your skillet.

Woo hoo! We're finally grilling. Takes 3-6 minutes for the first side. They should be deep brown (not burnt) before flipping.

You have to keep pressing them down so they don't become little domes. I think I messed this part up and pressed down too much, because there was a serious lack of nooks and crannies.

Right after they come off the grill (each batch, not the whole lot), put them in a 350 degree oven. Now, I know I messed this part up. I waited too long and I think that was part of their demise.

So, they weren't what I expected. I know a couple of things I did wrong now and will try again sometime soon. They tasted good, but just had more of a bread feel than English muffin feel. Oh well, live and learn.

Christmas Recap

The holiday of eating is officially over. I'm finally writing about my Christmas dinner, and actually have a New Year post...I'm probably the busiest unemployed person I know. Anyway, without further ado, our Cook's Illustrated Christmas Feast.

Cornbread and sausage stuffing

Definitely the most popular dish of the night: cauliflower gratin

Simple roasted green beans (something healthy!)

That's me attempting to cut the ham the way Cook's Illustrated recommends. Worked well until I gave up.

Tangy and delicious buttermilk mashed potatoes

Yep, that's a feast (grandma's macaroni and cheese is also featured). This is also my one and only picture of the amazing mustard vermouth pan sauce I made to accompany the ham.

Chocolate tart (before the refrigeration)

Apple upside down lemon-thyme cake (similar to a tarte tatin in method, but with a cake underneath instead of crust)

Most of the dinner went pretty smoothly. It all came out hot and on time. The only hiccup I had was reading the very lengthy directions on the cornbread stuffing. I sat there with my cream mixture and broth still sitting out of the dish wondering what in the heck happened. I somehow missed that step that said to let the broth and cream soak into the dried cornbread. Oops! Well, it fortunately turned out just fine, as you can see.

The cauliflower gratin was the hit of the night--who doesn't love creamy, cheese goodness topped with crispy breadcrumbs?? Although, if you ask my grandma, the chocolate tart was the best. A woman who normally doesn't eat much and isn't a huge fan of chocolate managed to sneak more than half of my mom's dessert while we were all talking.

Happy Holidays everyone!

The Christmas dinner prep has begun...

Cornbread for my cornbread and sausage stuffing...

Sorry so blurry...

On the menu for Christmas Day

Spiral cut ham with mustard vermouth sauce
Cornbread and sausage stuffing
Cauliflower gratin
Roasted green beans
Buttermilk mashed potatoes
Grandma's mac and cheese (provided by Grandma, of course)
Apple upside down cake
Chocolate tart

I've got a lot of cooking to do since mom is still recovering from her shoulder surgery. Wish me luck!

My First Risotto

Yes, somehow this amateur chef somehow has never made a risotto until this weekend. Something about it always made me a little nervous. But, I figured, if I can conquer my fear of yeast and make bread, by golly I can make risotto.

My grocery shopping list is usually built around sales at New Seasons and the need to use up ingredients from past menus. I had a large bag of shredded cabbage that needed a use, so I looked up recipes on CooksIllustrated.com (my new obsession) and found Risotto with Cabbage & Country Ham.

Start olive oil over med-high heat, add diced onion & 4 oz prosciutto (or similar cured ham) and  lower heat to medium. Cook until onion has softened.

Add shredded cabbage and cover. Stirring occasionally, continue to cook until soft and starting to brown.

Add 2 cups of arborio rice and watered-down chicken broth. Let rice absorb liquid.

When rice has absorbed first bath of liquid, add 1/2 cup dry white wine (used Argyle chardonnay...would recommend something cheaper, but I forgot to buy something else, so had to use the good stuff). Let rice absorb wine. Add the rest of your liquid (about 2 cups left at this point) 1/2 cup at a time until rice is tender and no longer crunchy. 

My favorite part! Add the 1/2 cup grated parmesan. Fold in and season with salt and a little pepper.

Serve hot with additional parmesan for flavor.

I'm a big fan of cabbage but I got a few weird looks when I said I was making risotto with cabbage in it. Honestly, you can barely taste it. It does add a little extra texture, but not in a bad way. I am having the leftovers for lunch and couldn't be more excited. Now that I've gotten over my little fear, I think it's time to move on to my favorite risotto: mushroom. 

Post-Thanksgiving Meal

Oddly enough, the day after Thanksgiving was when we decided to make a more traditional meal for the family. My brother-in-law's mom is a buyer for a food distributor and they routinely get big packages of food, in this case a pork roast. Or so we thought. After planning out the meal, herb-crusted pork roast, and prepping my herb paste and fresh bread crumbs, I open the package and find out they are cuts of pork. Oops! Oh well, I made a couple of adjustments and made them into rolls. Unfortunately, I did not forgo the breadcrumbs right away and ended up with a mess of fried bread at the bottom of my pan that I had to scrape off.

To accompany the pork, I made fluffy mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts with pine nuts and garlic, and for those not sprout-inclined, green beans blanched, then quickly sauteed in the leftover garlic oil.

Brussel sprouts are finally gone! Sort of...there were some leftovers of this dish, too. Potatoes put through the ricer make for extra fluffy and creamy potatoes.

Pork rolls resting after being browned on the stovetop, then put on a rack in the oven for 20 minutes.

Pork Rolls (adapted from Cook's Illustrated recipe)

Heat oven to 325 degrees.

Herb paste
1/3 cup parsley
2 T freshly minced thyme
1 T fresh minced rosemary
6 T grated parmesan (I used parmigiano reggiano)
3 T olive oil
Salt
Pepper
-Process until smooth, about 12-15 1-second pulses

To make the rolls
Depending on the type of pork you have, the meat may be flat enough to roll. I pounded mine out just a little bit to be able to roll it up easily. Some were easier than others. Dry off the cutlets then spread a generous amount of paste in the middle, roll and secure with twine. Some pieces may take 2 or 3 ties. You could also use toothpicks depending on the size of the cuts.

[Now, here's where I made my mistake. I put some paste on the outside of the rolls and attempted to put the breadcrumbs on them. First of all, that was the wrong move in the recipe itself, secondly, my gut was telling me that it was all going to fall off...but I did it anyway. Lesson learned. What you really want to do...]

Heat a couple of tablespoons in a pan over medium-high heat. Place the rolls in the oil and brown on all sides. In the meantime, have a cookie sheet lined with foil and a wire rack placed over it ready. Once the rolls have been browned, transfer to the wire rack and allow to bake in the 325 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Times may vary depending on the thickness of your meat. You want an internal temperature of about 150 degrees.

A Very Spanish Thanksgiving

For our first Thanksgiving as Mr. and Mrs., we decided to go a little untraditional with Thanksgiving and give it a Spanish theme. We also ended up throwing it at someone else's house since I was housesitting for the weekend. As much as I wanted to celebrate in our own home, especially since we just moved in less than 6 months ago, who could pass up the chance to use a 6-burner gas range and two ovens?? I certainly couldn't. I'm going to let the pictures do the talking since there is so much to share.

Attempt #2 (?) at the caramel. Stupid epicurious.com recipe gave odd directions on how to make caramel, a way that was completely different than how I've made it in the past and look what happened...

...that's a cup's worth of sugar burnt onto the bottom of my pan from attempt #1. I eventually moved on from these directions 2 cups of sugar waste and 1 2nd degree burn later.

Using the Test Kitchen method and one I'm more familiar with, the 3rd time was a charm. Using 1/2 cup water and 1 cup of sugar, bring to a boil and simmer on medium-high heat until sugar is dissolved, careful not to let any of the sugar hit the sides of the pan as it goes in. Reduce the heat to medium-low when it starts to turn golden brown and stir slowly until a lovely shade of amber.

That's more like it.

The pumpkin flan right after coming out of the oven.

I added a few things to the spiced pumpkin seeds to adjust for the season. Shawn was such a fan, he thought they were a tapa, not just topping for the flan.

Toasting the pumpkin seeds in a little bit of grapeseed oil until they puffed.

My best attempt at burning the skin of the red pepper for making the sofrito for the paella. It sucks not having a gas range sometimes. Ok, all the time. Ideally, you should burn the skin until black, then wrap in a paper towel, wrap again in a dish towel and then into a plastic bag to sweat it so the skin comes off easily. Mine came off less than easily. Imagine that.

After peeling the pepper, I minced it and added to the minced onion that had softened in a bit of olive oil over medium-high heat, along with minced, peeled tomatoes (about 1/2 cup), and minced garlic. Mincing is important--can you tell? Let that soften up and absorb much of the moisture.

Just about done. You can skip seasoning this much as it will be going into the paella, which will be seasoned later.

A guest is featured here on the blog. Michael made some amazing sherry chicken livers.

Sauteeing the onions and pancetta. Yum.

Chicken livers hot off the stove. He brought some mini toasts to pick it up, but we had to upgrade to the slices of Little T baguette...just couldn't get quite enough on the little toasts.

New Seasons called these Segovia style mushrooms. I just called them delicious. Very simple recipe, but very good. Yesterday we combined the leftovers livers and mushrooms into the Cuisinart, hit the button, and ended up with some incredible pate.

My first tarte tatin. My brother and sister hate pumpkin and always insist on an apple dessert. I decided it was important to keep it in the European family, so I made this French tart. I couldn't find a good pot holder in the foreign kitchen, so it got a little crisper on top than I would have liked, but it was good.

Flipped over--not quite as pretty as the picture, but definitely tasty. I am going to try a different strategy with the apples next time I make this dish. I think I could have smooshed in more.

Not much cooking in this picture, but had to get a shot of some of the great tapas we had before the main event. Spanish tortilla in the background, Little T baguettes, and apples, manchego and olives. The garlic-paprika aioli I made for the tortillas went fast.

The paella and costra innards before they went in.

My mama does it a little differently than most. Her paella starts with cooking the chicken, then sauteeing the rice before adding the chorizo. Either way, it turned out great.

As with risotto and most rice dishes, make sure your stock is hot before adding to the dish. I made a quick fish stock, then added the saffron before adding to the paella pan.

Made almost simultaneously...the costra. A very similar rice dish to the paella, but made with meat and scrambled egg is added mid-way through cooking. I'm used to there being more egg, but the basic concept is there.

The finished paella and costra resting before we dig in. I think I bought a little too much shellfish.

And to top off a fantastic day of eating, 3 desserts for 12 people. From the top, tarte tatin, pumpkin flan with spiced pumpkin seeds, and pumpkin cheesecake.

What are your Thanksgiving traditions? Do you do anything to mix it up every year? We may change the type of food at times, but we stuck with a few traditions--a puzzle (care of my brother this year), great food, wine and conversation. I am very grateful for such a wonderful day with my family and friends. I hope your day was just as spectacular!