1 7-bone roast (so called because it has a big bone shaped like a 7–not because it has 7 bones)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup red wine you would actually drink
1/2 can tomato paste – about 3 or 4 ounces, not sure.
3 cloves garlic, squished with the broad side of a knife
some kind of salty seasoning mix (i like “pappy’s”)
1 bay leaf
1 onion, roughly chopped
5 carrots, roughly chopped
5 turnips, roughly chopped
5 waxy potatoes, roughly chopped  (yukon gold, red, purple – anything but big brown idaho russets)
fresh herbs – thyme, rosemary are good

preheat oven to 250.

heat the olive oil until barely smoking. add the garlic and saute, but don’t let it burn. when it’s lightly browned, sprinkle the pot roast with salty seasoning mix and brown for about 5-7 minutes. when it’s brown on one side, flip with tongs and brown on the other.

add the wine, bay leaf, and tomato paste, cover tightly with lid, and cook 4 hours in the 250 degree oven.

add the roughly chopped root vegetables plus some herbs.  cook another hour, or until they’re done.

add extra salt to taste, plus a little sugar.

Look at these:

or these:

Decisions, decisions.  Yeah, right.

I’d choose the purple babies hands down.   At least,  I’d know they come in my size.

I have to thank Em over at her totally charming http://eminpursuit.blogspot.com/ for turning me on to to the purple clogs available at Hanna Andersson.

I totally relate to Em’s conundrum of tossing out your favorite, albeit not Manolo sexy, but totally comfy shoes, as she says “to reinvent (our) style into streamlined and hip.  I recently spent an hour looking for a now too cool Doc Martens I forgot that I tossed out during a frenzied shoe-makeover. ‘No more comfy shoes!  “I want ‘em pointy and high!” I wailed.

Isn’t funny how we all start with the shoes?

If my shoes are funky, nothing is right in the universe.  I could be wearing a Dior blouse, a Ralph Lauren (Black Label, thank you) alpaca skirt, a mink-trimmed sweater, and my ubiquitous pearls and feel as if I should be squatting by the nearest subway entrance with a chipped plastic cup and a sign with “Help me get to Bloomingdales” scrawled in lipstick.

I have almost called in sick at work if I couldn’t find the right shoes to go with that day’s ensemble. Such is their importance.

At one time, my categories for shoe beauty were as narrow as the shoes on that list.  They had to be pointy things with skinny heels.  They needed to show toe cleavage….oooh yeah!   And if there was a strap, it had to be as thin as a piece of bucatini…I once had a pair of 4 inch heels that consisted of:  the heel, the very thin–I feel-every-pebble-sole and one narrow strip of gold eel skin that went across the vamp.  How something so narrow could be responsible for blisters the size of Montana was a true mystery.  Blisters is notoriously in the plural, so enamored was I with these beauties, that I would suck it up, and slip these on and teeter through the day.  These were my go to shoes for work.  I became an expert in the different types of band aids.

One of the reasons I so loved these shoes is that they were my size.  I wear a size 4.  I have midget feet.  People oooh and awwww when they see my feet—Once on a very crowded city bus, a man kept gushing with his adoration for small feet…I kept politely nodding until he asked if  he might rub mine.  After I coaxed my eyebrows down from the top of my bangs,  I quickly squeezed me and my tiny feet to the front of the bus.

In my next life, I swear, I will have size 10 feet.  Yea, I want to have to back up to ring the doorbell!   I am so jealous of you ladies who have larger feet.  I can’t imagine how it must feel to walk into a shoe store for grown ups, choose a pair, and hit the jackpot! They have your size!

I can’t fathom purchasing a pair of shoes, getting them home and not needing to figure out how to pull the ears off.  Even though children sized shoes can be cheaper I am now haunted.  Every time I see Mickey or Minnie, I feel an urge to apologize profusely.

So when I found a source for grown up shoes that fit, I’d rebel at being constrained by maryjanes and aimed for the highest heels and the scantiest form of support available.

Before we moved to the Bay Area, I lived in a town were nobody walked.  It was amazing.  GM probably underwrote the city coffers.  While the town consisted of strip malls upon strip malls and its system of public transportation nothing more than an urban myth, my feet never touched the outside ground.  I only had to teeter from car to my desk to my car to the restaurant and back home.  It was easy to live in high heels.

When we moved to the Bay Area, my life totally changed.

Our neighborhood is noted for hills…no, I mean real hills; hills that have staircases carved into the sidewalk.  The squirrels, I swear, shop at REI and wear hiking boots.   From up here, our views are breathtaking.  From our balcony, if I lean far to the left, I can see the ocean and the Bay Bridge, if I lean further over the rail, I can see the San Francisco skyline at night.  Most of the time though, if I look straight down, I can watch people pause, clutch their chest, pant like a dog for a few seconds as they come to the top of our hill.

One morning, coffee cup in hand, I stood on the balcony, thrilled to be nose to nose with the squirrel scampering from treetop to treetop, I looked down at my feet…they were all dressed up in their baby pink maribou’d 3 inch slides that I found in a Barbie Dress Up kit–hey, they fit!

In a bolt of lightening, it hit me.  I had suddenly turned into Rapunzel trapped in her tower.  I couldn’t walk down the hill to catch the bus.  I’d have to have groceries shipped in.  I’d have to wait for weekly mail drops for news from the outside world.   I ran, ok, I minced, to the closet, I had nothing that that would keep me from tumbling down the hill and sliding into the bay.

I quickly logged into Zappos!  In a matter of days I have transformed from Rapunzel to Indiana Jones, my quest was to find a pair of walking shoes that don’t scream solid and sturdy.  Solid and sturdy are merely a hop, skip and jump from bucolic.  Some walking shoes bring images of potato farms…I like potatoes. I respect potato farmers, I just don’t think combining the two make for fashionable shoes.

So far, the quest never ends…Em, I am intrigued by the clogs…thanks for the link!

Guess what?  I started cooking again.  DH is a happy camper.  Thanksgiving is still lingering like that poltergeist that won’t leave.  I froze a hunk of turkey the size of our Prius.  I figure, come February, the poltergeist will rise again transformed into some sort of casserole.  For now, we had beef and cheese tortellini vegetable soup…perfect for these cool winter nights.

This is so easy:

2 large leeks cleaned and chopped

2 large carrots cleaned and chopped

1 8oz package of cheese tortellini – I find these near the dairy aisle in my grocery store

3 8 oz cartons of beef broth

½ head of cabbage shredded

2 large russet potatoes peeled and diced
1 lb chuck roast cut into 2 inch pieces

1 tbl of thyme, and oregano

¼ cup sherry

salt & pepper to taste

• In a large Dutch oven, pour enough olive oil to coat the bottom, heat until it shimmers.
• Sauté the leeks until soft
• Add the meat, continue to brown lightly
• Add the cabbage and toss with the meat and leeks, cook until the cabbage start to wilt.
• Pour in the broth, tomatoes, bring to light boil
• Add the potatoes and the oregano & thyme
• Boil until the potatoes are soft
• At this point, you’ll need more liquid, so add about 2 cups of water, bring back up to a light boil
• Add the tortellini and cook for 7 minutes or until the pasta is cooked.
• Stir in the sherry and serve!

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1.5 lb of Chuck Roast                                            3 tbsp of Olive Oil

1/2 Cup of Wheat Flour                                        1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt                                                                    1 tsp pepper

1 can tomato paste                                                 1 small can diced tomato

1 onion chopped 

Directions: 

Mix flour, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Dredge chuck roast in flour and pound well with a meat mallet or the edge of a dish.

Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a skillet and sautee onion until soft. Remove and add the rest of the 2 tbsp of oil and brown chuck.

Add diced tomato and tomato paste and onions boil then lower to a simmer. Cover and cook for  1hour and 15 min at least.

Serve over mashed potatoes.  (3 potatoes should serve 4)

Artichokes as an appetizer is an extremely good compliment to this dish

Serves 4

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: 1hr 10min.

Sliced Pot Roast with Onions and Garlic

Ingredients:
1 lb Chuck Roast
2-4 Tbsp House Seasoning
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
6 cloves Garlic, sliced
2 medium white Onions, quartered
4 Carrots, skinned, sliced
4 Red Pontiac Potatoes, quartered
1 Tbsp Herbes de Provence
2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 Tbsp Salt
1 Tbsp Black Pepper
1/2 cup Water

Directions:

• Cut slits into the Roast big enough for slivers of Garlic to be slid into it.
• Slide half the Garlic into the slits.
• Cover the Roast in the House Seasoning.
• Preheat oven to 250°F.
• In a Dutch oven, brown the outside of the Roast in the Olive Oil on medium heat. To do this, let the meat rest on either side, and then left with tongs and rotate. If you move too often, the browning will not be as caramelized.
• Remove Roast from the Dutch Oven.
• Add the water and de-glaze, scrapping the fatty/meaty deposits that have stuck to the pan with a whisk.
• Add the Onions, and Place the Roast on top of them.
• Surround the Roast with the Potatoes and Carrots.
• Sprinkle with the Herbs, Worcestershire Sauce and remaining Seasonings.
• Place in the oven, with a lid on the Dutch Oven, and bake for 3 1/2 to 4 hours.

NOTES: If you have a roasting pan, you can use it for the baking process. You should still brown the meat in a skillet and the place it into the roasting pan; keeping the lowering insert below the onions and roast.

Feel free to use whichever root vegetables you prefer like Turnips, Parsnips, Rutabagas, Yucca, etc; or you can omit them.

I am eating leftover fried rice and drinking a beer and calling that dinner. If I have the energy and desire, I may make a caprese to follow that up. Or not. Meanwhile, the dog is gnawing on one of my bras she’s dragged out of the dirty laundry basket in my bedroom. And I’m too tired to get up and take it away from her.

I am also contemplating what to do with a piece of skirt steak I just picked up at Kroger because it was in the “manager’s special” cooler for $2.03 for a pound and a half. I’ve found a recipe for marinating it in harissa and yogurt and grilling it, which I’d do on my grill pan inside because I’m not firing up the grill for just one little piece of skirt steak.  But my friend Kate is coming over tomorrow, and I feel like cooking something different. Skirt steak in harissa and yogurt is different. I’ll report.

Also at Kroger; chuck roasts, on sale in the family pack, at 1.97 a pound. Can’t beat that. Bought one package, separated them, put them in the freezer. I found a chili recipe that calls for chorizo AND shredded stew meat, which is just chuck roast cut into stew-sized pieces. It has a bajilion different kinds of peppers, some cocoa, lots of garlic and onion, a bottle of beer, and I-don’t-know-what-all else. I’ll have to hunt for it again; not sure which computer it’s on. But we’re down in the double digits of September, even though it doesn’t feel fall-ish, and I’m getting a notion for some of those fall dishes. I am also intrigued with the idea of “Delta Doc’s Garlic Beef,” which involves two whole BULBS of garlic, olive oil, soy sauce, chopped onion, beef stock and beer.  And a slow cooker.  But damn, that’s a lot of garlic.

Also in my freezer awaiting fall — a whole chicken who’s going to become Italian roast chicken one of these days; a couple of bags of duck breasts, destined for gumbo this winter; andouille sausage, awaiting a pot of red beans and rice. And some red snapper fillets. And various and assorted packages of chicken and pork chops bought in the family pack and separated out to freeze. I really need to go through there and get a handle on just what all I DO have, and get rid of some of the stuff that’s probably old enough to vote.

Perhaps a weekend project.

Perhaps not.

I rescued my bra from the dog. She’s now chewing my briefcase.

Sigh. I need another beer. You and y’mama ‘n ‘em carry on.

Recipe from my mom

I just finished the bottle of this Italian Rosati Barbaresco wine. (I blogged about it yesterday if you would like to read my tasting notes.)

What I want to blog about tonight is my wonderful group of students who finished their last class in their Master of Educational Leadership program tonight. I am so proud of them. They are dedicated educators and have spent the last two years of their lives taking night classes and conducting a research study. This class was their last class where they (all but three — who are still working feverishly!)  handed in their final research report (and did an oral presentation on their findings). Congratulations to Linka, Tammy, Corrie, Richard, Yolanda, Denelle, Christian, Kristie, Mary & Eric!

Before class, I had put together a pot roast (I browned a chuck roast in hot oil, then added fresh garlic cloves, chopped onions, red wine and chicken broth and then covered it and put it in the oven at 225-degrees). By the time I came home from class, the meat was fork tender. I added potatoes and carrots to the roast while we had our cocktail and read the paper. By the time we were done reading the paper, everything was tender and delicious.

Cheers to the new Masters! Clink!

This recipe is my answer to many issues:
1. I had a chuck roast I impulsively purchased at Whole Foods. I recognized the cut as one that is used in SO many slow-cooker recipes.
2. I dislike potroast. Every time I looked over a recipe that mentioned carrots or turnips or something similarly unpleasing I just had to keep moving. So what ELSE do you do with A POT ROAST, because that is essentially what I purchased.
3. Slow cooker recipes typically cook for 6-8 hours on low…right? Well…I leave my house around 7:00 am – and I don’t get home until 4:30 – so even with the crock-pot turning to it’s “warming” mode with the little timer and everything, that means that whatever poor meal that was trapped in the slowcooker will get 9.5 hours of heat. So…yeah can someone find me a slow cooker recipe that cooks for like 10 or 11 hrs? kthx.

Browsing my iPhone at lunch today I noiced an application for Epicurious (“There’s an app for that”) so I promptly downloaded it & searched “chuck roast”. I eventually happened upon this Beer-Braised Beef & Onions and there is little in this world that I love more than onions. In any shape, fashion, or form. Fried, caramelized, grilled, raw. Love ‘em. Also, it only cooks for 3~ hours…

Click the link I posted in the last paragraph for the recipe in it’s full form. Below is what I made (substitutions, etc).

Cooks’ note: Beef improves in flavor if made at least 1 day ahead (up to 4 days) and chilled in sauce (covered once cool). Discard solidified fat. To reheat, remove meat from sauce and slice, then spoon gelled sauce over meat in a shallow baking dish. Cover tightly with foil and heat in a 325°F oven, about 45 minutes. Alternatively, you can reheat meat, unsliced, in sauce.

Ingredients:
3 pounds onions
1 (5-pound) boneless beef chuck roast, tied
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
2 Turkish bay leaves or 1 California
2 (12-ounces) bottle Sam Adams*
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Directions:

1. Halve onions lengthwise, then slice lengthwise 1/4 inch thick.

2. Pat beef dry and season all over with 2 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a wide 5-to 6-quart heavy pot over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Brown beef on all sides, about 15 minutes, then transfer to a plate.

3. Cook onions with bay leaves and 1/2 teaspoon salt in remaining tablespoon oil in pot, scraping up brown bits from bottom and stirring occasionally, until onions are well browned, about 25 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Cut a round of parchment paper the diameter of the inside of pot (near the top). Set parchment round aside.

5. Add beer and vinegar to onions and bring to a boil, stirring and scraping up brown bits. Add beef and meat juices from plate and return to a boil.

6. Cover with parchment round and lid and braise in oven until meat is very tender when pierced in several places with a meat fork, about 3 1/2 hours. *If you’re me, about an hour into this is when you realize that the recipe says TWO bottles of beer and with the nightmarish thoughts of a dry piece of beef screaming at you, you rush to the oven, toss in a bottle of beer and have inspiration enough to also toss in 5 whole cloves of garlic, since its in everything else you…I mean, I eat.

7. Transfer beef to a cutting board and let stand, loosely covered, 20 minutes. Cut off string, then slice meat. Skim off fat from sauce and discard bay leaves. Reheat if necessary.

8. Serve braised beef with onions and sauce.

I’m attempting to follow the “Cook’s Note” above since when a recipe says “it’s better as leftovers” it’s usually WAY better as leftovers…so I’ll try to take a picture of this tomorrow when it’s consumed and reviewed by T, the beef connoisseur in this house.

UPDATE: This was quite good. T said it was one of the best pot roasts he’d ever had, as he cleared his plate and went back for 2nds immideatly. I have decided that I don’t like slow-cooked beef. Not sure why I have such an aversion to it, but something about slow-cooked/braised/simmered beef just doesn’t do it for me. Now don’t get me wrong, this was very good & I cleaned my plate… but just not something I’d rave over. I’ll be making it again, I’m sure…whenever the chuck goes on sale again. Here is a nice’n'blurry photo of the finished product, served up with some brown rice – and imagine a green salad in a bowl alongside it (the salad never happened but I envisioned it this way).

May 2, 2009 the Motherly
Mamacita cooks for Cinco del Mayo!
Well, there is just time enough to give you my great recipe for Beef Machaca for burritos for your best Cinco del Mayo party food, ever. Having grown up in southern Arizona offered me and my family the wonderful influence of having Mexican-American food as an integral part of our food experience. I probably have eaten way more tacos than I have hamburgers. So, it was only natural that I came up with this great version of “Machaca”.

So, I decided to share it with y’all. It’s a simple two-part, two-day preparation, and if you don’t eat it all, it freezes perfectly. Let’s do it!
Get a large 3-5 lb. chuck roast – boneless best. Put it in a flat pan like a 9 x 14” cake pan. Take a bunch of garlic cloves and remove the paper skins (or not). You’ll want about one clove for every 3 square inches of roast—about the size of a deck of cards. Take a sharp little paring knife and cut a hole straight down about 2/3rds of the way into the roast. Poke one of the garlics into that hole. When all of that is done, lightly salt and pepper both sides of the roast, and put the pan with the roast into an oven at 400 degrees F. for about 15 minutes. Then, turn the oven down to 325 degrees F. and cook the roast until it becomes a medium-well done, brown roast. Leave the meat in the flat pan and cool, then cover with foil and keep overnight in the fridge.
The next morning (because you’ll want about 4 -6 hours for the next step), take the meat out, remove the foil, and you will see that the grease has turned white. Pick off as much of this grease and throw it away. You don’t have to be perfect, but I’d say you can get about 75% of it in big hunks. Get a large pot—at least 2 to 3 gallon size—like you boil your spaghetti in. Begin cutting the roast, garlic and all, into hunks about 2” square. When all the meat is in the pot, add some warm water to the flat pan and scrape up all the good meat drippings and pour in on top of the chunks of cooked roast.
Now, add 2 to 4 cans of Ortega red chili salsa (they are about 3 to 5 oz. cans)—the number depends on how big your roast is. And, it must be Ortega. Add also, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon brown or turbinado sugar, 2-3 tablespoons dried oregano. Stir the whole mixture together. Then, add just enough water to cover the meat, and begin cooking it on top of the stove on medium until the water gets to boiling. Turn down to a little more than simmer, at first… you want the water to cook off, but you don’t want the meat to burn. Initially, you can stir the mixture about every half hour. I use a wooden spoon and begin pressing on the meat to start stressing it apart. (Be sure to hold on to the pot with a pot holder with one hand—you don’t want the spoon to slip and the whole mixture to go all over the top of the stove. Well, how do you think I know that? Duh?) I better add that if the water cooks off too fast, and you find that the meat isn’t breaking down, add another cup of water to the mixture and let it keep reducing.  You might do this a couple of times, but only add 1 cup at a time.  Once the mixture starts looking  shredded and cohesive–and not just like cubes–then you quit adding additional water and let it finally cook into the machaca.
Once the shredded process occurs,  the meat becomes darker and will begin to look like the stringy “machaca” you get in your burritos in the restaurants. But, believe me, this tastes a whole lot better. You will notice that the “machaca” is spicy but not hot—unless you used a hot salsa—I don’t. You can have hot sauce, etc. to serve with it.  The whole cooking process on day two depends on how much meat you are cooking and how fast you are cooking it.  Remember to turn the heat down to simmer when the water is nearly gone–and stir frequently. The whole process can take up to 4-6 hours--but, you’ll be cleaning house for the party, eh?
So, what do you do with this “machaca”? Get some white flour tortillas, warm them in the oven—but don’t let them dry out—and put some of the meat—several tablespoons in the center of the tortilla and serve with: grated cheese, diced tomatoes, diced avocado or guacamole, diced olives, diced onions, chopped cilantro, slices of lime, and hot sauce. People have their own favorite way to make their burritos. Oh, the white Mexican cheeses are good in this, too. Then roll up the tortilla, tucking the sides/ends in, and there you go.
You can also just serve the meat with refried beans, fried rice, or tamales, use it in tacos or enchiladas, or put it in one of those big Mexican buns as a sandwich…but I assure you, it will become one of your favorites. Add this to your cook book and you will become famous for it—it worked for me. Make a lot and freeze part of it before everyone shows up—because, if they think you have any left over—they think they should have ownership of it. LOL My daughter pretty much uses this same idea but with chicken—starting out with a couple of those roasted chickens from Costco or your local store. You’ll  just have to pick out the bones before you serve the meat. So, there you go. Oh, and don’t forget to add a couple of Coronas or Dos XX’s to the meal. And, Feliz Cinco del Mayo a todos.

La Mamacita    Ole`

Tender and juicy! This pot roast is fall apart tender with all of the delicious flavors you’d expect from a great pot roast. Carrots, celery, onions, garlic and potatoes round out this fabulous easy to make dish.  Add some sauteed brussell sprouts and you’ve got a great meal!

Ingredients: Pot Roast

2 1/2 to 3lb. chuck roast

1 1/2 to 2 teas. salt

1 1/2 to 2 teas. cracked pepper

2lbs. (3) russet potatoes ( 1-1 1/2in. chunks, peeled optional )

2 stalks celery ( 1in. long pieces )

2 carrots ( 1in. long pieces )

1/2 onion ( large dice )

4 cloves fresh garlic ( minced or crushed )

1/4 red pepper ( large dice )

4 cups beef broth ( enough to cover roast )

1 tbsp. dry parsley

1/4 teas. dry rosemary

1 teas. dry oregano

1 tbsp. worsteshire sauce

2 1/2 tbsp. corn starch ( thickener )

1 to 2 tbsp. olive oil

Method: Pot Roast

Start by heavily seasoning your roast with salt and pepper. Be generous as this is the only salt and pepper you’ll need to use.

Heat a 5qt. stock pot or dutch oven to high and add the olive oil. When the oil just starts to smoke carefully place your seasoned roast in the pot with the fattiest side down first.

Sear both sides, about 7 minutes a side.  Leaving the roast in one spot will give you better color so try not to move it until ready to flip. Just lift up one side to see if it’s ready to flip and put it back down, or if you have the color we’re looking for flip it.

Searing the meat first will start to build your flavors in the pot.

After your roast has seared, simply add everything else but the potatoes and cornstarch and turn the heat down to low. Cover and let it simmer for about 2 1/2 hours.

After 2 1/2 hours, add the cornstarch to a small bowl along with 1 or 2 ladles of the liquid from your roast.

Stir or whisk until the cornstarch has dissolved and pour the mixture back into your pot, stir.

Add your potatoes also and simmer another 1 1/2 hours. About 4 hours total. That’s it! Now just remove your roast, slice and serve it with the vegetables.

Note: A 15 oz. can of diced tomatoes can be added in with the potatoes to give you an extra layer of flavor if desired. I left that out because I planned to make a vegetable beef soup with my leftovers ( see the recipe below ).

Side of sauteed brussell sprouts.

Ingredients: Brussell Sprouts

1lb. fresh brussell sprouts ( cut in half )

1/4 cube margarine or butter

2 cloves fresh garlic ( minced or crushed )

2 tbsp. grated parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Method: Brussell Sprouts

Peel off the tough outer leaves of your brussell sprouts and slice in half lengthwise. Steam or boil them until soft, about 5 to8 minutes.

Melt butter over medium high heat in a skillet. Add your garlic and saute for about 1 to2 minutes, until garlic is soft. Add your softened brussell sprouts and saute another 2 minutes. Add your salt, pepper and parmesan cheese and saute for about 2 more minutes. Serve.

Succulent and juicy, this pot roast has amazing flavor. The beef just melts in your mouth, the vegetables are soft and delicious, the potatoes are al dente and the sauce is packed with goodness.

If you have some leftovers, here’s an awesome vegetable beef soup recipe to make. Add more of the same flavors and build on it, soups are very versatile. Here’s what I did to make this fabulous soup.

Ingredients: Vegetable Beef Soup

1-1 1/2lbs. leftover roast ( diced to bite size )

1lb. leftover potatoes ( diced to bite size )

leftover sauce with veggies ( about 1 1/2 qts. )

8 cups beef broth

2 cloves fresh garlic ( minced or crushed )

1/2 onion ( 1/2 in. dice )

1 stalk celery ( 1/4 in. slice )

2 tomatoes ( 1/2 in. dice )

1 cup frozen vegetables of your choice ( I used corn )

8oz. can tomato sauce

1 teas. salt

Method: Vegetable Beef Soup

This is a very easy soup to put together. Just add everything to a large stock pot or dutch oven, cover and bring to a boil.

I just used the same pot I had my leftover pot roast in from the night before.

After it comes to a boil, reduce heat to low to medium low and simmer for at least 1 hour, 2 is better. Give it a stir every now and then. Serve.

Makes about 1 1/2 gallons and freezes well.

These are both wonderful recipes and worth the effort, you wont be disappointed.

Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY COOKING!

David

Check out our online cookware store at www.onestopcook.com

Posted by Lisa

If you have high quality ingredients, then simple preparation is frequently the best way to go.  Pot roast is no exception, in my book.  Starting with grass fed, humanely raised beef will give you a flavorful, tender roast with minimal effort.

Chuck Roast

I started out with a 3 1/2 pound chuck roast.  Sprinkle it liberally with sea salt and pepper on both sides.  Add a small amount of oil or beef tallow to a cast iron skillet or Dutch oven on a medium high flame.  Your pan will need to have a tight fitting lid.

Browning the roast

When the oil is hot, put the roast into the pan and brown.  If you try to lift it and the meat is sticking, that means it’s not ready to be turned.  When it is properly browned, the meat will release from the pan and not stick.  When it has reached that point, turn it and brown it thoroughly on the other side.

When both sides are browned, place a lid on your skillet or Dutch oven and bake at 325 degrees for about 3 hours.  Don’t take the lid off and check it; you want the heat to stay even and break down the fibers to tenderize it.  If you’d like to make a gravy from the drippings, add 1/2 – 1 cup of water to the pan before placing in into the oven.

After about 3 hours, check and make sure it is tender to your taste.  If not, let it bake another 1/2 hour or more, but 3 hours should be sufficient.  After removing it from the oven.  Let it rest with the lid on so that the juices stay in the meat as it cools a bit.  When you are almost ready to serve, remove the roast from the pan and slice it.  If you want to make a gravy, heat the pan drippings and add 1 tablespoon of arrowroot powder dissolved in a bit of water and bring to a boil.  Taste and adjust seasonings, though I find that I generally don’t need to adjust since some of the salt and pepper from the roast end up in the drippings.

Pot Roast with Pan Dripping Gravy

This Sunday’s meal was a choice of stews.  Veggie stew, fish stew or a basic beef stew.  Before I asked my husband Todd what his choice would be, I knew which recipe we would be sampling later in the day.  Beef stew it was!

The accompanying article indicated that the meat used in the stew should be cut at home, as prepared stew meat is typically made from various cuts and types of meat.  In order to end up with a stew made only of chuck roast, I bought a 3lb roast and cut it up at home.

Also, the recipe calls for the stew to be prepared in a Dutch oven.  I don’t own a Dutch oven, so I took the opportunity to purchase one.

This recipe was very easy and I followed it almost to a tee.  The only modification I made was that since Todd is sensitive to onion flesh, I used only one and cut it into large chunks.  Once they were cooked and soft, I removed them. 

I served the stew with a sweet cornbread and both were very good.  There was enough left over to freeze so we will have it again soon.

Basic Beef Stew

Buy the best cheapest chuck cut you can find. I managed to get a buy one get one free deal at my local store on two chuck roasts. I was making pot roast but got tired of it. I think I may try some slow stewed Barbacoa (<spelling?) next time. Add your favorite stewing vegetable to make it especially appealing.

2# beef chuck or semi tough cut

1 cup each onions, carrots, celery, red potatoes

1 cup quartered white mushrooms ( my fav)

1 cup whole pealed tomatoes

1 cup merlot

1 to 2 tablespoons Kosher salt

2 tablespoons chopped rosemary

2+2 tablespoons blended oil

2 cups water

Its best to use a big braising pan or large saute pan with a thick bottom and a lid. I don’t like my large pot because it doesn’t have the surface area to brown the meat well, and sweat the veg without turning it to a soup prematurely. Dice all the veg in large pieces about the size of a nickel or quarter if you dare. Get pan hot almost to smoking and add oil. Dice meat removing excess fat or gristle.  Season with salt and fresh cracked pepper. Always use good salt and fresh cracked peppercorns. Add to pan and brown quickly on high temp. Remove from the pan and drain. In same pan sweat all the onions, celery and carrots with the oil at a medium heat until fragrant and half tender. Add the red wine to clean the bottom of the pan. Add all remaining ingredients and mix well. Put a lid on the pan and cook on low for two to three hours or until veg and meat are tender. Take a nap while you wait. When done mix again and it will probably thicken from the potatoes and other carbs inside. Check seasoning.

Serve hot with your favorite fresh baked hard bread.

A great variation is to keep out the red potatoes and serve the soup with fresh mashed potatoes on top in the bowl. Garnish with a big sprig of rosemary in the middle of the bowl.

Grab a glass of the Merlot you have left and enjoy!!!

Yes, you’re right, we were supposed to have Swiss Steak tonight – but I forgot to buy an extra bell pepper from Whole Foods (the only place with semi-local bells this time of year), and I just happened to buy too many mushrooms for last night’s spaghetti, so this is what we ended up with.  Husband wasn’t the least bit unhappy, since this resembles his favorite dish at a local restaurant.

In a stainless steel sauté pan, I placed:

-         a 1.25 lb. chuck blade roast, seasoned with salt, pepper, and sage

-         1 tbsp olive oil

-         enough water to braise the meat(but not too much to steam or boil it)

-         more salt, pepper, and sage

-         sliced white mushrooms (the generic white ones from the produce department, which I bought whole and sliced myself – you could use something fancier)

This braised on top of the stove for about two hours, but this would cook well in a Crock Pot, too, or even in the oven, but I’m making an oven roast tomorrow, so I thought I’d mix it up a bit.  And since Swiss Steak is a stove top sort of meal, I was already in that frame of mind.  So there!

In a separate pan, about half an hour before the meat finished, I cooked four slices of bacon.  When the bacon was done, I removed it from the pan and added some kale to sauté in the drippings.  (Can you tell we live in the South?)  I crumbled the bacon to add to the steak and mushrooms on the plates.

I still served mashed potatoes and gravy with it, but I made the gravy out of the leftover braise juice and cornstarch.  I’m still a novice gravy maker, so it wasn’t quite thick enough.  A little more cornstarch or flour would’ve probably helped.

Overall, this was a little greasy, but we’ll definitely do something like this again.  Mainly, I need to work on my gravy skills!  Any suggestions?

I’m not a big stewed beef lover and while Bruce loves pot roast and beef soup/stew dishes, we don’t eat it very often.  I decide to make him happy by making a beef soup.  I took one of chuck roasts and cut it into very small pieces and then browned them really well.  I added beef stock, wild rice (cultivated), butternut squash, turnips, and Brussels sprouts.  I also made anadama bread which has become a favorite in the house now.  The soup came out very nice; the butternut squash gave it a sweet taste and the beef was very flavorful and the bread was a nice compliment.

Bruce made a nice salad of arugula, dandelion, green onion, walnuts, radishes, turnips, French blue cheese, and apple.  The dressing was an apple and white balsamic vinaigrette.

The wine was Cana’s Feast Tre Nova 2004 Secopasso.

With the economy the way it is and work being sparse, I wanted to make a hearty winter meal using a pretty economical section of beef, chuck roast.  Because it is muscly and tough people disregard it, but with a bit of slow cooking it easily becomes tender and flavorful. I bought mine at the Stoltzfus Meat Counter at the Ardmore Farmer’s Market.

I used Simply Recipes recipe for Pot Roast and loved how simple it was.  I seared the meat at about 5:30pm and by 9pm it was done!  I followed a suggestion I saw in the original recipe and piled two burner racks together on my gas stove to get the lowest possible simmering heat.  Needless to say, my white cast iron pot is now dyed maroon from the wine that cooked in it for 4 hours.

For the gratin, I found this recipe from the Barefoot Contessa.  It was (and the leftovers still are!) super decadent with that rich Gruyere cheese, but made for a great accompaniment to the roast.

Now, on to our second course, the promised Beef Bourguignon. This is another one of my 2-day, slow-cooking techniques, as explained in my carnitas blog. I’ve been wanting to try this technique on Beef Bourguignon for some time. I’ve always made beef bourguignon the classic way, which involves cutting the beef into 2-inch cubes, tossing in flour, searing and then braising at about 325 degrees for 3-4 hours. Hey, it works. The beef is tender (if a bit dry) and everything is cooked. I don’t know…I was just hoping for something more. The last time I made my carnitas, I thought about Beef Bourguignon and wondered if it would work to use the same technique. Well, I tried it and well, stick me in a freezer and call me a popsicle….it worked…and it worked well. It worked so well, it was the best beef bourguignon I’ve ever made. It was TRANSCENDENT beef bourguignon. It wasn’t JUST tender….it was almost like confit. It just melts into the sauce and in your mouth. No hard, ‘dry yet somehow greasy’ nuggets of beef chuck that are tender but unsatisfying. The meat becomes the sauce and yet stays in ‘meat form’.

I still consulted one of my longtime favorite food bibles for the ingredients:

The full recipe will be at the end of the blog, but you’ll need good bacon…preferably in slab form rather than pre-sliced…if you can find it. Or, you can use pancetta, salt pork, guanciale, thick cut Prosciutto, etc., etc. Extra fat of your choice, (I’m using lard….who woulda thunk it?), but you can use olive oil, butter, whatever….carrot, onion, garlic…thyme, bay leaf…tomato paste…a bottle of red wine (more if you’re drinking while cooking)…beef stock…and a beef chuck roast, about 3 – 4 pounds.

No, I’m not using all of this…I just cut off a hunk to show you:

Flavors:

Liquids:

Chuckie Chuck Roast….season liberally with salt and pepper:

Pot o’choice….enameled cast iron, bitches! I like Le Creuset:

The trick to this particular Le Creuset pot is that you put ice cubes in the indentation of the lid while cooking and then the resulting condensation on the inside drips down these little nubbins and back into your meat.

But I never bother with the ice cubes. This is cooking soooo long that, believe me…it’s tender and juicy. So, add your bacon cut into lardons, as explained in my previous blogs, to your pot over medium high heat and start sautéing until the fat starts to come out and then turn down the heat to low and cook slowly for about an hour to render out the fat.

Remove the lardons from the pan and leave the fat in there. Let them cool to the side on paper towels. I had to cover these with plastic so I wouldn’t eat them all:

Add a little more fat to the pot (don’t worry…you’ll get rid of it again later), turn up the heat and brown the chuck roast on all sides. Take your time doing this. When I say brown, I mean dark brown, not black (bitter)…not grey. When I first started cooking, I used to think that browning the meat meant taking it from red to grey. No. I mean coffee brown on every bit of surface. It will take a while. Just have the pot on medium heat and leave it there and wander in every once in while and turn it over like we used to do at the beach in the 70’s and 80’s when we were slathered in baby oil and lying on a silver blanket.

Brownie McBrownsalot:

It’ll be raw as a snuff film in the middle but take it out of the pot and set aside:

You should be left with fat and a brown substance in the pot that looks something like this. That, my friends, is what chefs like to call fond, or in layman’s terms: ‘crazy deliciousness’. That’s your flavor right there…DON’T wash that out.

Remember the carrots, onions and garlic? Peel and chop roughly. They don’t have to be pretty. They won’t be in the final dish. Add the onions to the pot, season with salt to bring out the water and sauté over medium high heat for about 5 minutes. The water coming out of the onions will lift up all that ‘crazy deliciousness’ off the bottom of the pot.

Add the carrots and garlic and continue cooking for about 5-10 more minutes.

When it’s all looking nice and caramelized, add the thyme, bay leaf and tomato paste and keep stirring for another 5-10 minutes to bring out the flavors.

Then, as suggested in my friend Robert’s excellent blog, pour yourself a glass of red wine and then pour the rest of the bottle into the pot with the onion/carrot/garlic mixture. Then, add the Chuckie Chuck Roast back into the pot and pour the beef stock in until the level of liquid comes ¾ of the way up the meat. You don’t want it to cover the meat because then it’s technically simmering the meat, not braising it. You want to braise it.

Bring it all JUST to a boil and then immediately turn off the heat. Partially cover and then place the whole pot in a 200-degree oven and forget about it. Go open another bottle of wine and go watch your backed up TiVo’d programs. I put this in the oven at 200 degrees at about 8pm and took it out the next morning at 10am. It’s forgiving. I’ve kept it in longer than that but I wouldn’t go shorter than 12 hours. MAKE SURE THAT YOUR OVEN DOESN’T TURN OFF AUTOMATICALLY. A lot of modern ovens do just that after a certain period of time. ASK ADEL. She made the carnitas out of my blog…same technique…her oven turned off but she caught it in time, luckily.

The next morning…take it out of the oven and remove the meat from the pot. Set the pot aside for now. The meat should pull apart with your fingers like so:

Now, turn your attention back to that pot o’crazy deliciousness that you have sitting there on the stove. Pour the juices through a strainer into a heatproof container, cover and place in the fridge. You can add the solids back in later. Cover and refrigerate those too. The fat will rise to the top of the juices and you can just lift it off like a cap once it’s cold.

Now that the meat is cool, break it up into chunks, discard any schmutz and refrigerate:

Later in the day, an hour or two before you want to serve, chop up some more onion, carrot and garlic a bit more carefully for presentation purposes. (All the cooking school people and chefs are looking at this pic right now and saying: “THAT’S FOR PRESENTATION PURPOSES? Look at those big chunks of onion at the bottom of the pic”.) Yeah, well….good enough.

Take the juices out of the fridge and lift that fat cap off and set aside. Put your pot back on the stove and heat to medium high. Break off a little chunk of the fat cap off…a few tablespoons worth and throw and the pot. Once melted, start sautéing the ‘pretty’ onions, carrots and garlic until softened. You can also add sautéed mushrooms and blanched pearl onions at this point, if you’re feeling energetic. I didn’t…mainly because I was too lazy to go to the store.

Now, I generally discard the solids that I strained out earlier (bacon, onions, carrots, garlic). You can add them back in if you don’t want to waste them. They will have already given up their flavor and might be a bit soft but it won’t hurt anything. Just remove the bay leaf. I like to sauté some fresh so that you have a viable vegetable and bacon lardon to chew into. It’s not absolutely necessary but I like to. Anyway, add the meat and some new lardons (as I ate the rest of the last batch) to the ‘pretty’ onions, carrots and garlic (and mushrooms and pearl onions if you were feeling energetic).

Add the defatted juices back in. (See, you got rid of most of that fat but kept all the flavor). Bring that all to a boil and then immediately turn the heat down to low. Boiling for any length of time will toughen and dry out the meat. You just want to heat it all up quickly for food safety.

Awww…well, we did get rid of most of that fat….lets put some back in. The sauce is a bit runny. We’re going to thicken this up with a little buerre manié. Beurre Manié is basically equal parts softened butter and flour. You mix the softened butter into the flour to coat the starch particles so they don’t clump up and make lumps in your sauce. You drop this pasty substance into your sauce in pieces and whisk in until you get the consistency you want. Give it a chance to mix in and thicken. Don’t add too much at once. It takes 5 or 10 minutes to take effect. Once you have it to the desired consistency, you’re going to want to cook off the raw flour taste, so just keep cooking and stirring for at least a half and hour.

Ok, now, it’s time to taste. I like to season as I go…you shouldn’t need much salt if you’ve been salting where I told you to. At this point, if I feel like there is something missing in the flavor, I have two ‘secret squirrel’ tricks. One is Tabasco. Just a few shakes will often be JUST enough acid to bring out the rest of the flavors. Acid brings out flavors, so instead of adding more salt, add acid…because you may realize very quickly that you have MORE than enough salt in there. Tabasco has a lot of vinegar so that will ‘bring it alive’ as one of my cooking school instructors, Chef Baumgart, used to say. If, after you’ve added the Tabasco and it’s STILL missing something, here’s my 2nd trick: Marmite. Marmite is basically concentrated Umami. It’s also VERY salty. Think of it as almost like soy sauce paste. It’s, well, an ‘acquired’ taste. I ADORE it spread on bread and butter but I was raised with it. Anyway, if I feel like a sauce or stew or something is missing what I think of as ‘depth’ but what the Japanese call Umami, I add just a bit of Marmite and that usually does the trick. This is not a necessary ingredient and don’t break your balls trying to find it if you’re out in the middle of the country but if you see it, try it sometime.

So, all the flavors have had a chance to meld and it’s thickened to the consistency I wanted and I’ve cooked off the raw flour taste. Time to serve. I just cooked up some egg noodles and tossed them in butter and spooned the ‘crazy deliciousness’ over them. You can get ‘uber-energetic’ and make your own pasta if you so desire. It really doesn’t matter. This beef is so ridiculously good, I wouldn’t bother with fancy pasta. You just need a bland foil for the ‘crazy deliciousness’. At this point, you should be starving because your kitchen has smelled like heaven for the last two days, so….enjoy!

Remember…save some room for dessert! We’re having Tart Tatin!

Boeuf Bourguignon

6 ounce (or more if you’re a snacker) chunk of bacon
3-4 pounds of Beef Chuck Roast
2 carrots (peeled and chopped) (1 for the first braise and 1 for the final dish)
2 onions (peeled and chopped) (ditto)
2 cloves of garlic (minced) (ditto)
3 Cups of red wine (Chianti, Burgundy, Syrah, Barolo if you want to make it Italian and call it Brasato al Barolo, in which case, I would use slightly different spices like allspice and rosemary)
3 Cups of beef stock
1 tsp of thyme
1 Bay leaf
salt
pepper
Tabasco
½ Cup of flour
½ Cup of butter for the beurre manié

OPTIONAL
18-24 pearl onions (peeled and sautéed in butter)
1 pound of quartered fresh mushrooms sautéed in butter.
Marmite

Maybe I should have a new category called: Recipes from Cincinnati since this recipe comes from Mom and is not “technically” a Texas Coast recipe……ok, ok, no need to split hairs when it comes to a GREAT recipe! I have made this roast more times than I can count and I serve it with mashed potatoes, white rice or egg noodles. As long as there is something to pour this wonderful gravy over, we are good! Don’t forget the Bread Machine Dinner Rolls and you have a wonderful, traditional Sunday dinner just like Mom/Grandma used to make!

3-5 pound Chuck Roast, 1 medium onion, chopped, 1 can cream of mushroom soup, ketchup, salt and pepper…..yes, that is all!

Put the roast on your favorite roasting pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper on both sides. Cover with the onions, then the soup (undiluted) then DOT the roast with ketchup. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil. **side note: I have just thrown the lid on the pan and it does NOT come out as tender. Aluminum foil is a MUST to make this meat fall off the fork!** Bake the roast at 275 degrees for 3 hours and don’t even think about peeking at it while it is baking….no, no, no….leave it alone and you will have a tender roast with delicious gravy when it’s done!

Enjoy!–Lisa

This is an easy and delicious main course for any special occasion. The recipe came from my friend, Julie, after she served it to a group of friends many years ago. Just add bread or rice and a salad for a complete meal. The aroma while it’s cooking fills the house!

7-Bone Roast

• 1 (4-5 lbs.) 7-bone roast
• 1/2 C water
• 1 C red wine
• 1 envelope Lipton Onion Soup Mix
• 1 onion, chopped
• Carrot slices
• Potato cubes
• Garlic, minced (1-2 cloves or to taste)

Place roast in large pan; season with salt and pepper. Add water and wine, sprinkle with soup. Cover with foil. Cook 1 hour at 325F.

Turn, season and cover again. Cook another 1-1/2 hours.

Add vegies and garlic. Return cover and cook 1 more hour.

Total cooking time: About 3-1/2 to 4 hours.

To cook in a crockpot:

Place onion, carrot slices and potato cubes in bottom of crock pot. Place roast on top and season with salt and pepper. Add water and wine, sprinkle with soup.

Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours.