Slow Roasted Beef

In thinking what I would make for dinner tonight, I rummaged once again through the freezer, and a couple of days ago I discovered the roast I had put away. I will be slow roasting this and will also feature roasted potatoes, carrots and parsnips to accompany this dish. Slow roasting of the meat will keep the “pink” color of the meat from side to side, and any leftovers will make great roast beef sandwiches. So let’s head off to the kitchen!

Ingredients
1 – 3 1/2# beef roast
Fresh ground salt and pepper
1 tsp each of rosemary, thyme and basil
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
Extra virgin olive oil
2 Yukon gold potatoes
A good handful of baby carrots
2 medium sized parsnips

Allow four hours for this to cook. Take the roast out of the refrigerator and let it warm up. If there is a nice layer of fat on the meat, score it.

Score the fat

While it is warming up rub with the fresh ground salt and pepper. Using a mortar and pestle, crush the herbs one at a time. Then combine in a bowl to blend evenly. Rub this on all sides of the roast. Slice the garlic into thin slices, and cut into the meat and insert the slices of garlic. Next using a slight bit of olive oil, rub this over the meat.

Rubbed with herbs and oil

Once the roast has sat out for about an hour or so, turn the heat up on your oven to 200 degrees. While this is heating up, get your pan ready, and include a roasting rack to set the roast on. When the oven is ready, place this in the oven on the 2nd rack from the bottom. Set the timer for four hours. Do not open the oven!

About an hour and a half before the roast is done get your vegetables ready. Although I really love veges cooked around the meat, for this recipe, you will have to cook these separately. I cut the potatoes into chunks, left the already peeled baby carrots whole, and the peeled the parsnips, and cut those into chunks too. Then I used about 1 tsp of rosemary, and parsley, a couple of dashes of onion powder, and 3 twists on the salt and pepper grinders. Then I used about 2 TBS of extra virgin olive oil. Using my hands I mixed it up.

Potatoes, carrots and parsnips

Set these aside. There are a couple of steps that you will need to do with the roast, so at the 50 minutes before the timer goes off, preheat the oven for the vegetables to 375 degrees. Place those in the oven. Stir these periodically during roasting.

Roasting vegetables

When the timer goes off for the meat, remove it from the oven and cover it with foil.

Before hitting it with high heat

Then turn the oven up to 500 degrees. When the oven is hot, place the roast back into the oven and cook for 5 minutes. Check the internal temperature at this point. I cooked this to medium rare and pulled this out of the oven when the temperature hit 132 degrees. Remove from the oven and cover with foil. The temperature will go up as the meat rests.

Let the roast sit

After about 10 minutes the veges should be done, and the meat ready to carve.

Slice up the meat - see the garlic?

Plate it up with your veges, and use some of the juices to pour over the meat.

Dinner is served!

Stay tuned as I will be fixing up Steve’s Baked Tilapia tomorrow!

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Pork Steaks from the Foothills

I am all for simple in the kitchen on a Friday night! To start off the weekend, and after a tiring work week, what could be better than a meal cooked in one pan on the stove top? Pour yourself a glass of Pinot Noir, take a sip and then let’s get started!

Ingredients
4 pork sirloin steaks
2 russet or Yukon gold potatoes
A generous handful of baby carrots
1 cup fresh mushroom sliced (I forgot to get these and will used canned instead! 😦 )
1/3 cup frozen peas
1 package of frozen artichoke hearts (or canned if you cannot get frozen)
3 TBS butter
Thyme
Fresh ground salt and pepper

Take the pork steaks and trim some of the fat from the sides of the steaks.

Trimmed pork steaks

Place the pieces of fat in a deep frying pan. Next peel the potatoes and carrots and cut them into chunks.

Cut up carrots and potatoes

These will need to be par-boiled before we use them. So get a pot of water going with these added and par-boil for 7 minutes. Before draining the water off the potatoes and carrots, place the frozen peas in the bottom of the colander. Rinse in cold water when done. While these are par-boiling let’s get the fat going. Turn the heat up on the pan to medium high. We are going to render this fat for use in our dish. Stir the fat so that all sides become a beautiful golden brown.

Browned pork fat

When this is done, remove the pieces from the pan and set aside on paper towel to drain. Then add the pork steaks and brown on both sides.

Start to brown the pork steaks

Then remove the steaks from the pan. Next, add the potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, and peas to the pan and stir to coat the vegetables.

Coat the vegetables in the pork fat

Then move the vegetables to one side of the pan and add in the steaks,

Move the vegetables to the side and add the pork

moving the vegetables around so that the meat ends up on the bottom and are covered by the vegetables. Next, use a couple of really good shakes of dried thyme leaves over all, and then follow this with a couple of grinds of salt and pepper, then dot with the butter.

Top the vege's with salt, pepper, thyme then butter

Cover the dish, turn the heat down to medium low and cook for 30 minutes.

During the cooking process - smells great!

Turn the meat over, and re-cover with the vegetables. Using a baster collect the juices and spread over the top. Cover again and cook for another 25 minutes then serve this up!

Dinner is served!

This is one of those comfort food dinners that is so good on a wet a rainy night like tonight!  Oh, and the rendered pork fat, cut it into small pieces and give this to your dog as treats!  It will add luster to the coat!

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Crockpot Braised Short Ribs

Temperatures are dropping, clouds are coming in and if we get any precipitation it will snow overnight. With the cold coming, I wanted to make an easy dish in the crockpot. I love the all in one dishes! This takes a bit of prepping, but it is well worth it!  Start this early in the day as cooking time is 9 hours, and prep time is about an hour.

Ingredients
4 cups of low sodium beef broth
1 onion, sliced and separated
8 beef short ribs
1 cup of flour
1 tsp fresh ground salt
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 tsp rosemary leaves crushed
1 tsp thyme leaves crushed
1 tsp marjoram leaves crushed
1/2 tsp basil leaves crushed
2 TBS extra virgin olive oil
1 – 12 oz. bottle of a stout beer
1 TBS butter
5 cloves of garlic crushed
1 bay leaf

Get your ingredients ready…

Ingredients

Put the beef broth into a saucepan and heat to boiling. Reduce this to approximately a cup and a half.  This concentrates the beef flavor in the broth.

Cooking down the beef broth

While this is cooking down, slice the onion and lay the pieces in the crockpot making a “bed” for the short ribs. Next in a zip lock bag, add the flour along with the salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, marjoram, and basil. Shake the bag to mix up well. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan. When the oil is hot dredge the short ribs and add to the pan.

Dredged short ribs added to the oil

Sear the meat on all sides.

Sear all sides of the short ribs

About half way through searing the ribs, the beef broth should be done. Turn off the heat and set aside. As the ribs get browned, move off the completed ones to the crockpot until all have been added. Try to get them in bone side down.  This will add the flavor of the bones to the juices that you will use to drizzle over the finished dish!  Next pour the beer over the short ribs. Dot them with the garlic. Add the bay leaf and butter. Then pour in the drippings from the pan. Then take the broth and pour a bit into the pan to knock up the bits that are stuck to the pan. Pour this and the broth into the crockpot.

Everything has been added to the crock pot

Cover the crockpot and turn the heat on low, and set the time for 9 hours. Do not lift the lid once this has started cooking!  I cannot possibly describe for you how wonderful the aromas are in the house!  If you want to impress folks and make them think that you spent all day in the kitchen slaving over the stove, this is the dish for you!

Tonight I will be serving these over jasmine rice, although mashed potatoes or buttered noodles are also good. Don’t forget to steam up a vegetable, and maybe a bit of crusty sour dough bread. Serve this up with a good stout ale, or try it with a Cabernet Franc.

Dinner is served!

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Turkey Cutlets

I wanted to make another comfort food dinner and found some turkey cutlets at the grocery store. This is such an easy dinner! I had everything else I wanted at home.

Ingredients
1 package of turkey cutlets
1/3 # fresh green beans, washed and cut
2 potatoes, skins on, washed and cut into wedges
Panko bread crumbs
Thyme
Onion powder
Flour
Paprika
Garlic powder
Salt and pepper
2 eggs
Vegetable oil
Hot salt mix (given to us by friends, but feel free to try Spike instead, or whatever seasonings you like!)
Butter

Start with the green beans and get them ready and in the steamer basket.

Green beans ready to steam

Next cut the potatoes into wedges and put them in a bowl of water to soak out the starch. Let this sit for a half hour. While this is soaking, get the items ready for the cutlets.  Measure about a cup and a half of the panko and put it into a bowl. Add a couple of good shakes of onion powder, and three shakes of thyme leaves. Mix this together. Next, add to a ziplock bag a little bit less than one cup of flour. To this add some paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper then shake the bag. Then take two eggs and beat them really well.

Cutlets, flour bath, egg wash and panko are ready

The potatoes should be ready by now to prepare, so drain them and pat them dry. Then  put them into a bowl and add a bit of oil and the hot salt seasoning, and a good shake of paprika. The oven – heat to 350 degrees. Lay the potatoes out on a silpat if you have one, or on a greased baking sheet.

Potatoes are seasoned, on the silpat and ready for the oven

Bake these for 30 minutes, and get the cutlets ready.  First, take a cutlet and shake it in the flour bag.  Then dip and turn a number of times in the egg.  Follow this by dredging in the seasoned panko.  Set the cutlet on a bread rack to dry.  Repeat this with all the cutlets, and let them sit to dry.

Cutlets are breaded and need to sit to dry a bit

At this point the potatoes should be ready to turn.  Do this and set the timer for another 30 minutes.  At this point, if I have anything left to clean up I get it done now, and get my plates and silverware ready.  20 minutes before the potatoes are done, start to heat some butter in a large skillet and when it just starts to bubble, add the cutlets. Cook these over medium high heat.

Cutlets are cooking in butter

Five minutes into cooking the cutlets, turn on the heat to start the green beans steaming. After another five minutes, turn the cutlets.

Turn and continue to cook

The cutlets, green beans and potatoes should all be done at the same time!

Sit back and enjoy this dinner with a Grenache!

Dinner is served!

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Roasted Pork and Vegetables

I love a dinner that is easy to make, tastes good, and that makes the house smell so good that you just can’t wait to eat it! This is one of those dishes!

Ingredients
3 pound pork shoulder roast, boned and wrapped in a sleeve
Thyme
Onion powder
Garlic powder
Parsley flakes
Salt and pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
1 cup of chicken broth
14 Baby carrots, halved
2 good sized yukon gold potatoes, cut into good size chunks
1/2 pound of crimini mushrooms, sliced thickly
12 ounces of quartered artichoke hearts
1/2 cup frozen baby peas
Sonoma Gourmet roasted garlic rosemary oil
Thyme
Parsley flakes

Take the roast out of the refrigerator about an hour before cooking and rub with thyme, the onion and garlic powders, parsley flakes and some salt and pepper.

Rub the herbs and spices into the meat

After an hour,preheat the oven to 350, and heat the oil in a large skillet and brown the meat on all sides.

Brown the roast on all sides

In the same pan, add the onions and garlic and caramelize.

Caramelize the onions and garlic

Then add the broth to the pan. Make sure to scrape up the browned bits!

Add broth to the pan and scrape up all the bits stuck to the pan

Pour over the meat, cover with foil and place this in the oven.

While this is cooking get your vegetables ready. Put them in a bowl with the Sonoma Gourmet Dip and Toss, and add additional thyme and parsley flakes.

Get your vegetables ready

After the roast has cooked 30 minutes, remove it from the oven, remove the foil and toss. Place the vegetables around the roast.

Lay the vegetables around the partially cooked roast

Return the pan to the oven and cook for about an hour or until the temperature of the roast hits 140 degrees. Remove the pan from the oven, and take the roast out of the pan, set aside and cover.

Roast is removed from the oven, and the veges go back in while the roast sits

The roast will still cook for a bit so the temperature will come up to the safe temperature of at least 145 degrees. Return the pan to the oven for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, remove the vegetables from the oven. Slice up the meat,

Slice the pork

and serve it with your roasted veges!

Dinner is served!

Try this with a Mourvedre or a Petite Sirah!

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Marinated Lamb Loin Chops

I don’t know about you, but I love lamb! I recently had some at a friend’s wedding that were really great and done on a grill. While the temperature outside is in the mid-thirties, I won’t be outside with the BBQ but inside with the indoor grill.

Ingredients
4 Lamb loin chops, 1 inch thick
Drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tsp. dried rosemary
1 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
6 cloves of garlic, chopped fine
salt and pepper

Two to three hours before grilling, rub the chops with the olive oil. Then rub with the garlic and herbs, then dash them with some salt and pepper.

Marinating Lamb

Put them back in the refrigerator covered for two – three hours.

Take the chops out of the refrigerator on hour before cooking. Grill on either the BBQ or an indoor grill.

Lamb goes on the grill

Monitor the meat. Cook 5 minutes per side.

Turn the chops

When the meat is done the way you like it, serve it up!

Dinner is served!

I like rice pilaf and steamed green beans! Pinot Noir is a good wine with this dish!

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Wahoo!

Just another thank you to those reading and following my blogs! November is my biggest month for views of my blog! I just hope that I can keep this up for you! Later post tonight: Marinated lamb! Yup, I bought 4 chops! They have been marinating for the last two hours!

I have also been asked to write a guest blog for author Cindy Sample and will let you know where to find that and what day I will be doing the guest blog! I hope that you can take the time to look it up!

Stay tuned and thanks again!

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Poke Me in the Ribs!

I don’t feel like slaving over the stove today. On days like this one, I pull out the trusty Crock Pot. Tonight’s menu: Baby Back Ribs in the Crock Pot. How do they look when done?

The finished product!

Ingredients:

1 side of baby back ribs
8 cloves of garlic
1 tbs fresh thyme
couple of sprigs of fresh rosemary
salt and fresh ground pepper

To get your crock pot ready, spray the inside with a non-stick cooking spray.

For the ribs, cut the ribs into 3 separate pieces. Take the garlic, thyme and rosemary and put into a food processor and grind until you have a chunky mass. Rub this over the ribs on both side. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place the ribs into the crock pot. Two pieces will be on the bottom leaving a gap between the two. Lay the third over the top covering the gap below. Make sure that you have the bone side facing down with the fat layer on top.

Set the crock pot to low for 10 hours. They will actually brown and the meat will fall off the bone! I love serving this with home made french fries, and a freshly steamed vegetable.

What do you have leftover?

Just Bones!

Just bones!

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Rack of Lamb

I love lamb. My sister however had a stuffed lamb as a baby and cannot handle lamb. What is your favorite recipe? I am sitting in my house right now smelling the fragrance of lamb, thyme, rosemary and garlic.

Here is my Rack of Lamb recipe:

One Rack of Lamb
6 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp of Rosemary
2 tsp of Thyme
Salt and Pepper

Take the lamb out about two hours before serving your dinner. Let the lamb sit for a bit to warm up, then rub with minced garlic, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place the lamb in a glass baking dish on a rack. The fat side of the lamb should be facing up. Bake the lamb for about 40 minutes for rare in the middle and medium rare on the outer pieces. Take the lamb out of the oven and cover with foil and let it sit for five minutes.

Serve with steamed asparagus and jasmine rice.

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