Froth Slosh B'Gosh

Pot Roast

The recepie is the "Basic Pot Roast" from Joy of Cooking.

Bean And Lentil Soup

I took the ham bone from Easter dinner, threw it in a pot with half a pound of white beans, half a pound of lentils, carrots, onions, celery, a bay leaf and some pepper, water to cover. Let it simmer covered for 2 and a half hours, took the bone out, stripped the meat from the bone, and returned the bone to the pot. Mmmmmmm..nomnomnomnomnomnom!

Dinner!

Tonight's dinner, chicken in a mushroom cream sauce, mixed fresh veggies, mac and cheese. Yeah, the mac and cheese is from a box, but that's the way I like it.

Mmmmm...Pancetta

A fettuccine carbonara with pancetta that I made recently.  If you beg, I MIGHT share the recipe!

Along with some Tuscan style white beans.  This recipe came out of my Joy of Cooking cookbook.

Dim Sum

Here's something I made as an appetizer to go along with the roast on Sunday.  The nice thing about dim sum is that there are literally hundreds of ways to make it.  I just did a basic pork dim sum.

I took about a pound of ground pork and mixed it with chopped green onions, a tablespoon of soy sauce, a quarter teaspoon of ground ginger, and a little sesame oil. You can add anything else that you might enjoy, some garlic, bamboo shoots, chopped spinach, water chestnuts, etc.

I then spooned a bit of the mix on a wonton wrapper. 

I then wet the edges of the wrapper with a little water ( I just wet my finger in a small bowl of water, and then ran my finger along the edges of the wrapper), and sealed it up to make a little package.  There are many ways to fold dim sum, but I'm not terribly dexterous, so I do what works for me.

I then lined my bamboo steamer basket with cabbage leaves.  The leaves keep the dim sum from sticking to the basket.  You could use bok choy to line the basket, but bok choy is $2.99 a pound, while green cabbage is 59 cents a pound.  I'll use the cabbage, thank you.  I then covered the steamer, and placed it on a water-filled wok.  I like the water to just cover the bottom edge of the steamer basket, to keep the basket from scorching.  Cover the basket, bring to a boil, and steam for about 8 to 10 minutes.

Done.

 

Asian Style Beef Roast

I got this recipe off the series of intertubes (food.com, to be exact). We need:

About a 3lb roast

Salt and pepper

2 tbl veg oil

8 green onions, sliced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

about 2 tsp fresh ginger root, chopped

1 tbl soy sauce

1.5 oz chopped cilantro

2 finely chopped green chilies (I used serranos)

1 stalk finely chopped lemongrass

30 oz coconut milk

juice of one lime

I preheated the oven to 350 degrees, and then seasoned both sides of the roast with salt and pepper.

I then browned the meat on all sides in a frying pan with one tablespoon of oil.

I put the meat in a roasting pan.

The remaining oil went into the fry pan, along with the onions, garlic and ginger.  Saute until the onions soften.

Then, in with the soy sauce, half the cilantro, chili, and lemongrass. 

Add the coconut milk and lime juice, stir to combine.

Pour the sauce over the meat, cover, and put in the oven.  Roast for 2.5 hours, turning the meat every 30 minutes.  When nice and tender, remove the meat fromthe pan, and let rest for about ten minutes.  While the meat is resting, you can reduce the sauce down in a saucepan.

Slice the meat, put it in a serving dish, top with the sauce, and you're done!  Served this up for the family for Sunday dinner, along with homemade dim sum, rice, and stir fry style veggies.  I'll show you how I made the dim sum tomorrow.

 

 

After The Chicken Picking

You might recall from my chicken stock post that you can pick a considerable amount of meat off the bird once the stock is done.  What to do with that meat?  Well, I made chicken enchiladas!

First, I put the meat in a bowl.

I then added two diced jalapeno peppers. (stupid little camera)

I then mixed in a little store-bought enchilada sauce.

 
A little of the meat mixture and some cheese on a 6" tortilla.

Roll it up and tuck in the edges.

Put 'em in a pan.

Cover with more enchilada sauce and cheese.  I then baked them in a 350 degree oven for 35 minutes.

And they're done!  Yum!

Clarifying Beef Broth

This is not easy to do, it took me a few tries to get the technique down to make a nice looking broth, and as I mentioned in yesterday's post, I don't think its really necessary. I got the technique from James Peterson's Splendid Soups.

We will need the following, 1.5 pounds of ground beef, three egg whites, a carrot, an onion, and half a stalk of celery, all finely chopped.  We'll also need a bit of garlic, thyme, and parsley.

Put everything in a mixing bowl and mix it up with your hands.

You should wind up with something that looks suspiciously like a raw meatloaf.

You then want to put the meat in a pot, and whisk in your beef broth.  Bring it to a slow simmer, and use a spoon or spatula to make sure nothing is stuck to the bottom of the pot.  Then slide the pot over so that about 1/4 of the pot is over the heat source.  Boil gently for ten minutes, then turn the pot 1/4 a turn, and boil gently for another 10 minutes.  You'll do this a total of four times, so each quarter of the pot gets about 10 minutes over the flame.  By this point, you should have a goo of meat and congealed egg whites floating on top of the broth.  Center the pot over the heat source.  You should see broth bubbling up through cracks in the scum.  If you don't see broth bubbling through, poke a hole in the center of the crust, and continue gently simmering for ten minutes.

Line a colander with cheesecloth.  CAREFULLY poke a hole in the froth big enough for a ladle, and ladle the broth through the cheesecloth into a second pot.  If you accidentily break up the egg/meat mixture, you'll wind up clouding the stock.  When you get near the bottom, you'll have to carefully pour off the remaining broth.

Not the best picture, but we now have clarified broth.  I gave the hamburger/vegetable mixture to my dogs as a treat.

Like I said earlier, this is a time consuming and somewhat labor intensive process.  Probably not worth the effort for everyday cooking.

 

Beef Stock

Of all the basic stocks, this one is the most time consuming and difficult, especially if you want the broth clarified.  It tastes much, much better than the storebought stock but it is a pain, so much so that this is one I only occassionaly make, and generally only use if I'm making something like beef barley or French onion soups.  You'll need to following:

About four pounds of beef bones, shanks or tails, a chopped onion, a chopped carrot, and a chopped celery stalk.  Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Arrange the bones and meat in a baking dish.

Toss the vegetables in as well.  I usually add a little oil and stir things up a bit to keep the veggies from sticking to the pan.  You don't need much, plenty of fat will come off the meat.

Roast in the oven for one hour.  Check occassionaly.  If the vegetables look like they're starting to burn, add some water.

And you should wind up with this!

Put the roasted bones and vegetables in your stockpot, and then deglaze the roasting pan with a cup of red wine. 

Add the wine and at least three more cups of water to the stockpot.  If that's not enough to cover the bones, add enough additional water to cover.

Simmer with the lid off for four hours.  You might have to add additional water and bring back to a simmer if the bones become exposed.  Nothing wrong with adding a few mushrooms at this point either.

Line a colander with cheesecloth and strain the broth into another pot.

(Nearly) finished stock.  It will be cloudy, and this is perfectly acceptable to use as stock.  If, however, you want it to look like the stock from the store, you need to clarify it.  This is a rather complicated step, so I'll go over it tomorrow.

I got the basic recipie for this stock from James Peterson's Splendid Soups, which is a great cookbook, especially if you like soup!

 

 

Chicken Stock

This one is also pretty easy.  You can buy a chicken already cut up, but whole birds are cheaper, and they're really not that hard to cut up.  Step one, obtain a chicken!

Make sure to remove the organ meat, which is usually in a little paper sack in the cavity.  Sometimes the organs are packed loose.  Don't throw away to innards!  We'll need them later.  Make sure you rinse the chicken well inside and out and pat dry.

We then use a sharp knife to cut the wings off.  If you lift by the wing, the main part of the bird will dangle at the point where the wing connects.  Cut there.

You can save the wings for another meal if you like, but I just toss them into the stock pot.  2 wings aren't much of a meal.

We then remove the thighs and legs.  Hold the chicken by the leg, and then start slicing through the skin between the main part of the bird and the thigh.  The thigh should start coming away from the main part of the chicken, and eventually, the thighbone will pop out of the socket.  If it doesn't pop out on its own, just bend the thigh back until the bone separates, then continue cutting away the thigh.  I save and freeze the thigh/leg combos for future meals.

We're now ready to remove the breasts.  You'll be able to feel the breastbone, slice down either side of the breastbone and rib cage to carve off the breasts.  In the above picture, I've started to remove the meat from the right side.

You can leave the skin on, or take it off like I did.  If you remove the skin, toss it in the stock pot!  I froze these breasts for a later meal.  The entire process of carving up the chicken took about five minutes.

Put the remaining carcass in the stock pot.  I hate my little camera. It always wants to focus on the wrong thing, and the screen is so small I can't tell if I got the shot or not.

Remember the organ meat?  Tie that in a little cheesecloth bag and toss in the pot.

Now, add water to cover.  It should take about 8 to 10 cups, depending on the size of your chicken.

Add a couple of unpeeled onions...
A couple of unpeeled carrots...

A stalk of celery.  I broke the carrots and celery in half so they fit in the pot better.

Add some herbs.  Sage, thyme, and rosemary all go well with chicken.

Bring the stock to a simmer and simmer with the lid off for 90 minutes to 2 hours.

By now your home should be infused with the aroma of simmering stock.

Line a colander with cheese cloth and strain the stock into a second pot.  Once the carcass cools, you'll find there's still quite a bit of meat on it that you can pick off and use for another purpose, like chicken salad, for example. You will not want to put the veggies on your compost pile, as they've been cooked in a meat broth, and are likely to go rancid and attract vermin to your pile.

Finished stock!  Taste.  If it seems a bit weak, just simmer it down a bit until you reach the flavor level you like.  I freeze the stock in 2 cup quantities in freezer bags. 

Next up, beef stock!