Showing posts with label Meat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meat. Show all posts
As I mentioned yesterday I cooked Todd a Roast Beef Dinner at the weekend for Father's Day. We don't have any children of our own, but he's a pretty good dad to our Mitzi so why not celebrate that! I didn't do a pot roast this time, but a proper regular roast beef. It was so nice for a change!
Now, you all know I am the Leftover Queen! I love leftovers . . . I love taking them and seeing what I can put with them to make something new. Today we are having Roast Beef Hash with some baked beans, but yesterday I cooked us Beef Miroton.
Say what??? I can hear you asking. Beef Miroton is a classic French dish which is made using leftover roast beef, cooked potatoes, onions, stock, vinegar and seasonings. Simple ingredients put together in a most delicious way!
And when I say simple I mean simple. You just layer thinly sliced cooked potato in a casserole dish. I cut them about 1/4 inch thick and overlap them. Over that you layer on thinly sliced cooked beef. Unremarkable right?
Here is where the magic begins to happen . . . caramelised onions. Who does not LOVE caramelised onions! Put your hand up! I didn't think so.
Aside from the smell of them cooking, the taste of caramelised onions is phenomenal!
You caramelise a pound of onions until golden without burning them and then you create a beef sauce with them, using some good stock and seasonings. Pour that over the sliced beef and potatoes in the dish.
Then you drizzle some red wine vinegar over top. I used some balsamic . . . because I had it and we love the taste.
Finally you sprinkle a layer of buttered crumbs evenly over top. The recipe I have says 2 TBS, but I'll be honest here I probably use more like 4 TBS. We like our breadcrumb toppings.
You don't need a thick layer, but you do want the whole thing covered, like a thin crust . . .
Then into the oven it goes. A fairly hot oven . . . for about 20 minutes . . .
The end result is a fabulously tasty dish that the whole family will fall in love with!
Beef Miroton
Yield: 4
A delicious dinner using leftovers that tastes like new! Your family is sure to love this!
ingredients:
- 3/4 pound leftover cooked, peeled salad type of potatoes
- 1 pound red onions, peeled and thinly sliced
- 2 TBS butter
- 1 TBS flour
- 240ml beef broth (1 cup)
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 1/2 pound roast beef, sliced 1/4 inch thick
- 1/2 TBS red wine vinegar
- 2 TBS Bread crumbs
- Chopped parsley to garnish
instructions:
How to cook Beef Miroton
- Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F gas mark 6. Butter a square baking dish. Slice the potatoes 1/4 inch thick and lay out into the baking dish, overlapping them. Lay the sliced beef over top of the sliced potatoes to cover. Set aside.
- Add 1 TBS butter to a skillet. Add the onions. Cook, stirring occasionally for 15 to 20 minutes over medium heat until nicely browned (not burnt.) Whisk in 1 TBS of flour. Cook for a few minutes longer and then add the beef stock, Season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, scraping up the bottom to dislodge any browned bits of onion. Cook for a few minutes, then remove from the heat. Pour this mixture over the beef in the baking dish, spreading it out to cover. Drizzle with the wine vinegar.
- Melt the remaining TBS of butter. Stir in the bread crumbs and then sprinkle them over top of the whole casserole. (You may need more. In my opinion you could use up to twice this amount.)
- Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown and bubbling. Sprinkle with parsley prior to serving.
I served it with the leftover vegetables from our Sunday lunch. Cauliflower, carrots, swede (turnips) and some leftover creamed cabbage. Todd and I both thoroughly enjoyed! I used to make Devilled Beef Slices years ago, but I couldn't find the recipe to make it this time. I'll have to keep looking. They were really, really good!
I have always adored Sauerkraut. My grandfather used to make his own and kept it in a crock down in the cellar of their home. My mother often told the story of her being ill as a child and her Grandmother giving her some of the brine from off the sauerkraut on a spoon, and how it made her better.
My mom would cook us a mess of it, every now and then when I was a child. Sometimes with chunks of ham, other times with pork, sometimes with pickled pork (my favourite!), sometimes even frankfurters. Always with mashed potatoes on the side.
My favourite way to eat it was to take my mashed potatoes, top them with a knob of butter and then mash the kraut into the potatoes! I love everything about sauerkraut . . . the smell when its cooking, the taste . . . everything. It is one of my favourite things!
Back home you can buy it in waxed cartons (just like milk cartons) and you can also buy turnip kraut in the same way. (also delicious) Most of it comes from the South Shore (Nova Scotia), around Lunenburg/Bridgewater way. A lot of Germans settled in that area. And my Grandfather in fact came from an area known as New Germany.
This is one of my favourite ways to cook it now. Your pork chops end up deliciously tender . . . and the sauerkraut gets flavoured a bit from the pork. Num num!
I also add onion and apple to the sauerkraut . . . and bacon. Mmmm . . . bacon.
I add a touch of caraway seed as well, but you can leave it out if it is not to your taste and you don't like it. Some people are not fond of caraway I know . . .
This time I had ultra thick bone in loin chops that I had bought at Costco one time. I only used two of them and there was plenty for us to enjoy for two meals. I think the meat at Costco is beautiful. I have never been disappointed.
Of course, just as in childhood . . . I accompanied this delicious entree with some fluffy white mashed potatoes.
We had the leftovers for dinner the day after and if anything they tasted even better. That is often the way with things like this.
Mom always said cooking things like this and then letting them "ripen" overnight was the secret to their deliciousness. It is the same with most things like spaghetti sauce, stew, chili, etc.
Pork Chops & Sauerkraut
Yield: 4
A delicious hearty casserole. Tender bone in pork loin chops cook atop a delicious sauerkraut mixture for a delicious meal. All you need is some mashed potatoes on the side, or baked, or boiled as you prefer!
ingredients:
- 4 bone in loin pork chops
- 1 TBS light olive oil
- 6 slices streaky bacon
- 1 large onion, peeled and diced
- 2 apples, peeled, cored and chopped
- 1 (795g) jar of sauerkraut, drained (28 oz jar)
- 1 TBS brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp dry mustard powder
- 1 tsp caraway seeds
- coarse black pepper to taste
- 60ml water (1/4 cup)
instructions:
How to cook Pork Chops & Sauerkraut
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Have ready a baking dish large enough to hold all of the pork chops in a single layer.
- Brown the bacon in a skillet until crispy. Remove and set aside.
- Add the oil to the pan drippings (if needed) and heat. Season the chops on both sides with salt and black pepper. Brown them lightly on both sides and set aside.
- Add the the onions to the skillet and start to soften. After a few minutes, remove about half and set aside. Add the apples to the skillet and cook for a few minutes longer. Add the sauerkraut, water, brown sugar, caraway seed and black pepper to taste and mix well together. Chop the bacon and stir in. Bring to the boil, then turn the whole mixture into the baking dish. Place the chops on top. Scatter the reserved onions on top of the chops. Cover with foil and then roast in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes. Uncover and bake for a further 10 to 15 minutes, until golden.
- I like to serve this with fluffy mashed potatoes.
We only just had this the other day and looking at these photos makes me want to make it all over again! Funny how that goes. I guess I could never get tired of eating sauerkraut, and that's the truth!
I could quite happily become a Vegetarian but for one thing. Every now and then I really enjoy a nice steak. Its not something we eat really often . . . red meat, but as a treat we maybe have it once or twice a month.
The Toddster likes pork chops . . . me . . . I will always go for a good steak. I am at the point now where I never order steak if we are out for dinner however . . .
I've had far too many disappointing badly cooked steaks to want to waste my money on them when eating out. I would rather buy a good one and cook it at home. Myself.
I have come to realise that that is the only way I am going to get what I want. Sad but true.
When I was growing up my mom and dad used to buy a hind of beef every year and put it into the freezer. My mother cooked beautiful Swiss Steak . . . it was the best . . . and a lovely roast of beef . . . but she couldn't really cook a regular steak.
She never liked getting the stove dirty or anything splattering on it, and so she more or less stewed the steaks on low rather than searing them over a high heat.
Its that initial sear that packs in and seals in all the flavours. I sear. I'm not bothered about a dirty stove.
Today I used sirloin steaks, cut about 1 inch thick, with a nice mix of marbling throughout so they were juicy and tender . . .
We like our steaks between medium rare and rare . . . with a beautifully well-seared surface . . . .
It gets a simple treatment. Room temperature. Wiped dry. Chinese five spice and black pepper rubbed into the surface before searing . . .
The sauce is sublime . . . delicious . . . and goes wonderfully . . .
Its just butter, grated fresh ginger, water and soy sauce . . . and it is Perfection with a capital "P."
Yield: 4
Sirloin Steak with a Ginger Butter Sauce
Tender & juicy, perfectly cooked steaks with a fabulous sauce with oriental undertones. The flavour impact of simple ingredients put together in a simple yet effective way can never be underestimated.
ingredients:
- 3 sirloin steaks, each about 1 inch thick and weighing 10 - 12 ounces each
- 1 tsp Chinese five spice powder
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 TBS flavourless vegetable oil
- 3 TBS unsalted butter
- 2 TBS grated fresh ginger root
- 120ml water (1/2 cup)
- 4 tsp soy sauce
instructions:
How to cook Sirloin Steak with a Ginger Butter Sauce
- Wipe your steaks and pat them dry with some paper kitchen towelling. (Bring them to room temperature first.) Rub them all over with the five spice powder and some freshly ground black pepper.
- Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. When it starts to shimmer and you know it is really hot, add the steaks. Cook on both sides until well browned, about 3 to 5 minutes per side, depending on thickness. Remove to a plate and tent with foil. Set aside.
- Wipe the skillet out of any burnt bits. (Its okay to leave some brown bits as they will add flavour to the sauce.) Add the butter and melt over medium heat. Add the ginger and cook until fragrant. Stir in the water and soy sauce, scraping up any brown bits with a wooden spoon. Simmer over medium heat until the sauce is slightly thickened.
- Slice the steaks and drizzle with the sauce to serve.
You could also grill the steak on the BBQ, but then you wouldn't have the benefit of the seared meat juices helping to flavour the sauce. It would still be quite tasty nevertheless. Enjoy!
With Saint Patrick's Day being on Sunday I thought it would be fun to make a smaller batch of Irish Stew for the smaller family. This recipe will serve 3, or 2 people generously. Or two people on the day and one with the leftovers the day after.
Its a simple and yet attractive stew, using simple methods and simple ingredients, because lets face it . . . the Irish were basically a very poor people, a humble people, without artifice, and many did not have stoves or ovens, but cooked over an open fire on the hearth.
This is a recipe I adapted from one I found in this book. It is originally meant to feed four people generously. This is a great book by the way. I have had it for a few years now and every recipe tried has been a real winner. Its from the Love Food people.
All you need for it is some stewing lamb . . . you could use neck fillets if you wanted to, I just used cubed stewing lamb I got at the shops. British or Welsh lamb is not quite in season yet, so suspect this was NZ lamb.
There is no browning or faffing about with the meat, which also lessens the fat calories. You just season and dust the cubed lamb with flour and lay it in the bottom of a heavy casserole dish. (I used my medium sized Le Creuset.)
Once the lamb is in the bottom, you layer on diced onion and sliced carrots. I like to lightly season each layer.
Once you have those layered in, you cover the top with wedges of potato. I used two medium/large potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges. I got kind of fanciful when I layered them on top. I thought it looked quite pretty.
Finally you just pour over a mix of hot stock and dried thyme. The recipe called for beef stock. If I do it again, I will use chicken stock. I thought some of the integrity of the lamb was lost by using beef, but that may just be me.
After that you just cover it up tightly and let the oven do the work. Go read a book, do some knitting, housework, whatever . . .
The recipe didn't call for it, but about 15 minutes before it was done, I took it out of the oven and brushed the potatoes with some butter, then popped it back into the oven at a higher temperature. It browned the potatoes up a bit, which I thought was a nice touch.
This was a really lovely stew. I am thinking if you didn't have lamb, you could do beef or pork in the same way, probably even chicken would be good done this way.
This is something I have done with stew since I was a child. I like to mash the potatoes up a bit and dab some butter on them. (Don't judge me.) Its really good that way. I also love sweet pickles with stew, but those don't exist over here, so I just think about how good they used to be and settle for what I have.
Yield: 3
Small Batch Irish Stew
prep time: 15 minscook time: 2 hour and 30 minstotal time: 2 hours and 45 mins
A small batch Irish Stew for the smaller family. Simple and delicious. This will give you a hearty meal on the day.
ingredients:
- 2 TBS plain flour
- 1 pound stewing lamb
- 1 onion, peeled and chopped
- 3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
- 2 largish potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
- 1/4 tsp dried thyme
- salt and black pepper
- 600ml hot beef stock (2 1/2 cups)
- small knob of butter
- parsley flakes to garnish
instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 165*C/325*F/ gas mark 3.
- Season the meat and roll it in the flour, shaking off any excess. Lay it in a single layer in the bottom of a casserole dish. Top with the chopped onion, then the sliced carrot, and finally the potato wedges. Season each layer lightly as you go. Whisk together the stock and thyme. Pour into the casserole dish. Cover tightly.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 2 1/2 hours. About 15 minutes before it is done, remove the cover and brush the top of the potatoes with the knob of butter and return to the oven. Increase the oven temperature to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5. Let the potatoes brown a bit. Sprinkle some parsley flakes on top and serve.
calories
302.37
302.37
fat (grams)
10.34
10.34
sat. fat (grams)
5.09
5.09
carbs (grams)
38.40
38.40
net carbs
33.63
33.63
protein (grams)
15.31
15.31
sugar (grams)
5.56
5.56
Created using The Recipes Generator
Todd had the leftovers today for his dinner and he said it tasted even better than it had the other day when I made it. That is often the way with stews. They seem to taste better upon "ripening" overnight. Yum! I think the Irish would approve!
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