Recipes to Rival: Beef Rendang

This month's Recipes to Rival post is probably going to be my last blog post for a while. I have a lot going on right now and just need to focus on other things. I still plan to cook great dishes, just not take the time to blog about it. I'll miss Recipes to Rival and The Daring Bakers.

Anyway, this month I co-hosted with Rayrena of Happy Cows. It was her birthday month, so very fitting for her to be able to host.

I was glad to be making a curry dish for Lee. He loves it so much. I had a bit of difficulty finding all of the ingredients. I went to a local Asian market and a local Indian market (just in case the Indian one had some ingredients) and couldn't find the galangal, kaffir lime leaves, or duan salam leaves. I ended up finding ground galangal at Penzeys (regular ginger could be a substitute), used some lime zest for the kaffir lime leaves, and some regular bay leaves for the duan salam leaves.

This is definitely a dish for a day when you're sitting around the house. After three hours, all the liquid hadn't yet reduced, but we ate it anyway because we were hungry and we like saucy curries anyway. We probably didn't get the full experience, but it was pretty good and Lee loved it. Other people had to reduce their rendang for about 5 hours!

Make sure you are careful about where you serve this! The tumeric stains like a @%^#$@! Lee was eating some leftovers as lunch the next day at his computer, spilled it on the floor, and the tumeric looks like it's all out until you look at it in sunlight. I think that's strange that we can now only see the tumeric if the sun hits it... I learned that hydrogen peroxide can help. We also used a Woolite Rug Stick to help out. I think we got as much as possible, but if anyone has any more suggestions for getting turmeric out of the rug, I'd love more ideas!




Look at all the fat I strained out!!

Pampering our Roast Dinner

My friend dropped off my new Pampered Chef® stoneware covered baking dish and gravy separator. Yippee!!!

I was going to make a chicken dish, but thought that I should christen my new cookware with a roast dinner. We had roast beef in the freezer, so I put it in some water to quickly defrost it.

I just winged the recipe for the meat and vegetables. I had learned about a mirepoix from my cooking class last month and wanted to try it. I didn't think I had any onions, but I found a red onion in the fridge to cut up. I then sliced some carrots and celery to make my mirepoix, and decided to add in some potatoes. I cut some thin slits into the meat and placed slivers of garlic in the slits before grinding some mixed herbs over the meat and vegetables.

I decided to try a new recipe for the Yorkshire pudding. I won't post the recipe until I get to try it again because I don't think I made it right. I needed ½ cup eggs, but two eggs was a little under ½ cup, and three was a bit over. I decided to go with the three eggs, not realizing it might make a difference to the taste and density of the pud. Given the excellent reviews most people gave, I think I should have gone with the two eggs and will try that another time. Yorkshire Pudding should not taste like scrambled eggs! I don't feel it's fair to the recipe or the person who put it out there if I give it a negative review because of my error.

The meat and vegetables turned out really well. I think I overcooked the meat a bit, but it still tasted very well and wasn't too dry with the gravy and red currant jelly we had with it. The vegetables had a night flavour that I believe came from the stone cooker. It's supposed to get better with each use since it needs to be seasoned. I can't wait to see how it does after it's well-seasoned! By the way, I just looked up the proper cooking temperature in my cookbook and I accidentally cooked it to the proper temperature for poultry, way too hot for beef!!!



Stoneware Roast Beef with Garlic and Mixed Herbs

¾ red onion, cut into chunks
3 large carrots, cut into three inch long sections
3 red potatoes peeled and cut into chunks
3 stalks of celery, cut into three inch long sections
2 cloves of garlic, cut into slivers
2 teaspoons mixed herbs
pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. On the bottom of the pan, place onions, celery, and carrots in a single layer. Place meat over mirepoix and place potatoes and remaining onions, celery, and carrots all around.
   
3. Cut thin slices into meat and place slivers of garlic in each slice. Sprinkle pepper and mixed herbs over top of meat and vegetables. Cover and roast in oven for about 1 hour.
4. Uncover and cook until internal temperature reaches 135°F for medium-rare (let carry-over cooking heat beef to 145°F internal temperatre) or 150°F for medium.
5. Cut and serve with red currant jelly and gravy.
   

Gravy
pan drippings (add beef stock until you have 4 cups juices)
4 tablespoons flour
pepper

1. Separate fat from pan drippings. Add beef stock until juices reach volume of 4 cups.
   
2. Place fat in pan and cook with 2 tablespoons flour until browned. Slowly add juices, while whisking. Add pepper to taste. Continue whisking while boiling until thickened and no lumps remain.
   

Great Balls of Garlic!

I had a late night at work and didn't much feel like cooking, so I decided to make a well-loved comfort dinner. Of course, I couldn't use my usual recipe for meatballs since I needed to try a new recipe (didn't have much time for a homemade tomato sauce), so I found a new recipe for meatballs.

This recipe called for freshly minced garlic. In hindsight, I should have used my garlic press, but I minced the garlic with a knife. My garlic press gets the garlic much smaller than I was able to mince it. The fresh garlic added a wonderful flavour to the meatballs, but in some spots it tasted a bit too much like garlic. Mixed with the garlic bread I served as a side, it ended up being way too much garlic for this meal! My boyfriend and I both have a strong garlic taste in our mouths and just KNOW we will be smelling of garlic for days! At least we won't have to worry about any vampires.

I've never made meatballs in the oven without browning them in a skillet before. I think they turned out really well just baking them in the oven on a cookie sheet. I actually think they taste better than cooking in the skillet. I'd make this recipe again, but cut down on the garlic.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

I just used jarred spaghetti sauce tonight.

1 lb. ground beef
1 small clove garlic, minced (I used large and it was too much)
½ cup Italian breadcrumbs
½ cup tomato sauce
½ teaspoon basil
½ teaspoon oregano
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 egg
salt
pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
   
2. Combine ingredients in bowl and mix until well blended.
3. Form meat into small balls and place onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
   
4. Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until cooked through.
   

Gone in a Curry

In case you haven't noticed, I'm really trying this whole curry thing a lot lately. We bought more jars than I realized in England and it does seem to be an excellent way to use up leftover meats. I also am trying to get more veggies in our diet since I'm not used to eating them and my boyfriend doesn't feel like it's a meal without them. I know his way is healthier and better, so I'm trying to rework my mind and get in the habit of always having a vegetable.

I wanted to use the rest of the roast beef. Tomorrow is pizza night and we're going to treat ourselves to a meal out on Saturday, so it needed to be used up today. I sliced up the meat into ½ inch cubes, put it in a small pot with some Tikka curry sauce, frozen corn, and frozen peas. I let that heat up and made some basmati rice to go with it.

I'd never had basmati rice. It was more expensive than the regular long-grained rice I usually buy. I found a huge bag of it at Sam's Club for $12 and ended up going with that, so we now have plenty of rice for curry! I didn't notice a taste difference between the long-grain and basmati rice, but the texture and shape of the rice was different. I liked it. I'm definitely becoming used to curry. I used to feel the mildest one was too hot and I easily ate this, which has medium heat.

I think I'm embracing my boyfriend's British side and becoming a curry convert...at least for the ease of using up leftovers. The taste is growing on me.

Leftover Roast Beef?? Rissoles!!!

I posted the other night about the roast beef I made in the crock pot. We had a roast that was over 3 pounds, but it was just the two of us, so we had quite a bit left over. I wasn't sure what to do with it, so I asked around and rissoles was one of the recipes recommended to me.

I wasn't given a real recipe, I was just told to take the leftover roast, an onion, parsley, a pinch of cinnamon, breadcrumbs, and an egg, mix it, coat with flour, and fry in a bit of oil. I'm a budding cook, and that sounded simple enough, so I went with it and just gave it a go.

I had about 2 pounds of meat left, and figured that would make too much rissole for tonight, so I took out my new chef's knife and minced about half the meat. (It was recommended that I use a food processor, but I didn't have one so I had to do it the old-fashioned way. It wasn't bad mincing the meat, I just sliced it thinly in two directions so it looked shredded, laid the shreds flat and pressed my knife over them. I could not have done this with my old knives!) I then minced the onion, put in about a tablespoon of parsley, about 1/2 cup breadcrumbs, one egg...and a little too much cinnamon. I didn't have my computer in the kitchen and I remembered there was cinnamon, but not a pinch. I put in about a teaspoon, which was too much. I then mixed it and made patties, which I coated in flour. The patties were fried in a coating of oil in a skillet until brown on each side.















My boyfriend thought they were brilliant. I liked them, but will try to remember to only use a pinch of cinnamon next time. I tried them plain and found them a bit dry, but that may be the extra cinnamon and maybe too much flour? I tried a bit of ketchup on them, but don't think they tasted right with ketchup (although my boyfriend did like them with ketchup). I finally ate them with some heated up leftover gravy. Lee ended up eating his on a bun with some cheese and ketchup on top, like a cheeseburger. For a side dish I put some salt and pepper on the leftover vegetables, put them in a 450°F oven and heated until browned and sizzling.

I'll definitely make these again and keep it as a possibility for using up leftover roast beef.

Simple Crock Pot Roast Beef

Today I decided to to a roast dinner since I had the day off from work. I was busy all weekend so didn't really cook. I heard that roast beef in the crock pot is supposed to be really juicy and tender, so I thought I'd give it a go. I found a simple recipe on my trusty ol' Recipezaar and got to work.

Easiest Pot Roast Ever

The meat was very tender. I got nervous about the amount of water the recipe called for, especially with the bullion cubes, so I added about an extra cup. I shouldn't have done that and won't do it next time. The only thing Lee and I felt was missing was some garlic or pepper, which we both like in roast beef. I added some garlic powder and ground white pepper. My boyfriend would like for me to use less onion next time, so I'll probably just use half an onion.

The other negative to this dinner was I really was looking forward to making Yorkshire Puddings since I love them and we haven't had them in a while. I forgot to buy eggs, so no puds. :-(

Tomayto, Tomato, Pahsta, Pawsta...

However you choose to pronounce it, we had homemade tomato sauce with ziti and italian style ground beef for dinner/tea tonight. I meant to make this Wednesday, but forgot to get up early enough to chop everything and put it in the crock pot. I got home early enough, I could have made it when I got home, but I really wanted to use my crock pot, which took longer than the two hours I had. So...I made it Thursday.

I've been making homemade tomato sauce a lot lately. It saves money and I can suit it to our tastes. I have been using powders instead of the real thing because it cooks faster, but since I was doing the crock pot, I wanted to do the fresh ingredients! My boyfriend said he really noticed a difference and it had a much fresher, more vibrant taste.

Pasta Sauce (in a 5 qt. slow cooker)

1 part diced tomatoes to 2 parts tomato sauce (I can't remember the can size I used, but it pretty well filled my crock pot)
1 can of tomato paste
I medium white onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced (we love garlic flavour)
1 bay leaf


I didn't have these fresh, so during the last two hours of cooking I added:
2-3 tablespoons parsley flakes
2-3 tablespoons Italian seasoning

Put ingredients in crock pot and cook on low for approximately 10 hours. This made a lot of sauce and we put the extra in a container to freeze and use later.

Garlic Bread:
1 Italian loaf of bread
butter
garlic salt (I have the kind with parsley)

1. Slice the bread in one inch sections.
2. Leave the bottom crust intact, don't slice all the way through.
3. Butter each side of the slices.
4. Sprinkle garlic salt to taste on each side of the slices.
5. Wrap in aluminum foil and heat in 350°F oven until butter is melted and crust is crispy.

Italian Style Ground Beef:
http://www.recipezaar.com/218857

I hadn't made pasta in a while and both Lee and I are pasta lovers! We didn't realize how much we missed it until tonight!

Pasty Potatoes

I've always made mashed potatoes from a box. I'm trying really hard to learn to make mashed potatoes from fresh potatoes, but haven't had much success. I really should just follow a recipe until I get it, but that would make too much sense! The first time I made them, they tasted good, but were fairly lumpy.

This time, I think I was ok with the boiling part. I used my new immersion blender to mix them and that seemed to work well (I don't have a potato masher). I think I put in too much milk and butter. I didn't measure the milk and put in two tablespoons of butter. I was using up the rest of the small white and red potatoes I had here, so I think it was about 10-15 in all.

Luckily, I planned them to accompany some reheated Salisbury Steak I made in December and the gravy helped make the potatoes edible! Not every meal is going to be a success, and I guess this was a miss for now.