I am contemplating
cooking my way through the” Cook’s Illustrated The Science of Good Cooking” book. The primary issues are time and my innate
inability to stick to a recipe unless it is baking and even then I fudge on
spices. If you have ever watched the
Cook’s show you know they are a little snotty and do not approve of substitutions
or deviations. I understand their reasoning;
they are trying to perfect each recipe.
I am not perfect. My cooking is
not perfect. The only reason I am contemplating
this is the desire to be a better cook. After
all, it is something I do every single day so I should be more knowledgeable than
I currently am. If do this I have to be
honest and recognize my short comings, such as following verbatim the recipes.
Case in point,
tonight’s dinner of pot roast. I will
not print out their recipe due to copy write laws. (I like my house and don’t
want to lose it anytime soon.) I will
tell you what I actually did when there are at least three changes in the
recipe. Cook’s does not like sirloin top
steak. It is tough and can be difficult
to tenderize. It can be used as a roast
in a pinch though. Of course my grocery
store frequently puts it on sale, and with three growing boys, I love sales. So tonight I had two slightly freezer burnt
cuts of meat defrosted which totaled up at 2.32 lbs. I decided to make (an approximation) of
Classic Pot Roast. Here is the recipe as
I actually prepared the roast.
Two sirloin top steaks just over two lbs
Olive oil (to coat bottom of pan)
Salt and pepper to taste
½ red onion, chopped
3 carrots, roughly chopped
2 stalks of celery roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves minced
2 tsp sugar
2 TBS Kitchen Bouquet
1 ½ c beef broth
1 cup water
7 small Yukon potatoes, chopped into ½ inch cubes
½ cup red wine
This is not a walk- in-the house from work and get it on the
table in 30 minutes meal. Not even
close. Depending on the cut and size of
your beef you need 3-4 hours cooking time, and that does not count prep. Not time we have on most days but when you
have it, this will produce rave reviews at your table.
I used my big Bertha Le Crueset Dutch oven for this meal so
I could brown and cook everything in one pot.
Less cleanup time equals a happy
me. Lower your oven rack so the pot can
sit in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 300 degrees. On the stovetop, heat your Dutch oven with just
enough olive oil to lightly coat the bottom over medium high heat. Pat the beef with paper towels and salt and
pepper to taste before browning the beef on all sides. Remove beef and set aside. Add onion, carrots and celery, sautéing until
just starting to brown or onion turns translucent. Add minced garlic and sugar, sauté for about
a minute. The sugar is supposed to prevent
the garlic from becoming bitter. I have
never tried that before but the meal was not bitter in anyway. Add the beef broth and Kitchen Bouquet at
this time, scraping up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. My mother introduced me to Kitchen Bouquet a
few years ago and it adds a little extra to the flavor of beef. Put beef back into the pot and add enough
water to come up half way up the meat, for my dish that was about 1 cup of
water.
The next step was something I had never done before. Cover the top of the pot with foil and then
put the lid on tightly. This ensures a
complete seal creating steam in the pot to produce a tender roast at low temperatures. Place in oven. No, you can’t just walk away from this
meal. Now every 30 minutes you need to
remove the pot from the oven and turn the meat over then reapply the foil and
lid. You are looking for the beef to
become fork tender. At two hours my
sirloin was easily pierced by a fork so I took the pot out to add the cubed
potatoes. They are chopped fairly small,
a trick I picked up from a delicious meal at a local restaurant a few years
ago. I flipped the beef one last time
and put it in the oven for one more hour.
Are you done yet? Of course
not! (Did I mention this is time consuming?)
Remove the pot from the oven and transfer back to the
stovetop. Take the beef out and let it rest
on the cutting board, be sure you have a way to trap the juices so they can go
back in the pot. While the beef rests
bring the broth and potatoes up to a low boil.
Keep the mixture cooking for 6-8 minutes. The purpose of this is to reduce the sauce
thereby intensifying the flavor of the sauce.
Then add the red wine and cook down for about five more minutes. Slice the beef across the grain which should
be very easy to do at this point. Place
in a serving dish and then pour the potatoes and sauce over the roast. Serve with a good bread to mop all those juices
on the plate and a salad so you feel healthier.
I also made a side of mushrooms.
Yes it would have been much easier to just throw them in with everything
else but somehow I gave birth to mushroom haters. Bless their hearts! So I make them on the side and then everyone
can add (or not) as desired. Here is that
recipe.
One small package of baby portabellas de-stemmed and sliced.
2 TBS reduced sodium soy sauce
2 TBS Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
Place butter in a small skillet and melt over medium heat
until butter begins to brown. Add
mushrooms and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently. Add sauces and cook for 3-5 minutes
more. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve and
enjoy. I can eat these all by themselves. They would be great over a grilled steak or a
baked potato.
I hope you enjoy this recipe. Now to peruse my cookbook for the next experiment. Only 399 more recipes to go!
