Showing posts with label beef broth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beef broth. Show all posts

Monday, February 15, 2016

Pot Roast and Mashed Potatoes

I love the Pioneer Woman. I had no idea I would be using one of Ree's recipes today, but I had thawed out a piece of beef I had in the freezer and really didn't know what to do with it. At first I thought I was going to do a roast in the crock pot, but I didn't have any potatoes and I'm not a fan of the crock pot for that because my veggies always seem to come out like mush. So after some google recon, I saw a link for the "Perfect Pot Roast" on the Pioneer Woman Cooks and gave it a click. Lo and Behold, her recipe went in the oven and called for only beef, carrots, and onion, all of which I had.

I really do like her site, you could say this blog is an homage to her of sorts, the pictures and step by step walk through of the recipes has helped me out tons of times.

The starting line up:


That piece of meat was half of a 3-4 pound hunk which I cut in half and tossed in the freezer, so it's 2 pounds at most. Here's my ingredients list:
  • 1.5 to 2 lb of beef
  • 1 onion
  • 10 small carrots
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 1 can beef broth
  • 1/4 tsp thyme
  • 1/4 tsp rosemary
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • kosher salt
  • pepper
  • Preheat oven to 275 deg


Chop your veggies, salt and pepper your beef on all sides, and add the olive oil to your pan. You'll want it hot (med-high) so as to sear the outside of the beef and brown the veggies.



Get to searing.


I'm so dedicated to searing I even got the sides. Once you have everything browned, you'll want to clear the pan for deglazing, so you can get all those burned/browned little bits off the bottom. You need to contribute "maximum effort" if you want maximum flavor.


By the way, go see Deadpool, but don't take the kids. Back to the cooking.


Okay, so at this point I added the chopped garlic to the pan right before deglazing. Ree gave it as an optional ingredient but didn't show where she used it in her walk-through. I feel like in most recipes you brown it first off for about a minute or two before adding everything else, so I tossed it in here and cooked for about 30 seconds before I deglazed with the can of beef broth. Now I'm not a garlic fiend by any means, but I had some on the shelf, so by god I am using it. I like to act like I know what I'm doing.


At this point I tossed in another can's worth of water. I'm not sure if I really needed it but whatever. Re-place your meat and veggies in your pan for a pre-roasting photo op.


Oh yeah, you'll want to add the thyme and rosemary before you cover and toss in the oven. I only used 1/4 tsp each because I didn't know how much Ree used and I didn't want to over-do it.

Now, at this point I had three hours to kill (275 degrees) so I followed Ree's link for the perfect mashed potatoes to go with the roast and I made a quick trip to the store. NOTE. This recipe was a little heavy on the butter and cream cheese for my waistline, so I cut those down to a little bit less than half.

The bench warming reserves:
  • 2.5 lb of russet potatoes
  • 3 Tbsp real butter
  • 3 oz philly cream cheese
  • 1/4 cup half-and-half
  • 1/4 tsp season salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper


Preheat a large pot of water. I had 3 large potatoes for this that I peeled and chopped into 1 to 1.5" inch pieces and tossed them in. Don't worry if it's not boiling yet. Set the timer on the microwave for 30 minutes but start checking for done-ness at 25 minutes. Once done, drain and return to the pot. Move to a new burner and set it on low heat. If you have a potato masher great. I used a fork cuz I'm gangsta.
 

Add in the butter, cream cheese, half-and-half, season salt, and pepper. MIX.


Butter a pan that can go in the oven and transfer the mixed fluffy deliciousness into it. Top with a little bit of butter.


Cover that bad boy with foil and transfer into the over. I put it in when the roast still had about 15 minutes left and cranked the temperature up to 350.


Once I pulled the roast out, I left the potatoes in for another 15 minutes.


Upon checking them, they still didn't look like Rees with a nice golden brown crust, so I moved them up a rack in the oven and turned on the broiler to brown the top of them. After 2 or 3 minutes, that did the trick and I pulled them out.


Time to eat!

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Mom's Baked Chicken and Rice

So these days when you ask your Mother to send you a recipe, this is how you get it:


The standard picture text message of a 20 year old, faded notebook of recipes with her barely legible scribbles. I'm just glad I can make out most of it.

Rice w Chicken
Melt 1 stick butter in 9x13 pan
Add 1 box Uncle Ben's rice & 1 Cup minute Rice (no idea why we need to mix and match but OKAY)
Add 1 can French Onion & 1 Can Beef Consomme Soup or Beef Broth
Can of mushrooms if prefer
Add only 1 can water. Top with Chicken and bake 1 hr @ 350 degrees.

Boom. Now for this one, I don't have all the ingredients on hand. I'm not going to the store either, so I'm going to make due with what I got, which means one substitution (packet of onion soup instead of a can of the Campbell's french onion) and just going without mushrooms. Which sucks cuz I like mushrooms. Also I guess I have neither of those kinds of rice, but I have a random container of rice next to the stove and some kind of boil bag jasmine rice. Lets keep to the spirit of the recipe and mix 'em up and see what happens. Oh yeah, I'm assuming this is for a full package of chicken, which is a couple pounds, but I'm only using it with one large breast chopped in half.

The cast:


Start with melting the butter in the pan. I'm going with a short bus pan since I'm not doing a whole package of chicken. I tossed in the beef consomme soup too, no rhyme or reason. We're doing this on the fly here.


I was using the microwave to melt the butter. I bumped the pan pulling it out and liquid splashed everywhere and I made a mess. Maybe I shouldn't have added the beef consomme just yet.


Throw in the packet of onion soup mix and an empty can's worth of water to count for the can of french onion soup that I didn't have. This isn't really halving the recipe, but I'm going to leave out the additional can of water the recipe calls for. I am probably going to have too much liquid but we'll see how much the rice soaks up. I can always pour off the excess.


Add in the rice, I don't need it in the boil bag, so I went ahead and cut it open and bombs away.


Place chicken on top, throw in the oven at 350 degrees and find something to do for an hour.


So much for excess, that cooked up perfectly!

Monday, February 1, 2016

Pork Beef and Black Bean Chili

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound ground pork
1 pound ground beef
1 pound chuck steak, fat trimmed, cut into 1-inch cubes
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups water
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 6-ounce cans tomato paste
2 teaspoons sugar
3 cups diced fresh tomatoes
3 cups diced onions
3 cups diced red bell peppers
3 cups canned black beans, drained, rinsed (from three 15-ounce cans)
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 3/4 cups (about) beef broth
Grated cheddar cheese

Preparation
Heat olive oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add ground pork and ground beef and sauté until brown, about 3 minutes. Add cubed beef and garlic and sauté 5 minutes. Add 2 cups water; bring to boil. Add cumin, chili powder, oregano, salt, and cayenne pepper. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 10 minutes. Add tomato paste and sugar and simmer 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, onions, and peppers and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes. Add black beans and cilantro to chili. Add beef broth 3/4 cup at a time, until thinned to desired consistency. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Refrigerate uncovered until cold, then cover and keep refrigerated.) Bring chili to simmer. Ladle hot chili into bowls; top with grated cheddar cheese and serve.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pork-Beef-and-Black-Bean-Chili-107280