That Brisket Feeling - Pot Roast Beef

Well it can be done. A few posts back I was unhappy about the result of a pot roast where the beef was so hard it almost crunched. I had two cuts of beef, one of which I froze and yesterday I decided to try and cook it again. Bearing in mind that a visitor had posted with good comments about not using supermarket brisket (fair enough) I still had this lump of supermarket gristle which I wanted to make in to a meal. So I cooked the recipe (see Delia Smith's book(s)) but this time I did it 24 hours before eating time. I cooked it on a very low heat for two hours then took it out of the oven and left it to cool in the kitchen over night. This morning I warmed it up on the hob and then put it back in the oven on slow cook for a further two hours. The I just kept it warm in the grill above the oven whilst I turned same up and made Yorkshire puddings. I suspect that the fact that the meat had been frozen also helped in tenderising.

It turned out brilliantly. The meat, whilst not falling off the fork was tender, the gravy sublime (thanks Delia) and it went really well with Yorkshires. So it can be done with a rough cut of supermarket meat, but even so I think next time I'll get the brisket from my favourite butcher.

Solved that problem

In my last post I was moaning on about what to do if you can't think of what to cook. I solved it by deciding to do an old recipe (see below) for that standby - baked potatoes. I wasn't very excited by the potatoes, I mean, baking potatoes is not exciting on a week night, you can't go to town and get mini ones, and make hollondaise sauce et al to go with them (which is divine) - no time. So I jammed them up with cottage cheese, prawns and chopped parsley and made a coleslaw (see previous post for recipe). As well as the usual ingredients my wife requested that I add extra apple and celery. I don't often like over-complicating coleslaw but it was fun to make, tasted good and solved my 'what shall I cook tonight?' problem.

What shall we eat tonight?

This can be tricky. Some evenings or days I'm just at a loss as to what to cook for our main meal. You can sort of run out of ideas or be bored with your current round of regular meals or whatever. What to do? Family needs to be fed, cooking and eating are an important occupation(s) for me and provide relief at the end of the day of work and hassle and stuff. Plus the kids will be hungry and WANT FOOD SOON.

I've got stuff in the fridge and freezer and some good vegetables so it's not a lack of ingredients, but inspiration will not come. I could root around in my collection of cook books which might provide ideas, could ask my wife or son to cook (he does a mean Macaroni cheese) if I offer to clear up, but my wife gets anxious at surprise requests to put food on the table without massive planning and forethought. We could go out - no, did that the other day or order in a takeaway but they are limited where we live, curry or Asian or pizza being about it. So I think a think and a look in the fridge and the larder and some books is in order and we shall see. Watch this space.

Taking a Butchers

I do go to supermarkets for a number of reasons - which I might write about in another blog. Suffice to say I don't think they're a force for evil but I don't think they're all good either. I also think that their meat is hardly ever as top notch as the meat we get from our local butcher.

Bells is fanatastic. It's the kind of butcher I remember from my childhood. When I was a kid I recall my mother taking us in to a butcher on the local high street where you could find game - rabbit, pheasant and so on hanging in the window and I always associate the smell of a butcher's shop with good food, although I realise that for vegetarians and others this must be disgusting, so sorry. Bells is on our high street and inside it's classic. A black and white tiled floor complete with the obligatory sawdust and behind the counter a huge marble prep area and an enormous chopping block. Sometimes you can wander in and find a whole pig (dead obviously) hanging up on the rail around the back of the shop waiting to be jointed and prepared for sale. I used to take the kids in when they were smaller so they understood where their food came from i.e. pig = pork chops. The shop even has a separate little kiosk where an older lady sits (Mum of one of the butchers I expect) and takes the money so the butchers don't handle the ££s and risk cross infection.

I don't think buying from the butcher is more expensive though.I bought a large chicken today which will be roast and then used for stock, a kilo of lovely sausages - local Northchapel herbies and pork and chive plus 12 rashers of their own smoked back bacon. £20 the lot, which bearing in mind it's all free range compares well to the supermarket. And it tastes infinitely better which alone is worth it.

The butchers are good value too, very knowledgeable about their produce and good to chat to, something you don't get in a supermarket. Our butchers know about their meat and are proud of what they sell. You know you can ask their advice on a cut or a way of cooking or an amount for a number of people and you won't get ripped off. What's not to like?

Poaching Time

At the very beginning of this blog I said I couldn't poach eggs. I'd got 2 proper egg poachers, one a 4 egg pan and the other a neat little one egger which hangs on the side of any old pot. Keen to try them I set about poaching. Complete mess. Either they turned out so runny they just sort of fell on to the plate like a large dead something from a bad head cold - or possibly looking like a raw oyster or they were the consistency of a rubber ball. Last but not least they - if cooked - clung to the poacher and left bits of themselves stuck to the sides, not aesthetically pleasing.

I solved the last problem by wiping the inside of the poacher with a little olive oil before loading the egg in. And yesterday I produced for the first time two beautifully cooked poached eggs; soft runny yolks, firm cooked whites and out of the pan whole. How did I accomplish this feat of culinary genius? I watched them like a hawk and gently prodded the whites with a very sharp knife until I could see the whites were cooked which led me, correctly, to believe that the yolks would be right too. How satisfying was that?

PS - I'm afarid the picture illustrating this is an aspiration not a real one of mine.

Closer to the Edge

I know this blog is called adventures in home cooking but I have to file on a fantastic meal I had earlier this week. The food? Good, a kind of Schnitzel but made with chicken breast (flattened and very tender) accompanied by excellent salads including beef tomato with red onion and avocado and spinach. Plus a superb dressing to go with the meat, chopped basil in spiced yoghurt, with some delightful chunky brown bread on the side. The latter cut in to small pieces so you don't load up on it and feel bloated and piggy.

But - the big and amazing thing was the location. A city lawyer's firm on the fifth floor of a beautiful building overlooking St Paul's Cathedral. And I mean right on St Paul's churchyard. If you've seen 'The Madness of King George' when the Royal Family come out on to the steps of St Paul's 'Schmilink und wavink' - it looked directly down on to that. Made the food taste even better, and I was being paid to be there.

Beef Bummer

We had good friends over for dinner last night and I planned to do something which I usually don't. That is to cook a dish I haven't cooked before. Usually I regard trying out new recipes on guests as a big mistake - mostly because things can go wrong and you end up with a dinner party composed of carbon or raw stuff. It's a good idea to try things out in the privacy of your own family and send out for a take-away when it goes wrong.

BUT... the recipe I was using was supposed to be bomb-proof and I was confident in my ability to deliver...

It was pot-roast beef. The gravy was fantastic, the vegetables cooked in same were lovely but the beef itself was as tough as an old boot. It was brisket as called for by the recipe and cooked long and slow but it just would not tenderise. IN the end I sliced it as thin as possible and although it tasted ok - and beef is not the tastiest of meats, it's all in the texture, the texture was indeed tough.

Lesson - cook this dish the day before and then leave it to tenderise in its juices ready for the following evening if you have time or use a more expensive but tender cut of meat. Here endeth the lesson.