Dinner Guests

So as I mentioned before, this past Friday we helped some friends out with moving a rather large object into their home. As a reward, we were fed. So now it was time for us to repay the favor, as I needed help moving a rather large..ahem..38' ladder.

As with most Sunday dinners in my family, they are designed so the cook can spend more time with their guests than with the food. So I decided upon a good old fashioned pot roast with red cabbage and mashed potatoes. Pretty standard fare if I do say so.

So the pot roast begins with a bottom round cut. I tend to go for the cheapest stuff I can find so choice or equivalent will do here.

I then reach for my enameled cast iron pot in the 4-5 qt range, and melt 3 tablespoons of butter under medium high heat, and as I am doing this I roughly chop a large onion and toss it in to brown. As that is happening I chop half a package of white mushrooms and roughly chop 2 stalks of celery. I keep moving them occasionally in the pot. Just don't let them completely burn...not so tasty! Rub black pepper (fresh ground please) into all sides of the roast, except the bottom layer of fat. Then make some room in the pot and let each side of the roast brown for 2 minutes.

Once all sides are brown, I generally start with a bottle of any ale you have lying around (no Bud is not an Ale), by pouring it in and then moving the roast around to deglaze the bottom of the pot, then add water to cover most of the roast. Then add half a bottle of pickling spice (brand is of your choice). I took a different twist this time and went a little further by zesting one orange worth of zest into the pot as well. Stir to combine, bring to a boil, and put it on low low low heat for 3-5 hours.

The red cabbage or Blaukraut, is a bit different than you would expect. I did not make it, Kristin did, so I'll add it in a later post once I make it. =-)

So when Mark and Michelle arrived, they came bearing gifts of, fresh pumpkin pie, (not from the can but from their garden), and a strange jar with wooden paddles and a crank handle on top (I was told to get a half gallon of heavy cream). Turns out that it is a butter churner from the 1800's. Naturally I wanted to try this out. So we poured the cream in, sealed the lid, and cranked...and cranked and cranked for about 10 minutes until we got to whipped cream.


We took some of the whipped cream out, I folded some sugar in, and set it aside for the pie, and then continued cranking for another 10 minutes or so...then all of a sudden the cream went away, and we got butter! And with it butter milk So for 10 bucks of cream we got about 10 dollars of butter and 4 dollars of butter milk, and my arms got a good work out. Here is Mark (left) and myself (right) straining out the butter milk from the butter.

So I used the butter we made, and butter milk in the mashed potatoes along with some sour cream with smoked sweet paprika, chives, and black pepper. Mashed it all up with our $14 dollar wedding present potato masher, (long story) and served.

At this point the roast has been braising for about 4-5 hours and it was time to eat. I removed it from the pot and covered with aluminum foil for 5 minutes to rest. Here is where you have a decision to make. Do I want a thick gravy, or a watery one...

I went for the watery one due to time, which is just ladle out the liquid from the pot (not getting any spices or vegetation with it)

To make it thick, get a shaker (Tupperware or even a cocktail shaker)and put 1/4 cup of AP (All purpose) flour and fill it half way with COLD water. Then do what a shaker does best, shake the living daylights out of it to make a slurry. Then, with the heat up and the liquid at a simmer, slowly stir in the slurry. This will lighten the gravy but not by much, then keep adding it should begin to thicken. If not, (humidity plays a part in this. If you want to know why, watch "Hittin' the Sauce" an episode of Alton Brown's "Good Eats") repeat the slurry creation process and add till it is as thick as you desire. This way you avoid the lumpy gravy thats gritty tasting.

Hey, didn't you notice I didn't salt the meat? You may be asking now, "what gives, aren't you supposed to salt your meat to enhance the flavor?" you are right! But I didn't. I'll keep you guessing why though...for now :)

Chicken Soup...

So I found deep in the depths of my freezer the other night an 'oven stuffer' that I have been neglecting for a few (3) months. So now that it is getting cooler outside here in the north east, I decided to thaw it out and make something of it.

After having chicken last night at a friend of ours place, I did not want to replicate that dish (chicken pieces in a flavorful liquid with some vegetation and rice).

I began to run the inventory of my chicken knowledge and the myriad of ways to prepare it. I could remove the spine and keel bone and do it in the o'le cast iron skillet...no, (still don't have a splatter screen thingie) that would make a mess. I could roast it up, make mashed potatoes and some kind of vegtable and salad. No, that wouldn't do. I wanted something I didn't have to work very hard for today.

I decided on soup. So I did roast the 'oven stuffer' with a variety of vegitation (carrots, celery, parsnips, half a turnip, dill, and parsley) first. Very roughly chopped up might I add.

I put that into a roasting pan and into a 450 degree oven for an hour and 30 minutes, or until the middle of the breast hit an internal temperature of about 160.

In the mean time I took some more carrots, a large onion, 3 large celery stalks, the other half of the turnip, half a package of white mushrooms (cleaned please), a large bay leaf, dried basil, dried parsley, and pepper. (I didn't salt this for Medical reasons, I'll discuss my 100% avoidance of salt and potassium later on). I added a can of vegtable broth (low sodium), and then 5 cups of water and let that sit for a bit.

Once the chicken was done in the oven, I took it out, let it rest for 5 minutes, and then placed it into the pot with everything else, discared the now spent vegitation and brought it to a boil, then dropped it to a simmer and then left it alone for 3 hours.

I retrieved the chicken, carefuly as to not let any bones fall into the rest of the liquid (though I am sure some did). I let it cool again, and then slowly by hand, took apart the bird and shredded the meat into the soup, after there wasn't any thing left, I let it cook for another hour before adding some pasta (your choice) though I would say a half a pound would do it. Anything more and you'll have too many noodles.

Hope you enjoyed this first installment as much as I did creating the dish and eating it!

So...It all begins from here.

So, I've done a few of these before...with limited success; so as they say, keep trying to you succeed.

The point of this Blog/News/Simple Website is to:

1. Document for myself what dishes and experiments I have created
2. Remind myself if I had made something recently so I don't make it again too soon.
3. Get feed back from the folks of the internets.

I'll spare details of myself and my inspirations for later installments as to keep this post brief as it is only the first post. I hate reading long introductory posts. It makes me less interested, but having it piece mail will keep me interested and want to read more...and that is what I hope you will do should you find yourself reading this.

Until after Dinner

-Ken