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Permalink Reply by everydayguy on April 19, 2008 at 3:06pm

Recipe - Roast beef with Yorkshire pudding

CHEF Gordon Ramsay is trying to resurrect the most traditional of family meals with his new book, Sunday Lunch (Quadrille).

Ramsay and his wife Tana eat with their four children at least three times a week and he says enthusiastically: "I'm determined to to take the intimidation out of cooking and get families back around the table.

Roast beef with Yorkshire pudding

(4-6 servings)

1.2-1.5kg rib of beef, on the bone

sea salt and black pepper

2tbsp olive oil

Yorkshire puddings

225g plain flour

1/2tsp salt

4 eggs, beaten

300ml milk

About 4tbsp vegetable oil, for cooking

Gravy

few thyme sprigs

4 garlic cloves (unpeeled)

2 red onions, peeled and sliced

4 plum tomatoes, halved

1/2 bottle of red wine (about 350ml)

1.2 litres beef stock

Allow a couple of hours before cooking to bring the beef to room temperature and make the Yorkshire batter.

Heat the oven to 200C/Gas 6. Season the beef and sear in a hot roasting pan with a little olive oil to brown on all sides, about three to four minutes on each side. Transfer to the oven and roast for 15 minutes per 450g, rare or 20 minutes per 450g, medium.

For the Yorkshire batter, sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Add the eggs and half the milk and beat until smooth. Mix in the remaining milk and leave the batter to rest.

When the beef is cooked, transfer to a warmed plate and leave to rest, lightly covered in foil, in a warm place while you cook the puddings and make the gravy. Increase the oven setting to 230C/Gas 8. Put one teaspoon oil, or better still, hot fat from the beef roasting pan into each section of a 12-hole Yorkshire pudding tray (or muffin tray) and put into the oven on the top shelf until very hot (almost smoking).

Whisk the batter again in the meantime. As soon as you take the tray from the oven, ladle in the batter to three-quarters fill the tins (it should sizzle) and immediately put back into the oven.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes until the Yorkshire puddings are well risen, golden brown and crisp.

To make the gravy, pour off excess fat from the roasting pan, place on a medium heat and add the thyme, garlic, onions and tomatoes. Cook for four to five minutes, then pour in the wine and bring to a simmer. Squash the tomatoes to help thicken the sauce. Pour in the stock and bubble for about 10 minutes until reduced by half. Pass the gravy through a sieve, pressing the vegetables to extract their flavour. Bring back to the boil and reduce.

Carve the beef thinly. Serve with the gravy, Yorkshire puddings, Yorkshire puddings, sauteed cabbage, glazed carrots and roast potatoes.

3:07pm Thursday 15th June 2006

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Permalink Reply by everydayguy on April 22, 2008 at 10:50am

Mojito and Caipirinha’s illegitimate child
January 27th, 2008

Ah, caipirinhas – perhaps Brazil’s best export outside of footballers (though admittedly, there’s some fine exporting going there). For those that haven’t had the chance to experience one yet, 1. get your arse to the nearest Brazilian steakhouse ASAP, 2. cry into your mojito instead. Of course, I may be a bit biased in this — the first time I ever had a caipirinha, a Brazilian friend brought a giant gourd (literally. a gourd.) filled with mysterious substances that he had us take turns pounding/mashing before we started taking sips and passing it around.

“Pedro. Where on earth did you find a giant gourd??”
“Oh, I missed drinking out of these so much, I ask my mother to buy one and send it to me in the mail.”

Somehow things taste better when it came out of a container sent by someone’s mother 5000 miles away.

Now I don’t remember too much else about that particular drink besides that it was good, I kept calling it capoeiras, and we were preetty happy by the time the gourd had been emptied.

A few days and wikipedia articles later, I had learnt that the secret of the caipirinha is cachaça, or a distilled liquor vaguely resembling rum, but made from sugarcane instead of molasses. The end result tends to be a bit softer than rum, and quite conducive towards sipping. Or awesome cocktails. Cachaça just started being imported into the US recently (before, being mainly popular in Germany… hallo randomness!). The most recognizable brands in the US market are Pitú and Cachaça 51, and indeed, I had a liter of Cachaça 51 courtesy of MarketViewLiquor for 19.99. Haven’t tried to look for cachaça out in the city too much yet, so I don’t know what the de facto availability is.

Anyhow, I had some friends over for dinner, and the debate turned towards the perils of nationalized healthcare; basically, an excellent time to bust out some awesome cocktails. I just happened to have limes. Some brown sugar. Aaaand cachaça! So I started cutting those limes into wedges and got enthusiastically into the muddling business before realizing… I have no idea how to make a caipirinha.

So instead, I did what I do best — make shit up.

Caipijitos (serves 4)
Ingredients
- 1 lime
- 4 tbl of brown sugar
- 4 shots of cachaca
- 1 12oz (standard) can of seltzer water // carbonated water

1. Cut 1 lime into ~8 wedges, put into a thin/tall glass (small french presses are awesome for this). Add the brown sugar and cachaca and muddle.
2. Pour into 4 glasses (in my case, red wine glasses) over a couple ice cubes.
3. Top off each glass with seltzer water & mix.
4. Serve to unsuspecting guests as caipirinhas. Bask in their praise.

Wow. Damn good. I think the star of the party really is the cachaça. I sipped a bit of the stuff later and it has a distinctive taste that stood out nicely in the Capijitos. Definitely worth a second shot at trying to make real caipirinhas. ;)
Till next time… cuidado!

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Permalink Reply by everydayguy on April 22, 2008 at 10:55am

Mutant Cocktails #2: Cream Sherry Flip
February 27th, 2008

Well. I’m drinking a cocktail I just made and despite being both a biologist and a budding statistician, I think I may contract salmonella tonight (around 1/20,000 chance). Oh well. At least I’ll have a blog post to show for it.

I got through the first hurdle of my grad school qualifying exam today! So to celebrate, I opened up a bottle of sherry I got recently (the cheap stuff, but hush, it’s my first time) and decided pretty soon after pouring off a taster size portion into my wine glass that 1) port is better and 2) maybe I should’ve spent more than $4.49 on the sherry. Now what to do with a whole bottle that I don’t particularly want to drink from again. I’ll definitely cook with it a bit, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to make cocktails out of the stuff too. A quick Google search tells me that Cream Sherry Flips are the most common cocktail made with cream sherry… but it involves an egg.

Cream Sherry Flip

2½ oz Cream Sherry
2 tsp Table Cream
1 tsp Simple Syrup (2:1)
1 Fresh Egg
Nutmeg

Instructions: In a cocktail shaker combine sherry, cream simple syrup and an egg. Shake vigorously (or use a stick blender) for 30 seconds. Add ice and shake again for 30 more seconds. Strain in to a mug or coffee cup and sprinkle with nutmeg.

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An egg? What kind of egg? Egg white? Egg yolk? Well, what the hell, I figure. *smashes a whole egg and puts it in*. I don’t have a cocktail shaker (what kind of cocktail aficionado are you?! … uh, well, not one… yet!!), so I use appropriately sized tupperware (one that doesn’t smell like yesterday’s lunch of bacon with… mrm… bacon cocktails…). I never have cream lying around the house, so I use some hazelnut CoffeeMate as-artificial-as-it-gets creamer. I figure the creamer will make it sweet enough that the simple syrup isn’t needed. And you can never have enough cinnamon & nutmeg right? So I put the whole mess together in the tupperware with a couple cubes of ice, scramble the eggs a bit with a fork, and then shake as vigorously as I can. The tupperware, unfortunately, objects to this treatment, and protests by spurting out little bits of alcoholic dead chick embryo all over my dinner table. But damn, is the drink starting to look pretty and smell pretty good, even in Gladware.

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I pour the concoction into a wine glass… look at the ominous coloration floating on the surface… and take a deep sip. And it’s good! It’s delicioso! Mrm, I can taste the sherry, the nutmeg, the cinnamon, and the egg brings the whole monstrous mix into something creamy and smooth in texture. I’m about halfway through the glass as I’m idly going through the same site I found the cream sherry flip recipe from and found an article on Egg Whites & Cocktails… and realise that I was probably not supposed to use the whole egg — just the egg white.

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So now I’m sitting here, wine glass empty (well I have to finish what I begin…) and a stomach probably full of happy salmonella bacteriums. And the power of suggestion is playing tricks on my mind. I feel my ribs contracting, a slimey sort of phelgm at the back of my throat, and I can almost see my weary innate immunity cells coming out with their old battle armor on, saying, “what the hell did she try eating this time.”

But it’ll be fine I’m sure. At least the Cream Sherry Flip was awesome — will definitely make again (with perhaps, just the egg white. Maybe even pasteurized egg whites. Supposedly you can find powdered egg whites). Or maybe I’ll just use the whole egg again. After all, if I’m not dead from eating “sashimi” from defrosted Costco packs of salmon, then I’m pretty much invincible, right?

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Permalink Reply by everydayguy on April 23, 2008 at 7:49am

Eggs Florentinesque
By Aïda Mollenkamp

Swapping the hollandaise sauce for crème fraîche makes for an easier take on the classic.


Swapping the hollandaise sauce for a sour cream mixture and cooking the eggs in spinach makes for an easier, updated take on the classic.

What to buy: Crème fraîche is a naturally thickened fresh cream with a tangy flavor and a rich texture; it does not curdle or separate when heated. If you can't find it, sour cream is a decent substitute.

This recipe was featured as part of our Winter Cabin Fever story.

TIME/SERVINGS
Total Time: 20 mins
Active Time: 20 mins
Makes: 6 servings

INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium shallot, minced
1 1/2 pounds spinach (about 2 medium bunches), washed and thoroughly dried
6 large eggs
4 ounces crème fraîche or sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
Toast, for serving

INSTRUCTIONS

Melt butter in a 12-inch frying pan over medium heat. Once butter foams, add shallot and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes.
Add spinach, season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and cook until just wilted, about 3 minutes. Make six indentations in spinach, crack an egg into each, cover the pan, and cook eggs to desired doneness. Meanwhile, combine crème fraîche or sour cream, lemon juice, and cayenne in a small bowl.
To serve, divide spinach and eggs among 6 pieces of toast, place a dollop of cream mixture over each egg, and season with freshly ground black pepper.

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Permalink Reply by everydayguy on April 24, 2008 at 7:05am

HOT PISTACHIO SHORTBREAD
These buttery, nutty cookies are hard to resist.


Shortbread is one of the easiest things to make; for this recipe, it takes only a few good ingredients and a minimal amount of time to have rich, buttery cookies flecked with bright green nuts.

See more tea party recipes.

TIME/SERVINGS
Total Time: 1 hr 25 mins
Active Time: 10 mins
Makes: 18 cookies

INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup shelled, unsalted pistachios
1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus 2 teaspoons for sprinkling
1 Poblano Chile (or roasted Jalapeno)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
8 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (1 stick), cut into small pieces
1 teaspoon lemon zest

INSTRUCTIONS

Heat oven to 325°F and arrange rack in the middle. Butter an 8-by-8-inch baking dish or cake pan.
Toast pistachios in a large frying pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until they are aromatic and slightly golden, about 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the pan and allow to cool at least 10 minutes before proceeding.

Combine 1/2 cup of the pistachios, the poblano chile, 1/2 cup of the sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until pistachios are ground and mixture resembles sand, about 20 times. Add flour and pulse again to combine. Add butter and zest, and pulse again until dough is just blended and comes together. Add remaining whole pistachios and pulse so they are just broken up, about 5 to 10 times.
Using the base of a measuring cup or a glass, press mixture evenly into the prepared pan. Use a fork to prick shortbread all over its surface. Sprinkle remaining 2 teaspoons sugar over top. Bake until shortbread is lightly golden and dry to the touch, about 35 to 40 minutes.

Remove from the oven and cool in the pan for about 15 minutes. Remove from the pan by inverting shortbread onto a cutting board; flip over again and cut hot shortbread into 1-by-2-inch rectangles with a serrated knife. Allow to finish cooling before serving.

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Permalink Reply by Janice 71dg. on April 29, 2008 at 2:56pm

I'm an old southern girl and frankly am getting bored with food. It's just the SO and I ,so I don't buy a lot of 'one time use' ingredients. Someone tell me how to change an ordinary piece of meat, ( I don't care what kind of meat it is ) and make it extrodinary ! I want REAL ethnic food, from any country ! The kind of food your Mother would make for the family. Not fancy, just good down home cooking. I could use some side dishes to ! Deluge me with ideas, please !

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Permalink Reply by everydayguy on April 29, 2008 at 3:28pm

just a question, since I might be the resident chef (LOL)...what type of meat do you prefer? Lamb, Chicken, Beef, Veal? Also, you are or are not concerned with calories?

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Permalink Reply by Christian on May 14, 2008 at 11:44am

Meatloaf wrapped in bacon

Here's a quick meatloaf recipe you can do in under an hour and prep in 10 min.

WARNING NOT FOR THE CALORIE WATCHER!!!!!

1lb lean ground beef * can also be replaced with ground veal
1lb ground turkey
1lb ground pork
1 onion
3/4 cup skim or 1% milk
1 medium whole red pepper (chopped)
3 eggs beaten
3 tsps worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper black
2 - 8 ounce cans tomato sauce
1 pack low sodium bacon
1 cup breadcrumbs (i use progresso italian)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

in a bowl mix together the milk and breadcrumbs (the end result should not be too milky, if so add more breadcrumb). Chop onions and pepper and set aside. In a bowl mix together the 3 meats before adding any ingredients (too much mixing of all ingredients will toughen the loaf). Add onions and pepper into meat bowl, followed by milk and breadcrumb mix and eggs. Fold in breadcrumbs then follow with the rest of the ingredients. Mix it all together until its fairly combined. I use a 9 x 13 glass baking dish and a smaller one around 6 x 10. Spray some non stick onto dish and mold your meat in a loaf shape, cover each loaf in tomato sauce (meat should allow for two loafs) in a drenching fashion. Add slices of bacon over tomato sauce one slice barely over lapping the next and bake for 45 min to an hour.
Very easy recipe i make it about once a month and serve it with mashed potatos or home made mac n cheese and i have not had an unsatisfied customer yet!!!!

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Permalink Reply by everydayguy on May 14, 2008 at 1:35pm

I like this one bro! A man after my own heart. A little fat is Sexy! Sounds good. Got to try it!

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Permalink Reply by Raquel P. on October 2, 2008 at 4:22pm

I love it!!!!!

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