And I mean it, seriously!
It's just that I've been rather busy lately. Not only with keeping up around the house and grounds outside, but doing a lot of kitchen work.
Not only have been making cheeses but I've been experimenting with some new processes. I'll, uh, have to wait a few more weeks to find out how it well it works. But you WILL be the first to know!
Tofu making is a weekly --sometimes twice-weekly-- event now. Quick, cheap, and easy.
Bread and beer making too, of course. I've also been experimenting with chia seeds in various breads and curries. So far so good and I'll let you know all about that soon.
Jarring homegrown sundried tomatoes in olive oil happens daily --at least until the tomato plants call it a season. Harvested 1134 tomatoes so far this summer.
Jams from brambleberries and wild rose-hips is going well.
I've also been doing quite a bit of research. Health and nutrition mainly. I want to keep this blog as a "recipe only" type thingy so I've decided to launch a health blog. I'll keep you posted, no worries.
Aaaaaaaaannnnnnddddddd, here's todays recipe! This is more of a tip though.
Have you ever cooked a beef roast and had it come out dry or tough? Or perhaps you didn't have enough pan juices to make gravy? Bland tasting maybe?
I can help, really.
Place your beef roast in your roasting pan with the fat side UP. This way not only will the fat drip down through the roast to keep in tender, but you can also take the lid off the roasting pan for the last 20 or 30 mins to crispy-ize the fat if so desired.
Next, pour a half bottle of a strong red wine over the roast. Shiraz, merlot, cab-sauv, any of those will work nicely. Then grind a lot of black pepper over the top of the roast and rub the pepper in with your fingers. Lightly sprinkle with sea salt, put the lid on it, and then put it in the LOWEST oven temp you can get away with for 2 to 4 hours. The time depends upon the size and how well done you like your roast.
When you take it out of the oven for serving, pour all the pan juices into a saucepan for gravy making. The only thing you'll have to do for the gravy is boil the juices in the saucepan and add cornflour (called cornstarch in the US) --dissolved in cold water, of course-- while whisking. How much you add completely depends on how thick YOU like your gravy.
Gravy making should only take 2 minutes, max.
Thin (or thick, your choice) slice pieces off that roast and serve it up with the gravy! Loads of mashed spuds (potatoes), grilled corn on the cobb, and steamed veggies make great accompaniments to this. Serve with a glass of red wine and a glass of ale.
2 comments:
Glad to see you haven't been buried under the tomato harvest -- send some of that Australian summer to us poor souls in the frozen North, will ya!?
Looking forward to your posts, and just wondering, do you by any chance bake with sourdough?
Naturelady: I sent some heat your way a few days ago, should be arriving soon, no worries. Sourdough baking... I used too when I could keep the starter in the garage but the place we are at now doesn't have a garage. For some reason my eyes started to get filmy if it was in the house (even in the fridge!) However, I've been keeping the fadge sludge (still very active yeast) from brewing for months now to make waffles and pancakes lately and my eyes aren't filmy at all. So the other day I fed it with sugar (the hops from brewing makes it bitter so it needs lots of sugar to overcome that), wholemeal flour and chia seeds. Bubbles nicely. Separates just like sourdough starter and my eyes are fine. Soooooo, I get to start baking with sourdough again! Yay me! I've been reading your sourdough recipes and they sound really good. In fact, I'll be making a loaf for dunkers to go with tonights soup.
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