Tag Archives: Beef

Classic Roast Beef and Gravy

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Currently cooking from The Complete Cook’s Country TV Show Cookbook from America’s Test Kitchen.

I’ve always thought that roast beef was just another name for pot roast. It never occurred to me that roast beef was its own dish until I saw this recipe. And after making this, I have an elegant, delicious Sunday dinner to add to my repertoire.

This is really two recipes in one. There’s the method for roasting the beef, but there’s also a recipe for brown gravy. This isn’t a 30-minute dinner, but most of the time is hands-off while the beef is roasting. You’ll need to plan a little in advance, as the beef needs to sit, covered with salt, for at least an hour in the fridge before roasting.

Prior to roasting, you brown the beef on all sides, then transfer to a low oven (275 degrees) and let it bake, until it reaches the desired temperature. In the meantime, using the same pan you browned the beef in, you build the gravy. You start out by cooking mushrooms, onions, carrots and celery until browned, followed by tomato paste, garlic and a bit of flour. The pot is deglazed with wine and beef broth, and the liquid is simmered until it reduces and thickened. The gravy is strained and kept warm until the beef is done.

My biggest problem is that the beef was too rare at the suggested temperature. I ended up putting the roast back in the oven for another 90 minutes or so. Even cooked longer, the meat stayed juicy and tender. The leftovers (and there were at least four more meals’ worth for Bryan and I) were just as good as the first meal. The recipe makes a lot of gravy, and I actually ended up throwing the last little bit out. Bryan said the gravy was almost as good as his mother’s brown gravy.

Authentic Beef Enchiladas

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Currently cooking from The Complete Cook’s Country TV Show Cookbook from America’s Test Kitchen.

I don’t make much Mexican food at home. Within about a three-mile radius of our house, we have approximately 59 Mexican restaurants or food trucks. Why should I dirty up the kitchen, leave a mound of dishes for Bryan to wash and end up with just okay food, when I can get the good stuff for less than $10 and a five minute drive? In my world, that’s a no-brainer.

Unfortunately, I happened to mention to Bryan that this cookbook includes a Mexican chapter and that the beef enchiladas looked pretty good. Next thing I know, I’m shopping for enchilada ingredients and watching the dishes pile up in the sink. This isn’t a 30-minute meal. Or even a 60-minute meal. This is a multistep dish that takes a good three hours from start to finish. But you end up with meltingly tender beef rolled up in corn tortillas and topped with a flavorful sauce and gooey cheese. I’m glad I tried the dish, but I’m not sure I’ll be making it again anytime soon.

The recipe starts out by having you braise top blade steaks in onions, garlic and canned tomato sauce until they fall apart. Then you remove and shred the meat and strain the liquid. The shredded meat gets mixed with cheese, cilantro and canned jalapenos, then rolled into corn tortillas. The braising liquid is spread over the tortillas and the whole thing is topped off with more cheese. The enchiladas are baked for about 25 minutes, covered by foil. At the end of the baking time, you remove the foil and let the cheese brown slightly.

I couldn’t find top blade steaks, so I ended up using a roast that I cut into pieces. I think I left the meat in too large of pieces, because my beef took almost an hour longer to get tender. I also only ended up with 10 enchiladas instead of 12 as the recipe stated. Other than those two things, the recipe delivered a great dish. It was tasty, and it tasted authentic. Even the leftovers reheated nicely, although the corn tortillas got a little soggy.

This is one of those dishes that I saw them make on television. At the time, I remember thinking to myself that it seemed like a lot of work for enchiladas. Now having made the recipe, I think I was mostly right. This dish is a lot of work, but if you are willing to do that work, you’ll be rewarded with a great meal. And lots of dishes.

Salisbury Steak

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Currently cooking from The Complete Cook’s Country TV Show Cookbook from America’s Test Kitchen.

Remember those frozen TV dinners? I only recall eating them once or twice, but as someone who didn’t like their food to touch (and still doesn’t), I loved the segregated trays they came in. The food I don’t remember so much about, except that the dessert was usually cherry something. Cobbler? Pie? Cake? Whatever it was, I’d be willing to bet that salisbury steak was the entree in those dinners. And that’s pretty much the total sum of my exposure to salisbury steak. I might have eaten it, a couple of times, years ago. So I didn’t know what to expect with this recipe. It was loaded with mushrooms and onions and hamburgers and gravy; all things I like and Bryan loves, so I figured we’d be good.

And it was good. Really good. The meat was tender and had good flavor, and the gravy was rich and tasty. I only had one problem, which I explain below.

The recipe starts off by having you whisk together potato flakes and milk. Then you add in hamburger, salt and pepper, mix everything up and form patties. This was the only place I encountered problems. My reconstituted mashed potatoes clumped together and refused to mix in with the hamburger. I mixed it as well as I could, but in the finished dish, there were discernible chunks of potato in the meat. Not a big deal, just a little strange.

After a short rest in the fridge, you brown the meat, then soften and brown onions and mushrooms, whisk in some flour and tomato paste, and then finish it off by adding beef broth and port (or dry sherry which is what I used). The hamburger finishes cooking in the simmering sauce, which thickens and reduces to a rich brown gravy. I served the salisbury steak with garlic mashed potatoes (also from this book) and green peas. For dessert, I opted for chocolate pudding. No mystery cherry dessert here.

Strip Steaks with Sweet Pepper Ragout

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Currently cooking out of Simple Weeknight Favorites from America’s Test Kitchen

As the days have gotten hotter here, I’ve been less and less inclined to spend time in the kitchen. Less time in the kitchen means less fodder for the blog, so be patient with me.

I made this dish a few weeks ago, before it got too hot. The steak is pretty straightforward, and it really isn’t the point of this recipe. Cook a steak, anyway you like it. Let it rest, then cut into thin strips.

On to the sweet pepper ragout.

I had a bag of peppers that were aging faster than we could eat them raw, so this recipe seemed like a great way to use them. Since then, I’ve made this dish a couple of times to serve with grilled chicken. It is quick but very tasty, and if you are watching what you eat, this is a great way to get lots of food for very few calories.

You start off by thinly slicing three peppers (red, yellow, orange or whatever combination you happen to have) and an onion. The onion and peppers go into a skillet (the same skillet you cooked the steaks in, if that’s how you cooked the steaks) and are cooked until they are tender but still crisp. Two garlic cloves, minced, are added to the skillet, followed by a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. This mixture is simmered for just a minute, then served alongside the steak.

I love peppers to begin with, but this gives me a whole new way to serve them. The onion, garlic and vinegar add more flavor without overwhelming the peppers. I like to start the onion a few minutes before adding the peppers so they soften a little more (I don’t like crunchy onions).

Flank Steak with Spicy Peanut Noodles

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Currently cooking out of Simple Weeknight Favorites from America’s Test Kitchen

I have no excuse for leaving this blog quiet for so long. Well, I have lots of excuses, but they are all pretty boring and standard. So please accept my apologies. Shall we move on? To, say, grilled flank steak with spicy noodles?

I was amazed at how quickly I was able to put this meal together. While the steak was grilling, I made the spicy peanut sauce in a blender. While the steak was resting, I tossed fresh Chinese noodles into boiling water for a couple of minutes, drained them and tossed them with a couple tablespoons of the sauce. Slice the steak and dinner was served. And it was good. Really, really good. Like I love this sauce and will be using it constantly, on everything (well, maybe not pancakes), all the time. Fortunately, the recipe makes quite a bit more sauce than you need.

To make the sauce you blend until smooth peanut butter, light coconut milk, lime juice, fish sauce, garlic, sugar and a couple teaspoons of Thai red curry paste. Watch out for the Thai red curry paste. The recipe calls for 4 teaspoons, but that was just a bit too spicy for me. I ended up adding a bit more lime juice and coconut milk to tone down the heat. The sauce tastes fresh, a bit sweet from the sugar, but more tart due to the lime juice. The peanut flavor is pretty dominant, but I could hardly taste the coconut milk. And the fish sauce and garlic add just a touch of salty funk. I’ve already used the sauce on grilled chicken and a veggie pasta salad. I can see using the sauce on fish, such as cod, or even with roasted or steamed cauliflower. This is quickly becoming my go-to Asian peanut sauce.

Grilled Dijon Steak

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Currently cooking out of Simple Weeknight Favorites from America’s Test Kitchen

A crazy few weeks has left me little time to cook, but I did manage to get this steak on the grill for a quick, weeknight supper. I loved the simplicity of the dish, but I didn’t like the simplicity of the flavor. It is one of the very few dishes from the folks at America’s Test Kitchen that has fallen short of my expectations.

You can’t get any quicker or simpler than this dish. You take a flank steak, brush dijon mustard over the surface of it and grill it. That’s it. There isn’t even any salt and pepper in sight. Well, there is a salad of red potatoes and green beens that goes alongside the steak, and that has salt and pepper in it, but I decided, in the name of not having to go shopping for green beans and potatoes, to leave the side dish out.

Everything was going well. I had a nice flank steak, brushed with dijon mustard, grilling. Then I turned the steak over, and all the dijon mustard stayed on the grill. The same thing happened on the other side. I was left with a naked steak that wasn’t even seasoned properly (I should have been suspicious when I realized that the instructions didn’t include using salt and pepper on the steak).

In the end, the flank steak was nicely grilled, but there was no dijon mustard flavor left on it. Nice idea; bad execution.

Streaks with Citrus-Soy Pan Sauce and Slaw

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Currently cooking out of Simple Weeknight Favorites from America’s Test Kitchen

I’ve found cooking (not baking, but cooking) with oranges to be hit or miss. Sometimes the dish gets overwhelmed by an orangey-furniture polish taste and smell. Or it is simply bitter from the orange zest. That was my main concern with this dish, but fortunately, it worked.

This one is pretty simple. You make a simple dressing of soy sauce, orange zest and juice, vinegar and ginger. This dressing does double duty by being the basic dressing for some bagged broccoli slaw and then, with the addition of some butter, becoming a pan sauce for steaks.

First, the slaw. This is one of those side dishes that comes together very quickly but is really tasty. The recipe calls for adding edamame to some bagged broccoli slaw, which is convenient. Unfortunately, all of the broccoli slaw in my grocery store looked old, so I made my own by simply mixing together broccoli, cabbage and shredded carrots. The dressing has a hint of Asian flavors, especially with a bit of sesame oil added to the dressing portion. The vinegar softened up the cabbage and the broccoli, toning down their raw bite. It even held up well overnight.

The steaks are simply pan-fried, and a portion of the dressing (minus the sesame oil) is reduced in the same pan. Once the sauce is reduced, you take it off the heat and swirl in a few pats of butter. The butter enriches and thickens the sauce and makes it seem a little more luxurious.

The flavors in this dish were bright and fun. The pan sauce was easy to make, but really added a lot of flavor to the steak. For me, the slaw was the highlight of the meal and could easily stand on its own. I can see slicing the steak and adding to the slaw, or even using leftover chicken to make it a stand-alone meal. This dish was definitely a winner.

Chile-Coconut Braised Beef Short Ribs

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Currently cooking from Cook This Now by Melissa Clark

Clark has introduced me to another ingredient that I’ve never cooked with – boneless, beef short ribs. Where have they been all my life? How have I lived without them? This dish was so good and easy, don’t let the word “coconut” in the title scare you. There is enough heat in the dish to counter any coconuttyness you find. I couldn’t taste the coconut milk; Bryan said he could, but that didn’t stop him from inhaling his meal. And he doesn’t really like coconut.

The dish starts off by browning the short ribs (which you’ve cut into 2-inch chunks) in oil. Garlic, jalapenos, ginger, shallots and cumin seeds are added to the pot and allowed to cook for a minute before coconut milk (unsweetened, please), lime zest and juice, salt and pepper and water are added. The pot gets transferred to the oven where the meat braises until it is fall-apart tender. And succulent. And just plain wonderful.

As usual, I made a few minor changes. I left out the ginger (yuck) and added more garlic and shallots. I also used lemons because I forgot to buy limes (darn). We ate this over brown rice, but it would work over any grain, or potatoes or even pasta. This is definitely a dish worthy of company.

Beef Stroganoff

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Currently cooking out of Slow Cooker Revolution by America’s Test Kitchen

If I spy a beef stroganoff recipe in a slow cooker cookbook, there’s a good chance I’m going to try it. I have a thing about beef stroganoff; I love it and have been looking for The Best recipe for years. Somehow, this recipe in this cookbook slipped below my radar. Until now. And I can confidently say, that while I don’t think this is The Best recipe, it is pretty good.

I didn’t take any pictures because a. I was lazy, b. it looked pretty brown and boring and c. I was lazy.

You start off by sauteing white mushrooms until they give up all their liquid and start browning. The mushrooms get transferred to the slow cooker, and onions, tomato paste, garlic, dried porcini mushrooms and thyme take a turn in the saute pan. Once everything is soft and starting to turn brown, you whisk in some flour, then chicken broth. This mixture gets moved to the slow cooker where it and the mushrooms are joined by wine, soy sauce, bay leaves and chunks of beef. Everything cooks, on low, for 9 to 11 hours, or until the beef is tender. Right before serving, sour cream and Dijon mustard are stirred into the slow cooker (and dill, if you have it, which I didn’t).

I really liked this dish. The beef was tender and flavorful, and the addition of the sour cream and mustard gave the stroganoff a bright flavor that wasn’t dulled by hours of cooking. I served this over spaghetti (because I didn’t have egg noodles, and all I’ve heard from Bryan since then is that stroganoff has to have egg noodles. Bah!), rice and rotelli pasta. They were all good, despite Bryan’s grumblings. I especially liked the stroganoff over rice since the stroganoff is a little liquidy and the rice soaked all that up.

The only change I would make is to increase the amount of mushrooms in the recipe. It calls for 1 1/2 pounds, and I think I’d go with two pounds. The mushrooms kind of disappeared.

Sloppy Joes

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Currently cooking out of Slow Cooker Revolution by America’s Test Kitchen

You: Uh, Trista?

Me: Yes?

You: Aren’t sloppy joes supposed to be served as a sandwich?

Me: Yes, unless you live in our house where we are trying to watch our diet, and I didn’t want to buy a package of hamburger buns that we probably wouldn’t eat (or a package that we’d eat it all), and I had some potatoes languishing in the refrigerator. Then you get sloppy joe mixture over microwaved potatoes. And you know what? They were pretty good. Better than a hamburger bun that is just going to get all soggy and fall apart on you.

I had forgotten how sweet sloppy joes can be. Or how messy. Frankly, in my opinion, this dish is more for kids than it is for adults. It was sweet, sweet, sweet, thanks to a cup of ketchup and a couple of teaspoons of brown sugar. It was also a little bland.

This dish has a bit more prep work than many of the other dishes I’ve made out of this book. It starts off by having you mash together milk and two slices of sandwich bread. This gets mixed into the ground beef. Next you saute onions, garlic and chili powder until the onions have softened, and then add the ground beef and cook it until it is no longer pink. The whole lot goes into the slow cooker along with ketchup, a can of tomato sauce, brown sugar and a squirt of hot sauce. This cooks for six to eight hours on low, or until the ground beef is tender.

Like most of the other recipes out of this book, this recipe makes enough to feed a crowd and is easily doubled.

As I said above, I found this dish to be too sweet. I don’t think you need the brown sugar, and I’d even consider cutting down the amount of ketchup by a third, maybe to 2/3 of a cup or so. The mixture is pretty saucy, and the ground beef ends up in small, tender chunks. Besides using it as a sandwich filling and on baked potatoes, you could also serve the sloppy joe mixture over pasta.