What's for Dinner?

[bbro]

I had the healthier Brandy version of the Pittsburgh style salad. I didn't get a picture because I was too hungry - lol. Trust me. It is GOOOD!

[chrisinhouston]

When I shop at the Safeway store in our area (aka Randalls) I usually swing by the recently discounted meat section. No, I don't by the chicken packs where the plastic has all expanded from some kind of gas decomposition inside or anything that looks off color but I do look for things that still look fresh and are meats I like. For instance they often just move lamb cut there if they aren't selling. Today I found 2 packs of really nice meaty beef short ribs marked off 30%.

I grew up on cuts like this, potroast cuts or stew meat. I once heard Anthony Bourdain complaining about how most Americans don't realize that only a small percent of a cow or sheep or pig is the really nice tender grilling parts and that the majority are cuts for slow cooking.

So this morning I trimmed them up a bit and browned them in my Le Cruset dutch oven in some olive oil. I chopped up an onion and a few garlic cloves and a handful of celery and put it in the bottom of the big crock pot slow cooker. After the meat browned I put it all on top of the aromatics. Then I deglazed the pan with 2 cups of nice hearty wine and poured it and all the caramelized bits over the meat. I felt it need a bit more so I added a small can of tomato sauce puree.

Now, the only issue is that today I was planning on working on my kitchen drywall plastering so all the counters are on wheels and were getting moved out so I had to set the crock pot in the bar area.

Got done with the drywall by 5pm and put the kitchen back together. I really need to post some photos in the What I Did Today blog. I peeled and cut up 4 or 5 carrots and parsnips and added them. I usually add them later because they just get too overcooked for me if I do them for 8 hours in the crock pot. Then I added a Japanese touch and put in a bag of Konnyaku balls, which is a type of yam made into a block or balls of dough like stuff and really needs slow cooking (sort of resembles really hard tofu). It's offten used in a Japanese winter dish called oden and I figured it would absorb some of the gravy which tasted really nice but there was a bit too much. I only used salt and pepper and some herbs de Provence.

Figure I'll make some mashed potatoes or some polenta to serve it with and a nice hearty red wine. I may reduce the liquid down and thicken it a bit.

Just in time for the cold front, we won't get too many more here in Houston and it's a chilly 40 degrees out and rainy.

Good comfort food.

[glatt]

Just, wow.

I just had dinner, but you're making me hungry.

[Sundae]

Leftovers!

From the dinner I cooked for Mum and friends last night (in Aylesbury thread)
I am flattered by how very little of the Moroccan Lamb they actually left me. I think.

[DanaC]

Ooooh. looks tasty!


I made a big pan of chilli yesterday so had that again today (always nicer after it's sat for a day), with steakcut oven chips, grated cheese and a spoon of soured cream.

[BigV]

Chris, I shop the same way at Safeway. Easy, cook it tonight, meat.

Your story sounds utterly delicious!

[Sundae]

Hmm. Not sure about dinner tonight now (braised ox cheeks.)
No idea what the recipe writers deem a casserole dish, but my parents' biggest dish is so very full of liquid, having followed their recipe to the letter.
Which suggests to me there will be no thick and tasty sauce, but a thin and watery one, and that doesn't really cut it for my family.

Yes I can thicken it up, but it will make more mess and more washing up and negate one of the benefits of a one pot meal.

I have some pigs cheeks in the freezer. I will not use the same site for a recipe for them.

[Clodfobble]

A casserole dish does not necessarily have a lid, in the US. If you covered it when the recipe intended it to be left open, that would retain a lot of liquid that would otherwise boil off...

[glatt]

Yeah, I think a recipe would normally call for a covered casserole dish if a lid was intended.

[Sundae]

It is a British website and a casserole is covered.
Just double checked and it says that it should be covered, probably to help in these cases

I've had this before though.
I think I'm making a stew style meal and get lovely, well cooked and seasoned meat but no gravy. I can't pour flavoured water over mashipots. Or I can't expect the 'rents to enjoy it anyway.

It's probably a class thing. Like Gazpacho soup.

[sad_winslow]

Oh.. oh god, I'm... posting. Been forever.

I made avocado chicken salad and it was really good. I disassembled half a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, chopped up a couple of avocados, green onions, cilantro, a couple few tablespoons of mayo, some lime juice, and salt/pepper and mooshed it all together for a while. Most supreme on a wheat pita, with a side of green onions rolled in salt and some chopped radish bits.

[DanaC]

sad winslow!!!!!!

Bloody hell. How are you mate?

[Griff]

Yum!

[Sundae]

Hey Sad Winslow, good to see you.

In the end I siphoned off the juice and did make gravy from it and it worked really well.
Given that ox cheeks are cheap, I got them at discount anyway PLUS staff discount, it was a deal, a steal. The meat was like a cartoon parody of beef - so full of flavour and so soft I'd actually have been suspicious if I hadn't cooked it myself.

Oddly, the only thing I hadn't worried about were the veggies, only to find at the last minute (last 10 minutes) that I'd used up all the frozen ones on Sunday. Gah!
I mean I have my lovely Peas & Beans Mix, and we always have frozen peas, but Mum is not keen on any shelled peas/ beans.

She accepted a small spoon of peas, but I felt I let her down a little. She loves the frozen chunky veg I buy from work; carrots, broccoli and cauliflower. Me, not so much.

Still, we were all stuffed as ticks, to the extent we didn't even have room for pancakes.
Mum said she'd make them today instead; having dessert is a weird interpretation of a day of fasting, but that's between her and God I guess

[sad_winslow]

Originally Posted by DanaC

sad winslow!!!!!!

Bloody hell. How are you mate?

Originally Posted by Sundae

Hey Sad Winslow, good to see you.

Haha, I live, thanks! It's nice to be remembered Currently being slightly freaked out by the prospect of graduating from university, because it means I'll have to go looking for a Real Job again. Doing well otherwise. Glad to see things here seem to be the way I left them.

I think dinner tonight is going to feature black beans, spanish rice, and possibly chicken pitas (sans avocado, I finished that pile of tasty already.)