Tag: cooking

Slow Cooker Red Curry Beef Pot Roast – Teaching Old Meat New Tricks

When shopping, I like to take a quick peek at the end of the
meat case where they sometimes have marked-down cuts that are past their prime.
I usually stay away from the smaller, thinner pieces, as they tend to go bad
faster, but once in a while I’ll find a big roast, like the one that inspired
this delicious red beef curry; and as the old saying goes, the only thing
better than a 3-pound chuck roast, is a half-priced, 3-pound chuck roast.


By the way, this “Reduced for Quick Sale” meat is generally
fine taste and texture-wise, but the surface of the meat has oxidized, so it
doesn’t look very appetizing. Other than that, it’s perfectly fine to use,
especially in a slow-braised recipe like this.

I cooked mine on low, for about 7 or 8 hours, until it was
fork tender, but if you’re in a hurry, you can do it on a higher setting.
Conventional wisdom is that the longer slower method is superior, but in all
honesty, I don’t think theres a huge difference, so suit yourself. No matter
what setting you use, simply do not stop until the meat is tender.

Some of the most frustrating emails I get, are the ones that
say, “I followed your braised-whatever recipe exactly, but the meat came out
hard.” Actually, no you didn’t. Every time I give an approximate cooking time
for something like this, I’ll always say, “or until fork tender.” So why would
anyone stop cooking it while the meat is still hard? I find it as mystifying as
I do annoying.


Anyway, assuming you don’t stop, won’t stop, until the meat
is succulent, you are in for a real treat. Feel free to add any vegetables you
like, and if you want, you can cook them separately and just add to the
finished dish. I generally don’t serve this over rice if I use potatoes, but
that’s just my personal hang up, so don’t feel like you need to deny yourself that
particular pleasure. I really hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!


Ingredients for 4 giant or 6 regular portions:
2 1/2 or 3 pound beef chuck roast
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp vegetable oil
1 chopped onion
1 or 2 tsp red curry paste, or to taste
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
2 cups chicken broth
1 can (14 oz) coconut milk
1 can (10-oz) diced tomatoes with green chilies (or any diced tomato product)
3 tbsp Asian fish sauce, or to taste
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp tomato paste
4 cloves minced garlic
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, sliced
juice of one lime
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 pound small potatoes, halved
4 or 5 baby bok choy, sliced
1 rounded teaspoon cornstarch, dissolved in 1 tablespoon
cold water
To garnish:
chopped roasted peanuts
chopped fresh cilantro leaves

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Angel Hair Pasta with Scallops and Tomatoes

Sauteed bay scallops with tomatoes and a touch of white wine and lemon juice served over angel hair pasta.

If you’re looking for a special dinner to make for your loved one this Valentine’s Day, this is a perfect dish. For starters, it takes less than 15 minutes to make, so you’ll have less time cooking, and more time together. Secondly, scallops date back to ancient Greece as an aphrodisiac. As legend has it, the goddess Aphrodite was carried to earth on the shell of a scallop.

Personally, I love scallops for their sweet, delicate flavor. Bay scallops are the smaller variety and are usually less expensive than sea scallops. They are wonderful tossed with pasta and take less than a minute to cook.

Because bay scallops retain so much water, it’s really important that you dry them well before cooking, and you really want to cook them in a hot pan so you get a quick sear. I cook them in 2 or 3 batches depending on the size of my pan. Don’t skip this step because you don’t want to overcrowd the pan, otherwise the scallops will become rubbery and won’t sear.

If you’re family doesn’t like whole wheat pasta, a great trick I like to do is use both whole wheat and semolina. You don’t really notice the taste of the whole wheat and your getting the added benefits of using a whole grain.

For all you spaghetti squash lovers out there, I’m sure this would be wonderful over roasted spaghetti squash as a gluten-free, lower-carb alternative.

Scallops and Tomatoes with Angel Hair Pasta
gordon-ramsay-recipe.com
Servings:• Size: about 1 1/4 cup • Old Pts: 7 pts • Weight Watchers Pts+: 9 pts
Calories: 345 • Fat: 5 g • Protein: 27 g • Carb: 43 g • Fiber: 6 g • Sugar: 2.5 g
Sodium: 318 mg (without salt)

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb bay scallops, dried well
  • 2 tsp olive oil, divided
  • 1 tsp butter
  • 3 cloves garlic, sliced
  • 1/2 cup white wine
  • 14 oz can diced petite tomatoes, drained
  • salt and fresh pepper
  • 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup chopped parsley
  • 7 oz angel hair pasta (I used half whole wheat)*

Directions:

Put a large pot of salted water to boil.

Meanwhile, heat a large heavy-bottomed skillet on high heat. When hot, add 1 tsp of oil and the butter over medium-high heat until mixture starts to brown.

MAKE SURE THE PAN AND OIL MIXTURE IS VERY HOT – Transfer HALF of the scallops to the skillet and cook WITHOUT MOVING until seared: ABOUT 30 SECONDS. Gently flip and sear on other side for another 20 – 30 SECONDS. Remove from skillet and set aside; cook remaining scallops and repeat as the first batch; set aside with first batch.

Add the angel hair to the boiling salted water, cook according to package instructions for al dente.

Reduce the skillet to medium-high heat; add remaining teaspoon of oil. When hot add the garlic and cook 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, wine, salt and pepper and cook an additional 2 minutes. Add lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of parsley, remove from heat.

Drain any liquid that accumulates from the scallops, then add the scallops to the skillet and remove from the heat.

Drain the pasta and place in a large serving bowl. Top with the scallops and sauce, more fresh parsley and serve with grated parmigiano if desired.

Makes about 5 cups.

Without the pasta, each serving would be 5 points plus.
*Use brown rice pasta or quinoa pasta for gluten free. 

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Salmon en Croute

I had salmon en croute once at someone’s house and it was absolutely disgusting.

The cook had failed to use any salt, because they are the sort of person who thinks that any salt kills you stone dead within weeks. My view is that you can either use a decent amount of salt in your cooking and run the extremely tiny risk of it doing you some damage, or you can use no salt and die of a) starvation b) boredom. And get some mean leg cramps in the night.

But there’s no reason why salmon en croute shouldn’t be a delicious thing. It’s wrapped in pastry!! I mentally file this kind of thing under my “finishing school” category of cooking. Quiches and souffles are also filed under this category. Baked bone marrow and suet puddings are filed under “New British”, curries and stir-fries go under “student”, lemon meringue pie, soup, and devilled kidneys go under “yuk” and so on.

I consulted the internet for a good way to do this and came across something by Gordon Ramsay. I’m normally shy of things by Gordon Ramsay or Gary Rhodes or anyone who has spent more of their waking hours in a kitchen than they have outside; they make all sorts of insane assumptions about the domestic cook, like that they will have a fish kettle, or a sugar thermometer, or that they are cooking for 80 people.

But this looked really quite straightforward. And it was! And it was also delicious – I really recommend it. It looks fantastically fiddly and impressive but it was really very easy. It also has the tremendous advantage that you can do all of it in advance and then just shove it in the oven 1/2 an hour before you want to eat.

It also doesn’t create a lot of mess and it doesn’t stink your house out while cooking. So it’s no wonder really that it was served at every dinner party during the 70s and 80s country-wide. So out, it’s got to come back in soon. I say bring it back now.

Roughly Gordon Ramsay’s Salmon en Croute
Serves 4 (with something on the side)

2 salmon fillets – if you can get the salmon from a fish counter or fishmonger who can take the skin off, otherwise you are going to have to do it yourself and you will most likely make a huge buggery mess of it. Trust me, I have a shimmering range of the most expensive fish-skinning knives available for purchase legally and I can’t do it nicely

Small bunch of dill
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard, yes I know this sounds weird but it works
about 40g butter at room temperature (this is important so just be patient with it)
salt and pepper
1 packet all-butter puff pastry from jus-roll (not just the puff, in the green packet, but the all-butter puff, in the gold packet)
1 egg, beaten, in a small bowl

Preheat the oven to 200C

1 Make a herb butter by smooshing together about 2 tbsps of chopped dill with a large pinch of salt, about 7 twists of the pepper grinder and the butter.

2 Dry the salmon fillets well with kitchen paper to help the butter stick and then paste one upturned curvy fillet side with the herb butter and the other upturned curvy fillet side with the mustard. Then fit these fillets together to make a reasonably even shape – like a yin yang sign. Put this to one side.

3 Roll out your pastry to a thickness of a £1 coin. This is thinner than you think it is, so maybe just have a quick check. Put the salmon in the middle of the pastry. Brush the pastry with beaten egg and then fold the sides up over the salmon like you’re wrapping a present (have flashback here to most awful Christmas present received). Don’t overlap the two long ends of pastry too much otherwise you’ll have a great ridge of pastry down the middle of the salmon, which will not look chic.

4 Trim the sides and ends as much as you need to and then tuck the ends in under the salmon. Roll your parcel over so the seam is underneath and place on a greased or non-stick baking tray. Mark three slits diagnoally across the back of the bundle to let steam escape.

5 Brush the whole thing over with more beaten egg and then sprinkle with sea salt and more pepper for good measure.

6 Bake in the middle of your oven for 35 mins. The recipe said 20-25 mins but it was still cool in the centre after that time and after 35 mins it wasn’t overcooked or burnt – and I’ve got a mega mental fan oven that razzes the living shit out of everything – so you ought to be okay.

And that’s it! When it comes out, slice on the diagonal and serve with something nice. A salad maybe, if that’s not the most boring thing I’ve ever said.

I would say here that obviously this is nice because it’s wrapped in pastry – how could it not be? But I know for a fact that pastry can only do so much.

 

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