Then, next week, I shall make a Dislike button for Facebook, hopefully one that does something.

Roast Beef (I think)

I really like Roast Beef. I grow up not having it, I don’t think my mum ever cooked it for me, but when I go to the likes of a sandwich shop, a roast beef and horseradish sandwich is one of my favorites. My mum did make Salt Beef, which I’ll try to make myself one day, but it just isn’t the same (in fact, it’s far better, but still, not the same).

By chance, I was browsing around ASDA with my flatmate, Russingleton, when I spied a ‘brisket’ and my juices got flowing about having having lovely roast beef sandwiches for a week.

I couldn’t find any recipes on the video websites by any of my favorite chefs, so I thought I would piece together what I thought I remembered from Telly and do something myself.

Here’s what you need.

• A bag of carrots
• 2 onions
• 2 Garlic bulbs
• Some port or red wine
• Some concentrated beef stock
• A brisket of beef.
• Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper
• Mustard (Grainy or English)

Here’s what I did….

• Put the oven on full-whack
• Cut the onions into 6 or 8 pieces, all put together.
• Cut the carrots up into bite sized chunks.
• Cover the beef in Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper
• Make up about 1½ pints of beef stock, I used some concentrated stuff because I thought it would taste stronger.
• Add three good glugs of port to the stock.
• Brown off the beef in a frying pan
• Cover the beef in grainy mustard, or English if want a fuller flavour.
• Rest veg in the pan, with 2 bulbs of garlic separated into cloves (I didn’t bother to peel it, life’s to short) cover  the veg with stock.
• Place the beef on top, cover with tin foil.
• Put the oven down to about 150ish.
• Cook it for about 3 hours, turning it every now-and-then.
• Leave to rest for 30 minutes, carve and serve.

Most of the stuff I used.

Brown off the beef.

Veg in a pan

Beef covered with mustard, veg covered in stock.

The liquid doubled ! Oops, oh well, makes a nice soup.

Looks good, but was way too tough.

The soup bit is amazing though.

The garlic is nice and squidgy, but the other veg was too hard.

Finished

I’ll admit to it, I hate cooking with rice. I can never get it quite how I like it, it’s either over or under done. I’ve not gotten around to buying a metal strainer either. I like eating it, just hate cooking it. I was sitting at the doctors, going through the “20 minute meal” Jamie Oliver app, and he showed me how it’s done. It looked a bit of a palaver, but I was determined to try it, and it turned out good (the second one, the first one I wasn’t keen on.)

What you need for two people…..

• 200g Arborio Rice
• A glass of White Wine
• An onion
• Some frozen peas
• Asparagus
• Some butter
• A pint of  Chicken Stock (Make your own, pre-made or stock cubes/gels are all good)
• Parmesan Cheese (get Flaked or fresh if you can, not sawdust).
• Same garlic
• Olive Oil

What you need to do….

• Put the stock in a pan and on the hob, if you’re using cubes/gel, add one cube/gel to boiling water. Let it simmer and stir.
• Chop the Asparagus tips into 3 pieces.
• Chop up some garlic and an onion, shallow fry ’till translucent in butter and a bit of olive oil
• Pour in the rice and cook it for a few minutes (the point if this is to break the rice’s shell and let the stock and wine get in)
• [For the next few bits, keep on stirring every few minutes]
• Pour over the wine, and let it evaporate.
• Keep on adding a ladle full of stock when it all gets evaporated. Over the 15 or so minutes this takes, add the Asparagus, the thick end after 5 minutes, the middle after the next 5, and the tips right at the end. On the last one, add the peas too
• Once the stock is absorbed, if the consistency is too stodgy, add some water, or cook it for longer, use your judgement. Remember though, the Parmesan will thicken it.
• Add a nice nob of butter and the Parmesan, stir it all in, take it off the hob and leave it for about 10 minutes.
• Serve and enjoy =)

All the bits you need

Simmer the stock (using Gel here)

Sweat down some garlic and onions in butter.

Add the rice and let it cook.

Thick bits of aspagous first, then thin bits. Let the stock get absorbed into the rice.

Once all the stock and stuff is in, it tripples in size.

Serve and enjoy =)

Something a day

It’s a new year, and a new decade. There are a lot of ‘Photo a day’ things. My plan is to dedicate a bit of time (maybe 10 minutes, maybe a few hours, we’ll see) a day, every day, for the next year, into doing something creative. Weather that’s cooking something new and interesting, designing some wallpapers or web apps, developing a new section to a website…. It doesn’t really matter, as long as it’s something. It’ll help keep the mind sharp, and hopefully I’ll come up with something useful to someone.

So, everyone, have a great 2010, I’m going to make this one My Year, and I look forward to the journey.