A Very Happy Whit

If you've ever spent enough time around me, you've heard me tell the story about my kids having food tastes that match their personalities. Our middle son, Whit, is the one who craves comfort foods. To him, pot roast is like a big warm hug. So last night, he got a very special hug...six-hour pot roast and boiled potatoes. The roast recipe is quite simple. Carrots, onion, celery, garlic and mushrooms, all roughly chopped and cooked with a slab of meat over low heat. You can make it faster, but you just don't get the same result. If you would like to be as happy as Whit in this picture, send me an email and I'll send you the recipe.
Bon Appetit!
~Tom

Valentine's Night Pot Roast (Because nothing says "I love you!" like Pot Roast)

I am generally a pretty romantic guy. As a matter of fact, I'm a bit of a softie. So it might surprise many of you that when I proposed to Kitty, it was perhaps the most un-romantic thing I've ever done. Seriously. Two words...speaker-phone. That's right foodies and gourmands, the guy who writes all of these love stories to food, pressed speed dial #1, called his girlfriend and said "How does October 8th look for you?"

To which she replied "For what?"

"For getting married." I said, as if she should have known.

"Why, are you proposing to me?"

"I just want to make sure that date is open. I'm going over my calendar and trying to get some things planned in advance." I said.

"Looks fine to me baby." She said, surely holding back either venom or tears.

"Thanks hon." I said as I reached for the "call cncl" button.

It wasn't until hours later that I was cognizant of my terrible, terrible mistake. But Kitty is a real trooper and, aside from good natured ribbing that I fear will never cease to be funny, she let me get away with my faux pas unscathed. 

In honor of my actions, worthy of the anti-cupid, I decided to have a sweet but decidedly unromantic dinner for Kitty on Valentine's Day. Card with a monkey face? check! All the boy-kids at home (plus a cousin)? check! Pot Roast? check! We didn't sweep her off her feet but she definitely felt loved. And isn't that what Valentine's Day is all about? The cards full of bad poetry in soft shades of pink? That's the stuff of men who cant say how much they love their wives in their own words and actions. Fancy, expensive meals in posh restaurants? Merely make up dates for all the times she was left at home while the fellas whooped it up on "guy's night out." Expensive sparkly-things? They scream "I'm compensating for affection with this gift that someone else suggested." As for me, romance is found in the sweet, silent smile and the soft touch on the arm as we pass each other in the kitchen while one is doing dishes and the other is getting back to homework. Passion is found in the kiss on the neck, from over the back of the sofa that says "The kids are asleep and you can watch Top Gear tomorrow on Hulu." Love is found in the ordinary times. My cupid haunts the daily routines. Our life is love.

With all of that said. Here is the recipe for Brandy Pot Roast. Cook it with love.

Brandy Pot Roast

1  5 lb. pot roast

2 large yellow onions

4 carrots

4 stalks celery

6 cloves garlic

1 Tbsp. oregano

1 Tbsp. thyme

½ cup brandy

1 32 oz. container beef stock*

1 Tbsp. olive oil

3 Tbsp. butter

Salt

Pepper

Prep

Roughly chop onion, carrots, celery and garlic. Season roast with salt and pepper.

Cook

Pre-heat oven to 350°. Heat a large iron skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil and continue heating until oil smokes. Add seasoned pot roast and brown on both sides. Add chopped vegetables and transfer to oven. With the oven open and the skillet on the middle rack, add brandy, herbs and ½ tsp. black pepper. Add beef stock until liquid is almost to the rim of the skillet. Top loosely with foil and cook for 2 hours. Slide out the oven rack, turn the meat and stir the vegetables. Add more liquid to cover vegetables an cook for an additional 3 hours or until the meat tears apart with a fork. It is really better if you can allow it to cook for eight hours, basting with the liquids every 30 minutes.

When cooked, transfer the meat and vegetables to a serving bowl and cover with foil until ready to serve. Place the pan on the stovetop and cook over medium-high heat until reduced by ½ of original volume. If there is any liquid standing in the serving bowl, drain it into the reduced liquid and reduce again to ½ of original volume. Remove from heat and slowly whisk in the butter.

Plate

Serve meat over some form of starch (toast, rice, mashed potatoes, or mashed cauliflower) and top with vegetables and reduction sauce.

(Serves 6)

Early-morning Cooking and Sunday Leftovers (Including Chili Dish #3)

I bought a little too much shoulder roast when I was making Chili on Friday so I woke up this morning and started a Pot Roast. For some reason, I thought about brandy and decided to make a Pot Roast with some of it. Never tried this before, but I can't imagine that it won't be good. I'll let the family be the judges on that one.  I left the potatoes out of the roast, deciding instead to whip some creamy Yukon Golds as a side dish later this evening. I think I'll use some of the pan liquid in a brandy reduction sauce. Sound good to you?

Since Kitty was feeling like she had been hit by a garbage truck falling off the top a a garage, Zak was serving as her warming blanket and the two big boys are in New Orleans, I was the only Ramsey at Saint Andrew's this morning. I didn't feel like eating fried chicken all by myself so I came home, donned the apron, inspected the fridge and opened the short-order kitchen. Since Kitty and Zak can't have any wheat, I used this opportunity to make some pasta for me out of the pork chops from earlier in the week. They were in the mood for omelettes so I used up the last of the Chili de los Angeles on them. I wont bother with a recipe for the omelettes, they were just like any of the other eggy treats you have seen on this blog, just filled with cheese and chili. The über-simple pasta recipe is below. 

Leftover Pasta

2 Tbsp. unsalted butter

2 Tbsp. flour

3 cloves fresh garlic

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (or other dry aged, hard cheese) 

1 tsp. thyme

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 cup chicken stock (or other stock to match your leftover meat)

leftover meat

green onions for garnish

Sea salt

Black pepper

Prep

Cut the leftover meat into 1/2" or smaller cubes. Finely chop garlic. Crumble or shred the cheese. Warm the milk in the microwave until hot, but not boiling.

Cook

Heat a large saute pan over medium heat and add butter. When butter begins to foam, add chopped garlic and cook until it just starts to color. Add flour and stir with a whisk until it is fully incorporated into the butter. slowly add milk, whisking constantly. When the mixture begins to thicken, add the cubed meat, the cheese and the thyme. Add broth as necessary to maintain the desired thickness of the sauce. Taste the sauce and add salt and pepper as desired.

Boil the pasta in lightly salted water. Drain but DO NOT RINSE the pasta. Add the cooked pasta to the saucepan and toss with the sauce until all of the pasta is coated.

Plate

Serve in a large shallow bowl and garnish with green onions.

Whit Food

In a recent interview, I described my kids by the types of food they crave. Whit, our 13-year-old boy, loves comfort foods. He will take chicken pot pie or potroast over steak or salmon every time. To him comfort foods are like a hug. Whit is the cuddliest of all the boys and will frequently come stand next to you and refuse to leave until he gets his back scratched, his head patted and his shoulders rubbed. What makes this even more amusing is the fact that he is so tall, so strong and so aggressive on the football field. This teen-aged brute who loves nothing more than playing on defensive line and hunting down quarterbacks like a lion hunts gazelle, is really a softy at heart.

That's Whit snuggling with me at a reception for 94-year-old Bluesman Honeyboy Edwards. Isn't he cute! Now that I have embarrassed him enough, I'll move on to the food. Tonight's potroast was a 4 lb. bottom round roast cooked low and slow. I would have let it cook longer, but the family was starting to resemble a pack of wolves ready to turn on their leader and have him for supper. Sometimes, I cook this with beer, sometimes with wine. Tonight I made it with beef stock and left out the celery...mainly because we were out of celery.
Bon Appetit!
~Tom

Whit's Pot Roast (Hug on a Plate)

1 5 lb. pot roast

1 large yellow onion

2 carrots

2 Yukon gold potatoes

2 stalks celery

6 cloves garlic

1 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. thyme

1 32 oz. container beef stock*

1 Tbsp. olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Prep

Roughly chop onion, carrots, celery, potatoes and garlic. Season roast with salt and pepper.

Cook

Pre-heat oven to 350°. Heat a large iron skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil and continue heating until oil smokes. Add seasoned pot roast and brown on all sides. Add chopped vegetables and transfer to oven. With the oven open and the skillet on the middle rack, add herbs and ½ tsp. black pepper. Add beef stock until liquid is almost to the rim of the skillet. Top loosely with foil and cook for 1 hour. Slide out the oven rack, turn the meat and stir the vegetables. Reduce heat to 275° and add more liquid to cover vegetables if needed. Cook for an additional 4-6 hours or until the meat tears apart with a fork.

Plate

Serve meat over vegetables and top with the cooking liquid.

A Day Filled with Cooking (or why just driving down Devine Street today will make you fat)

I was doing my monthly "big shopping" at the grocery store yesterday (as opposed to my daily "little shopping") and saw that pot roast was on sale. Dinner solved. After checking out with my basket that looked like I was feeding the crew of the USS Enterprise, I came home to discover that my freezer had no room for the frozen stuff. The culprit? Turkey and chicken bones dating back to Thanksgiving. So, I donned by black and whites and started a full day of cooking pot roast and chicken stock. I was so in the cooking spirit that I even made four dozen cookies, and I generally don't bake. 


Here is the recipe for Dark Beer Pot Roast, which was served over a cauliflower mash. This is one of those "hey look what I found in the fridge" recipes that came together as I was making it. I hope you enjoy!


Dark Beer Pot Roast

1 5 lb. pot roast

1 large yellow onion

2 carrots

2 stalks celery

2 turnips

8 mushrooms

6 cloves garlic

8 Pepperoncini Peppers (optional)

1 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. rosemary

1 tsp. thyme

1 12 oz. bottle dark beer*

1 32 oz. container beef stock*

1 Tbsp. olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Prep

Roughly chop onion, carrots, celery, mushrooms and garlic. Peel and roughly chop turnip. Season roast with salt and pepper.

Cook

Pre-heat oven to 350°. Heat a large iron skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil and continue heating until oil smokes. Add seasoned pot roast and brown on both sides. Add chopped vegetables (and peppers, if desired) and transfer to oven. With the oven open and the skillet on the middle rack, add beer, herbs and ½ tsp. black pepper. Add beef stock until liquid is almost to the rim of the skillet. Top loosely with foil and cook for 2 hours. Slide out the oven rack, turn the meat and stir the vegetables. Add more liquid to cover vegetables an cook for an additional 2 hours or until the meat tears apart with a fork.

Plate

Serve meat over some form of starch (toast, rice, mashed potatoes, or mashed cauliflower) and top with vegetables and some of the cooking liquid.

*Turbo Dog from Abita is my usual choice, but any good dark beer will do fine. I generally use the Kitchen Basics brand which comes in a 32 oz. waxed-cardboard container.

(Serves 8)