Mother's Day 2011: Kathleen's Roast Beef

Last year I discussed Mother's Day's role as a food holiday and told you a little bit about my own mother. This year I'd like to shine a bigger spot light on my Mommy (yes I still call her mommy a lot) and share one of her tastiest recipes. As you may remember from my first Mother's Day post, my mom has been the most influential person in making me the culinary enthusiast I am today. In October she accompanied me to the New York City Wine & Food Festival-- where we had an unforgettable time! She has been my biggest fan in terms of the blog and even had a special talk with Santa to get me a Cuisinart food processor for Christmas! 

In all, my mother is an indispensable part of my life. As such, I wanted to share one of my favorite things she makes with you all. Since I was little one of my top 10 meals has always been my mom’s roast beef with brown gravy, french-cut green beans, mashed potatoes and rolls (yes, exactly that way). My mom does an exceptional job cooking her roast beef to just above rare doneness and it is so, so good. I asked her for the recipe, telling her it was so I can make my own roast for sandwich meat (not untrue, but not my main purpose), so I could post it here to celebrate what a wonderful cook she is! A lot of the preparation is in the way she seasons the meat and then cooking it for just enough time and letting it fully rest. 

So here is the recipe for roast beef. You can serve it hot or make it for cold sandwiches. If enjoying it hot I’d be sure to whip up some brown gravy and your favorite side dishes—don’t forget the veggies! I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. 

[FYI, this is straight from the horse’s mouth, she doesn’t write things down and this hasn’t been tested, so like I will always tell you trust your instincts!]

My mom in Little Italy in December 2010

Happy New Year! Let's make 2011 even more delicious than 2010!

I hope you are all resting up and recovering from the past month and week of Holiday celebrations! If you are like me you may be looking forward to 2011 with a list full of resolutions for yourself and a heart full of promise in the newness of a fresh year and a start full of potential!   2011 can be the best year yet should we choose to live with vigor everyday. Let's make another memorable year, a great start to a new decade and an even more delicious 365 days together. 

New Year's always holds an extra layer of promise for me because it is not only a new calendar year for me every January 1st but also a new year in my life as my birthday is also the first of the year. This year I rang in a new beginning with friends at a pre-party at my house then off to a rockin' Black 47 concert just a block away from the hub-bub of Times Square. 

I served some delicious prepared appetizers from Whole Foods but also made mini beef wellington appetizers to add that special taste to the evening. I call these "Poor Girl" beef wellington because I used eye of the round steaks, which is a much much less expensive cut of meat than the traditional filet mignon but has the same shape and limited marbling. Also, phyllo dough is usually less expensive to get than puff pastry. Maybe you will make these for your next special occasion or birthday! Enjoy!

Poor Girl's Mini Beef Wellington Appetizers

Busy night!: Roasted garlic, chopping veggies, BEST burger EVER!

I've begun preparing for my first 'real' dinner party at my apartment. The idea is a faux Seder (verrry faux)/Holy Thursday last supper. We have matzos and brisket and lots of wine on the way. Tonight was roasting the garlic to mix into the mashed potatoes, cleaning/peeling/chopping the veggies so they are ready to go Thursday night.

It was my first time roasting garlic and it worked out well for my needs, but I think I over roasted the cloves a little bit because they did not come out as full cloves only as roasted garlic paste. Since I'm going to be mixing them into the mashed potatoes its easier that I already have the paste set.

I peeled & chopped 3lbs of carrots which I am going to boil and toss with fresh parsley and butter to serve. Then I prepared a bunch of green beans by French-cutting them; this just means cutting them lengthwise. This is definitely my favorite way to have green beans (one of my top 5 favorite veggies!) and I've only ever had them this way from frozen. It is obviously easy to prepare them, just cutting-- its easiest to cut the green beans at an angle and then split them. Can't wait to have them at dinner!

After all this prep work I was HUNGRY! From reading NYT's Peter Meehan's T Magazine blog article "Homeburgers" (http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/grass-fed-homeburgers/) I was inspired to get ground beef in my Fresh Direct this week and make some tasty beef burgers (instead of turkey, which I have been whenever I've made burgers for months lately). This burger ended up being the BEST burger I've ever made and maybe the best I've ever eaten!! Of course I topped it with bacon, american cheese (deli sliced-- way different than the packaged kind), a leaf of Boston lettuce, and bottomed my baguette roll with BUTTER (Meehan's suggestion from "How to cook everything's" Mark Bittman). It was royally delicious. I RARELY finish a whole homemade burger (btw, McDonalds does not count!). I ate every last bit of it! So so so delicious!

Simply delicious

Sometimes the tastiest meals are the simplest to make. Fresh delicious ingredients, seasoned with just salt and pepper. Eye of the round steak tenderized and marinated in Italian dressing; chopped tomatoes with freshly minced garlic and parmesean; and olive oil parm baked-this-morning baguette toasts. Yum!

The Art of Subsitution

Boeuf bourguignon The Pleasures of Cooking for One, by Judith Jones

This dish of boeuf bourguignon has gotten a lot of play lately, again, due to “Julie & Julia,” but rather than make Julia’s boeuf bourguignon, I opted to make my single chef version from Judith Jones with some adjustments. Substitution is one of the most fun factors about cooking. If you have picky eaters, or if you're a vegetarian, you can always make substitutions without problem. If you loathe anchovies and a dish calls for them, just substitute a strongly flavored meaty alternative. This is an especially welcome fact if you or your friends have a food allergy, you can always swap out the the item in question for something of equal value. My substitutions in this recipe came largely from the fact that I was unwilling to go out and buy a handful of additional ingredients the night I cooked the boeuf bourguinon.

To begin, the biggest change I made was using white prosecco instead of red wine; it definitely change the flavor the dish, but it was still a delicious end result. I used about ½ cup of the prosecco to 1 & ½ cups of beef broth (had I used red wine, I’d have done the full cup called for to 1 cup of broth). I also used two shallots instead of an onion because it was what I had. Typically I prefer a shallot to an onion because they are more delicate in flavor but still bring the dimension needed. Shamefully, I was also lacking parsley and bay leaves for my bouquet garni, so I sprinkled in herbes de provence which have more herbs than were called for and rather than making a packet with the garlic, thyme and pepper, I added them in chopped/grinded before letting the dish simmer to thickness. Also, as mentioned in "The Single Chef" I added duxelles when the stew beef was cooked and it enhanced the whole stew flavor.

Aside from my substitutions I followed Jones’ instructions to make the stew and it came out beautifully. Again, I was out of carrots, leeks, and potatoes so I didn't add the 'vegetable garnish' she adds to finish the stew, so I served myself the beef over mashed potatoes. The recipe yielded enough stew to have it twice (or to serve two), or as she offers to use it in two additional ways-- adding some of the meat to a Beef and Kidney pie (found on page 34 of her book) and then as a meat sauce using the meat cooked with tomatoes and tossed with pasta. As of right now the leftovers are waiting patiently in my fridge to either be enjoyed as is or perhaps as the pasta dish.

I was very glad to have found Jones' version of this dish I have always wanted to prepare myself (whenever I came home from college I would make my mom cook beef stew for me) but never felt it was worth making for only one. Jones' book is a real gem and I'm so glad to have it come to me at this point in my life when I have only myself to shop for and my own kitchen to cook in.