Sauce

I cooked a marvelous and colorful pasta sauce this evening. Worthy of photos and blogging, but nobody thought of it at the time. Any actually nobody has thought of it at all, until just now.


-- Posted from my iPhone

So I called Just Grammy...

This is going to be a short one, but I thought I'd post because I had a couple of decent photos. So, I've already blogged about our fondness for grassfed beef - albeit leaving out some of the moral and economic justifications for it.

For more on this, I would refer you to Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma.

We buy ground beef the most, for economic reasons, but recently, we decided to try a roast. We bought a more expensive london broil, and also a bottom round roast. This entry will be about the latter.

I'm not very adept at cooking with beef (yet!) so I called Just Grammy, the acknowledged authority on matters relating
to red meat, roasts, and their cousins. Her recipe layed out a simple procedure: brown the beef very well in a dutch oven.
Pour about a cup of good water into the pot - coming up to about a third the level of your roast. Then, roast it in the oven at 350 degrees for your initial hour. The time will vary based on how many pounds you have - we had about 2 pounds, and cooked the roast for around 3 hours. After an hour, we reduced the temperature to 250.

While your roast is cooking, cut up an assortment of vegetables - we use carrots, onions, and potatoes, for a basic roast. I think we will broaden to incorporate a greater variety for our london broil. About 45 minutes before the roast is done, put the vegetables in around the roast and continue to cook. Around the time your roast is done, the vegetables should be tender.

One note on grassfed beef - it tends to be less marbled than what you buy at the store, the natural result of actually eating what cows are meant to eat. That said, it would be a good idea to tenderize your roast prior to cooking with whatever method suits you, to increase its tenderness when removed from the oven.

You can reduce your broth on the stove after the roast is taken out and add some red wine, salt and pepper, and whatever herbs you like. While reducing, deglaze by scraping the bits from the bottom. Pour this reduction over your roast.

All said, it was a tasty meal and perfect for early fall.



Posted by Sara