i have to admit that this weekend i was in a complete slump. i didn't feel like cooking / doing anything, i guess because i know in the next few weeks i will be going places, and cooking lots.
and saturday's car battery debacle stole most, if not all, of my cooking thunder.
i should mention though, that i half-heartedly attempted to create a 2nd dish from molly steven's all about braising cookbook on friday: zinfandel sage pot roast with glazed carrots.
there's really not much to tell. normally i make a wine/hoisin sauce/canned tomatoes beef stew, and it turns out thick-sauced, with complex flavors. i had originally thought to make that recipe when we picked up the chuck at safeway, but i thought maybe i should try something different.
it just so happened that we had a bottle of zinfandel in the house, and we had carrots, so i thought i'd give it a go.
i have to first state my ignorance in all-things-wine. i can't tell if wine is "good". it seems that most wine to me tastes fine (maybe i'm drinking the wrong wines?), though i can tell the difference between what i like, and what i don't like.
that being said, as i opened up the bottle of zinfandel that we had purchased several weeks before, as i removed the foil casing around the top of the bottle, i noticed that the wine had leaked out of the cork, and some of the wine had dried up underneath the foil. again, not knowing anything, i called cavin into the kitchen and got his opinion. he and i are both uneducated in such things, so we didn't know if it was "good", but it tasted fine and we decided to use it in cooking. (can someone tell me what to do if this ever happens again? does the wine go bad? we stored the wine on it's side, like it should be...)
anyway, it was a standard-fare pot roast recipe. i tied up the beef chuck (using the half-hitch method), seasoned with s&p, browned it, took it out and added coarsely chopped onion, carrot, celery, garlic, sage, and cooked for a few minutes. then deglazed with 1 cup zinfandel, added stock (didn't have beef in the house), reduce by about 1/3, add meat, cover and braise for about 3 hours.
about halfway through, i tasted the sauce and it really didn't taste that awesome - it was somewhat bitter and really sage-y. despite wanting to follow the recipe exactly the first time, i gave in and seasoned away. i added hoison and more salt and pepper, and some dried herbs.
at the 3 hour mark, i strained the veggies and herbs, and checked the meat. the meat was tender, save for the end piece which hadn't fully broken down yet, but it was getting late so we decided to eat the cooked parts and leave the end to cook a bit longer. i also reduced the sauce more.
then i made the carrots: cook in pan on high until starting to brown, add some of the reduced sauce from the roast, added a pinch of sugar, s&p, sage, and cover till done.
out of 4 stars, i would only give this recipe 1.5. while the meat was tender and had a good sage flavor, the sauce was really uninteresting. it was pretty flat in flavor, despite me tinkering with the recipe, and it wasn't as thick as i would have wanted it. of course if i didn't like the consistency of the sauce, why didn't i thicken it with flour? or cornstarch? well, at this point, it was getting late, and i didn't feel like bothering, especially after i tasted the sauce and the flavor profiles were, eh.
it's possible also, that my lack of knowledge lead me astray by using the zinfandel that had "leaked out" of the bottle.
i'm going to stick to my original hoisin/wine beef stew. if i end up making it this week, i will post the recipe.
and saturday's car battery debacle stole most, if not all, of my cooking thunder.
i should mention though, that i half-heartedly attempted to create a 2nd dish from molly steven's all about braising cookbook on friday: zinfandel sage pot roast with glazed carrots.
there's really not much to tell. normally i make a wine/hoisin sauce/canned tomatoes beef stew, and it turns out thick-sauced, with complex flavors. i had originally thought to make that recipe when we picked up the chuck at safeway, but i thought maybe i should try something different.
it just so happened that we had a bottle of zinfandel in the house, and we had carrots, so i thought i'd give it a go.
i have to first state my ignorance in all-things-wine. i can't tell if wine is "good". it seems that most wine to me tastes fine (maybe i'm drinking the wrong wines?), though i can tell the difference between what i like, and what i don't like.
that being said, as i opened up the bottle of zinfandel that we had purchased several weeks before, as i removed the foil casing around the top of the bottle, i noticed that the wine had leaked out of the cork, and some of the wine had dried up underneath the foil. again, not knowing anything, i called cavin into the kitchen and got his opinion. he and i are both uneducated in such things, so we didn't know if it was "good", but it tasted fine and we decided to use it in cooking. (can someone tell me what to do if this ever happens again? does the wine go bad? we stored the wine on it's side, like it should be...)
anyway, it was a standard-fare pot roast recipe. i tied up the beef chuck (using the half-hitch method), seasoned with s&p, browned it, took it out and added coarsely chopped onion, carrot, celery, garlic, sage, and cooked for a few minutes. then deglazed with 1 cup zinfandel, added stock (didn't have beef in the house), reduce by about 1/3, add meat, cover and braise for about 3 hours.
about halfway through, i tasted the sauce and it really didn't taste that awesome - it was somewhat bitter and really sage-y. despite wanting to follow the recipe exactly the first time, i gave in and seasoned away. i added hoison and more salt and pepper, and some dried herbs.
at the 3 hour mark, i strained the veggies and herbs, and checked the meat. the meat was tender, save for the end piece which hadn't fully broken down yet, but it was getting late so we decided to eat the cooked parts and leave the end to cook a bit longer. i also reduced the sauce more.
then i made the carrots: cook in pan on high until starting to brown, add some of the reduced sauce from the roast, added a pinch of sugar, s&p, sage, and cover till done.
out of 4 stars, i would only give this recipe 1.5. while the meat was tender and had a good sage flavor, the sauce was really uninteresting. it was pretty flat in flavor, despite me tinkering with the recipe, and it wasn't as thick as i would have wanted it. of course if i didn't like the consistency of the sauce, why didn't i thicken it with flour? or cornstarch? well, at this point, it was getting late, and i didn't feel like bothering, especially after i tasted the sauce and the flavor profiles were, eh.
it's possible also, that my lack of knowledge lead me astray by using the zinfandel that had "leaked out" of the bottle.
i'm going to stick to my original hoisin/wine beef stew. if i end up making it this week, i will post the recipe.
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Have you seen this blog? http://curiouscook.blogspot.com/
(i plop is Lee)
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