The Ultimate Meat in Sauce Method

Most recipes tell you to cut the meat into cubes, fry 'em and then add veg 'n stuff to the pan, and subsequently cook the entire thing for a longish while, often in a slowcooker.

This sort of works, but does the meat no favours and does not really improve the sauce either.

What people like about the slow method is that it breaks down the connective tissues in cheap cuts, but, there is a much better way of achieving the same effect, whilst keeping your other ingredients in prime condition.

Use a pressure cooker, and do the following with any meat-in-sauce recipe of your choice:

1. Fry your uncut lump of meat on a medium heat setting until brown on all sides.  
2. Lift out and place into the steam basket.
3. Add your stock or water to the pan to just below the basket level, put the trivet in and the meat basket back.
4. Pressure cook the lump in the steam for 25-45 minutes, depending on size and type.
5. Set cooked lump aside (and cover so it does not dry out), reserve the stock, wipe the pan dry.
6. Make your sauce as per recipe, without the meat, but use the reserved (and perhaps reduced) stock.
7. Pressure cook the sauce for 7-10 minutes on the middle or lower pressure setting, use the quick release of steam.
8. Take a blender stick to the sauce and veg in the pan (optional)
9. Cut the meat into bite size pieces and add to the sauce.

Freeze in portions once it's all cooled down; or season and re-heat to eat now.

Why is this better?  Because your meat just cooks so much better as a lump (as in, stays juicier and has a much nicer texture and flavour), and the pressure[1] will take care of any connective tissue much better than a slow cooker.  And your veg and spices are not going to be boiled to death but only the amount of time necessary.  Plus, you get to purée the sauce, so it has a nice consistency. (if you use whole spice to cook, use a spice bag to remove them!)

Also, this method of course works for curries (where you sometimes may not want to use the pressure cooker on the actual sauce, but just for the meat) or Au Vin style sauces.

[1] If you're buying a pressure cooker, be very sure that it does deliver 15psi (or, 1 bar) as the top pressure. Otherwise, you need longer cooking times, which in turn affect the taste of the food.  Lots of pressure cookers don't offer that performance that and price is no indicator of quality here.  Beem (a German company) is a very good brand and I have their 8 litre model which I am very happy with. But Tefal, Tower and Kuhn Rikon all max out at 13 PSI, so always check the manual.  If it does not mention the actual numbers, chances are that the pot will not make the grade.  Moreover, if you use your pressure cooker to can food in WECK jars, 15 PSI is mandatory to produce the high temperatures needed to be safe from botulism.

Shellicious!

Shell Style Guide -- how to code bash scripts in style.

How to scramble eggs inside their shell, for a neat pocket omelette, now with industrial trick:

The expectations of life depend upon diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools. 

          Confucius

TIL: Nuked Broth + Salt = Instant Geyser

This is not a code post.  But I was very impressed and thought I share this warning.  But sheer luck I avoided what could have been a serious burn on my hands and fingers ;-( )

I made some of my famous broth[1], formed 4 small meatballs and dropped that with a squirt of tomato paste and some parsley into a 1pt pyrex jug and filled it up to 1/2 pt with extra strong broth. Covered it with a silicone mat and nuked it  @600W for 4 minutes and ... added 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Luckily I poured the salt into my hand and dropped it in from a height --- because the entire thing welled up with a bubbly vengeance and poured forth over the edges of the jug.

Superheated much?  OMG.

Points to make:

• I was very lucky moving it out of the nuke didn't make it erupt.
• I was even more lucky not to stick the salt onto a spoon and stir.  To stir this kind of thing, you'd need a long cooking spoon.  But that's not the smart way to do it either.

What I should have done is pull it out at 1 minute intervals and stir it, leave it sit for 20-30 sec before zapping it again.  

Be safe and eat well.

[1] The recipe!

Don't use salt or pepper (and other spices) until you're ready to use the result.  

Hour 0:

Start with a slow cooker or a pressure cooker (because that closes very well).  Set on low heat, you want a very slow simmer, if the pressure valve releases steam, it's too hot.  Ideally, no steam leaves the vessel.

Add 1 kg+ of oxtail or other big bones (break with a hammer if not cut), 2 table spoon of vinegar (to leach the bones' goodness) and cover the bones with boiling water.

Hour 24:

Add those frozen, broken bird bones, gristle, skin and knuckles you carefully have saved in a freezer bag every time you gnawed or otherwise dissected something delicious.   Add more boiling water to just cover.

Hour 40:

Add veggies --- 1/2 a green celery head, 4-6 carrots, 1 -2 quartered onions and if you have it, some chopped celeriac or, chopped parsley root(for the gardeners amongst you).  And a big bayleaf.  Add more boiling water to just cover.

Hour 47 1/2:

Now is the time to optionally add things like parsley stalks (not the leaves) or 1/2 a leaf of lovage (beware.  It's nice but easily dominates, pervasively so).

Hour 48:

Leave it to cool down, now pour the entire thing through a sieve.

Once cooled down:

It should solidify into a jelly.  If not, use bags you put into mugs for easier pouring and tying, before you stick 'em into the freezer (minus the mug).  For small cubes, use the ice cube tray, or silicone muffin cups.  If you have jelly, use a big spoon to carve off pieces, wrap into cling film and freeze. 

The fat is good for frying eggs and other stuff in (skim and heat carefully to evaporate the last bits off moisture), or if you don't like fat, for bribing a deserving doggy with suitably small portioned treats.

You broth stash will go well in soups and the smaller pieces in cling film go well in vegetables and sauces.  

Plus, it makes your kitchen smell great for 2 days. This makes about 1-2 litres of very strong broth, depending on how many bones and water you've used.  Not enough?  Well, make another lot! ;-D

Search, and ye shall find (or not)

Tesco.ie search at it's finest:

Search results for 'LIVER'

We have found 1 result for LIVER

Did you mean to search for 'love'?

With much hope, I clicked on the link, but, alas:

Search results for 'love'

We did not find any products to match 'love'

Oh well, I'll just have to stick to liver instead... ;-D

Or... maybe some of Charlie Parker's version of 'Love for Sale':

(Actually, I already bought that, some time ago...)

Char Sui chasing Bratwurst & Eggs chasing Chicken Kiev chasing Omlette

Day 1:

Make lots of cuts into the top of a pork belly.  If you like, stab it with a needle too(or a bunch of needles you tied together), as many times as you can be bothered.  Put on a trivet on a plate uncovered into the fridge to dry out, overnight.

Day 2:

In the morning, rub the belly top with ground sea salt working the grains into the cuts.  Make a mix of 1TB  fishsauce, 1 tsp Fivespice powder, 2 TBL vodka, 2 TBL rosewater, pour into a tray with sides that the belly can sit in.

Bathe the non-salted parts of the belly in this,  leave to sit for 3-4 hours.  Dab the moisture off the top, bathe the sides of the belly again, and rub some more salt into the top.  Leave to sit another 3-6 hours. Wipe the top again.

Now take a pyrex tray (I like the big quiche forms) put the trivet back, place belly in skin side down, cover with foil and bake @150 C in a convection microwave (oven only!) for 30 minutes.  Remove the foil, bake another 30 minutes, douse in whatever marinade was left.    Turn over on the trivet.  Bake (no nuke!) another 10-15 minutes @ 170C, until the skin blisters.

Grab a big black iron wo or fry pan.  Put a big hunk of beef tallow in so it's about 2cm deep in the very middle, heat smoking hot.  Sling the belly in, skin down and cover this show with a fat guard (also, wear an apron and stand back, this can and will spit) and watch the skin crackle and pop like popcorn.  When it looks nice, remove, turn over and put on the cutting board.  Eat in slices.  Works great cold too! (and stays crunchy, so it's lunch box material!)

Day 3: 

Heat the wo again, cook 2-3 belly slices for breakfast, along with 2-3 eggs.

Heat the wo yet again, and fry a bratwurst along with 2-3 eggs for lunch.

In afternoon, go to work on a big fat chicken, Pepin style:




Note: Pepin doesn't remove the Parson's nose(ie, the tail) here -- and that usually has the glands the birds use to oil their feathers with, and that doesn't taste that nice.  So I always cut it off and chuck it. (If you have a deserving doggie, then a few minutes in the nuke will make a good treat from this)

The chicken roll Pepin demonstrates is very nice(as is all of his food!), but for my purposes, I split the bird up, and peel the skin off the chicken breast halves.

Grab another pyrex quiche dish again.  Put the chicken breast halves like yin and yang, sprinkle with Italian seasoning, use the parmesan grater to grate a clove of garlic on each, and park as much grated cheddar/mozarella as you can pack on it, top with a slice of Emmental.  Cover with a thick slice of middle bacon (the stuff that is one piece of back AND streaky), mill pepper and cover again with more grated cheddar/mozz mix.

Stick that in your convention microwave and combination cook on 140C for 30 minutes.

Heat your wo (which will have plenty of flavored fat still) again to smoking.  Park the baked chicken (cheese side up) in there and fry for about 5-8 minutes until it's cooked through (the bottom will not be cooked when it comes out of the microwave!)

Serve and eat.

Day 4: 

This fat has a bit of cheese in it, so browning meat is not such a good idea, but heating the wo gently to medium and frying some mushrooms and pouring beaten eggs for an omlette is going to make a nice tasting breakfast.

Now go code some stuff! :)