Beef Enchiladas (p. 104)

This is one of those double posts so make sure you read the blog behind this one--they are both new!

I had the leftover pot roast from the night before so I looked through TJOC for leftover beef recipes. I decided on Beef Enchiladas (p. 104), which are pretty much chicken enchiladas, with leftover beef.

TJOC says to shred the beef but I decided to slice it (against the grain) because it didn't want to shred.



The corn tortillas were put into the oven to heat up. TJOC says to put a layer of foil on the baking sheet, brush the tortillas (on both sides) with vegetable oil, and layer them on the sheet. Then cover the whole thing with more foil.



As you can see here, I didn't read the part about foil on the bottom until after they were already layered, but it didn't seem to matter (that is my refrain lately!).


Some of you may remember from the chicken enchilada post that I wasn't impressed with the enchilada sauce at all. The recipe says that you can use store-bought sauce, so that's what I did. When I tasted the sauce it was a little strange-tasting, so I doctored it up. I added Spicy V8 (my favorite secret ingredient), garlic powder, a little sage, and some cumin and the sauce was delicious! If anyone else doctors the sauce (Rachel, I KNOW you do) I would love to know what you add.

Part of the sauce is smeared on the bottom of the pan (yes, smeared is the technical term).




Half the sauce is added to the meat.




The meat was put in the middle of the tortillas and they were rolled up and placed on the sheet, seam-side down. The rest of the sauce was poured on top.




Cheese is then added to the top and it was baked for ten minutes.





Easy! I think the whole recipe took about 20 minutes. This is one of my new go-to recipes for quick dinners. In fact, I talked to my mom about this recipe and she made pork enchiladas the next day--just as fast. They heated up extremely well and gave me three meals! The beef was nice and tender too--in fact, I think it was more tender than when I ate the pot roast originally (I think it's because I cut it thin and against the grain).

Beef pot roast (p. 477), Cream of cauliflower (p. 144), and Cream of spinach soup (p. 145)

I'm not sure why I went on a cooking spree but I knew that I had a bunch of doctor's appointments this week and knew that I probably wouldn't want to do much cooking. Plus, it's much more convenient to get the kitchen extremely messy once instead of every night.

The first recipe I decided to make was Beef pot roast (p. 477). I had really good luck when I made Stracotto (Italian pot roast) so I was optimistic. I don't tend to love pot roast. I don't hate it but it's certainly not one of my favorite "big chuck o' meat" recipes. That being said, I think it's a great use of tougher cuts of beef that are usually cheap. I even got my chuck roast on sale (which is why I decided to make pot roast).


The first step was to brown the meat in a little vegetable oil. TJOC recommends browning for twenty minutes--I think that is WAY too long. I browned the meat for about 5 minutes. The meat is removed from the pot, celery, onions, and carrots are added in and cooked for a while, and then the meat is returned to the pot.

Looking at my pictures and re-reading the recipe, it seems like I may have messed it up. Apparently, I was supposed to add a cup of chicken stock to the vegetables, bring it to a boil, and then add a bay leaf and thyme, before adding the roast back to the pot.





This picture sure doesn't look like the broth was added...so I'm thinking I added the meat and then the broth. I don't think it made any difference.




The roast was cooked for hours and then the meat was removed from the pot. The sauce was strained and the gravy is returned to the pot.



A mixture of flour and butter is then added to the gravy to thicken it. I didn't know this method of thickening but it really worked! '



In fact, it might have worked too well, my gravy was pretty thick. Attractive though and there were no lumps at all.






For some reason, I have no after picture of the final product! It was good but still a little tough. The gravy was really good. The best part was that Josh and I managed to eat a full meal, Josh brought another serving for lunch the next day, and I had enough left over for another meal. I don't think the pot roast cost me more than $8 for all of those meals--really cost effective. I will probably make some version of this in the future.

Is this similar to other people's pot roast recipes? Mom's always had potatoes, carrots, and celery in it--this one had no vegetables (they were all diced up and then I threw them out).



I love soup! So because I had such great luck with the cream of broccoli and asparagus soups I decided to move on to the Cream of cauliflower (p. 144) recipe. This recipe was really easy. I didn't take a picture of the sauteeing celery and onions in butter because it's pretty much the first step for almost every recipe in TJOC. The cauliflower is then added to the pot and it's cooked. I wasn't sure if I cut the cauliflower small enough but I figured it didn't really matter.




Flour is sprinkled on the top.




I don't think I've shown a picture of this yet but I never bother to skim my chicken stock as it's cooking. I just wait for it to make a solid layer and I pop that out before using the stock--it works really well and it's easy (exactly what I like).




The chicken stock is then added and the soup is simmered for quite a while.




When the cauliflower is tender it's time to blend! And heavy cream is stirred in...




Absolutely delicious! This vat of soup was eaten in less than 24 hours and it was the first soup I've made that Josh took for lunch. It was INCREDIBLE. Almost so good that I want to make it again this weekend (but I won't because I have 7 more TJOC cream soups to make).


I have no idea why I decided to make two different types of cream soups but I'm guessing it's because I love cream soups and have had fairly good luck with them. I moved on to Cream of spinach soup (p. 145).

I often think that COS soup is a beautiful soup but sometimes can be a little much (and I LIKE spinach).

The first step was a common one--sautee onion in butter. You aren't supposed to brown them--uh oh. I couldn't find my camera's battery charger so I was running all over the house while starting this recipe and it may have gotten a bit overbrowned. How I can possibly lose both chargers (which are interchangeable since I have two matching cameras--long story) is beyond me.



A little flour is then added and that is cooked for a while.

And into the butter/onion mix a couple cups of both milk and chicken stock are slowly added.



TJOC says that after 10 minutes this mixture is supposed to be thickening. I don't know how it is for those of you who live at normal altitudes but it took the mixture WAY longer to thicken than 10 minutes. I would say at least 25 minutes--but I had it at too low a temperature for at least part of that.

While the cream mixture was cooking, I started with the spinach. There was a sad lack of decent looking fresh spinach at the grocery store so I used the frozen spinach in my freezer (which took FOREVER to defrost--even placing the boxes in a water bath-- and drain).



The spinach was then cooked, covered, with no oil, for about 15 minutes (TJOC says 5 but the spinach wasn't even thinking about being cooking at that point), rinsed with cold water, and pressed to remove that water. This is a step that I would undoubtedly cut in the future because I don't believe it would matter very much if the spinach continued to cook a bit.

The spinach was then dumped in the milk mixture...




The whole concoction was immersion blended (I LOVE my immersion blender) and a cup of heavy cream was added.




So how was it? Like all TJOC cream soups it really, really, really needs a lot of salt. And like all spinach soups, I thought it was a bit much. That was before I spiked it with feta cheese--which made it absolutely delicious! If you make this soup, I really recommend sprinkling in a little (or an enormous amount) of feta. And it was a really beautiful soup--such a pretty green!

Randomly Generated List #1

As I mentioned before, I'm stealing an idea from Teena of the Gourmet Project. She uses a random number generator to generate page numbers and she has to cook something off of them every so often. It's a good way to make sure that you aren't avoiding recipes--otherwise I could end up with a year of really nasty-looking foods that I didn't want to make.

I'm going to post my list (that way I can't cheat!). I plan on making at least one recipe every two weeks. I can make any recipe off of the page but the recipe has to start on the page in question. I have to make them all before I can move on to the next set (we will see how that works!).

I had Josh pick 12 numbers and the random number generator pick 12 numbers. Several of the pages picked didn't have recipes on them so I threw them out and generated more numbers.

Here is the list (page number, abbreviated chapter title, (eventually) what I made and the date):
ETA: I decided to list all the possiblilities per page so I could easily refer to this page. When I make something, it will be linked and the discarded choices will be deleted :)

77, Appetizers: Marinated mozzarella, 2/1/09
109, Brunch, Cheese quiche, 1/19/09
127, Soups: Jellied soup, jellied tomato soup, jellied beet soup
196, Eggs: Poached eggs, 3/26/09
225, Fruits: Kumquat compote, 3/15/09
333, Pasta: Japanese noodles in broth, 3/26/09
356, Grains: Jamaican rice and peas, 9/27/09
444, Poultry: Turkey in red mole, 5/25/09
500, Meat: Pulled pork, 3/27/09
513, Meat: Macleid's rockcastle chili, 4/9/09
520, Meat (variety meats...joy of joys...): Sauteed kidneys with mustard, boiled fresh, smoked, or pickled beef tongue, baked stuffed heart
552, Sauces: White wine sauce for fish, 5/25/09
555, Sauces: Hunter's sauce (sauce chasseur), 10/3/09
641, Breads: Garlic bread or toasted buttered bread loaf, 2/8/09
666, Pies, Pat-in-the-pan butter dough, 1/19/09
667, Pies: Pat-in-the-pan shortbread dough, 1/30/09
729, Cakes: Individual molten chocolate cakes, 10/4/09
777, Cookies: Molasses crisps cockaigne, 7/5/09
791, Icings: Fluffy nut or coconut icing, luscious orange icing, chocolate fudge frosting
816, Desserts: Chocolate mousse, chocolate mousse with gelatin, white chocolate mousse with toasted almonds

Pickled grapes (p. 228), Panfried leftover pasta (p. 323), and Ohio farmhouse sausage chili (p. 514)

First things first, I just posted an old blog from November--if you have a blog reader, it probably showed up, but if you don't, go check it out! I love when people officially "follow" my blog because it's good for my ego but I know that I have readers who just have TJOTJOC in their blogreaders and that's terrific too.

I've mentioned before that I always panfry leftover pasta because I think it's soft and gross heated up any other way (a trick I was taught by my mom). While going through TJOC, I noticed that Panfried leftover pasta (p. 323) was actually a recipe--but I had never taken pictures while making it. I rectified that today!

TJOC and I make this the exact same way.

First, heat up olive oil and dump the pasta into the pan.




Cook it, stirring fairly often (otherwise it burns).



I REALLY recommend heating pasta up this way--delicious! (And if you are wondering about the pasta, it's rotini with a garlicy tomato sauce that I got out of Mark Bittman's cookbook that my brother got me for Christmas--I know, I was cheating on TJOC!).

I decided to make Ohio farmhouse sausage chili (p. 514) for dinner because it was incredibly easy. This is a sausage chili rather than a hamburger chili. At first, you brown pork sausage and onion. I think normally the sausage would have a higher fat content than the Boulder Company sausage I used--I actually had to add a little olive oil because there was NO fat at all.

When the sausage was browned, celery is added until it's softened. I've never had celery in chili!





I added diced tomatoes, maple syrup, cumin, sage, and black pepper. TJOC calls for two cups of either tomato juice or chicken stock. I was making chicken stock but needed something immediately, so I used (the hated) canned chicken stock. The can was.5 cups too short but I didn't want to open a second can so I searched the house for tomato juice. And all I found was Spicy Hot V8. I figured it was good enough and added a half cup.

I love Spicy Hot V8 (in a Bloody Mary or by itself) but I had no idea how it was going to work in chili.




The finished product (after the beans are added and it's simmered for a while):



How was it? AMAZINGLY GOOD. I just wanted to drink the broth it was so good! Apparently, I love the combination of cumin, sage, and black pepper, and the Spicy Hot V8 was an awesome addition. This is absolutely a recipe that I think I will have to fool around with more (oh, and I love red kidney beans in chili). I'm not sure that I will make this exact recipe again but I will definitely make some version of it in the future.

And on to the piece de resistance of my Monday cooking...Pickled grapes (p. 228). I'm not sure exactly what attracted me to this recipe. I love pickles although I've never had pickled fruits. But I have been doing so spectacularly terribly on the fruit chapter I really needed to produce something from it and the pickled grapes were calling my name (figuratively, of course, it would be quite scary if they were literally calling my name).

So how did I pickle grapes?

The first step is to fill the jars (or one big jar or a bowl) with a couple cups of grapes and some garlic. Grapes and garlic? The recipe is interesting already!



Another view:




Then I made the pickling mixture--cider vinegar, sugar, fresh ginger, salt, coriander, whole colves, and a pinch of red pepper flakes. I simmered it until the sugar dissolved (at this point it was a sort of spicey vinegar syrup). The kitchen smelled like I had just been cleaning!





The pickle was then poured into the jars...



Top view:




And they were let stand for an hour before I tasted the first one (they don't require an actual canning step).

How was it?

Tasty! Shockingly tasty. It's a weird experience. The first thing you think is "Wow, these are gross". As you chew, you think "Hmmm...these are actually pretty good". When you finish the first one you think "That was terrific!" and before you know it you've polished off half a jar. Josh had the exact same experience! I have to say, I will make these again. In fact, I will probably make these again within a week because I have a sad suspicion that they will all have disappeared...

In other news, I'm producing an index of the all of the indexes. I'm also stealing an idea from Teena of the Gourmet Project. She uses a random number generator to generate page numbers and she has to cook something off of them every so often. It's a good way to make sure that you aren't avoiding recipes--otherwise I could end up with a year of really nasty-looking foods that I didn't want to make.

I'm going to post my list (that way I can't cheat!) so make sure to look for it. I think I'll post it on the side bar...

Beef and vegetable stir fry (p. 476)

I went to my dad's on Sunday. Dad lives about a half-hour west of my mom, conveniently on the interstate that I take home to CO (I drive about 8.5 hours down the same interstate--so boring). Dad had made his own ricotta cheese (it was delicious!) and was planning on making a souffle for dessert. He wanted me to make something out of TJOC for dinner.

We decided to make Beef and vegetable stir fry (p. 476). This title is not entirely accurate for what I made though, since instead of using raw beef steak, I used leftover pork roast.

It is really important to have everything prepped when you make a stir-fry because once you get cooking, it moves FAST.

The first part of the recipe was to mix soy sauce, water, sugar, cornstarch, sesame oil, and either Chinese rice wine or dry sherry. Cornstarch...I'm always careful with it, otherwise you end up with lumps. (Otherwise known as cornstarch, the bane of Top Chef contestants).



Dad didn't have any Chinese rice wine but he did have Japanese rice wine.



My favorite part of sake?



It has a built in little cap for drinkin' on the go! Just in case you feel a little too classy to drink straight from the bottle but are not in the vicinity of any drinking vessels.

That saucy mix is then poured all over the beef (well...in this cause, pork).



I have to admit that at this point my stepmother wandered through the kitchen and commented on how good it smelled...and it did smell really good.

I then chopped onions and mushrooms, both of which were called for in the recipe, and bamboo shoots and water chestnuts, which were not called for but were delicious. Those were put to the side.

In another bowl (this is NOT the meal to make if you don't feel like washing dishes!) I mixed garlic, chili oil (now THAT has a kick), and ginger (dad didn't have any fresh ginger so I used powdered).




From this point on, the recipe takes about five minutes. The garlic mixture, water chestnuts, and bamboo shoots were briefly fried and then the pork was added (since it was already cooked, it didn't need much).



The wok was then cleaned out. The onion and mushrooms were then cooked for a couple minutes. Everything was added back to the pan and it was finished!







Dad and I with the finished project! People (other than Josh) should be really worried about cooking with me, because I really like these "finished project" pictures :) Dad and I match!



I have to say, it was a really strange meal. (My shirt says "Iceberg, a head" if you are wondering)



Stir-fry, souffle, and a dinner roll. If that's not one of the strangest combinations you've ever seen, I would love to know what was. The stir-fry was really good and got high marks from everyone. It was nice and spicy and I think the pork made it even better. Plus, other than all of the measuring and mixing, it was extremely easy.


The lemon/ricotta souffle!



It was not only beautiful but extremely tasty. I had never had a souffle before and it was light and fluffy. I think the homemade ricotta made it even better! Between the bread and the souffle I learned how to make two of the foods that I terrified me (and still terrify me, but slightly less).

Oven-roasted peppers (p. 292) and Muffuletta (p. 181)

So roasting a red pepper is not officially a recipe but I took pictures of the process, so I might as well post about it! Oven-roasted peppers (p. 292). I ended up with extra so mom wrapped it up and saved it. She recently told me that it was amazingly delicious and wanted to know the secrets to making TJOC roasted red peppers. Believe me--there is no mystery.

You start with a red bell pepper. Brush it down with olive oil. Since I adore olive oil (and recommend you never look at the calorie count for a tablespoon of it) I smeared it all over.




Broil the pepper until it's blistered and black. I imagine it will eventually catch on fire--make sure to stop before that point.



Cut the top away and slip the skin off. Your extra will look like this:



The rest is your roasted red pepper! Pretty easy. Red peppers are relatively expensive though--I think it would be a great idea to plant a pepper plant in the garden, roast a bunch of them, and save them in a giant vat of oil (would that work?).

What did I need the red pepper for? Muffuletta (p. 181)! When I finished my Master's degree, my best friend Rachel and I went for an awesome trip to New Orleans. In between ghost tours in the morning and staying out all night on Bourbon street we managed to gorge ourselves on the awesome New Orleans specialties (muffuletta, beignets, po'boys, gumbo, etc.). I actually remember eating the muffuletta at a little place in the garden district after traveling down there on the cable cars and we trying to listen to the Anne Rice tour guide (a tour that we were not officially on and only had two people...hard to be inconspicuous!).

I really wanted this to be a delicious sandwich...especially since it was so time-consuming. Because of all the wait periods in the recipe, I hope that nobody ever makes this when they have a serious craving.

The first part of TJOC's muffuletta is to make an olive salad.

Mix together chopped black and green olives, olive oil, parsley, oregano, garlic, a little lemon juice, and the roasted red pepper. Since I don't like bell peppers, I decided to split the mixture in half and only add the red pepper to one container. The mixture then has to be refrigerated for at least eight hours.

I think the olive salad is incredibly pretty!




My olive salad looked like this:




The recipe calls for a round loaf of Italian or French bread. For some reason this was extremely difficult to buy at mom's local grocery store. I ended up buying some expensive organic bread because it was my only choice. It's split in half (essentially, making an enormous sandwich).



I see now, rereading the recipe, that I was supposed to hollow the sandwich out a little. I totally didn't do that and it worked fine (although it was a big sandwich and that step would have probably made it easier to eat). The recipe says to drain the olive mixture and spread the marinade on the bread...but there was no marinade! So I didn't do that step either...

The olive mixture spread on the bread:



The next step is a layer of salami (mmmm....)



And then a layer of ham....



And a layer of provolone cheese...are you hungry yet? I certainly am!




TJOC calls for shredded lettuce but we didn't have any...so it got a very light sprinkling of lettuce.



Finally, the other half of the olive mixture is added. I had to be careful about this and get the sides matched up--otherwise that would have been a total waste of time!



And the top of the loaf is put on:




It looked like a huge, drippy (but tasty) sandwich.


The sandwich was then wrapped in plastic...since we didn't have any Saran we put it in a loose bag (actually the bag the bread came in--nothing else was big enough) and wrapped it tight with foil.



The sandwich then was placed on a plate, covered with another plate, and weighted down in the refrigerator...TJOC says to weight it with cans but I used mom's exercise weights. It stays there for at least thirty minutes but could stay for up to six hours (and would probably be much flatter if you did the longer time).




I was starving at this point so it only got to crush for about an hour.

The final product?




Close up:



It was AMAZINGLY good. The olive salad would be terrific by itself...or with some hummus for a vegetarian sandwich (mmm...I may have to try that). The sandwich was extremely tasty. I can't say it was easy, or cheap, but it sure was good. Since my last muffuletta was over three years ago, I can't vouch for it's authenticity, but at least it didn't include mayo (my Lousiana friends tell me that's the worst thing you can do to a muffuletta!).