In the Kitchen With Mattie

Archive for February, 2010

 

I know I haven’t been posting too much lately but life just sort of went astray lately, it sometimes gets that way for everyone and I am no exception. I also haven’t been cooking a lot lately due to a bad sinus infection, it seems to be getting much better, at least I feel like it is.

This is another of my pretty simple dinners, a simple flank steak, seasoned and broiled then cut into thin slices accross the grain. The potatoes do take some time so I often make about a dozen of them and then wrap them well when they cool and freeze them, a few minutes in the microwave from the freezer and they taste just freshly made. I also make them and then put them on the smiker when we are cooking outside. I don’t thnik I need to tell anyone how to broil a steak so I will just tell you how I make the potatoes.

                                                  Stuffed Potatoes

6 very large Russet potatoes washed well, prick skins with fork

1 stick butter

1 cup sour cream

2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, cubed or shredded

1 cup real bacon bits, made from cooked drained bacon or bottled bits

8 green onions, sliced into 1/4 inch pieces

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Take clean potatoes and place into oven set at 400 until cooked thru. Remove from oven and turn oven down to 350. Using a pot holder to avoid burns, cut each potato from end to end and scoop out the soft interior into a large bowl. Mash the potatoes so they are still a little chunky, add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Pile the mixture into the potato shells and set them on a large sheet pan. Return them to the oven and bake until they are heated thru and the cheese is melted. Or put them on the BBQ a few minutes before the meal is ready and let them heat and the skins crisp. Wrap leftovers in plastic wrap when cool, then place into a large zip lock bag and freeze. When needed put on microwave safe plate and heat for about 5 minutes, depending on microwave wattage, or heat in the regular oven until piping hot.

Hubby got lucky this week. He said he has been thinking about and remembering the last time I made the short ribs, actually he said they were making him nuts remembering how great they came out and tasted last time and that he couldn’t wait until I made them again. We went grocery shopping early this week and like I said he got lucky, they had them on sale so he got his wish of having them again. I made them tonight in the digital pressure cooker and they took all of about 40 minutes from fridge to table. This particular batch of ribs were smaller in size then the last ones I had made but they weren’t short on flavor thats for sure. There are no leftovers! here is a little gravy left and I will save that because it came out so good this time, the cooking gods must have been watching over me tonight because everything came out perfect. I love it when I make a meal that hubby loves and it comes out perfectly, the smile on his face when he enjoys some simple thing I do is priceless.

Last week our favorite grocery store had rib roasts on sale. Normally we don’t get to enjoy this dish too much because of the expense of it but because they had some of them cut into smaller sections (saving me the work of doing it myself) we picked up some. The price was right and the meat looked great in the package.  We decided to have one of them tonight and it was perfect! The meat had a great taste and as we don’t like our meat rare I cooked it to a nice medium, my thermometer registered 130 degrees when I removed it from the oven. It was still a little too big for us so the small piece that was left over was sliced up very thinly on the slicer and being that it wasn’t overcooked it was still moist and juicy, it will be turned  into cheesesteaks for lunch. We get two meals out of this $14 “splurge” and what great meals they are. Remove the meat at least an hour before you want to cook it so it warms up to room temperature.

                                            Small Rib Roast

2 1/2- 3 pound rib roast, trimmed of all but a thin layer of fat

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

1 teaspoon garlic powder or chopped fresh garlic

Remove wrapping from meat and rub all over with the salt, garlic and pepper, let sit for an hour (loosely covered) to come to room temperature. Turn oven to 425 and let preheat. When oven is heated place meat on a rack in a shallow pan and place in oven, insert probe of thermometer into middle of roast and set the alarm on it to the degree of doneness you prefer, place meat into oven with temp alarm outside oven. Roast until the alarm on the thermometer signals proper temp and then turn off oven, remove meat from oven and let sit 10 minutes to stabilize. Cut slices into the thickness you prefer. You can make a very simple sauce for the meat by sauteing a small diced shallot in the drippings in the pan it was roasted in, when they are softened add a cup of hearty red wine or a good shot of sherry and some beef broth and bring to a boil, scrape the pan bottom to loosen the browned bits, when it has come to a rapid boil add a tablesppon of cold butter and whisk into the sauce, pour into a gravy boat and serve alongside the sliced meat.

I posted this when I made it on a yahoo group that I belong to and was told I should also put it up here on my blog. Unfortunately, because I didn’t originally intend to blog about it I didn’t take a picture of it, but the soup came out wonderful and was a nice warming meal with some crusty bread and a salad.

3 beef short ribs on the bone, trimmed of as much fat as possible
6 cups home made beef stock
1/2 cup barley
1 large onion diced
2 stalks celery sliced
4 carrots cleaned and diced
1 package dried mushrooms (I use a .5 ounce pack of porcini or mixed
blend)reconstitue in 1 cup boiling water for 1/2 hour, remove from water and
dice them, strain water and add water to beef broth
14 ounce can diced tomatoes
few grinds fresh pepper
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley added at the end, optional,

2 tablespoons sherry, added at end  optional 

Brown short ribs until they are a nice dark color, I do this right in the PC.
Add the barley and the beef broth, mushrooms,diced tomato, pepper and bay leaf.
Close the PC and set for low pressure, set timer for 30 minutes. At the end of
30 minutes reduce pressure and remove the meat,remove the bones from the meat,
chop the meat and put it back into soup. Add the onion, carrots and celery and
close cover. Set cooker to high pressure and set timer for 5 minutes. When timer
goes off, reduce pressure and remove cover from cooker, add fresh parsley and
sherry if using and remove bay leaf. Taste for seasoning and add more pepper and
some salt if needed. Serve with sour cream on the side.

Here’s another old favorite of our, we haven’t had it for a while so I made it Sunday night. It’s a great dish to make in the pressure cooker but it also comes out great on the stovetop, it just takes longer on the stovetop. It’s a great dish when the weather is cold out and you need something to keep you warm. This dish can be made with any cut of pork, I usually use whatever is either on sale or has the least amount of fat on it. This Sunday I used couontry style pork ribs that were on sale at the local market.

                                              Pork and Saurkraut

1 family size pack of pork country style ribs, or roast about 4 pounds

pepper 

1 Maggi seasoning (optional)

28 ounce can saurkraut

1 medium onion cut into thin slivers

3-4 large red potatoes, washed and cut in half or quarters

1 tablespoon oil

1 teaspoon caraway seeds (optional)

Season pork with the pepper. Put pressure cooker on heat and when hot add the oil, add the pork and brown well on all sides, the browner the better tthe flavor in the finished dish will be but be careful not to burn it. When the pork is all browned add the saurkraut to the top and add 1 cup water along with the juice from the saurkraut and the Maggi seasoning if using. Put the top on the pressure cooker and let it cook at high pressure for 25 minutes, release pressure and then open the pot. Add the potatoes to the pot, pushing down into the saurkraut, put top back on cooker and return to heat, bring to high pressure for 6 minutes, then release pressure and serve. You can also add some caraway seeds to this in the first stage of cooking under pressure, add about 1 teaspoon and mix with the saurkraut.I don’t add salt to this as the saurkraut often has a salty taste on it’s own, if you want to can rinse the saurkraut before using it to lessen the brine and salt.