Favourite things

These are a few of my favourite things

Coddlers

By now you know I love to coddle. While this entry will be devoted more to the kitchen gear that has helped me most in transitioning, my little coddlers are things I discovered during my marriage and have brought with me into my new, downsized world.

They meet one of the most important criteria of bachelor food - scaleability. I currently have four one-egg coddlers. Cooking four eggs takes no extra time than cooking one, no extra cooktop space, and very little extra cleaning up. It is also very easy to manage different likes - more spicy, less spicy; harder, softer etc.
I had a very pleasant late breakfast this Sunday, with two slices of toast drizzled with olive oil (I use olive oil instead of butter in all my sandwiches etc - it tastes nicer, and its cholesterol is of the Good variety).

The eggs were flavoured with salt and sliced chili. Lovely and warm.

Now on to my bachelor purchases...

Rice steamer

This has been extremely handy, and takes the worry out of rice. I use basmati rice, as it has a fantastic flavour and has a good GI (Glycemic Index), 1 cup of rice with 1.5 water; 2 cups rice 3 cups water etc, etc...

Once it's done, it keeps the rice nice and warm and fluffy. Another big advantage for the down-sized is that it frees up cooktop space for my wok. And speaking of which...

Carbonized steel wok

You can get expensive stainless steel, or non-stick, ceramic coated etc versions of this, but why would you?

Here's how to properly season a wok. This is Poh's version, who has a lovely smile and a great set (bachelors can say these things). I did this on my gas barbecue with my boys one weekend, and it was great fun. And speaking of which...

Gas barbecue

I have a small courtyard - so there's a big BBQ in it. Because of this, I get more use out of the outdoor area. The same would go if I had only a small balcony (and a small BBQ). It gets me outside - and it cooks me great meals. There's not much you can't cook on a good BBQ, even dessert. I make a very tasty scorched fruit and icecream dessert which I'll get round to posting eventually.

Mostly, but not exclusively, barbecues are for quick, intense activity style cooking, pretty much the opposite of the slow cooker. And speaking of which...

Slow cooker
Like the rice cooker, the humble crockpot takes pressure of precious cook-top space. It is not so much a time-saving device as a time-distributing device.

Most roast and casserole meals should include browning the meat (and often the vegetables too) in a pan on a high heat, before consigning it to its slow cooked fate.

Slow cooking needs to be done over a whole day - for cook times five hours or less, don't bother - use a casserole dish or stewing pot. The slow-cookers best work happens between the 5 and 7 hour mark.

I have an oval shaped one rather than a circular, as it's more versatile, being able to handle roasts and joints etc.

Brisket roast - used, then rebranded

So many of the tastiest cuts of beef are the cheapest ones. With beef in particular, there is always a trade-off between tenderness and taste. Let me introduce you to the Brisket - one of the tastiest cuts of all, and cheap as cheap.
The point end brisket is what you ask the butcher for. Generally it's about 2 kilograms, but can be more. You want the whole thing - and it wants you.

What you get is a boneless slab of meat that, cooked long and low, makes the tastiest roast, with leftovers that make excellent sandwiches and rebranding.

This week's roast fed me and my two boys two main meals and two lunches. The second meal (which we ate last night) was a very successful piece of meal rebranding.

I have a slow cooker, which I love, and which uses much, much electricity than an oven. If you're using an oven, you will need a roasting pan with a good heavy lid that seals properly.

Recipe: Rolled roast brisket.

Ingredients

• Cooking string
• Tip end brisket
• Rosemary
• Salt
• Pepper
• 2 Lemons
• Garlic clove
• 2 Onions
• Half cup red wine
• Olive oil

Method

• Chop rosemary and combine with juice of one lemon, crushed garlic, salt, pepper and about 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Rub the marinade onto the brisket all over.
• Cut three or four pieces of kitchen string about 30 cm each.
• To tie the rolled up beef, any old knot will do, but here is how you tie the very simple and handy butcher's knot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW5mZD2kBEU&feature=youtube_gdata_player
• Place the beef flat on a tray or clean bench, and roll from the pointy end, with with the rough side of the beef in the inside of the roll. Tie with the lengths of string about 3 cm apart. Cover and place in fridge overnight. It's really good if you can marinate the beef, but even if you can't you will still have a beautiful tender roast.
• Preheat oven to 110 degrees.
• Peel and quater onions, leaving enough for the woody end above the roots to hold the onion together. Wash and quater the remaining lemon.
• Pour off excess marinade into a pan with extra olive oil. Bring pan to high heat and sear all around. Remove to a roasting pan (or place in your slow cooker). 
• Now sear the onion and lemon quarters. Place these in the pan too. Add wine to pan to pick up all the pan flavours, and pour into roasting tray (or slow cooker). Cook covered for 7 hours.

When I use my slow cooker, this leaves my oven free to roast the veggies in a conventional way. If you're using the oven to roast the beef, that's ok. Bring out the covered tray and let it rest, pop up the heat, roast your veggies, and by the time they are ready, your roast will be rested, warm, juicy, and ready to carve.

You will also have about 4 cups of very good beef stock. 1 cup for gravy, the rest for the freezer.

On Thursday I made this with roast potatoes, carrots, oinions, pumpkin and turnips. And some steamed silver-beet.

The boys weren't too keen on the turnip and would only eat one small piece each. Last night, they ate the rest.

Recipe rebranding

Last night I retrieved the leftover veggies (including leftover silver-beet) from the fridge, ready to do a little re-branding. I chopped and mashed them up and put them in a layer in a roasting dish. Diced the roast beef and collected the jelly juices, and placed them on top of the veggie layer. Covered it, and put it in the oven at 100 degrees.

While this was warming, I steamed 1 cup of basmati rice with 1.5 cups of water and .5 cup of my all purpose tomato salsa. In 45 minutes, the rice had absorbed the moisture, and the colour and flavour of the salsa.

Raised the oven temperature to 200 degrees. Removed the roasting dish, and place the rice in a thick layer on top. Popped it back in the oven to get nice and crunchy on top, which takes about 10 minutes.

Then it was ready to serve - a rich red-brown and crisp on top, and juicy and sweet in the middle.

The whole thing got eaten, including all that rejected turnip from the night before.

Re-heat or rebrand?

"Cook once, eat twice" is a truism of bachelor foodism. Personally, I find eating the same meal twice in a row a rather glum experience. But that's what the freezer is for, I hear you say. True. But a diet of frozen meals? Now we're back to glum.

What the freezer is really good for is sauces and stocks. Long live the good old standby! Long live it I say!

Last week my boys asked for pillow pasta, their preschool name for ravioli. With carrots and green beans in the crisper, and my all purpose tomato salsa in the freezer, it was worth a quick dash to the deli for a veal-stuffed version of one of their all time favourites.

(No, I am not so evolved as to make my own ravioli - but my time will come, oh yes. It will come.)

A little plastic punnet of tomato salsa is a pasta sauce, great with pan-fried fish fillets, a pizza topping (defrost it, roll the dough, and the kids will do the rest), and a very tasty addition to a pan of roast veggies. Or just as a condiment.

This is where rebranding comes in. Say I've got slices of beef and a plate of veggies left over from the previous night's roast roll of brisket? Steaming up some rice, stirring in 2 tablespoons of salsa, reheating the veggies in an oven proof bowl, topping with the rice them popping in the oven to brown the rice for a few minutes while you reheat the roast beef. Now we have last night's meal fresh and rebranded, and good to go.

So here it is, good old standby number one.

All purpose tomato salsa.
(Yields about 6 cups)

Ingredients

• 2 medium onion
• 1 clove garlic
• .5 teaspoon sugar
• 6 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tin tomato
• 4 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon capers
• .5 cup vegetable stock
• .5 cup red wine
• pinch: oregano, pepper, salt

Method

1. Finely chop onions. In a sauce pan, heat oil on low heat. Add onions, minced garlic and pepper.
2. Sauté at least 10 minutes, more if you have the time.
3. Add the rest of the soft ingredients and bring to boil.
4. Simmer at least one hour, two is best. Stir every now and then, squishing the chunkier bits agains the side of the pan
5. Let cool at little, then push through strainer.

I have to admit that I don't always proceed through step 5. A little chunky or pureed, either way it's good.