Recipe Notes: Skillet Beef Top Loin Roast with Potatoes

20 January 2019

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, November 2018

The November 2018 issue of Cook's Illustrated has a holiday recipe for Beef Top Loin Roast with Potatoes. NY strip steaks are cut from this roast which is also called a strip roast. It is a well-marbled cut of meat that produces tender steaks. The magazine recipe calls for a five pound roast and includes five pounds of potatoes, enough for a crowd! Fortunately the web site has a recipe for smaller portions which would be more appropriate for the two of us. The roasted potatoes look wonderful and the roast should be similar to a rib roast, which we have enjoyed for special occasion dinners.

The three-pound roast was trimmed, seasoned with salt and pepper, wrapped, and left in the refrigerator over night. Instead of Yukon gold potatoes, which I couldn't find, I used "gold potatoes"; I don't know what the difference might be, if any. These were peeled, the ends removed, and they were cut crosswise into quarters. The roast and trimmings were browned in a skillet. The roast was removed to a plate and the trimmings to a sauce pan. The potatoes were layered in the pan and one side was well browned on the stove top. Removing the skillet from the burner, the potatoes were covered with foil which was perforated. The roast was placed on top of the foil and the skillet placed in a 300° oven and cooked until the beef's temperature reached 115°. Meanwhile, beef broth, fresh rosemary and thyme, gelatin, and garlic were added to the sauce pan with the rendered beef trimmings, brought to a boil, and then passed through a fine mesh strainer producing 2 cups of jus. The beef was removed to rest and the foil was removed from the skillet. The jus was poured around the potatoes which were placed in a 500° oven until the liquid was reduced by half. It took 2½ hours to cook the meat and potatoes.

 

The beef was excellent, tender and well seasoned. The jus was also very good with a delightful flavor from the thyme and rosemary. The potatoes, however, were disappointing. They were not done, were a little tough, and the browned ends didn't add much to their flavor or texture. As leftovers they had a somewhat rubbery consistency. I don't know if the problem with the potatoes was undercooking or something to do with the variety of potatoes that I used. I don't know if I'll make this again. The beef and jus were very good but the roast potatoes were not. There are other roast beef recipes that work just as well so why go to the trouble of roasting the potatoes if they are not going to work out.

Recipe Notes: Applesauce

14 January 2019

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, September 2018

Looking back through my blog posts, I find many where I describe making applesauce. With just a few exceptions this was done without using a recipe and it usually comes out fine. A recent edition of Cook's Illustrated included an intriguing new recipe. Not only does it incorporate the peels and cores, but more importantly it works with almost any variety of apples and it does not call for any tools (e.g. food mill) that I do not have. It also allows you to create a chunkier applesauce, which I prefer, that a food mill would produce.

I used 3 pounds of Gala apples. These were peeled and cored. The peels and cores were placed in a small sauce pan with water and simmered, with occasional mashing, until the cores broke down, about 15 minutes. The peeled apples were quartered and cooked in a sauce pan with water,  salt, sugar, and cinnamon until half of the pieces were broken down. The cooked apples were mashed. The cooked peels and cores were placed in a fine mesh strainer and the pulp was pushed into the mashed apples. From start to finish took 50 minutes. I expect the cooking time will vary significantly based on the variety of apples that are used.

This process resulted in a very nice apple sauce. The peels and cores added flavor and color. The sauce was well balanced, not too sweet and not too tart. When using tarter apples you could add some additional sugar. The applesauce kept well in the refrigerator and I had it with lunches and dinner for over a week. It is a little more work than usual but using the recipe led to a good applesauce, worth the small amount of extra effort.

Recipe Notes: Fresh Lime Pie

15 January 2019

Recipe from The Cook's Illustrated Baking Book, 2013,  p. 403, also available online.

The recipe in the cookbook is for "Key Lime Pie", but since it doesn't use Key Limes, I changed the name. In developing the recipe, America's Test Kitchen tried Key Limes and regular limes and found there was no significant difference in taste. Since Key Limes are hard to find, expensive, and hard to work with, they created this recipe using regular (or Persian) limes. 

The filling was made first and it requires no cooking. Egg yolks and lime zest were whisked together. A can of sweetened condensed milk was whisked into the mixture followed by lime juice. The acid in the juice is all that is needed to cause the custard to set. The change in texture was visible within minutes. Following a tip in the cookbook, the limes were juiced efficiently using a potato ricer. While the filling sets, the graham cracker crust was made. Graham crackers were ground in a food processor into fine crumbs. Some melted butter and sugar were mixed with the crumbs and the mixture pressed into a pie pan baked. When it was done, the thickened filling was added to the warm crust and the completed pie was put back into the oven to complete the cooking. The finished pie was refrigerated before serving. This was a very simple pie to make with a relatively small number of ingredients and no tricky steps. From starting to removing the pie from the oven was just 90 minutes.

This was a good pie, and easy to make. Not surprisingly it tastes similar and has a similar texture to pies made with lemon custard. It was good both on the day it was made and on days afterwards. Simple to make, good to eat, this pie is worth having again.

Recipe Notes: Easy black bean soup with kielbasa

13 January 2019

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated All Time Best Soups, 2016, p. 33

The recipe in the book is "easy black bean soup with chorizo". I substituted kielbasa for the chorizo because it is familiar and a sausage that we have often for dinner. I am not familiar with the various kinds of chorizo that are available in the market and when we've had them in the past they were usually too spicy for our tastes. Thus to be on the safe side I made the substitution.

This was an easy soup to make, taking just over an hour to finish. Most of the hands-on work comes from preparing the ingredients before starting the cooking. Canned black beans and chicken broth were processed in a food processor and set aside. In a Dutch oven, kielbasa, chopped onion, and chopped bell pepper were cooked in oil until lightly browned. Garlic, oregano, cumin, and chili powder were added and cooked for about 30 seconds. Additional broth was added with the processed beans and additional whole canned black beans. After simmering for about 15 minutes fresh cilantro was added.

This was very much a black bean soup with the legume dominating the flavor. If you like black beans it is likely you will like this soup. The kielbasa didn't add much in terms of either flavor or texture. The soup was okay, both freshly made and as a left over, but with many home made soups that are better, we probably will not make this one again.