The Beginning

Hi! My first post on my blog. Let the bells ring out! My purpose for this blog is to write about one of my favorite things: cooking! I'll write about restaurants I've been to around the Northern VA area, and about cooking techniques I've learned, and about myself and cooking. I plan to update once a week. If anyone has a suggestion or hint, please let me know.

This blog is inspired by Food Network's show Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives with Guy Fieri. He goes around sampling food in out of the way places. My partner and I drive around NoVa a lot and have run into some really fun places to eat, so this will be based on that show. I hope it will be as fun for you as it has been for us.

Since I don't have a picture of a restaurant yet, this first post I'm going to tell you about a cooking technique that I learned about last year. It's called Slow/Low. It means to cook at a low temperature for a long time. Cook slowly at a low temp. Mostly this technique is used for beef, but can be adapted for fowl or pork. By cooking at a low temp, the outside of the meat forms a crust which seals in the juices. Leaving the meat at that temp for several hours brings it to an amazingly flavorful and juicy state. The basic recipe follows but can be adapted for whatever is needed.

Select a good roast of beef. I usually use one of the round cuts. It's going to cook for about 90 minutes per pound, so plan some time for this.

Thickly slice some potatoes, onions, mushrooms, celery, and carrots and place in a deep baking dish. Sprinkle the vegetables with coarse salt, pepper, and chopped garlic. Put 1 cup of water or beef stock or red wine (good enough for drinking, always cook with wine you would drink) in the baking dish. Season the roast with salt and pepper and place on top of the vegetables.

Preheat your oven to 250 and place baking dish in the center of the oven. Lower the temp to 170-200 (whichever your oven will sustain) and leave the roast alone. Try to avoid the temptation of looking.

Once the roast is done, turn off the oven and take the roast out of the oven and put it on an oven safe plate or another roasting dish. Put the roast back in the oven, and put the vegetables and juices in a bowl large enough to hold them. Using a potato masher, mash the vegetables as finely as possible. Strain the vegetables reserving all the liquids. Put the vegetables in a blender and grind as finely as possible. Strain all the juices out of the vegetables. Put the liquid in a pan and add beef stock or wine to make three cups. Bring it to a simmer and reduce by half. This sauce will be used to flavor the sliced meat.

Remove the roast from the oven and slice as thinly or thickly as desired. Return any juices to the sauce for added flavor. Serve with any side dishes you like, using the vegetable sauce as a gravy or sauce for the meat and sides as desired.

Trust me, this makes an amazing roast of beef.

Till next time, enjoy!!