It has been 6 months since I last had a Roast Beef dinner, and it is still one of the few things I miss about the UK! (which I have not visited for nearly 13 years).
Our emailed confirmation- very impressive
My Pinoy OFW friend MK and I had a superb Roast Meal one Sunday night in February at the Nine Gastropub at the amazing Sofitel Obelisk in Dubai (where I had 3 meals in total on my last visit to the UAE). From the online reservation system to being personally served by Chef Michael O'Shea the whole experience was amazing. The Sunday Roast lunches came with red cabbage, carrots and roast parsnips, roast potatoes, gravy and cauliflower cheese croquettes and Yorkshire Pudding!
You can read more about my experience at The Nine in my earlier blog by clicking the link below:
https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/2022/02/tbk-eats-part-nine-nine-sofitel-obelisk.html
My Yorkshire pudding recipe
So, I decided to have a British Roast week to celebrate the start of the BER months and my imminent 62 nd Birthday. One cannot eat a roast alone, so I invited some friends and dug out my recipes! Next, I contacted my procurement advisors and Chef Arnel announced that I could get a joint of Beef in the local wet market in the city (Old Public market) and Horseradish Sauce from Bruno Deli (In fact I found it at Puerto Deli!). Thanks for the advice, Chef and congratulations on the excellent new menu at your flagship restaurant, Senordamla at the Microtel where Chester (the dawg) and I had a great Chicken curry by the sea recently!
Watching the sun go down from Senordamla Restaurant run by Chef Arnel
To find out more about Senordamla click on this link:
Senordamla Restaurant by Chef Arnel
One of my favourite vegetables is Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage (a Julia Child recipe) which my brother, Andrew, gave me many years ago. If you have not heard of Julia Child, she is an amazing lady about whom you can read more here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Child
I am forever grateful for my brother for introducing me to her recipes and sending me her wonderfully detailed and illustrated 1970 Recipe book back on 18th September 2016.
So here is the Sweet and Sour Red cabbage recipe from my 2014 Recipe book:
Julia Child’s sweet and sour red cabbage (serves four)
My sweet and sour red cabbage made in Awali , Bahrain
Ingredients
1 medium sized Spanish onion
1.5 oz/42-gram butter
2 large cloves of garlic minced or pureed
20 oz /567 grams thinly shredded red cabbage
Half a teaspoon of salt
Several grinds of black pepper
4 oz/113 grams red wine
1 medium apple, peeled and grated
1 tablespoon of water
4oz /113 grams water
Method
Sauté the onion slowly in butter, along with the garlic. Add the cabbage and other ingredients. Toss and turn, cover pan and boil rather hard for about 10 minutes, tossing occasionally and adding water if it has all boiled away. Taste and correct the seasoning. You can precook this and heat it up if you prefer. Being an ardent environmentalist, I store the food in used ice cream and yogurt pots, but you must take it out of these to reheat.
I also used another of my brothers' recipes to make the bread sauce to go with the Roast Chicken. This recipe dates back to 2007 when it appeared in the Daily Telegraph (from which Andrew sent me the cutting!)
Bread sauce
Ingredients:
1 medium onion peeled and studded with 6 cloves
2 bay leaves
A pinch of
nutmeg or mace
500 ml milk
125 g freshly
made large breadcrumbs from a day-old loaf of good white bread
100ml double
cream or 50 g butter
Method:
Put the onion, bay leaves, spice, salt and pepper and the milk in a small saucepan and bring almost to the boil. Turn off the heat, cover and leave to stand for at least 20 minutes. Strain the milk, add the breadcrumbs, stir and bring almost to the boil. Simmer on a very low heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add more breadcrumbs if too thin or more milk if too thick. Stir in the cream or butter, or a bit of both. Some people add cayenne pepper for a bit of colour but this strikes me as gilding the lily. The bread must always be white and at least a day old.
Serves 4- 5
Bread sauce cooked on my old stove in Awali, Bahrain
Finally, I made another favourite Vegetable (also in my 2014 Recipe book):
Roasted parsnips and sweet carrots (serve six)
Ingredients
6 peeled parsnips
Small
bunch of fresh thyme
3
tablespoons olive oil
2
tablespoons runny honey
1
pound/ 450 grams carrots trimmed
and halved
1
oz/ 30 grams butter
Pinch
of cumin
The wonderful huge carrots and parsnips Jhoanna got form the market
Method
2.
Cut the parsnips into quarters lengthways and
add to a pan of boiling water for 4-5 minutes
3.
Using a pestle and mortar bash the thyme, add
the olive oil and honey and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
4.
Drain the parsnips and toss with the
flavoured oil. Roast in the oven for 25 minutes until crisp
5.
Get a pan big enough to hold the carrots in
one layer and add just enough water to cover them
6.
Add the butter and a good pinch of sea salt
7.
Cook for about 15 minutes until the water has
evaporated
8.
Mix the parsnips and carrots together in a
serving dish
9.
If you want more flavour serve with a pinch
of cumin and the pan juices.
So that is the vegetables all sorted for my two roasts. I peeled
and parboiled potatoes and then roasted them alongside the Roast Chicken and
Beef
I also made gravy, and this time I did not cheat!
I found this really good recipe for cooking the beef and making gravy online at:
https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/roast_beef/
For the Roast Chicken:
https://www.inspiredtaste.net/895/simply-roasted-chicken/itr_print/
"Tell us a story, Mr P"
" OK Phil"
Back in 2014 I met a young man called Jeboy who was then working in Kuwait, and he told me he was having a home vacation. Usually an OFW (Overseas Philippino worker) will work a renewable 2-year contract and be given a fight home at the end of the two years. He will be given 2 weeks holiday after one year but no flight. As most OFW send all their money home ( Jeboy was funding the building of a new home for his family), so the home leave means sleeping, doing the washing, cleaning etc. (they usually have 6 guys in a room in bunk beds (or double Deckers as the Pinoys call them). I felt sorry for Jeboy and had some work that needed doing so agreed to pay for his flight to Bahrain, his visa and hotel in return for him wrapping presents for my work (30!) and looking and typing my recipe book. He did a great job, and we are still friends now, 6 years later. I visited him in Kuwait and then several times in Dubai where he works for the Cheesecake Factory.
When he was typing my Roast Chicken Recipe, he could not believe
that we only put packet stuffing mix (e.g., sage and onion). I asked what
they did in the Philippines, and he explained they fill the chicken cavity
with lemongrass, onion and other ingredients to add flavour to the
chicken. So, we bought two chickens and made one his way and one my way! We
then added both recipes to the recipe book, and here I will share them
with you!
Roasted Herb Chicken
Preparation time: 20-25minutes.
Cooking time: 1 hr. and 10 minutes
Serves 4 Phillipino’s or two Westerners!
Ingredients:
1 whole chicken, fresh and cleaned
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 spice mix. (Chili powder, garlic powder, cumin powder, ginger powder),
measured and mix altogether, assume the measurement of each ingredient is good
for the whole chicken
1 tablespoon dried ground coriander
1 teaspoon rosemary leaves, dried
1 teaspoon thyme leaves, dried
The Chicken I roasted at the Blue House, the first one I roasted here
Method:
1.
Clean the chicken and cut into half but do not cut through on
the breast part to form a butterfly when it’s done. The reason is to make the
chicken cook easily and evenly. Set aside.
2.
In the sheet pan put the prepared chicken ready for dredging.
Dredge all ingredients all around the chicken by the use of hands, except the 4-spice mix, as it will be done after putting some of the ingredients. Follow the
same procedure on putting the last spices. Set aside and leave it for 10
minutes to absorb the flavour from all the spices.
3.
While waiting to rich the minimum limit of marinating the
chicken. Preheat the oven into 250-300 degrees Fahrenheit. Be sure the oven is
hot enough before putting the chicken.
4.
When done, put the chicken inside the oven and cook for a
maximum of 1 hour and 10 minutes. Time of cooking will be extended if the
chicken is not cooked in its estimated time. Check after 30 minutes and flip it
to cook the breast side up. Continue cooking until done.
5.
Serve hot. Serve with
mashed potatoes or sautéed vegetables.
Chicken A la Jeboy
A Filipino dish from my friend Jeboy cooked his specialized Native
way.
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: Boiling water: 20-30 minutes, Deep fryer: 20-30 minutes
Serves 4 Filipinos or 2 Westerners
Ingredients:
1 whole chicken, fresh and cleaned
1 ½ tablespoon rock salt
2 stalks lemon grass
1 piece lemon, squeezed of juice
2 teaspoon black peppercorn, broken
2 stalk green onion, (spring onion) cleaned and with the root removed
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
4 cups water
Method:
1.
Season the chicken with salt and dredging all over and put
salt and some peppercorn inside the chicken. Set aside.
2.
Stuff the lemon grass, mash the stalk a little bit so as to
absorb the flavour by the chicken while boiling. Put the sliced onion and green
onion inside. Set aside.
3.
In a pot, put the chicken, water and the rest of peppercorn.
Boil until 20-30 minutes until medium rare. Simmer in a medium heat.
4.
When done, remove the chicken from the put and in the
colander and allow to drain the excess stock. Reserve the chicken stock from
the pot for the thickened sauce. Set aside for 10 minutes.
5.
In a shallow deep pan or pot, heat the oil in a medium high
flame. When it’s hot enough, put the chicken and fry to its estimated time or
until golden brown. When time is done, remove from the pan hang breast side
down. And allow the oil to drain. Serve hot with mashed potato and prepared
thickened sauce. (See below)
Garlic- lemon Infused sauce with Lemon Grass (for the chicken)
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons of cornstarch
4-5 tablespoon water
1 ½ tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 stalk lemon grass, chopped
1-piece American lemon, squeeze off- juice needed.
2-3 cups chicken stock
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoon olive oil
Method:
1.
In a bowl, soak the chopped lemon grass and the lemon juice
and its piece and mix it up. Set aside for 5 minutes to have the juices absorbs
the lemon grass aroma. Squeeze it also.
2.
Heat a saucepan in low medium heat and sauté garlic until
light golden. Remove the juices from the bowl, separate it through strainer.
Set aside.
3.
Pour on to the pan and simmer for 10 minutes and season with
salt and pepper. Leave for a minute and mix up the cornstarch, curry powder,
sugar, chili powder and water in a small mixing bowl and mix it thoroughly.
4.
Pour the stock to saucepan and allow to boil. Check the taste
and pour in the thickening mixture. Simmer for 5 minutes until the sauce
thickens.
5.
Remove from the heat and serve to the chicken on the side.
Serve hot.
Well, that's all from me- I have added a picture below of the Roast Beef meal here at the Blue House. As usual thanks to Jhoanna for getting all the ingredients!
Ingats
My Roast Beef Dinner - Monday 12.9.22
Hello, I am The British Kabayan! Feel free to read my stories.
No comments:
Post a Comment