Thursdays Are For Cooking!
Baby red potatoes
I’ve gone back to basics with the lady whose YouTube site is The Hillbilly Kitchen. Here, she presents her Sunday meal, which we’d have after coming home from church. Now I know I’ve posted this one before, but the Hillbilly Kitchen lady’s methods are likely to be based on recipes handed down and worked on repeatedly to get just the right results. In this “modern age”, where everything is a hustle-bustle and almost a frenzy at times, it is pleasant to be able to just sit quietly and enjoy a good supper with family and friends.
Enjoy it, and take your time at the table with those you care about.
Hillbilly Pot Roast
First is the YouTube video, which is about 38 minutes long. She explains everything and repeats where appropriate. This is the Sunday pot roast my paternal Grandma made and my Dad tried to copy. I miss that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTU7daNkBK0
Note that she does not tell you to “flour” the roast before searing it. That does make a difference, as searing is meant to seal in the flavor, so flouring the roast is not necessary.
Here’s her list of ingredients::
Beef Roast
Carrots (use the baby carrots for this)
Potatoes
Water as needed
1 tablespoon Corn Starch per cup of liquid
Optional Seasonings:
Onion (sliced or chopped)
Peppers
Garlic
Worcestershire Sauce
Mushrooms
Celery
Salt & Pepper
Note:
She’s doing this as a stovetop cookery event with a large deep skillet as the cooking pan. We all have our own methods and utensils, and I would put it in a small oval roasting pan with a lid (yes, you can still get them!) and go do other chores like laundry.
The most important thing to remember is to keep it covered, which keeps the beef moist.
Num Num Num Num!!!!!
Ain’t hardly nothing gooder than a beef beast orasted lowly with some taters, carrots, and ‘shrooms. Mama did the sear and the flour thing, along with the corned starch to help the gravy along. A deep dish ‘lectric skillet works well for this, or the oval pans. She’d do the skillet method if we weren’t having Sunday Company, that way by the time we got changed out of Sunday go to meeting clothes, the oven was warmed up for a pan of them catheaded biskets. If we had Sunday Company, she’d do the slow orast that way we’d stay dressed for and the oven would be already preheated for the cat heads. Which, btw, you forgot to include cat heads or some of that good crusty bread to sop up the gravy with. And yes’sum, I gots me several of them blue oval porcelain orasting pans…in different sizes. With lids.
Got lucky on my provision run yesterday to the K Roger. Bought some grounded chuck beef beast @ $3.99 a lb, chuck orasted beef beast for the same, and some of them Baby Reds on a 2 bags for $5.00 (5lb bags). The crockett pot will be getting intimate with one of them beef beast orasts, baby reds and carrots late this evening (temps are back into the 70s), so they’ll be ready for tomorrow. Some boneless, skinless, chests of yard bird beast for $.99 a lb. I think the yard bird was mis-priced.
Tanks Matey…Let’s eat!
Funnily enough, Missus Hatchet and I picked up a really nice pot roast last weekend and as I recently located my Grandma’s covered oval roasting pan – we’ll definitely give this recipe a try this coming weekend! Thank you, Ex-PH2!
FYI – was going through Momma’s old recipe box the other day and found one of her much-loved chocolate pudding/mousse recipes that she found in a women’s magazine a lot of years ago – just before Christmas she’d got all her baking done and in effort to save a bit more time for our dinner’s desert, she got curious and made it and upon trying it, the entire family fell in love with it. As it was so easy for Momma to make, she made it often. Found the like-kind recipe on Ewe-tube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhYiYwpPhOo
Definitely not all that ‘old fashioned’ but definitely delicious.. Cheers.
For those who like to cook under pressure….
Pot Roast
Ingredients
2 1/2 lbs boneless beef chuck roast (up to 3 lbs
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup dry red wine
2 large Onions cut into large chunks or wedges (about 3 cups)
5 large carrots peeled and cut into 2 inchpieces or2 1/2 cups of baby cut carrots
1 lbs whole baby red potatoes or medium red potatoes cut in half
2 sprigs fresh thyme leaves
1 can Campbell’s® Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup 10 1/2 ounces
Instructions
Cut the beef in half crosswise (for quicker cooking), then season with salt and pepper. On a 6 quart Instant Pot®, select the Saute setting. Heat the oil. Add the beef (in batches, if needed) and cook for 15 minutes or until well browned on all sides. Remove the beef from the pot. Add the wine and cook, stirring to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Press Cancel.
Layer the onions, carrots, potatoes, thyme and beef in the Instant Pot®. Spoon the soup over the beef (the order is important, so don’t stir until after the cooking is done).
Lock the lid and close the pressure release valve. Pressure cook on High pressure, setting the timer to 45 minutes (timer will begin counting down once pressure is reached- it takes about 10 minutes). When done, press Cancel and use the quick release method to release the pressure.
Remove the beef to a serving plate, cover and keep warm. Select the Saute setting and cook the vegetables and gravy for 10 minutes or until the gravy is slightly thickened. Remove and discard the thyme. Season to taste. Slice the beef and serve with the vegetables and gravy.
This recipe is from Campbell’s (hence the mushroom soup) and I have not tried it, but it looks good to me.
I have made other roasts in the pressure cooker, and they come out fast and amazingly tender.
Love those pressure cookers, mine stays on the stove year-round, right next to the crock pot. They save a bundle on utility costs by cutting the cooking time.
The pressure cooker came with a trivet to keep stuff off of the bottom of the pot but I bought one of those stainless steel collapsible vegetable steamer rigs to make sure that the small stuff doesn’t sink to the bottom and get scorched. It’s perfect for making split pea soup from dried beans in about 25 minutes.
I bought the veggie steamer as well. It works great.
The other thing that I bought an used a lot is this thing:
https://www.amazon.com/Aozita-Stackable-Steamer-Instant-Accessories/dp/B071GY3R42
It is a “double stacker” which allows you to cook two things at once. So if you are cooking fish and veggies, you can separate them.
The other thing that it is great for is lasagna as you can make two batches of it at once.
If you have some late tomatoes and want to do something other than fry them, here is a recipe (modified from something I found online) that yields a nice, tangy soup:
Green Tomato and Bacon Soup
1 lb. Sliced bacon cut into 1” lengths
1 yellow onion, diced
1 garlic, diced
18 c green tomatoes, diced
10-12 pods of okra, sliced (optional)
4-5 stems of celery, sliced
4 c water
1 tbsp salt
½ tbsp black pepper
Note: If you get your green tomatoes from a garden, check for bugs and bad spots, and cut them out. Slice the tomato in half, lay each half cut-side down on a cutting board and dice. Then before putting them in the bowl with the others, lay the diced pieces over to check for any bad spots you may have not seen.
Dice the green tomatoes and place them in a bowl to the side. If using okra, add the diced okra to the bowl of green tomatoes.
Put the bacon in a large stock pot over medium heat to cook while dicing the onion, garlic, and celery.
When the bacon is cooked to your satisfaction, add the diced onion, garlic, and celery and sauté until tender. If necessary, add a little olive oil or canola oil to help sauté them.
Stir in the diced green tomatoes and okra, water, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and stir occasionally, cooking for 45 minutes to 1 hour on low heat.
This makes a flavorful tangy soup. It works well served with crumbled corn bread or a crusty French bread.
Divide into containers and freeze for future meals, when the weather is cold and you want something to perk up a meal.
Clarification:
That is one garlic bulb – not one clove of garlic.
Had a friend ask for clarification elsewhere.
Thanks, all of you! Winter is a-comin’ in and the days are so much shorter now, they make me feel tall!
OK, bad pun, but thanks for the feedback and the additional recipes!
Does your stew contain actual hill billies?
*grin*
AKA “mountain goats”?
No, just edibles.