Best Recipe of the Weekend

Hello everyone! So the weekend has come and gone, again. I hope you all had fun! Mine was fairly low key this week, and I loved it. 

Food wise, I didn't do (or make) a lot, however I did consume some very delicious meals. 

Earlier in the weekend I was treated to some incredible late night snacks and bizarre beer at Sugarbowl (one of my favorite spots, ever). On top of the great food, I didn't even have to blog about it! That job was done impeccably by Patrick on his blog, 1hundo.

Later in the weekend I got to enjoy one of the best comfort food meals that have been served in this household for a while. It was so simple, yet so perfect and delicious. The meal consisted of: a beef stew type of thing, mashed potatoes (oozing with melted butter) and caesar salad (home-made dressing, of course).

Mmm, so good.

The beef we used was probably one of the cheapest roast cuts you could buy, however the cooking method made this beef melt in your mouth. It was honestly the most incredible thing I have ever tasted, you could compare the texture of the beef to soft, white bread (that's how tender it was)!

Beef Stewed in Beer with Gravy

1/2 kilo inside round roast, cut into bite size pieces

olive oil

salt and pepper 

garlic

1 can of beer (we used Heineken)

1/4 cup butter

all purpose white flour

Brown the beef stove-top in a large sauce pan or skillet with enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan.

Add in the salt and pepper, and garlic.

Once the beef is nicely browned, pour in your can of beer.

Pop a lid on the pan or saucepan, and let the beef simmer for 2 hours on low to medium low heat.

After 2 hours, make a gravy by melting butter in a separate, small saucepan.

To the melted butter, slowly whisk in flour until you have a nicely thickened sauce (the consistency is up to you and how you like your gravies).

Next, spoon some of the hot cooking liquid from the saucepan containing the beef, into the butter/flour mixture.

Then, when you have a smooth gravy, slowly pour this into the center of the pan containing the beef, stirring quickly.

Only add enough of your gravy mixture as you'd like.

Enjoy!

For the mashed potatoes, a good trick to keep from obtaining "gluey" potatoes is to heat up your milk, butter, cream (or whatever you are adding to your potatoes) before you add it to the potatoes. It really works! You will never have gluey mashed potatoes again.

Real Caesar Salad Dressing

2 egg yolks

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons chopped garlic

4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

3 teaspoons lemon juice

dash of Worcestershire sauce

2 cups olive oil

2 tablespoons warm water, if necessary

1 cup parmesan

Place egg yolks, mustard, anchovies, garlic, vinegar, lemon juice and worcestershire sauce into a bowl or food processor (or magic bullet, in our case).

Mix with a whisk, or blend the ingredients together.

Slowly in a slow pouring stream, add the olive oil until fully incorporated.

If the dressing gets too thick, add warm water and then continue until all the oil is added.

Add parmesan and continue to mix.

Makes 1 1/2 cups of dressing.

The chef was quite pleased with herself about this meal, not a scrape of food was left!

Well, now it's time to get back to working on 1 of my 3 essays due very, very shortly! Enjoy the rest of your Sundays!

xoxo

Mariel