Happy New Year!

Jump to Comments

So lets begin by wishing A Happy New Year to all, here’s hoping 2009 is going to be a good year.

Image Courtesy of Google Images

Although I was late (by a couple of days due to work commitments) cooking our New Years dinner of rib roast beef and all the trimmings I have to say it was a true delight. There’s something about a ‘Sunday Lunch’ style meal that warms the soul and makes me feel like a truly competent cook, mostly that’s due to the precision timings needed but anyhow it’s such a good feeling and a joy of a meal to boot so what more could I want? 

The fact it was a rib of beef made the occasion that wee bit more special, under everyday circumstances rib is a tad too expensive so I tend to go for topside when I do a roast but for welcoming in the New Year I went for that little something more extravagant.

Even in its raw state the beef looked delicious, but cooked oh my goodness me it was pure gorgeous.

Served with glazed roast carrots, onions and parsnips, roast spuds, mashed spuds, sprouts and broccoli, with a port gravy it was food for the Gods, pure ambrosia.

Ever the frugal cook, not something I’m ashamed to say at all, sure all the best cooks know how to make the most of their leftovers don’t they. In these times of the credit crunch any frugality in the kitchen must surely be of use, and on top of that I read a rather dreadful statistic earlier in The New English Table (Rose Prince), the average UK person throws away £400 worth of food away each year! Isn’t that shocking? Makes you think doesn’t it.

Other that the ribs bones and a few scraps of fat nothing was thrown away here! I made a Cottage Pie with all goodies I had remaining and a couple of extras out of the vegetable box and store cupboard too. I haven’t a true recipe to write out as such, so I’ll share my notes with you here. Basically I finely chopped one onion which I then fried in a little beef dripping, to that I add the roast vegetables (not the potatoes though) which I’d also finely chopped and sweated them down so they were tender. Then I added the left over beef in small cubes, one teaspoon of tomato paste and, 500ml of beef stock (made with the rib bone and some root vegetables — see here for how to make stock) the left over gravy and a teaspoon of dried parsley. Allow this to simmer gently for around two hours before topping with either a plain mashed potato topping or as I did a swede and potato mash, this then needs to be baked for around 30 minutes at 180C or the equivalent or until the crust is golden and the centre piping hot. For me no further accompaniment is needed other than maybe some buttery peas.

7 Comments

Filed under Meat, Sides