Pot Roast goodness August 2, 2009
Posted by faranaaz in Food, Games, Life.Tags: cooking, guitar hero, pot roast, Xbox 360
7 comments
Today I cooked a pot roast. I’ve been wanting to make a pot roast for years on end and just never got around to it. Pot roast is something that always looks great on tv and in pictures, and that always tastes great when other people make it but it’s just not something that we do in my family. In fact, I think we’ve had pot roast exactly once in the Ismail household.
So yesterday when we were at Sookh — the new halaal deli/butchery on Corlett Drive opposite Melrose Arch — I thought, right, time to do this pot roast thing. Of course, a roast leg of lamb is just not practical for two people so I opted for one of thos sirloin roll thingumies. Then, a quick phonecall to my cousin for some instruction and we were off.
For those of you who are interested, here’s how.
Put some oil in a pot, add a quatered onion, a clove of garlic and some peppercorns. Then add the meat and brown everything on high for a bit. Fill the pot about halfway with boiling water, turn the heat down to low-medium, and just let it cook itself for a few hours, with the lid on but open a crack. Check back every hour or so to make sure its not dried up. Top up as necessary.
With a normal leg of lamb this could take 8 to 12 hours apparently, but my little sirloin roll was only about the length and width of my forearm, it only took about four and half hours.
At the end, add a crack of pepper and salt (to taste), and a dash of Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce. Let it cook in a bit, and that’s it. Serve with veges galore!
I made steamed carrots, peas and broccoli and some some herby, garlic butter new potatoes.
End result — Sunday lunch bliss! I spent the entire meal congratulating myself. In the end, decided that we need to make this pot roast thing a monthly Team Parker tradition.
That was pretty much the highlight of my Sunday. The rest was spent running errands, most of it centred around buy Guitar Hero at last — woohoo! And of course, playing guitar hero. For some reason I always end up on drums but that’s okay, it’s still fun.
I now have way too many games to keep up with. Fallout3 is shelved for the timebeing, E and I haven’t gotten around to playing Mercenaries much lately, then there’s Prototype which is still undone (bloody slowest game ever!) not to mention the new Gears of War 2 map-packs with the extra campaign chapter. Then there’s Unreal Tournament 3 which the guys are playing online now (I expect to get slaughtered when I finally join that one) and somewhere in the recesses of my mind, Oblivion is still awaiting completion!
So much to play, so little time. I haven’t even gotten to the stack of books and comics on my bedside table. Or the series and movies I have to catch up on.*sigh*
Oh, another valuable thing I learned this weekend. Reading in the bath should be reserved for trashy magazines, for steam will wrinkle your good books!
The mystery of the curious fridge contents April 1, 2008
Posted by faranaaz in Life.Tags: cooking, mystery
4 comments
So in search of munchies, I opened the fridge, not expecting much except week old, leftover blueberries, crushed garlic, milk, and an assortment of condiments. Instead, I was surprised to find this curious cooking implement.
Sameer has taken the 5th.
My kingdom for a kitchen February 19, 2008
Posted by faranaaz in Food.Tags: cooking, food, Wolfson College
4 comments
I had to go to the dining hall tonight to get dinner. Sameer went to Enterprise Tuesday so he at least was saved.
You know, I’ve gotten over my initial reactions to Wolfson food. First it was alright, then it was bad, then – surpisingly – it actually got to be pretty good. For the past two weeks or so it’s been generally alright. Downright tasty at times. I just figure, well you know – every cook has their ups and downs. It’s no reflection on the overall quality of the food. But today. People, today was just scraping the bottom of the barrel.
My favourite (that was my sarcastic voice) Spaghetti Vegenaise. The other option was Thai Pork Curry so there wasn’t really an alternative. Now, as anyone who’s randomly dropped into our house may know, I make Spaghetti Blogonaise at least once a week. This is because you can cook it in 15 minutes flat and its really, really hard to screw up. All you need is tin of tomato and onion mix, a bit of fresh garlic, some coriander, and chillies. All other spices, strictly optional. And it always satisfies.
So I get my Venegaise and sit down. It looks alright, nice red color. I won’t deny it, I was fooled by the color. You see lovely rich colors and you think “Hmmm, spicey!” Well…
The Vegenaise consists of tomato and (I presume) onion but the bulk of it is made up by red lentils and soya mince. No train smash there. I myself have cooked tomato based vegetarian pasta with red lentils before. It does serve to bulk up your sauce.
But people, there is simply no excuse for the sheer lack of flavour that I encountered. I sat down and tasted – nothing. Well, salt tends to bring out the flavour in food, so I sprinkled on some salt. Nothing. More salt. Still nothing. Well, then I went the whole hog and sprinkled liberally with salt, pepper, and Tabasco sauce. Of course, that just made it taste like salt, pepper, and Tabasco sauce.
Mystified, I bent my head down to the plate to inhale the food smell, try to get the aroma. Aroma is the litmus test of food. Food – good or bad – can be tasted simply by leaning forward and taking a good, long sniff through the nostrils. I know this is a horrible thing to say but when I was working at HomeChoice on a Saturday morning, fasting, and everyone around me was eating McDonalds, people would say “Aren’t you getting lus?” and I’d say “No, I’m tasting it right now.” You know it’s true! How many of you have come home from work or campus during Ramadaan, gone into the kitchen, opened up the pots, leaned forward and ….. inhaled the food. It’s either just enough to satisfy you or to drive you absolutely mad.
When I leaned over my plate of food at dinner tonight I smelled absolutely nothing. Nothing!
“How?” I ask you. How on earth do you cook a meal that smells like nothing, tastes like nothing?!
I was sitting there, pushing bits of lentils and soy around thinking “By G_D I bet I can cook a Vegenaise better than this!”
Some braised onions, green peppers, mushrooms and the secret ingredient GARLIC!!! It is not so hard! What do people here have against garlic? Some fresh, crushed garlic would breath life into that food.
Oh Lord! I’m on a mission. It has never occurred to me to cook a vegetarian bolognese. I like my beef mince. I enjoy it so much I cook it every week! But now I have to do it. I have to cook a meatless bolognese because I have to prove that it can be done! Prove that there is nothing inherently tasteless about Vegenaise, about red lentils and soya. It is not impossible!
