Many of the recipes I’ve made have several things in common, they taste great, but they aren’t necessarily good for you.  The next recipe, fatted potatoes, is a breakfast recipe that is prepared the night before.  Traditionally, the recipe called for the potatoes to be poached  in lard before cooking, but I like using the left over potatoes in this manner.  The recipe comes in two parts – the dinner the night before (pot roast) and the morning after (fatted potatoes).

Night Before Ingredients:
3 Lb chuck roast
2 TB olive oil
4 lb red potatoes, washed and cut into quarters
1 large leek, diced
3 large carrots, diced
1 sprig of rosemary
4 cloves of garlic minced
sea salt and pepper to taste

Like making pot roast, you will want to sear both sides of the chuck roast to seal in the juices.  Once browned, add enough water to cover the roast and let cook for about 45 minutes on medium stove top heat.  Add the vegetables and the spices and continue to cook.  If the water begins to evaporate, add some more, but no more than a 1/2 a cup at a time.  Cook until carrots are tender.  Pull the meat from the pot and half of the vegetables and serve.  The remaining veggies should be pulled and placed into a sealed container with enough of the pot roast broth to cover.  Cool overnight for the fatted potatoes.

Fatted Potato Ingredients:
Left over potatoes and carrots
1 lb of thick cut bacon
sea salt and pepper to taste

Cut up the bacon into 2 inch slices and begin cooking them in a deep fry pan or dutch oven.  While the bacon is cooking, strain the leftover vegetables so that only the vegetables are left.  Once the bacon is half cooked, add the potatoes.  Stir occassionally.  Be careful, not to break apart the potatoes too much, as it will create a mess and not be visually appealing.

Once the bacon is done and the potatoes are heated, remove from the heat and serve.  I recommend serving with biscuits or toast!

Tags: cooking, Food, historical cooking, recipe

Before people get the wrong idea, spitted beef is cooked on a spit.  Several weekends ago, the community kitchen aptly named the “Family Table” at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, prepard a beef shoulder and slow cooked it on a spit.

The meat was so well received, we are posting the recipe here:

Ingredients:
Beef shoulder or large rump roast (the one we used was 14 lbs)
2 TB olive oil
sea salt
black pepper
4 cloves of garlic, minced
4 sprigs of rosemary, minced
spit or rotisserie

Cut up the beef so that its size is evenly distributed on the spit or rotisserie.  Once on the spit, blend the olive oil, minced garlic, and minced rosemary to form a rough paste.  Massage the paste liberally onto the beef.  Sprinkle salt and pepper and begin cooking in on a medium heat. If you are blessed and own an automatic or electric rotisserie, follow the directions for cooking a beef roast.  If you are cooking it over a fire, as we had, you will want to turn the beef a 1/3 to a half a turn every 15-20 minutes.

Depending on how well you would like the meat cooked will determine the length on the spit.  We cooked our 14 lbs roast for 3 hours and had a medium to medium well roast.  The ends will always be well done.

I personally like this dish served with grilled asparagus, but everyone has their own way of preparing and serving the meal.

Tags: cooking, Food, recipe

Festive holidays bring friends and family together.   In my household, holidays also mean feasts.  Below is a recipe I used for cooking turkey.  This past weekend, we did a unique twist to the recipe and smoked the meat as well.  You can do this recipe easily in the oven, if you don’t want to smoke it, but smoking it adds to the flavor.  Below is the recipe from this weekend and I hope you enjoy it.

Ingredients:
1 turkey (between 13-15 lbs)
6 oranges
1/3 cup of whole cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp of garam masala
3 cups of applewood chips
6 cups of water
Large cast iron pot with ring insert
fire

Process:
begin soaking the wood chips in the water overnight.  While they soak, zest two of the six oranges and reserve the zest.  Pierce the skin of the unzested oranges with the cloves.  They should look like pomanders or Christmas decorations when done.  Place in the refrigerator until the next day.

The next day, make sure the turkey is thawed and its body cavity is rinsed out and clean.  Cut the two of the four cloved oranges in half and place in to the turkey’s cavity.  All four halves should fit, if not, push them in more forcibly and sew the bird shut.

If smoking the bird, place the wet wood chips into the cast iron pot with the ring insert above the wood chips.  Before placing the bird on top of the ring, sprinkle the cinnamon and garam masala spices onto the exterior of the bird.  Lay the bird, breast side down in the pot and place the last of the oranges outside of the bird in the pot and cover.  Once covered, place the pot on direct heat.

Check every twenty minutes and add about a cup of water to the wood (do not pour it on the bird).  The water will create a steamy smoke that will help season the bird and keep it moist.  The bird should reach an internal temperature of 175 degrees. At festival, this took 3.5 hours for a 14 lb turkey.

If you choose not to smoke the bird, use the ring, to keep the bird off the direct heat of the pot.  In the oven, cook at 400 degrees until the turkey reaches 175 degrees internally.

Pull the oranges out (do not serve) and let sit the meat set for 5 minutes before carving.

Tags: cookbook, cooking, Food, historical cooking, recipe

This past weekend, my assistant Nicholas and I performed Pasty Making Demonstrations at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival.  Despite the hot weather, both sessions were very well-attended.  Below is the traditional pasty recipe that I follow.  After the recipe, I will also post varying suggestions on the same theme.

Cornish Pasties
Pastry Crust Ingredients:
4 cups of flour
1/2 tsp of salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 sticks of butter (softened)  (do not use olive oil or
margarine as the crust will be hard instead of flaky)
1 egg
a bit of water

Pasty Filling Ingredients:
1 lb. round or chuck steak (diced)
4 medium red potatoes (peeled and diced)
1 large onion, diced
1 medium turnip, diced
3 medium carrots, diced
1/2 stick of butter
pinch of rosemary
pinch of thyme
3 cloves minced garlic, minced
Salt
Pepper

For the Crust:
Sift together dry ingredients and blend with softened butter.  Combine egg with enough water to make 1 cup and add to mixture.  Mix lightly and divide into 4 parts.  Roll each part to dinner plate size and lightly flour the surface.

For the filling:
Divide the filling ingredients into four parts.  Place 1 part of filling on crust round to one side and top filling with herbs and spices and add 1 TB butter.  Fold the pastry in half and seal by brushing melted butter on edges before pressing together and brush top of pastry with butter and pierce top of pastry.

Bake at 350 degree for approx. 1 hour or until golden brown.
Serves 8

Variations:
By following the crust recipe, you can make a vegetarian version using root vegetables:  potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, parsnips, and beets.   Or, you can make a dessert pasty with sliced apples, cinnamon, brown sugar, and/or craisins.

Tags: cooking, Food, historical cooking, recipe