wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (01/10/86)
Well, in response to a request for suggestions about how to cook a large chunk of meat once and then use the meat during the rest of the week: Pork roast: When your local store has "whole pork loins" on sale at 99 cents a pound or so (the National chain in St. Louis does this about every two months or thereabouts), buy one and have the butcher cut it into three or four roasts. Freeze these, and thaw & roast one for a weekend's dinner. Use the uneaten leftovers as follows: Chill the whole bone-and-meat mass; when it is good and firm, with a small knife cut off all the meat in little pieces, being sure to get down between the rib bones. When all that is left is a chunk of spine and rib bases, break them up and give them to the dog (yours or your neighbor's) one or two at a time. The dog will love you. Save the meat in the refrigerator or freezer (if you freeze it, separate it into small batches in containers or baggies). Trimming the meat off this way is something that can be done while watching TV. It doesn't matter what the pieces look like... Use the meat pieces in: Bar-B-Que pork -- Heat some bottled BBQ sauce, adding crushed red pepper, Tabasco, various spices or flavorings as you see fit. Dump in as much of the meat as you need; use just enough sauce to make a thick mixture -- you don't want the meat floating in sauce like soup. When hot serve as your cultural imperatives dictate (that is, some people believe that BBQ must be served on white bread with a dollop of cole slaw on top; others want rolls, buns, French bread, or other methods). You can also use this as a filling for Chinese steamed buns (cha su bao) but you might want to orientalize the spices a bit in that case (maybe a little five-spice powder or whatever else appeals to you). Stir-fry -- I usually marinate the pork bits in a mixture of wine, soy sauce, and some kind of hot sauce while I prepare the rest. Chop some onions, crush some garlic, chop up whatever veggies you might have (carrots, celery, green pepper, broccoli, etc.). If you have some leftover pasta of any kind in the refrigerator, get it out and warm it up slightly (a few seconds in the microwave, or a brief dip in hot water will do), or cook some fresh pasta, drain and set aside. Heat up a wok or big skillet; add oil and start wih the onions, then add garlic, crushed red pepper, fresh-ground coriander & cumin if you want to, grated fresh ginger root (you can keep already grated ginger and pre-chopped garlic in the freezer to make this even quicker) and the longest-cooking veggies (celery, carrots); stir and cook; then add the rest of the veggies and cook till almost done. A dab of sesame oil at this point adds a nice flavor. Then add the meat with the marinade, stir until heated, then the pasta. Stir until its all hot, and serve immediately. Curry -- Do just about the same as above, leaving out the pasta (unless you *want* to put in pasta -- you can do whatever you want! :-); however, you might want some potato cut up in this, and more sauce to flavor the rice you'll serve it over. I like to pre-cook the diced peeled potato in the microwave, so I don't have to cook all the other veggies long enough to cook the potato, which usually overcooks everything else. Then you can put the potato in about the same time you add the meat. Throw in a good dollop of curry powder when you first start cooking the vegetables, and then add more with the meat. I sometimes put in a can of stewed tomatos along with their juice, too. To make sauce, add some chicken stock and white wine after you have added and heated the meat; deglaze the pan with these liquids to get all the flavor. Cook enough to reduce slightly. You can use roast beef just the same as the pork, of course, but I prefer doing stir-fry with raw beef (marinated) as it can be cooked so quickly. Also boiled or roast chicken or turkey meat can be used the same way. Will