OK sorry for appalling title of this post but could not resist it.
Beef - very expensive meat and I very seldom buy it as, living on one's own, I don't have huge roast dinners any more. I do, however, treat myself every now and then when it is on offer and invite my friend Rosemary round and cook up the full works, Yorkshire pud, the lot and enjoy.
And this is what happened a week ago. I had purchased a piece of beef on offer over Christmas and deemed it time it was hauled out of the freezer. Cost me £8 and was a silverside rolled joint. My preference is always for a rib roast with beef but I have to admit that this kind of joint is easier to slice and use up and is more economical.
So one gorgeous Sunday lunch. Roast beef, Yorkshire pudding (I seem to have the knack of making these now after years of failure; all down to the fat), sprouts, carrots, cauliflower and gravy made from the beef juices in the roasting pan. It was simply delicious and we just sat there in ecstatic silence stuffing our faces. I had made a treacle tart for pudding which we ate after a bit of a break, with custard of course.
Next day I tackled the left over beef. I had already sent Rosemary home with a few slices for her lunch on Monday but there was still a lot left. So I sliced half of it up and filled four freezer cartons with the cuts and poured over the reamining gravy. I find that when meat is frozen in this way the flavour intensifies when you reheat later. So in the freezer they went. Four portions ready to go.
Then I chopped up the rest and minced it up in my food processor. Chopped up the left over carrots from the day before and popped those in. Bit of gravy and topped with mashed spud and I had three more individual cottage pies. I had one for supper a few days later and the flavour of the mince knocked spots off the bought packets for flavour.
I then sat down and worked out that out of this £8 (half price) piece of beef Rosemary and I had two meals, she took a portion home, three more went into the freezer and three cottage pies were also produced. That means that this was a really economical buy, eight portions so £1 each. Even if I had bought it at full price it would still have worked out well. So I think I may buy beef more often in future.
And one portion of beef in gravy coming out of the freezer for my supper tonight. Indoors on a horrid windy, bleak day with no voice and sore throat so very glad I have these meals in the freezer.
Might bake a cake tomorrow as well as this kind of weather makes me want to have a warm kitchen full of cooking aromas. So will rummage in my store cupboard and likely to make my everyday fruitcake as I have all the ingredients to hand and it is more or less fail safe.
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