OK my belly belly cooking genius's Roast beef and potato

[The[cookie]Doctor]

KL I do all my roats in the elctric frypan.

If it's beef put in hmmm... 1/2 to 3/4 cup of water - that keeps it's moisture so it doesn't go dry. And i always cook mine on six (i have a kambrook).

[nic]

Ooh Kirsty, thanks for asking the question, it's inspired me to try roasting in the frypan tonight, just gotta go to the shops to get some yummy meat now!

As for the potatoes, I do mine like pixie posted, but before putting the potatoes back in the saucepan for a shake, I add some oil to it and heat it up, then add in the potatoes, and shake

Does anyone do anything special with the pan juices for a gravy? I'm thinking a little red wine, but not too eager to do it while breastfeeding...

Nic

[Netix]

Nic, I can't answer your question re special gravy from pan juices (wish I could! Pan juice gravy is delicious I think), but what I was going to say is that if the alcohol in whatever you use is cooked off, then I thought it would be okay. I was wondering the same thing (but for my toddler to eat and me been pg atm), and hope someone might be able to confirm that?

I've noticed that the gravy powder boxes have directions for pan juice gravy on them.

[Sair]

I think to be safe it is wise to avoid cooking with alcohol. I was watching Whats Good For You yesterday and it showed that you can blow over the legal limit eating foods cooked in alcohol and it included steaks, roasts and fish as well as Christmas pudding which was the worst offender :S

[kirsty_lee]

Little Miss Sunshine, that is sooo true. I know someone who ate some rum balls on Christmas, and was pulled over and blew over the limit. Try explaining THAT to a police officer.

[Netix]

KL, rum balls aren't cooked though (well, not to my knowledge anyway), so it would have all the alcohol content of the rum, but I thought cooked alcohol was greatly reduced. Hmm, thank you LMS.

I just found this on the internet now, trying to research this question. From a site called exploratorium.edu "the accidental scientist, science of cooking". Now, lets see if I can quote this thing properly. I always have trouble doing this kind of thing...

Alcohol?s boiling point is lower than that of water, and many cooks assume that little or none of its potency remains after cooking. Research tells a different story.

Cooked food can retain from 5 to 85 percent of the original alcohol. The amount of alcohol left depends on how the dish is prepared, when the alcohol is added, and how thoroughly it?s incorporated with other ingredients.

In general, the longer the cooking time, the less the amount of alcohol that remains. Fast methods of cooking, such as flamb?ing, leave about 75 percent of the alcohol in the food. In contrast, a dish that has been baked or simmered for fifteen minutes contains about 40 percent of the original alcohol. After two hours of cooking, roughly 10 percent of the alcohol remains.

If you wish to avoid alcohol in cooking, there are substitutes, but substitutes don?t contribute the same depth of flavors as liqueurs and wines. Use 7/8 cup of meat or vegetable broth (or apple, tomato, or white grape juice) for each cup of wine in a savory dish. To mimic wine?s acidity, add 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice or vinegar. In desserts, replace the wine with fruit juice plus a dash of balsamic vinegar. If a recipe calls for orange liqueur, try frozen orange juice concentrate and the grated zest of fresh orange instead.

[nic]

Well, I didn't end up using wine, I felt funny about doing it while breastfeeding, so I just made a plain gravy from it, but it was still yummy.

I had a bit of a disaster with the rest of it though. I walked to the shops, went to the butchers, wasn't happy with what they had, so went to woolies, grabbed some meat, walked around the shop and then realised that the meat had that netting all around it, so put it back and went back to the butchers. Got home heated up the oil in the frypan, put the meat in and realised that the lid wasn't going to fit on top! Stuck it in a roasting dish and put it in the oven. Wasn't happy as I wanted to do the frypan, so took it out and cut the meat (rolled rib roast) in half...except it was more like 70/30 so I was then worried about it cooking unevenly.
DS was doing his usual, screaming, so i didn't get to roast the potatoes or pumpkin so cooked and mashed them, then decided to add my cup of tea to the mashed potato instead of the milk and butter i had heated up! Hopefully next time it will go a lot smoother lol.

[TheBear]

You will boil off all the alcohol whilst making the gravy, so it's fine to use a little wine. You will be able to smell any remaining alchohol as you boil it off.

Gently fry some onions or mushrooms in a sauce pan in a little butter, when they start to look done dust them with a little flour (no more than a couple of teaspoons) and stir well - the flour should make all the juices stick to them.

Once the roast is done, lift it out of the roasting pan and put it to one side to rest, put the roasting pan on the stove top and put a good heat underneath it.Add wine, stock or water to the roasting pan and use a wooden spoon to scrape as much of the gooey bit from the bottom of the pan into the bubbling liquid, stir well - let it boil hard for a good minute or so to drive off the alcohol and reduce the gravy down a fair bit. Then pour the gravy into the saucepan containing the mushrooms or onions and bring it back to a simmer whilst stirring - season to taste. The flour will thicken the gravy up and the mushrooms and/or onion will fill out the taste a little.

Or if you would like a really good pepper sauce then try this instead (this goes really well with steak) although it's not good for the diet.

Fry a chopped onion in butter until soft and transparent then sprinkle a tablespoon of flour over it
Stir well to mix in the flour, then add a whole bottle of Worcester sauce (just trust me on this)
Let it cook down until the onion mixture is thick, then add 300ml of double cream, a stock cube and a tablespoon of dijon mustard and stir well as you bring it back to the boil and reduce a little further.
Pour the sauce through a sieve to remove the onions and add a few green peppercorns before serving.