Sobeys Chef Nathan Schoenfeldt and Atlantic Beef Product’s Karl Bruenjes explain the methods of preparing and cooking with delicious Island View Inside Round Roast to a group of hungry students. The food inspired class was part of a 2-day Senior’s College called “Building Flavour” held at Sobeys Extra in Stratford. The meal served also included Yorkshire pudding, herb-infused potatoes, butter glazed carrots and fennel. Dessert was black cherry cupcakes.
For more information on future classes visit your local Sobeys. #islandviewbeef #localbeef #peibeef
Two Styles of Heat – Moist and Dry
In the kitchen, there are only two kinds of heat that can be applied to food. Moist and dry heat, essentially reduced to the difference between water and oil. These two kinds of heat have radically different effects on our food. Consequently, deciding on which technique to apply to our food is the most important step. In order to make that decision, we need to understand what these two kinds of heat due to our ingredients, and what we want our final product to look like.
Moist Heat:
Water or steam is a highly effective way of quickly and thoroughly cooking ingredients all the way through. A moist heat cooking method dilutes all of the water-soluble nutrients within food ingredients. It allows naturally occurring starches, fibres and gelatins within foods to thicken the cooking liquid over a long time of slow cooking. Moist heat leeches flavour from bones, dissolves collagen, softens root vegetables, infuses with herbs and spice, and saturates starches.
Be aware, moist heat also totally penetrates delicate cellular structures in both green vegetables and tender meats, washing the cells of their nutrients. This yields an off-coloured, over-cooked, mute-flavoured product. Moist heat will turn green vegetables brown, and tender meats grey.
Typical examples of this method are; steaming, stewing, stock-making and poaching.
Dry Heat:
The foundation of cooking with heat, dry heat originates directly from the use of open-flame on foods. The principals of dry heat are exactly the opposite of moist heat. The goal is to preserve the flavours of foods with a process that cooks it without diluting the essence. Hot fat is the key. Weather the fats are naturally occurring, like marbling in beef, or introduced in another format like butter or oils, fats penetrate between the cellular structure, but they do not permeate the cells themselves, instead fat will trap moisture inside the meat.
When applied to vegetables, dry heat allows for caramelization to occur. With a temperature range far exceeding that of boiling water, hot fats allow natural sugars in meats, vegetables and starches to cook, causing the “golden-brown” colour associated with fried foods, as well as a distinct caramel flavour.
Be aware that the nature of dry heat is a temperature range far exceeding boiling water, so it works very quickly, and can abruptly burn ingredients. Heat at that level will shock collagen in meats, causing it to contract, yielding tough strings throughout.
Typical examples of dry heat cooking are; grilling, pan-frying, deep-frying and roasting.
Roasting Beef
- As desired Beef Roast
- 1 Onion, large, cut in wedges
- 2 Carrots, peeled and coarse dice
- 4 ribs Celery, coarse dice
- Salt and Pepper
Pre-heat the oven according to the following scale:
325-375F for less than 2lbs.
275-300F for more than 2lbs.
250-275F with the bone on.Chop the vegetables and lay them out in the bottom of a roasting pan. The aim is to make a roasting-rack out of vegetables, to elevate the meat off the pan, and add flavour to the drippings.
Rub the beef with seasoning; salt, pepper and any other spices you may want to try. Avoid fresh herbs, as they simply burn in the oven.
Place the beef on top of the vegetables with the fat-cap facing upwards. As the fat cooks, it melts, basting the meat and vegetables as it drips into the bottom of the pan.
Roast the beef until it achieves the desired internal temperature of doneness. The best practice is to check it every 20 minutes.
Rest the beef for at least 15 minutes after roasting. Larger cuts need more resting time!
Yorkshire Pudding
- 6 Eggs
- 2 cups Milk
- 2 cups Flour
- Pinch of each Salt, Pepper, Dried Thyme Leaves
Batter Procedure
Beat the eggs and milk together with a whisk.
Add the flour and mix until smooth.
Add the seasoning and transfer to a spouted pitcher.
Baking Procedure
Preheat the oven to 500F or higher.
Place your muffin tin in the oven to pre-heat it.
Pour a little bit of oil in the bottom of each muffin divot, roughly ¼ the depth of the cup and return the pan to the oven.
Pour the batter into the now-hot oil, being careful not to over-flow the muffin tin. Return it to the oven and bake for 8-12 minutes, or until they puff up and brown on top.
Remove the pan from the oven and then pick the Yorkshires out of the pan, cool them on a wire rack.
Herb Infused Potatoes
- As desired Potatoes, diced
- 0.5 stick Butter, cubed
- 4 leaves per portion Fresh Sage Leaves
- Salted Water for boiling
- Plastic Wrap
Combine in a large pot, potatoes and salted water. Place it on a burner and bring it to a boil.
Test the potatoes for doneness. Once tender, remove from heat and drain.
Combine in a large mixing bowl, first butter, then the sage on top.
Add the potatoes to the mixing bowl and cover it tightly with plastic wrap to trap the steam in.
Hold it somewhere warm for at least 10 minutes, or until needed. The residual heat from the potato steam cooks the sage and melts the butter. This infuses the potatoes with rising sage-scented steam, and then infuses the butter with sage leaves. The longer it sits, the more flavour is leeched from the herb.
Unwrap and toss the contents of the bowl to coat the potatoes evenly with butter as a final touch before serving.
Butter-glazed Carrots and Fennel
Ingredients for One Portion
- 1 Carrot, peeled and sliced
- 1/4 bulb Fennel Bulb, sliced
- 2 tbsp Butter
- 2 tbsp Honey
- 1/2 tsp Dill
- 2 tsp Lemon
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Pre-heat a non-stick skillet or a shallow braising pan over medium heat.
Melt the butter in the pan, and allow it to gently brown. This barely takes a minute.
Add the vegetables directly to the butter and stir them in. Season it with salt and pepper in this stage. Let it fry, stirring/tossing occasionally until the carrots are tender.
Stir in the honey, dill and lemon, serve hot.
Using butter or oil to braise vegetables seals in the flavour and nutrients, as opposed to how boiling water dilutes the nutrients and mutes the natural flavours of these vegetables.
Black Cherry Cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes
- 0.5 cup Unsalted Butter, softened
- 2 packages White Chocolate
- 1.5 cups Sugar
- 0.5 cups Sugar
- 3 Eggs, large
- 2.5 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 0.5 tsp Salt
- 3.5 tsps Baking powder
- 1.25 cups Whole Milk
- 1 lb Frozen Black Cherries
- 1 tsp Vanilla
Pre-heat the oven to 375F. Grease your desired cake-pan, muffin tin or small ramekins, with butter, then flour, shaking out the excess. This allows the cake to cook to a crispy consistency, but also slips easily from the pan.
Sift together flour and baking powder.
Simmer in a sauce pot, the cherries and the half-cup of the sugar and vanilla, then puree it with a submersion blender or mash it up with a potato masher. Strain for a smooth batter, or don’t for bits of cherries in the final product.
Melt the chocolate and butter together in a small pot on low heat.
Stir half the flour into the chocolate and butter.
Beat together the eggs and the 1 ½ cup of sugar in a separate bowl.
Mix the butter/chocolate/flour into the eggs.
Combine everything else into the batter bowl in stages, alternating between wet and dry until all the jam, milk and flour is completely used up.
Pour the batter into the greased pan and bake for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick can be pushed into the centre and it comes out clean.