OK. So perhaps 'stormy' is slight overkill, but it was windy, rainy and freak'n cold! And yet our friends still dragged themselves from their warm houses on the other side of town to come to dinner on Saturday night. I knew I couldn't disappoint them on such a night!I turned to my friend, Mr Pot Roast. I really love pot roast. It's rich, tender and flavoursome if done properly, (which is hard not to do since it's so easy). Even the cheapest, most uninspiring piece of meat can be saved by a slow cook in onions, red wine and it's own juices.
On this occasion, I used a piece of basic roasting beef from the supermarket (Mr Chops was shut) and browned it on each side in a combination of macadamia oil infused with lemon myrtle, and olive oil. I threw in two quartered brown onions for good measure. When everything was brown, I chucked the lot in a large pot, splashed in some red wine, salt, pepper and a spring of rosemary, and cooked it, covered, at about 150ºC for around four hours, without touching it. I could have basted it from time to time but I was busy with other stuff. No matter. It still fell apart on the fork.
But I digress. What I really wanted to say is that with any dinner party, there's always someone with special needs. It's usually me, and I'm lucky that most of our friends know this and take care of me. This time, we had someone of the vegetarian persuasion at the table. I almost did the whole meal vegetarian but Tim vetoed that idea pretty quickly.
What I really hate about vegetarian cooking is that so many people approach it as though it's just a simple case of removing the meat element from a meal. Restaurants cop this criticism from me too. Frankly I think it's a lazy way of doing things, and one that has a tendency to result in a half-arsed effort that leaves the vegetarian feeling short changed. To cook vegetarian well, you need to make the vegetables the hero of the meal, not just remove the meat and hope that what's left over will do. It's not that hard!
For our vegetarian friend, I decided to do stuffed peppers. I know it's been done a thousand times with different rice-based fillings, but I was pretty happy with this recipe. I made a proper risotto first, rather than mixing some rice with vegetables. Make up whatever risotto you like - I used arborio rice, vegetarian stock, white wine, finely chopped carrot, celery, roasted red pepper, oyster mushrooms and shallots, and seasoned with fresh sage, lemon zest, a little chilli and salt. I tossed through some parmesan and cheddar cheese. Normally I'd never use cheddar in a risotto, but I ran out of parmesan and the shops were shut, being Anzac day & all. It still worked. Into the peppers this went, and I roasted them in a bath of basic tomato sauce- tomatoes, onions, basil, salt & pepper blended finely, in a covered dish. The trick was not to over cook these. First, the risotto and sauce is already cooked so you really just want to cook the pepper a bit. You also want the peppers to retain their shape and texture and not turn into a sludgy mass.
When you take the time to prepare something like this, it really is a substantial alternative to meat. It was served with all the baked veg, bread and salad that the carnivores got. Nobody missed out!
As an aside, and for what it's worth, I've got a few tips for making a good risotto:
1. Don't let the stock cool down. Keep it simmering away and add it bit by bit into the risotto.
2. Keep stirring!!!
3. Risotto should not be a stodgy mass that can be sculpted into shapes. It should have some liquidity to it.
4. Cheese should be added as the last thing, after the risotto is properly cooked. Wine should be the second last thing you add.
