Outside Round Roast with Corn Bread

Raul finds a bargain but very tasty looking outside round roast at Food Basics. $5.32 for a lump of a roast that will make several meals. He decides to make a traditional pot roast dinner crossed with Julia Child's legendary Boeuf Bourguignon. The roast is rolled in flour and then browned on the bbq. "It has to be browned," notes Raul, "or it will just be boiled meat. The browning keeps the juices in. This cut has very little fat in it, partly why it was so cheap, but that also makes it better for us, so it will need to be cooked carefully to make it fall apart just from just the pressure of a fork."

The roast goes into the pressure cooker with a coarsely chopped onion, two carrots and one stalk of celery. This is doused in two cups of stock and a cup of red wine. He brings it to a boil, locks on the lid and cooks for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile he bakes three large quartered potatoes, carrots and parsnips in a half cup of oil, two cups of water, salt, pepper and oregano at 375 degrees for an hour.

The corn bread recipe comes from Food.com:

Southern Pride Sweet Corn Bread

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/4 cup honey

2 eggs

1/2 cup butter ( softened)

1 cup milk

1 cup water

2 cups white cornmeal (for less gritty) or 2 cups yellow cornmeal ( I use white)

2 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan with shortening.

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Mix sugar, butter, eggs, milk, honey and water together in a large bowl.

Mix dry ingredients together in a separate bowl: cornmeal, flour,baking powder, and salt.

While stirring, add dry ingredients to sugar, egg, and milk mixture and mix thoroughly.

Mixture will be slightly lumpy.

Pour into greased rectangular pan.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Serve with butter.

Raul bakes the corn bread in an oiled cast iron frying pan and puts it in the oven alongside the potatoes and vegetables. All the jus from the roast is strained then boiled until it is reduced by about half and, voila! gravy. As Raul ladles the gravy onto the roast and vegetables on the plate, he explains, "The chef at the convention centre I worked at, taught me that. He said to just save all the juice and keep reducing it to get the most meaty flavour. He used it on the prime rib."

The roast may not be as expensive as prime rib but it is primo tasting. The bite of the wine in the gravy contrasts nicely with the sweetness of the corn bread and not a drop goes to waste - it also turns out to be perfect for absorbing the luscious liquid. "It's not as tender as I would like," notes Raul. "But by the time it sits over night and we re-heat it, it will be melt in your mouth."

Spaghetti Squash Bread

There is a mountain of spaghetti squash left over from Drew's brave attempt at cooking a main course, and Raul is determined to conquer his baking setbacks, so Raul sets out to make spaghetti squash bread. His banana bread is, usually, perfection itself but he is convinced the oven has it in for him as the last few attempts at cakes have had full flavour but an unusual texture. He begins searching to find a recipe and finds a fun, and similar to R&D's, blog twizzlingwhimsies where Emily in Tucson documents her cooking, thrift store shopping adventures and life in the desert. Off-Broadview is far from a desert but Raul does make a nasty, almost funny, crack comparing the two environments.

Emily's recipe seems simple enough and sounds perfect. Raul makes only minimal adjustments by making only large loaf in a glass Pyrex dish lined with parchment. Using the glass dish meant reducing the temperature by 25 degrees and baking it for an hour and 20 minutes.

Ingredients (for two loaves):
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3 tsp ground cinnamon
3 large eggs
1 cup canola oil
2 cups white sugar
3 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups cooked spaghetti squash

Directions:
Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch loaf pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in the squash until well incorporated. Pour batter into prepared pans.
Bake for 45 to an hour, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean (it actually took me closer to an hour, but I started checking it at 40 minutes).
Cool in pans on rack for about 20 minutes. Remove bread from pans, and completely cool.
Slice and serve with a pat of butter.

Determined to avoid any texture problems, Raul performs an old-fashioned skewer test (several times) until the skewer comes out completely clean.

The bread is moist and just slightly sweet. It didn't even need butter and was perfect as a snack and even better the next morning. The curse of the recalcitrant oven has been broken!  "I told you that kitchen witch of yours was not powerful enough," says Raul triumphantly. "As soon as I found that traditional Portuguese cock statue at Value Village - that's a just as potent a tradition - I knew it would solve our baking problems." Whether a refinement of Raul's skills or some form of Portuguese/Value Village voodoo, Drew is just relieved that from now on textures will be flawless.