Slow cooker rump roast

Dear Reader,

It’s a cold, cloudy day in Canberra, with a maximum forecast temperature of eight degrees Celsius today. That’s 46 °F for any reader in the USA, Liberia, and Burma.

It felt like a good day to have the slow cooker on as well as the heating.

While grocery shopping this morning, I saw a nice lump of rump which looked like it would be perfect for this week’s meal planning.

I hope wherever you are, that you are warm and comfortable.

Have a good weekend.

Gaz

Ingredients

Rump roast
Barbecue sauce
White onion
Beef stock
Lentils
Potato
Instant gravy
Baby green peas

Instructions

Slow cooker

Empty a tin of lentils into the cooking vessel.
Lay the rump roast on the lentils.
Cut a potato in half and place it into the cooking vessel.
Cut the onion in half and put it into the cooking vessel.
Squirt a good glug of barbecue sauce into the cooking vessel.
Add a cup of beef stock to the cooking vessel.
Cook for eight hours.

Baby green peas

Cook the frozen peas with microwave radiation.

Instant gravy

Prepare as per the instructions for use on the packaging.

Plating up

Divide the rump into pieces for meal planning for the week. My plans include a pasta dish, some cold slices and salad for lunches, and perhaps a noodle soup.
Divide the lentils and keep some aside for dinner putting the rest into a container.
Slice a small piece of beef and put it onto a warmed dinner plate.
Serve a spoon of lentils and the potato onto the dinner plate.
Put the baby green peas onto the dinner plate.
Pour the gravy over the meat and vegetables.
Give thanks to the Lord for wages earned to buy food, cook food, and eat food to nourish my body and my enjoyment.

This week’s highlights in life

Work has been good. I remain blessed to work with amazing people.
It’s reassuring to see people in Canberra more aware of their health and safety and cognisant that the δ (delta) variant must be respected. This week, I read a paper that revealed that the viral load associated with the δ variant is about 1000 times greater than with the original virus recovered from the beginning of the pandemic. Without wanting to be morbidly crass, I’m in awe of the biology of SARS-COV-2 and the ability of this virus and the infection it causes (COVID-19) to change and adapt. I’m sure if I wasn’t in a sequestered, safe bubble, like Canberra, I’d be feeling more anxious and worried. ^
It’s been worrying seeing what has been happening in NSW, Victoria, and Queensland.
I started reading John Owen’s Overcoming Sin and Temptation. This book is a collection of three of Owen’s seminal works on the “Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers”, “Of Temptation: The Nature and Power of It”, and “The Nature, Power, Deceit, and Prevalency of Indwelling Sin”. It’s a challenging read in a couple of ways. Owen writes in an archaic style, and the subject matter penetrates deeply.
I’m also reading Tim Keller’s Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God. The two works are complementary, in my opinion.
I received a bunch of fresh free-range eggs from a friend this week. Fresh eggs are the best!

Final thoughts

Have you enjoyed fresh free-range eggs? How do you like to cook them?
How have you been coping this week with the pandemic?
Are you in an area where the δ variant is circulating in your community?
What’s the weather like where you are at the moment? Let me know in the comments how you’re enjoying the weather (or not).

^The Bible App I use today presented me with Proverbs‬ 12:25‬. (‭ESV)‬‬

“Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.”

10 hours slowly cooked lamb shoulder

During the week, a work friend, viz., MH, mentioned that she cooked two legs of lamb for 10 hours each for Christmas dinner. MH has a large family who all live in rural Victoria.

I’m quite fond of lamb, but I prefer the forequarter rather than a hind leg (also known as the shoulder). I am aware a lot of people aren’t keen on lamb meat. The odour from cooking and cooked lamb is distinct, and some people are put off by it. One of my daughters isn’t keen on lamb meat. Part of her distaste is that she eschews all animal fat and lamb can be quite fat. I like eating breakfast with this daughter because she cuts off all her bacon fat. Guess who gets the discarded bacon fat?

Stolen rosemary with garlic and white onion.

My anatomical preference for lamb is in contrast to my taste for chicken. For chicken, I am a thigh lover over the breasts and wings.

As I was thinking about this meal, I thought I’d try to get things started in the slow cooker at about 6 am so I’d have the meat ready well before my 6 pm dinner deadline.

Lamb shoulder after browning in a frying pan.

The day didn’t start as planned. Oddly for me, I slept in and didn’t start the preparation until about 6.30 am.

Last night, I went for a walk and foraged (stole or acquired) a large amount of rosemary from a few bushes on the footpath outside a local hotel.

I browned the fat and muscle meat in a large frying pan over high heat to prepare the lamb.

Halfway point in a 10 hour slow cook lamb shoulder.

I added all the rosemary in the slow cooker after I scrunched it up and rubbed it vigorously in my hands to break down the leaves a little to release the natural oils. I also cut a knob of garlic in half, sliced one white onion and put it into the cooking vessel.

Add about ¼ cup of dry oregano leaves and a cup of stock.

I then put the lamb into the slow cooker and discovered it was slightly too big. I had to get a knife and cut away some muscle bundles to get the lid to seal correctly.

A wedge of Kent pumpkin rubbed with olive oil, black pepper, iodised salt, chilli flakes and sugar. Ready for the oven.

After ten hours, I opened the slow cooker and removed the shoulder. The fat and muscle meat were coming away from the bones, making the transfer to a tray in one piece difficult. The meat’s tenderness wasn’t a problem because I wanted to pull the muscle bundles off than carve away large cuts from the bone.

Most of the lamb meat is now in an airtight container and refrigerated. Lamb will be a feature of lunches and dinners this week.

If you’re wondering what I did with the cooking juices, well wonder no more. I filtered out the rosemary, garlic, and onion and used the liquid to make a gravy.

I made a roux with a little flour and butter in a saucier pan and cooked it for about 3 minutes. I added the meat juices and cooking liquid and stirred it until a gravy consistency developed.

To accompany tonight’s lamb shoulder roast, I roasted a wedge of Kent pumpkin as well as some broccolini.

I coated the pumpkin with black peppercorns, iodised salt crystals, hot chilli flakes and refined white sugar which I ground in a mortar with a pestle. I like adding a little sugar to help with the caramelisation of the pumpkin. I cooked the pumpkin in an oven at 180 °C for about 45 minutes.

I gently rubbed the broccolini with some olive oil and cooked it with the pumpkin for the 20 minutes of the cooking period.

10 hour slow cook shoulder of lamb with lamb flavoured gravy, roast Kent pumpkin and broccolini.

MH and another workmate, viz., AP, gave me a cultured butter gift on Thursday. I see lamb and gravy rolls on buttered bread being a thing next week.

I have the best workmates who really know me. Cultured butter, biscuits and a microorganism!

Slow cooker lamb shank meat with oven cooked kale sprouts and vegetables

#CovidLife #WorkFromHome

Another day working from home with the slow cooker working hard.

Slow cooker lamb shank meat with oven cooked kale sprouts and vegetables

Slow cooker beef cheeks and red cabbage coleslaw

#covidlife #workfromhome

So there was a little work today but I managed to get in a couple of nice walks.

Slow cooker caramelised onion pizza

#meatfree

It’s Friday and I worked from home today. The last few Fridays I’ve been making a pizza for tea so I thought I would try to keep this going. Given I was home I figured I’d caramelise some onions in the slow cooker.

Slow cooker rolled boneless lamb shoulder with green vegetables

You can find the full recipe at Yummy Lummy. This is just a summary.

Slow cooker boneless rolled lamb shoulder with peas, beans, and broccoli. Served with gravy and mint sauce.

Slow cooker beef short ribs with pan-fried mushroom, eggplant, zucchini and strawberry jam

It was a –3 °C morning in Canberra so I got the slow cooker out.

I cross-posted at Yummy Lummy
Check it out here.

Mayver’s crunchy dark roast peanut paste slow beef Thai red curry with red cabbage

I’ve already blogged this at Yummy Lummy but because Facebook has still banned me posting links from Yummy Lummy I’m repeating the link here so I can share this on Facebook.

Good Friday beef cheeks

It feels like an age since I last wrote here on Random Yummy. I think it’s been longer on Yummy Lummy. I even missed last week on What I think, eat, listen to, and watch each week (the diary blog).

It’s Good Friday and I’ve been working from home writing papers and answering questions and trying to add some value to my current work commitments.

Unlike the accepted wisdom, I don’t usually have fish on Good Friday, I have red meat, specifically, beef.

Slow cooker beef cheeks with potato mash and gravy served with peas and corn. Gary Lum. — Slow cooker beef cheeks with potato mash and gravy served with peas and corn.

While I was working I had the beef cheeks in the slow cooker.

Recipe

Ingredients

Beef cheeks
White onion
Carrot
Celery
Red wine
Beef stock
Whole black peppercorns
Potatoes
Butter
Cream
Peas
Corn
Capsicum

Instructions

Unwrap the beef cheeks from the plastic packaging.
Heat up a frying pan and sear the beef cheeks to get a good caramelisation on all the surfaces.
After searing the beef cheeks, move the cheeks to a plate and add some chopped onion to the frying pan to sweat.
While the onions are sweating, slice some carrot and celery and then add the carrot and celery to the sweating onions.
Cook the onions, celery, and carrot until each has soften.
Deglase the frying pan with some red wine and beef stock.
Add the onions, carrot, and celery to the cooking vessel of the slow cooker.
Pour in the red wine and beef stock.
Add the seared beef cheeks to the slow cooker cooking vessel.
Seal the lid of the slow cooker and cook for six (6) hours.
When the six (6) hours of complete, remove the beef cheeks to a plate and then decant the cooking juices to a saucepan.
Bring the cooking juices to simmer and puree with a stick blender.
Reduce the sauce to a thick gravy.
Add some cream and then butter to finish the gravy.
Make potato mash by boiling potatoes and then mashing them with iodised salt and butter.
Cook some frozen peas, corn, and capsicum in a frying pan until soft.
Add the potato mash to a dinner plate and add the peas, corn, and capsicum next to the potato.
Lay a beef cheek on the potato mash and pour over some of the gravy.
Grind the whole black peppercorns in a mortar with a pestle and season the potato mash, beef cheeks, and vegetables.