>Elegant Pot-Roast

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Elegant Pot Roast of Beef I marinated the beef for two days in Burgundy wine. Then I dried it off, dusted it with salt, pepper and flour and in a hot, buttered Dutch oven, browned the meat. I added herbes de Provence, summer savoury, chopped onion, celery, carrots and new potatoes, then doused the lot with the marinade. After simmering the pot for an hour, I added more wine to it. After two hours of cooking on low heat, I had an elegant pot roast that was fit to serve company. My photo shows it in the pre-simmering stage. Cooking with wine will usually soften the toughest cuts of meat, an important tip for these days of austerity. ©M-J de Mesterton

>Elegant Pineapple Pork Chops

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Soy sauce, pineapple juice, dried red chile peppers and a bit of brown sugar are used to marinate these elegant pork-chops. They are then placed on a broiling-pan which has on its bottom level the pineapple and marinating liquid. The pork is browned and turned over. When the pork chops are done on both sides, the pineapple will be well-cooked and seasoned in the bottom of the broiling-pan.

©M-J de Mesterton

Asian Pork Dish, Broiled Pineapple, Broiled Pork Chops, Chile, Chile Peppers,Dried Chile, Elegant Cook, Elegant Cuisine Asian Food, Pineapple Pork, Red Chile, Soy Sauce, Spicy Pork

>Elegant Cornish Pasties

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M-J de Mesterton’s Cornish-Style Pasties

OCTOBER 3, 2009

Home-Gardens Yield lots of Turnips, onions and potatoes in Autumn: Use Them the Traditional Cornish Way for a Nutritious, Easy-to-Serve, Elegant Luncheon

tags: Cornish Pasty Recipe, Elegant Meat Dishes, How to Make Cornish Pasties, M-J de Mesterton Original, M-J de Mesterton’s Cornish Pasties, Pasty, Pasty of the Copper Country

by M-J de Mesterton

Devon-Style Pasty Made by M-J de Mesterton (Pasties Crimped on Top)

I’ve been making Cornish pasties since the age of 20. My mother wrote a book about the pasty and its history which was published in 1990, but my method and ingredients differ from hers. The following is  my pasty (pronounced “pass-tee”) recipe: I will not formally transcribe my recipe and method for making pasties, because  I never use measurements. I can tell you, however, that they are made with a short crust containing both butter and lard, water, a teaspoon of malt vinegar, and unbleached, plain white flour. Since salted butter is used in the dough, add just a dash of salt to it.  I add sea-salt and hand-milled pepper to the filling, which consists of  four ingredients, diced very finely: tri-tip steak, which is always well-marbled and never tough; ordinary, high-starch brown-skinned potatoes, turnips, butter bits, and white or Spanish onions. The finely-diced beef and vegetables are tossed together in a mixing bowl with the salt and pepper before being laid upon the dough, dotted with butter and enclosed. The edges are crimped, either on top or on the side of the pasty, and a couple of well-placed slits are made in the top to allow steam to escape. The final product is brushed with a beaten egg mixed with a teaspoon of cream. The pasties are then baked in a very hot oven for close to one hour. Once the pasties have cooled for about twenty minutes, serve with an oil-and-vinegar-dressed lettuce salad. Offer Cornish cream, crème fraîche, Mexican Crema, or sour cream as an optional condiment. The pasties depicted here, which I made,  are the optimum size for a meal; the dough for them was shaped into a ball about half the size of a woman’s closed hand, then was rolled out and cut around a 7″ luncheon plate.  Making giant pasties just isn’t elegant, nor is it traditionally Cornish. I also make miniature pasties for parties, by using a tin can or the bottom, inner ridge of the same luncheon plate as a cutting guide. These mini-pasties are easily eaten by hand with a bread-plate or cocktail napkin to catch any pastry-flakes. For a basic short-crust guide, please see my Elegant Apple Pie recipe.~~Recipe and Pasty Photos Copyright M-J de Mesterton

Cornish Pasty Made by M-J de Mesterton, Copyright 2009

M-J’s Meat Sauce and Rotini

See M-J’s Sauce Ragú

>M-J’s Meat Sauce and Rotini

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See M-J’s Sauce Ragú
M-J’s Original, Slow-Cooked Meat Sauce
A French and Italian Hybrid

M-J’s Original Sauce Ragú

Sautéed Vegetables for M-J’s Sauce Ragú

Bread rises at left of stove, using the warmth from sautéed vegetables.

Click to Enlarge

The Second Stage of Cooking M-J’s Sauce Ragôut Involves Incorporating Liquid Ingredients

Third Stage of Cooking: Simmering for Nine Hours Yields a Rich, Dark Meat Sauce

This mixture of ground beef, celery, capsicums, bacon, onion, tomatoes, garlic, spices, herbs and wine will cook for nine or ten hours on very low heat, and become a zesty, rich meat sauce ragôut or ragú. Ideally, after the initial sautéeing and mixing process, the elegant meat sauce ragôut would be put into a slow-cooker or Crock-Pot (by Rival).
Recipe and Photo Copyright M-J de Mesterton

M-J’s Original Sauce Ragú

Sautéed Vegetables for M-J’s Sauce Ragú

Bread rises at left of stove, using the warmth from sautéed vegetables.

This mixture of ground beef, celery, capsicums, bacon, onion, tomatoes, garlic, spices, herbs and wine will cook for nine or ten hours on very low heat, and become a zesty, rich meat sauce ragout or ragú. Ideally, after the initial sautéeing and mixing process, the sauce would be put into a slow-cooker or Crock-Pot (by Rival).
Recipe and Photo Copyright M-J de Mesterton

>M-J’s Original Sauce Ragú

>

Sautéed Vegetables for M-J’s Sauce Ragú

Bread rises at left of stove, using the warmth from sautéed vegetables.

Click to Enlarge

The Second Stage of Cooking M-J’s Sauce Ragôut Involves Incorporating Liquid Ingredients

Third Stage of Cooking: Simmering for Nine Hours Yields a Rich, Dark Meat Sauce

This mixture of ground beef, celery, capsicums, bacon, onion, tomatoes, garlic, spices, herbs and wine will cook for nine or ten hours on very low heat, and become a zesty, rich meat sauce ragôut or ragú. Ideally, after the initial sautéeing and mixing process, the sauce would be put into a slow-cooker or Crock-Pot (by Rival).
Recipe and Photo Copyright M-J de Mesterton