[Over]Night Cooking

[browngirl]

I really love cooking things overnight in the oven. I mean, a crockpot does well at the same task, but in the oven one can cook multiple dishes. Friday night I made oatmeal and hominy porridge (and finally got the ratios right! Oats: 2/3 cup pinhead oats, 1 tsp added oat bran, and 3 cups water. Hominy: 1/2 cup hominy, 1 tsp oat bran, and 2 &1/4 cups water) and baked apples (which came out ruddy brown and custard-textured). Last night I made Apple Family Compote (quince, pear, apple and a strip of lemon peel -- I should have added rosehips) and Overnight Beef Stew:

Overnight Beef Stew

1 ovensafe 2 quart pot with tight fitting lid
1 thick slice beef shank, about 1&1/2 pounds
3 onions
2 carrots
splash of oil
2-4 mushrooms
1-2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp anchovy paste (optional)
1-2 cloves garlic (or more if you like)
2 tsp tomato paste
salt, pepper, and whatever spices you like for beef (I used 1 tsp freshly ground pepper and 2 tsp 'Everyday Seasoning', which has onion, hot pepper, orange peel, and coriander in it, and a sprig of fresh thyme)
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup breadcrumbs

Chop up the onions and carrots, and saute them with the salt until the edges are starting to brown. Add the mushrooms, anchovy and tomato pastes, pepper and other spices, and saute about 5 minutes more. Scrape into the saucepan, then deglaze with the water and add that to the saucepan. Add the beef and pour the soy sauce over, lid up and put in the oven at 215 degrees overnight. (about 10 hours.) Use breadcrumbs to thicken the sauce if you like. Serve immediately or refrigerate.

Yes, I didn't brown the beef-- by sitting atop the vegetation and slowly sinking into it, it ends up browning from the oven's heat, very slowly over the long cooking.

Comments

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Those recipes for stew and compote look lovely. I've never seen the point of cooking oatmeal in the crockpot overnight, when it's so easy to do on the stovetop while I'm getting showered and dressed. (That lets me keep half an eye on it for the last bit, so I can adjust proportions for the age of the grain.)

My big problem with overnight cooking is that the smell drives me crazy when I'm trying to sleep. Do you have a big enough house, with enough doors between your bed and the kitchen, for that not to be a problem? Or can you sleep through that kind of aroma? I mostly use the crockpot when I'm going to be out all day, or home doing something that doesn't need much concentration.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

! Thank you for pointing that out to me -- I find the scent of cooking comforting and relaxing, so I hadn't considered that as a drawback. I'll have to think of a way to deal with it.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

There's no particular need for you to "deal with it" if it doesn't bother you. I enjoy the scent of cooking, but find it distracting--it's part of my inability to multitask in recent years.

[libitina]

I found it impossible to sleep through overnight cooking in my studio apartment, but it's much more pleasing now that I have a house and am on a different floor. I can still smell it, but the level has gone from "must be on watch and monitor the cooking things" to faintly soothing hominess.

[mamishka.livejournal.com]

I never even considered cooking something overnight! My mom has made me paranoid about leaving the stove on when I'm not 'around' so to speak. ;) But it sounds so lovely and snuggly and, best of all, YUMMY! :)

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Really and truly, a reasonably-unfilthy 215 degree oven left on overnight is not going to catch fire. :D

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

Ah, so you use the Caribbean style dried hominy! That really make overnight cooking pay off. :)

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

It truly does. :D Now if I could find it elsewhere than online...

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

So you stew the meat as one big piece? (Ista, get out of my face!) I'm totally used to cutting stew beef into cubes before cooking; in fact, when SON & I were shopping Friday night we picked up a kosher brisket for that purpose. I'm to cube it sometime soon.

And as it happens we also bought large crockpot (6qt) by his request.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Brisket works really, really well, slow-cooked in one piece. Brown on the outside first, then slow-cook forever.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

It depends on the cut of beef. Beef shank is already sliced across the grain and doesn't need any more cutting up; brisket is good cubed or whole; I like chuck better in chunks.

[spinrabbit.livejournal.com]

Nom. did this today. would have been slightly better if dutch oven had tighter lid - will add foil lining next time.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'm glad you liked the recipe. :D