Recipes & Cooking Tips

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Written by Wayne McDonald

Slow Cooked Chuck Steak or Roast Dinner with all the fixings by Heather Dea

  Slow Cooked Pulled Beef

A McDonald Farm Chuck Roast or steak
About 2-5 onions rough chop
garlic to taste (we use it like a paste all over the outside of the meat)
Salt and pepper to season
Coconut oil or whatever oil you use
A good pan or pot or roaster (I use a cast iron with enamel coating)
Tin foil or lid to cover

Method:

Defrost whatever cut you have of the grossly chopped (tho I have done this from rock hard frozen with same results:really)

Pat dry with towel

Rub with spice and seasoning (depending on how I feel reflects spice: do NOT be shy go for it!)

Melt and heat oil in pan when hot place meat in and get all brown on all sides (that is your flavour right there)

Make sure fat side is finally upright

Add all your onions and mix well

Put lid on or large tin foil well secured to stop all moisture from escaping

Cooking: I put it in my oven on slow cook, you can use a slow cooker but for me all the flavour is on the pan.

It is around 250 degrees F for at least 6-8 hours or overnight

No muss no fuss, do not need to peek or disturb in any way.

When you remove from oven let stand/rest

This means allow meat to cool naturally on board, or platter/plate with a covering of tin foil and towels

You must do this with all meat (bigger it is the longer it takes), and people always ask why well resting allows the protein fibres in the meat to relax and “uncoil” if you will to allow for maximum tenderness.

While meat is resting you get all your other goodies ready

Parboil your potatoes for about 15 min get out a tray to roast them and oil it with coconut oil, butter, or olive oil (find coconut oil the best) season it with fave flavour combos and always salt and pepper, and I love fenugreek leaves

Drain potatoes well and allow to air dry until they look fluffy on outside (sorta like snow)

Dump whole amount into pan with oil and seasoning and mix well with hands until all potatoes are coated

Place in an oven of about 450 degrees and immediately turn down to 350 degrees

Stir once or twice and keep coating fresh for flavour but let cook for about 40 minutes until crisp and golden on outside

Vegetables

Any root veg can be roasted (turnip is delicious)

So can celery, onions, fennel, celeriac (celery root), beets, kale, and tomatoes: oh the things you can make.

Do not be afraid of flavour use herbs, dry/fresh: be bold! Smell it and if it smells like a great smell with the aroma of the cooked meat in the kitchen USE IT!

Use vinegars and oils and fish sauce and flavoured butters, anchovies (really, you would be surprised!) sometimes a bit of wine with strong flavours like leek or cabbage or kale start with a little and build on flavour as you become more confident as to how they work together

(Brussel sprouts are one of our faves roasted)

These lovely thing go in with your potatoes and get a shake about once during the forty minutes you roast

While veg is roasting and the table set and the kitchen somewhat restored to normal

Is when you would pull your meat. Uncover and seprated all the nasty bits (bone, fat, the usual culprits) and fork apart the meat until it resembles stringy long pieces

Cover again until ready to serve as this will dry out fast

When all meal is cooked platter veg on one side potatoes on other and meat in middle

Plunk this down on your table and watch them exclaim what a cook you are

All this sounds like a lot to do as everyone wants fast and easy; but remember you are only trying this for the first time, and be kind to yourself. As you try this and fall in love with it you will do this again and again, and it will become easier and easier and people will ask you how to do it. It will become like riding a bicycle, easier and you will get a routine down.

As an aside, never throw away the drainage in the bottom of the pan. By a separator and save that liquid gold for soups, flavouring a stir fry, gravy the list is endless

Your fat can be saved as well in an old washed can or a fancy piece of pottery you can buy at any kitchen store

This fat from grass fed beef is amazing on roasted veg or potatoes, or you can make a loaf of bread and use it instead of butter and oil.

I know this sounds so…ew! BUT it is the old way of doing things and is that not why you are buying this beautiful meat and happy that these animals are treated the way they were meant to be in the first place?

Do you not want to be the best cook on the block and make your family so healthy that they never get colds, and have amazing blood work with no cholesterol problems and live long to prosper?

This is what grass fed/pasteurized/free range/organic meats have done for our family. I have not had a flu or cold for 18 months. I recently had blood work checked and it came back normal and healthy! (the first time since I was a teen…literally!)

I also allow this to cool in a glass covered bowl in fridge and serve it cold on any salad and it is amazing as well

I make this dressing and it is fabulous!

Heather's Salad Dressing

!/2 C cottage cheese (can substitute Feta/Unripened Goat cheese/Ewes milk cheese)
½ C good quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil
½ C apple cider vinegar
2-4 garlic cloves
½ a seeded chilli pepper (won’t be hot without seeds)
Oregano to taste
Parsley to taste
Juice of one lemon and zest of same
Salt pepper

Put this in some sort of machine to blend until smooth and thick

Will last in fridge for weeks in glass bottle with lid

(Olive Oil has antibiotic properties as does garlic and oregano)

If too thick add lemon juice or oil to thin as to taste

(Should pour like ketchup)