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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Burnt to a Crisp ... Dinner and My Favorite Pan

No, there is nothing wrong with your screen, the "image" you are seeing is right. It's a black box and it represents today's cooking disaster. It's been years, and I am thinking more than 20 years, since I've completely wrecked and crispy burnt a dinner like I did today.  Guessing I was due for a kitchen disaster, yes?
I had planned on making a German-inspired dish today ... Rouladen.  Rouladen is rolled up thin beef steaks stuffed with pickles, caramelized onions and bacon, then simmered in beef stock. I was so excited to try this out. Everything went well and fairly quickly. Then when it came time to simmer the beef rolls, I added the stock, covered it and walked away to take a break for lunch and just chill for a bit. About fifty minutes later, the scent of burnt food comes wafting into the family room. I got up so fast I nearly hit the ceiling. I ran into the kitchen and knew immediately what I had forgotten to do. I cook on induction burners, it is faster, heats up the house less and doesn't require 220 volts of electricity to power them. I had forgotten to lower the heat to a simmer. When I removed the lid the bottom of my favorite all-clad french skillet was charred, and the bottoms of the Rouladens were charred to a crisp. There was no salvaging the rolls, only one seemed to be somewhat okay. I was so disappointed ... dinner was a charred mess and then I was really mad when I saw the condition of my favorite skillet.
I figured what the heck, let me at least taste the one salvaged roll and I am happy to say ... it was delicious! I can't wait to try this again and now I know what needs to be tweaked to suit our palette.
So while dinner is now a charred memory, I can say I WILL be making this again and this time I will make sure to double check my heat setting OR leave the simmering portion of the recipe to my slow cooker.
Oh, and my skillet you ask? Nothing a little soaking in oven cleaner can't handle! Next time you char your dinner to the skillet, don't flip, just spray with some oven cleaner, let it soak and your stainless steel skillet will shine like new!
Now, the question is ... what the heck do I make for dinner!?

2 comments:

  1. We all have kitchen disasters or recipes that just don't come out very good. What did you end up making??

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    Replies
    1. I had enough of the white bean & chorizo soup that I made last week in the freezer. It was even better this time around.

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