January menus; pot roast and noodles, beef and potato hash with eggs, calf's liver and onions - recipes

Sunset, Jan, 1984

Soothing simplicity flows through menus for January. Dependable family supper favorites of the meat and potato variety, carefully prepared, go easy on your budget and your time. Pot roast and noodles lead off, followed by a meat-and-potato hash that just might be the by-product of the roast. Last, there is pan-fried liver topped by slow-cooked onions enriched with apples and spice.

Pot roast with noodles

In this one-pan meal, the splattery initial browning of the meat is eliminated. Cook meat to draw out its own juices and fat. Then brown meat in the rendered fat; its juices cook down to a rich brown. Add broth and braise the meat until tender, then dilute the juices and cook noodles in them. When noodles are tender, lift out and boil liquid to concentrate sauce. Braised Pot Roast with Carrots and Beef Noodles Prepared Horseradish Spinach Salad Orange Segments with Tapioca Pudding Burgundy or Zinfandel

Set aside 4 hours for the meat; it takes about 3 unwatched hours to cook, but you also need time for the noodles and sauce. Serve roast with horseradish or chutney.

You can wash and then crisp the tender leaves of spinach and make an old-fashioned tapioca pudding after you start the pot roast, or the day before.

Spoon the pudding over fresh orange sements, or use the fruit as a garnish for the tapioca. A teaspoon or so of an orange-flavored liqueur poured onto each serving adds a little surprise. Braised Pot Roast with Carrots and Beef Noodles

1 boneless beef chuck roast (about 3 lbs.)

2 cans (14-1/2 oz. each) regular-strength beef broth

3 tablespoons each wine vinegar and Worcestershire

2 tablespoons coarse-ground mustard

1 tablespoon mustard seed

2 bay leaves

8 to 15 small carrots, peeled

2 cups water

7 to 8 ounces 1/4-inch-wide dry egg noodles

1/4 cup finely chopped parsley

In a 5- to 6-quart pan with a tight-fitting lid, combine meat and about half a can of the broth. Cover and cook on medium heat to draw juices out of meat, about 30 minutes. Uncover and boil liquid away; the fat will remain and the liquid will concentrate and turn dark brown. Turn meat frequently to brown evenly; lift out and set aside.

Add vinegar to pan and scrape to free browned bits. Stir in Worcestershire, mustard, mustard seed, bay leaves, and 1 can of broth. Return meat to pan, cover, and simmer over low heat 1-1/2 hours.

Lay carrots on meat; cover and cook until carrots are tender and meat is very tender when pierced, about 1 hour longer. Lift carrots and meat from juices and set on a platter; keep hot.

Add water and remaining 1/2 can of broth to pan; bring to a boil over high heat. Add noodles and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until tender to bite, about 10 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer noodles to platter.

Boil broth, uncovered, over highest heat until reduced to 1-1/2 cups. Spoon a little of the liquid over meat, carrots, and noodles to moisten, then sprinkle with parsley. Pour remaining broth into a small bowl to serve as sauce. Makes 4 or 5 servings.

Hash and eggs supper

Use leftover cooked beef, corned beef, pork, or lamb to make this homey hash. Egg-capped Hash Ramekins Whole or Sliced Pickled Beets Black Bread and Butter Papaya Halves with Frozen Berry Ice Coffee with Hot Milk or Black Tea

The hash takes about an hour to cook; for the right taste, you just can't rush. However, you can keep it warm for a couple of hours if you want to take the last-minute pressure off dinner. Cook eggs to order. Serve pickled beets hot or cold; buy a fruit ice to serve in papaya halves. Egg-capped Hash Ramekins

1/4 cups (1/8 lb.) butter or margarine

2 medium-size onions, finely chopped

2 medium-size (about 3/4 lb. total) thin-skinned potatoes, scrubbed or peeled and diced into 1/4-inch pieces

1/2 teaspoon dry thyme leaves

3 cups diced cooked beef, corned beef, pork, or lamb

2 tablespoons Worcestershire

2 roasted red bell peppers (directions follow), chopped, or 1 jar (4 oz.) diced pimientos, drained

1/4 cup regular-strength beef broth or dry white wine

4 to 10 hot poached or fried eggs

In a 10- to 12-inch frying pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add onions, potatoes, and thyme; cook, turning often with a wide spatula, until potatoes are well browned, about 40 minutes.

Mix in meat, Worcestershire, and red peppers. Cook, turning often with a spatula, until meat begins to brown, about 10 minutes. (At this point, you can keep hash warm, loosely covered, in a 150[deg.] oven up to 3 hours.) Divide mixture evenly, mounding if needed, among 4 or 5 ramekins, 1- to 1-1/2-cup size.

To pan, add broth and quickly scrape browned bits free. Pour sauce evenly over portions of hash. With back of a large spoon, make a depression in center of hash in each ramekin and nest 1 or 2 cooked eggs in it. Makes 4 or 5 servings.

Roasted red bell peppers. Broil 2 large red bell peppers about 4 inches from heat until skin chars, about 20 minutes; turn often. Place peppers in a plastic bag to cool. Pull off and discard charred skin. Cut out stems; split peppers and discard seeds. Use or cover and chill up to 3 days.