I was all set to do a post on Grenadine of Chicken…a really easy chicken recipe that tastes like you spent hours slaving over the stove. You even get to set brandy on fire.
Instead, I’m going to tell you that tonight’s dinner, “Beef with Dumplings,” turned into a burnt offering. It should not have burnt. The cubed beef (that is chuck beef that I cubed into 1 1/2″ squares) and onion had been browned in butter and then 2 cups of beef broth added to the dutch oven. I turned the heat down low so that it could cook for an hour before adding the dumplings. Long before that hour was up, I noticed that I was hearing a sizzling sound coming from the kitchen and the acrid smell of charring meat.
Despite the design of my cast-iron dutch oven, the broth had completely evaporated. Was it completely ruined? I took a couple of taste-bites and decided that it was still salvageable. The meat was indeed charred on the outside but still remained rather moist and tender on the inside.
What does one do when they are trying to salvage dinner? Why, turn it into a casserole, of course!! I knew I didn’t want to just add broth to pan and make dumplings. This would pick up the bitterness of the charred bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. If I had some tortillas, I would have simply made either tacos or burritos. But, I forgot to pick up tortillas on my last shopping trip. So, a casserole was the best option. Here is what I did:
- Took a can of refried beans and spread half of the can as a bottom layer in the casserole dish.
- Dumped the meat on top of the beans
- Topped the meat with chopped raw onions and cheddar cheese
- Drizzled some red taco sauce on top of that layer
- Spread the rest of the beans over the meat/onion/cheese layer
- Topped with more onions and cheese
- Popped it into the oven for about 10 minutes to heat up the beans and to melt the cheese
- Served it up and put a dollop of cream cheese on top
My husband loved it. He said I did a fine job of rescuing dinner. As for me, I’m pleased with myself for not panicking and laying on the floor in a fetal position. My Grandma Lois would never do that, she would just calmly figure out how to salvage dinner.
I must confess that, even though I like my beef well done, this was just too well done and I have a stomach ache. Not a serious one. But, I probably shouldn’t watch the Dancing With the Stars Results Show tonight with an already queasy stomach.
I wanted to share my Burnt Offerings Casserole story with you because I think it is important for new cooks to see that even us old seasoned cooks have “kitchen disasters.” It is part of life! Now I know that the next time I try that recipe, I need to cut down on the cooking time and/or add more liquid.
What cooking near-disaster have you had and how did you resolve it?
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Nice save! I’ve had my share of cooking failures, but we usually just eat them anyway. I think the key is that you “made do.” People used to make do because they had no choice. In recent years I’ve tried to be more venturesome with my cooking, making substitutions and using what I have on hand instead of running to the store for the ingredient that isn’t on my shelf.
Kudos to you for saving your dinner!
When I saw the title of this post, I thought it was a theme dinner for the movie Burnt Offerings! LOL
I have to confess that I felt like I was in a horror movie afterward!
My husband had some of the leftover at breakfast…cold (to go with what I had prepared for him). He said it didn’t taste very good cold. Duh! It didn’t taste very good hot, either!
Do you have a crockpot or a slow cooker? I’ve made meals like yours before and it’s about the only thing that stops it from not turning out properly. Something I’ve made that was a disaster, um I made some bread rolls a while ago and I thought they were cooked but they were raw in the middle – I’ve had better luck since tho
Amy, no, I don’t have a slow cooker. Every time I get one, it ends up being “donated to the arts” (my sculptor husband’s way of telling me that he broke the one he uses to keep water the right temp when he is working with wax and needed a new one right away). I’m never upset with him because I prefer to use my cast iron dutch oven over the crockpot, anyway. I can put it on low and leave it alone for hours without worrying about it (although I don’t leave it on when I’m not at home–that is when I’d use a crockpot). I LOVE my dutch oven.
This is the first time I’ve had something burn on me like this and I think I figured out what happened. I cut the recipe in half but forgot to reduce the cooking time, too, to account for the reduced amount of meat and liquid.