Using the Frozen Rendered Beef Fat in Roasted Vegetables

garden carrots and potatoes for a chilly fall day

I mentioned last we that I rendered almost 2 cups of fat from 3 pounds of beef short ribs. 

I keep this fat in a container in the kitchen freezer to use in cooking. When sautéing, it's easy to cut a piece of fat off and melt in a hot skillet before adding vegetables or lean meat. Oven-roasting vegetables takes one additional step.

I use about 1 tablespoon of beef fat for carrots and potatoes for 4 adults. I scoop the still frozen beef fat into a microwaveable dish, then melt the at in the microwave until liquid.

Using a spoon and a rubber spatula, I toss cut vegetables in the melted fat until all are lightly coated. The spatula helps to use as much of the fat as possible. 

I roast the veggies on a darkened  baking sheet. My rendered fat is unseasoned, so I sprinkle the veggies with salt before roasting.

I roasted this batch at about 425 F degrees for about 30 minutes, until toasty-looking.

My family loves root vegetables roasted in beef fat. My husband likes to remind me that Mc D's French fries used to be fried in beef fat. Are these as tasty as French fries? Perhaps not. But they're awfully good nonetheless. As for how much fat remains on the baking sheet after roasting.I needed to wipe out the baking pan a few times with brown paper before I could wash it in the dishwater. I imagine about 2 teaspoons of the fat wind up coating the vegetables while 1 teaspoon remains in the pan. We aren't eating gobs of beef fat with dinner. 

A wet autumn harvest

Although it's been a rainy and cool fall so far, I have still been able to harvest fresh veggies each week. 

Earlier this week I harvested a bunch of kale and fresh sage. I've got the sage drying right now. With the kale, I wrapped about half of it in a towel and plastic bag for the fridge, should anyone wasn't some fresh greens when making their lunch. With the other half a made a sweet and tangy salad, finely chopped kale, chopped dried plums, and a dressing of jelly, thyme vinegar, oil, and salt. The salad was big enough for several days of lunches. Another day I harvested some of the late planted radishes, using both the roots and greens in salads.

This morning, I timed it to get outside between bouts of heavier showers.  When I could see there was only a tiny sprinkle coming down, I put on some boots and ventured out into the garden. Most years, I just sort of abandon what remains in the garden after the end of October. This year I am trying to use as much as I can from it. I missed out on the final batch of unripe figs and crabapples. Between the cooler temps and the squirrels, I lost the last of the crabapples and unripe figs. Perhaps missing out on those last bits has propelled me to be more diligent about getting outside for the veggies. 

Today I harvested a large bunch of parsley and a bucket of Brussel sprout leaves. They were plentiful and most needed picking. I had no idea how I would use these two greens, but once inside again, I put them to good use for our meals. I used my food processor to throw together a quick batch of hummus using up the parsley and cooked the Brussel sprout leaves in tonight's dinner. I made what we call "beans and greens." This is a simple dish of cooked black-eyed peas, chopped fresh greens of any kind (kale or chard are our usuals), onions, garlic, red pepper flakes, salt, cooking oil, kielbasa (if we have some), and water to make it just a little bit saucy. Tonight I also added 2 small, wrinkly garden tomatoes from summer's end of season harvest. "Beans and greens" are served over rice. It sounds basic and plain, but it's really pretty good. Tomorrow I'll harvest the biggest turnips for oven-roasting as part of dinner.

The garden is really winding down for the year. I am left with turnips, kale, Brussel sprout leaves, a few Brussel sprouts, one celery plant, a few green onions, parsley, and other herbs. I am reaching the point where if we anticipated a heavy snow or period of prolonged freezing temps, I would be mostly satisfied with losing the remaining garden veggies. But that's not likely to happen for another couple of weeks. So it looks like I'll be dodging raindrops for a bit longer as I continue to use up the last of the garden.

Just working at squeezing all of the value out of our foods.

Have a great weekend, friends!