Join Martha Stewart and Miss Piggy for a festive holiday baking adventure! Watch the iconic duo craft an incredible gingerbread house and delicious cookies perfect for the season. With Martha’s expert tips and Miss Piggy’s flair for fun, you’ll find creative ways to make your holiday treats shine.
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00:00When I was growing up on Elm Place in New Jersey, in Nutley, New Jersey,
00:04every single home had its version of pot roast. At our house, the pot roast was born out of
00:10frugality. It was a dish made with inexpensive cuts of meat and basic root vegetables cooked
00:16together in the same pot. And that meal stretched to make meals for days to come,
00:21even in a family like ours of six kids and two adults. And today, well, the pot roast is still
00:28a favorite money-saving dish. This is one of my favorite things to do, braise a nice chunk of
00:40meat like this chuck eye roast. First step is to brown the meat. Very essential. You want a good
00:46looking piece of brown meat when you're finished. And you can't brown meat in liquid. It just won't
00:52brown. Even in the oven, it just won't brown if there's any moisture whatsoever. So we're going
00:56to brown the meat first in a little bit of olive oil right in the pot in which we're going to make
01:02the pot roast. Before you brown it, put some salt and pepper all over it. A generous amount,
01:10rub it into the meat. Pre-seasoning is a really important part of the process.
01:17It's good to keep a piece of paper, parchment paper, under the meat. That way you really
01:22keep your counter clean. And when working with raw meat, remember to wash your hands after.
01:29And remember, your pepper should be freshly ground, your salt a good quality. Okay, ready to
01:37start browning. Quite hot in the bottom of this pan. You're going to hear a lot of sizzling
01:42there. And don't try to turn the meat until it easily releases. It'll tell you when it's ready
01:48to turn. Smells good already. Now most pot roasts, most braises, start with a mirepoix, which is a
01:57combination of aromatic vegetables generally, an onion, a carrot, and a stalk of celery.
02:06And we're just going to cut the onion into thin slices like this.
02:10Of course, we chopped the celery and carrots, which have been peeled. The same combination
02:15of vegetables is called a soffritto in Italian. So they're ready to go. I think we can try to turn the meat.
02:26Lifting easily. This is a very wonderful piece of meat, browning perfectly. Look at that fabulous
02:36color that it's getting. That's what you want on your finished pot roast. You'd want a nice,
02:44dark exterior and a well-cooked, silky result. The meat has been tied. That holds the shape.
02:53The browning of the meat takes about eight to ten minutes. Have patience. It's worth it.
02:59Now remove the meat to a baking sheet. There. Oh, great looking. So delicious. And now to the pot,
03:12just add your lovely onions, your thyme, bay leaf, peppercorns, carrots, and celery.
03:24And you don't really want to brown the onion as much as make it translucent in the olive oil.
03:31For most braising, you would have this kind of a base of vegetables in the bottom of the pan.
03:37This takes two or three minutes. And if they start to cook too much, you can add just a little bit
03:43of water to stir up the brown bits. And I'm going to do that right now, just a little bit.
03:49Well, the onion has softened. The celery, too. Carrots take a little bit longer because they're harder.
03:56But it's ready and time to add the flour. Just one tablespoon of flour will do. And cook that.
04:03Well done. You don't want to have a floury taste. And the flour allows the liquid to be absorbed
04:09and sauce to thicken. The flour is well done. And now we're going to add the celery.
04:17The flour is well done. Add the rest of your water. And so altogether, we've added about one
04:22and a quarter cups of water. Now, some people might want to add a little bit of red wine,
04:30beef stock, veal stock, vegetable stock. It really doesn't matter. But I think water just works
04:36very well. And about two tablespoons of red wine vinegar for a little bit of acidity.
04:42So can you see how it's thickening?
04:49So now, just lower the heat so it's simmering but not boiling. And the liquid should come up
04:56only about one inch on the sides of the meat. And here goes our meat. Cover it tightly. And with
05:03less liquid in the pot, you'll need to watch it more carefully and turn the roast more frequently.
05:09And just cook, turning every 30 minutes until tender, two and a half to three hours.
05:16So now the meat is quite beautiful. Remove it carefully to a baking sheet like this.
05:24You're going to put the meat back in, but we want to cook the rest of the vegetables.
05:28And we want to strain this gravy. So into a bowl, just strain. And we'll also take out
05:36a little bit of the fat. So all the aromatics have really cooked down. Press them
05:45through the sieve as much as you can. So this is basically the gravy and the sauce. Put this back
05:53into the pot. But you see we have a pretty nice brown gravy. It's very, very tasty.
06:03And the vegetables, about three quarters of a pound of carrots, of turnips, and of tiny baby
06:08potatoes. You can use quarters or sliced potatoes, thickly sliced potatoes too. This is the nice
06:14turnip. And peel the turnip and I'm cutting it into wedges, sort of like apples for an apple pie.
06:20And now turn the heat back on. Once this comes back to a simmer, put the meat back on top,
06:33cover and cook for another 15 to 20 minutes or until the vegetables are tender to the point
06:41of a knife. So the meat is out of the gravy. It looks really tender and so delicious.
06:48Now remove carefully the trussing strings. Now it's important to let the meat rest
06:58for about 10 or 15 minutes because if you try to slice it when it's really, really hot,
07:04it may just completely fall apart. This is a very tender cut of meat. Now that looks like pot roast.
07:12Grandma Gilbert's, Grandma Roskovsky's, Grandma Kostyra's, my mother's, mine, and now yours.
07:23The meat has reached the right consistency when it is silky, can be shredded easily. Now that
07:28looks really good, braised pot roast. So a stew is generally prepared with small cuts of meat,
07:36small cubes, with the addition of vegetables that are cooked in enough liquid to generally
07:40cover the entire thing. Now this is slab bacon and this is what we are going to render to start
07:47browning the beautiful piece of chuck I have in front of me. Cut the bacon into half inch cubes
07:54and this goes right into your pan and start rendering the fat. This is a fatty slab bacon.
08:01So there we have our bacon rendering. Now this beautiful piece of chuck, cut this into
08:07Now this beautiful piece of chuck, cut this into nice squares. So while the bacon is melting,
08:16season with salt and pepper. Use kosher salt for this. You want to season generously.
08:23A little bit of pepper.
08:27So we'll save the lardon.
08:32These will be added back into your stew.
08:38And now just put your salted, peppered meat in the fat. You do not want to crowd the pan
08:48and don't try to move them for a minute or two. As it's browning, you can be cutting up your
08:54wonderful mushrooms. You can use white button mushrooms, you could use shiitakes, but a very
09:00nice bunch of mushrooms, two ounces of mushrooms and some yellow onions cut up. One medium large
09:07onion peeled and cut into squares and four cloves of peeled, finely minced garlic. Now adjust your
09:16heat while you're browning the meat. Let's take a look. See that wonderful caramelized color it gets?
09:24So you want to do each side, six sides to a cube. Now meats won't brown at a low temperature,
09:33which is why it's very important to sear the meat on the stove top first. If you don't do this,
09:40you will not have that nice, dark, rich stew that we are looking for. The meat looks very good.
09:50I will put the meat in the bowl with the rest of it. See how nicely colored this meat is?
09:55That is exactly the color you want. There's a little excess fat and I'm going to pour it right
10:04into a reserve bowl. And now all those nice brown bits that are on the bottom of the pan,
10:11of the pan, add some beef stock, one cup, preferably homemade if you have it. And
10:20this is a great wooden spoon. Has a flat bottom and just a few strokes releases all that stuff
10:28from the bottom of the pan. Try to find one of these if you can. Very good spoon to have.
10:34Okay, so now this liquid goes right over the meat.
10:43And look at the pan, nothing in there. It's almost clean. So to this, on low heat,
10:51add a couple tablespoons of olive oil. I like to add the onions first, cook
10:59until translucent. That takes about three minutes. Now you can add also four cloves
11:07of garlic, finely minced. If you don't like garlic, you can omit the garlic in this stew.
11:15And now you can add your mushrooms, cleaned and cut in half, stems removed.
11:21And cook this for, oh, just about two minutes, just until they start to soften.
11:30So there, the mushrooms are soft. The onions have a nice color and they are nicely translucent.
11:37And it's time to thicken the stew. And we do this by adding two tablespoons of flour,
11:44all-purpose flour. Sprinkle it over your onions and mushrooms.
11:48And stir that around. You must cook that flour to make it palatable. So we're cooking it over
11:57low-medium heat. And for added flavor, a tablespoon of Dijon mustard.
12:06This adds just a little bit more flavor.
12:09And it smells very good. And now, you see that the bottom of the pan has, again,
12:16accumulated some brown bits. The flour has made everything a little bit sticky.
12:22We're going to add two cups of beef stock. And stir this around. Now, here goes the meat.
12:34Boy, does that look good. And now, red wine. Two cups.
12:44And now add a few sprigs of thyme and two bay leaves. Submerge them in the liquid.
12:52Now bring that to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Cover.
12:57And you will cook it for approximately one and a half hours, skimming every now and then,
13:04just taking off any excess fat. So, oh, yes. Now, look how much reduction has taken place.
13:13And the beef is beautiful. The mushrooms are tender. Now is time to add one pound of fingerling
13:22potatoes or Yukon gold, cut in half. These have to cook for another 25 minutes. So,
13:28this is at the end of an hour and a half where the meat is very tender. You're adding the potatoes.
13:36Now make sure we submerge those in the gravy. Really beautiful. And about 12 ounces or so of
13:45chipolini onions. These have been blanched and peeled. You can also use pearl onions,
13:50red or white. Cover again. And in approximately 25 minutes,
13:57the potatoes will be done. Check after about 20, just to make sure.
14:03Well, here's the stew. It looks good. And it is ready to serve. Look at the color.
14:11The meat is not falling apart, and yet it is totally fork tender. So beautiful.
14:19I think it's very nice. Oh, stir in the lardon.
14:29So, now I like serving it in a heated bowl like this with some noodles.
14:35This small bowl will be welcomed by anyone you bring to your home. Look how pretty.
14:45A little bit of carrot. A little bit of vinegary, finely grated horseradish.
14:55And a little bit of chopped dill.
15:00And a little bit of chopped dill. Now that is beef stew at its best.
15:09Now here is another spectacular dish to serve on a special occasion. It is a crown roast of
15:15pork, or it will be a crown roast of pork. The roast is formed from the rib sections
15:21for two and tied into a circle to form a crown. And this dish is a British tradition dating way
15:27back to the Victorian era. When it comes to flavor and regal presentation, nothing rivals
15:33a crown roast of pork. So let me share my recipe with you. You'll need two racks of pork with 10
15:42ribs. Ask your butcher to remove the shine bone, which is here. If left on, it would be absolutely
15:49impossible to carve the roast. So first thing you do when you get this home, and are you ready to
15:57start cooking it, is to cut down right between the ribs just deep enough so that the meat will
16:05bend. You want these ribs to bend a little bit because this is the outside of the crown.
16:11Make sure that the butcher frenches the bones. And this is one serving. One rib is one serving.
16:19So this could serve, I would say, anywhere from 14 to 20 people. And the same on this one.
16:27Make sure your knives are sharp. This is beautifully sharp. It's cutting through this
16:31pork very nicely. This is great for a special occasion, Christmas time, New Year's Eve.
16:38It's also nice if your family loves pork to serve on a holiday like Thanksgiving. So, which is
16:44traditionally turkey as you know. See how it bends now? It wouldn't bend like that unless you did
16:50these cuts. Now form your crown. The idea is to get this one attached to this one. We're going to
17:00use a needle and thread. Really a needle, a meat needle, and some string. Cotton string is good.
17:10So go through this way.
17:15And just go through here. It's fun to do something like this. Of course, if you have a really good
17:22butcher, he will do this for you. But it's also fun to learn how to do it yourself. Now tie that
17:29into a knot. And so I have that butted up. Now I want to get this one a little bit tighter here too.
17:35So just take your needle and go through again a little bit lower. Practice being a surgeon.
17:42I've always loved doing this kind of creative cooking. And again tie this. All these strings
17:52will be removed after the meat is roasted and it will hold together very nicely by itself. So
17:58that's one side. Do the same to the other side. Now to make sure that this roast stays in this
18:05beautiful crown shape, I suggest doing one more tie right below the ribs. And take your string
18:13and go right under the ribs. And give it a nice little tight tie. This will ensure
18:22a crown when it comes out of the oven, which is of course the entire object of this lesson.
18:29You see, that holds it very nicely. So now rub all over with a generous amount of salt and pepper.
18:41Perfect. Now the meat should stand like this for 30 minutes. And while it's standing there,
18:46I'm going to make a marinade that's going to be put over the meat. In a small bowl,
18:51mix parsley. Oh, about two tablespoons is good. Two cloves of garlic.
18:59A tablespoon of chopped sage. Sage goes very nicely with pork. And the zest of a lemon.
19:08On the standing rib roast, we used orange zest. On pork, I love the taste of lemon.
19:18And now add, oh, a tablespoon or two of olive oil. And just rub this all over the meat. And I find
19:26that really the most effective way to get this everywhere is to put it on with your fingers.
19:34Make sure you also get a little bit on the bones. It is fragrant and utterly delicious.
19:46So now transfer this roast to a 425 degree oven and roast for 15 minutes.
19:52Then reduce the heat to 375. And roast rotating halfway through until the meat is well browned
19:59and an instant read thermometer registers 140 degrees. That's going to take about two hours
20:05and 15 minutes. So here is the gorgeous crown roast of pork. When you test for a temperature
20:12in a roast like this, go straight down on this side of the rib bone, down to the center
20:18of the crown. It should be 140 before you take it out of the oven. And let the roast sit
20:25on the rack just like this for 20 minutes or so before you move it to a platter. And look
20:32how nicely it lifts. It's very heavy and very regal. Center it on the platter and take the
20:40strings off. So use a little scissor like this and pull all the strings out. There. And now
20:48put your stuffing in the center. We've made a wonderful stuffing out of wild and white rice,
20:54celery and dried apricots and prunes. A stuffing that really, really goes very well with the pork.
21:03Just mound it up in the center. Can you imagine this on your Christmas table?
21:10That is glorious. And you can garnish with pretty herbs around the base.
21:18Some rosemary.
21:24It looks pretty just like that. You could even put some ripe plums. If this were for Christmas,
21:31it's starting to look not only like a crown, but also like a Christmas wreath. That looks
21:37very pretty. I think simple is better. And now for the crowning glory, don't forget the
21:44pantolini. And here they are. I've always called it that. Who knows why?
21:52You can make these or buy them.
21:58Now, I think that's spectacular, don't you? Preserved lemons, which are very essential to
22:03this particular recipe, are lemons that have been preserved in a salt lemon mixture for about 30
22:09days. This is a preserved lemon. It's packed in a jar with salt. Lemons done like this have a
22:16silky texture and a very distinctive, unusual flavor. And they're very widely used in Moroccan
22:23cooking. The initial purpose of preserving lemons in salt and their own juice was to make lemons
22:28a winter fruit, last all year long. Once you preserve the lemons, it is just the rind.
22:35This is the rind of one lemon. We're going to use this in our marinade. You can just cut it
22:41into smaller pieces and put into a food processor. About a half a cup of rosemary leaves. Seems like
22:48a lot, but not for such a big piece of lamb as we have here. Two cloves of garlic. And you can
22:55roughly cut these up just so that the food processor doesn't have to work so hard.
23:00And some leaves. These are beautiful mint leaves, a very nice accompaniment for lamb. You can again
23:08just coarsely cut these up and put these into the processor. And some salt, some pepper, and you can
23:22just grind it up a little bit and process with about a third of a cup of olive oil.
23:30It's almost like making a pesto. Now the lamb is exactly as I received it from the butcher.
23:37Beautifully prepared as a butterfly, but it really should be a little bit thinner. And you can do
23:43that yourself at home between two pieces of plastic wrap and use a meat tenderizer or a mallet. Don't
23:51use the prickly side, that will tear through the plastic, but just use the smooth side. And pound
24:00it until it's pretty much all the same thickness so that it will cook nice and even. And you can
24:11spread half of this mixture on one side of the lamb and half on the other. A most really fragrant
24:19mix. You can fill every little nook and cranny, but just half on this side. There. Now fold your
24:28meat in half. You want to fit it into a shallow pan. And another bit all over this side. And this
24:39you can just lift up and slide into your pan. And you've made very little mess.
24:49Use the rest, that last quarter of your marinade on this side. This will overnight really flavor the lamb.
25:01That is perfect. Use your plastic to cover over the lamb and refrigerate at least eight hours,
25:08preferably overnight. So here's our gorgeous marinated big hunk of lamb. It looks really good.
25:16We're getting ready to roll it. Though the cut can be very pricey, this leg of lamb, it is very
25:22straightforward to prepare, even for the novice home cook. And it is one of the most popular lamb
25:27cuts that we have. Now the lemon, we need just the peel. So I'm taking away that pulp. For this,
25:37it's very nice to see the strips of lemon in the meat. Cut the strips quite thinly
25:44so that they are easily eaten. A big chunk will be a little strong.
25:51There. So that's your lemon peel. So now put your lamb on a board
26:03and spread the lemon peel all over the inside. This is going to be rolled up, so put this all
26:12evenly spaced on the inside. Lamb takes a lot of seasoning very nicely, and salt and pepper in the
26:19roasting process is very important. Oh, for all cuts of lamb. Now roll up, narrow end to big end,
26:30tucking in any little loose pieces. And here you are going to behave like a butcher. You are going
26:36to be tying this roast together with butcher's twine. It's slippery. Now cut a piece of string
26:46about six feet long, and this is cotton butcher's twine. Everybody has a different method for
26:53tying a roast. Slide your string under and tie into a strong knot. Butchers can do this
27:05so quickly. There. Okay, so now we are going to blanket stitch your roast. Take the string
27:14underneath. Just take the whole bunch of string like this and pull it through. It is the blanket
27:24stitch that is one of the first embroidery stitches you learn when you're learning embroidery.
27:31There. Now you can go around this way under the whole roast and tie this to the other side.
27:40So you have a perfect roast, as nice as the butcher would do it. And now get this into your
27:46roasting pan, a parchment liner in the pan, a rack for the meat, and put this whole roast into a
27:53preheated 450 degree oven for 25 minutes. Then add half a cup of water, reduce the heat to 400
28:01degrees, and continue roasting 35 minutes or so. Let the lamb rest in the pan out of the oven for
28:08about 30 minutes before you carve it. Snip off your trussing strings. And I'd slice the lamb,
28:16oh, approximately between an eighth and a quarter of an inch thick. And you can arrange as you
28:23wish on your platter. Garnish with wedges of fresh lemon. And there you have a really,
28:30really gorgeous platter.