Irish Stew

From the Irish Children's Fund Friends and family "Wee Cookbook"

2lbs Lamb
1lb Onion
4 Stalks celery
1 Leek
1/2lb Carrots
2oz Barley
1 1/2lb Potatos
3/4pint (12oz) cold water
(optional, swap in 1/2lb turnip or parsnip for 1/2lb potato)

Cut meat into one inch cubes. Season well with salt and pepper. Slice onions thinly. Slice other vegetables thickly.  Pack alternating layers of vegetables, barley, and meat in ovenproof casserole. Start with the onions and end with potatos. Pour water over, cover and cook for 1 1/2- 2 hours at 325. Baste with juices from time to time. Raise oven temp to 425, uncover the casserole and brown the potatoes to finish.

Moraccan Chicken and bell pepper stew

It's AUTUMN! that means it's STEW SEASON! WOOO! I made my first beef stew on Wednesday night and we ate it on Thursday, it was delicious.  I didn't have any broth in the house, but rather than wait another day or run out to the store I opted to use the juice from a can of whole marzano tomatos, diluted with water to make up 2 cups. I ended up crushing the tomatos and adding them to the stew.  The outcome was quite tasty, if maybe a little tangy. 

We had dinner last night at the Bristol, and one of the hands down favorite dishes of the night was the Papperdelle with stewed chicken and bell peppers, and I'd like to experiment with recreating those flavors. 

In my searching this morning,I found this recipe on the Pacific Foods Kitchen talk recipes site.This looked too good not to post. Of course they'd like you to use their products, and I'd recommend their delicious free range chicken broth anyway, but I'm not going to type out the long titles of either of those products. They're the special boxed organic soups you find in the organic aisle at your supermarket chain.


Ingredients

1       tablespoon olive oil
6       chicken thighs, skin removed
1       medium onion, diced
1       clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 lbs butternut squash, peeled and cuti nto 1 in cubes (about four
         cups if you don't have a scale)
1       15oz can garbonzo beans, drained and rinsed well
1/2    cup raisins (I feel like you could probably swap in dried
         cranberries, cherries or plums)
1       teaspoon ground cumin
1/2    teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2    teaspoon sea salt
1       32 oz container pacific natural red pepper and tomato soup
1       cup chicken broth
1       cup frozen peas
5       cups cooked couscous prepared according to package directions

Directions

Heat oil in Dutch Oven over medium-high heat. Add Chicken and saute until browned, about 10 minutes.  Transfer Chicken to a plate until needed.

Lower heat to medium, saute onion and garlic for about 5 minutes or until onion has softened. Stir in chicken, squash, garbanzo beans, raisins, cumin, cinnamon, salt, red pepper and tomato soup, and chicken broth. cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.

Add peas and continue to simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes, or until squash is tender and chicken is cooked through.

Divide couscous among six bowls and spoon stew over the top, making sure each bowl gets on chicken thigh. serves 6 generously.

Chicken Gulash, Váljék kedves egészségére

Váljék kedves egészségére (pronounced VAH-lyake KEHD-vesh EH-gase-shay-reh) means "To your health" in Hungarian.  My husband's family are German, but come from a part of the former Yugoslavia known as the Donauschwabe.  Because of it's situation on the Danube river, the culture there was influenced as much by German custom as by neighboring Serbian and Hungarian ways.  This is most particularly illustrated in their food.
Michael's Opa was a master butcher and brought many recipes to America with him for sausages, serbian, german and hungarian.  The Chicago Tribune once named him the Sausage Man of Western Avenue, where his fabulous meat shop was located.  Unfortunately the shop has closed, but we're hoping to take a crack at his famous cevapcici next summer.  I'll let you know how that goes.

In the mean time, My Mother in Law Sigrid has very graciously supplied me with the Fless family recipe for Chicken Gulash, there are notes on how to use beef or pork at the end.  This is one of my favorite treats,

Chicken Gulash

cut up Chicken (whole chicken, or breasts and drumsticks)
3 or 4 large onions, diced
4tablespoons paprika (use good Hungarian paprika, not McCormick's, half sweet, half sharp if you like a little spice)
2 carrots sliced
1/2 green pepper
1 stalk celery, cut fine
8oz can tomato sauce

saute onion in 2-3 tablespoons olive oil until golden transparent.  add the chicken and turn until meat is sealed (browned)
add the paprika. add water to barely cover the chicken.add the tomato sauce and vegetables.  let water simmer with chicken to reduce until
chicken is tender, about an hour.  It should not be too soupy. careful not to burn.  the paprika thickens the sauce, and the onions help make the sauce.

To make gulash With beef or pork (stew beef or pork shoulder cut to about 1" chunks), add potatoes right in with the beef, as they soften and dissolve they add to the thickness of the gravy. 
You can make Szegediner gulash by cooking a bag of sauerkraut with it and serving with a dollup of sour cream.

Serve gulash with rice or potatoes, or spatzle, or spoon dumplings.

Week 3 basic beef stew

so I already owe you a stew.  I apologize, but I started school last week and honestly, I was overwhelmed.  I'm taking two classes which is my max just now.  Next quarter I'll be taking three classes, so I'm thinking making stew will be good so Michael has something to heat up during the week.

anyway, tonight I'm headed over to my friend Kendra's to hang out and I offered to make a stew.  she said "beef stew, just some kind of beef stew".  okayyyy, that's easy enough.  So here it is, nothing fancy, basic beef stew.

Week 3


standard beef stew.

2 pounds beef stew meat, cut in 1-inch cubes
3 glugs olive oil
3 small to medium onions, peeled
4-5 stalks celery, not the greenest outer stalks
4 large carrots
5 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt plus to flavor
black and or white pepper to taste
pinch cayenne pepper. be conservative, you can always add more
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
3 bay leaves
2 cups broth plus to cover (any reduced sodium broth with no msg, beef or veg make most sense)
1/4 cup crushed tomato
light 1/4 cup wine or balsamic vinegar
Preparation:

heat one glug olive oil in a dutch overn or heavy skillet over medium-low heat; pat beef dry on paper or kitchen towel.
add to dutch oven and brown.
As with any recipe that calls for browned beef, don't overcrowd!
In a large bowl, combine salt, flour, black and or white pepper and conservative pinch cayenne.
As smallish batches of beef finish browning, remove to a bowl with dry ingredients, allowing as much oil/drippings to remain in pot as possible.
Add onions and celery to Dutch oven with about 1/2 cup of broth. Stir and scrape to dissolve the browned drippings clinging to the pot.
Add flour coated beef, bay leaves, mustard and remaining stock and bring almost to a boil. Add tomato, reduce heat to low and cover.

After about an hour add carrots and any additional root vegetables plus the vinegar. Check/adjust seasoning. cover but leave a gap so the stew can reduce a bit.  depending on the quality of the stew meat, simmer 3-5 hours.  you can also bake for 3-5 hours at 325degrees.   I took photos today, I'll post a link in a little while.

* A quick note about stew meat.  all of my favorite chefs at Food Network champion the virtues of knowing your butcher.  For some time now I have been attempting to cultivate at least an acknowledgement from the butchers at Treasure Island (high quality meat directly on my route to my car after work, SCORE).  I finally succeded today, but he didn't have any "stew" meat left in the back.  He was super sweet though, and handed me the three packages he thought looked nicest.  I have to admit, I hardly had to trim anything.  My Dog Charlie was a little disappointed.
So yeah, get to know your butcher, no more guesswork about what meat to buy for what.  :)

Happy Stew Year

so, maybe something like Julie Powell, but I'm not in it for the book deal. I'm probably going to skip weeks since I'm in school and I work full time as well as play wifey and doggie mommy. Also, just for the record, I may modify and combine recipes, but none of these recipes are going to be original, and most likely NOT by Julia Child.

I started the year with Beef and Guinness Stew.

It's always my favorite in restaurants. I've read a bunch of versions of the recipes and tried more than a few of them, so here's mine, taking a tip from this one and a tip from that one...the Prunes really help it out if you use the bottled Guinness, and are just a nice addition if you use the draught.

So here's the recipe!

BEEF & GUINNESS STEW
This is a hybrid of several recipes I've found. I've tested a few, this is the outcome. I've never made it in a casserole or crock pot but

I'm sure it will work fine. a crock pot will take longer I think, just keep an eye on it, stirring often so it doesn't burn to the bottom.
*a note about Guinness: Every recipe I've seen demands Guinness in the original brown glass bottles.

Most people now prefer to drink it in a draft can or bottle. It's ok to use the draft (leaving a nice treat for you and guests with the extra),  but the flavor is lighter. To use, poor it slowly into the measuring cup to minimize nitrogenation, and allow to stand and go "flat"  while you prepare the other ingredients. Remove as much of the foam as you can with a spoon)
Yield: 6-8 servings
2 lb lean stewing beef

Olive oil, about a glug every two batches of meat

3 tablespoons flour plus maybe another tablespoon if the stew isn't thickening

salt to taste

freshly ground pepper to taste

a pinch of cayenne

2 large onions, coarsely chopped (chop about 1/4 of one onion finer to dissolve and thicken the soup)

1-2 large cloves garlic, crushed

2 tablespoons tomato puree, dissolved in 4 tablespoons water (used about 6-8 tablespoons crushed tomato instead, was great)

1 1/4 cups Guinness

2 cups carrots, cut into chunks

sprig of thyme

3 bay leaves

2-4 prunes, finely teensy chopped

Directions:
Trim the meat of any fat or gristle, cut into cubes of 1-2 inches (5cm) and dry the cubes completely on a paper towel.
Heat a glug of oil in a dutch oven or wide frying pan over a high heat.
Brown the meat on all sides. don't overcrowd the meat, brown it in batches and put aside in a bowl until all meat is browned.

Season the flour with salt, freshly ground pepper and a pinch of cayenne. Toss the meat in the mixture. If you are using a frying pan, put the browned and coated meat in the casserole or crock pot to keep.
Add onions, tomato and crushed garlic to dutch oven or frying pan.
cook gently for about 5 minutes, or until onions go a little soft and transparent, stirring occasionally.
pour some of the Guinness into the frying pan or dutch oven.

Raise the heat on the pan and stir fairly briskly while scraping the sides and bottom to dissolve the caramelized meat juices on the pan (deglaze the pan).

When using the dutch oven, stir in meat with the remaining Guinness;

When using the frying pan, pour in the rest of the guiness and stir it all together, then pour this mixture over the meat in the crock pot or casserole dish.
add the carrots and the thyme. Stir, taste, and add a little more salt if necessary. Add bay leaves.
At midpoint or so add prunes.(don't worry they completely dissolve)

Cover with the lid and simmer very gently until the meat is tender - 2 to 3 hours.

The stew may be cooked on top of the stove or in a low oven at 300 degrees F (the high setting on a crock pot).
If gravy isn't thickening after 2 hours, add 1 tablespoon flour and stir briskly for a minute.
Taste and correct the seasoning. Serve over a bed of Mashed potatos, or with mash on the side.
also great in ramekins or soup crocks with a biscuit baked on top.
tip for Mashed potatos:
Don't cut your potatos too small. find your smallest potato and cut the rest to about the same size.
might take an extra 5-10 minutes to cook (about 25-30 minutes total), but it's relatively foolproof.