Beef Stew and More Beef Stew

Today you get two recipes. I've never been a huge fan of beef stew with the typical gravy-like broth. So I was happy when I discovered this recipe in my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook that was my standard for many many years. It has a tomato-based broth.

Beef Stew
2 T flour
1 lb. stew beef
2 T oil
3 1/2 c vegetable juice cocktail
1/2 c chopped onion
2 t beef bouillion (except I usually use chicken because that is what I have around)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 t basil
1/2 t thyme
2 c potatoes, cubed and peeled
2 c sliced carrots
1 c sliced celery

Shake flour over meat cubes to coat. In a large saucepan, brown meat half at a time, in hot oil. Add vegetable juice, onion, bouillion, garlic, basil, and thyme. Bring to boiling, reduce heat. Cover, simmer 1 hour or til meat is nearly tender. Add potatoes, carrots, and celery. Cover and simmer 30 minutes more.

As I type this I am realizing I have only ever made this in the crockpot. Those instructions are to prepare and brown meat as above (sometimes I skip the browning). In the bottom of the crockpot layer onion, potatoes, carrots, and celery. Sprinkle with bouillion, garlic, basic, and thyme, add meat. Pour 2 1/2 c vegetable juice cocktail over meat. Cover, cook on low for 10-12 hours or until everything is tender. (I'm pretty sure I cook on high for probably half the time.)

Then about a year ago I had dinner at my friend Kaija's house and she made an AMAZING beef stew. Not your typical beef and potatoes, and nothing like brown gravy anywhere here. Seriously yum. I spent months drooling over my memories of this stew, and finally asked her for the recipe. When I made it, it didn't taste as good as hers, but probably because I'm not good at following recipes. I will never learn.

PROVENCALE BEEF STEW
2 lbs beef stew meat
6 TBSP olive oil/butter
31/2 TBSP flour
2 cups red cooking wine (I substituted grape juice since I didn't have wine, it worked pretty well)
1 cup beef broth
salt and pepper
1 onion -- diced
3 cloves garlic
1 16 oz can of tomatoes (or fresh)
pinch thyme
bay leaf (I omitted this since I'm not a huge fan)
3 red peppers, in strips
2 cans artichoke hearts (in water)
1/2 cup black olives (drained)
serve with (buttered and breaded) egg noodles

Brown meat in 2 TBSP butter/oil. Sprinkle with flour and cook for a few minutes to blend in the flour. Add 1 cup wine and beef broth. Add salt and pepper. Dislodge brown bits in pan and pour into crockpot.
In same pan, saute the onion and garlic in 2 TBSP butter/oil. Add tomatoes. Season with thyme and bay leaf. Put in crock pot.
In same pan, heat remaining 2 TBSP butter/oil. Saute red pepper strips, sprinkle with flour and cook 2 minutes. Add red wine (1 cup) slowly until thickens and blends. Add to crock pot.
Add artichokes and olives. Cover and cook!

Blushing Pomegranate Chicken

Step 1: Give your mother-in-law a pomegranate tree for Christmas.

Step 2: Wait a few years because it takes awhile for the tree to start producing.

Step 3: (VERY important, do not skip this step!) Move to the same city as mother-in-law.

Step 4: Gratefully accept pound after pound after pound of pomegranates. (Most of the time she had already peeled them for us, too.)

Step 5: After you've had your fill of eating pomegranates on your cereal, your salad, your ice cream, juiced, or just plain, try this recipe, because even though you aren't getting tired of them, it is fun to try them in new ways.

I like the combination of sweet and savory, but no one else was very excited about it. I prefer my own roasted sweet potatoes instead of this kind, but still good.

Now that pomegranate season is over, I'll have to wait until next year...

Turkey Curry

My mother spent a few years living in Japan, once in high school and once in college. Although it has been a long time, she has always been somewhat obsessed (I mean that in a nice way). She still speaks Japanese, decorated her living room in Japanese block prints and sculptures, has shoji screens as her window coverings, plays the koto (although come to think of it I haven't heard her play in many years), cooks Japanese food, keeps in touch with her host families and friends in Japan, and always manages to have some local Japanese friends at any given time. In fact, growing up it was part of our family tradition to have a handful of Japanese people at our Thanksgiving dinners. Usually they were families from Japan living here that my mom somehow met and befriended, and since they didn't have any of their own Thanksgiving traditions they would spend the day with us. And usually bring a dish to share. The first time I tasted sushi (and real sushi, not the rolled kind you can get anywhere) was at Thanksgiving.



When I was in high school, my school started offering a Japanese class. Being a teenager, I thought ho-hum. My mom was of course excited, and offered to send me on a trip to Japan if I took the class. Still, I thought ho-hum. Now I think WHAT AN IDIOT!!! but unfortunately there is no going back. One of the things I regret from my teenage years. Don't worry, there aren't too many and that was the most interesting one.



So, that was a tangent, but it gives you some context for why I consider Japanese curry a comfort food even though I'm a white girl married to a Mexican. I grew up eating several Japanese dishes, but I only learned how to make a few, and this is the only one I still make. I always make it after Thanksgiving because it is great with turkey, although you can also use chicken. (Actually, today I made it a little too thin, so I used the leftover mashed potatoes from Thanksgiving, too, to thicken it up a little bit.) It is one of those meals that sticks to your ribs.

As always the measurements are approximate.

1 T butter
1 onion, sliced
4 carrots, sliced
5 potatoes, peeled and diced
2-3 cups turkey, cooked and diced
1 box curry sauce mix (the one I get--actually I stole it from my mom's pantry--is called S&B Golden Curry Sauce Mix, medium hot), broken into pieces
rice (get an asian sticky kind to be authentic, short-grain or jasmine)

In a large saucepan, melt butter. Saute onion for a few minutes, add carrot. Saute for a few more minutes, add water (enough to cover once all the ingredients are added). Add potatoes, bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Simmer for about 10 minutes or until everything is tender. Add turkey and sauce mix, simmer and stir for about 5 minutes. If there are still visible chunks of the sauce mix, just keep stirring, it will dissolve. Serve over rice.

7yo looked at it and said, "This looks familiar, do I like it?" YES. And whaddaya know I was right. 5yo and 2yo just ate rice.

Paella

I say it is paella, but it really isn't. It is a rice/seafood/vegetable skillet meal that might make you think of paella, but I know it would never really fool anyone. But it is simple to make and doesn't require saffron which a few threads of costs more than all the other ingredients combined. I quite enjoyed it. This recipe was given to me by my friend Stephanie who I was telling I'd only ever eaten paella in Spain and had never dared attempt it.

2 c chicken broth
1 10 oz bag yellow rice mix
3 oz. chorizo, chopped (or other sausage, linguisa, or pepperoni)
1 c bell pepper, chopped (I used red, it is my fav)
1 lb cooked shrimp
3 lb scallops (I think I used half this amount)
1 c frozen peas
In a 10 inch frying pan over high heat, bring broth to a boil. Stir in rice mix, reduce heat, and simmer until tender, about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a small frying pan over medium heat, stir chorizo and pepper until well browned, about 10 minutes. Add shrimp and cook for about 4 minutes, remove from heat.
Stir shrimp mixture, scallops, and peas into rice mixture and cook over medium heat, covered, until scallops are no longer translucent, about 4 minutes.

Tostadas and Ceviche

Since I'm doing very little cooking these days, this was a very easy throw together meal. I bought those pre-made tostadas (that are just tortillas fried up crisp), and then warmed up a can of refried beans, grated some cheese, and made ceviche. I should have had other toppings like lettuce/tomatoes/avocados/etc. but didn't have them on hand. When 7yo saw the tostadas he got really excited and said, "This is a Giovanni special!!!" Giovanni is his friend from school, who apparently makes his own special tostada to bring in his lunch. I think if I offered more toppings, that the kids might come up with their own specials, but this was good enough for tonight.

I have been thinking about ceviche lately for two reasons. First, I went to a birthday party that had a gargantuan bowl of ceviche that was really delicious. Second, a couple months back I bought 3 bags of shrimp because I had coupons. It isn't usually exactly a staple for me but I've had to find some recipes to use them. And now I want them to be a staple. I need more coupons.

I looked online to learn about ceviche and was a little bit horrified to find that traditionally the shrimp (or salmon or other seafood) is raw, but when soaked in lemon or lime juice its proteins are chemically changed to appear cooked. Made me a little squeamish, even though I know that raw seafood is a delicacy in many cultures. I kept looking around and finally found a website with cooked ceviche, they cited the reason for cooking was that the heat kills bacteria that the lemon juice method can't, and that a fairly recent cholera outbreak in South America motivated the change. (Thank you, cholera.) I usually buy the precooked shrimp anyway, but I did have one bag of raw and decided to use it for this. Otherwise, you can just save yourself that step.

1 lb. shrimp

cucumber, chopped

green onions, chopped (or red onion)

cilantro, chopped

lime juice, few tablespoons

hot pepper, chopped, to taste (different recipes specified different types, all I had was a dried red chile, it worked)

salt, to taste

Boil the shrimp for about 3 minutes, drain and remove whatever tails or shells they may have. Combine all the ingredients and refrigerate. This would have been even more awesome if I'd had an avocado to chop in there.

Garlic Soup

I made this soup just for me. I didn't expect anyone else to even try it. Good thing, because once I tasted it I didn't want to share it.

Everyone knows Violet Beauregard in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. She turns into a blueberry. But right before she does, she is chewing gum that tastes just like real food, she could even feel it going down her throat. That is what I thought as I was eating this soup. It is so full-flavored, it feels like you are eating something you need to chew.

You will find the recipe here.

I omitted the bay leaf (just because I'm not a fan). I substituted some very sharp cheddar for the parmesan, because I had just used the last of the parmesan in the quinoa risotto (oops). My soup ended up looking a little curdled, I'm not sure if that is how it is, or if it was because of the substitution, or if I just wasn't scientific enough when I tempered the eggs. So being the sloppy cook I am, I probably wouldn't serve this to guests, but it tasted wonderful. I recommend it for anyone who is sick as it will clear those sinuses right up, and for anyone who is healthy, too.

Quilters Soup

I'm not sure why it is called quilters. I don't quilt so I couldn't tell you. My friend who gave me this recipe said she likes it because you can make the whole thing from your food storage. I changed a couple things because of what I had around, but it was easy and very very filling.

2 cans Italian Stewed crushed tomatoes

2 cans water

1 can corn, drained (I used some frozen)

1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained (I don't like kidney beans much, so I just used extra black beans)

1 can pinto beans, rinsed and drained

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

2 cans chicken, drained (I used some leftover chicken I had)

1 pkg. Chicken Taco Seasoning Mix (McCormick) (I used some chili powder, thyme, and oregano)

Place all ingredients in a large saucepan, bring to a boil and then simmer for at least 45 minutes. Or cook on low in the crockpot all day. Then go make a quilt. She said serve with corn chips, but I knew the kids would eat only the chips, so I made cornbread instead.