Saturday, February 27, 2010

Guinness & Beef Stew

A little Irish inspired goodness for this week. So its technically not March yet, but I have big plans the first two weekends of March and didn't want St. Patty's day to come and go without something Irish.  I feel a special kinship with St. Patty's day despite not being one ounce Irish. As a child I was told that my name came from the saying 'Erin go bragh' because I was born on the 11th, my parents thought I was going to be a boy and had no girl name picked out for me for several days. Whether that's true or one of the many lies my sister told me growing up (most notably that I was born with a tail) who knows. The story has never been definitively confirmed (scratch that Mama Bliven has confirmed this story. I was poor little baby girl Bliven for 3 days until named Erin. My father's suggestion of Shawna since baby boy Bliven was going to be Shawn Michel was shot down).  A little disclaimer, I didn't make this recipe up. Its in this month's Cooking Light magazine but thought it sound delish and wanted to make it.

For this stew you'll need canola oil, flour, beef, 3 large onions, tomato paste, beef broth, 1 bottle of guinness, golden raisins, 4 carrots, 3 parsnips, 2 turnips, 2 small potatoes, salt, pepper, bay leaf, rosemary, and about 3 hours of time.
Start by cutting your beef into bite sized cubes. I had a big hunk of boneless chuck roast in my freezer so that's what I used. I had to lop off a giant piece of fat, but otherwise this cut worked nicely. I think it was somewhere around a pound of beef.
Then, chop your onions. I used three large yellow onions. Yes, this is a lot of onion, but it cooks forever and some of it falls apart into the broth. Feel free to scale it back if you don't like onion that much.
Now, sprinkle the beef with salt and coat in flour.  The flour helps the beef brown and some of it will stick to the pot as tasty browned bits.
Heat some canola oil in a large pot. I used a coated cast iron dutch oven because you want some of the beef goodness to stick to the bottom so don't use a non-stick pot. Once the oil is hot add the beef, cook for 5 minutes, browning on all sides and removing from the pot once browned.  Don't cook the beef completely, you just want it browned.
Add a little bit more oil the pot and add all the onions.  Cook them for about 5 minutes or until they start to look tender.
Add about one tablespoon of tomato paste and stir to mix.
Add the guinness, taking a sip if you'd like, or since you usually can't buy it by the bottle and you probably had to buy at least a 6 pack, have an entire pint. Maybe even have it over ice cream. Guinness float? Yes please!
Then add the beef broth. I added around 5-6 cups. Now, scrape the bottom of the pot to remove all the tasty browned beef bits from the bottom. As the soup cooks you may end up with some brown tastiness stuck to the sides of the pot. Scrape those off too. They add wonderful flavor.
Now, put the beef back in the stew.
Lastly, add about a palm full of golden raisins and and season with salt, pepper, some minced fresh rosemary and a few bay leaves.  The raisins will plump up as this cooks. The golden ones also added a nice sweetness to the soup.
Despite the lovely beef smell, the adorable puppy was less than interested. However, we did go on an hour long hike by the Chattahoochee and he was tie-tie.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, cover and cook for 1 hour. Yes, 1 hour.
Now is a great time to chop up the rest of the veggies. I started with the carrots. I peeled mine first because I got them at a semi-shady farmer's market and my best efforts to wash them left them still looking dirty. Peeling isn't necessary, but they do need to be chopped, however you like.
Next, I peeled and chopped the parsnips. Parsnips look a lot like white carrots, but are much more fibrous. I found it easier to peel them with a knife because when I tried the peeler it just shredded the outer layer without really peeling it off.
Then, I peeled and chopped the turnips.  I actually really like turnips. Honestly, I like root vegetables in general. Some people may think thats odd because most people think they taste like dirt. I think turnips get a bad rap, maybe its because they're a little ugly.
Lastly, I diced two small white potatoes. The Cooking Light recipe actually didn't include potatoes. How can you make an Irish stew without potatoes? That's absurd! My love of root vegetables forbade me from not adding potatoes. Set all the veggies aside.
Once I finished all that, I still had another 40 minutes of simmer time. How to spend all that time? How about checking in with CNN about the earthquake in Chile, being so thankful that Nadine is okay, and making some peanut butter and jelly muffins using the stand mixer she bought me and Brian and the cupcake tins that we may have stolen from her? Yeah, that's what I did with my time. This recipe is also Cooking Light.
After the hour of simmer time is up, uncover the stew, bring to a boil and cook for another 50 minutes. Yes another 50 minutes. At this time, you may be thinking WTF? But the beef needs time to cook, serious time, especially if you want it to be tender. I'm sure you could make this in a crock pot or pressure cooker, but I had time to waste today.
After that 50 minutes is up the stew is going to look a bit like dark brown sludge.
Add your veggies and mix them in.  The stew may look a little thick, but its stew, it should be thick. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until veggies are cooked, about another 45 minutes. You can simmer for longer, if you're like me and have time to waste and a fresh batch of muffins to tide off hunger pangs.
Once this is all done it will not look impressive, after all its an Irish beef stew. But trust me, it tastes good and is the perfect meal on a cold day. Enjoy!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Roasted Tomato & Eggplant Soup

Given that February is heart health month I wanted to make a tomato-heavy soup as recent research has shown tomatoes and heart health go hand in hand because they're rich in lycopene. Also, Lent started this week and as every good (or bad) Catholic knows, we're not supposed to eat meat on Fridays during Lent (for reasons that I've never been able to understand), so I wanted to stick to a meat-less soup (though I used chicken broth since it was all I had in the house, so I guess this makes me a bad Catholic, what else is new).  February is also Black history month, but I'm not sure how to make a soup for that. Maybe the gumbo from a few weeks ago can count as my black history inspired soup since okra is an West African vegetable. Regardless, here's a tasty roasted tomato & eggplant soup.

For this gem you'll need, 5 ripe tomatoes, 1 large eggplant, 1 head of garlic, 1 medium onion, some basil, 6 cups of broth of your choosing, 1 small can of tomato paste, 1 can of cannellini/Great Northern beans, 1 small parmesan or other hard cheese rind, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper and oregano to taste.
First, peel the eggplant. I normally don't peal anything, but eggplant peel is really tough and doesn't taste that great.
Then, cut into large cubes and set aside in a large bowl.
Next, slice the onion into big chunks. Put these in the bowl with the eggplant.
Now, cut the tomatoes in half and remove the seeds.
Chop into large pieces and place in the bowl with eggplant and onions.
Pour a healthy amount, probably about half a cup of extra virgin olive oil onto the veggies. Season with salt, pepper, crushed red pepper flake and oregano to your liking. Stir it all up to coat.
Place in a large baking dish and set aside. Now is probably a good time to preheat your oven to 350.
Now, get the garlic ready for roasting. I stole this from Carla's blog, so if you want better instructions, you can find them here: http://ilpiattoblu.blogspot.com/2010/02/whole-roasted-garlic.html. Chop the top  from a head of garlic, coat in olive oil, place in a cute little ramekin, and season with salt and pepper.
Place the veggies and garlic in your hot oven and roast for 45-55 miutes. My garlic took 45 minutes, whereas the veggies took 55. While we're at it, let's discuss how clean this oven is. I'm sure this won't last since we've only had this oven for less than a month, but its oh so pretty.
About 30 minutes into cooking, all these veggies started to smell lovely and the adorable puppy got interested.  Also, its finally warm and sunny in Atlanta and he loves to sunbathe.
Anywho, once roasted, your garlic should look something like this:
And the veggies should look like this:
Put these aside to cool a bit and get working with the soup. In a big soup pot over medium heat, pour 6 cups of broth. Add the can of tomato paste and stir to mix.
Next, rinse and drain your beans and add them to the soup. I added beans to the soup to add a bit of protein and make this a tad more hearty. If you don't like beans, just leave them out but be prepared for the soup to not be the least bit filling.
Now, add your roasted garlic. Its pretty easy to get the cloves out with a fork, or you can try squeezing the garlic bulb to make the cloves pop out, but I find that technique to be inefficient and unsuccessful. I really like garlic so I added all the cloves, but if you don't like garlic quite so much, just add a few and eat the rest on some toasted bread, its delicious.
Next, add the roasted eggplant, tomato and onion.
Season with some shredded basil. I used about 6 big basil leaves and shredded them by hand.
Blend all the veggies with a stick blender until the soup is nice and smooth.
Throw in the parmesan rind, reduce heat to low, and simmer for at least 30 minutes. The longer you simmer the more lovely cheese flavor you'll get. So if you have free time, let this baby hang out on the stove for a while. I also had to add a bit more salt.
I wasn't ready to eat the soup when it was done since it was so beautiful outside that I just had to go running. Hence the packaging in some fantastic glass bowls for storage and eating later. When I actually sit down to eat this soup, I'm certain I'll top it with some shredded or shaved parmesan and maybe some fresh basil. Enjoy!

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Gumbo

I'm not at all a football fan so this Sunday being Superbowl means little to me.  However, I do enjoy making a nice pot of chili for Superbowl parties but since I already made chili a few weeks ago thought it would be insufficient for me to put up another chili recipe. Brian suggested I make gumbo given that the Saints are playing. I tried to think of a some Indianapolis inspired soup and came up with nothing (MD's suggestion of horse soup in honor of the Colts seems a little too gross) so I stuck with gumbo.  Before you gumbo purists heckle this post, I do not like shrimp and therefore do not put shrimp or any of its gross crustacean cousins in my soup. If you like that sort of nastiness, put it in your soup but don't look for it in mine.

For my version of gumbo you will need: 3 cloves of garlic, 1 green bell pepper, 1 red bell pepper, 1 jalapeno pepper, 2-3 small onions, 3 stalks of celery, 2 handfuls of okra, chicken, andouille sausage, chicken broth, butter, flour, cayenne pepper, cumin, salt, black pepper and rice. (Kindly notice the lovely tin tiles on the wall, we've progressed with kitchen renovations and there's no more ugly wall in the background.)
I like my chicken shredded, but you can't shred raw chicken. I used about a pound of chicken tenderloinsBoil the chicken in enough chicken broth and water to cover until its cooked, probably around 15 minutes.
While the chicken is cooking, get to chopping. First, mince 3 garlic cloves.
Then, dice one green bell pepper.
At this time, the adorable puppy who just had his 7th birthday smelled the chicken and started his begging in the kitchen. He didn't know I was only chopping vegetables.
After ignoring the puppy, dice one red bell pepper.
Then, chop 3 small white onions.
Next slice 3 stalks of celery. I've learned the hard way that I don't like huge celery chunks in my soup, so I've taken to splitting the celery stalks in half if not in quarters before slicing them up.
Then, I donned latex gloves to avoid a burning eye incident later while taking out my contacts (another lesson learned the hard way). If you have latex gloves (I'm not entirely certain why the Blivmore pantry contains them), put them on. If not, carefully mince 3/4 of a large jalapeno pepper. If you don't like heat, you probably shouldn't be making gumbo, so I'm not going to suggest that you leave this out.
Now, the magic ingredient, the okra.  I had to go on an okra hunt today because its a summer vegetable and I wasn't certain my local slightly sketchy grocery stores would have it in stock. Never fear, the Whole Foods on Ponce came through, though they were charging $3.59 a pound for a vegetable that usually costs us Georgians about $0.99 a pound in the summer. Alas, there was okra there and much to my delight I wasn't the only one buying it and got to have a nice conversation with an elderly man about our gumbo recipes. This made me happy, as does okra, as evidence by my smiling face while I was chopping.
Okra is a very special vegetable. It has this wonderful property of excreting some goo when you cut it and cook it. For more about this goo, watch Alton Brown's Good Eats 'Okraphobia' episode. For anyone who has never experienced this goo, see below.  Remove stems and pointy little tails and chop the okra into rounds. You can actually eat the pointy little okra tails, but I find them to be hard to chew and not very tasty.
Now for meat prep. By now, your chicken should be cooked. Remove it from the liquid, but don't discard the liquid, you can use it later.
Using two forks, shred the chicken until its broken into pieces of a size you like. Since I used tenderloins, I had to hunt out that gross tendon and make sure I pulled it out.
Now, dice up the andouille sausage. If you don't like or can't eat pork, you can often find chicken andouille at places like Whole Foods. I'm sure there's some sort of soy andouille product out there too. The flavor of the sausage really defines gumbo, so definitely don't scrimp here.
Now its finally time to get cooking. I make gumbo in a coated cast iron dutch oven (I can't even type it without laughing). First, melt 4 tablespoons of butter over medium heat.
Then, add 4 tablespoons of flour to make a roux. Stir this constantly for about 10 minutes.
You'll notice the color darken a bit and the consistency of the roux to smoothen. I don't like my gumbo to be terribly thick, but if you know you want a thicker gumbo, just make a thicker roux.
Next, add the miced garlic and cook for 3-5 minutes
Now, add the peppers, onions and celery, also known as the 'holy trinity'.
Stir these up to coat in the roux and cook for about 5 minutes.
Add the chicken broth. You'll want to add the reserved liquid from boiling the chicken and about another four cups. Cook for 5-10 minutes.
Add the andouille.
Then add the chicken, stir this up, increase the heat to high and bring to a boil.
Once the gumbo boils, give the broth a taste and add any additional seasoning you'd like. I put in about  a teaspoon of cayenne pepper, tablespoon of cumin, and pinch each of salt and pepper
Once you like the broth flavor, reduce heat to low and add the okra. Stir this up and cook for about 5 minutes.
Gumbo is usually served over rice, as in the rice is made separately and the gumbo goes over it, but I wanted to cut out a step, so I added 1/2 a cup of minute rice.
Simmer for another 15 minutes or so. Give the broth one final taste to be sure its delicious. (Kindly notice the lovely new cook top, Brian installed our fantastic new 5-burner range last weekend, and its wonderful.)
Now, if all went well, you now have a deliciously spicy gumbo in your kitchen. Enjoy!
No more nutrition facts on this blog. I realized that I was totally obsessed with calorie counts and decided to quit it. I have better things to spend my energy on than making sure everything I make and eat is under 400 calories.