Beef Stew

beef stew is like stone soup - you put the stuff in the pot and cook it, minus the stone, of course. Simple. Great for these cold winter days we're having in almost the entire country.

Cube and brown the beef in a little oil and garlic. I used 2 pounds and sauteed in two batches because too much meat in the pan will not brown well. Add some salt while the meat is sauteing.

Add some red wine, a little more.

Add some sliced mushrooms

Add some onions. I used four medium sized onions.

Let everything start cooking together

Add some chopped celery.

Add some carrots - I used the ones that are ready to cook.

Add some potatoes. We're cutting down on starch and carbs, so I used less than I could have.

I decided to transfer the whole stew to a crock pot/slow cooker which is larger than the pot I had started with. But I did this mainly so I wouldn't have to check on the cooking quite as often.

Add some tomatoes - you can use stewed tomatoes or diced tomatoes in their own juice.

Add salt and pepper and several bay leaves

This stew cooked in the crock pot for about 5 hours. Add a little water as needed during cooking if stew is too dry.

I added a can of peas about a half hour before serving. You can use frozen peas which are probably better, or even some green beans if you don't have peas. Discard the bay leaves as you find them.

It was yummy!

Dinner's Ready!

Benni:

"You better not touch MY stew"

Cauliflower - with a different slice

I am tempted to call this Cavolfiore alla Parmigiana - a variation on a theme - although my Google search brings up Italian-based website recipes all of which include tomato. This is "plain" - no sauce.

Alla Parmigiana, to my mind means the egg-dipped breaded, fried (or baked or sauteed) vegetable (eggplant) or meat (veal, chicken, even pork cutlets) with parmesan cheese sprinkled on top - whether or not it gets baked again in a casserole with tomato sauce and more cheese.

I've done this before, (Cavolfiore alla Nonna) but this version is prepped a little differently. The pieces are easier to bread and fry when sliced like this and they look nice on the plate.

Take a head of cauliflower and put it whole into a deep sauce pan with a little water on the bottom and steam it for about 4 or 5 minutes until just barely cooked, not too tender.

Remove the whole cauliflower and slice it into slices not much thicker than 1/2 inch. These hold together fairly well. If pieces break off, no problem, just proceed with dipping, breading and frying the smaller ones as with the larger pieces.

Dip the slices in beaten egg, dredge in flavored bread crumbs and fry in olive oil (or place on a cookie sheet sprayed with oil, and bake at 375 in the oven) until the slices are golden brown; if frying, turn to brown on both sides.

This method will soak up a fair amount of oil; baking will use a minimal amount of oil.

Remove from pan or oven and sprinkle with grated parmesan (Parmigiano Reggiano) cheese.

This makes a great antipasto or contorni. Can be served at room temperature. We had it tonight along with a bought roasted chicken from the market. (At $3.99 on sale for an already cooked whole chicken, who can go wrong?)

Leon made a pineapple upside down cake for dessert.

Dinner's Ready!

Buon Appetito!

Home Made Egg Noodles with Cauliflower and Tuna

Pasta all'uovo con Cavolfiore e Tonno.

I had intended to make a tuna noodle casserole tonight but didn't get to the market for noodles and cream of mushroom soup. Actually I was going to use fresh mushrooms to avoid any additives and fat that might be in canned soup unless it was labeled "organic and all natural" which my local IGA does not specialize in.

So I decided to use what I had on hand - and ended up skipping the casserole all together.

Now I haven't made home made egg noodles in a long time, but it is really easy. The hardest part is cleaning up. Although I try to keep flour confined to a small area, I tend to be a bit messy and, well, there's white all over the counter and me.

To get back to what I did have on hand: Eggs, flour, canned tuna,  a nice big cauliflower, garlic of course, red pepper flakes, olive oil, Italian flavored bread crumbs.

So I decided on home made egg noodles with cauliflower and tuna. To be honest I had some doubts about how this combination would taste, especially after I added the tuna...

I didn't take pictures while I was cooking - only the final dish - nor did I measure it all out. If you need details on home made egg noodle manufacturing you can check out  How to make egg noodles at this website.

I used 3 large eggs and about 2 to 2.5 cups of flour. Just break the eggs into the mound of flour and stir with a fork until the flour is incorporated a little at a time. Continue until a a soft/stiff dough forms, just past the sticky stage. Let the dough rest a few minutes, roll out thin (1/8 inch or less) on a well floured board, cut into strips or squares. Do not pile up the noodles - keep them separated and lightly floured until ready to cook.

This amount  turned out to be enough for four people or three hungry people. We had leftovers again. Here's the rest of the recipe.

Cut up the cauliflower and immerse the florets in a pot of boiling, salted water for about 4 minutes and removed all the florets with a slotted spoon and set them aside. Keep the pot boiling.

Saute two or three cloves of garlic in some olive oil - enough to cover the bottom of a large cast iron skillet - and add a good teaspoon of red pepper flakes. Cook on high heat until the garlic just begins to brown, lower heat and add three cans of tuna, drained. You don't want to fry the tuna - just heat it through. Add the cauliflower and toss it well to coat the cauliflower with the garlic oil.

Put the noodles into the salted boiling water and cook until two or three minutes after the noodles come to the surface. Remove noodles with a slotted spoon into serving dishes and top with the cauliflower and tuna mixture. Add a little pasta water to make a "sauce" and top with a dusting of Italian bread crumbs which give just enough flavor to make this dish actually better than I had anticipated.

Another simple, delicious and nutritious meal. Dinner's ready! Buon appetito!

A Lower Fat Mac and Cheese

I am on a low-fat "diet"- lowering my fat intake for the doc.

I was making broiled fish tonight and thought fennel would be an excellent accompaniment because of its delicate anise/liquorice flavor. My favorite fennel recipe is the one with bechamel sauce - basically the same sauce you would use as a base for mac and cheese. And I happened to have a little cooked pasta (plain without any sauce) - about 2 cups of cooked pasta -  left from the other night.

So I came up with a nice side dish - Mac and Cheese with Fennel.

For the fennel, I first sauteed two large fennel bulbs that I cut into eighths, in a little olive oil, garlic and dry vermouth - but with only a smidgen of olive oil.

For the sauce I used about 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter or less and 2 tablespoons of flour (usually the proportion is 1:1 but this will just barely work - the roux may be a bit dry, but oh well, I am cutting down on fat.

I added 1% milk a bit at a time, letting the sauce thicken each time until the sauce achieved the proper consistency. Off the heat - you don't want the parmesan clumping -  I added about 4 oz of fat-free feta cheese and about 1/4 cup of grated parmesan (parmigiano) and a few grates of black pepper. Forgot the nutmeg, but you can add a little if you like.

I put the sauce over the pasta and fennel, dusted with bread crumbs and baked it at 350 until the top browned. The flavors all go well together, the anise vegetable and the chew of the pasta with melted cheese sauce. Scrumptious. I don't miss the taste of sharp cheddar which is my usual base along with whatever other cheese I have on hand, including sour cream. talk about FAT. This, on the other hand is very low on fat and just as tasty I think.

If you like you can  use broccoli or other vegetable in place of the fennel - I've often added broccoli to my mac and cheese but this version uses more vegetable than pasta, less fatty cheese and so it is "healthier" of course.

This makes about 4 servings - but I could easily eat half the recipe. I restrained myself however and had only one fourth of the casserole. There's always tomorrow.

Dinner's ready! Buon appetito!

Ratatouille - From Garden to Table

This is the season for garden vegetables in New England. In the micro-climate that is our backyard, on the north side of Fall Mountain and about 700 feet above sea level means that our garden is about two to three weeks late in producing ripe veggies. But now the tomatoes are at their peak and the eggplant and zucchini and peppers have been coming strong for about three weeks now.

I've done ratatouille here before but here are some photos of my last batch:

Dice up the veggies: you can use a combination of yellow and green squash and more or fewer green peppers and hot peppers. Use what your garden gives you. Mushrooms are a nice addition, but I didn't have any on hand this day.

Eggplant, zucchini, green pepper,
hot pepper, onion, garlic,tomatoes,
parsley, basil, salt, pepper, olive oil

This was an extra large batch so I sauteed the garlic, onion and pepper first in about 1/4 cup of olive oil, then added only the eggplant.

Eggplant will soak up the oil like a sponge. But let it cook over high heat until it gets a bit tender,

I removed the eggplant, onion and peppers and added a little more oil to the skillet to make room for the squash

Then I added the zucchini, the tomatoes, the salt, parsley, basil and cooked everthing over high heat until the zucchini began to soften and the tomatoes cooked down some.

The tomatoes and zucchini release a lot of liquid. I wanted my ratatouille to be less soupy so I removed the veggies after they were cooked and let the tomato sauce cook down.

Then I returned the eggplant, pepper and onion to the skillet first because that had the flavors of onion and garlic that I wanted to impart to the sauce

And then the zucchini

And let the whole thing cook a bit more.

Served alone with crusty bread and some Italian sausages or serve over pasta without meat for a great vegetarian dish; I'd like to try it with a can of beans mixed in instead of sausage as we are trying to eat less animal protein in our overall diet.

My ratatouille is a bit chunky and not over cooked, you may like yours more cooked and with less of a bite.

I had enough to freeze a portion for another meal - probably a quick meal for when we are in our RV at PTown and have spent a day at the beach.

Eggplant Parmigiano - No Frying

We are thankful for our garden which is producing an abundance of eggplant - tomatoes are just now coming in along with zucchini, peppers, Swiss chard, more beans and other good stuff.

We are thankful for this eggplant which earth has given and human hands have made. I've done this before but here is a brief summary: peel, slice, salt the eggplant; dredge in flour that has been seasoned; dip in egg, dip into bread seasoned crumbs; place on oiled cookie sheet and bake at 375 for 25 minutes or until tender; sprinkle with parmesan (parmigiano) - this is what makes it eggplant parmigiano; put some tomato puree or sauce on bottom of a casserole, layer  the eggplant and sauce into the casserole; top with a little mozzarella if you like; bake at 350 for another 25 minutes or until bubbling hot. Suggestion : Serve with fried sausage and peppers.

Chili Con Leftovers

I made another non-traditional chili tonight. About the only thing it has in common with chili is the chili powder and beans, and even then I didn't have the right beans.

Two nights ago I grilled some pork loin cutlets, very lean but seasoned and grilled to perfection, not dry but juicy. I also grilled some zucchini and some jalapenos and Portuguese hot peppers with evoo, garlic, black pepper. Last night we had corn on the cob leftover.

Sweet Corn off the Cob, Beans, Parsley, Basil,
Chili Powder, Roasted Hot Peppers,
Pork, Tomato Sauce

Into the crock pot went two medium size cans of tomato sauce (not spaghetti sauce - just the plain tomato sauce) four pork loin chops cut into very small pieces, three medium size cans of beans (black beans and great northern and small white - that's all I had on hand) two ears of corn, kernels only, five or six jalapenos and Portuguese hots, roasted and peeled, and a whole zucchini which I first diced and sautéed with an onion and garlic and green pepper and a good handful of green beans from the garden that I cut up - all sautéed in evoo till tender. A few spoons of chili powder, parsley, basil, NO salt as the canned beans have some salt.

Sauteing some Zucchini, Onion, Green Beans,
Green Pepper,  Garlic, EVOO

The chili cooked all afternoon. We added a little shredded cheddar (not as much as I used to because I'm limiting my fat intake).

It had just the right amount of heat for me, a little hotter would be good too; I will say it was really tasty.

Dinner's Ready!

The Chili Con Leftovers with Cheddar and Bread