Beef Stew

I have skipped ahead several cookbooks to Cooking with Wine for today's entry. I know, I know I said I would not do that, but this was for the greater good of mankind!

Mmm. Tasty greater good.

Daycare does a meal train for people in need. One of the families in our classroom just had a kid and asked for stews. I could literally could not say no! Ok... not literally or even figuratively really, but I like beef stew. I went through a dozen or so cookbooks before I found the right recipe. So without further ado Mother's Old Fashioned Beef Stew or simply beef stew.

Resourses:

3 tablespoons flour
Salt / pepper to taste
3 lbs beef cut into 1 1/2" cubes
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 tablespoons beef fat
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 1/2 onion (I used Vidalia), sliced
1 1/2 teaspoon marjoram, powdered
2 bay leaves
3 cups beef stock
2 1/4 red wine (I used a cheap Cabernet Sauvignon)
6 turnips, 3/4" cubed
9 carrots, ~1/2" sliced
6 potatoes, 3/4" cubed (I used larger baking potatoes)
1 1/2 fresh flat parsley, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoon thyme (pretty sure I forgot this)
18 small white onions (I wanted pearl but couldn't find them), peeled

Method:
Put flour in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Mix. A few at a time drag the beef cubes through and coat on all sides. Refill as necessary.

Heat butter and fat in a stock pot. A few at a time brown beef cubes on all sides. When browned move to a plate or bowl to capture the juices. Add butter/fat as needed. Deglaze the pot with the wine, scrapping up all the bits. Add remaining wine, garlic, sliced onions, parsley, beef cubes, parsley, marjoram, bay leaves, and stock. Simmer for one and a half hours.

Add carrots, potatoes, small white onions, and turnips. Continue to simmer until the vegetables are tender, about two hours. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Commentary:
So I have moderately modified this recipe. The original was more or less 2/3rds the above, but I tweaked a few numbers.

One I did not modify was the extra large bottle of cheap wine.

I did not limit the excessive amount of meat either. 

This is from a Holland House cookbook. For those unfamiliar Holland House makes those cheap salted cooking wines available at the grocery. They're my go to sherry and Marsala. That said, I wanted to go with drinking wine not cooking wine (so I could drink it, duh). As a result I was pretty generous with the salt to taste part.

This is basically a commercial in book form.

Before I really got into making the recipe, I trimmed the fat and rendered it to get the fat needed.

I am just being practical.

Conclusion:
Next time a family in need needs stew count me in for this one!

Shepherd’s Pie

Mmm. Excessive cheese.

So there are some foods I think you do a disservice by having a recipe. Something like shepherd’s pie should not be tied down by convention. It should not be shackled with unnecessary rules. Damn the man, save the Empire! Then I got married. Now you bet your ass I have an EXACT recipe. 

I tell you this not to make fun of my wife (ok maybe a little of that too), but to encourage you to play with this one. It is a very forgiving recipe, so if you are new to cooking or a seasoned veteran: experiment. I will discuss further in the commentary. BTW when you get the commentary section get comfy. I have opinions: lots and lots of opinions. Some of which are even about cooking!

Waxing philosophical aside, this is a recipe made for leftovers that keep well. This gets dinner and three to four lunches (total) for my wifey and me. That is a big selling point for me.

Resources:
2-2 1/2 lbs potatoes
1 lb ground beef
1/2-1 sweet onion, dice
1 can corn, drained
8 oz frozen peas
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon thyme
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 tablespoon flour
1 lb shredded provolone (or mozzarella ) cheese, divided
milk or butter (or better yet both)
salt and pepper

Method:
Skin and boil the potatoes until tender. Mash with 6 oz of cheese, milk, butter and salt to taste. Allow to cool slightly.

Cook the ground beef with the onion over medium heat until completely cooked. Drain some (not all) of the fat.

In a large bowl, mix the beef mixture, corn, peas, Worcestershire, thyme, cream of chicken soup, flour, and salt & pepper to taste. Transfer to an large deep baking dish (~8"x12"). Cover with a thick layer of potatoes. Top with remaining cheese.


Bake at 350ºF for 20 minutes or until it is heated throughout and the cheese is melty. Broil briefly (~5 minutes) until cheese is lightly browned. Do not burn it (duh).

Broil phase is not really NECESSARY, but it gives it some color in the cheese and I like it.

Commentary:
Is she looking? No. Ok. We are safe to talk. The wifey has a crazy ground beef issue. I like to pick the right ground beef for the job. Burgers: 80/20. Hamburger helper: 90/10. And so on. If I let her have her way it would be 93/7 all the time. We compromise on 90/10 most of the time with the occasional 85/15. For whatever reason, she really hates 80/20. Anyway the point is in this recipe it does not matter much. The only difference for me is if I was using 80/20 I would drain the beef more thoroughly than the 90/10. I leave a fair bit of the liquefied fat in (not that there is much) with 90/10.

Let us talk about what is important and what is not important. Ground beef, mash potatoes, and some veggies are what make a shepherd’s pie. Beyond that it is personal taste. So let us talk a “little” about how I arrived at the above recipe.

Vegetables: I find a total of 2-3 cups to 1 lb of ground beef is a nice ratio. But you can use anything for the vegetables. Lots of onions and corn is what I like. Too many peas turn me off though. What can I say I do not like a lot of pea-ness (file that under jokes that do not translate to the written word). If you have frozen vegetable medley lying around use that. Like some crunch? Add diced carrots. The only catch is there is minimal oven cooking here, so anything (like raw carrots) that needs more cook time that has to be done before the oven.

Check out my meat / veggie balance. See it. Touch it. Taste it.

Potatoes: the mashed potatoes to “other” ratio is SUPER-DUPER important. This recipe comes with a little bit more potatoes than other, but pretty close. I have seen versions where you have 2-3X the potatoes. I have seen versions where the potatoes barely cover the dish. Like anything else, it is a taste thing.

Cheese: completely optional, but why would you ever OPT OUT of cheese? Honestly half the time I probably use more than a pound if I have it handy.

Seasoning: you do not want to overwhelm the potatoes and vegetables, but little/no seasoning comes across as bland. I like Worcestershire and a little bit of one of the Italian basics (thyme in this case). I have used oregano before too. I have found my happy palce, you should do the same. I just advise against going hog wild. Lightly seasoned is the goal here.

Cream of chicken: finally we come to the liquid. You can use broth if you want to go a little healthier.  Yes, cream of chicken is calorically heavy. I usually get about six servings out of this recipe, so I do not feel like they put this over the top into the unhealthy category. Point is you want to have something there. Otherwise this will be way too dry.  And I like something on the thicker side. Cream of chicken and flour accomplishes that. 

If you are still reading my long winded commentary section I award you an imaginary internet point. Congrats!

Conclusion:
It hits all four traditional food groups in one meal. It is easy to make. It is flexible (which helps when you forget the <BLANK> at the grocery). The ingredients are cheap. There is a reason this is a stable of my household.

Grilled Chicken with Lemon Soda Pop & Smashed Taters

I am not a big sweets guy, but there is something down right magical about Sprite. I freakin' love that shit. Hot sweaty? Drink a Sprite. Need a drink before bed? Drink a Sprite. Hung over? Drink a Sprite. There is no social / nutritional / spiritual value but I can not help myself. So when I bought 36 Delicious Chicken Breast Recipes the other day and I saw a Sprite based recipe, I got on it! Sadly, it is only mediocre. That said it was super easy. So I have included one of my few potato recipes (more on why so few another day), so hopefully this post will be worth while.



Served with a smile!

Grilled Chicken with Lemon Soda Pop (aka Sprite)

Resources:

 

4 chicken breasts

1/2 cup soy sauce

12 ounce can of Sprite

1/2 teaspoon horseradish

1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used canola, which I like to call rapeseed oil since it sounds HARD)

 

 

Method:

 

Marinate the chicken with all the ingredients for at least thirty minutes (I went about two hours).

 

Grill until cooked through, flipping once. Brush with sauce frequently (every 10-15 minutes).

 

Allow to rest a few minutes before eating (3-5 typically works for me).

 

Smashed Taters

Resources:

 

5-6 very small red potatoes per person (or more if hungry)

salt, coarse (sea salt, kosher, etc)

olive oil

 

Method:

 

Boil the potatoes 30-40 minutes (until tender when poked with a fork). Drain and cool them.

 

Move the over rack to a relatively high position in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F.

 

On a foil covered baking sheet spread out the potatoes and smash with a potato smasher until the potatoes are about half as thick as they originally were. Generously coat with olive oil and salt (make sure to completely coat the skin with oil). Bake until golden and the skins are starting to look crispy about 30 minutes.

 

Put the oven on broil for about 5 minutes, until the slightest bit of brown / black starts tto form on the edge of the skins.

 

Commentary:

 

As always make sure our chicken is cooked through. Breasts vary in size (giggle) enough cooking times are hard to generalize, but I used about 15 minutes a size for each ~10 ounce breast.

 

The smallest red potatoes are the best. I actually pay a small premium for Ruby Sensation potatoes because they are so small!

 

Here is my corporate plug of the day and I expect sponsorship damnit!

I just want one mouth full baby. No more. No less.

 

One use tools: the bane of a small kitchen. That said a potato smasher is absolutely a must in my opinion.

 

Ever smashed potatoes with a fork? It is time consuming. This baby smashes efficiently!

Conclusion:

 

Grilled Chicken with Lemon Soda Pop is a quick easy fix, but nothing special. It tasted like it was marinated in sugar and soy sauce. There was a little citrus, but not much.

 

As an aside, is there such a thing as marinated chicken breasts that is exceptional though? I have tried countless marinates and unless there something extra (a cream sauce, onions & peppers, a premeditated side dish, etc), I am never thrilled.

 

Smashed Taters is a keeper. I make it frequently.