Beef, Barley and Vegetable Soup

The interesting thing about getting a CSA meat subscription is that sometimes we'll get something that I have no idea what to do with. I am still trying to get through meat from January (I write the date on the labels so that I know when I got it) and slowly, we are going through it. We'll sign up for another one later in the summer when the meat finally dwindles down, but we'll go for a smaller monthly package because we'll be trying out some of the other meats from the farmer's market (elk, lamb, bison, etc).



When I received a shank bone, I didn't know what to do with it. After some research online, I came across this soup recipe that was perfect for all the gloomy, rainy days that we have had lately. I really loved the flavor of this soup and the stew meat (also something that I had in the freezer from Amy's Meats), but I found the shank meat a little tougher than I liked. The meat bone did bring out more complexity to the broth, so I think that omitting it would be a problem.
But I loved the hot pepper sauce in this soup and ended up adding more to my own bowl. Great idea!


Beef, Barley and Vegetable Soup from Bon Appetit magazine February 2001
serves 8



2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 pound beef stew meat
1 pound meaty beef bones (such as beef shank bones)
3 celery stalks, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1/4 cup pearl barley
4 cups water
2 14 1/2-ounce cans beef broth
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
1 10-ounce package frozen corn kernels
2 cups frozen sliced okra
2 small bay leaves
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 1/2 cups frozen peas
1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons hot pepper sauce



Heat oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add stew meat and bones; sauté until beef is dark brown, about 8 minutes. Transfer beef and bones to plate. Add celery, onion, and barley to pot. Sauté until onion is golden, about 15 minutes. Add 4 cups water, beef broth, tomatoes with juices, corn, okra, bay leaves, and garlic powder. Return beef and bones to pot and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered until beef is almost tender, about 1 hour.
Add peas and 1 1/2 teaspoons hot pepper sauce to soup. Cover and simmer until beef is tender, about 30 minutes longer. Season with salt, pepper, and more hot pepper sauce, if desired.

Bolognese Sauce

If you don't know who Alice Waters is, please do me a favor and google her right now. Her Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook is one of the most wonderful cookbooks that I own. The illustrations for the book are gorgeous colored block prints by David Lance Goines and her cookbook is filled with stories and explanations. I have owned this cookbook for a couple of years now, but I had never used it for recipes--only to read the delightful stories and ogle the illustrations. This recipe takes hours to cook plus prep time, so it's not something that you can just whip up quickly and the ingredients aren't cheap. But it's so worth the extra time and effort. Trust me, it's a good one.

Alice Waters' Bolognese Sauce from Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook

Yield: Serves 8

1/3 cup dried porcini mushrooms
Extra virgin olive oil
4 ounces pancetta, diced fine
1 medium yellow onion, diced fine
4 ribs celery, diced fine
1 small carrot, diced fine
Salt
2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1½ pounds skirt steak (or chuck), cut into ¼-inch cubes
4 ounces lean pork shoulder, coarsely ground
1 cup dry white wine
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs thyme
2 cups Basic Beef Stock or Basic Chicken Stock
1½ cups milk
3 tablespoons double-concentrated Italian tomato paste
¼ cup chopped parsley, for garnish
Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Pepper

Cover the dried porcini with boiling water and allow to sit for 15 minutes. Remove the porcini from the water, reserving the liquid, and chop the mushrooms fine. Heat a wide heavy-bottomed pan; pour in 2 tablespoons of olive oil and add the diced pancetta. After the pancetta has released some fat, add the onion, celery, carrot, and a little salt. When the vegetables have softened somewhat, add the garlic and porcini, and cook until the vegetables are soft. Remove the vegetables from the pan and set aside.

Put the pan back on the heat (you don’t need to wash it), pour in 2 more tablespoons of oil, and when it is hot, add the skirt steak, pork, and a little salt. Cook over medium-high heat until the meat begins to brown, about 15 minutes. Turn the heat to medium and add the cooked vegetables, wine, bay, and thyme. Adjust the heat to maintain a low simmer and let the sauce cook until the liquid evaporates and the contents begin to brown. Deglaze with 1 cup of the stock and a few tablespoons of the milk; add the tomato paste, making sure to scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pan and stirring the sauce well to incorporate the milk. Continue to cook the sauce gently, adding a few tablespoons of milk and stock now and then. Reduce the sauce until the liquid evaporates and everything begins to brown again; this gives the sauce depth and color. Deglaze with the rest of the stock and milk, stirring and scraping well. Skim the fat that rises to the surface of the sauce. The sauce is done when its texture is velvety and the meat is completely tender, in about 1½ hours. Cool and refrigerate for up to 4 or 5 days.

Reheat and serve over pasta, garnished with the chopped parsley, and pass Parmesan cheese and the pepper mill.

Variation: This basic recipe can be used with other kinds of meat and even poultry—guinea hen is especially good. Another variation worth trying is to add sautéed fresh wild mushrooms at the end of the cooking.

P.S. This is cookbook #31 which means only 120+ to go!

Sweet and Sour Pot Roast

I had an arm roast in my CSA subscription and was wondering what to do with it. I found this recipe in Neiman-Marcus' No Jacket Required. It was very tender and full of flavor, but it was a little too sweet for my tastes. On the other hand, Chris was a big fan of it and had seconds. If you like sweet and sour things, this is definitely something for you to try.

Sweet and Sour Pot Roast

serves 6 to 8

1 tb shortening

4 lbs arm or chuck roast

2 onions, sliced

1/4 teas pepper

1/4 teas ground cloves

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup sugar

juice of 2 lemons

salt to taste

Heat shortening in a heavy skillet with a tight-fitting lid. Add roast and onions. Brown, turning frequently. Add remaining ingredients, cover, and simmer over low heat for 3 to 3 1/2 hours until meat is very tender, turning every 45 minutes and uncovering for the last 15 minutes to reduce the juices.

Korean Short Ribs

I just realized that the picture isn't that appetizing looking, but trust me, it's delicious. It's a great meal when you serve it with some rice and a veggie side (I made stir-fried bok choy). I get my short ribs from the Korean/Japanese market in Overland Park because I have never seen the same cut in the regular grocery store. I have seen short ribs, but not cut the same way. So you might have to get the meat from an Asian market unless you live out in CA or somewhere like that.

Korean Short Ribs from Neiman-Marcus' No Jacket Required

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup sliced green onions

2 tbs toasted sesame seeds

2 tbs sugar

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1/2 teas pepper

4 lbs short ribs, cut between the bones

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Stir together soy sauce, water, onions, sesame seeds, sugar, garlic, and pepper. Pour over ribs and marinate, chill in fridge overnight. Grill or broil for 15 to 20 minutes until cooked to desired doneness.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

I love spaghetti and meatballs, but only if it's homemade sauce and homemade meatballs. I don't do sauce in a jar (I've tried most of them and they are too sweet for my tastes) and I haven't found any frozen meatballs that aren't hard and tasteless yet. One night, I was talking to my friend (who is part Italian) and she told me about how wonderful her Grandma's meatballs were. After that conversation, I decided that I needed to find a recipe for meatballs! With some searching online, I found one in the New York Times and sent it to my friend. She told me that it sounded very similar to the one that her Grandma made, so I was excited to try it out.

Nathaniel LOVED them and was disappointed that there wasn't more (we did let him eat about half of them--you can imagine how much growing teenagers eat). I will admit that I ended up burning the first batch because I used a pan that I never usually use and it heated a lot quicker than my other ones (might have to start using it more often). After adjusting the heat to a very low temp, I was able to brown them to perfection. I also admit that my meatballs weren't perfectly uniform and pretty, but they tasted so good that I hope a dinner guest wouldn't complain!

The tomato sauce that I used is a recipe from Giada De Laurentiis' Marinara Sauce from her cookbook Everyday Italian. It's a great sauce that can be frozen for up to three months. We froze half of it, so that Chris would have something to eat this weekend while I am out of town. I'll probably be making this again during the cold winter, if it ever comes that is!

Meatballs

Tonight's Dinner

I went to TJ Maxx today and ended up finding some cute Italian plates, so that I would finally have some color for my pictures on the blog. The first course that I made tonight was one of Jayni's recipes from last night. I love this simple salad and it's a great way to enjoy your tomatoes.

Jayni's Avocado, Tomato and Mozzarella Salad

2 avocados, peeled and pitted, then cut into 1/2 inch dice
12 oz cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered (I used my baby Roma tomatoes and cut them up into smaller chunks)
8 oz small fresh mozzarella balls, sliced in half (use as many as desired)
extra-virgin olive oil
1 large lemon
salt and black pepper, to taste

Divide the avocado, tomatoes and mozzarella among four large salad plates. Arrange as desired. Drizzle olive oil over each salad. Slice the lemon in half and squeeze over the salads, to taste. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

I had a 3 lb chuck roast sitting in my fridge that needed to be eaten. Not having any potatoes in the house, I decided that I needed to figure out something beside just throwing the roast in a crock pot and calling it good. I found a recipe for Italian beef on cooks.com. Italian beef sandwiches are extremely popular in Chicago (where I ate one for the first time a couple of visits before) and I love the fact that this recipe is super easy (perfect for those lazy, cold winter weekends that will be coming up). My boys love spicier food, so next time, I'll be adding some extra heat to the beef. Other than that, they loved it!

Bolognese Sauce

Last night, we had a softball game to go to and I decided to invite over Megan and Paul for dinner after the game. I had to think of something quick (at 4 PM, I was still pondering the dinner menu--I had dessert done, but that's it) and easy. I also had the challenge of having to make something that would keep till we were home from the game. But the biggest obstacle was to make something that Paul would eat because I didn't want to become a dinner nightmare story of his. Ask him about eating over at Chris' parents' house when he was younger---Paul still hasn't gotten over the eggplant lasagna and spinach stuffed squash!



I scoured my cookbooks and decided on something that I didn't have to go to the grocery store for and would not prevent me from missing the softball game. I found it in Giada De Laurentiis' cookbook, Everyday Italian. I do love her show (because she can actually cook!), but I have often wondered if she really needs that much cleavage to cook. What I mean is that sometimes she'll be deep-frying and breast skin & hot oil is not a good combo....heck, any skin on your body and hot oil isn't a good combo!



It seemed to go over well with my picky eater, Paul (well, at least, I didn't see him heel over or anything), who even had a second serving. I am going to make this for Nathaniel one of these days since the veggies are cut up small and not super noticeable (great way to get those kiddos to eat them). It's super easy and with many ingredients that you might already have on hand. The other great thing is that you could use just about any pasta and it would still be delicious.

Simple Bolognese from Giada De Laurentiis' Everyday Italian

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 celery stalk, minced
1 carrot, peeled and minced
1 lb ground beef
1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
8 fresh basil leaves, chopped
1/2 teas salt, plus more to taste
1/2 teas pepper, plus more to taste
1/4 cup freshly grated Percorino Romano cheese (don't even think about omitting this---totally makes the dish!)

In a large skillet, heat the oil over a medium flame. When almost smoking, add the onion and garlic and saute until the onion is very tender, about 8 minutes. Add the celery and carrot and saute for 5 minutes. Increase the heat to high, add the beef and saute until the meat is no longer pink, breaking up any large lumps, about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, parsley, basil and 1/2 teas of salt and pepper. Cook over medium low until the sauce thickens, about 30 minutes. Stir in the cheese, then season with more salt and pepper to taste.


P.S. No picture--I forgot!

Ragout of Beef Provencale

What was for dinner tonight.

RAGOUT OF BEEF PROVENCALE adapted from Neiman-Marcus' No Jacket Required

serves 8

6 strips bacon

2 lbs lean boneless beef, cut in one inch cubes

1/4 cup flour

1 large, onion, cut in chunks

8 oz mushrooms

1 can beef broth

1 cup Burgundy wine (I have substituted Merlot since I didn't have anything else with decent results)

4 carrots, cut in one inch pieces

1 tbs green peppercorns, drained (I didn't have any, so I skipped these)

1 teaspoon herbs de Provence

1 teaspoon tomato paste

Fry bacon until crisp. Remove bacon from pan and set aside, reserving drippings. Dredge beef in flour and brown in drippings. Add onions and mushrooms, saute for several minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients (except the bacon). Cover and simmer over low heat for 1 hour. Cut bacon in one inch pieces and add to pot.

If you want, serve with rice.

Thrown Together Dinner

Yesterday, I fell asleep on the couch a couple of hours before the big football game. I ended up waking up about 20 minutes before the game, so I wasn't feeling like making anything too complex for dinner. We had just picked up some shiitake mushrooms and thinly sliced ribeye from the Asian market, so I decided that I would just make up a dish that is similiar to what my mom makes.

My recipe:

Serves 2-3

1/2 lb to 3/4 lb thinly sliced ribeye (you can find this in Asian markets or your butcher can usually do this for you)

1 lb fresh shiitake mushrooms

fresh red chili peppers, chopped up, not seeded, to taste (I only used 2 because they were pretty hot, but you can use more or none if wanted)

seasoning soy sauce (you can find this in Asian markets or make your own by adding half water and some sugar to taste. Trust your tastebuds!)

1) Heat oil in pan, add mushrooms. You might need more oil, add as needed. Cook until tender. They will shrink like crazy! Put aside on plate.

2) Add a little more oil to pan, cook meat until done. Do this in batches if needed. The meat should not take much time to cook if thinly sliced.

3) Add all the meat back to the pan, add chili peppers at this time. Then add the soy sauce. I used around 3-4tbs (this seasoning soy sauce is not as salty as regular soy sauce), but I can't give you an exact number (sorry, I know).

4) Add the mushrooms. Taste the sauce and adjust as your tastebuds see fit.

5) Serve over rice.

Chili Dogs

After our trip to Ben's Chili Bowl, I have to say that I have been craving some chili dogs ever since. I googled Ben's Chili Bowl recipe and found this from someone on the internet that claimed it was the same. It's good, but not close to Ben's. The chili at Ben's is pretty spicy as this one is pretty mild. It does make a good chili dog and makes enough chili for lots of hot dogs. I'll keep working on the perfecting the Ben's recipe or else, I'll just have to make another trip down there soon!

P.S. We used Nathan's hot dogs a.k.a. crack dogs. Delicious!

CHILI INGREDIENTS:

3 to 4 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 lbs ground beef (or use half ground pork)

2 medium garlic cloves, finely minced

1/4 cup tomato paste

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cups beef

5 Tbsp. chili powder

6 Tbsp. corn meal or masa harina

2 tsp. sugar

2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cumin

1 bay leaves

PREPARATION:Heat oil and saute garlic and onion until light golden, about 7 to 9 minutes. Add chili powder, sugar and cumin. Continue cooking, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add ground beef and cook, stirring, until evenly browned. Stir in remaining ingredients; reduce heat to low and simmer until very thick, 15 to 20 minutes. Discard bay leaf. Makes about 20 servings of hot dog chili on chili dogs.

Food Nirvana

I had been meaning to cook up the short ribs that I purchased from Amy's Meats a few weeks ago, but we left to go out of town and I had forgotten about them. While going through the freezer the other day, I decided it was time to pull out the four pounds that were chilling in there. I had originally thought about making Korean short ribs, but the ribs were cut differently then what are required for the Asian dish. Not knowing what to do with them, I scoured my collection and came across a wonderful sounding dish called Succulent Braised Short Ribs in one of my magazines.

You see not only do I have a huge collection of cookbooks, but I have a huge collection of cooking magazines. One of these days, I'll try to go through them and weed them out. But I am always thinking that I am going to get rid of the one issue that has that amazing recipe (kind of like that pair of pants that you didn't really want to get rid of and are still kicking yourself for doing so). Anyway, this recipe comes from an issue of "The Best of Fine Cooking"--the comfort issue from 2004 (I told you). These special editions of this magazine are wonderful. I haven't purchased one in awhile, but they have minimal ads and really do have the best recipes. I have at least five of these issues and everything that I have made has been delicious. The problem is these are pricey little magazines (the price was $6.95 in 2004, so I could only imagine what it is now. I am guessing at least $9.95), but worth it if you want a little splurge at the grocery store.

I had read the recipe earlier and I forgot that it took so long to cook, so I didn't start this till 6 PM last night. Chris and I were salivating by the time it was done and the house smelled amazing while this was cooking in the oven! Chris actually said that he gave it a two thumbs up with an extra two thumbs up if he had two more thumbs....which would be weird.




Succulent Braised Short Ribs
serves eight (I halved the meat and it would have easily served four. Don't halve the rest of the stuff)



8 lbs bone-in short ribs (must have bones or your meat will disintegrate into nothing...ok, maybe not, but it won't be good)

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 large carrot, diced

1 rib of celery, diced

1 large onion, diced

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (please don't used dried parsley!)

2 cups red wine (drink the rest while this is cooking--at least, that's what I did!)

1 1/4 cups water



(I am going to shorten the magazine's very lengthy instructions a bit on the blog.)



I didn't salt my ribs overnight (because I am lazy and forgot), but if you want to salt them and cover with plastic wrap in the fridge for 8+ hours.



Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Season both side of the ribs with pepper (and salt if you didn't do the overnight step). In a heavy frying pan over medium-high heat, brown the ribs in little oil on all sides, a few at a time. Once all are browned, set them aside and pour all but 2 tbs of fat out. Add the carrots, celery and onion. Reduce heat and cook until soften, while scraping any residue from the ribs. Add a little water to deglaze the pan thoroughly.



Spread the veggies on the bottom of a baking or roasting pan that will accommodate the ribs neatly (I used my very large roasting pan which you would definitely need if you were to cook all 8 lbs). Set the ribs on top of veggies. Sprinkle parsley all over and pour in wine & water. Cover the pan tightly with foil and cook in oven until the ribs are tender (about 2 to 2 1/2 hrs). Test by inserting the tip of a knife into the thickest part of the meat. It should be very tender without falling off the bone. Keep ribs warm in a low oven until ready to serve.



Pour the braising liquid through a sieve into a measuring spoon and spoon off all visible fat. Pour into a saucepan, simmer and reduce the liquid to about 1/3 of it's volume for concentrated flavor.



Serve ribs with sauce. (P.S. Pic is without sauce. My food stylist...aka Chris...is still learning!)

I Want You Inside Me Chili and Cheesy Muffins

Cheese Muffin recipe: http://http//thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/figs-cheese-muffins.pdf

I Want You Inside Me Chili: http://noteatingoutinny.com/2008/08/12/777/#more-777

I have been reading this blog from a girl in NYC who has given up eating out (for various reasons). Anyway, she had posted a fabulous looking chili recipe that had NO BEANS (yes!!!) that had won a Brooklyn chili contest. I was in love with the fact that the chili sounded spicy and it had no beans! (Did I tell you that I don't like beans?) I was also happy that it called for stew meat instead of ground beef. If you decide to make this recipe, please don't freak out about the MSG that is in there. It's not going to kill you unless you decided to consume massive quanities at a time. The Asians have been using it for years now and they usually live longer than most Americans...something to think about. Plus MSG is found in a lot of processed foods, so you might have been eating it all along without knowing it! If you do live in Lawrence, I had to buy a pretty big bag of MSG for the recipe and would be more than willing to share!

I had sour cream, blue cheese (Chris' favorite, but I say yuck), cheddar cheese and green onions as toppings like the recipe suggested. Chris loved the blue cheese in it. I don't go near that stuff, so I couldn't tell you how it was. I used the rest of the toppings and loved them. The sour cream really cuts the heat out of the chili. The chili had a good kick to it, but your tongue wasn't on fire. Yet, I am pretty immune to hot stuff, so maybe I am not the right one to be commenting on the heat of the chili.

I figured with chili, I needed some muffins to go along with them. Cheese muffins from Pioneer Woman's blog were the perfect addition to our meal of chili and a salad. A couple of beers and it was a wonderfully tasty dinner. Nathaniel ended up eating three of the muffins with his chili (I love the fact that my kid is eating spicy foods now). I do have a suggestion though. I baked the muffins in muffin papers and they ended up getting stuck on the muffins! Use her method of spraying or buttering the pan! These muffins really need to be served fresh out of the oven--they are good when they have cooled down, but they are amazing warm!

Happy Cooking! Have a great holiday weekend everyone!!!

Run, don't walk to make this

I have just outdone myself again (Paul and Megan, you should be kicking yourself for not staying for dinner after your visit!) and made another delicious meal. A meal so good that Nathaniel said "One of the best, but then again everything that you make is one of the best." Charming, huh?

Since Chris and I had quite the workout today--we dropped my car off at the dealership to get an oil change and biked back home, then biked back to the dealership--almost 6 miles total (we are living with one car since with his new position meant that he had to give up his work car and I am not working at this moment, so we are going to try to do with just one vehicle at this moment until we really have to have another one), I figured that we could eat some red meat tonight. After my first bike ride, I came home and read more of Pioneer Woman's blog. I came across an incredible recipe (warning--it's not lowfat, but it's soooo worth it. Plus we exercised a lot, so we deserved it). It's a steak sandwich with onions and it's fabulous. It's super easy to make and there isn't a lot of ingredients either.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/marlboro_mans_f/

With this steak sandwich, I decided to make some potatoes since both the men in my life love potatoes and I am a little tired of mashing them (I first saw these on my friend, Shannon's blog and have been wanting to make them). Do yourself a favor and make these potatoes. I promise if you like potatoes, you will love these.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/06/crash-hot-potatoes/

P.S. Made my day when Megan told me the story that her husband said that he not only liked his mom's lasagna, but mine too (he is pretty picky about his lasagna). I am glad that other people (besides Chris) appreciate my food! :)

***Note--For you people that are wondering why my bread isn't the same color, it's because I used the butter in the pan method for toasting it. I guess I didn't use quite enough butter! Oh, well, it was still a wonderful sandwich!