7 Slow-Cooked Crockpot Lunches | Food Republic.
It’s that time of year again when the weather turns cool and thoughts turn back to the slow cooker to make soups, stews and chili. Here are some great recipe ideas from Food Republic about things that you can do in your slow cooker and make great lunches for these cool fall days for you at home, to being to the office or for the kids to bring to school in a thermos. Check it out!
So this is all I have left from our trip to Dublin as far as the food goes. We ate a small breakfast on our last down, took one last walk around the city and we actually had hamburgers for lunch at the Jasmine Bar at the hotel before we headed for Dublin airport to come home. I did get some recipes from Guinness while we were there at the Storehouse. They do have a whole display of how Guinness has been incorporated into many food dishes in Ireland and the world. I picked up three separate recipes while we were there that all looked good. The first one is Irish mussels in a Guinness cream sauce. Keep in mind that all these recipe measurements are in metric so you may have to convert them when you give them a try.
Irish Mussels in Guinness Cream Sauce
1 kg fresh Irish Mussels
300 ml cream
200 ml fish stock
330 ml Guinness extra stout
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
Juice of half a lemon
In a saucepan over medium heat, place the butter, onion, carrot and celery and fry for 2-3 minutes until tender but not browned. Add the Guinness, fish stock and bay leaf and simmer until reduced by half. Add the cream and reduce by half again. Add the mussels and cook for 2-3 minutes until all the shells of the mussels have opened. Add the dill and sprinkle with lemon juice.
I think this one will make a great appetizer for a group of 4 or 6 people. I’m not sure you can find Irish mussels easily, but I would try substituting mussels you can get at your local fish market and see how it goes.
For an entrée, I picked this recipe, one we actually saw on a number of menus in places we were at in Dublin. Beef & Guinness stew seems to be a favorite, and it just plain looks like it would taste awesome.
Beef & Guinness Stew
200 ml of Guinness Foreign Extra Stout
400 g stew beef, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 large carrot, diced
1 large stalk of celery, diced
1 large parsnip, diced
1 liter beef stock
Sprigs of fresh thyme & rosemary
In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil until shimmering. Add the stew beef and brown on all sides, 4-5 minutes. Add the vegetables and cook until tender then pour the Guinness and reduce by half. Add the beef stock and the herbs and simmer very slowly for between an hours and an hour and a half.
They serve the stew with mashed potatoes served on the side of the bowl of the stew. It looks like it has a great dark color to it. It sounds very simple to make and does not have a lot of ingredients, so you can easily make it on a weeknight.
Of course, there needs to be a dessert using Guinness as well. They had a few different ones to choose from, including some cakes, but I chose this recipe for Guinness chocolate truffles instead. It looks simple and should taste great.
Guinness Chocolate Truffles
1 kg dark chocolate, cut into small chunks
400 ml cream
100 ml Guinness
Zest of 1 orange
Cocoa powder
Add the cream and Guinness to a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the chocolate and grated orange zest. Mix together until the chocolate is fully melted. Leave the chocolate mix until it is cool to the touch, but not set. Take a generous teaspoon of the mixture and roll it in your hands to form small round truffles. Dust each with the cocoa powder. Set in refrigerator for 2-3 hours.
A simple fast, chocolatey dessert to finish off a Guinness meal.
So that covers all of the Dublin meals. It was a wonderful trip and we hope to get back to Ireland again and see more of the country than just Dublin. it was a great experience and I would recommend to anyone that they go and enjoy it.
Back to real world cooking for me now though. I do have a backlog of some recipes we have tried recently that I plan to post, including one I just tried from Cook’s Illustrated the other night. Check back and see which one I display first. Until then, enjoy your evening and enjoy your meal!
So it was on the second full day that we decided to stop for dinner at a local pub. We had seen the signs for the Hairy Lemon every time we walked back and forth to the hotel since they were on the same block. Just the name alone got the better of us and we knew we had to give it a try. It was a very quaint place jam-packed with old mementos and signs from years’ gone by in Dublin. The place was quiet when we got there and we easily got a table. The server was very friendly, as every server we came across in Dublin was. We ordered drinks ( I had a Guinness, of course) and took a look at the menu. They had quite a large selection, including several traditional Irish meals. We both saw the traditional Irish stew listed on the menu and agreed that it sounded wonderful so we both ordered it. Neither of us was disappointed. What came out was a very large stainless steel crock (actually 2 crocks, one for each of us) on a platter with a very large baked potato and some homemade brown bread. The stew was absolutely amazing. The lamb was super-tender and just melted in your mouth and all the vegetables were perfect. The server said the vegetables came in fresh every day from the market the chef shopped at, and he picked out what he wanted so sometimes there was something different in the stew each time. This time, there were definitely parsnips in there and they were good. We both finished our bowls clean and devoured the homemade bread, which they bake fresh each day and sell by the loaf if you want to take some home. I could barely touch my baked potato, and it was a big one. I ended up eating about 1/2 of it, but it was cooked well and I enjoyed it. Neither of us had room for any dessert after.
I searched around on the Internet and have found that many of the Irish stews are basically the same recipe. although some use different vegetables or no other vegetable besides potato, so it is really your call as to what you want to make. Others also use a lot of beef broth to darken it. The stew we had was lighter but did taste of beef broth, so they must have used some. Try this one and see if you like it.
Traditional Irish Stew
4 tablespoons olive oil
3 pounds lamb shoulder, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 cups leeks, sliced
1/2 cup flour
4 ounces butter
1 cup Guinness beer
3 cups beef stock
1/2 pound parsnips, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
1/2 pound carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
1 pound russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
4 cloves garlic, cut in half
3 sprigs of fresh rosemary, plus 1 tablespoon chopped
1 cup peas, shelled
1 cup leeks, sliced thinly
Oil for frying
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
In a heavy-bottomed pot, heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the lamb and brown evenly. Remove the lamb from the pot and set aside. Add the leeks and saute until soft. Add the butter and melt. Add the flour to make a roux. Turn the heat down to low, and cook the roux until it is brown, about 15 minutes. Whisk in the beer and stock. Add the reserved lamb, bring to a simmer, and cover. Simmer, covered, for 1 1/2 hours.
While the lamb mixture is simmering, combine the parsnips, carrots, potatoes and garlic in a large bowl. Toss with remaining olive oil, salt and pepper and rosemary sprigs. Place the vegetables in a roasting pan and place in a 400-degree oven. Roast for 45 minutes, stirring every 20 minutes, until vegetables are tender. Remove the vegetables from the oven and discard the rosemary sprigs. Add the roasted vegetables and the peas to the lamb mixture. Cook for 10 minutes. Add the chopped rosemary. Season with salt and pepper. Add the thinly sliced leeks to a pot of heated oil and fry for 3 minutes, or until crisp. Remove the leeks from the oil and drain on paper towels. Season the leeks with salt. Garnish the stew with the fried leeks.
You could substitute some scallions for the leeks used at the end if you wanted to without frying them any, just chop them up and use them as a garnish. Either way I don’t think you can go wrong. I’ll definitely be trying this one at home myself.
We are just about done with our meals from Ireland. All we have left is our final day, which we spent entirely at the Guinness Storehouse at then at Whelan’s Pub for the show. I did get some recipes from Guinness while we were there which I will be posting tomorrow, and you can check my personal blog tonight for my account of the day we spent with Guinness. It was great! So, until tomorrow, enjoy your evening and enjoy your meal!
Now that I finally have some time to sit down and do some writing, I can talk a little bit about our trip to Dublin and our food and beverage experiences. We weren’t quite sure what to expect in terms of food when we arrived in Dublin. I am sure I am not the only one who has heard horror stories about cooking from Britain and Ireland. I can tell you that we did not have a bad meal, breakfast, lunch or dinner, while we there. Everything was great. Granted, we did not always have a lot of time to do meals because we wanted to do a lot of things and only had 4 days to do it all. We also knew that we were going to spend an entire day with Guinness while we there, as they had requested since they sponsored the contest I won.
When we arrived in Dublin the first day, it was about 11 AM. We went over to the hotel and couldn’t check in until 2, so they graciously held or luggage for us and we went exploring around the immediate area. The rain was torrential that day, which we really limited where we could go and do things. We walked aimlessly in the rain for a while trying to figure out where we could go. We eventually ended up at the Dublin Wax Museum, which was a nice treat. It is housed in an old bank so all the rooms are in old bank vaults, making it seem a little creepier. We had a great time walking around there and took some great pictures (you can check my other blog soon or my Facebook page now to see them). By the time we were done there, it was still only about 12:30, so we decided to get some lunch.
We walked around trying to find some places to go. There are pubs everywhere (we would later find out that Dublin has 750 pubs, and that doesn’t include the pubs in the hotels, which pushes it over 1,000). We found a place near the hotel called Peter’s Pub. It was a small, quiet location that was perfect for us. We sat down and were met by a very friendly barkeeper who sat us at a table right in the window. They have a very simple lunch menu, which included the lunch special, which is soup, a sandwich and a pot of tea for 10 Euros. Michelle and I each decided to have that. We both ordered the same thing, a tuna sandwich a pot of tea and the spiced beef soup. I was not familiar with the Irish spiced beef before, so I wanted to give it a try. It was worth it, for sure. The spiced beef was certainly a different flavor to the soup. It took a little investigating on my part, but I was able to find that spiced beef is very close to what American’s would call corned beef. The difference is while we use a brisket, they use a rump roast. It is something they use for holiday meals and is traditionally served cold. I was able to find a recipe for the spiced beef if you want to give it a try.
Irish Spiced Beef
6 lbs sirloin tip roast or 6 lbs beef eye round
3 bay leaves, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground mace
6 ground cloves
1 clove garlic, crushed and made into a paste with
salt
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon crushed black peppercorns
2 teaspoons molasses
2 1/2 teaspoons brown sugar
1/2 cup salt
1 bottle Guinness stout
Mix all the flavorings and spices together. Place the beef in a large bowl and rub all over with the spice and flavoring mixture. Cover and refrigerate the beef. Rub in the mixture once or twice a day for a week; turn the beef as you repeat the rubbing in process. The spices and flavorings will now be mixed with the juices drawn from the beef.
Tie up the meat firmly and place in a large pot or Dutch oven. Rub in a final teaspoon of ground cloves. Cover the beef with cold water and the bottle of Guinness. Simmer gently for 5-6 hours until the beef is tender. Allow the beef to cool in the cooking liquid. When it is cool, remove it from the liquid, place it on a serving dish and cover it with a weighted plate. Refrigerate until serving time and serve thinly sliced and cold.
Peter’s Pub had diced the beef and served it in a beef broth with some vegetables like potato, carrots and celery. It tasted wonderful with the bread they had served. The tuna sandwich was a simple sandwich but was a large serving with some chips on the side. The whole meal was incredibly filling for both of us and we each had a pot of tea, which really hit the spot after being in and out of the rain for a few hours.
The great thing we noticed about the different pubs and places we went to in Dublin is that no one ever rushed you out. They would let you sir for hours if that is what you wanted to relax and enjoy yourself.. Being from New York, I think we expected to get rushed around and we sat around for about an hour relaxing before we finally asked for the check. He gave it to use with a big smile and wished us a good day.
Tomorrow I will continue posting some recipes of things we came across in Dublin, including the late night snack we had the first night of a lemon tart with raspberry sorbet and Irish coffees and the traditional full Irish breakfast we had the next morning. Check back to see how it was and what was in it. You can also check my other blog where I am going to write more about our trip to lead into getting back into my blogging and what our experiences were like.
I plan to get back to posting regular recipes we made at home at the end of this week so you can check back for them at the end of the week as well. until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
It’s a beautiful Sunday here In New York and even though I should be doing some work, I feel like blogging instead. We went and got a load of great fresh vegetables at the farmer’s market in Goshen on Friday and then went to Adams Farms and got some meat and seafood so we are all set for meals this week. For tonight, I decided to make a couple of new recipes for us. I picked up some bay scallops that were on sale this week. They are the smaller scallops, and less expensive than the sea scallops. I don’t normally buy them because they usually aren’t chemical free, but these were so I decided to go for them. I found a good-looking recipe from Ina Garten for this one and decided to use that with some slight modifications. I cut this recipe in half from what is shown since there are only 3 of us for dinner tonight.
Bay Scallop Gratin
6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
6 large garlic cloves, minced
2 medium shallots, minced
2 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, minced (I am actually using bacon instead, fried and minced)
4 tablespoons minced fresh parsley, plus extra for garnish
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons Pernod (I am using vermouth instead)
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (homemade or panko work best for this recipe)
6 tablespoons dry white wine
2 pounds bay scallops
Lemon, for garnish
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place 6 gratin dishes on a sheet pan (I personally don’t own any gratin dishes, but I do have small ramekins I have used for pot pies, creme brulee, etc and I think these would work just as well, just make sure what you have is broiler safe if you plan to use the broiler later in the recipe).
To make the topping, place the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (you can also use a hand mixer, which I am using because I didn’t want to lug out the Kitchen Aid). With the mixer on low-speed, add the garlic, shallot, prosciutto, parsley, lemon juice, Pernod, salt and pepper and mix until well combined. When the mixer is still on low, add the olive oil slowly as though you were making mayonnaise, until combined. Fold the breadcrumbs in with a rubber spatula and set aside.
Place one tablespoon of the white wine in the bottom of each gratin dish. Pat the scallops dry with a paper towel and distribute them evenly among the dishes. Spoon the garlic butter mixture evenly over the top of the scallops. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the topping is golden and sizzling and the scallops are barely done. If you want a crustier top, place the dishes under the broiler for 2 minutes until browned to your liking. Finish the dish with a squeeze of lemon juice and sprinkle with fresh parsley.
A couple of notes on this recipe. Substituting bacon for the prosciutto is a convenience thing for me. I didn’t have any prosciutto and it can be kind of expensive, so I went with what I had. If you want the taste you get from the prosciutto, go for it. I also did not have any Pernod, which is a licorice-tasting liqueur. I couldn’t see buying a bottle just for 2 tablespoons, so I asked around on Twitter to some chefs on Food Network. Scott Conant replied to me to either leave it out completely or you can substitute in some vermouth instead. Amanda Freitag suggested using Sambuca instead, but warned it could be too sweet. I decided to go with the vermouth, but I think you could just as easily not use anything at all.
With all these fresh veggies I bought on Friday, I wanted to make something with them. I decided to go for a ratatouille. Now, ratatouille seems to be somewhat of an old-fashioned recipe and a lot of the time, it just doesn’t turn out well. The veggies get too soggy and it can be a bit of pain to saute a bunch of vegetables separately and then combine everything. I found a recipe from America’s Test Kitchen that recommends roasting the ratatouille, which sounded ideal to me, so I gave it a try.
Roasted Ratatouille
1 eggplant, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
2 medium zucchini or summer squash, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 red onion, halved and sliced
1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained, with 1/2 cup juice reserved
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
5 garlic cloves, sliced thin
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme or 1/4 teaspoon dried
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 375 degrees. Combine the eggplant, squash, onion, tomatoes with reserved juice, oil, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper in a large bowl and mix well. Spread the mixture into a 9 by 13-inch baking dish. Roast until the vegetables have softened and are browned in spots, about 1 hour, stirring thoroughly halfway through the cooking time. Sprinkle with the vinegar before serving.
Again, I cut this recipe in half so it would fit just the 3 of us and it all worked out well. Normally, roasting vegetables doesn’t always work out too well since each can roast at different speeds. The temperature of the oven and length of cooking time seemed just right to keep everything from getting soggy and I didn’t have to spend a lot of time at the stove watching the vegetables, which was nice. This makes a great vegetarian dinner dish on its own if you wanted to do that.
We also had some rice with meal to round things out. Michelle made a small batch of her Potato Leek Soup, which was great also.
Tomorrow I am planning to make the yellowfin tuna I bought. I’m not sure what I am going to do with it yet, but I am sure it will be something simple. Check back and see what I come up with. Until then, enjoy your day and enjoy your meal!
When it comes to making soup in our family, I have to cede the kitchen to Michelle. She makes great soups of all kinds, all year round. I had just made some chicken stock earlier in the week, using the chicken carcasses we had used to make dinner last Sunday, so we were trying to come up with a soup to make. Michelle has been having an itch for some Italian Wedding Soup, so she decided that was what she was going to make today.
Italian Wedding Soup
For the meatballs:
2 slices of white bread (use good white bread for this)
1/3 cup buttermilk
3/4 pound ground beef
1/4 pound ground pork
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
1 large egg yolk
1 garlic clove, minced
Salt and pepper
For the soup:
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup minced onion
3 carrots, peeled and diced
1 celery stalk, diced
5 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup white wine
1 cup of small pasta (Michelle actually used orzo this time around)
12 ounces spinach, washed and trimmed
For the meatballs, remove and discard the crusts from the bread, then tear the bread into small pieces. Mash the bread pieces and buttermilk to a smooth paste in a large bowl, using a fork.
Add the beef, pork, Parmesan, parsley, yolk, garlic, 3/4 teaspoon of salt, and 1/8 teaspoon of pepper to the mashed bread. Stir the mixture gently until combined and uniform. Gently form the mixture into 1-inch round meatballs ( I made them smaller this time for the soup).
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the meatballs on a wire rack in a cookie sheet or roasting pan. Cook for approximately 20 to 30 minutes or until well browned.
For the soup, heat the olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed soup pot. Add the onion, carrots and celery and saute until softened, 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken stock and wine and bring to a boil. Add the pasta to the simmering broth and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until the pasta is tender. Add the meatballs to the soup and simmer for one minute. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the fresh spinach and cook for 1 minute, until the spinach is just wilted. Ladle into soup bowls and sprinkle with extra grated Parmesan cheese.
This recipe makes a lot of soup. The original recipe is double what I have shown here, but we halved it and it still made enough soup for dinner tonight and filled storage containers for 4 or 5 lunches, so you can get a lot mileage out of this one. it made the entire house smell great while it was cooking. You could use any type of small pasta that you like for this soup, we just happen to have orzo on hand so we decided to use that instead. The other nice thing was I made extra meatballs so we have some to use for some sauce for a dinner this week.
Okay, it’s really hot and humid here today, so I am going to slip into the air conditioning in the bedroom and relax for the rest of the evening. I do have some recipes planned for this week using shrimp, chicken and maybe some squid. We’ll see if anything comes up along the way. Until next time, enjoy your evening and enjoy your meal!
I am posting a couple of extra recipes tonight since I had a request for them. One is for a Potato-Leek Soup that I make, and the other is an early St. Patrick’s Day recipe for Irish Soda Bread. First, the Potato-Leek Soup:
Potato and Leek Soup
2 tablespoons butter or extra virgin olive oil
3 medium potatoes, any type, peeled and cut into small cubes
3 leeks, white and light green parts only, washed and sliced into thin rings
Salt and freshly ground pepper
4 cups chicken, beef, or vegetable stock, or water
1/2 to 1 cup heavy cream, sour cream or yogurt
Put the butter or oil in a large, deep pot over medium heat. When the butter melts or the oil is hot, add the vegetables. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook, stirring, until starting to soften, 2 or 3 minutes. Add the stock, adjust the heat so it gently bubbles, and cook until the vegetables are very tender, about 20 minutes. Allow the soup to cool slightly and then carefully puree the soup in a blender or food processor or with an immersion blender. Return the soup to the pot you cooked in. Stir in the cream, sour cream or yogurt and re-heat gently; do not let it boil if you use yogurt. Add more salt and pepper as needed and serve.
If you prefer not to deal with the leeks and the cleaning they need, you can substitute a large sliced onion instead. If you want the soup even thicker, you can always add in more potato to thicken it. If you want to make this a Vichyssoise, don’t re-heat the soup. Instead, chill the soup thoroughly before serving. You can also garnish the soup with some minced chives or some crumbled bacon (Sean’s preference, of course). This is a great one pot dinner and even better the next day for lunch or dinner.
Now, for the Irish Soda Bread. I am no bread expert, but I can make this one. A lot of what you can get in the stores I find to be too dry. I know people who can make this better than I do, but this is still a good recipe.
Irish Soda Bread
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for the counter
1 cup cake flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 cup raisins
Adjust an oven rack to the upper-middle position and heat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or spray generously with vegetable oil spray.
Whisk the flours, sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt together in a large bowl. Work 2 tablespoons of the butter into the dry ingredients with a fork until the texture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the buttermilk and raisins with a fork just until the dough begins to come together. Turn out onto a lightly floured counter. Knead just until the dough becomes cohesive and bumpy, about 30 seconds (Do not knead until smooth).
Pat the dough into a 6-inch round about 2 inches thick. Place on the prepared baking sheet. Cut an X into the top of the loaf using a serrated knife. Bake until the loaf is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs attached, 40 to 45 minutes.
Remove the loaf from the oven and transfer to a wire rack. Melt the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter and brush it over the top of the bread. Let the loaf cool for 1 hour.
This bread is great not only to go along with your St. Patrick’s Day meal, but also as an accompaniment to soups, like the potato leek soup above, or any stew. It also makes great toast the next day.
I think that’s the end of my posting for today. If you have any questions or comments, or there is a recipe you would like to see or are looking for, just leave a comment, send me an email at IguanaFlats@msn.com, visit my Facebook page, or send me a note on Twitter @IguanaFlats. You can get the links to my Facebook or Twitter pages on the right. I hope you all have a great evening!
Well not quite a crock, but at least it’s a nice pot of cream of broccoli soup. There are lots of recipes for different cream of vegetable soups, and they all seem pretty much the same to me. You basically cook the vegetables you want until they are done, puree it and re-heat it with some cream. This recipe, which I got from Mark Bittman, does a slight variation that seems to taste better to me. He uses a little more cream and adds either some white rice or a potato to the soup to help make it thicker and creamier. You can choose to leave the rice or potato out of the recipe if your like your soup with a thinner consistency; I personally prefer to have it thicker.
Cream of Broccoli Soup
4 cups broccoli florets
1/2 cup white rice or 1 medium baking potato, peeled and cut into quarters
4 cups chicken, beef or vegetable stock, or water
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups cream or half-and-half
Chopped fresh parsley leaves for garnish
Combine the broccoli, rice (or potato) and stock in a large, deep pot over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to medium and cook until the broccoli is very tender, about 15 minutes. Cool slightly, then puree through a food mill, blender or food processor. (At this point, you may refrigerate the soup, covered, for up to 2 days; re-heat before proceeding).
Return the soup to the pot and re-heat over medium-low heat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then add the cream. Heat through again, garnish, and serve.
Just a couple of notes about this soup. I am using homemade chicken broth, but any broth or even water will do nicely. For a soup like this, homemade broth doesn’t really make a huge difference since it’s not really the star of the meal, and if you’re going with a vegetarian meal, use vegetable stock or water. As far as pureeing soup, I think the blender probably works best of all your options. It reduces chunky ingredients into a smooth consistency very quickly. I often use the food processor myself for this, but be sure you only fill the food processor half-way to prevent the soup from leaking out of the bowl. Food processors don’t usually have a watertight seal like a blender, so be careful. Another option for this would be to use the immersion blender, which I also use often for soups. You can place it right in the pot, eliminating the mess created by using the blender or food processor. The only downside to this method is that the immersion blender doesn’t give you quite as smooth of a puree as a blender or food processor.
I’ll be serving a crunchy loaf of bread I got at Adams Farms this morning, and that’s all we have for this meal. Tomorrow’s meal is another one pot meal that I’ll be doing. It is Artichokes, Potatoes, Garlic, Olives and Shrimp. It’s something different, our seafood meal of the week, and cooks like a stew. It should be a good one. Check back tomorrow to see what it’s all about. Until then, enjoy your day and enjoy your meal!
Today’s dinner is a simple, one pot dinner I saw on the Food Network. Giada De Laurentiis made this on her show, and it looked pretty tasty and very easy to make, so I thought I would give it a try. There aren’t a lot of ingredients to this one, so you might be able to make this with what you already have in the house.
Trinidadian Chicken Stew
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 skinless and boneless chicken breasts, halved
4 small, skinless bone-in chicken thighs
1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon salt, plus more for seasoning
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning
4 whole peeled canned tomatoes
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
3 carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
3 medium Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
1 1/2 cups water
In a heavy bottomed 4-quart saucepan or Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the sugar and cook, stirring occasionally until very dark, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the chicken pieces, ginger, 1 teaspoon of salt, and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently until the chicken is brown, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and break up with a wooden spoon. Add the thyme, 2 tablespoons of parsley, carrots, potatoes and hot water. Cover the pan and simmer until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are tender, about 40 to 45 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Transfer to serving bowls and garnish with the remaining parsley.
And that’s all there is to it. I can tell you it smells wonderful as it is cooking (it’s cooking right now actually). It also makes for easy clean up, which I love, and good leftovers for lunch the next day.
It’s a quick post today since it’s a quick dinner. Tomorrow I’ll be making hamburgers, at Sean’s request. I’ve made them before and posted my method for making them, but I’ll do it again. This time we are making some Oven Fries and Oven-Fried Onion Rings with the burgers, so check back tomorrow to see the recipes for everything. Until then, have a great evening and enjoy your meal!
Tonight’s dinner has been cooking all day and it smells terrific. Beef stew is one of those meals that you can make all day in the slow cooker or all day on the stove, and it makes the whole house smell great. You don’t need a lot of ingredients to make it and you can always add other vegetables to it if you want.
Beef Stew with Bacon
4 slices thick-cut bacon, chopped
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt, plus more, to taste
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper, plus more, to taste
2 pounds boneless beef chuck, trimmed of excess fat and cut into chunks (I am actually using a london broil instead this time)
3/4 cup fresh mushrooms, halved if large
1/2 pound baby carrots
4 to 5 small red potatoes, scrubbed and quartered
1/2 pound frozen pearl onions (you can use 1 large yellow onion, chopped, instead)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup dry red wine
1 cup beef broth
2 tablespoons tomato paste
In a large fry pan over medium heat, cook the bacon, stirring occasionally, until crisp, about 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer the bacon to paper towels to drain. Pour off the drippings into a small heatproof bowl, leaving about 1 tablespoon drippings in the pan. Set the pan, reserved drippings and bacon aside.
In a sealable plastic bag, combine the flour, the 1 teaspoon of salt and the 1/2 teaspoon of pepper. Add the beef chunks and shake to coat evenly with the flour mixture. Return the fry pan to medium-high heat. When the drippings are hot, add half the beef chunks and cook, turning once, until well browned, about 5 minutes on each side. Transfer the beef to the slow cooker. Repeat with the remaining beef chunks, adding the reserved drippings if needed. Scatter the mushrooms, carrots, potatoes, onions, and garlic on top.
Return the pan to medium-high heat and add the wine, broth and tomato paste. Mix well, bring to a boil and deglaze the pan, stirring to scrape up any browned bits on the pan bottom. Pour the contents of the pan over the vegetables and beef. Cover and cook on the high-heat setting for 4 to 5 hours or the low-heat setting for 8 to 9 hours. The beef should be very tender. Stir in the reserved bacon. Cook, uncovered, on the high-heat setting for 10 minutes more to thicken the sauce slightly. Season with salt and pepper and serve.
Of course, the stew is great served with some crunchy bread, rolls or biscuits. If you would like to see a simple biscuit recipe, just check here for a previous blog entry that included the biscuits. You can always freeze any leftovers to save to be re-heated on a later day or use it for lunches during the week.
This was a pretty simple slow cooker meal, which is ideal for a Monday night. Tomorrow night, I’ll be making Bacon Chicken Ranch Quesadillas and we’ll be having the leftover black beans and rice and mango pineapple salsa, both from Sunday’s dinner. If you have any questions or there are any recipes that you might like to see or if you have some ideas for the blog, please feel free to leave a comment. Until tomorrow, have a great evening and enjoy your meal!
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