Bistro Stew

This came from our favorite soup book,The Big Book of Soups and Stews by Maryana Vollstedt. We have been using this book for years, but decided to try something we had never tried before.  It is a very hearty dish with lots of beef cubes and chunky vegetables.  We gave it a 10.







Printable Version: Bistro Stew
Ingredients:
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 1/2 pounds beef stew meat
2 tablespoons butter
2-3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 cups red wine
4 cups beef stock or broth
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
4 cloves garlic, halved
4 medium new potatoes, unpeeled, quartered
3 cups baby carrots
6 baby pattypan squash, quartered I used zucchini
8 ounces mushrooms, halved
Mix flour, salt, and pepper on a piece of waxed paper. Roll meat in mixture to coat. Use all the flour.
In a large Dutch oven over medium heat, melt butter with 2 tablespoons of oil. Add meat and brown in batches, about 5 minutes for each batch. Remove meat to a plate as it browns. Add onion and saute" until tender, about 5 minutes. Add more oil if needed to keep onions from sticking. Add wine and bring to a boil, scraping up browned bits. Add stock, tomato paste, marjoram, and garlic. Return meat to Dutch oven. At this point, I put it all in the crock pot and cooked it on high for about 2 hours. Then I turned down the heat to low and added the potatoes and carrots and cooked it an additional 2 1/2 hours. Then I added the squash and mushrooms and cooked about 45-min. --1hour. Back to the recipe: Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add potatoes and carrots and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, 30 minutes. Add squash and mushrooms and simmer, covered, until all vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes longer. Taste for seasonings.

Menu white board

In making a menue for my refrigerator, I use an 8" X 12" white board. I use a permanent marker to make the lines for 7 days. I write Lunch and Dinner on the two sides. You could put the days of the week on the side, but I never make them the day it says. I just have my meals for the week and make them whenever I desire.

Then I use a white board marker that can be erased for my meals for the week. I put the page number and the recipe book at the bottom of the entry.  This is really a nice way to keep track with what's for dinner.


Pan Fried Trout with Tomato/Basil Sauce 2

I have made this dish before, but I used the lazy way this time.  I had some roma tomatoes that were going to go bad, so I put a little olive oil with 1 onion, 1 clove of garlic, and about 6 of the tomatoes.  I let them cook until they were nice and soft. Then I added about 1/4 cup of fresh basil. I poured this over the trout or in my case tilapia.





Remove the sauce from the heat. Clean-out the pan and heat over medium-high heat. Add 1/2 teaspoon oil. Sprinkle fish with salt and pepper. Cook 2 minutes on each side.  Top with tomato mixture.


Jambalaya

Printable Version:  Jambalaya

This recipe comes from Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Meal--Comfort Foods recipe book. I think next time I may use a little less pepper sauce. We like spicy, but this was a little too spicy.









Ingredients:
1 cup enriched white rice, following directions on package
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breast meat, diced
1/2 pound andouille, chorizo, or linguica sausage, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
2 stalks celery from heart of stalk, chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 bay leaf, fresh or dried
A few drops cayenne pepper sauce
2-3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 can (14oz.) diced tomatoes
1 can (14oz) chicken broth
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 round teaspoon chili powder
1 rounded teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
4 drops each cayenne pepper sauce, such as Tabasco, and Worcestershire sauce
3/4 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
Coarse salt and black pepper, to taste
4 springs fresh thyme leaves, stripped from stemp and chopped (about 2 tablespoons)
4 scallions, sliced thin.
Method:
Cook rice and keep covered.  Place a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan and melt butter into it. Add chicken and brown 2 minutes. Add sausage and cook 2 minutes more. Add onion, celery, bell pepper, bay leaf, and cayenne pepper sauce. Saute' veggies until tender, another 3-5 minutes. Sprinkle flour over vegetables and chicken and cook a minute more, stirring to incorporate flour. Add tomatoes and broth to pan and combine ingredients well. Season with cumin, chili powder, Old Bay seasoning, Tabasco, and Worcestershire.  Scatter shrimp into pot and cook until shrimp are pink and firm and sauce thickens a bit, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.  To serve, ladle jambalaya into bowls. Scoop rice with an ice cream scoop and place 1 scoop in the center of each dish of jambalaya. Top rice and jambalya with chopped thyme and scallions. I put the rice in the dish first, and then topped it with the jambalaya.

Poblano Sauce

This is great on chicken, pork tenderloin, fish, or anything else. I haven't tried it with cardboard, but I think it would be good.

Poblano Pepper Sauce:

• 3 poblano peppers, roasted, peeled, seeded and chopped
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
• 2 tablespoons honey
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 cup olive oil

Place peppers, vinegar, cilantro and honey in a blender and season with salt and pepper. Blend until smooth. With the motor running, slowly add the olive oil until emulsified.

Oven Fried Chicken

This is a great way to make fried chicken. The dijon mustard is a great addition to the flavor of the chicken. We loved it.  The brussel sprouts are just coated with extra virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper and cooked at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes.







Ingredients:
2 cups Panko bread crumbs
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons freshly minced thyme leaves
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons water
2 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded to 1/4 " thickness
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Place a cooling rack over pan and spray rack with nonstick cooking spray. In a shallow dish, combine bread crumbs, cheese, 2 tablespoons olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper, to taste. In a separate shallow dish, combine mustard, water, salt and pepper, to taste, and remaining olive oil. Coat each chicken breast with mustard mixture; dredge each in bread crumb mixture. Place on prepared rack in pan. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until chicken is golden brown. Serve immediately. I cut this recipe in 1/2 because I only made 2 chicken breasts.

Chicken Pot Pie

This is a great recipe for chicken pot pie and it comes from Ina Garten of food network. Chicken Pot Pie

I forgot to take the picture until the next day when we had it for left-overs. I warmed it in a 350 degree oven until it was nice and warm.  I think the microwave would have made it too soggy for my taste. I like the pastry to be light and crisp.



Printable Version: Chicken Pot Pie
Ingredients:
3 whole chicken breasts, bone-in, skin-on (I used rottisserie that I took off the bone)
3 tablespoons olive oil (you don't need this if you use the rotisserie chicken)
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
5 cups chicken stock, preferable homemade. A little trick that I use is have one meal with the breast of the rottisserie chicken, take the rest off the bone to use later. Then I put about 6 cups of water in a stock pot and make chicken stock from the bones, meat left on the bone, an onion, 3 carrots, 3 celery and any other vegetables I might have that I can use to make the stock.  I also scrape the jelly-like stuff that is left in the rottisserie chicken plastic container into the stock pot
2 chicken bouillon cubes
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups yellow onions, chopped
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 cups medium-diced carrots, blanched for 4 minutes
1 (10oz) package frozen peas
1 1/2 cups frozen small whole onions (I didn't use these)
1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves

For the pastry:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/4 pound cold unsalted butter, diced
1/2 - 2/3 cup ice water
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash
Flaked sea salt and cracked black pepper for the top of the crust

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Place the chicken breasts on a baking sheet and rub them with olive oil. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 35-40 minutes, or until cooked through. Set aside until cool enough to handle, then remove the meat from the bones and discard the skin. Cut the chicken into a large dice. You will have 4-6 cups of cubed chicken. 
In a small saucepan, heat the chicken stock and dissolve the bouillon cubes in the stock. In a large pot or Dutch oven, melt the butter and saute the onions over medium-low heat for 10-15 minutes, until translucent. Add the flour and cook over low heat stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add the hot chicken stock to the sauce. Simmer over low heat for 1 more minute, stirring until thick. Add 2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and heavy cream. Add the cubed chicken, carrots, peas, onions, and parsley.  If you want to add pre-cooked diced potatoes, this would be the time to do that as well.
Mix well.
For the pastry: Mix flour, salt, and baking powder in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Add the shortening and butter and mix quickly with your fingers until each piece is coated with flour. Pulse 10 times, or until the fat is the size of peas. With the motor running, add the ice water; process only enough to moisten the dough and have it just come together. Dump the dough out onto a floured board and knead quickly into a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic and allow it to rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Divide the filling equally among  4 ovenproof bowls. I just used one 8" X 8" baking dish. Divide the dough into quarters and roll each piece into an 8" circle. Brush the outside edges of each bowl with the egg wash, then place the dough on top. Trim the circles to 1/2 inch larger than the top of the bowl. Crimp the dough to fold over the side, pressing it to make it stick. Brush the dough with egg wash and make 3 slits in the top. Sprinkle with sea salt and cracked pepper. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 1 hour, or until the top is glden brown and the filling is bubbling hot.