Wellington

Instead of going out to a Halloween party Alex and I stayed inside on Friday night and made these beauties.

Birthday Dinner at Home

Birthday Dinner!

Happy New Years

Last night Alex and I made Steak Diane and these Cloverleaf Rolls from One Perfect Bite.

Hungarian Goulash

Tonight it is stormy and blustering outside.  

For dinner tonight Alex and I both wanted something hearty and warm.  

I remembered seeing a section in the January/February/March 2012 edition of Something Extra.  This is a free food magazine give out at the check stands of our local grocery store Raley's.  

Two recipes struck our fancy.  

Saxon Potato Soup

and

Hungarian Goulash.  

We opted for the Goulash since the Potato soup was similar to the Julia Child soup we had just a few weeks ago.  

Hungarian Goulash

S.E. pg 33

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 lbs. Black Angus Beef chuck, trimmed of fat and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 & 1/2 cups shredded celery root
• 1 chopped yellow bell pepper
• 1 chopped orange bell pepper
• 2 carrots chopped 
• 8 cloves garlic, minced 
• 6 tablespoons sweet Hungarian paprika
• 8 cups beef stock
• 2 cups vegetable broth 
• 2 teaspoons caraway seeds
• 1 (6 oz) can tomato paste 
• 1 lb red potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes 
• salt and pepper to taste.  

Directions:

• Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.
• Add beef and brown well.
• Add celery root, carrots, bell peppers, and garlic.
• Cook for 10 minutes.
• Stir in paprika and caraway seeds.
• Reduce heat and cook for 5 more minutes.
• Make sure that the paprika is well incorporated into mixture.
• Stir in stock and tomato paste.
• Bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 1 & 1/2 hours.
• Add potatoes.
• Cook, uncovered for 1 more hour, or until goulash has the consistency of a thick soup.
• Press the beef and potatoes against the side of the pot to break up slightly and season with salt and pepper.  

Shared with:

Filet Mignon with Potatoes and Chard

So Alex and I have been obsessed this summer with Master Chef. We watched most of season two over the past month and a half. Never missing a new episode when it came out. We watched all the excitement through till they crowned season two winner Jennifer.

Then it was over. Now, what will we watch in-between our Netflix arrivals of Deep Space Nine? Well we found an answer. We are watching season one of Master Chef and even though we know who wins we do not know the journey.

So all that being said...

When I was in the check out line at the grocery store I glanced at the magazines that they have displayed there. What should my eyes land on you may ask? Taste of Home Presents Master Chef, the premiere issue. Just what I needed, something to tell me how to replicate the recipes that we were avidly watching on T.V.

For our first dish Alex chose meat and potatoes. Bet you never would have guessed that.

Filet Mignon with Potatoes and Chard
Adapted from:
Steak and Frites
By Adrien Nieto (from MasterChef season 2)

Ingredients:

Herbes de Provence:

• 3 Tablespoons dried marjoram
• 3 Tablespoons dried thyme
• 3 Tablespoons dried savory
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon dried sage
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds

Steak

• 1 half pound filet Mignon
• Dried herbes de Provence
• salt and black pepper
• 1/4 cup unsalted-butter

Potatoes:

• Several large red potatoes
• Olive Oil
• Dried rosemary
• Salt and black pepper

Balsamic reduction

• 1 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 sprigs of fresh terragon

Seasoned Chard

• 1/4 pound thick-cut bacon, cut into small pieces
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 medium bunch chard, thinly sliced
• 1 leek, thinly sliced
• 1 shallot, thinly sliced
• 2 large cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 cup heavy cream
• salt and black pepper

Directions:

Herbes de Provence

• Combine all ingredient.

Balsamic reduction:

• In medium sauce pan combine vinegar and tarragon.
• Bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat
• Boil gently, uncovered, until reduced by half
• Remove from heat and set aside

Potatoes:

• Cut the potatoes into wedges
• Season with salt, pepper, and rosemary
• Coat in olive oil
• Heat a large frying pan over high heat.
• Add potatoes, and a little more oil.
• Reduce heat.
• Fry until done. Flipping to brown both sides.
• A side note, olive oil has a low smoke point watch potatoes closely so that they do not burn on one side.

Seasoned Chard

• In a medium skillet
• Cook bacon over medium-low heat until fat in the bacon melts away.
• Stirring occasionally
• Pour bacon though a strainer, to separate bacon from melted fat.
• Set bacon aside on paper towels
• Reserve Bacon fat for cooking steaks.
• In a large skillet
• Heat 1/4 cup butter over medium heat until melted.
• Add chard, leeks, shallots, and garlic.
• Cook until tender, stirring frequently
• Add cream
• Reduce heat to low
• Cook until cream is slightly thickened, stirring frequently
• Remove from heat
• Stir in bacon
• Season with salt and pepper

Steak:

• Bring steak to room temperature
• Season with herbes de Provence, salt and pepper
• In a large skillet.
• Heat 1/4 cup butter and the reserved bacon fat. over medium heat
• Add steak.
• Cook for 6 to 9 minutes on each side
• Reduce heat as necessary and continually spoon hot fat over steaks
• Remove from heat

Serving:

• Reheat balsamic reduction, remove tarragon.
• Place chard on plate
• Drizzle balsamic reduction.
• Slice steak
• Place on chard
• Serve with potatoes.

Boeuf aux Olives

Beef stew with Olives and Potatoes
(Mastering the Art of French cooking volume 2 page 149-154)

Brown Lardons:

Well here is the rub, where in the world do I find lardons?

Well I just settled for some thick cut bacon.

I cut them roughly into 1 & 1/2 inch segments then browned them in Olive oil.

Brown Meat:

Prep Vegetables:

Dice Onions then brown.

Peal, remove seeds and roughly dice tomato.

Put it all in a Casserole with garlic, herb bouquet, beef stock, and red wine.

Then drink the rest of the wine...

Cook until beef tender.

About 1/2 hour before done (when ever that is) add the olives

and potatoes.



Cook for 1/2 hour and then make sauce

Remove liquid from casserole and put in sauce pan. Discard herb bouquet.

Skim off fat. Add flour and butter. Then bring to simmer.

Add sauce back with the stew.

Serve.



I'm not as in love with this one as the other beef stew I made. It was not bad. I'm just a little disappointed. You couldn't taste the Olives and the potatoes got all mushy. I think this is one that will not be a repeat in this household.

Caveman chili

Caveman Chili

Ingredients:

1. 3 (5-inch strips) kelp or kombu seaweed, optional


2. 2 lbs boneless beef stew meat (you can substitute bison, pork loin, venison, bear or moose for the beef)


3. 1 sweet red, orange, or yellow bell pepper, halved, seeded, and diced


4. 1/2 tsp ground chipotle pepper


5. 3 to 4 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped


6. 4 heaping cups cubed fresh red tomatoes


7. 1 cup diced celery, optional


8. 1/2 cup minced fresh cilantro or parsley leaves for garnish


9. 1/2 tsp ground black pepper


10. 1/2 tsp salt


11. 2 tbsp coconut oil or cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil


12. 1 jumbo white or yellow onion, cut into 1-inch cubes


13. 2 tbsp. chili powder


14. 1 1/2 tsp dried cumin


15. 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano


16. ground black pepper for garnish, optional

Directions:

Pat meat dry with unbleached paper towel.

Dust with pepper and sea salt, if desired.

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat until hot.

Brown the meat on all sides.

I like to saute my onions before putting them in the pot.

While the meat is browning, make sure your veggies are prepped.

I forgot to dice the tomatoes until after I had it all, including spices, in the crockpot, so I just added them after.

Layer your browned meat and veggies in the crockpot or slow cooker.



Add your spices. Then, cover the crock pot with a lid and turn it on LOW.

Cook for 6 to 8 hours

Recipe found at www.foodrenegade.com

Boeuf Bourguignon

This is a most famous dish. It is the dish that Judith Jones cooked when she was thinking about being the editor and taking on the task of publishing Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It is also the dish that Julie Powell burnt in "Julie and Julia".

Julia has this to say about the dish on page 315 of MtAoFc Volume one.

"As is the case with most famous dishes, there are more ways than one to arrive at at good boeuf bourguignon. Carefully done, and perfectly flavored, it is certainly one of the most delicious beef dished concocted by man, and can well be the main course for a buffet dinner. Fortunately you can prepare it completely ahead, even a day in advance, and it only gains in flavor when reheated."

So I decided yesterday afternoon that I was ready to take this on. First stop Walmart to procure a Casserole. Well the biggest one they had was a 2.5 quart stoneware one by Paula Dean. It was only about $25.00 so I thought why not. I should have just taken it back and saved up for a real one, but that is neither here nor there now.

Then I went to the grocery store to find the rest of the ingredients that I needed. First stop the wine isle. Found a nice Chianti on sale. Then I picked up a white onion, a package of white pearl onions, and a carrot. Then a package of bay leaves. Now to the meat department. The recipe calls for 3 pounds of lean stewing beef cut into 2 in cubes. Well this grocery store I found out doesn't have a butcher counter. How very disappointing. So I just picked up three 1 pound packages of pre-cut stewing beef. So far so good. Now it's time to find the 6 ounce chunk of bacon with the rind still on. I looked and looked. Nothing remotely similar to this was to be found at this establishment. So I settled on thick cut bacon. And home I went.

Step one: Remove the rind and cut the bacon into lardons. Well I had no rind so I cut my bacon into 1-1/2 inch strips. Then I skipped the simmering in water for 10 minutes. I figure ready to cook bacon doesn't need this step.

Step two: Saute bacon in olive oil in the casserole. So this is where I ran into my first problem with my casserole. It is not fire proof. I could not put it on the stove top. So out came my trusty wok. I think Julia would be turning over in her grave to see me using a wok on French cooking. But I had to improvise.

Step three: Dry the beef in paper towels. Apparently, I never knew this, but beef does not brown properly if it is damp.

 

Sorry for the blurry image. I was a bit shaky yesterday from lack of eating.

When I'm sick and loose my appetite I completely forget that I still need to eat.

Then brown them in the oil and bacon fat.

Step four: In the same fat brown the sliced onions and carrots.



Step five: Now, this part says to add the meat to the casserole. Now I should have added the browned vegetables and the meat to the casserole, but I'd already forgotten that I was deviating from the prescribed methods. So I added the Meat to the Casserole and proceeded to the next step.

Step Six: Toss with salt and pepper. Then Toss with Flour and place in oven for four minutes.
Then toss again and place in oven for four minutes.

At this point I still had not realized that I needed to add the vegetables.

Step seven: Stir in wine and enough bouillon so that the meat is barley covered.

Well this is the second problem that I ran into with this casserole. It was simply not big enough. Then there was the problem that I did not own a cork screw.

Luckily I had about 2 cups of cooking wine in the pantry. But I'm still a little sad that I was unable to use the Chianti that I purchased specifically for this dish.

Step eight: Add tomato paste, garlic, herbs add bacon rind. Then bring to a simmer. This was quite difficult. Since I could not bring to a simmer. I took some beef stock made from the bouillon and added these ingredients to it. Then brought that to a boil and added it to the casserole and stirred it all together.

Now came the really hard part. Putting on the lid. I knew I was in trouble from the get go. The second that the lid was on the juices were spilling out. So I placed it in the oven with a cooking sheet on the rack below to catch the overflow. Needless to say My kitchen was smoky for the next couple of hours.

Then the next step was to braise the Pearl onions in an enameled skillet. What is that? So Since I'm not big on onions anyways I skipped this altogether. After that was to saute mushrooms in the same skillet. So out came my trusty wok again and we sauteed mushrooms in that.

At this point I was so hungry that I skipped the removal of the juices to skim off the fat and make it thicker. hubby and I just ate it straight out of the oven over boiled potatoes with the mushrooms on top.

And let me just say, Yum. It was so good. I think I could have died happy after the first bite.
I did not get a picture of it last night. But I did take one this morning of the leftovers. So it might not look as appetizing. But trust me it is worth all the effort.




I'm even thinking of making a smaller version, to fit the casserole, for next weekend. I do need to finish off the bacon that I purchased.

Happy Cooking.