Black Bavarian Beef Stew

Carbonnade a la Flamande is a traditional Flemish beef stew cooked in Belgian Ale.  The first time I ever made this dish I was living half a block from the old Lakefront Brewery in Riverwest, and at that time they didn't bottle East Side Dark, only sold it in kegs.  I walked over to the brewery with a plastic pitcher and they filled it up for me, poured me a few samples of their other wares, and chatted about food and beer for a while.  What a bunch of nice guys, and though East Side Dark is still my favorite for this stew, any good dark beer will work.  You can make it with Guinness for St Patrick's day.

I love to serve it with gnocchi (another convenience product I scorned back in the day).

This is a 1.4 lb Chuck Roast.  You would never "roast" this in the oven.  It's for pot roast and braises.  The chuck is cut from the shoulder and it needs long, slow cooking to tenderize it.

I just cut into a few pieces to remove those large fat deposits, seasoned and floured it, and browned it well in a little oil.

Then the meat is removed and a whole large onion, thinly sliced, is added to the pot and deeply caramelized.  This takes a while.  You can add a bit of water if the onion begins to stick too much.  Try not to add much excess oil since it's a pain to skim it off the top later.  Salt the onions as they cook.  They really do need to get that dark to add the proper sweet flavor, and then  they pretty much dissolve into the sauce as it finishes cooking.

Then the beef is reintroduced, a whole bottle of Sprecher Black Bavarian is added along with a few allspice berries and half a bay leaf, and it gets simmered, covered, for 2 hours, or until the meat is quite tender.

Here it is.  While the beef rested, I got all the fat off the top of the sauce, and I added some shredded carrots for a little extra sweetness and some beta carotene.  They only needed a few minutes to cook.

It's so easy to pull it apart into large chunks.  Then it gets added back into the sauce...

The cooked gnocchi is mixed in...

Oooh, don't you wish you could smell that steam?

Passed the kid test:

Yes, I do have 2 children, and I love them both equally.  You will see the other one on this blog when she actually eats her dinner with anything approaching the enthusiasm of the little one.

And best of all- no leftovers!

Poached Cod with Beet Vinaigrette

The vinaigrette is rather a shocking pink...

I had a wonderful beet vinaigrette with swordfish at Le Cite in NY (ages ago).  I've also had a lovely halibut dish at Le Bernadine that was presented as a poached filet topped with dilled creme fraiche, then the server poured ruby borcht all over the dish at the table.  So fish with beet sauce is not something I just made up.  In fact the concept of light vegetable based vinaigrettes was pioneered by Jean Georges Vongerichten (of JoJo, Vong, the SPice Market) in NYC in the 90's.  And that's probably more than you ever wanted to know.

I also made some healthy Kale and some end of season corn.  

The vinaigrette was merely homemade pickled beets and a spoonful of mustard pureed in the blender, with a bit of vegetable oil drizzled in.  It had a nice earthy, sweet and sour flavor.

The cod was poached in a light broth, flavored water mostly, with some wine, lemon, onion, parsley, pickling spice, salt, and some shrimp shells.

Here's the kale...the ribs.....the cleaned leaves and then the chopped.  I sauteed it in a tiny bit of bacon fat, then added a little water and salt and slapped a lid on for about 20 minutes (on low).  Then, when the kale is tender, the lid is removed and the excess liquid boils off.   Sometimes kale needs a pinch of sugar to balance the bitterness.   Don't be intimidated by the sturdier leafy greens.  They're so good for you and really easy to cook.  Kale is especially good in soups, as it can stand up to long simmering.

Cioppino

Friday I got to go out to diner with a group of girlfriends!  We dined at Casa Di Giorgio in Franklin.  I had Cioppino, which is the San Francisco Italian community's answer to Bouillabaisse- a quick seafood stew with a tomato based sauce with wine and garlic:

This one was pretty good- the mussels, squid, shrimp and scallops were fresh and not overcooked.  Traditionally you would find fin fish (snapper, usually) in this type of dish...however, I stay away from menu items with chunks of random fish, it often turns out to be leftovers that don't really belong.  My only complaint is that the kitchen was a little heavy handed with the tomato sauce.  The mussels release so much flavorful juice that you don't really need a lot of added sauce, and in fact there was so much, and it was so thick and chunky, that the flavor of the seafood was too diluted and the sauce lost some elegance and refinement.  But these are quibbles- it was yummy and I scarfed it all down!

So-so Spinach Artichoke Chicken

I love spinach artichoke dip.  The hot melty kind, made with loads of mayonnaise and cheese.  I thought I would apply the concept to a topping for broiled chicken paillards (breasts pounded thin).  Unfortunately, I also thought I'd "lighten it up" a bit.  Well duh-  The charm of spinach artichoke dip is not in the healthy components.  What I wound up with was  not particularly light, not good enough to be worth it, basically pretty insipid dinner:

I still think this idea has merit, in a kind of populist, "Olive Garden" excess way, but you'd have to really embrace the gooey fatty aspect of the original dip.  I mixed frozen chopped spinach, canned artichokes, and cream cheese, and used that to top broiled chicken breasts- then sprinkled Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs on top of that, and returned it to the broiler (on low) to heat up the topping and crisp the crumbs. 

If you wanted to improve the dish: use fresh spinach sauteed with garlic in butter, add a generous dollop of mayonnaise to the filling, and make sure the ratio of vegetables to fatty goodness (mayo, cheese) in the filling was about 60-40 (mine was more like 80-20).  Then saute the chicken in a pan, deglaze with white wine,  put the topping on and stick it in a very hot oven, not broiler.  That would give you the gooey rich effect I was trying to achieve, foolishly, without the gooey rich ingredients.  

If there's anyone out there who has never faced down a butternut squash, here's the deal:

Cut off both ends, then use a good strong peeler to get all the skin and green fibers right under the skin off.  

Scoop out the seeds in the lower portion with a tablespoon.  It is one of the easier winter squashes to cut up because the neck is solid flesh.  I like to saute it in butter, salt it, then add a little water and cover to finish cooking by steaming in the buttery liquid.  Dry cooking can leave it a little too pasty in the mouth. 

Now I have a lot of leftover cooked squash....

Ravioli?  Risotto?  Autumn Vegetable lasagna?  Soup?  

What would you like to see me make?

Turkey Hominy Chili

I know.  Yawn.  Think of it as an early day of atonement- each serving had about 325 calories.

The two mildly interesting aspects of this chili are the use of a whole turkey thigh, and hominy.

That's one thigh, 1.5 lbs and $2.25.    I take the skin off and then actually render some of the fat in the pot while I dice up the meat:

Here's the fat all ready, as soon as I get that gross looking skin out of there...

The meat gets nicely browned (one of the CIA mantras is "color is flavor").  Then a good dose of Penzey's chili powder....

The chopped vegetables waiting to go in...

When the veggies are soft, I add tomato paste and cook it until it is almost ready to burn on the bottom (caramelize it a bit- pincer is the French term)...

See, I threw the bone in there as well, to give it as much flavor as possible.  At this point the liquid (broth) and tomatoes go in, and it simmers for a good 30 minutes or so.

Hominy is corn that is treated the same way as corn for tortilla masa (dough) is.  It has that tortilla flavor and is very tender.  It is a key ingredient in Posole, and I like it a lot in chili.  I think it makes it more filling and although it is a caloric starch, it has a lot of fiber.  I add the beans and hominy for the last 30 minutes of simmering.

Almost done...

Just get that extra fat off the surface with a spoon...

Call it dinner. 

As usual, the 1 year old ate it all up while the 5 year old tried to get away with just shredded cheese and oyster crackers for dinner.  

Jip Jip Rocks Shiraz

Jip Jip Rocks 2006 Shiraz, Limestone Coast, Australia.  I think it was $12 at Binny's.

The wine was richly colored with a deep garnet hue -opaque in the center and translucent at the  edges.  Swirling the wine, it clung to the glass (nice legs, in winespeak- probably had something to do with the whopping 15% alcohol).

Right away I could smell spice, cranberry sauce, fig jam...it smelled like a Thanksgiving kitchen (without the turkey) or mulled wine.  It had a rich, full flavor that lived up to the nose.  On the palate it was clean, smooth, bodacious...almost jellylike without being cloying.  Tannins were there but not overly aggressive.

After the wine opened up a little you really got some pine forest aromas:  juniper, camphor (in a good way)...eucalyptus?  Very classic Shiraz flavor profile.  A nice expression of the Australian style with the grape (known in France as Syrah and in California as either Shiraz or Syrah).

I do like this wine a lot.  It would be a good partner for pasta bolognese (the meaty kind, not the glorified tomato sauce kind).  Maybe a bold poultry dish- turkey mole or jerk duck would bring out the allspice flavors as long as the dish isn't chili pepper hot.  Blue cheese.  Any combination of red fruit jam and strong cheese.  The classic pairing of the grape is with lamb, and although I am not a fan of lamb I concede it would be perfect with lamb cooked with rosemary to compliment the piney flavor.  Maybe a simple lamb kebab skewered on rosemary sprigs.  

Oh yeah, dinner....we ordered pizza!

Tasty Cuban

Oh yeah, we're international baby!

If you're ever in South Beach after bartime and you need a greasy, salty, starchy, delicious something to eat- get yourself over to Puerto Sagua on Collins, and ask for a "media noche" (midnight sandwich).  Or even a regular Cubano.  Mmmmm.  It's thin slices of well seasoned roast pork, ham, dill pickles, swiss cheese, and mustard (sometimes mixed with mayo) on a long, soft and airy roll, which is well buttered and pressed while grilling, like a pannini.

Which brings me to my leftover roast pork....

I use a Goerge Foreman grill for my paninis/Cubans.  Works great.  The Cuban roll is hard to find so I cheat on that - I keep a round loaf of Pan Turano in my freezer for paninis.

Yeah, THAT will help me drop the pounds...not!  I have an excuse.  Monday dinners have to be easy because I hit the gym that night.  And I did have a salad....