Short-Rib Beef Stew with Ale

I was browsing through all my favorite recipe websites last week looking for inspiration for creating our weekly menu in preparation for grocery shopping. Cool weather is here, so I'm totally into soup mode. But I wanted something different than my fall back standards. Something hearty to make me feel better about not being able to eat all the wonderfully tempting cream soups I keep reading about. This beef stew really caught my eye. It sounded totally different from my normal taste profile. I made it yesterday and it lived up to the hype. It was delicious. I found the recipe on the cooking blog Simply Recipes, one of my absolute favorites. Elise Bauer, the blog's owner, features good home cooking with just enough of a challenge to make it interesting. She describes her recipes as using "mostly whole food ingredients and only occasionally a few things from cans or prepared foods. We believe in a varied, healthy diet, using real butter, real cream, eggs, lots of green vegetables, and protein from meat, fish, beans, and cheese." Exactly the way I like to cook.

I've reprinted the recipe here in its original form. What did I do differently? Well, I only had one type of Paprika so I went with that. I used fire roasted tomatoes. (yum!) I used a pale ale, because I opened the wrong bottle by mistake and didn't want to waste it. I totally forgot the carrots, and not on purpose because I love them.

I cut the recipe in half but I used the whole 12 ounces of ale. Even then, by the time I added the veggies, it needed a bit more liquid. I added a can of beef broth. It was still a very thick stew.

This is not a fast meal. It took at least 3 hours, not counting prep time. But most of that is time in the oven or simmering on the stove. Prep itself was fast and easy. It is a wonderful stew to have cooking in the background while doing housework on a cold winter day. So aromatic!!

I think the recipe turned out great. It will definitely go in my winter rotation and next time I'll even buy some smoked Paprika!

Short-Rib Beef Stew with Ale

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup flour
2 Tbsp hot paprika
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
4 pounds bone-in beef short ribs, trimmed of excess fat
4 strips thick-cut bacon
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 bottle (12 oz.) brown ale
1 can (14.5 oz.) whole peeled tomatoes, chopped and juices reserved
2 pounds Yukon Gold or russet potatoes
2 large carrots
1 pound turnips

METHOD

1 Preheat oven to 300°. Combine flour, hot paprika, smoked paprika, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1 teaspoon of black pepper in a large bowl. Dredge the short ribs in the flour mixture.

2 In a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat, cook bacon until fat renders. Transfer bacon with a slotted spoon to paper towels and reserve. Pour off all but 1 Tbsp of the bacon fat from pot. (Do not pour down the drain or you will clog your drain when the fat hardens as it cools.) Add short ribs and brown on all sides, 3 to 5 minutes per side.

3 Chop reserved bacon and set aside. Transfer short ribs to a plate and reserve. Add the onion and 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the pot and cook, stirring, until softened, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the ale and, using a wooden spoon or spatula, scrape up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Add tomatoes and their juices and reserved bacon. Increase heat to high and bring mixture to a boil. Return short ribs to pot, cover, put in the preheated oven, and cook two hours.

4 Peel potatoes, turnips, and carrots, and cut into 1-in. pieces. Add to short ribs, cover, and cook until potatoes are tender and meat pulls away easily from the bone, about 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

5 Spoon off excess fat (it helps if you have a fat separator). Remove the bones if you want, before serving.

Serves 8.

- Karen

Dump Soup

My mom, Amanda's "memaw" discovered this recipe years ago. I'm not sure where she found it, some church covered dish dinner most likely. She raved about how easy it was and how dad was actually willing to eat it. I fell in love with it because it is so easy and it is made with ingredients I almost always have on hand. Mom insist it must be made with Campbell's minestrone and no other brand will do.

Last week, our first cold snap caught me by surprise. September? When did that happen? Well, fall had arrived and I found myself scrounging through the pantry looking for warming comfort food. Dump Soup it was. Today, we finished it off. The cold spell didn't even last as long as the leftovers did. Tomorrow is October? You've got to be kidding me.

Dump Soup

Ingredients:

1 lb ground meat

1 large onion chopped

3 cloves of garlic minced

4 or 5 stems of celery diced

2 cans Campbell's minestrone soup

2 cans pinto beans

1 can ranch style beans

1 can Rotel tomatoes

1 can diced tomatoes (I used fire roasted!)

salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Brown ground meat with onion, garlic and celery. Dump in other ingredients. Add salt and pepper.

Add 2 soup cans of water. Simmer for 30 minutes or so to let the flavors have time to meld. Taste and adjust seasonings. Serve with crusty garlic bread. (Although it is great with corn bread too.)

Even better the next day.

Additional Notes:

For a richer flavor, use beef broth instead of water. The leftovers will thicken; just add water to desired consistency.

If you want to extend it - dump in more cans. Sometimes I add a can of whole kernal corn or a can of green beans. (In the above photo I had added half a can of corn and half a can of black beans left over from a taco salad the previous day.)

My Mom likes it with 2 cans of ranch style beans and some people prefer the spicy Rotel.

You can add tobasco at the table or stir in some red pepper flakes.

Chris adds japalenos. Modifications are limitless.

As written above it is approximately 130 calories per one cup serving. Change things and you'd have to recalculate.

-Karen

Pommes de terre aux olives

I'm guessing that means something like "Seasoned Potatoes with Olives" cause that is what this dish is or perhaps it translates to "An excuse to use lots of fresh herbs from my garden." Because that is also what this dish is all about. Whatever. It is delicious. This is my modified version of a recipe from a friend's website who says she got it from The Frenchwoman's Kitchen

Pommes de terre aux olives

2 lbs new potatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
8 large garlic cloves, whole
4 shallots, sliced into rings
3-4 oz of pitted black olives
2 tablespoon chopped tarragon, fresh
2 tablespoons chopped parsley, fresh
2 tablespoons chopped thyme, fresh
8 - 10 medium sized basil leaves, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Peel about half the potatoes. Cube all the potatoes. (Next time I'll cube the potatoes into smaller pieces, this time I just cut them into quarters.) Heat the olive oil in a large heavy-based saute pan and saute the potatoes until they begin to turn a bit brown. Add in shallots and whole garlic cloves and continue to saute until golden. Add olives and season with salt and pepper. (Careful, the olives will be salty). Add about 1/4 cup of water, cover and cook on low heat for 10 minutes. Uncover the pan and add herbs, stirring to mix well. Add a bit more water if needed and simmer until potatoes are soft and almost fall to pieces. Water should be cooked away at this point.

NOTES: If you are going to use dried herbs for this recipe instead of fresh, use less. I'd say about 1 teaspoon of each. The original recipe called for 7 ounces of olives. Instead of the canned pitted black olives I usually have on hand, I used unpitted greek black olives and pitted them before adding them to the pan. These have (to me) a much stronger flavor and so I used much less. So consider the type and taste of the olives you use and adjust accordingly.

-Karen

Salmon Patties

Amanda will not appreciate me posting this recipe, it is one of the two things I cook that she will not eat.  The other is meatloaf.  I'm not sure what her hang up is, these are not exotic or weird taste sensations.  Kinda all American basic home cooking in my opinion.  Anyway, I love this meal... it is easy; usually on the table in less than 30 minutes. And it is a great one to fall back on when you have forgotten to thaw some meat. I usually serve it with macaroni and cheese and this time I also served a smaller version of greek green beans or fassoliakia. (Although Amanda calls them southern green beans and I'm not sure why.)

Salmon Patties

1 can (15 oz) salmon

4 slices bread (finely crumbled) or 1 cup cracker crumbs

2 large eggs

1/2 cup finely chopped onion (I often use 2 or 2 chopped scallions)

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp dill weed (fresh if possible)

1/2 tsp salt

pepper to taste Drain salmon. Crumble with fork. Combine all ingredients. Shape into 6 - 8 round patties. Pan-fry on both sides in oil until golden brown. I usually do mine on my griddle. Serve with cocktail or tartar sauce.

Shrimp Stuffed Eggplant

OK, so I forgot to take a photo of it all plated pretty.  I did manage to get one before we went back for seconds. 

I’ve been gardening lately.  Let me tell you a secret.  When you grow a vegetable from a seed you have a different relationship with your food. Babying it as a seedling, holding your breath as you transplant hoping you won’t damage the roots, watching out for pests, watering and weeding. Well, let’s just say you get a little attached.  And so when it finally blooms and sets fruit you get a little excited. Then you still must continue to water and weed and harvest in temperatures around 105 gazillion degrees… when you do have a harvest you DO NOT waste. A carrot I bought at Krogers may shrivel up and mummify in my fridge but a carrot from my garden WILL be eaten. 

This recipe was a very successful attempt at finding a way to like eggplant other than fried.  Why did I grow eggplant if I don’t particularly like it except fried?  Well, because I do like them fried.  The problem was I bought a “gourmet mix”  which had four different types of eggplant seeds all mixed together. Of course I wanted to try one of each so I planted a bunch of the seeds hoping to get at least one plant of each type and that means way more eggplant than I originally planned on.  So far, I have had Purple Blush and Snowy White eggplants.  The purple blush is much milder and to me much better than the standard big blackish purple eggplants I usually see at the store. 

Please note that not only did the eggplant come from my garden, but so did the green onions, and the herbs; the thyme, sage and the basil.  My basil was blooming so I cooked with the blooms.

 INGREDIENTS 

• 1 large eggplant, halved lengthwise
  
•     (Or three small home garden grown purple blush eggplants!)
  
• 1/2 cup olive oil, divided 
  
• salt and pepper to taste 
  
• 8 - 10 medium shrimp - peeled, deveined and chopped 
  
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil 
  
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme 
  
• 3 or 4 chopped sage leaves or to taste
  
• 2 –3  cloves garlic, chopped 
  
• 2 green onions chopped 
  
• 1/4 – 1/2 bell pepper chopped 
  
• 1/2 cup white wine 
  
• 1 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs 
  
• 1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
  

This photo shows most of the ingredients I used. Except for the shrimp. And the wine. Mostly it is a not so subtle method of showing off my beautiful garden produce.  

DIRECTIONS 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Scoop out the flesh of the eggplant, chop, and reserve. Coat shells with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper; set aside. 

Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a medium skillet over medium high heat. Sauté onion, bell pepper, garlic, basil, thyme and sage until wilted. Stir in the reserved chopped eggplant. Season with salt and pepper. Sauté until eggplant begins to turn golden in spots. Pour in wine, and cook 5 minutes.

Transfer to a large bowl, and mix in the bread crumbs and chopped shrimp. If mixture is dry, stir in more olive oil. Stuff mixture into eggplant shells. 

Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until eggplant is tender.  Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top and return to oven just long enough to melt cheese.  

Serve with a fresh green salad and you’re all set. 

Here's a photo of the eggplant stuffed before they went in the oven. Because my eggplants were a bit small, I had more stuffing than space so I went to the garden and harvested a Snowy White eggplant to use for the last of it. 

- Karen

Apple Banana Bread

First, let me introduce myself. I'm Karen, or Momma or 'Nana depending on who you are. I also tend to blog as Seren Dippity.

Amanda has been poking me to post something on the Frickin' Chicken since the beginning but I never remember until whatever it is gets half devoured. And if I can't post a pretty photo, I don't wanna post. Today I was craving banana bread. Browsing recipes I found one that met the criteria, namely I already had all the ingredients on hand. And since The Frickin' Chicken is sorely lacking in the dessert category this will be my first post.

Amanda called me on her way to the store tonight and as we were chatting, I mentioned that I had banana bread cooling. Would you believe, thirty minutes later I hear from my back door "I'm here for my banana bread!" Yep. That's my baby girl. So 9:30 at night we are eating banana bread. This is the first time I've tried this variation and we decided it taste more like baked bread pudding. It is very dense and sweet and cinnamony. Cinnamony is a word. Amanda says she'd add nuts or a crumble coffee cake type topping. I think next time I would add a bit less cinnamon. Amanda took some home for the twins, so tomorrow I'm expecting the real review.

Apple Banana Bread

Prepare Apples first:

* 2 large apples
* 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
* 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Prepare the apples by peeling and coring them. Slice into 1/2 inch pieces. Then preheat a medium skillet over a medium heat. Place the butter and brown sugar in the skillet and heat until it starts to bubble. Then add the apples and cinnamon and cook gently until golden and tender. Stir in the vanilla and remove from the heat and allow to cool.

* 2 cups all purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
* 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
* 1 cup granulated sugar
* 2 large eggs
* 1/4 cup fresh orange juice
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 3 ripe mashed bananas

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350F. Make sure the rack is in the center of the oven. Then grease and flour your loaf pan.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well.

While slowly mixing add in the baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt. Add the flour 1/2 cup at a time mixing well.

Add the orange juice and vanilla slowly. Stir in the mashed bananas. Make sure everything is thoroughly mixed together before stirring in the apples you prepared earlier.

Pour the finished batter into the loaf pan you prepared earlier. Bake in the middle of the oven on 350F for around 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean.

Remove from the oven when ready and place on a wire rack to cool for 10-15 minutes. Then remove from the loaf pan and allow to cool for a further 10-15 minutes.

This recipe is modified from one I found on a website called Banana Bread Recipes. Yes, A whole website for just banana bread.

- Karen