Recently in soups & stews Category

I really can't take any credit here, the crock-pot did it. Or should I say, didn't do it. Actually, it is my fault I didn't follow the recipe. In my defense, I rarely if ever follow any recipe.

As everyone knows I bought a crock-pot a few weeks ago and came up with this, Is it a crock, or not? I'm finding more crock than not. I'm okay with it now, it's become the Zen of failing or not having much control over what I cook, it feels good. Last week April mentioned something about wanting to have a decent beef stew recipe for her crock-pot, but didn't want to end up browning the meat first, translucentizing the veggies and whatever else took place outside of the pot. Me being the Meat Buffoon that I can be, decided to break the rules and try making a beef stew by putting everything in the crock-pot without doing anything to it. Just to see what I came up with, basically reinventing the wheel. Sure I could have done the typical "research" on the internets, but couldn't be bothered.

I did something really silly, this time, for this recipe. I knew the flour would need to be a part of the ingredient list for the subtle thickish sauce that we all crave in any good stew. But I wasn't going to take the time to brown anything and end up cleaning a 35 pound cast iron fry pan in the process. All I wanted to clean was a knife and a cutting board, that was it. Um, so I dredged the meat in flour, then just plopped the meat in along with everything else. I did do one thing I was pretty impressed with, pre-heated the crock-pot. Add liquid and turn the sucker on, brilliant!

Ingredients:

Beef Stew Meat - 2 pounds (make bite sized or not, don't matter. Looks like you get 50%+ shrinkage anyway).

A.P. Flour - 1/2 cup (makes a nice mess on your fingers and in your kitchen)

Onion - 1 Yellow er White - (I like the white ones)

Carrots - 4 - Peel & Slice

Celery - 3 - Peel a little of the ribbing and slice

Fresh Garlic - All you want (I did 5 big cloves)

Bay Leaves - 1 or 2 (I didn't have any, so didn't use them)

Salt - Kosher (add it)

Fresh ground black pepper - Grind it (add it)

Worchestershire Sauce - 1 tsp?

Chicken broth - 3/4 cup

Good hearty red wine - 1/4 cup

Note: Mess with whatever you want, but I suggest keeping the liquid amounts there.

Huh, lookie there. Sounds like a great beef soup recipe, don't it?

After it was done, put a colander over a large pot and separated the bits from the juice. Used a fat separator thingy on the juice, put to stove and jacked the heat a bit. I reduced it until it tasted ... flippen fantastic ! Woot. Reinstalled everything together and let cool, install to fridge for the next day.

Keeripes, that was most excellent. Both Z and I tore in to it like to rabid 3-legged weevils. So, I made beef soup. Duh. The flavors and textures were a lot more complex than one might think after so many hours and so little care, thought, effort. The small amount of wine added quite a bit of action to the final product, don't leave that out.

xo, Biggles

Doh ! I cooked this about a month ago and it's been one of the posts waiting in the wings. Yeah, it's like that and I have more than just a few.

I been so tired of the chile powder, paprika and the likes. I've had so much over the years which is why I've been using mostly good kosher salt to marinate my meat in lately. A while back Eric the Knife Guy and his lovely wife Janet gifted me some spice blends from Oregon Spiceman. This particular blend is their Pepper Rub. Black pepper, white pepper, sweet basil, garlic powder and salt. Sounds good and smells even better.

I had a good load of fancy pork country style ribs from Ted of Highland Hills, it was time. Brought down the trusty clay cooker, sliced up an onion, too much garlic, rubbed the meat 2 hours before, installed enough chicken broth, and slid it in to a cold oven set to 400 degrees. I probably even soaked the clay cooker a bit, like you're supposed to.

Pull when pully aparty, pull when broth is rich in flavor and texture. Probably around the near 3 hour mark.

How was it? The fancy pork and its flavors pulled right through, so tender, so juicy in its own perfection. But the clean bite of the pepper delivered to my waiting gullet everything I was looking for. The onions brought to the table a sweetness, the garlic rounded out all the flavors with a husky bellow. The pepper rub was a delight and packed a slight punch, tilted my head with complex flavor thinking. It wasn't something I could serve the boys with their "tender" (read: undeveloped) palate. But brother, or sister, this juicy delectable is absolutely divine poured over a more than heaping pile of buttery mashed taters, even perfect for a mid July festival.

fini

Only recently have I started making spaghetti soup again, and it's as divine as I remember. Over 20 years ago my Uncle Ralph made it for me and it's about as simple to make as a glass of milk. But just because it's simple and trashy, don't mean it won't deliver an absolutely rich, warm and filling meal that everyone will adore as much as we do.

You know how you, like, have leftovers when you make a red sauce spaghetti type situation? Sometimes there's pasta left over too, but I'm talking about the red sauce leftovers. Put it in a pot, add enough chicken stock or broth to bring it to a soup consistency. Either use the leftover pasta or cook fresh. Bring to simmer, turn off and serve.

xo, Biggles

Editor's note: Hand still really hurts, doing this post in batches. TCB baby!

Who here likes a good pot of beans? Excellent, me too. Who here has screwed up a pot of beans badly enough to just toss the batch? Hmm, yeah. Me too. Beans are an odd lot, even with a recipe it can head south at any given moment. Just because they're dried, doesn't mean you can get an old, nasty bag full. If one little ingredient is added and found to be too much, or not enough? You're a goner. Please click through to read about my little bean adventure, you'll be glad you did.

Unbeknownst to me, I wound up with the same cut of pork twice in the same week. One ended up more like a steak, the other a roast (got this one from Omar). He couldn't tell me what it was in English and it looked like an odd globule of meat to me, at the time. It wasn't until I got home and started playing with it that I realized what it was and how I should go about preparing the beast, it was about 4.5 pounds of the Country Style Pork Ribs, all connected.

As you know, this piggy cut is full of meat, fat & bones and lends itself well to long and slow cooking. Dutch Oven or French Oven or Danish Oven cooking coming!

To be honest, I wasn't very well prepared. I thought I had everything I needed to get the job done, but I didn't. What I ended up with was missing maybe 2 dimensions of flavors. It was fricken great pork and juicy juice, but I know what I'm capable of and I missed a few things.

Preheat oven to 325 on bottom rack.

What I had:
4.5 Pork Roast
4 El Salvadorean chorizo links
4 glugs of good red wine
Carrots, onions, garlic & celery
Survival Spice
3 Balinese Long Peppercorns (tee hee, I just noticed a quote by me on their web site!)
And maybe a few other things I can't remember.

Roughly cut up the roots & veggies, add to dutch along with the whole sausages. Wash, dry meat (really well), rub with extra virgin.

Liberally rub roast with Survival Spice, add liberal amounts of the spice over the bed of non-meat products.

4 glugs of wine to bottom of pan, do not glug over the meat.

But Biggles? What happened, this actually sounds really good? Well, when putting this together I wasn't feeling herby, I didn't have the fresh herbs I thought I needed. I went through some dried ones and decided to opt out. Dumbass. And, as it turns out the onion I had was too small and the head of garlic turned out to be the size of half a golf ball. I thought for damned sure I had at least 1 large head left. So, between the lack of the herb action, lack of garlic, onion & chicken broth, the sauce just didn't have any dark, rich spark to it. See, I should have left the wine go by itself, it would have been just a tad better, but I decided to add 3/4 cup of water. I knew better, but I see chefs and read recipes where they're adding water all the time. I neglected to use The Force.

Listen up folks, water is for ice cubes to put in glasses full of booze. Water keeps you hydrated when you're at work or ghod forbid, when you're exercising. Water has no place in slow roasted meat gifts, no sir. No ma'am! Heck, even those wacky vegetarians know to roast their veggies to make vegetable stock.

Here's the roast just before I installed the glass lid and gently slipped it in to the oven.

Here's the same pot 3.5 hours later. Not bad for a Tuesday evening, eh? The rich porky smells mixed with the wine and veggies were absolutely to die for. But, due to my Tuesday ineptness, it fell short of my expectations. In the immortal words of Big D, "NEXT !!!"

Biggles

So far, everytime I visit Joya de Ceren in Richmond, Omar has something new to show me. Today it was fresh watermelons from Mexico, they looked wonderful. I'll return tomorrow and grab me one. A week ago he handed me a can of Doňa Lisa's Sopa de Garrobo. With a price tag of $6.99 I thanked him and said, "Maybe next time, not today." He shook his head and waved his hands and said, "Take it and try it, see what you think, maybe you'll like it. It helps make you strong and virile!" Oh great, what am I going to do with that? I dunno, maybe something will pop up.

I wouldn't accept the gift without a recipe. "If you give me a little recipe, I'll make it."

Roll that n baby! Stick out your chest and raise your arms as you say it.

Beef Stroganoff El Salvadoreño !!!

First thought, jacked a setting on the camera and didn't catch it. They dark. Flitting the levels didn't even do it, feh.

Okay, so here's the scoop. I haven't made Beef Stroganoff in more than 20 years, not sure why. I think it's my general aversion to sour cream, it's like butter. It scares me, no really. But in the last week, have been craving it. Craving it enough to actually shop for the ingredients and make it. So, Friday afternoon at 5pm we find Biggles at the local Dumb Mart looking for parking ...

Disclaimer: I shopped for this meal, I prepped this meal, I cooked this meal and I photographed this meal with a fever, with hacks, coughs and a flowy nose. Expect a few errors, expect some oddities. Just so you know.

Chicken noodle soup is one of those recipes where everyone has their own way of doing it, and it's the only way. If it's not their way? Rubbish! Yeah well simmer down now because this recipe is most probably some place you've never been. I need you to pay attention because there are some finer point where you'll go wandering off and not get the expected results. It isn't just about grilling chicken, then making soup with it, no sir.

Would you like to come play?

I found the pitchers!

This isn't necessarily an exact recipe, this time. This batch was something I did on the spur of the moment, not sure what happened really. I was doing my weekly shopping (fer kid's lunches and junk) and walked passsed the chile peppers and thought to myself, CHILE VERDE. It was just like that too, chile verde. If you'd like a more exacting recipe, try my Pork Chili recipe. In any case, come along for some stewing fun, eh?

Recipes for chili are about as numerous as cold remedies, tales of woe & mac vs. pc arguments. No matter which list of ingredients, no matter how long you simmer it, you're doing it wrong. So, I say, sit down and contemplate why you enjoy chili and base your recipe against that. And this is how I came up with Meathenge's California Style, "A Bowl of Red".

I'd never had Chinch meat, always heard about it. It wasn't until my brother inlaw Meathead found some at a local market in the freezer section that we'd even consider it. It was decided to meet up this last Friday night and see what all the hubub is about.

Oh stop it, it's just like squirrel or 'possum. Let's learn to love our furry little chinchilla for more than just the hide. Use it all, I say. Please come and join our adventure.

Say it again with me, "Maaaan, I looove browning meat!"

It's got everything in there I like. You get really heavy pans (if you don't have to use 2 hands to set the fry pan on the stove, your equipment is too small), fresh meat, tons of searing heat and aromatic aromas. Browning meat has it all, right there.

Come have a short look at Tuesday's little supper.

While I was dredging chunks of brisket through the smoky gravy on Saturday, I had a vision of the leftover brisket lolling about in a soup. Minestrone soup to be exact. I just love homemade soup, especially if it includes tomatoes and brisket. It's perfect for the changing seasons, all rich and yummy. Minestrone doesn't have a set recipe, since it's traditionally made with seasonal vegetables. I wanted to start off on the right foot, even if it's usually planted firmly in my mouth. Instead of digging through my cookbooks, I decided to see what Elise had going on. I lucked out, she did have a nice recipe and it looked good even in print. Thank you Simply Recipes, you just made my afternoon that much easier.

I had 2 pounds of brisket ready to go Sunday morning, my meez was in place. Are you ready?

Well, that was a lot of fun. Been hankering for something rich, spicy and would use some of the awesome chile peppers this season has produced. This last Saturday's farmer's market was absolutely filled with fresh chile peppers and 'maters. There were so many I expected the Honey Guy to have them as well, no kidding.

Before I left work on Friday I checked out Chuck Taggart's Gumbo Pages. After a little perusal I landed this recipe for Shrimp Creole. I've never been a big fan of dealing with shrimps. Why? Cause they just too tedious, that's why. Sure I could take his suggestion of a chicken substitute, yet no. I wanted something a little heartier, like spicy pork sausage. Gee, I was going to visit Fatted Calf Saturday morning, maybe they had some pork sausage?

If you're lucky enough to live in an area where you can afford the luxury of being a Mexican Food, food snob, you've had conversations about who had or has The Best. Does Del Palmar have the best Chile Colorado, or is it Trevino's? Today, I believe it would be Trevino's. Looking for the best papusas in Richmond? The debate is still going on to this day. However, if you're looking for the best chile verde? There's only one place to be, Meathenge.

There are two reasons for this post, one of which is that I have a Ganglion Cyst inside my right wrist (I'm right handed) and have next to no movement available. Plus it hurts like a demon 24 hours a day. So, I won't be up and about much for a week or so.
And the second reason is, "take a look at that creepy image of Smokey!"
That's just plain wrong and I want to thank Meathead for noticing it in our local Safeway and allowing me to make fun of his lunch today.

We all probably have a very good idea of how this tastes, yup just like that. We've definately had worse though, much worse. Such as those individually wrapped microwavable cheese burgers or microwavable deep fried cheese sticks. "Take a look at that creepy image of Smokey! That's just wrong."

For many years I've had a philosophy about vegetarian food. I haven't shared it yet because it really never came up before. After reading through a few good vegetarian cook books, it was time to use it. Uh, my philosophy that is. Good vegetarian meals can be excellent, oustanding even. So, I figure. If you have an oustanding vegetarian dish, add sausage and it's even better. And that's where this recipe came from. Welcome to Meathenge's Vegetarian Mushroom Soup - with Sausage.

Please excuse the images if they look a bit off, in some way. I have no idea. I'm making this entry from my laptop and these lcd screens blow for photographic work.

Maybe a month ago Gramma K picked up some of this Cuban Mojito simmer & marinade from Trader Joe's. She and Gramps thought enough of it to mention it to me, so I asked Mama to get us some. It sat around in the cupboard for quite some time, well ... a month. I had a day off yesterday, so decided to give it a shot. Man, everyone is glad I did. What a really nice & easy, yet tasty meal it was.

Earlier this month I was perusing some new food blogs. I'm always amazed at how many are up and running, how many are derelict and how many new food blogs are popping up on a monthly basis. Some interest me and some I pass over. It isn't personal, but I just don't care much about vegetable technology tossed over ... whatever it was. One caught my eye, there was a recipe from the C&O (Chesapeake and Ohio) Railroad during the 1940s & 1950s. The first ingredient was and IS, lard. Okay, you got me. I'm interested. I'm piqued. Thank you Karen from Let's Play Restaurant! for putting this up. Split Pea Soup? Didn't interest me until I saw the Lard.

What do you do when you buy a three pack of lean pork roasts from Costco and have a delivery of fresh organic vegetables featuring a large sack of tomatillos?!?! Make Chile Verde!

Last Friday I was perusing Chuck's Gumbo Pages for something to cook over the weekend. Many of his recipes require quite a list of ingredients, some of which are out of season here. Such as Crawfish (that's pronounced CRAW fish, not Cray). That was okay because I stumbled upon his recipe for Round Steak & Gravy with Onions. It sounded rich, hearty and something I could tackle without spending all day in the kitchen. But what caught me was the opening paragraph;

"This is Cajun food at its simplest. You've probably never heard of this dish, nor are you likely to see it on a menu or in a cookbook. However, as Cajun cook and food writer Marcelle Bienvenu said, it's almost certain that if you asked any native of southwest Louisiana "who lives along Bayou Lafourche or Bayou Têche or on the prairies near Ville Platte or Crowley about this dish, he would confess that round steak in gravy is one of his favorites.""

I found this to be really cool.

A dish that you wouldn't find anywhere, neat.

This last saturday I had two reasons to make a Gumbo. The first reason was that the blackeyed peas came out so well I wanted MORE. And the second reason was my sister had been to the Ferry Building over in S.F. and picked me up a few gorgeous Andouille sausages. I had most of what I needed right there.

Yes, that's right. Glory be! THERE'S NO MEAT !!!! Not only that, it's spiffy good.

Once in a great while I will follow a recipe. Usually I find myself flipping though maybe a half dozen and seeing what I like and don't on each one. So far, I've done very well this way. For whatever reason this last Sunday foodtv dot com had just what I thought I wanted. Sure it made enough for 20 servings, but I was feeling up to the task and went shopping first thing in the a.m. And true to my way of shopping it took no less than 3 grocery stores to render what I needed, mostly because it was 9:15 Sunday morning. I was on a mission.

This is one of our favorites; it's hearty and brightly delicious. Crazy large hunks of chicken swimming in a rich & thick juicy sauce of love. You can pour it over rice or potatoes or probably even toast and have a teeerific wintery meal.

Now, these are all just guidelines for measurement. The recipe is my head, and I just do what seems right, and what tastes good. The rest is up to you.

1 small pumpkin (I think we got a small 3 pounder)
1 lb real good smoked ham
4 stalks celery
1 onion
1/2 bag bunny baby carrots
1 fistfull (one girly handful, mind you) fresh (!) oregano
1 fistfull fresh sage
1 fistfull thyme
1 entire garlic thingie
1/4 tsp creole seasoning or just cayenne is ok
1/2 cup white wine (or it could been alot more, we just kept pouring)
6 cups real honest to god homemade chicken broth
1/2 pint heavy cream

Gut pumpkin and slice up into big wedgies. Baste each piece with olive oil covering all exposed pumpkin bits. Put on biiig cookie sheet and bake at 250 degrees for hours, or until it softens. At some point cut the top off the garlic clove and put in foil, covering with olive oil and put into bake until real soft with the pumpkin.

When the pumpkin is soft, let it cool, it really hurts to try and wrastle the skin off when it's real hot.

Dice onion, carrots, celery and herbs, creole stuff and sautee in olive oil and, if you're daring, a little butter.

Peel the skin off the pumpkin wedgies and cut into large chunks, put in pot with sauteing veggies, start adding your broth and wine, enough to cover the pumpkiny bits.

Cook for 30-45 minutes until the pumpkin is turning to mush. Then put mixture through the blender until smooth. Add back into pot. Dice ham into 1/2 " cubes and add. Start adding the heavy cream, chicken broth, and more wine, stirring constantly over low heat. Keep tasting until it's good.

That's it! Ready to eat!

These are scary food pictures. The real deal looked and tasted great!

Making turkey soup can be a dicey situation at best. The gravy and stuffing can be so rich, the skin to die for and the meat tender and yummy. And yet, when you boil down the carcass, add your goodies ... well the damn thing is tasteless.
Here's how I handled it this time. Instead of doing the whole carcass (too darned little tiny bones to pick out) I just cut off the pieces I wanted and tossed them into a large pot with water just barely covering. Sure you can simmer the poor thing for 15 hours if you want to. But I simmered it for about 30 minutes, just enough so the meat was barely coming off the bones. Yanking out the pieces was easy and trimming off the flesh was even easier. Back goes the meat into the broff.

Dice up the carrots, celery, onions and tons of fresh garlic (look close I had roasted garlic as well). Sautee the suckers in olive oil, butter, sage, salt/pepper until the onions are clear. I suppose that's called sweating. Add to the simmering meaty broff. Oh and if you have some nice fresh Italian parsley, add that.

I suppose one of my secret weapons for turkey soup is having leftovers from a traditional turkey meal. This means gravy and dressing. Add all the gravy you have and enough dressing to thicken it a bit. These last two ingredients really dial in the turkey flavor. I suppose it would be fine without, just not nearly as rich.

Simmer the soup maybe 40 minutes, maybe even 30 would be fine.

Get some crusty bread and make it go!

Here is the pork soup with teriyaki ginger garlic chicken broth of love.

Here is what soup looks like before most of you pinheads see it.