Winter Stew

I made this stew on Sunday but we didn't eat it until Monday, as I could let the flavors spend a day diffusing. This is another dish where I was taking advantage of the new dutch over. We had some chicken thighs in the freezer, so I thawed them out, and decided to build a stew around them and some winter veggies (my measurements here are very inexact):

1-2 lbs. Chicken thighs
Salt and Pepper to season
1 lb (approx) Parsnips (chopped 1/4-1/2 in. thick)
1 lb (approx) Sweet Potatoes (chopped 1/4-1/2 in. thick)
2-3 cups Kale (chopped)
5-6 cloves garlic
1 onion, sliced
1 TB tomato paste
1 beer (stout)
Chicken stock
1/4 cup flour

Set oven to 300. Season the chicken and brown it in the dutch oven, medium high, set aside. Heat oil and sautee onion and garlic with the tomato paste, medium low, for 3-5 minutes. Add flour and sautee briefly. Add parsnips and potatoes, chicken, and pour the beer into the pot. Add chicken stock to bring the liquid level up to cover the ingredients halfway. Stir and put the pot, covered, in the oven. After half an hour, add kale. Cook an additional half an hour.

This turned out really well. I think maybe the stout was a bit too strongly flavored—next time I'd consider either a slighly lighter beer, or even some white wine. Some herbs might have flavored it a bit more, as well. A. thinks maybe kale and parsnips are too much, that one or the other would be a better choice, and have a more neutral veggie instead (or beans, since I know kale and white beans is a fairly classic combo). I did like, in this combo, the visual aspect of it—it looked like a basic stew, but the potatoes were actually parsnips and the carrots were actually sweet potatoes. We've got probably 4 servings left over.

There's a basic stew template in the Jan/Feb Cooks Illustrated that was indispensable for this, as it provides a good chart of times for various meats and veggies. This is the best basis for variation I've seen.

Dumplings with Soy Slaw

A. picked up stuff to make this recipe from Real Simple. She changed it up with some Broccoli slaw instead of coleslaw, served it warm rather than cold, and tried frying the dumplings in sesame oil and garlic after cooking them in boiling water (the package only had instructions for boiling). This didn't work well—the pot stickers fell apart in the oil. Next time we won't boil it and just cook it straight in oil (though we're not entirely sure how long we should do it...).

Chicken in a Pot

So, I got this great enameled cast iron dutch oven on Friday and wanted to try it out. So I went for the basic Chicken in a Pot, with a variation of cabbage and sour sauce (this particular one was from How to Cook Everything, but there's a recipe for it in pretty much any book). This was my first whole chicken, but it was pretty easy to manage. Not much to say about it, really, except that it's sort of time-consuming on the prep side. It made lots of leftovers and has lots of possibility for variation.

Cabbage Soup

Went pretty much by-the-book with this Rustic Cabbage Soup recipe, paired with a rosemary garlic bread that I picked up at the store. I used chicken broth that I had on hand rather than the vegetable stock mentioned. It all tasted quite good, with about 3-4 leftover servings of soup.

Notes: I was thinking of next time trying it with some meat - either cook up a few strips of bacon beforehand and put it in with the beans. Kielbasa would pair with the cabbage pretty well. I also thought of replacing some of the stock with a bottle of dark beer. This is also a good basic recipe for more substantial variation - keep the cabbage and onion as the basis and go off into the wide veggie world...

Orange Chicken

A. made dinner in the slow cooker from this recipe from Real Simple, and was not at all happy with how it turned out. The cook time is off quite a bit, and we ended up with cooked chicken, vegetables still raw, and the cooking liquid was separated. Basically the whole thing didn't have time to come together. I'm no expert in slow cooking, so I'm not sure what could be done to improve it - maybe chopping the potatoes, browning the chicken, and cooking on low for 8 hours would be a place to start. We've got a lot left over, so I've been thinking of how to salvage it. I'm going to try putting it in a stock pot, adding a little more liquid, and simmering it, covered, for the better part of an hour. It needs a lot more flavor to it, too, so I'll add a bunch of salt.

Southwest Fritatta

Cleaning out the pantry to avoid going to the grocery store on a really cold day...

5 Eggs
1 Can Diced Tomatoes, strained
1 Can Kidney Beans, rinsed and drained
1 Red Pepper, diced.
1 Shallot
1 clove Garlic
2 TB Butter
2 small Chipotle peppers
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
Seasoning (used Ancho chile powder, herbes de provence, salt & pepper)

Sautee the shallot and garlic, set aside. Preheat oven to 350, heat butter in medium skillet, beat eggs with seasoning and Chipotle, stir in the cheese and other ingredients. Pour into skillet, cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes, then put in oven and cook until top is no longer runny (15-20 minutes).

We had 2 servings for leftovers (will make a good breakfast), but could easily have eaten a little less and had 3 or 4 leftover servings. Infinitely variable as a fritatta. Also, I toyed with the idea of making this a risotto instead of a fritatta, and that would work just as well with these ingredients... just rice and chicken stock instead of the eggs.

Chicken Pot Pie

Adapted from Joy of Cooking and the comments at Chow.com... It was basically successful, but a little too runny and needed quite a bit more seasoning.

3 Chicken breasts (about 1.3 lb)
1 Onion
2 Garlic Cloves
2 Potatoes (Yukon Gold, but only because the red potatoes at the grocery store were sprouting)
1/2 lb Green Beans
2 large Carrots
2 1/2 Cups Chicken Stock
1/2 Cup Flour
3 TB dry Marsala (I had a choice between sweet sherry and dry marsala... dry sherry would likely be the optimal choice)
6 TB butter
1 Sheet Puff Pastry
1 Egg

Began by poaching the the Chicken in the stock + water. Chop the potatoes and parboil them briefly. Sautee the onion and garlic in butter, add flour. Pour in 2 cups of Poaching liquid, strained. Add the veggies and the Marsala and cook briefly. Pour into baking dish, cover with Puff Pastry, brush with beaten egg and bake @ 400 for approx. 30 minutes. We had about 4 servings remaining for leftovers.

Note: Check the size of pastry with the size of dish before you get too far along... Maybe use more flour to keep it slightly thicker; cornstarch also might help. It filled out the dish pretty well, could maybe have added a cup or two additional veggies and still be manageable.

Chili with Chipotle and Chocolate

Last night's dinner was this recipe from the December issue of Cooking Light... Makes tons of leftovers; we probably have four good portions left. There's a good half-hour of ingredient prep here, but, the actual cooking is pretty easy. Variations that might work are Green Peppers instead of red, fresh tomatoes rather than canned, and other meat than turkey. Also to try: replace the chicken stock with a bottle of beer.

Lentil Soup

Followed a recipe today, from 101 Cookbooks: Lentil Soup. Instead of a can of crushed tomatoes I just smashed up three tomatoes (and broke a wooden spoon in the process). Instead of larger leafy greens, I used spinach. Finally, we stirred in some pepper, cumin, coriander, and paprika, along with more salt. We used regular yogurt instead of greek for the saffron yogurt topping, and it was delicious.

Notes: Don't crush tomatoes with a wooden spoon. This soup needed more tomato to it, though I would like to try it with red peppers instead sometime (or also). Things to try: wilted cabbage, peppers, carrots, garlic, bacon, bay leaf.

Stuffed Red Peppers with Spinach and Ricotta

A meatless variation on stuffed peppers, though it would easily accommodate meat.

4 red bell peppers
1 small container Ricotta cheese
Handful of Pine Nuts, toasted
1 Onion
Spinach
Parsley, chopped

Hollow the peppers and steam for 5-10 minutes (could also boil according to some references. I also wonder how it would work if I didn't do either).
Caramelize the onion
Chop the spinach and sautee so slightly wilted
Fold onion, parsley, spinach and pine nuts into the Ricotta
fill Peppers, bake 375 for 20 minutes (time and heat variable)

Served with link of italian sausage. Had two peppers left over, but not sure how well they'll store.

Note: it probably would have tasted a little more flavorful with some spice - some of the references I consulted mentioned nutmeg, so I should try that next time. Garlic would be a good addition as well. Any number of herbs would add something to this, too. And could use uncased italian sausage, browned, mixed in with cheese, and stuffed directly in the peppers

Simple Curry

Made an attempt at a simple curry last night - was a bit bland initially but I warmed to it as I the flavors continued to mingle.

1 Onion cut into wedges
about a TB minced garlic
Quartered Red Potatoes
1lb Tofu
1 can coconut milk
3 TB Garam Masala curry powder (started with 2, needed the third for flavor)
1-2 tsp Lemon Juice

Cooked the Onion and Garlic in canola, med-hi heat, for a few minutes. Add potatoes, cook 3 min or so. Sauteed with 1 TB curry. Added tofu, cooked to warm but not crumble. Added second TB curry. Poured in can of coconut milk, stirred and simmered until potatoes tender.

Serve over rice. We had about 2 servings for leftovers.

Notes: Had to add third TB of curry because it was very bland. Probably better to use a stronger curry powder than the Garam Masala next time. Consider using lime instead of lemon, add Cilantro, also use less coconut milk.