Getting the cooking bug back: ideas to try

Beans and ham hock

Beef winter soup

Red lentil dal (new favorite)

Lentil soup for a small planet

Meyer Lemon risotto

Meyer Lemon pasta

Sardines with potatoes (success!)

Fillet and soba noodles

Minestrone

Wild boar and lentil soup

Braised leeks

Pot roast

Went to Cascioppo for some smoked salmon and saw some of the most beautiful roasts I’ve ever seen in my life: grass-fed, nice marbling, bright red, dry.  All of a sudden, pot roast seemed like a great idea.  The nice roast also cooked to a perfect texture quicker than expected (only 3 hours, whereas supermarket beef will usually take longer).

Here’s a simple and effective one pot dish (well, almost, gravy is easier to make in a second saucepan).  I make this on the stove top, only because I don’t have an over-ready enameled cast iron dutch oven, and I probably won’t have one until after I move from Seattle because who wants to transport a 20-pound pot?

Calorie estimate: 4000

Ingredients

• 1/2 T olive oil
• 2.5 – 3 lb roast
• 1-2 cups red wine (Cabernet, Merlot, more tannic Pinot Noir, Syrah)
• 2 cups beef broth
• 1 very large onion, cut into wedges
• 1 fennel bulb, cut into wedges
• 1 carrot, sliced into rounds
• 1 stalk celery, sliced
• 1 large parsnip, peeled and coarsely cubed
• 1.25 lbs red potatoes, quartered
• salt and pepper
• cornstarch or flour
• dash of nutmeg
• pinch of fennel seeds
• maybe 1 T butter

Preparation

1. Salt and pepper the roast.  One the stove top, in your gorgeous enameled dutch oven (or your roommate’s large non-stick soup pot), brown the roast on all sides over high heat in a splash of oil.  4-5 minutes per surface, including the sides.  For the sides, you may have to hold it there with tongs.
2. While browning, prep the vegetables.
3. After the browning, bring the heat down to low and add the wine and beef broth.  You want enough liquid to go up the side of the roast a little less than half way.
4. Add in the onion, fennel, carrots, and celery.  Cover and simmer for 1.5 hours.  Put the aromatics in now to infuse the meat and the broth, but the parsnips and potatoes should wait so they still have texture when everything is done.
5. Flip the roast.  You’ll probably notice there’s a lot more liquid now from the vegetables.  Add in the parsnips and potatoes, trying to get them into the liquid.  If you’ve got too much liquid (the roast is covered completely), leave the lid cracked.  Simmer gently for another 30 minutes to 1 hour.  Check to make sure the roast isn’t getting overcooked–there is such a thing as too tender.
6. When the meat and potatoes are just about done, drain off most of the excess liquid with a ladle and place it in a sauce pot.  Turn the heat off on the roast, cover lightly with vegetables, put the lid on, and let it rest.  A little of the liquid should remain in the pot so that the meat doesn’t start to dry out.
7. Boil down the liquid in the sauce pot until you have less than 2 cups left.  Adjust the seasoning if required.  A nice touch is a dash (1/4 t ish) of nutmeg and maybe a little more fennel flavor from some fennel seeds,  The subtle touch of nutmeg goes well with the fennel and parsnips.
8. If the roast is fatty, try to skim off the excess from the reduction.  If it is lean, as mine was, add up to 1 T of butter to give the sauce a little more body.
9. Thicken the gravy with corn starch (follow the directions on the corn starch box).  1 T of cornstarch left the gravy a little thin, but I like to err on the side of too thin instead of too starchy and slimy feeling.
10. Plate a bit of the roast with the veggies, pour the gravy on and enjoy.

Perhaps Escoffier might smile, at least a little, at this humble amateur.

Beef, potato, and spinach stew

Due to a lack of planning, I accidentally bought the ingredients for half of 2 recipes today (this and this). Now, to improvise!  Let’s throw together what I did buy, merge the meat and the starches by way of tangy canned jalapeno and canned tomatoes, and spice in the general ballpark of a curry.  This was a winner, and looked so nice in the pot that I had to take a picture.

Calories: 2600

Ingredients

• 1 T olive oil
• large onion, diced
• 10 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 lb stew beef
• 2 baking potatoes (1.75 lbs), 1/2 inch dice
• 1 lb spinach
• 1 cup long grain rice
• 1 can diced chilis
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 4 cups beef broth
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 T black pepper
• 1/2 T hot mirchi ground pepper (or 1 T cayenne)
• 1/2 t allspice
• 1 t celery salt
• 1 T cumin
• 1 t coriander
• 1/2 t nutmeg
• salt to taste

Preparation

1. Make a soup.  By that I mean, look at any other soup recipe on this website and do that.

Beef Stew (Good Food)

Calorie Estimate: 2100

Prep time: 10 minutes  (+ 20 minutes of occasional stirring)

Cook time: 2.5 hours

My beef stew is the ultimate lazy recipe.  It’s so lazy that I can’t even call it my recipe because all you have to do is open packages.  But, for such extreme effort, you get a tasty, very satisfying meal that reheats excellently.  I won’t claim this is a great beef stew because it isn’t.  It’s good though, and while I’ve had better stews, none were so much better that they’re worth the any-effort they require unless you’re trying to impress somebody.  The recipe below makes for four filling meals.

Tools

• big soup pot with tight lid
• wooden spoon or ladle

Ingredients

• 1.5 pounds stew beef (cubed in package)
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 2 pounds frozen stew veggies (carrot, onion, potato, onion, and maybe celery)
• 3 cans of beef broth (or equivalent in buillion)
• 2 packets of McCormick Beef Stew seasoning (1 is okay)
• splash of olive oil

Optional ingredients

• 1/2 pound mushrooms
• 1/2 pound frozen peas

Method

1. Place a big soup pot over high heat.  Put a splash of olive oil on the bottom of the pan and toss in the meat.  Brown the meat for a few minutes, but don’t worry about it too much—the browning in this dish doesn’t make that much of a difference.
2. Put everything else in the pot and put the lid on.
3. Stir every couple minutes until it gets to a strong boil, and then turn the heat to low.  Make sure nothing stays stuck to the bottom of the pot at this stage.  Stir it a couple more times after you lower the heat, and then walk away for a couple hours.  The time is required to let the meat become tender and release all the wonderful gelatin that gives stew its texture.
4. Eat.

That’s that.  This is one of my favorite meals to make for myself.  Tastes good, no work, fills you up.  Enjoy.