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What Are You Simmering Right Now? A Place for Mid-Stew Musings


jparrott

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Pork ragu for a Sicilian dish called Mardi Gras (Carnavale) Pasta.

I used to make this with a lot more frequency.  It's supposed to be a first course, but I'll serve it as a main, with bread and a salad.

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Although I'm not currently simmering this, I was simmering it until shortly before I had some of it for dinner. A boeuf bourguignon, pretty much following Julia Child's procedure on the very first installment of "The French Chef".

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I didn't cut up the mushrooms the way she did, and I thickened the sauce with a little arrowroot instead of the beurre manié she used, but otherwise the same dish, and a splendid one too.

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Turkey-quinoa meatballs in the crockpot.  The last time I made this recipe, they were quite good but it made a huge amount.  This time I halved the recipe, but I'm not sure the proportions are exactly right.

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I just finished simmering a pot of Rancho Gordo pinto beans with chopped jalapeí±o (that was a hot one :o ), onion, and a couple small chunks of "recycled" slab bacon.  A few days ago I had cut off the end of a slab of bacon to render fat for homemade tortillas.  After getting the needed 2 tablespoons, it seemed like it should still have plenty of life in it, so it went into the bean pot.  The bit I've sampled points to excellent beans to accompany more of the tortillas.

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Currently simmering away - Thurber family famous red clam chowder.  I usually satisfy my craving for it over Thanksgiving, but my dad wasn't feeling up to making it (and, truth be told, we did not need it - way too much food already).

Since it's a dreary weekend, I think I am also going to make some beef barley and Italian wedding soup for freezing.

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Finding myself with 4 or 5 lbs. of carrots in the back of the produce drawer (must have been a helluva sale -- I don't remember, but my sweetie can't ever get enough carrots), and checking the weather, it seemed a good idea to do a stew.  So I have several chicken legs going, with some smoked sausage and a bit of pork for good measure, along with a few carrots, celery, fresh herbs, onion, and smashed garlic.  Soon all the aromatics, with their flavor extracted, will be removed and lots of carrots and potatoes, some dill,  and maybe some other stuff will be added. Knowing me, a nice dollop of fish sauce too.  Looking forward to dinner.

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A pot of schmaltz. And a bigger pot of chicken stock. I found chicken backs for 79 cents a pound at the Georgetown Safeway this morning. And a couple of 4-packs of Empire skin on-bone in chicken thighs for half off, because they are two days from their pull date. So I trimmed the fat off the backs, and the skin and fat off the thighs, and ended up with a fairly substantial pot of soon to become schmaltz and gribenes, and the backs and thighs minus their skin and fat went into the stock pot with lots of aromatic vegetables. Unfortunately, there were no necks or feet to buy--this was the Georgetown store, after all. But it's part of my DNA, or at the very least learned cultural behavior, to be unable to resist such a bargain, when it offers the potential for many delicious meals for pennies, mere pennies per serving.

I have some of Bev Egg's chicken livers in my freezer. I foresee DGS Deli-style chopped liver with chicken fat, caramelized onions and gribenes in the near future. Gotta hunt down some good rye bread for that.

Azoy geshmak! as the saying goes.

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(This may not be the best thread for this post, but it is what I've simmered lately.)

Back in November, I picked up an assortment of spice packets/recipes from Spice Makes Nice (one of the vendors at Emporiyum). I've tried two so far and been very pleasantly surprised with the results.

A few nights ago, the Trinidad Stewed Chicken made a hearty meal with a nice combination of sweetness and heat. The Spicy Mushrooms were also a success and a very satisfying vegetarian meal - though I learned that using fat-free yogurt/sour cream isn't a good idea when adding to a hot sauce/dish.

Each packet includes a list of required ingredients on the outside; the spice packet and cooking instructions are found inside. The price ($4.95 each) is probably a bit steep. That said, I do appreciate the simplicity of the instructions and not having to track down a teaspoon or two of spices or seasonings I may not have on hand*.  Most of the needed ingredients have been things I have in the pantry or the freezer, so putting together (what seems to be) a relatively healthy meal is quick.  I guess you could say they're a gourmet take on "Hamburger Helper" :)

* MOM's bulk spice section is my go-to for those occasions.

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Lamb stew.  My new go-to braise.  I like to brown-bag it, so we typically make stew every cold weekend and eat it all week, alternating with another hearty dish like chicken thighs. I thought I didn't like lamb.  I really don't like the taste of lamb fat. Then husband accidentally picked up lamb meat, rather than beef.  Well, he likes lamb so I said, ok, let's use it.

Turns out I prefer it to beef in a stew.  I much prefer the texture, tender and melting, and the fat really isn't noticible.  We are trying to eat lowish carb, so no potatoes, but more of the lower carb root vegetables like celery root, turnips, golden beets, and lots and lots of mushrooms. I love it.  Right now for lunch the meat is lamb shoulder.  Whole Foods in Alexandria has a butcher shop, and they have whole lamb shoulders in the back.  I bought half a shoulder.  Husband complained that the fat hadn't been trimmed off, so next time I will ask that it be trimmed.

I still don't like lamb chops or leg of lamb, but lamb stew I love.

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I have been taking pork belly (seared prior to simmer) and simmering it in what is essentially a tea egg marinade on steroids.  I am adding cinnamon and a lot of extra star anise.  This week I served it on a bed of garlic stirfried spinach.  

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Nothing today since I had to come to the office to help save a few thousand American jobs. But yesterday I made Ina Garten's Italian wedding soup. I don't know what it is about that very simple soup, but it is so good. We are thinking it is the 1/4 cup of wine that somehow adds a boost of smoothness to the broth. 

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Beef vegetable soup to use leftover beef barbacoa.  I haven't put the beef in yet since it's really pretty well cooked already but have been boiling then simmering some russet and sweet potatoes and carrots.  I just dumped in some of the leftover onions from the beef barbacoa in their beefy liquid, plus some red wine that's been open quite a while.  (I saved all of the onions in liquid out of the crock pot because I didn't know what I might want to do with it.  I still have another container left.)

I'm also getting ready to put into the oven a few small gratin dishes with 1 - 2 portions each of a potato and sausage casserole based on a Julia Child recipe.  I only had two russet potatoes so I sliced just enough (about 1 lb. ) for this to leave some to chunk for my soup. (The sweet potato was a very small sad one that yielded about a comparable amount to the pieces of white potatoes.)  The casserole calls for light cream but I'm using milk that is just about turning.  Instead of Polish sausage, I'm quartering slices of Canadian bacon I for some reason (i.e., complete impulse purchase) bought at Costco last week. And I'm using sharp white cheddar instead of Swiss cheese.  Julia probably wouldn't approve of the changes to her recipe, but I'm using up bits of things so they won't have to be thrown out, and I like to think she would approve of that.

Some of this will be part of lunch and some will be dinner, but I haven't decided which yet.

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We're having an Italian Thanksgiving this year and I prepped a batch of ragù della domenica ("Sunday sauce") last night.

Plan is to make the antipasto and contorni on Wednesday evening, and a lemon and ricotta cake on Thursday morning, and cook the pasta shortly after the guests arrive.

Contorni will be escarole with anchovy, raisins and pine nuts, and green beans with onion and mint. Not sure about the antipasto but I think some crostini will be in order.

I'm sure some of you know what Sunday sauce is, but for the rest of you who don't, this is a short primer on how to make a pasta sauce that knocks any of the jarred stuff out of the park.

We decided to make a pared down version of Sunday sauce. I usually don't add braciole or pig's feet.  A friend of mine says that the variety of meats is endless.  What is required are one or a variety of any of these: meatballs, pork ribs, lamb shanks, pork shanks, pork chops, chunks of pork, pork skin, pork skin braciole, pig's feet, beef roast, oxtail, pancetta, prosciutto rinds, guanciale, dry sausage, fresh fennel sweet or hot pork italian sausage...pork or beef or lamb neckbones... so...what makes the best flavored sauces certainly are the ones with bones and lots of fat.

 

2-3 tbsp. lard
6 spareribs
4 pork chops
1 lb. sweet Italian sausages
14 ounces ground beef
7 ounces ground pork
2 tbsp. finely chopped flat leaf parsley
2 tbsp. finely chopped mint
1/3 cup freshly grated pecorino cheese
1 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup milk
sea salt
black pepper
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup red wine
4 28 oz. cans crushed San Marzano tomatoes
2-3 sprigs flat-leaf parsley

2-3 sprigs basil

 

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Clockwise from foreground: 1 jar of lard; 4 cloves garlic, minced; 1 onion, chopped; 1 bottle cabernet sauvignon; 2 cans crushed San Marzano tomatoes (there are 2 other cans to the right).

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2 heaping tbsp. lard being melted.

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Brown your pork chops. 

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Brown them lightly, then transfer to a plate.

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Brown your spareribs. We bought 6 from Llano Seco.

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Add the remaining spareribs, and sweet Italian sausages. Brown them, then transfer to a plate.

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Meatballs in the making: 

14 ounces ground beef
7 ounces ground pork
1 cup breadcrumbs soaked in 1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 tbsp. chopped mint
1 egg
1/3 cup grated pecorino cheese
1 tsp. grated nutmeg
salt
black pepper

Combine all ingredients. Mix with your hands until ingredients are well incorporated.

Shape into balls using a tablespoon.

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Browned meats.

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Meatballs.

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Fry the meatballs in the lard until lightly browned. Transfer to a plate.

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Browned meatballs.

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This is what you want at the end of the browning process., All those lovely browned bits form the foundation of the sauce.

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Add the onion first, then the garlic. Sweat the vegetables for 20 minutes over low heat, stirring every so often. Don't raise the heat or they'll steam.

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Deglaze with 1 cup red wine. We used cabernet sauvignon but pinot noir will also work. Or use any red wine you like.  Or skip the wine -- it's just that I like the addiitonal layer of flavor that wine provides.

Simmer until alcohol has evaporated.

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Then we transferred the wine mixture to another pot, then added the browned meats. Simmer over low heat.

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Added the meatballs.

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Added some sprigs of parsley and basil, then added 4 28 oz. cans of crushed San Marzano tomatoes and 1/2 can of cold water. I stirred a bit, seasoned with salt and pepper, then brought to a boil, then reduced heat to low and simmered, partly covered, for 4 hours.

It's sitting in the fridge as I type this.

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I cleaned out part of our freezer today.

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The remains of 3 roasted chickens, seasoned with kosher salt, black pepper and olive oil, then set in a roasting pan.

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1 giant onion, 2 limp carrots and a few celery stalks, similarly seasoned.

Roasted for 35 minutes at 350 F.

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Combined with 5 quarts cold water.  Salt. Black peppercorns.  Brought to a boil, reduced to a simmer.  Skimmed off foam.  Simmered for 2 hours on low heat.

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Liquid gold in the house!

Some of this will be for tomorrow night's dinner and the rest frozen for future use.  Ironically.

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I have a pigs feet recipe for pozole by Rick Bayless going in the crockpot, although I only have a small crockpot so I had to half it.  Will have to figure out what to do with the other pigs foot, probably sous-vide it and then de-bone and grill it off.  I have a brisket that is going sous-vide for about 32 hours.   So we will see how it all goes.

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Today, I didn't cook dinner, but I did a lot of sous vide, which I think qualifies as stewing... I broke down a bunch of chicken breasts on sale at Harris Teeter for a ridiculously cheap price (If my freezer wasn't fairly full (with what, I don't even really know) I would have bought more and froze them)) put them in either a olive oil, lemon, ginger marinade or a soy sweet chili marinade.  Let them marinate overnight.  Today, I cooked the olive oil ginger ones sous vide, then seared them off, cut them up so we would have chicken for salads, rice bowls or sandwiches this week. Freezing the others.  I took all the sous vide juice and cooked a quinoa, rice blend.  I should have made more of that, we will use it up super quickly.  I also made some stock that I allowed to get very gelatinous, that is going to be made into dumplings this week.  I also charred poblano peppers and then de-skinned and deseeded them to turn into a poblano pepper, onion mix that is a base for a couple Rick Bayless dishes.  I am kind of working my way through part of his cookbook that I got for Christmas.  They are going to go with zucchini, corn and cream for tacos with the last of the brisket.   We are going to have some good dinners this week!

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