As I was taking the chicken out of my refrigerator, I realized that I had yet to do a post on fried chicken.  And I was ashamed.  What the hell kind of “home cook” am I if I’m not bragging about my abilities to wow your socks off with my fried chicken?  Oh, the humanity!

Folks, I am here to remedy the situation.  The first wonderful thing about fried chicken is that it doesn’t need a recipe.   That’s right, I’m not going to add a nice little formatted recipe for fried chicken.  There are so many ways out there to do it that I’m not even going to waste your time.  Well, I might waste it a little bit by giving you a few measurements and ingredients on MY particular version, but I completely understand if you want to skip over those parts.

To begin, let us talk about buttermilk.  Almost all traditional fried chicken recipes call for marinating the meat in buttermilk.  I had always assumed that it was to tenderize the meat and to keep it moist, but for the sake of looking like I know what I’m talking about, I searched the internet to find the reason.  While tenderizing the meat is the reason cited the most, others also claim that it flavors the meat, helps the breading stick to the skin, and some other reasons that don’t ring all that true with me.

The fact is, if I have buttermilk I marinate the chicken.  If I don’t have buttermilk, it isn’t marinated at all and still tastes awesome.  You can take it or leave it.  I just stick to the tradition because, hey, generations of grannies can’t be wrong.  (You can also marinate your chicken Indian style with yogurt!)

Now let’s talk about which parts of the chicken to fry.  If you’re making chicken for many people, I suggest buying either a whole chicken or a whole cut-up chicken and using all parts.  I wouldn’t think to mention this if I hadn’t seen more than once someone making fried chicken for a crowd and serving only drumsticks or thighs.  No.  No.  No.  Some people like wings.  Some people want breast meat.  By golly, you better have all parts of that bird fried and accounted for if you want to please everybody.

Now let’s discuss hardware.  Fried chicken is made in cast iron skillets.  Period.  There IS NO VALID DEBATE on this issue.  Sure you can make your chicken on a sheet pan in the oven, but it’s not fried chicken, I don’t care how much pretzel crumbs you put all over it.  Real fried chicken is made in cast iron.

Every good kitchen should contain at least one well seasoned cast iron skillet.  It is a multi-purpose num-num maker.  Also, if well cared for, that sucker will outlive your grandchildren.  Good cast iron is one of those things bequeathed to younger generations and accepted with pure enthusiasm.  Also, don’t treat cast iron cookware like you’d treat all your other cookware.  Cast iron is special and needs special love.  The internet is full of articles written by people fully prepared to beat you with your own cast iron skillet if word ever got out that you wash it with soap.  Get a good skillet, season it, love it, RESPECT it.  And make lots of fried chicken with it.

Method.  Oh geez.  The method is just as varied as the recipe themselves.  Do you use a wet or dry coating?  Do you fry in vegetable oil, butter, or shortening?  It can get crazy.

As for me, I use a dry coating and I fry in canola oil.  You can certainly add a few pats of butter to the oil for a little more richness, but I usually leave that out because of all the fat in the chicken skin.

My dry coating is mostly flour.  I season the chicken meat directly with salt and pepper because those two things can tend to get lost in a coating and you really want to make sure that the meat is still flavorful.  For a whole chicken, I use about a cup and a half of flour.  To that I add some onion powder and garlic powder (about a teaspoon of each).  I also add just a teeny bit of dried dill (I have a recipe for Chicken Kiev that calls for dried dill in the coating and it’s surprising the little zing it adds).

I’ve known people to use crushed up potato chips or cereal as their coatings for fried chicken.  Play with it and have fun.  Just make sure that if you make your own dry coating to be careful of ingredients that burn.  That chicken has to fry for a while and too much of a delicate ingredient can put the whole dish in the trash.

My own chicken can have a few dark spots from that tiny bit of onion and garlic powder that I add to my coating.  It’s not burned, I assure you.  Like I said, it has to cook for quite a while to make sure all the meat is cooked through and the coating sometimes can’t take it.  It’s a delicate balance.  But boy that stuff tastes gooooood.

My grandmother was always nervous about undercooked chicken so she always boiled the chicken before coating and frying it.  She would then throw egg noodles in the broth made from boiling the chicken and it made for a damned good meal.  I know that the thought of boiling the chicken before frying it horrifies some people, but if you’re nervous about undercooked chicken, it’s a great way to make sure your meat is cooked and reduced the frying time.  Sometimes when I get to missing my grandmother, I make that very dish, the chicken with egg noodles, just so I can feel close to her.  And it still makes for a damned good meal.

Even if you’re dedicated to be a healthy eater, I really hope that you don’t forget about fried chicken.  I don’t expect you to eat it more than once or twice a year, but it has such history in our country.  Its grassroots run deep and many of us who were born to “salt of the earth” families treasure it as a family tradition.  Like apple pie and hotdogs, fried chicken is AMERICAN.

Happy Fourth everybody.  Enjoy!

All my life, my mom has gushed over her grandmother’s Creamed Tomatoes and how much she loved them.  I had the pleasure of eating the dish once, but I always found it amusing to hear my mother go on and on about a food because that’s just not like her.  Unfortunately, the bearer of that recipe has passed away, and presumably, the recipe has gone with her.  I thought it would be a nice birthday present for my mom to make her a big steaming pot of Creamed Tomatoes since I know she hasn’t had any in literally decades.  I turned to the internet.

I was surprised at the limited number of recipes I saw.  Creamed Tomatoes (also known as Tomato Gravy) is something that most people that I grew up around are familiar with.  It’s one of those great Depression Era recipes that can feed a lot of people for super cheap.  Yet, the internet is decidedly barren with recipes for this dish.  A lot of the recipes that I was able to find were heirloom recipes passed down through the generations, but they are all so different that it has made me nervous about trying the recipes.

However, last night I tried the first recipe on my list.  It comes from a place called CDKitchen and the recipe can be found here.

It’s not a long process to make this dish.  I used canned tomatoes as the recipe instructs and aside from the homemade biscuits that I had made earlier, this dish was ready in no more than 15 minutes.  (If you want to use fresh tomatoes, no problem!  Just seed and peel the tomatoes, cut  them up and stew them in a very small amount of water and salt for 15 minutes before beginning the actual recipe.)

The most common way (or so I’m told) to serve this dish is over homemade biscuits.  Just like a gravy.  It’s pretty good that way, actually and is a great one-dish meal for hot days.

This dish was velvet-y and creamy.  The texture was amazing.  However, I was a little disappointed in the lack of dairy or cream in this dish.  The creaminess in this particular recipe came from a very strong slurry of milk and flour..so much flour in fact that the dish tasted faintly of raw flour.  It smelled amazing, though and was really quite good.  I think if I could work a little with it, it would be a fantastic dish.

I’m hoping to find a dish that has a lot of actual cream in it and not so much thickener.  However, the downside to that request is that if one is not careful, the acidity of the tomatoes can cause the dairy to break apart and you end up with a dish that either tastes like vomit or has those tiny dairy pearls in it that are entirely unappetizing.

I will create a post for every recipe I try.  I will then make a more detailed post of the one I choose to make for my mother with more pictures and more hints on getting that perfect creamy texture, because that can be tricky with acidic ingredients like tomatoes.

Until then, this is a perfectly good recipe and I encourage you to give it a try.  When autumn comes and starts to cool things off, this would be a fantastic quick dinner.  Enjoy!

While looking at the shelves in my kitchen that I use for a pantry, my eye was caught by the large stack of tuna cans.  “I’ll make a tuna casserole to use up some of that, ” I thought.  I’ve never had tuna casserole before…unless you count Tuna Helper.  I’ve certainly never made a tuna casserole before, so I consulted cookbooks and the internet for a recipe.  There’s certainly no shortage of Tuna Casserole recipes on the world wide web, but to be honest, none of them really got me excited.  Each one had the same structure and basically the same ingredients and I just was not wowed.

First of all, most of these recipes called for peas.  I hate peas.  They are too sweet and when they hit the back of my mouth, I start gagging just as I do when I try to eat sweet potatoes.  I just can’t stand that weird starchy sweetness.

Second, most of these recipes only contained a sparse sprinkling of cheese.  Umm, excuse me, I thought Tuna Casserole was supposed to be a cheesy dish!  Why are these recipes telling me to skimp?  Not me.  No way.  I decided it was time to play mad scientist of the casserole community (ok, not really but I like that title) and make up a casserole recipe of my own.  It wasn’t a terribly ambitious undertaking.  It’s Tuna Casserole for crying out loud.  My two-year old could do it with relative ease.

Cheesy Tuna Casserole

My Recipe

2 cans of albacore tuna in water

1 can of cream of mushroom soup (cream of chicken will also work)

2 cups frozen chopped broccoli

2 Tblsp. butter (NOT margarine, you need real butter)

1-1/4 cup milk

1 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. garlic powder

salt and pepper to taste

6 slices American cheese

1-1/2 cups uncooked rice

Shredded cheese to top (about 1-1/2 cups)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Cook your rice.  You can use quick cooking or instant rice, but I use regular old rice that takes about 15 minutes to cook.  Because it’s cheaper and comes in bigger packages.  That’s not only economical, but keeps me from having to buy rice every time I go shopping.

In a large pot melt butter.  Add condensed soup and milk.   Stir to break up the soup.  Add salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder.  Add frozen broccoli and heat through.  Drain tuna and add.  Add American cheese one slice at a time.

Beware!  This smells really freaking good.

Now add your cooked rice and stir to combine.  Pour into a casserole dish.

Sprinkle shredded cheese over the top.  Be as sparse or as liberal as you like.  I like the top pretty much covered.

Place in your oven and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Mmmmm.  Melted cheeeeeese.   Mmmmmmm.

Trust me on the addition of the American cheese.  It adds a very mild “cheese” flavor, but more importantly it adds a rich creamy flavor.  It’s just something extra.

I used rice instead of egg noodles….mostly because I had rice and not egg noodles.  Boy am I glad that it worked out that way.  This whole casserole was super creamy and smooth and was just so palate pleasing.  It really was very good and tasted much more interesting to me than a lot of the recipes that I looked at seemed.

I don’t have a final product picture because, well, it’s a casserole!  It basically just plopped on the plates and sat on the plates in a very un-pretty lump (delicious, but not pretty).  I do, however, have this picture:

Because I’d rather look at that than an overly thought out presentation of culinary mastery any day.  Also, I suck at pretty plating and I thought a picture of my beautiful family would be better!

I hope you try this recipe.  It’s easy, quick, and very economical.  It’s also a classic dish that anybody would appreciate at a potluck dinner.  Have a friend who just had a baby?  Make this for them.  You’ll be the best friend they have for like a year!  Enjoy!

Then last week I noticed that all of the internet was abuzz about superbowl parties and the food served at these parties.  A superbowl party is nothing more than an excuse to be completely hedonistic food-wise.  Nobody is going to a superbowl party and having a mesclun salad with a slight squeeze of lemon.  People go to superbowl parties to eat chili, chips, 40 different kinds of dips, wings, burgers, hot dogs, and pizza.  Now, I didn’t attend a superbowl party.  I stayed home and cleaned house.  The next day, I got on the internet and Googled, “Who won the superbowl?”  However, I was thinking that if I were to attend one next year or some unassuming internet surfer should be looking for an interesting recipe to take to a superbowl party, then this cheeseburger pizza would be a great thing to share.

When thinking about how to formulate a recipe for a cheeseburger pizza, I first asked myself what I like to eat on cheeseburgers.  I like gooey cheese.  I like bacon.  I like onions.  I like tomato.  And I like perfectly cooked, juicy meat.  That is how this recipe came to be.

A while back, I wrote another post about a homemade pizza.  Contained in that post are recipes for both homemade pizza sauce (it couldn’t be easier…don’t buy it.  Make it.) and pizza crust.  Check it out.

Cheeseburger Pizza

(My Recipe)

-1 recipe prepared pizza crusts (if you use the recipe I provide, it makes 2 thin crust pizzas)

-1 recipe pizza sauce

-1 lb. ground beef

-6 strips bacon, cut into small pieces

-2 cups thinly sliced onions

-1 large jar of yellow cheese product (Cheez Whiz)

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.

Roll out pizza dough and place it on either a pizza stone or a pizza baking sheet.

Spread pizza sauce on the dough.

Add uncooked hamburger and bacon. I used thick sliced peppercorn bacon, but any bacon will do fine.

Add onions.  As you can see here, I add quite a lot of onions.  Keep in mind that they cook down, but you can absolutely cut back on the onions on this pizza if that is your taste.

Glob on the “cheese” product.  Look, when it comes to a pizza like this, you want a cheese that is smooth, savory, and completely unlike any real cheese.  This stuff works perfectly and, trust me, it is really shamefully delicious.

Bake the pizza for 15-17 minutes.

This recipe yeilds 2 medium pizzas.  It’s an easy recipe to double if you have a lot of people or big eaters to feed.

Gooey.  Savory.  Delicious.  Totally worthy of a kickass football game.  Or any televised sporting event, for that matter.  I hope you try this recipe.  It’s really delicious.

Enjoy!

I grew up eating chili with beans.  I think that in the beginning of this style, the beans were used as a way to stretch the use of a single pound of meat.  It was economical and it grew into an acquired taste.  There are people who will smack the teeth right out of your face if you question their usage of beans.

I make chili without beans.  It’s not that I don’t like chili with beans, I just honestly like it a little better without.  I used to always make my chili with beans because it’s the kind that both my husband and I grew up eating.  Then one night my husband was complaining incessantly (if you know my husband, you know that incessantly is the only way that he knows how to complain) that he wanted chili for dinner.  I didn’t have beans on hand and you know how much I hate those small trips to the store.  So I made him chili without the beans and I added a few new spices just for kicks.  As it turned out, we were both stunned at how much we preferred this style over the previous style.

Chili (No Beans)

My Recipe

-1 lb. 80/20 ground beef

-2 15-oz. cans tomato sauce

-1 medium onion, diced

-3 cloves garlic, minced

-1/3 cup brown sugar

-1 tsp. salt

-1/2 tsp. black pepper

-1/4 cup chili powder

-1 tsp. cumin

-1/4 tsp. coriander

-1 tsp. dried oregano

-1 tsp. dried parsley flakes

-1/2 tsp. cinnamon

-1/8 tsp. ground cloves

-5 good shakes of Tabasco Sauce

-1/4 tsp. Cayenne pepper

Brown the ground beef in a skillet.  Don’t drain.  Chili, somehow, is better greasy. Trust me.

Heat a dutch oven over medium heat.  Heat 1 Tblsp. olive oil in the dutch oven.  Add onions and cook until translucent.  Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds.

Add the two cans of tomato sauce.  Stir.  Add ground meat and juices.  Stir.

Add brown sugar and stir well.  Then add the rest of the ingredients.  Stir and let heat through.  Once the mixture is heated, give the chili a taste and adjust the seasonings to your taste.  Once the seasonings satisfy you, lower the heat and cover.  Cook for 30 minutes.

I like to serve this with homemade cornbread.  Sprinkle some shredded cheese and minced white onion over the chili.   YIELD:  4 large servings.

I know that a few of those spices seem a little out of place in a chili, but trust me when I say that it adds a new level of spice to the mixture.  Sometimes I like to add some chopped bell peppers of banana peppers to this as a little extra.

If you insist on beans, add two cans of drained chili beans and omit the cinnamon, cloves, and coriander.  They don’t have the same magic with beans.

I think the only chili that could possibly ever really offend me is a runny chili.  I like a thick and hearty chili.  Runny chili is just, well, disgusting.  So work on that, you runny chili people!  Otherwise, cook on!  Chili is great in cold and hot weather and is a great dish to make for company since most people love it.

Enjoy!

]]> http://www.smellmyplate.com/2010/01/15/the-great-chili-debate-with-or-without-beans/feed/ 3 http://www.smellmyplate.com/2010/01/13/turning-lamb-leftovers-into-indian-lovins/ http://www.smellmyplate.com/2010/01/13/turning-lamb-leftovers-into-indian-lovins/#comments Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:06:36 +0000 Somer http://www.smellmyplate.com/?p=424 I had made a leg of lamb for dinner a few days back and, of course, there was quite a bit of leftover meat.  When you prefer your lamb to be medium rare, you can only reheat it so many times before it turns into something tasting like burnt rubber.  I considered my options for what to do with the leftover meat and finally came to the conclusion that some sort of Somer-ized Indian lamb meatball dish was in order.

I hadn’t done anything fancy with my leg of lamb.  I prefer a flavorful meat such as lamb (when in huge meat-chunk form) to be prepared simply.  I cut small slits into the meat and stuffed the slits with garlic and fresh rosemary.  I then simply roasted the lamb until it was a beautiful medium rare.  I think that with this simple preparation, I was able to make the meat into something completely different.

The first thing that I did was chop the lamb meat into a ground meat-like consistency.  I ended up with about 1 lb. of ground lamb.    My other food processor didn’t survive the move from Washington to Pennsylvania so Santa brought me a new one for Christmas.  This thing is a bit nicer than my deceased Black and Decker one, but oh my goodness it chopped that lamb meat like it was making bread crumbs!  And it is quiet!

Once the meat was ground, I put it into a bowl, added two eggs, 1 minced onion, 3 cloves of minced garlic, 1/2 tsp. cumin, 1/2 tsp. coriander, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper, and 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper.  I decided against adding a filler to these meatballs like breadcrumbs in order to preserve the flavor.  The meatballs were a little crumbly because of this omission, but with a little care I was able to preserve their shape.

I fried the meatballs in a dutch oven in vegetable oil much the same way that I would fry up regular meatballs.  Again, take care when flipping because these meatballs are much more delicate and crumbly.  And, as with regular meatballs, do not overcrowd the pan to ensure even browning of the meat without boiling it.  It takes 2-3 batches to do all of the meatballs, just set them aside on a plate as they finish browning.

As for the sauce in which these meatballs were to swim, I turned to my beloved Indian cookbook and thumbed through it considering my options.  My eye was caught by a Rogan Josh recipe for lamb.  Lamb Rogan Josh is one of those milder Indian dishes that most Americans should be familiar with at this point.  I have yet to find an Indian restaurant that doesn’t serve Lamb Rogan Josh and really, it IS a lovely dish even if it is not terribly adventurous.  Taking my cues from the recipe from my culinary tome, I concocted a sauce that was thick, tangy, and spicy.  It’s a very fast moving process a.k.a. stir-fry style in which the cooking is very hot and very fast so you will want to have everything already chopped and set out before you start the sauce so that it will be a smooth process.

Rogan Josh-ish Sauce

My Recipe (with the help of my cookbook)

-2 Tblsp. freshly grated ginger root

-6 to 8 cloves of garlic

-1 to 1-1/2 cups water

-2 tsp. ground cardamom (the original recipe called for cardamom pods which are hard to find in stores but easy to find online)

-2 bay leaves

-6 cloves

-10 peppercorns (of you don’t have whole peppercorns, don’t try to substitute ground pepper, just leave it out)

-1 small cinnamon stick

-1 large onion finely chopped

-1 tsp. ground coriander

-2 tsp. ground cumin

- 4 tsp. Spanish paprika (it has a great color and a nice flavor)

- Cayenne pepper (depending on how hot you want this dish, you can add between 1/8 to 1 tsp.)

-6 Tblsp. plain yogurt

Make a thick paste of the ginger and garlic by putting them into a small blender or food processor and then adding just enough water.  I only needed 2 Tblsp.

Heat 1/4 cup of vegetable oil in the same pot where you browned your lamb meatballs.  When the oil is nuclear hot, add the cardamom, bay leaves, cloves, peppercorns, and cinnamon.  Stir quickly and when the smell of the deep perfumes of these spices becomes strong and the bay leaves start to color, add the onions.  Stir until the onions start to take on a light caramel color.  Add the ginger garlic paste and stir for about 30 seconds. Add the rest of the spices and stir for another 30 seconds.

Now add the yogurt 1 Tblsp. at a time, stirring and incorporating completely before adding the next tablespoon.

Add the water and stir.  When the water is hot, gently add the meatballs to the sauce.  Turn the heat to low, cover, and cook for 30-45 minutes.  Because you are cooking meatballs instead of meat chunks, it doesn’t need to cook quite as long.

If, at the end of this time, the liquid is still very thin, turn the heat to medium and uncover the dish and let some of the liquid evaporate.  Keep an eye on it, though and don’t let it burn.

I like to serve saucy dishes like this with some rice.  Obviously, the preferred rice is Basmati rice, but I didn’t have any on hand at the time, so I used the regular (and cheap) long grain rice and added some bay leaves, cloves, and cardamom to the water.  You get a flavorful rice that is totally worthy of this dish.

When we have Indian dishes like this, I like to serve them in their own small bowls.  The main dish in it’s own small bowl, and the rice in it’s own small bowl.  I then make Naan, and we eat with our fingers.  It helps with the whole experience of eating an ethnic food that is otherwise completely foreign to us.  I think it’s a neat way to pay homage to the dish.

This was a great dish and a brilliant way to use some leftover lamb meat.  I have to say, I’m pleased with myself.  I hope you try this and like it as much as we did.  Enjoy!

]]> http://www.smellmyplate.com/2010/01/13/turning-lamb-leftovers-into-indian-lovins/feed/ 2 http://www.smellmyplate.com/2009/12/13/using-dinner-leftovers-for-breakfast/ http://www.smellmyplate.com/2009/12/13/using-dinner-leftovers-for-breakfast/#comments Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:22:09 +0000 Somer http://www.smellmyplate.com/?p=396 Last night I made two gorgeous Delmonico steaks for dinner.  They were also huge and my husband and I were unable to finish all of the meat.  I didn’t want to throw out perfectly good meat (cooked perfectly to medium-rare, by the way) so I decided to chop it up and save it for a breakfast hash this morning.

I love a good breakfast hash.  It’s something that can be easily improvised, easily throw together, and it’s a great alternative to our usual weekend pancakes or French toast.  Breakfast hash is wonderful.

You don’t really need a formal recipe for a breakfast hash.  It really is something that you just throw into a skillet and then pile on a plate.  There are a few basics that you need:

Potatoes.  You can either cube them, or grate them (like with hash browns).  I like both, I just decided to have potato cubes today.   You also need thinly sliced onions, meat (this can range from leftover pot roast, corned beef, turkey, chicken, or leftover steak), and poached eggs.  These are the basics.  If you want to spice up your hash, add freshly chopped peppers, roasted red peppers, sun dried tomatoes, cheeses, or fresh herbs.  Since we’re still getting settled in our new home, I don’t have those things on hand so my hash was very simple, but a hash can pretty much hold any extra ingredient and still taste great!

Soften the onions in some Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  Add some salt and pepper to taste.  Once the onions are soft, add the potatoes.  Keep your heat at medium and flatten the potatoes on the bottom of the skillet.  Cover and cook for 5 minutes.  Stir and flip the potatoes and cover for 5 minutes more.  You will start getting some gorgeous color on the potatoes.  Do this until the potatoes are tender.

Add your meat and stir until the meat is heated through.  There’s no need to really cook the meat any further.

Now you need to poach your eggs.  I like to use a broad pan (a wok-like skillet in this case) so that my eggs have plenty of room to do their thing.

Fill your pot with water.  Add 1 Tblsp. of vinegar to the water.  This stabilizes the egg whites and keeps them from spreading all over the place.  Heat your water to just before a simmer.  If you drop your eggs into boiling water, you will destroy your eggs.  You just want your water hot and at no more than a gentle simmer.

Crack your eggs one at a time into a small bowl.

Slowly and gently drop your egg into the water.  Depending on whether you want a runny or hard yolk, the time can differ from 3-5 minutes.  I like my yolks runny, that way I can have warm yolk mixed all over my hash.  It’s yummy that way.

Remove your eggs with a slotted spoon and nestle them into the top of your hash that you have piled onto your plate.  Sprinkle with scallions, red pepper flakes, hot sauce, cheese, sour cream, or fresh herbs.

A quick note on hot sauce:  I like to keep a few different kinds of hot sauces in the house.  All have different consistencies, and tastes and are appropriate in different uses.  I encourage all people to experiment with hot sauces and to keep many different kinds handy for different uses.

And there’s the close up.  It’s not much in the way of photographic talent, but you can see that beautiful color on the potatoes, the red pepper flakes sprinkled over the top, and the poached egg broken open so the yolk can bleed all over the delicious meat and potatoes.  It’s a great way to start the day..but you’ll want to eat light for the rest of the day after a breakfast like this.  Try it anyhow.  It’s a great way to experiment since it’s so versatile.  Enjoy!

Since this is what it looked like outside, some beef stew was definitely in order.  I don’t make it like my mom, but I’ve tried to make it close.  My mom, like many moms, uses a seasoning packet for beef stew and it’s taken me a while to get the same flavor.  I don’t have much against those seasoning packets (aside from the astronomical amounts of salt contained in them), it’s just that I never think to buy them for my usual staples and I don’t like to have to store little awkward things like that.  So this is my beef stew recipe, and it’s really quite good.

Beef Stew

My Recipe

1 Package beef stew meat

Salt and Pepper

1/3 cup flour

4 Tblsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1-1/2 cups potato chopped into 1-inch chunks

1-1/2 cups carrots, chopped

1 cup chopped celery

1-1/2 cup chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp. dried parsely

1-1/2 tsp. dried rosemary

1 8-oz. can tomato sauce

2 cans beef broth (you can vary this with 1 cup beef broth and 1 cup red wine OR 1 cup beef broth and 1 cup beer.  I’ve tried all and all are good)

1 cup water

Chop all of your vegetable and set aside.  Yes, do this first since there are so many vegetables to cut up.  Process means everything in dishes like this.

Salt and pepper your stew meat before you dredge it in flour.  If you add the salt and pepper to the flour and then try to dredge it, the meat won’t get enough seasoning.  Season it first.

Dredge the meat lightly in the flour and add to a heated dutch oven with 2 Tblsp. of oil.

You will most likely need to do this in 2 or maybe 3 batches.  You have to be very careful not to over crowd the pan with meat.  You want the meat to brown and get a skin to it without boiling it and making it slimey.  What you’ll get is a taste to your stew like the essence of steak has been added.  You want the essence of steak, right?  Of course you do.

Brown the meat on both sides and set aside on a plate while you do the other batches.  Once all the meat has been browned, add just enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan and add your diced onions to the hot pot.  When the onions start to turn translucent, add the garlic and cook for 1 minute (burned garlic will ruin this stew).  Add the carrots and stir about for 2 minutes.

Now add your broth (or whatever other liquid combination you choose) and water.  Once the liquid becomes hot, add the rest of the vegetables.  Add the water, tomato sauce, and herbs.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium low, cover, and cook for at least 45 minutes.

Long cooking will turn this pot of mess into a pot of smooth, thick, goodness that will warm cold bones on a snowy day.  Serve this with some crusty bread, rolls, biscuits, or even buttered white bread.  It’s all about preference there.

Either way, you’re in for a treat with a warm bowl of this.  I hope you try it.  It’s a simple home-cooked dish and if you are careful, you will achieve home-cooked perfection.  Enjoy!

]]> http://www.smellmyplate.com/2009/12/07/beef-stew-the-perfect-cold-weather-warmer/feed/ 0 http://www.smellmyplate.com/2009/08/05/banana-pancakes-smothered-in-peanut-butter/ http://www.smellmyplate.com/2009/08/05/banana-pancakes-smothered-in-peanut-butter/#comments Thu, 06 Aug 2009 03:41:27 +0000 Somer http://www.smellmyplate.com/?p=363 I woke up this morning with every intention of making lentils for dinner.  However, as the day wore on I began craving banana pancakes.  It’s only August and already I am wishing for Mardi Gras so I can celebrate Pancake Day again!  I put the lentils back in my pantry, went to the store and bought bananas and prepared to make banana pancakes.  And yes, I smothered them in peanut butter.

Bananas and peanut butter are a naturally perfect pairing.  Who didn’t eat peanut butter and banana sandwiches as a child?  I do something special for the peanut butter for my pancakes.  If you’ve ever been lucky enough to make it to Amish Country in Pennsylvania and try their homemade peanut butter, you will notice that the taste is different.  There is honey in their peanut butter….quite a bit.  It’s DELICIOUS.  When I make pancakes for my brother (who always wants peanut butter on them), I have to whip up a small serving of honey-peanut butter.  While I don’t usually like it on my regular weekend pancakes, it’s perfect on banana pancakes.

Banana Pancakes

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Cooking (1986)

2 to 3 ripe bananas

1-1/2 cups buttermilk

2 eggs

2 Tblsp. sugar

2 cups self-rising flour

¼ tsp. baking soda

2 Tblsp. melted butter

Mash bananas.

Add buttermilk, eggs and sugar; blend well.  Add flour and soda; beat thoroughly.  Add melted butter.

Pour onto greased hot griddle, cook on both sides until brown.  Serve with butter and powdered sugar (or peanut butter!)  YIELD:  8-10 servings

This is a very thick pancake batter.  Don’t be alarmed if the pancakes look dark.  Because of the bananas and their high sugar content, there will be a darker-than-normal-color to these pancakes and the edges might get a little crispy.  It’s fine….and delicious.

If you do not have self rising flour, never fear!  Simply add 1 tsp. baking powder per cup of AP flour and you’ll have proper levening action.

For the peanut butter spread, simply put 1 cup of your favorite smooth peanut butter and add 2 Tblsp. honey and mix.  The honey not only adds amazing flavor, but it also things out the peanut butter a little and makes it less gooey.

Thank the Pennsylvania Amish for that amazing flavor.  Go visit them if you have the means and buy some of their food!

There’s no need for powdered sugar or maple syrup.  The peanut butter and honey are all the topping these pancakes need.  I do hope you try this.  It’s so damned good that I’m thinking of going back for seconds just after writing this!  Enjoy!

I know that a lot of people who have never had a fried green tomato may not “get” why they are so loved.  Listen, green tomatoes are PERFECT for frying.  Their flesh is firm, they are a little bitter (but it turns into sweetness in the frying process), and they are addictive.  You know how jalapeño poppers are a little sweet?  How a green jalapeño can have a bit of a bitter undertone, but after deep frying them they turn a little sweet?  Same thing here.

Now in case the thought of eating a fried green tomato weren’t “local” enough for you, I’m going to share with you how my family makes sandwiches out of these fried green tomatoes.  It’s weird and it’s so very, very southern.  I love it.

At the grocery store last week, my husband runs up to me and shoves a bag of partially green tomatoes in my face and informs me that I was going to be making fried green tomato sandwiches for him the next day.  I was a little hesitant because almost all of these tomatoes were more red than green and that they might turn to mush in the frying process.  I decided to give it a try.

I was pleasantly surprised when I sliced the tomatoes and saw that the flesh was mostly green and firm and would take to frying perfectly.

Some people might be tempted to get a little fancy with the breading, but I’m telling you right now that simple is better.

Simply dust the slices in flour, salt and pepper.  Nothing more.  Now melt 1 Tblsp. of butter in a shallow skillet and add 1 Tblsp. vegetable oil.  When heated, place the tomato slices in the skillet and fry on both sides until golden brown.

Drain on paper towels.

For the rest of the sandwich, thinly slice a simple yellow onion and fry some bologna.

That’s right.  There’s fried bologna on this sandwich.  It’s something that every kid I knew ate as children.  Fried bologna is a childhood memory!  Don’t judge it before you at least try it.  (I hate people who refuse to at least try something.)

This is all you need to assemble a Fried Green Tomato Sandwich.  Tomatoes, onions, fried bologna, and Miracle Whip (mayonnaise is too rich for this).

This is another down home kind of dish for which I have so much affinity.  This is a dish born of limited resources and it still breathes that sense of humilty.  Give it a try and enjoy!