ropa vieja inspired beef stew in the slow-cooker

Michael was feeling nostalgic for his Miami roots the other day...so we made a slow-cooker beef stew with Cuban flavors inspired from "Ropa Vieja". We used stew meat instead of flank steak because 2 lbs of flank steak was something like $30 (what?!).  The recipe is based on the Cuban-Style Ropa Vieja from Saveur. We served it with brown rice and some Cuban-style black beans. Michael gave this his stamp of approval, said the flavors were right.

ingredients:
2 lb. stew beef, cubed 
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 poblano pepper, thinly sliced
6 oz. tomato paste (small can)
1 T cumin
1 T dried thyme
1 T dried oregano
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
½ cup dry white wine
2 cups beef stock
1 (16-oz.) can whole peeled tomatoes, crushed
½ cup halved, pitted green olives
3 tbsp. capers, rinsed and drained
¼ cup roughly chopped cilantro

instructions: 
1. Brown the meat in two batches in a bit of oil on the stove. Add the onion and cook until starting to get soft, deglaze with the white wine. (I added everything for a second to toss it before adding to crock pot, see photo above.) Add everything to the slow-cooker except the olives, capers, and cilantro. Cook on low about 6-8 hours. Mix in olives and capers last, garnish with cilantro. (Lazy version: you don't have to brown meat first - you can just add everything to the slow cooker.)

mung bean tomato soup with kale

This is another recipe from Anna Thomas's Love Soup - a great cookbook. I had some mung beans in the pantry left over from making this amazing salad. Also, I found out that this little Indian spice shop in Providence sells the dried beans in bulk, so I was thinking about what else I could use them in when I came across this recipe in the "summer soups" section of Thomas's cookbook. She cooks them down so that they partially disintegrate, thickening the soup.

cucumber-pepper slaw with feta

I can't believe it's already September. One of the things I am feeling sad about, as we are enjoying the last weeks (days?) of summer, is that I was traveling so much and missed out on so much summer produce. Sigh. I had a great summer, but I wasn't cooking very much and that I am a little bummed about. Anyways, for this fall Michael and I signed up for a CSA share that is run through Brown, so we will get to enjoy the end-of-summer produce as well as fall's bounty. Which will be wonderful.

The last few days I re-made that grain salad with cherries, blue cheese and pecans. And served it on baby kale (which is a very good product - yum yum). It was really good. If you haven't made it yet, do it! Tonight I wanted to make something different and get some more veggies. So I paired some chicken with a jerk marinade with a fresh veggie slaw.

Another variation, if you wanted to make the veggie slaw more substantial and take for lunch would be to dice or more roughly chop the vegetables, and then mix with quinoa or a whole grain (barley, farro, etc). That would be good, too.

ingredients:
1 medium - large cucumber
1 T salt
2 T olive oil
1 scant T rice vinegar
1/4 tsp sugar
fresh black pepper
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 yellow pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 small red onion, fine diced (or paper-thin slices)
3 oz. feta, crumbled (vegan without the cheese)
roughly chopped basil

1. Cucumber: Cut lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Then cut cross-wise on a mandoline (thin slices) or with a knife. Salt and put in a colander over a bowl. Let sit 15 minutes while you do the other ingredients, then rinse and pat try with a paper towel. 

2. prep other veggies: thinly slice the jalapeño, peppers, and onion.

3. mix the dressing: olive oil, rice vinegar, sugar, black pepper. Don't add salt because the cukes will add some more saltiness.

4. combine everything and serve. Let sit about 30 minutes before serving.

Slaw recipe adapted from Saveur. I found their dressing to be 4x what I needed, also I was afraid of using a habanero!

We had this for dinner with chicken. For the jerk chicken, I just mixed some jerk seasoning with about 2 T olive oil. I smeared this on some chicken drumsticks and let it marinade a few hours in the fridge until dinnertime. Then cook the chicken in a pan on the stovetop, or grill if you have one.

summer vegetable pie with cornbread topping

I'm back in Ann Arbor just for a week, working during the new student orientation and getting some of my work in order. While I'm here I'm staying with two good friends of mine who are also great cooking companions (I've mentioned them a few times...). And they have a great summer CSA share, which is a plus. :) We got home from the airport and the fridge was stocked with veggies waiting to be transformed. We made this vegetable pie with lots of summer vegetables they had on hand. It would work with many other combinations though. Just be careful with the spice - if you add in hot peppers don't add in much other spiciness.

filling:
1 T olive oil
1 pepper (or poblano chile)
1 hot pepper (like jalapeno, if not using poblano)
1/2 red onion (or shallot)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 med yellow summer squash (or zucchini)
1 small eggplant
2 fresh tomatoes, cubed (or can diced)
1 tsp chili powder (if not using hot pepper)

other ideas: 1 ear corn, kernels cut from cob, fresh cilantro

cornbread topping*: 

1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
1 T sugar (or 2 T honey)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
1 T unsalted butter
*may want to double, especially if using 10-inch skillet

1. Preheat oven to 450. In an ovenproof skillet (8 or 10 inch), saute the onion and peppers, then add garlic and cook until soft. Add the rest of the vegetables and cook until they cook down  and get soft. I covered them for a while and checked them occasionally while prepping the cornbread. Salt and pepper to taste, watch the spice level.

2. Make the cornbread. Mix the wet and dry separately, (not butter yet), then add wet to the dry, and stir in melted butter last.

3. Pour the cornbread mixture over the top of the vegetables and put in the oven 12-15 minutes. The cornbread will brown slightly.

inspired by a recipe from Cook's Illustrated, Cooking for Two

summer slaw with peanut sauce and avocado BLTs with my sisters!

I'm in Minneapolis staying with my twin sister for a few days. Yesterday morning we went on a 15-mile run along the Mississippi River - so beautiful. Okay, my legs were throbbing a bit... but it was so nice to explore a new route and get to chat the whole time. I actually don't know Minneapolis very well. So many of my Duluth friends have moved to "the Cities," as we call Minneapolis/St. Paul in Minnesota, but I actually haven't spent much time here. And when I am here, I am usually with my sisters and not out exploring too much. So the run was really nice. From Northeast, we crossed over the Broadway bridge and then went down the West River Parkway, past the Mill City Museum and Guthrie Theater, with views of the University of Minnesota campus overlooking the other bank, and on the way back we crossed the Stone Arch Bridge with beautiful views of downtown Minneapolis.

And then our younger sister and her boyfriend came over for dinner and we had BLTs and salads al fresco. Really feels like summer. Elisabeth said "I feel like I'm in a health food magazine." :) Then we baked cookies and played Settlers of Catan - can it get any better than this? The three of us aren't together very often, so I always really appreciate these days.

Anyways, dinner was really good. Click "continue" for the slaw recipe. I will post the second salad tomorrow. :)

quinoa salad with black beans, mango, and more

This is a veggie-packed quinoa salad with lots of flavors. The mango and lime juice really make it fresh and add a nice sweet-sourness.

ingredients: 
2 cups cooked quinoa (1 cup uncooked - mix of red and white)
1 mango, cut into small dice (see how to cut a mango)
1/2 can black beans (rinsed, drained) or a full can if you want more black beans
1/2 bell pepper (red or yellow), small dice
3 chopped scallions
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
diced jicima
5 radishes, thinly sliced

dressing: oil / vinegar (red wine, cider, or rice) / lime juice / bit of sugar / lime zest

Cook the quinoa, 1 cup quinoa to 2 cups water (simmer 15 minutes covered).
Chop all your veggies: bell pepper, scallions, jicima, radish, and mango (see instructions). Rinse beans, zest lime, add everything together in a big bowl. Let the quinoa cool slightly before mixing it with the veggies.