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.)

tangy lentil potato salad with cornichons and capers

This salad might not look like much - it's brown food - but it tastes amazing. So SO good. I am eating the second-day leftovers right now and they are even better. The dressing is full of diced cornichons and capers, which blend in perfectly with the green lentils and so each bite is a tangy, salty surprise. It also takes just about 30 minutes to make, a pretty quick and easy recipe, and great to take for lunch.

ingredients:
2 shallots
1 bay leaf
1 cup Puy (French) lentils
Salt and pepper
1 pound potatoes (fingerling or small)
2 T red wine vinegar
1 to 2 garlic cloves
1 T Dijon mustard
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tsp capers, roughly chopped
2 T cornichons, roughly chopped
1 to 2 scallions, thinly sliced

I followed the recipe on Smitten Kitchen pretty closely, so I'll just send you there if you want to make it. The only thing I would change is that it felt like a bit too many lentils for the amount of potatoes. I ended up taking out about 3/4 cup for another use.  Also, it says to serve warm, but I think it's also very good at room temperature and makes for a good packed lunch (although then you might want to reduce the garlic slightly).

From our winter farm share: shallots, potatoes

cucumber salad with ginger-garlic dressing (and a fall picnic)

This afternoon we went to a nearby apple orchard just north of Providence. We were hoping to be able to pick apples, but they said their season was over - a bit disappointing, especially since so many of the trees there still had apples! They had a harvest festival going on though, so there were lots of families and kids, which was fun to see. And a burlap maze, and pumpkins, lots of mums and fall flowers. We brought a picnic along, so we camped out in the orchard and enjoyed the sun and some good food. I made the barley salad with cherries and pecans (which really is good), and a cucumber salad (recipe below). Philipp made this beautiful apple cake, almost tart-like with raisins and almonds. And we had fresh fruit and good cheese...and the weather could not have been more perfect. A great way to get out of the city and celebrate fall for a bit.

Recipe: Cucumber salad with ginger-garlic dressing

this is another one from Ottolenghi's Plenty - such a good cookbook!

ingredients:

2 large (or 4 small) cucumbers, peeled, cut lengthwise in half, and then sliced thin

1 small red oinion, shaved thin

1 1/2 inch ginger, grated

2 cloves garlic, pressed

toasted sesame seeds (about 2 T)

cilantro (about 1/3 cup)

dressing: 2 T rice vinegar, 2 T olive oil, 2 tsp sugar, 2 tsp sesame oil

Mix the dressing, and put the onions in it to soak for about 1 hour. Peel and cut the cucumbers (I used a mandolin for the onions and cucumbers - makes this salad super fast and easy). Add the garlic and ginger to the onions/dressing, and mix well. Then add everything else and mix everything. Let it sit at least 10 minutes before serving so all the flavors soak in. 

steak stir-fry with brussels sprouts and carrots

This is a recipe from a recent issue of Bon Appétit. I’m in Providence for a few days and I ripped out some recipes I have been wanting to try and took them with me. The photo in the magazine really got me with the bright colors. This is a good but not great stir-fry. It could have used a bit more sauce. It was tasty, though, and I really loved the colors and the idea of using Brussels sprouts in a stir fry. Fresh ginger and garlic always add so much. Make sure you chop everything before getting started - it goes quickly once you start cooking.

winter comfort: pancetta, white bean, swiss chard pot pies

Monday night Katie and I cooked pot pies from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. It was a little bit of work, making the pastry dough from scratch as well, but if you have two cooks in the kitchen it all gets done pretty efficiently. :) Deb Perelman suggests making these for company, because you can also do the components in advance and bake them later. To make: first make the pastry dough, make the pot pie filling (swiss chard, pancetta) and a gravy-like sauce (white beans), fill oven-save bowls, top with the pastry, and bake. The pastry is really flaky, buttery and delicious. If you left out the pancetta and used vegetable stock it would be great as a vegetarian recipe as well.

hearty soups IV: porotos granados, Chilean bean and corn stew

 This soup is adapted from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's cookbook Veg: River Cottage Everyday. Again, another great British chef I had not heard of...I saw this book at Synne's and fell in love with the images and simple recipe ideas. I just had to have it, although it doesn't come out in the US edition until May 2013. So we're using grams and liters, and "tinned" beans instead of canned. :) If you have a kitchen scale, metric is easier anyways than measuring cups, and for things like soups the measurements don't need to be exact anyways.

This is a take on the traditional Chilean stew porotos granados, a combination of old-world ingredients that (according to the internet) pre-dates the Spanish, from the Mapuche Indians. I guess it is traditionally made with cranberry beans. See here for how beautiful they are, by "Hungry Sofia." I am dealing with winter and the lack of fresh most things, so I used canned cannellini beans.  Other recipes call for the addition of bell pepper and basil instead of cilantro. But the common ingredients are sqaush/pumpkin, beans, sweet paprika, corn. I followed the lead of a recommendation on Saveur to add a swirl of a garlicy-herb paste into the soup. I found it a bit bland without the addition of lots of salt, pepper and herbs at the end. Then it was nice and fresh tasting - so season well.

A Valentine's Dinner: beet stew with lamb meatballs and wild rice

 For our Valentine's Day dinner, and what is turning out to be a weekly Ole Reunion dinner, we went with pink food: a beet stew with spiced lamb meatballs. It was meant to be: Katie had the idea for the stew, I had just happened to buy lamb at the farmer's market last weekend. And we added some wild rice to bring in our Minnesota roots. Nicole made a beautiful winter salad with toasted almonds and cranberries and buttermilk dressing, and Peter mixed us ladies some cocktails while we were cooking. This stew is beautiful and so tasty!

homemade garlic naan to go with all that soup

So it's winter and we're making a lot of soup...By "we" I mean everyone, right? :) I finally wanted to try making garlic naan at home to serve with some leftovers I was heating up. It really did hit the spot. Although anything you pull fresh and warm from your oven, spread butter, garlic, and cilantro on, will probably be pretty tasty.

I am not at all claiming this is authentic naan, but it's a pretty good, and super fast flatbread (and this recipe - no yeast!). Plus, it involves making some garlic paste, which is a great skill. :) Jennie and I learned that one at our knife skills class as well.

P.S. If you're in Ann Arbor, check out LifeLong Learning at Washtenaw Community College for their cooking classes, including the basic knife skills class we did. The instructor, Natalie, is really great!