Vegetable Chili (Con Carne)

Food & Wine magazine arrived a few months back with Winter Vegetable Chili on the cover. Perfect for this part-time vegetarian! I can make a vat of it and freeze for later. Brilliant!

Not wanting to leave the hubby out of dinner, I decided to make half of it veggie and the other half with beef. Both turned out fabulously!

I looked at the recipe and just went to town with the cooking. I didn't follow the directions too much, skipping the whole blender thing altogether. I used diced tomatoes--something I always have on hand--and no chipotle/adobo. I just added the tomatoes and Chipotle Tobasco and keep going. One less step to follow = one less thing to wash, yo!

There wasn't any parsnips at my farmers market. So, I just went with daikon. I have never cooked a daikon before, and we didn't really seek it out when we dine out. So it was to my surprise that Brandon told me he actually likes daikon.

After 10 years of knowing the man, 8 of that being married to him, I just found that out now. Then again, he surprised me when he ordered duck confit at the RH... But I digress.

Daikons and carrots seem to roll in every weekend at my farmers market. So as far as I'm concern, I'm making this thing year round! (Gotta love Southern California!)



Like I said, I'm also not big on using chipotle and adobo. Last time I added that to a chili, the heat was too much for my taste buds and the smokiness was too much for Brandon.

Fortunately, I've fallen in love with Chipotle Tobasco which delivers just enough of the smokiness AND milder heat. It's perfect to use here.

Now, my adaptation of the original recipe for those who want to feed both herbivores and omnivores in the house!

Indecisive Vegetable Chili (Con Carne)

Serve with brown rice, chopped red onions, cilantro, sour cream and tortilla chips or bread toasts.

The Veggie Part

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 medium garlic cloves, very finely chopped
• 1 large red bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/2 half of a large daikon, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/2 pound carrots, cut into 1/2-inch pieces - I used heirloom carrots to add colors.
• 1 tablespoon chile powder
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• Salt and pepper
• One 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
• Shakes of Chipotle Tobasco - not too horribly spicy, a few shakes will give you the smokiness you need.
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 cup canned hominy, drained
• 1 cup canned red kidney beans, drained
• Optional: A splash of good balsamic vinegar
• Optional: Cayenne pepper if you want more heat without the smokiness of more Chipotle Tobasco.

Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan or Dutch oven. Add the onion and garlic, cook until slightly softened. Add the bell pepper, daikon and carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned in spots. Stir in the chile powder and cumin and season with salt. Cook a little more.



Add water and the diced tomatoes and juices to the pan along with the hominy and beans and bring to a boil.

To have your chili both ways at the same meal, you split the veggie batch in half at this point. Add half of the veggies into the saucepan with the browned meat and keep the other half pure veggies. Simmer both.

Cover partially and simmer the chili over moderate heat until the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes.

All veggies special touch: you can brighten this up with a little balsamic vinegar. I thought it could use a little acidity but instead of the usual apple cider, I thought balsamic would be nicer. And I was right! For some reasons, the balsamic doesn't taste so good with the beef to me. But you can try that if you'd like.



The Con Carne Part

• A glug of oil
• About 1 lb. of lean, ground sirloin (or more if you want to make this more of a beef chili with veggies instead of the other way around.)
• A pinch of salt and pepper.
• About 1 tablespoon chili powder
• About 1 tablespoon cumin
• A splash of Chipotle Tobasco
• Optional: A tiny, itsy, weensy splash of Worcestershire Sauce.

Heat a glug of oil to a skillet. Brown about 1 lb. of lean ground sirloin, seasoned mildly salt and pepper. Add the spices. Deglaze with a bit of water/broth. Add the beef and pan juices to the veggie chili. Adjust seasoning to your liking.

Con Carne Special Touch: If you'd like a bit more beefiness, add the Worcestershire Sauce. Not too much though. It'll overpower the flavors you've just built.

2009 Goal #3: Chicken Fried Steak

I am sticking to my plan to take more pictures. And so far I've been doing pretty well. I'm adding pictures to the Foolproof Breakfast Skillet here.

And last night's victory of my first attempt at Chicken Fried Steak and Country Gravy. Pretty groovy, eh?



For this lovely household favorite, I used the Alton Brown method of cooking (skipping the thyme and flavoring gravy with a bit of garlic and onion powders) with Paula Deen's seasoning, flavoring one side of the steaks with her House Seasoning (salt, pepper, garlic and onion powders) and seasoning salt on the other. Rounding out the meal is a side of mashed potatoes with just chicken broth for moisture and a little pat of butter for creaminess. The gravy will handle the rest. And voila, close to perfection.

A meal for 2-3 here used 1 lb. cubed steak and 2 potatoes, by the way. I used the above recipes as my guide than exact science.

I say close to perfection because of the meat. I didn't tenderize my own or have the butcher do it at the store, but I picked up a pack of pre-cubed steak from Fresh & Easy. It was super convenient and it was fresh. Brandon managed to not get any grizzle but I wasn't so fortunate. Will I buy F&E cubed steak again? In a pinch, absolutely. But if I have more time, I'd probably go to the butcher shop to have some round steaks properly cubed.

Perfect Holiday Meal

I love Tyler Florence.

I watched him make Filet Mignon with Blender Bearnaise and Bacon and Brussels Sprout Hash on Food Network about a week before Christmas. I was drooling. And inspired, so much so that I started to ask around to find "orphans" for me to feed.

Fortunately for me, my aunt and her family were available. Off the market Brandon went to pick up almost 5 lbs. of beef tenderloin.

"This better be good meat for the price I just paid," he texted me from the check-out line.

Oh yes. Yes, it was.

For the beef, I followed the instruction to the tee, especially the part where the meat should be in room temperature. You see, I forgot to tell Brandon to ask the butcher to have the meat trimmed and tied up so I had to do that myself. Not a lot of silver skin to trim but trimming and tying took longer time that I thought.

The meat came out very tender, perfectly medium to medium rare. I even deglazed the skillet with brandy, add a little broth and a knob of butter to make pan sauce.

The bernaise was incredibly easy. I managed to mess up just a little bit but I recovered quite well. First, I had sherry vinegar in my pantry and not champagne. Per some suggestions online, I substituted rice vinegar for that. Then, I ran out of my little bottles of white wine I bought for cooking. Being a mostly red wine household, I had to crack into a bottle of a sweeter white wine instead of the dry...which I hope will compliment the rice wine and make up for the champagne vinegar. The reduce still came out tasty and the sauce was perfect.

The hash, now that one I changed around a bit. Since I was already making mashed potatoes, I omitted the potatoes in the hash. I also used both frozen pearl onions and brussels sprouts.

All components, even with the mashed potatoes, went very well with each other.

As for dessert, brownies a la roasted banana gelato was the star.

**

Now for the drinks. I adapted Giada's Sgroppino recipe by using different flavors of sorbet. The pomegranate-blueberry was quite a hit for the holidays. (In the summer, I made this with mango sorbet. Yum!)

Steak and Egg Dinner

I watched Giada makes the Grilled Tuscan Steak with Fried Egg and Goat Cheese last weekend and I had been thinking about it all week.

Since Brandon is out of town all week, I felt a little guilty to buy any steaks from the grocery stores at they come pre-packaged in two. I could've gone to ones with a butcher shop and get just one steak, I supposed, but none of those stores are nearby.

Fortunately for me, Fresh & Easy carries single rib-eye steaks and surprisingly not-very-goaty goat cheese.

First of all, it's REALLY simple to make. I mean, you can grill outdoor or indoor, or if you're like me, you would just cook it up in your cast iron skillet.

If you're like me, you'd season your steak on that little container/butcher paper it comes in. And if you're like me and not wanting to dirty up your knife and cutting board, you can just rip the parsley onto your plate. Then, the only thing you really need to clean afterward is the pan you fry your egg with.

Lazy does it simpler! Haha.

While the steak rests, I used the same pan to fry the egg--just had to swirl the leftover fat around the pan and then bring the heat way down from cooking the steak earlier. See? One pan!

I served this with a side of spring mix salad tossed with just Italian dressing.

"Ritual"-istic Dining

Yet again, Justin and Olaina staked out a great place to eat to take me to in North Park area of San Diego. The first time we went was late Wednesday night. We all ate lightly. But I was so hooked and they couldn't stop thinking about the food either so we returned on Friday.

The place is living up to its name for my brief stay in San Diego.

Ritual Tavern with subtitle of "Taps and Cookery" was a perfect place for foodies and beer snobs alike. You walked through the door; one side is the bar and the other is the restaurant.

It definitely feels like a real pub over on the bar side. Local brews on tap and 30 some bottles from all over the world. I mean, there is even a gluten-free beer! The staff is definitely knowledgeable. (I think our bartender and server on Friday was Chris...?) Olaina asked him to recommend a beer to go with her bread pudding with bourbon sauce. He suggested St. Bernardus Apt 12. The match was so perfect the girl washed the whole hefty piece of pudding down with that beer. Need I say more?

Over on the restaurant side, it was definitely cozy. Playing up pub grub to a few notched down from snooty gastropub, the food here is just divine. They use local and organic produces and make their own condiments. And the price is definitely reasonable. Actually, if they would charge more--not that they should--I would totally pay for it.

The first time I was there, I ordered shrimp scampi appetizer which was cooked with garlic, butter and, not with white wine but sherry. was served up with plenty of sauce and grilled ciabatta to sop it up with. I damn near bit the waiter's hand off when he tried to take my plate away as left the bread in the bowl to soak up very last little bit of yumminess. THAT was just how good it was. And of course, I came back two days later to once again have it for dinner.

Justin ordered the beer battered vegetables. Light, crispy, not oily. Veggies were cooked just right, still had a bite to them. Simple. Perfect.

And Olaina? Well, you already read about the bread pudding and the beer. :)

As mentioned, we returned 2 days later for a sit-down dinner. Just couldn't resist.

We ordered the cheese board to start with. With a side of blackberries and raw almonds, three artisan cheeses for the day was Cashel Blue Irish Farmhouse Cheese, Cahill's Irish Porter Cheddar, and what I jotted down as "Beamish Gouda", aged for 18 months. The herbed goat cheese was from Santa Barbara and had a great zip to it. I can eat that cheese board for the rest of my life.



For dinner, I ordered the scampi, of course, and their special of oyster rockefeller. It was economical for oysters. And then I realized that they did have a fresh oyster bar Thursday. Indeed, I was suckered into having not so fresh seafood, but I was a very happy sucker. The oysters maybe tiny, but the flavors of the crumbs and everything was great.

Justin ordered the gluten-free shepherd's pie with Niman Ranch lamb and beef. I have had several different variety of the pie before, but none like this. This is essentially a crock of fall-off-the-fork tender lamb and beef stew, topped with mashed potatoes and baked. I am drooling just thinking about the flavors.

Now, our dessert girl went with butternut squash soup and the sea bass special with fennel something something reduction. (I didn't jot that one down). The soup came in drizzled with olive oil. It was light and butternutty. The sea bass was cooked to perfection, piled high with baked (or boiled?) purple potatoes. It was fantastic.

Finally, we did share the bread pudding. Spicy, custardy, and not overly sweet or rich. We nibbled on the pudding while continuing our conversation and people watch. It was a perfect end to a perfect visit in San Diego for me.



And a beginning of a brand new habit.

Why does San Diego have to be so far away?!?!?

Easiest Meal for a Crowd

Giada's Bollito Misto. Feeding a dozen people have never been quite this easy.

Brown the meat. Add broth and aromatics. Simmer for an hour. Add potatoes and carrots. Simmer for another hour. Fish out the veggies. Slice the meat. Reduce juice to gravy.

While cooking, throw parsley, garlic, shallots, vinegar and olive oil together into the food processor for salsa verde. (You can just chop everything up and mix with the liquids for chunkier salsa but I was just lazy.) Rinse that out and then toss Gorgonzola, mayo and mustard in for a whirl and voila, Gorgonzola Sauce.

Sure it took a few hours to cook. But it's really easy to manage.

And no. I can't seem to go to sleep tonight. Heh.

Fall is coming!

Yes, folks, it's about time for the weather to cool off a bit (as much as it really does around here) and for those of us who cook to start craving stews and roasts and the like. One of our favorite riffs on the theme is Alton Brown's Country Style Steak. Thin slices of beef cooked in a gravy sauce to melt in your mouth goodness. Yum...tonight's dinner is decided! The only catch is you really do need to plan ahead for this as it needs a couple of hours in the oven. I serve it with smashed potatoes to mop up some more of the gravy and whatever vegetable looks good in the market. Tonight will probably be roasted broccoli and a small green salad. So, pick an evening when you'll be home early or a weekend and enjoy comfort food!

Alton Brown's Country Style Steak (with a little variation)

2 pounds beef bottom round, trimmed of excess fat
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
(I add in a dash of onion and garlic power too)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup vegetable oil or bacon drippings (bacon drippings really do make this dish, and it gives you an excuse to cook bacon for something else first.)
2 cups chicken broth (I use a combo of beef and chicken)
1 teaspoon dried thyme

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Cut the meat with the grain into 1/2-inch thick slices and season on both sides with salt and pepper (this is where I add in the onion and garlic powder.) Place the flour into a pie pan. Dredge the pieces of meat on both sides in the flour. Tenderize the meat, using a needling device, until each slice is 1/4-inch thick. Dredge in the flour again and set aside.

Add enough of the vegetable oil or bacon fat to just cover the bottom of a 4 to 5-quart Dutch oven set over medium-high heat. Once the oil begins to shimmer, add the steaks to the pan, being careful not to overcrowd. Cook until golden brown on both sides, approximately 2 minutes per side. Remove the steaks to a plate and repeat until all of the steaks have been browned.

Remove the last steaks from the pot and add the chicken broth (or combo broth if you want extra beefy goodness) and thyme and whisk until the liquid just comes to a boil. Return the steaks to the pot and make sure they are all submerged in the liquid. Cover the pot and place it in the oven on the middle rack. Cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until the meat is tender and falling apart.

Indoor Picnic Dinner

A friend's uncle passed away yesterday so we went over to be with his dad. To cheer him up, I decided to go for a home cooked dinner. Pops always loves to be my lab rat. :)

Last weekend's episode of Everyday Italian was stuck in my head. Giada's "Picnic Planner" looked yummy and super easy I wanted to make everything. But I didn't have a chance during the week.

• Penne with Beef and Arugula - serves up well at room temperature as well as cold.
  
• Parmesan Popovers
• Almond Blueberry Cookies
• Iced Tea with Grenadine <-- I didn't make this one.

I was in the kitchen most of the afternoon as I baked the cookies first then made the batter for the popovers and started the pasta and steak at about the same time. (If you don't make cookies, this could count as a quick fix meal.) I did follow the instructions on all of them this time...except for the Herbes de Provence part . You know the history. I used Penzey's Parisien Bon Herbes plus lavender instead.

The penne and steak makes a LOT of pasta salad, folks. The portion I served today, we would've fed six. So, tomorrow Brandon is going to take 2 tubs of this on his trip to DC, one for him and one for his coworker, and I will eat one for lunch.

Also, one tip on the popovers that Giada mentioned on the show. Don't peak at the popovers while they cook or you'll end up with deflated ones. Hey, they were still tasty. Just didn't look too pretty.

We showed up at Pops' door with the picnic pack. We ate and talked. We talked about his brother and his life, boxing, tennis, politics. We talked about his day at work. We just talked. Or more like letting Pops talk. While sitting there listening to Pops and Brandon, I just realized this would be the first time I cook for a sad occasion.

I am humbled and amazed at the power of food to bring people together.

Irish Feast...sort of

For the past 5 years, I have been cooking up this recipe of 1996 Bon Appetit Beef Stew with Stout Guinness.



(ETA: Picture above is from 2009 St. Patty's feast.)

I kept to the recipe more or less every year, adding a bay leaf or two and doubling the portion to serve 4. A few more spoons of cornstarch to thicken, and pinches of brown sugar and a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce has been added to round out the taste.

The recipe called for the stew to be served with a side of Colcanon, mashed potatoes with kale. I used to just do mashed potatoes, but the public demanded potatoes IN the stew. And I obliged.

The challenge wasn't the stew but the proportion. Let me just say that I have NEVER cooked with 4 lbs. of meat before.

Yep. 4 lbs. of stew beef, 6 carrots, 2 bags of baby Russet potatoes, 3 onions, a pack of whole white mushrooms (because I have it laying around), 2 bottles of Guinness, 1.5 cartons of beef stock, 2 bay leaves, a few sprigs of thyme, about a table spoon or two of brown sugar, a few shakes of Worcestershire, and, as always, a few spoonfuls of cornstarch + broth to thicken things up.

And a VERY big pot.

I fed all 8 with leftover of maybe 4 servings more.

For dessert, I searched the web and found a recipe for a Bailey's Irish Cream Fruit Dip which I modified slightly. Now it doubles fantastically as frosting for Giada's almond cupcakes. (I just did the cake and instead of the raspberry cream, I use the Bailey's dip.)

Mix together:
One 8-oz. tub CoolWhip, thawed
One 5-oz. packet vanilla instant pudding
1/2 c. Bailey's
1/2 c. milk (Original recipe called for one cup. I think that may just be too soupy.)

Served with fruits, white/angel food cake, a bar of chocolate. Whatever! Just don't let the kids near it. It has quite a kick for a harmless looking sweet treat. :)

Hmm...chewy

Giada's Roast Beef with Spicy Parsley Tomato Sauce was the recipe I made for dinner tonight. Very straight forward and simple. All done in about an hour. I even threw in a side of cabbage and long strands of carrot sautéed in butter, flavored with only salt, pepper and a tad of my bastardized Herbes de Provence*.

Everything was going swimmingly. I mean EVERYTHING.

The sauce? Perfect. I mean, it's fricking AWESOME!

The side dish? Fantastic. Always love veggies sautéed in butter.

The roast? That is when disaster struck. When I sliced the roast after resting, I found 2 things were wrong.

First, the meat was cooked to perfect medium rare after being in the oven for 50 minutes. It's PERFECT for me, but not for Brandon. I was aiming for a medium going for 40 minutes according to the recipe, but the meat thermometer didn't register so I left the roast in for extra 10 minutes. And it was still undercooked.

Second, the roast was tough when I slice it. That alarmed me. But hey, maybe my knife was dull. But then, I took the first cut into my slice and found it "sticky". Sure enough, tonight's dinner was mainly the veggies and may be 2 pieces of beef. The rest was the nutrient we managed to suck out of the roast before our jaws got tired. Lots of mangled cow pieces in the trash tonight.

The choices of meat for the recipe are sirloin tip or chuck beef roast. I bought the latter. And yes I sliced it across the grain! That was possibly the worst piece of beef I've cooked.

Wait. Is it the beef? Or is it me?

Try out this recipe, guys. Let me know if yours result in something more edible.

As for me, I will cook up 2 pieces of sirloin Friday night...and I will top them with the leftover spicy parsley tomato sauce, a redemption from tonight's disaster. Hopefully.

*Bastardized Herbes de Provence: I was going to buy a bottle at the store but Brandon doesn't like rosemary, one of the key ingredients. After sorting through a few homemade recipes, I kind of went to town with what I have in the spice cabinet to try to create a blend close enough to the HDP. I ended up with 1/2 teaspoon each of basil and thyme, 1 crushed up bay leaf, and a shake each of fennel seeds and ground coriander. Pretty tasty, I must say. Whatever I had left from sprinkling over the tomatoes, I threw into the cabbage+carrot, tying the flavor together with the beef and sauce.

ETA :

Friday night, Brenda was kind enough to pick up a hunk of top sirloin steak from Plowboy for me. I walked away from her house with not only the giant piece of meat but also with baggies of spices from Penzey's Brenda recently ordered in bulk.

In all of the goodies, she gave me a baggy full of Parisien Bon Herbes which I could mix in lavender, which she also gave me, to substitute for rosemary-less Herbes de Provance. No more bastardized HdP!

Brenda also handed me the Alton Brown’s pan seared method so that I wouldn’t accidentally repeat the disaster. Steak is one thing I had down somewhat. But it’s good to learn yet another fool-proof method.

I did redeem myself.

Short Ribs and Pasta

This recipe takes 3 hours plus. Definitely not a weeknight weekend, folks. But it is definitely worth the time.

My Italian Goddess Giada's Short Ribs with Tagliatelle

My notes:

1. I didn't use the tagliatelle pasta, just the spaghetti I have on hand.

2. I didn't use the food processor for the veggies. Instead, I chopped everything up real fine and just plop the diced tomatoes and tomato paste right on top. It gives the sauce a very rustic feel. I also used baby carrots in this, sliced up.

3. If mixing sweet and savory doesn't appeal to you, instead of the bittersweet chocolate, go ahead and grate your parmesan right on top. Equally tasty!