Fall & Winter Apple Beef Stew

This is an adaptation of an old standby family favorite I developed years ago. The "apple pie" seasonings make it a little different and blend well with the rich flavor of grass-finished local beef.

Ingredients:

6T olive oil
1 1/2 onion, large, sliced thin
4-5 cl. garlic, minced
1 apple, med and sweet
2 lb. beef cubes--med. diced ( I cut the pieces once or twice each.)
2 T flour
8 oz. apple cider + 8 oz. water
2 T Worcestershire Sauce
2 T molasses
1 T Balsamic vinegar
1/4 t ground clove
1 t cinnamon
to taste:
salt
black pepper

5 new potatoes, peeled and cut to 1/2 in. dice
2 carrots, sliced

Directions:

Prep onions, apple, garlic, meat. In Dutch oven or thick pot, add 3T oil and sear the meat on high heat. Sprinkle in the flour and heat through. It will absorb most of the liquid from the meatt. Remove from pot. Add 3 more T oil. Saute onions and apples. Soften on high, then reduce to low, add garlic and caramelize 10 min. Add meat back in with any juice. Add all spices molasses, Worcestershire sauce, and vinegar. Heat through. Add 2 c cider+ water. Bring to boil, then turn to simmer very low and let braise for 1-2 hrs.

Add potatoes and carrots. Add water or stock to cover. Cook until the carrots are soft--20 min. or so. Adjust salt and pepper.

Serve with thick bread or over it.

Birthday Jambalaya

This jambalaya was Nathaniel's birthday request, thus the name. It's essentially a Cajun leftovers dish, but not in this case. Came out well. Spicy but not too. For more heat, Nathaniel and I sprinkled on more of the Cajun seasoning mix. Here's how it went:

INGREDIENTS

white rice, 2 c uncooked
shrimp, small uncooked 1 1/2 lb.
shrimp and crab boil
spicy sausage, 3/4 lb. (Got grass-fed local beef sausage from Reineer farms.)
olive oil
Cajun seasoning mix
tomato, 1 ripe
white onion, chopped, 2 c (I used 2 1/2 med. onions)
bell pepper, chopped, 1 c. (Used 2 peppers)
celery chopped, 1 c. (Used 4 stalks)
1/4 c. flour

DIRECTIONS

Make ahead:

Cook 2 cups raw white rice and let cool. Needs to be dry.

Boil shrimp for 3 minutes in large pot with 3T Shrimp and Crab Boil. Save at least a cup of the liquid after you cook the shrimp. Cool shrimp. Peel and devein if needed.

Making the Jambalaya

1. In a very large skillet or in a Dutch oven, put in about 1T oil and cook the sliced sausage and 1/2 onion sliced on high heat. Remove when cooked through.
2. Add 1/4 c. olive oil to the fat in the pan. Heat and add the flour slowly, scraping the bottom constantly with a spatula. Do this on low heat.
3. When you have a medium brown roux, add the chopped onion, pepper, and celery (Holy Trinity). Put heat to high and stir constantly until onions are soft. Lower heat and cook for a few minutes. Add 1T Cajun season mix and combine. Add salt to taste.
4. Add chopped tomato. Heat through.
5. Add sausage. Heat through.
6. Add shrimp. Heat through.
7. In handfuls, add rice a bit at a time and mix in. If it needs moisture, add a few tablespoons of the shrimp broth.
8. Adjust salt and pepper.

Summer Fresh Sword Fish and Beets

This dish started with some wonderful mixed small beets--red, golden, and striped--all about an inch in diameter. They came from Don and Briana at the Saturday Rittenhouse Square Market. The other "starter" was a few ounces of aromatic smoked alderwood salt--like the ocean and a cozy New England fall wood fire in a scent. This was brought to me from a store called Aprodesiac, a scent-nirvana in the Village area of New York.

More on this later.

Sizzling Spring Salmon Pita

I did this with salmon that was sold cheap because it was in strips--14/ to 1/2 in. thick, ranging in width to about 2 in. max, and 6 to 12 in. in length. They were actually scraps at the fish market, cooked into one of the best salmon dishes my family has tasted. Here's how it went:

INGREDIENTS
2 lb. salmon strips
1T coarse salt
1T green pepper corns, whole
1t ground cumin
1 stalk spring garlic shoots
4 scallions
olive oil

DIRECTIONS

1. In a mortar and pestel, crush the salt, green pepper, and cumin together to a pretty fine powder. Mince the garlic and add in with about 2T oil. Mash together to form a paste.
2. Rince and dry fish strips. Coat each with the paste. I put them all in a lasagna pan, added the paste, and mixed it all around.
3. Finely chop the scallions. Slice lengthwise the slice across. Put them on a large flat plate.
4. For cooking, use a cast iron griddle or some other grilling method that allows high cooking temperature.
5. Generously cover the griddle with oil (3T or so) and heat to smoking.
6. Take the fish strips and press them, one at a time, into the scallion pieces to lightly coat each with scallion. After coating, place on the grill.
7. Grill until crispy on one side and scallions are blackened--about two to four minutes. Turn carefully with tongs. (I used two sets. The pieces still broke some, but it was fine.)
8. Grill another minute or so. They finish quickly. Place on a sheet, and do another batch.

I served this with warm pita; a greens salad dressed with olive oil, lime juice, Feta cheese, salt and pepper; a bit of plain chopped green cabbage; and prepared baba ghanoush. We opened the pita and put some buba in the pita, then the fish, a little cabbage, and a handful of the salad. It was a great combo. Served prepared tabule salad and stuffed grape leaves (which Nathaniel put in his pita) on the side.

One note: The weather was very warm so we ate outside--also because the house was still pretty smoky from the grilling. Wish I had an industrial hood!

Nathaniel's Favorite Meat Sauce

This is a simple meat sauce, but Nathaniel said I should write it down since it was one of the best he ever tasted. I think it was just good because I cooked it so long while we waited for everyone to be home.

INGREDIENTS

3T olive oil
4 small onions, chopped
1 whole head of garlic, roughly chopped
3/4 t each of dried thyme, oregano, and basil
1/2 t dried red pepper flakes
1 29 oz. can of Trader Joe's Tuscano Marinara Sauce (or other good quality prepared marinara)
1 lb. ground beef (local)
about 1 1/2 cups vegetable stock. I used some I had made and frozen.

DIRECTIONS

1. In a heavy skillet or pot, add olive oil and heat to hot.
2. Add onions and cook to translucent. Turn down to low and caramelize for 5-10 min.
3. Add garlic, herbs, red pepper, and heat through.
4. Add marinara sauce. Bring to boil, then turn down and simmer.
5. In a separate pan, brown the ground beef. When thoroughly browned, add all of it with any fat to the simmering sauce.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste (about 1/4 teaspoon each or so)
7. Simmer on lowest heat for about 40 minutes. Stir occasionally, and add the vegetable stock about a half cup at a time to keep it from getting too dry.

Hearty Winter Potato Leek Pottage

This is a winter favorite based on the potato leek soup in Twelve Moths of Monastery Soups by Brother victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette. It is extremely simple to make. There area many versions of this. The one below makes about 8 good servings.

INGREDIENTS

>butter, 1 stick
>sliced leeks, about 6 cups. About 1/4 in. slices.
This was two very large leeks and one smaller one. Be sure to wash them carefully between the layers as there's often dirt in there.
The following are peeled and chopped into small wedges--about 1-2 in--about 12 cups.
>potaotes, about 12 cups. This was around 20 smallish potatoes.
>turnips, 2 medium
>rutabega, 1 large

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large heavy pot, melt the butter, add the chopped leeks and saute until very soft. Turn down and continue to saute on low while you prep potatoes and other roots. (10 min. or so)
2. Add the chopped roots.
3. Cover with water. Bring to a boil. Turn to simmer, and simmer until potatoes are soft.
4. With a masher, mash the potatoes. Add a bit of water.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste. Continue to simmer, then mash some more until even consistency--but not smooth. Chunky is the idea here.

Serve topped with grated cheddar or other mild cheese. I think Tobasco is a nice addition as well.

Another great version when leeks aren't available is to substitue about 4-5 cups of chopped onions for the leeks and to saute them in about 1/2 lb. of chopped, cooked bacon. Cook the bacon first, then cook the onions with it (Yes, in the fat--it's awesome, and if you use good local bacon, it's not too fatty.)

New Year's Chicken Fricassee

This was a delicious way to bring in the New Year. It's adapted from the chicken fricasee recipe contributed by Mrs. J.C. Dupont in _De Bonnes Choses a Monager_ from Houma, Louisiana.

INGREDIENTS
chicken pieces--large boneless breast and two leg and thight pieces. Cut up in chunks about 3 in. long. (Chicken was local.)
2 large onions, chopped very small
3T butterr
3T olive oil
1/4/ c flour
Cajun Mix seasoning blend
Cayenne pepper
salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS
Melt butter and oil in heavy soup pot. Add chicken pieces and brown on hight heat for five to ten minutes. Remove the chicken with tongs.
Add flower slowly while stirring. On low heat, make a light brown roux. Constantly scrape the bottom of the pan with a metal spatula.
Add the onions and cook on high heat, stirring constantly, until opaque.
Turn heat down under the onions and let simmer, for a LONG time--about 30 minutes or more is good. You have to give them an occasional stir.