Zuppa-less Toscana

I had a lot of the ingredients for Zuppa Toscana lying around, but really wanted a meal not a soup.  So this is a thicker version.

Dice up an onion while the sauce pan is heating.  Start that sauteing and start cutting up to potatoes.  The soup usually does slices, but I had a bag of baby potatoes*, so just quartered those.  Back to the pan, add in a clove or three of chopped up garlic.  Sprinkle a small amount** of red pepper flakes over that.  After a minute, add the potatoes and then cover with chicken broth.  Bring to a low boil and cook uncovered until the potatoes are cooked.  Put in a nice size layer of kale.  Then put in half again us much because it always cooks down more than you expect.  Mix that in until cooked (e.g. turns dark green).  Dump in sliced, cooked*** Italian sausage.  Heat through and keep cooking until most of the liquid is gone.  Use a bit of corn starch to thicken the remainder.  And that is about it.  Serve with parma.

* The size of thee bag also determined the proportions for everything else.
** Around a half teaspoon.  The point is to add a bit of spice, not to make it spicy.
*** Mine was already cooked.  If you don't want to cook it ahead of time, slice or crumble up the raw sausage and work it in during the onion stage.

Brussels Sprout and Tortellini Soup

We had bought a large bag of Brussels sprouts and I had cooked up more that half of them for a meal, but still had the rest to use.  I thought that soup sounded like a good direction to try and this is what I came up with.

I wanted to increase the surface area of the sprouts for browning, so I cut them up into smaller pieces.  I also cut up an inch or so of ginger into small dice. 

Add frozen cheese tortellinis into a pot and pour chicken broth (or vegetable if you want to go veggie) to cover with a little extra to leave room for the sprouts.  Put that on to boil.  By the time it gets there, the tortellini should be ready.  Turn off the heat until the sprouts catch up.  

Heat some oil in a metal skillet over medium heat.  Toss in the ginger and give it a stir.  Toss in the the sprouts.  Cook until brown all over.  Dump all of that in with the tortellini.  Turn the heat back on under the soup.  I deglazed the pot with a bit of white wine and then poured in some soy sauce and let that heat up.  Add that into the soup too.  It still seemed a bit weak, so I added a little bit of rice vinegar.  I was pretty happy with the results.

Couscous with Goat Cheese and Fruit Topping

This was done in a pie plate because I thought it would present well.  But it could just as easily be done in any container that you wish to use.  Most any fortified wine would work in place of the Marsala.  Or white wine.  Or apple juice.  Maybe chicken broth.  Also you could use feta or any other crumbly cheese for the goat cheese.  I planned on this to be served at room temperature since it was for a potluck, but it might be bit better if still warmed.

Cut up dried apricots and mix with enough raisins to cover the pie plate.  Melt butter in a sauce pan.  Add the dried fruit and cook over low heat until starting to brown.  Pour in a bit of Marsala to deglaze the pan.  Cook until it thickens and take the pan off the heat.  Prepare a couple of cups of couscous as per instructions.  Let cool.  Stir in a couple of ounces of crumbled goat cheese into the couscous.  Put the mixture into the pie plate and smooth.  Cover with the dried fruit.  Serve!

Molasses Beef with Couscous

Sprinkle flour over a pile of beef stew meat.  I was cooking for a potluck, so used around 5 lbs, but you could easily scale this back.  Put meat into a dutch oven.  Mix together a can of beef broth, about a cup of molasses, minced garlic, ginger puree, pepper.  Pour over meat.  Pour in red wine until meat is covered.  OK, you could have mixed the wine into the bowl with the other stuff, but this is the way I happened to do it.  The main two things are to have a flavorful liquid and to cover the meat completely.    Bring to a boil then move to the lowest heat available.  I started with a lid, but it was still cooking pretty hard, I ended up moving the lid off the pot a bit.  Let cook for three or so hours.  Remove from heat and lose the lid.  Stir in couscous and let sit.  I put in around a cup and a half.  After about ten minutes the couscous should be ready.  Stir everything together and serve.

Note:
To do this by the book, after flouring the meat, you really should brown it in the dutch oven in batches and the deglaze the pot with the wine before dumping the meat back in.  It also would have been easier to just put it in a slow cooker and let it set for 4-6 hours on low.  But I had just under 4 hours to make this and get out the door.  This version is perfectly fine and got several compliments. 

Chicken Noodle Soup Dinner

Basically a Provencal type skillet dish. I wanted the taste of chicken soup with out being soupy. Something that would serve as an entree.

The goal here is to braise the chicken in a minimal amount of broth, so you need to pick a skillet that isn't much bigger than can fit the chicken you have and then fill with the veggies so that they are about the same height as the chicken. I used half a dozen boneless, skinless breasts in a 12" skillet and needed a 14.5 oz can of broth plus half that of water to bring it up to height.

First, I brined the chicken to make it juicier. Had not used that trick before* and I could let that sit while I did the other prep work. Fill a 13"x9" dish with 2 quarts water and 1/4 cup salt, stirring to dissolve. Put chicken in and cover. Put some place cool for 1/2 an hour or so. Chop up carrots, celery, and onions in roughly even proportions keeping in mind how much you will need to surround the chicken.

Start heating the skillet to medium high. Drain chicken and pat dry. Put a bit of oil in the hot skillet and brown the chicken in two batches. Set aside the chicken for a moment while you deglaze the pan with a bit of white wine and bring it up to heat.** Return the chicken to the skillet and surround with veggies. Sprinkle with sage, pepper, bay leaf, or whatever meets your fancy. Add broth and water, mostly the former, to cover. Simmer until the chicken is cooked. Pull the chicken again. Mix up some cornstarch and cool water together in a bowl and add to the skillet until thickened to taste. I cut the breasts in half to make them a bit easier to serve. Return the chicken to the skillet and that is it. Serve over noodles. Or change the name of the recipe and serve over rice.

* This worked ok. The chicken tasted slightly salty if I thought about it. Not over powering and no one else commented on it.
** Originally, I tried browning the veggies in between removing the chicken and deglazing, but there is really too much of them to really make that work and I decided that it wasn't worth it.

Curious Chili

This takes a basic chili recipe and replaces the Tex-Mex spicing with curry paste. It made for a nice novelty chili. The curry paste recipe which I borrowed is below and made a cup or two. You could try the store stuff, if you want to cut out a little bit of time.

Heat oil in Dutch oven. Cook a large chopped up onion in oil until starting to get soft. Add curry paste and a small amount of molasses and cook until fragrant. Pour in a can of chicken broth. Add in a chuck-eye roast, trimmed and cut into 3/4 inch cubes. Add a bottle of IPA beer. Bring to a simmer. Cover and transfer to the oven (300) and cook for 1.5 - 2 hours. I had extra cilantro from the paste and sprinkled that on top just before serving.

Notes:
I probably should have browned the beef first, but I was in a bit of a hurry. If you do, deglaze the skillet with a bit of the broth or lager and add with the beef.

I wanted to use peanuts as a bean substitute, but this was for a potluck and I was worried about allergies, so I just served some on the side. Feel free to add some with the beef.

Revisit:
 I made this again a year later, but went with the store bought curry, which was fine.  I also decided to go ahead with the peanuts and just put a sign up that it contained nuts.  The peanuts were alright, but I think I put them in too late and they were not soft.  Try again another year.
 
Red Curry Paste
Grind together in a food processor the following:
12 small red chilies, chopped (I actually used 6 of the red ball chilies)
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 stem lemongrass, chopped
1 small onion or a shallot, chopped
1 t ginger, chopped
1 T cilantro
large pinch of cumin
1 t shrimp paste (which I didn't have and skipped with no qualms)
2 T oil

Apple Oatmeal

We have a jug of apple cider left over from a recipe that required a cup. Since we never get around to drinking it, I have been trying to incorporate it in other recipes. This took about 10 minutes to make, so nice for a quick breakfast. Very sweet. Although, if you really want to go over the top, some ice cream on the top would be really good!

Put two cups of cider in a measuring cup and put in the microwave until steaming, around 6 minutes. Meanwhile put a pot on the stove over medium heat with a bit of butter. While melting, peel and cut up an apple. Cook in butter with some brown sugar and cinnamon. Pour in hot cider and bring to a boil. Add a cup of oatmeal and cook for five minutes. Serves two.