12 posts tagged “sandwich”
Burgers are one of those things I really love, but rarely make. I guess I just never think of them as an option when I'm making a list of dinners for the week. But the other day, I was wandering aimlessly around Whole Foods when I saw Ezekiel buns in the freezer. Now, I have loved Ezekiel bread for the longest time. Recently, I came across Ezekiel wraps, and have been hooked on those for lunches. And now I have found Ezekiel buns. Oh, Food for Life, I will have to put you right up there with Kashi on my list of irrestistible product manufacturers.
It's no secret that I love Mexican and Tex-Mex flavors, so I went that route with these burgers. I spiced the burgers pretty simply and subtly, stuffed them with cheese, and made a chipotle ketchup of sorts. Here's a suggestion - cut your cheese into smaller chunks so it actually melts while the burger cooks. Not that I am complaining about running into a big chunk of cheese mid-dinner, but a little melty goodness would be better.
I confess I was a little lazy with the chipotle ketchup. Normally I would start any stovetop condiment/sauce/etc. with onions and or garlic but I really didn't feel like doing much chopping. I mean, I was already trying to make something relatively easy by throwing ingredients into one bowl. But, it still tasted great. So by all means if you are more motivated than me, add the onions and garlic. But I don't think they're necessary.
Tex-Mex Burgers with Chipotle Ketchup
Makes 4 burgers
1 lb. ground beef or sirloin
1/2 cup sliced scallions
2 cloves garlic, pressed or finely minced
2 tsp. worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. oregano
3/4 tsp. aleppo (or other) chili powder
2 Tbsp. fresh chopped parsley
a few dashes of cayenne pepper
1 tsp. salt
ground pepper to taste
2 oz. monterey jack or cheddar or whatever kind of cheese you want
Chipotle Ketchup
1-2 chipotles in adobo (depending how spicy you want it)
1 Tbsp. cider vinegar
1/2 cup crushed tomatoes
1 tsp. brown sugar
salt and pepper
Make the ketchup, by combining all the ingredients into a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for a few minutes to marry the flavors, and taste for seasoning. Set aside to cool slightly as you make the burgers.
Mix all the ingredients for the burger (except the cheese) into a bowl. Divide the mixture into 4 parts and stick a piece of cheese in the center of each part, pressing around it to seal it in.
Grill or broil the burgers until done. Garnish with anything you'd like.
::tap tap tap:: Is this thing on?
Yikes, it's been a while since I've updated. Between the extreme heat, going out of town, eating already-blogged things, going out to dinner and...well, you get the point, poor little vox has been neglected. And, so have the blogs I read because at last check, my google reader had well over 300 new items. Oops!
So with all that said, I knew it was time for an update, and not just an update but a healthy update because of all the bad-for-you food I've been eating lately. I decided to make some healthy chicken burgers. The're good for you, and totally hit the spot. These burgers are reminiscent of chicken shawarma, which is one of my favorite meals on the planet (as the staff at the nearby Lebanese knows all too well).
And, because this burger is some good eats, I am submitting this over to Ivy and Ben who are hosting Fat Chefs or Skinny Gourmets. This meal is packed with protein and lots of nutrition but is low in fat and calories. Like Ivy says, eating healthy doesn't have to be boring or difficult. In fact, that's one of the reasons I made this blog and post nutritional information for the majority of my recipes. I promise you, Tom and I don't eat boring food day in and day out. :)
Lebanese-Inspired Chicken Burgers
Makes 4 burgers
1 lb. ground chicken
1/4 cup bread crumbs
2 heaping Tbsp. fat free plain yogurt
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 heaping tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. ground sumac
salt and pepper
4 mini whole wheat pitas, split and warmed
Tahini Yogurt Sauce
1/4 cup plain fat free yogurt (Greek is best because you don't sacrafice creaminess)
1 Tbsp. tahini
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed or finely minced/pressed
salt and a just a little pepper
Make the sauce by combining all the ingredients. Allow the sauce to sit as you prepare and cook the burgers, so the flavors can marry.
To make the burgers, combine all ingredients and mix--but don't overmix. Form into 4 patties. Spray your grill or grill pan with some olive oil and grill the burgers for about 5 minutes per side, or until done.
Place the cooked patties in the pita pocket, along with any garnishes you'd like and top with the tahini-yogurt sauce.
Nutritional Information Per Burger (using a combo of white and dark meat will increase the calories by about 100 and the fat by about 10g): Calories: 240 / Fat: 3.3g / Carbs: 23g / Protein: 31g
There are dozens of great flavor combinations that I just love to use over and over, either because they complement one another so nicely or they are ingredients I always have around (or both)! One of my favorite combinations is garlic and ginger. I think these two flavors marry exceptionally well together and they taste so, so good. Am I right or am I right?
With that in mind, I set out to make an Asian-spiced pork burger. Ginger and garlic can be used in many dishes and in different cuisines, but my favorite application of the two ingredients is in Asian cooking. I topped these with a really simple warm slaw of sorts. We don't eat burgers a lot (and I have no idea why), so this was a nice change of pace. Plus, did you know that May is National Hamburger Month? I couldn't let that go by without celebrating!
And if all those reasons weren't already enough to tempt me into making burgers, while I am marrying ginger and garlic, my friend Joelen is marrying her real-life cooking group with her online cooking followers. If you haven't already seen Joelen's blog, you should definitely check out all the great things she does! Be sure to visit her blog on June 30 for the roundup of burgers, both from the burger cooking class she is holding on June 29 and the submissions she gets from blogs.
Asian Pork Burgers
1 lb. ground pork
1.5 Tbsp. low sodium soy sauce
2 scallions (whites and greens), sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 knob ginger, peeled and minced or grated
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
salt (not a lot since you have the soy sauce) and pepper to taste
Mix all ingredients together (being careful not to overmix) and form into patties. Grill until done, about 6 minutes per side.
For the slaw, I don't have a real recipe. All I did was stir fry some veggies (shredded cabbage and carrots, bean sprouts, and mushrooms) and then stirred in a little soy sauce and fish sauce at the end).
First, a little TCB/taking care of business. I'm working on bringing Eat to the Beat back. I think it will be a quarterly thing where I make a deadline every 3 months or so. If you miss that deadline, your entry will just roll over to the next round-up. I've just been lazy about posting it, but I promise to do that soon. So, get your thinking caps on! I'm so excited to see everyone's submissions, so I hope you will all take part!
Also, since Vox only lets me put 5 personal links on my page, I decided to make a post with some of my favorite blogs. You can access it here, or I've now put it as the sole link on my left sidebar, <---- over there. This was next to impossible because I follow something crazy like 200 food blogs in my Google reader, so I had to pare down the list a bit. That said, if I visit you a lot and I missed your blog (because, let's face it, despite being young I am quite forgetful), just let me know and I will add you.
Speaking of Vox, I have been trying (unsuccessfully) to move to a different blogging service because of the limitations/annoyances here, but haven't had any luck yet. A lot of sites will import blogger, Wordpress, etc. but not Vox and, as I said earlier, I am lazy--so I don't want to copy and paste well over 200 posts. In the meantime, I want to apologize for everyone who has problems commenting, signing in, etc.. I know it's annoying that you need to sign up with Vox to begin with and then when your comment doesn't work, or gets cut off...grr. So thanks to those of you who have been persistent in commenting or letting me know you read my blog via email, even though Vox has been quite craptastic in that regard.
Now for a little BBB (black bean burger, that is). I admit that it is very, very rare for me to make a dinner that doesn't have some sort of meat in it. Tom and I are the epitome of carnivores. Even when I make something like spinach pie, I make a piece of grilled chicken (or something) to eat with it. It's not only about taste and being full, but also making sure I eat enough protein. So, when I told Tom I was making black bean burgers he was (rightfully) perplexed. "On a Thursday?" he asked (assuming the reason had to do with lent, or some other day of the week where people don't eat meat, I guess).
The truth is, I am trying to use what I have around and well, I always have a can of beans or two around. What I didn't have around was any thawed meat. I was looking around and saw two recipes from Cooking Light for black bean patties/burgers so I decided to take that idea and adapt both a little for what is below.
These turned out quite tasty. I thought the patties were pretty small and wouldn't fill me up but I guess the fiber in the beans, mixed with the bun (and the huge salad I had) did because I was stuffed. I topped these with a little salsa, some habanero cheddar (from Whole Foods and oh so tasty) and a dollop of sour cream.
Black Bean Burgers
Makes 4 burgers
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 egg
1 jalapeno, minced
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. cumin
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
1/4 cup grated or finely diced onion
1/4 cup cornmeal
salt and pepper to taste
Place about 1/4 of the can of beans and the egg in a food processor and pulse until combined.
In a bowl, place the remaining beans and mash lightly with a fork. Stir in processed beans, jalapeno, oregano, cumin, garlic, onion, cornmeal and salt and pepper to taste. Mix until just combined.
Form the mixture into 4 patties. Heat a skillet or grill pan over medium heat and spray with cooking oil. Cook the patties approximately 3 minutes per side or until browned and heated through.
Nutritional Information (patties only): Calories: 130 / Fat: 1.9g / Carbs: 21.4g / Fiber: 6.1g / Protein: 7.7g
Everyone falls into this trap at one point or another, don't they? You see something on sale and you buy it--because it's on sale. You probably don't need it, you may not even know what to do with it, but there it is with you in the checkout lane. Or so is the case with my package of ground chicken. It was on sale and I bought it. I had no idea what to do with it, so I stuck it in my freezer. When it eventually came out of the depths of my freezer, I had to figure out what I was going to make with this (frankly, extremely unappetizing looking) stuff that has never been in my fridge before.
We eat fairly healthily but if there is one thing I can't do, it's ground turkey. I don't know. I should probably try it again since there are so many great blogs with ground turkey recipes that actually look pretty good. But, what can I say? It's just not my thing. I'm a beef lover. Even at Thanksgiving, my dad and I often sulk over the lack of red meat. I don't eat red meat that often and when I eat it in ground form, I just make sure it's really lean and then I don't feel at all bad eating it. So really, why bother with the alternative? Well, to that point, why bother with the ground chicken!? I am telling you, it truly is because it was on sale! I am a SUCKER! Okay, that and I remembered seeing this chicken pesto burger Nikki made that looked pretty tasty. Originally, I was going to make the same burger since I have some pesto in my freezer from the last batch I made. But, I decided to go a different route (while still keeping the Mediterranean flair) and keep this Greek-inspired. I seasoned the burgers fairly simply and added some cheese (which, as you already know, makes everything better) and then topped them with a chunky tapenade of sorts made from kalamata olives and sundried tomatoes. The result was a juicy, flavorful burger. We liked it, we really liked it! Who knew?! I mean, okay, we obviously like chicken, but like I said, I am not normally one to use it where beef belongs :)
Mediterranean Chicken Burgers
Makes 4 burgers
1 lb. ground chicken (alright, alright...or turkey)
3 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1.5 tsp. dried oregano
12 kalamata olives, pitted
1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil, drained and chopped
1 Tbsp. olive oil (or oil from the tomatoes)
1 clove garlic
salt and pepper
Mix the chicken, feta, parsley, oregano and salt and pepper to taste in a bowl. Shape into 4 patties. Lightly spray a grill/grill pan with oil and cook the burgers until done, about 5-6 minutes per side.
Meanwhile, make the tapenade by putting the olives, sundried tomatoes, garlic and a little ground pepper in a food processor, pulsing until combined. While pulsing, drizzle in the oil. Top the burgers with the tapenade.
Nutrition Information (this is just for the burgers and topping, not the bun as those will vary greatly): Calories: 212 / Fat: 12.3g / Carbs: 3.1g / Protein: 28g
It's not often that I have cheese in my refrigerator on the verge of going bad. Tom and I are cheese fanatics so, despite the fact that we usually have 7 or 8 different types in our fridge, we manage to eat them all before they go bad, thankyouverymuch.
But, I was craving smoked gouda last week so I went and bought some, even though I realized the sell-by date was soon approaching. I knew I'd have to use the gouda relatively quickly, especially once it was opened. After using it in a few omelets (and, of course, by itself during frequent trips to the fridge), I decided to use it in sandwiches tonight.
In my opinion, smoked gouda goes with pretty much everything. But, I especially like it with beef. Since I had a strip steak in the fridge, gouda and steak sandwiches were in order. And, steak and pretzel bread? Another plus.
Normally when I make steaks indoors, I add the steak to a really, really hot stainless steel pan and after searing it on both sides for a minute each, I transfer it to a really, really hot oven. I was checking out Alton Brown's pan-seared steak method and discovered his method was very similar to mine, but he makes his in a cast iron skillet which he lets heat along with the oven. I went with Alton's method today and, of course, it was great. I cooked ours to just slightly under medium rare because I knew I wanted to pop them under the broiler for a minute at the end to melt the cheese. Of course, I was hungry and too anxious for the cheese to melt completely. Close enough ;)
One of the best things about our new neighborhood is that we are a stone's throw from a great butcher. On Saturday, Tom went to the Paulina Meat Market to pick up some steaks to grill and I asked him to get some freshly ground lamb while he was there.
So tonight, I decided to make some lamburgers. Usually, I use mini pitas as "buns" but the store didn't have any, so we just used whole wheat pita halves. I also typically top these with tzatziki but since we are leaving town on Wednesday, I didn't really want to make a whole batch of tzatziki, so we just had them with some feta instead. If you want, you can mix crumbled feta into the lamb mixture or stuff the patties with feta instead of just putting it on top.
We ate these with a simple Greek village salad (tomatoes, cucumbers, feta, red onion, red wine vinegar, drizzle of olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper).
Lamburgers
1 lb. ground lamb
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. allspice
1 Tbsp oregano
1/4 cup onion, finely minced or grated
2 cloves garlic, finely minced or pressed
ground pepper to taste
2 pitas, halved
olive oil
Mix all ingredients together and shape into four patties. (I actually made mine in half moons since we were eating them on pita halves).
Lightly grease and heat grill. Grill burgers approximately 4 minutes per side or until desired degree of doneness.
Brush or spray pita halves with olive oil and toss on the grill for about 30-60 seconds. Stuff pitas with patties and top with whatever you like!
I had a leftover wedge of focaccia from last night's dinner, so I decided to make a breakfast sandwich.
I pan-fried a little pancetta (about 1/2 ounce), drained it and set it aside.
I then scrambled 1 whole egg and 1 egg white (with a splash of milk and some salt & pepper) and when it was about done I put the pancetta back in.
I toasted the focaccia in my toaster oven for a bit and then topped each side with a triangle of 2% cheddar cheese (so 1 slice of cheese) and toasted a few seconds longer.
Put it all together and voila, a slightly messier but much better version of your favorite fast food breakfast sandwich.
Tonight, thanks largely to canarygirl's inspiration, I decided to try my hand at chicken shawarma. It's funny that I have not experimented too much with Lebanese cuisine, because it is very similar to Greek. And, where I am from originally (Dearborn, MI not Greece, hah) has the second largest population of Lebanese folks outside of the Middle East, so I grew up eating tons of tasty, authentic Middle Eastern foods. I guess I was partly intimidated to try making it for that reason.
So, tonight I made chicken shawarma, Jerusalem salad, and some rice pilaf with toasted almonds. I think the shawarma turned out GREAT but I wasn't terribly thrilled with my tahini sauce for the pita/salad. This is the second time I have tried making tahini and it was just kind of "eh" both times. The funny thing is the only ingredients are tahini, garlic, lemon juice and water. But I just couldn't get the taste I wanted. Oh well. If anyone has a foolproof recipe, please send it my way! I actually added a tablespoon of yogurt at the end, which helped and made it a little creamier, but it was still a little too tahini-y for my tastes.
Sorry about the lack of measurements in this recipe. I tend to be really bad abour measuring marinades. This marinade was enough for about 1 lb. of chicken.
Chicken shawarma
1/3 cup plain yogurt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 lemon, juiced
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
a pinch or cinnamon, or a stick
1 bay leaf
allspice (I only had whole allspice and used about 8, but a good pinch would work if you have ground)
small pinch of ground cloves (optional)
pinch of sumac
salt and pepper
Mix all ingredients together and pour mixture into ziplock bag with chicken pieces. Use whatever type of meat you want. I used some thighs that I skinned, since that is what I had on hand. Marinate for several hours or overnight. Note: when I do marinades with acids for long periods of time, I don't add the acid immediately. So, for this, I didn't add the lemon juice until about 30 minutes before I was going to cook the chicken.
Then, cook it how you like. I tend to prefer grilling or broiling (which is what I did) but you could bake it or cut it into pieces and pan fry or saute..whatever you prefer.
Pilaf with toasted almonds
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup finally diced onions
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup rice
1/4 cup vermicelli or spaghetti broken into pieces
2 cups chicken broth (or however much liquid your brand of rice calls for)
1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds [toast in a dry skillet over medium heat or in a 375* oven for 5-10 minutes]
ground cinnamon (optional)
Heat saucepan and add butter and oil, until combined. Add onion and cook until tender. Add garlic and cook an additional 30 seconds before adding rice and vermicelli. Toast until spaghetti turns a golden brown color.
Add chicken broth. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce to a simmer and cook unti done. Stir in toasted almonds. Sprinkle with cinnamon, if desired.
As far as the Jerusalem salad is concerned (this is just diced tomatoes and cucumbers mixed with tahini sauce and topped with parsley) my tahini sauce was something like...
2 tablespoons tahini
Juice of one lemon
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon yogurt
water
Drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
Mix all ingredients but water and oil. Add water slowly to desired consistency. Drizzle in EVOO.
Like I said, it was OK, not great. But maybe someone will experiment with it and give me the winning tahini recipe. :)
Unfortunately, my camera batteries died just as I was trying to take a picture of the whole meal together :( So, here are some bits and pieces of the process/parts of the meal.
On Friday, we had goat cheese-sundried tomato-spinach paninis on ciabatta bread. I used herbed goat cheese and drizzled it all with a little baslamic vinegar before grilling on the press. We had it with a spinach and mixed green salad (topped with shaved romano). I am starting to run out of meatless ideas for Lenten Fridays. This was SO good though. Really, how bad can goat cheese + warm crusty bread be?
I haven't forgotten about cooking, I've just forgotten about the blog. Luckily, I have a million things to do around the house today and, since I am looking for a reason to procrastinate, I remembered I haven't visited the old Vox site in a while. So, here I am, typing away in an office that needs a MAJOR cleaning.
At any rate, I made a nice dinner last night for two friends who recently celebrated birthdays. Unfortunately, I only remembered to take a picture of the very first thing to come out of the oven (stuffed mushrooms). Doh! So, last night we had:
- Stuffed mushrooms
- Goat cheese-marinara bake with garlic crostini
- French Onion soup
- Filet of beef bourguignon with mashed garlic redskins and roasted asparagus
- Chocolate lava cakes
Stuffed Mushrooms
I have made these a few times and everyone always loves them. The best part (for me) is that there is no crab in there since I am not a seafood kinda gal. And who doesn't love bacon?
4 tablespoons butter, divided
2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
5 slices bacon
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
10 oz. fresh spinach
1/3 c. heavy cream
12-16 large stuffing mushrooms
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese
1. Preheat oven to 400 and grease a cookie or baking sheet (or just use a silpat)
2. Cook bacon, drain, and crumble. Set aside.
3. Remove stems from mushrooms. Arrange caps in baking dish and finely chop stems.
4. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in saucepan over medium heat and add onion. Cook 2-3 minutes before adding garlic and spinach. Cook spinach down and make sure garlic and onion are tender.
5. Mix in bacon, chopped stems, and cream. Bring to a boil and then remove from heat. Mix in cheese, salt, and pepper.
6. Stuff mushroom caps generously with mixture. Drizzle 2 tablespoons melted butter over. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
Goat cheese-marinara crostini
Probably one of the easiest things ever to make, and one of the best. Pat a log of goat cheese until it is slightly flat, and put in a small, shallow baking dish. Pour homemade or your favorite jarred pasta sauce around the sides of the cheese, coming just up to the cheese (but not covering it). Bake at 325 for about 20 minutes or until it starts getting bubbly. During the last 10 minutes, toss in a baking sheet with some slices of French bread that you have brushed with extra virgin olive oil so they become nice and toasty. Once the crostini are out of the oven, rub them with a fresh head of garlic.
French Onion Soup
I have made a creamy onion soup before, but never a plain old onion soup. I looked at a couple recipes and each seemed as though it was missing something, so I made up my own and it was delicious! The other good thing was that I was able to make this earlier in the day and refrigerate it until it was ready to reheat and pop in the oven. The added bonus, of course, is that soups always taste better after they have been resting for a bit.
This makes about 6 bowls of soup (I used the standard oven-proof bowls so I could melt the cheese on top).
7 medium yellow onions, sliced
6 tablespoons unsalted butter (I only keep unsalted in my fridge)
4 thyme springs, leaves stripped
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup dry sherry
4 cups beef stock
2 cups chicken stock
French bread croutons (did the same thing I did for the crostini, above)
Gruyere - 2 cups shredded or 6 slices
In a large pot over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onions, bay leaf, and thyme leaves and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onions begin to turn golden brown--about 25-30 minutes.
Add the sherry and cook until it is almost evaporated and onions turn brown, about 15 minutes.
Add the beef and chicken stock and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer, and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Ladle the soup into the oven-proof bowls. Top with a French bread crouton and a handful (or slice) of the gruyere. Bake at 450* until cheese is bubbly and starts to turn brown, about 8-10 minutes.
Filet of Beef Bourguignon
I used Ina Garten's recipe. It was great, primarily because it uses such a great cut of beef ("the Cadillac of meats" as the butcher called it). It was tender and flavorful. The only problem I had is that there it too little sauce. Between the deglazing and simmering of vegetables the sauce reduces quite a bit so I would probably 1.5x the liquid if I were to make this again.
I served this with some mashed garlic redskins [boiled the redskins until cooked, drained. To to the warm pot, added some butter (to melt) and some roasted garlic. Re re-added potatoes and mashed. Added salt, pepper, and a little parmesan cheese] and roasted asparagus.
Chocolate Molten Cakes
I used Dave Lieberman's recipe (sidenote: I *puffy heart* Dave) but did half semi sweet and half bittersweet chocolate. I undercooked them a little (because I was so afraid of OVERcooking them) but they were still yummy. And, it's pretty much a given Iwill never make a perfect dessert since I don't like to bake.
PHEW. So, onto (or back to?) last week. Well, I don't really remember when we had these meals, but over the past week or two we have eaten...
Italian beef sandwiches
For "crockpot Friday," I just put a 2.5 lb. beef chuck roast in the crockpot after searing it a little. I heated up some beef broth (I would say to use about 1/2 cup for every pound of meat) and to that I added: 3 cloves minced garlic; 1 tablespoon oregano; 1 tablespoon basil; 1/2 tsp black pepper; 1 bay leaf, 1 tablespoon dried minced onion; 1 tablespoon parsley and a little salt. Poured that over the roast, cooked it on low all day while I was at work.
When I came home, I shredded the beef and let it continue to cook on low, uncovered (to thicken up/reduce the juices a tad) for about another hour.
I know the traditional way to serve these is with peppers, but I prefer a pepper cheese instead. So, I toasted up some sub rolls that I made into garlic rolls by adding a little butter, garlic and a spray of EVOO, and added cheese the last minute they were toasting.
Chicken with mushrooms, prosciutto, and cream sauce over egg noodles and with peas. Honestly, even ith modifications, I thought this was kinda "eh" at best. I think in general I am not a huge fan of sauces made with sour cream (despite loving sour cream) but I thought I would give it a whirl because we had leftover sour cream.
Beef Stew
This is one of those dishes I love experimenting with, be it changing up the ingredients, or cooking it in a crockpot versus an oven. The recipe below can easily be put in the oven instead of a crockpot. I just like the ease of the crockpot, and that I don't have to be home while it cooks. While this takes a lot more prep than a normal slowcooker meal, if I am making this on a weekday where I have to be at work, I do all the prep (vegetable cutting, etc) the night before. If you like a more tomato-y stew, you could throw in a can of diced tomatoes. I used to make this without tomato paste but realized even adding a tbsp or two really added some depth of flavor, so I do that, now.
If you make this in the oven, cook it in a covered dutch oven at 275-300* for about 2 hours. Stir the frozen peas in at the end, the same way you would for the crockpot version.
2 pounds cubed beef stew meat
4 cups red wine, divided
4 cloves garlic, minced, divided
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
2-3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1.5 cup sliced carrots
1.5 cup sliced celery
4-5 potatoes, cut in fourths or eighths depending on size
1/2 cup frozen peas
8 oz. sliced mushrooms, stems removed and cut in half
2 bay leaves (or 1, if it's bigger)
1 Tbsp. dried parsley
1.5 tsp. dried thyme
1.5 tsp. dried rosemary
salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 cups beef broth
1 tablespoon butter
2 small or 1 medium onion, sliced
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1. Place meat, 2 cloves garlic, and 3 and 1/2 cup red wine in a container. Refrigerate for a couple hours, or overnight.
2. In a large plastic bag, combine flour, 1 tsp. salt, and 1/2 tsp. pepper. In batches, add meat and shake to coat.
3. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add stew meat, and cook until evenly browned on the outside. Cook in batches if necessary so as not to crowd the meat.
4. Place the potatoes, carrots, celery and mushrooms on the bottom of the crockpot. Top witb browned meat, Worcestershire sauce, parsley, thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper.
5. In the same skillet, melt butter and saute onions until softened. Add the tomato paste and cook off a bit and stir in garlic until fragrant.
6. Pour remaining 1/2 cup red wine and beef broth into the skillet, deglazing the pan and scraping the brown bits. Reduce slightly before pouring the mixture into the crockpot.
7. Cook on low for 7-9 hours or if I am home I like cooking on high for one hour and then on low for 5 or 6
8. When done, stir in peas
Damn, Gina! I think that finally gets up up to speed.
