Comments (3) I know, no updates in a while and no new recipes for well over a year or so. The past two years have been pretty hectic. Anyway, yesterday while watching the Pats game I decided to make some beef stew. Perfect for a crisp autumn day in New England. Recipe is HERE. Check it out!
Yankees suck.
So it’s not actually a bisque. But I had to name it something. I have been sick lately. Yesterday I was laying around thinking about making some minestrone soup. I looked through my Italian cookbooks and really didn’t find anything that looked easy to make. No good soup is going to be easy, but I needed something less complicated.
Last week we had dinner at Casa de Luca in Beverly. It’s a great neighborhood Italian restaurant with generous portions and reasonable prices. The minestrone soup was to die for as were the fresh garlic bread sticks. I was inspired. I’ve only made a minestrone a few times before. I was never impressed with how they came out. So I figured I’d invent one of my own.
Traditionally, minestrone is a thick Italian soup made with vegetables, often including beans, pasta or rice. I wasn’t in the mood for a bean soup and I was really craving chicken. I went to the store and grabbed a bunch of things that seemed to go well in making an Italian chicken stew. Here’s what happened …
Heat a large stock pot over medium heat and add the olive oil. Let the oil heat through and add the diced salt pork. Slowly render the fat and flavor from the salt pork then add the chopped onion. Stir till the onion is well coated with oil. After few minutes add the shallot, chicken and vegetable base pastes, garlic and Italian seasoning. Stir often. After another few minutes add the carrots, celery, Italian green beans and chicken and vegetable base pastes. Stir well and cook for five minutes or so then add the canned crushed and diced tomatoes. Stir and cook for another five minutes then add the water and chicken broth.
Crank the heat up to high and bring to a boil. Once it’s boiling, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for about half an hour. Carve up the rotisserie chicken. Remove as much meat as you can from the chicken leaving behind any fat and skin. Break up the meat with your hands and add to the stew. Simmer for another half hour or so. Stir often.
I like to get those rotisserie chickens quite often. They don’t cost much more than buying a raw whole chicken. Even if I don’t plan on eating them that day, I carve out the meat and set it aside in case I need to add it to any recipe in the near future. Sometimes I just sit on the couch, watch TV and chow down on crackers, cheese and cold shredded rotisserie chicken meat.
Anyway, add the chopped zucchini and cook for another five to ten minutes. Turn off heat and add the ditalini pasta. Cover and let sit for 20-30 minutes. Serve in wide flat bowls topped with freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese and chopped fresh Italian parsley. Trust me, you’ll love it.
Mine came out a bit salty, but I like it that way. I used salt at first when I added the chopped onions. Judging by how salty it was, I omitted the salt from this posting. The soup will get plenty of salt from the chicken and vegetable base pastes. That stuff is potent, but I love it. I’ll never go back to dried bouillon again.
Zuppa-dupa!
Yankees suck! Oh, and the Ravens are bunch of cry babies.
I love great chili. I’ve never looked up ways to make my own chili seasonings, though. I never really cared since McCormick’s & Lawry’s packages do just fine for me. I always add some of my own stuff though. Give it a shot!
2 ½ pounds ground beef or a mix of 50% ground beef, 25% ground pork & 25% ground veal
1 15oz can diced Roma tomatoes
1 15oz can tomato sauce
1 15oz can black beans
1 can white shoe peg corn
2 ½ packages McCormick’s Original Chili Seasoning Mix
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 large shallot, minced
½ cup red wine
1 teaspoon (or a little less, this stuff is potent) chicken base paste
Beef broth
Wondra Powder
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
Add olive oil to a large, hot sauce pan or pot. Sautée garlic and shallots for a few minutes under medium-high heat and add chicken base paste and stir till paste has melted. Add beef, season generously with salt and pepper and stir well. Brown beef and crumble down to your liking. Add tomato sauce, canned tomatoes, black beans, corn, wine, McCormick’s seasoning mix and ½ cup of beef broth. Stir well, cover and heat to a slow boil. Stir well and lower heat to bring it down to a simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring often. Take a quick taste. If it’s not spicy enough for you, add the last ½ package of chili seasoning mix and/or add a few dashes of ground cayenne pepper.
With chili, consistency is very important. Everyone has their own liking when it comes to consistency. Some people like it loose and soupy, some people like it thick and hearty. I’m a bit in between, but I make it different every time. This time around I made it thicker than usual and served it over garlic infused rice. If you like it soupier, add more beef broth. If you like it thicker, add less beef broth or add a few sprinkles of Wondra Powder, stir well and it will thicken up. When you add Wondra powder to anything, make sure what you’re adding it to is very hot. Stir well ass you sprinkle it in. Better yet, dissolve the Wondra Powder (or flour, or corn starch) with some water first, then add it in.
There are a million different ways you can take this. Add your own ingredients. Try black eyed peas instead of black beans. Add some freshly chopped jalapeño peppers. What I forgot to do this time is sprinkle freshly chopped Italian flat leaf parsley over the chili after it has been plated. I usually eat mine with saltine crackers and green onions on the side Namaste! Yankees suck!
beef & veal, food, rice, soups
This beef stew recipe carried me through several New England snow storms during my first fall & winter here. I think I still have some in the freezer. This recipe takes some time and effort, but it’s well worth it.
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 ½ pounds beef chuck stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes
¼ cup flour
2 cups chopped white onions
1 cup chopped celery
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons chopped garlic
1 large jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
6 cups dark veal or beef stock
¾ cup burgundy or other good quality red wine (I’ve used white wine in a pinch)
2 large Idaho potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
4 carrots (unpeeled) cut into 1-inch pieces
2 cans white shoe peg corn, drained
In a pot or Dutch oven, over medium heat, add the vegetable oil. Season the beef with salt and pepper. Toss the beef with the flour. Once the oil is hot, add the meat and cook until browned, about 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the onions, celery, jalapeno and 1 tablespoon of garlic and continue to cook until the vegetables are wilted and golden, about six minutes. Season the mixture with salt and pepper.
Remove everything from the pot and place in a large mixing bowl. Add about 1 cup or more of the stock to the pot and bring to a slow boil. Deglaze the pan with the stock, scraping the browned particles away from the bottom of the pot. Get ALL the brown bits off the bottom of the pot. This can be a pain, but that’s where so much of the flavor comes from. Place the meat and vegetables back into the pot.
Add the potatoes, carrots, corn and rest of the stock. Bring the liquid to a boil and reduce to a low simmer, cover and cook for 1½ to 2 hours or until the meat is very tender. Stirring occasionally. Add the remaining 2 teaspoons of minced garlic. Re-season the stew if necessary.
Depending on how thick you like your stew at this point you might want to thicken it up a bit. I like it very thick. If it isn’t to my liking, and that all depends on how much of the potato has broken down, I’ll add a bit more flour to act as a thickening agent. I’ll usually take ½ a cup of flour and add it to ¾ a cup of burgundy or cold beef stock. Beat it well with a wire whisk till it is completely blended and add it to the stew. Let it cook for a few more minutes and it should thicken up a bit.
This is an Italian influenced version of potato and leek soup.
3 large fresh leeks
2 quarts water
2 pounds potatoes, peeled and diced
2 heaping tablespoons grated onion
2 cups whole milk
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup sweet butter
½ cup heavy cream
½ cup freshly grated Pecorino-Romano cheese
Trim off the ends and green parts of the leeks and peel off the outermost layer. Wash the leeks thoroughly; dice and put aside about two ounces of the tender, white/pale green heart. Cut the rest of the leeks (not the dark green green parts) into ½ inch pieces. Place the water in a stock pot and add the potatoes, leeks and grated onion. Bring to a boil, then add the milk, salt and pepper. Cook slowly for 30 minutes. Lift out the cooked potatoes and leeks and force them through a ricer or sieve, or puree in a blender and return to the soup pot. If pureeing in a blender, be careful!! Only fill the blender about 25% full. This stuff will expand greatly when it’s this hot and it can explode out the top if you’re not carefull. Add the tender diced leeks, the butter and cream; bring to a boil. Be sure to stir and do not allow to burn. Cook slowly for 15 minutes. Stir in the cheese and taste for seasoning. Serve with toasted Italian bread.
Minestrone is a staple in any respected Italian restaurant. There was a neighborhood Italian restaurant I lived near in San Francisco that always had a soup of the day. Every time I ever went there, the soup of the day was Minestrone. I asked the server once if there is ever another type of soup of the day. She said, “No.” I guess when you do something right, why change it.
1 pound dry cranberry beans (use pinto beans if you can’t find cranberry beans)
3 quarts spring water
2 quarts chicken broth
1 pound fresh green beans, broken in half
6 ounces salt pork, diced
1 pound potatoes, peeled and diced
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound onions, peeled and minced
2 cups peeled canned plum tomatoes
4 large cloves garlic, crushed
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 medium-sized carrot, scraped and diced
2 celery stalks with leaves, minced
1 ham hock
¼ cup butter
1 pound tiny shell pasta
Soak the dried beans in water overnight. Drain and discard water. Add beans to the 3 quarts of water and chicken broth and bring to a boil. Lower heat and add all other ingredients except for the butter and pasta. Cook slowly for two hours. When beans are cooked, add pasta and bring to a boil. Cook for 8 minutes. Add the butter and serve with wine and grated parmesan cheese.
Good luck to all in the New Year. Since I’m part Italian, I’ve learned that the Italian way of starting off the year with good luck is to wear red underwear on New Year’s Eve and eat lentil soup New Year’s Day. Who am I to argue? Luckily, my very first meal of 2006 was at my friend Rose’s mother’s house. Roasted chestnuts in the shell, Italian lentil soup, beef roulade, orecchiette with Bolognese sauce, and sautéed artichokes with smoked salmon. How lucky was I right off the bat? Here’s my stab at lentil soup, though I’m sure it’s not as good as Mama de Pinto’s. Salute!!
1 pound dried lentils
4 quarts spring water (the better quality water, the better the zuppa)
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 celery stalk, diced
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 ounces salt pork, diced
1 ½ pounds onion, peeled and minced
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup canned peeled plum tomatoes, chopped
1 pound potatoes, peeled and diced
¼ pound carrots, scrapped and diced
2 large leeks, diced
¼ cup butter
8 sliced Italian salami, diced
Wash the lentils and soak in two quarts of water over night. Drain and discard the water. Bring the 4 quarts of spring water to a boil and add the ingredients except for the butter and salami. Cook slowly for 1 ½ hours. Add salami and butter. Cook for 30 minutes longer. Taste for seasoning and add more if necessary.
