Sunday (and Monday) Dinner: Goulash Edition

When trying to decide what to make for dinner on Sunday night (usually the one night of the week that I have the time/inclination to make more difficult and/or more time consuming meals) I knew exactly what kind of dish I wanted: something warm, hearty, and comforting. But I was tired of my usual repertoire of soups so I went in search of something new that would beat the winter chill. Fortunately one of my go-to food blogs, Smitten Kitchen, had just the thing: Goulash. Goulash is a Hungarian soup/stew consisting of meat, vegetables, and spices--the most important of which is paprika. Smitten suggested making into more of a stew and serving it over potatoes, egg noodles, or even gnocchi.  I decided to go with the egg noodles.

Now I can't say for sure just how authentic this recipe is, but it was good. Lots of different flavors coming together in a wonderful stick-to-your ribs dish perfect for a cold January day. Or days. It makes a lot--I halved SK's recipe and it still made enough for two days of meals (and we did not skimp on the serving size either). But that was just fine with me-- unlike most leftovers, this was one dish that was even better the second time around.

Goulash
Adapted slightly from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:
3 slices bacon, chopped
1.5 boneless chuck, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch cubes (you can else buy pre-cubed stew meat)
1 TBL vegetable oil
2 medium onions, chopped fine
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 TBL Hungarian sweet paprika
3/4 teaspoon caraway seeds
3 TBL flour
2 TBL red wine vinegar
2 TBL tomato paste
2 1/2 cups beef broth
1/2 cup water or beer (more if you want it to have a thinner, soup-like consistency)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 red bell pepper, chopped fine
Egg noodles, cooked according to package directions (optional)

1. In a large pot or dutch oven, cook bacon over moderate heat, stirring, until crisp. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a large bowl. In remaining fat, brown chuck in small batches over high heat, transferring as browned with slotted spoon to bowl.
2. Reduce heat to moderate and add vegetable oil. Add onions and garlic and cook, stirring, until golden.
3. Stir paprika, caraway seeds, and flour and cook, stirring, for about 2 minutes. Whisk in vinegar and tomato paste and cook for another minute.
4. Stir in broth, water/beer, salt, bell pepper, back and chuck. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Simmer soup, covered, stirring occasionally about 60 minutes. Serve with egg noodles.

Making Winter A Little More Bearable

Now that the holidays are over and winter is fully upon us it is easy to get a little bummed but. I know I have. Lately I've felt like there is not much of anything to look forward to. My job is going well but I'm trying to save what little vacation I have/accrue on a monthly basis for a big trip that Jason and I want to take this summer so the months until spring seem a little never-ending at this point. And I've been a little down/grumpy/in a bad mood this week as a result. I've been trying to focus on the little things that make me happy these days and thought I'd share some of them with you.

1. Dried Cherries
These are my new favorite snack/ingredient. I bought some for a recipe a few weeks ago and ended up eating most of them myself. I'm not sure why I am so obsessed with these at the moment but they are just so good....tart but sweet and have some nutritional value to boot. I've started sticking them in my lunch and incorporating them into meals left and right. Last night I made a roasted pear salad with dried cherries, goat cheese, and pecans to eat with Jason's specialty-- seared salmon (recipe for both to come soon-- I want to make a few tweaks to the salad before I share).

2. Amaryllis Blooms
Every year my mom gives me an amaryllis kit (bulb and planter) around Christmas. We started ours in mid-December and it is now in full (and glorious) bloom. We lucked out this year with a double bloom which makes it even more beautiful to behold.

3. American Pickers
This is a TV show on the History Channel that Jason and I recently started watching. We came across it randomly at my parents' house on Christmas Eve and Jason in particular was hooked. Thanks to a couple of holiday marathons and the fact that Season 1 is available for streaming on Netflix, we've been watching it a lot lately. It's about these two (slightly goofy) guys in Iowa who travel around to different parts of the country "picking."  Basically they find people who "collect" old things and see if they can buy stuff from them that they can turn around and sell for a profit. Old bikes, old signs, old oil cans, old motorcycles...pretty much anything that they see as "rusty gold." It's strangely fascinating to get a peak inside some of the homes of the collectors and even more so to see how much money they can make off of things that I would deem to be junk. It's Hoarders meets Antique Roadshow.

4. New Ways to Eat Leftovers
Y'all know I'm not big fan of most leftovers. But lately I've noticed I like them more if I can find a new/different way to eat them. When Jason suggested using our leftover meatballs to make meatball subs for dinner one night I was a bit skeptical-- I've never really eaten a meatball sub before and the idea was not all the appealing. But he was so excited by the idea I decided to give it a try. Maybe I was just starving after work but it turned really well and was appreciated more than if we'd eaten them on more spaghetti.

5. My New Kindle
I am now the proud owner of an Amazon Kindle (thanks to the generosity of family members this Christmas) and am a big fan. It looks pretty cool (or as Jason would say has an awesome form factor), is easy to use and is perfect for my daily reading on the metro. I used it to read "Just Kids" (this month's book club pick which I'd highly recommend) and am now reading "Home Buying for Dummies" and "Mortgage Ripoffs and Money Savers."

I'm hoping that focusing on these fun little things will help make the doldrums of winter go by a little bit faster!

The Last (Pot Roast) Supper

While grocery shopping a few weeks ago I noticed that the local Harris Teeter was having a pretty big sale on meat and decided I should stock up while the getting was good.  I came home with a 3 lb chuck roast and threw it in the freezer until this weekend when I decided the time had come for the last pot roast of the season.  The official start of spring is less than two weeks away, and while I love me some hearty comfort food during the winter, come warmer weather I start longing for fresh produce and lighter fare. 

Fortunately we bid a fond farewell to comfort food season in style with the ultimate pot roast recipe.  It starts out like any other pot roast—seared beef, sautéed onions and garlic braised in a mixture of beef broth and red wine. Pretty standard, right? You add some dried porcini mushrooms to the braising liquid and cook low and slow for about three hours. What makes this pot roast so completely awesome is what happens AFTER you remove the beef…you blend up everything left in the pot and it makes the most awesome gravy you’ve ever tasted. Seriously. SO.GOOD.

 Giving the meat a good sear...

2.5 hours later

Usually I serve this magnificent dish with roasted root vegetables (carrots, potatoes, butternut squash, etc) but since this is the last pot roast of the season I decided to go all out and make some roasted garlic mashed potatoes (aka another vehicle for eating the gravy).  Not a very healthy (or pretty) meal, but a darn good one. Just like comfort food should be.

Pot Roast with Porcini Mushrooms
Adapted from Giada di Laurentiis

Ingredients:
1 (3-5 lb) boneless beef chuck roast—size will depend on how many people you want to feed!
Salt and pepper
2 TBL olive oil
2 white or yellow onions, chopped
6 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1 cup dry red wine
1 ¾ cups beef broth (I used 1 14 oz can of low sodium and that was perfect!)
½ ounce dried porcini mushrooms
1 large sprig of fresh rosemary

1.Preheat oven to 350. Pat beef dry and season generously with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a heavy pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sear beef on each side (about 2 minutes per side). A piece of advice: don’t wear something nice as you are likely to get oil splattered on you during this step. Transfer beef to a plate.
2.Reduce heat to medium. Add the onions to the same pot and sauté until tender about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Add the wine and scrape, scrape, scrape to get all the brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Boil wine for 1 minute and stir in broth and mushrooms. Return beef to the pan and bring liquids to a boil. Cover the pot and transfer to the oven.
3.Braise beef until fork-tender, about 2.5-3 hours. Turn the beef over halfway through and add the rosemary.
4.Transfer beef to a cutting board. Tent with foil and let stand for 15 minutes.  In the meantime, remove the woody rosemary stem (leaving as many of the leaves as possible in the juices). Puree the juices and vegetables until smooth either using a regular blender or an immersion blender. Season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste.
5.Slice the beef across the grain and spoon the gravy (I recommend in copious amounts) on top.

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes:
To roast the garlic, cut the top of a head of garlic and sit on a piece of foil. Drizzle with olive oil and wrap up tight. Place in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes or until cloves are soft. Wash and peel 4-5 Yukon gold potatoes. Cut into chunks (I do quarters or eighths depending on the size) and place in large saucepan. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes or until fork tender. Drain and place in a bowl. Heat 1 cup of milk with 1 TBL of butter and pour over potatoes. Add 5-6 roasted garlic cloves. Mix until fluffy.

The Year of the Soup

It is interesting to me how people can be so affected by the weather and the change in seasons. This is certainly true for me—the cloudy, cold days of winter often lead to general feelings of malaise and lethargy if I don’t actively try to combat them.  Not surprisingly my food cravings also change with the seasons; in summer I love nothing more than big salads and seafood but winter leaves me wanting hearty comfort foods like pot roast and meatloaf.  And soup. This winter I have been all about the soup, especially pureed soups. Curried squash and carrot soup and sweet potato and chipotle soup have already made multiple appearances so far this winter. I like soups because they are pretty easy and make for hearty, tasty, and pretty healthy meals perfect for a cold winter’s night (or weekend if you happen to have been hit as hard by the snow as we have this year).  They also tend to make a lot which means we’ve got lunches and/or dinners covered for a good portion of the week.

After being snowed in for much of last week, I decided it would be nice to try the roasted fennel and potato soup I found in a cookbook my aunt gave me for Christmas.

The ingredients are things pretty much universally liked in this house: garlic, fennel, potatoes, chicken broth, heavy cream, onion, and leeks.

The recipe is pretty simple—roast chopped fennel and onion while sautéing the leek and garlic. Add the potatoes, roasted fennel and onion mixture, and chicken broth. Simmer for 20 minutes or so. Add in some heavy cream and then….(my favorite part) blend it all up until smooth and velvety.  Voila—soup!

 The verdict?  While the curried squash and carrot soup I mentioned above remains the favorite, this is a nice change of pace. The potatoes give it really good body and the cream adds some added richness which is nice to partake of from time to time. That being said, next time I might cut back on the cream (to make it a bit healthier) and try roasting the garlic for additional sweetness/depth of flavor.

Roasted Fennel and Potato Soup
Adapted from Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone

Ingredients:
2 fennel bulbs, trimmed and coarsely chopped
1 small onion, coarsely chopped (I used white but you could probably use a Spanish or yellow onion as well)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 leek (white and pale green parts only), coarsely chopped*
6 cups chicken stock (I recommend using low-sodium)
1 pound russet potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks**
1 cup heavy cream (or less---I used the full cup this time but in the future I might consider reducing the amount as I am not sure that much is necessary)
Salt and pepper to taste
Some fresh chives chopped (for garnish)

Directions:
1.Preheat oven to 350°F. Toss fennel and onions with 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt, and pepper on a heavy baking sheet. Roast in the oven, stirring occasionally, for 25-30 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
2.Heat remaining tablespoon of oil in a large heavy saucepan or dutch oven over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Add the leeks and sauté for 5 minutes or until they have softened slightly (did not take the full 5 minutes on my gas range). Add the stock, potatoes, and roasted fennel mixture and bring to a simmer. Continue simmering for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are very tender. Remove the soup from the heat and let cool slightly.
3.I used an immersion blender to puree the soup right in the pot. However, if you do not have an immersion blender you can puree the soup (in batches) in a blender or food processor until smooth.  If you do this you will need to add the soup back into the pot when you are done (the recipe says to strain the soup into a clean large saucepan---you are welcome to try this but it seemed like a waste of a clean pot to me so I left it all in my original dutch oven.)
4.Add the cream to the soup and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Ladle the soup into bowls, garnish with chives and serve.

*Be sure to clean your leek thoroughly as they tend to be pretty sandy. Here is a trick I learned from Rachel Ray (of all places)—chop up your leeks and then place them in a bowl of cool water for 2-3 minutes. The leeks will float while the sand and grit sinks to the bottom. Scoop out the clean leeks and use!

** Has anyone noticed that grocery stores don’t seem to have as many scales in the produce department anymore? I decided I wanted to make sure I got just a pound of potatoes and walked all over the place before finally finding a small scale hiding in the corner of the produce department.