So, I haven't had any crafting juice lately....

I just haven't felt like doing anything with my paper and stamps lately.  What I have been doing is reading a few blogs and websites about sustainable living and making/growing your own food.  I got the bug last year in the fall when I decided to try my hand and canning some jellies made from fruit grown in my neighbourhood.  It was a blast.  Over the winter, I've learned to make bread.  Its really easy and now my bread turns out every time.  I've also been reading on how to try and cut my food costs.  Some of you might know that I'm not working right now.  I've been unemployed since early last spring so anything that I can do to reduce my household costs is something I need to look at closely right now.  One thing I've been exploring is cheaper cuts of meat.  The methods I've learned are so easy.  Most of the time its either marinating or long, slow cooking, so this has become a way to prepare tasty meals with the less expensive, and usually tougher, cuts of meat. I happened to be watching the food network this afternoon while taking a little break from my cheese making (that will be another post in the near future), and watched two different programs.  The first program was Michael Smith's Chef At Home.  He made a stew that look so good with a chuck roast.  The one ingredient that was highlighted in the stew was beer.  Then I watched another show right after that called Glutton For Punishment (can't remember the host's name) and they were highlighting Hawaiian coffee.  They showed a recipe for braised short ribs using coffee and cocoa.  It looked so good. Well, to make a long story short, I had a huge blade steak in the freezer that I was wondering what to do with.  So I decided to make a stew incorporating the ideas from the two shows.  How did it all turn out you ask?  It was delicious.  I  paired it with the dark rye bread I made today.  The dark flavour from the rye bread matched the stew perfectly.  Here's a little picture to get your taste buds going:

Too bad you can't smell it because it made the house smell so good.  My husband was super impressed with the meal.  Here's the recipe for the stew:

Cat's Beef Stew
1 large blade steak or two small (about 1.5 - 2.0 lbs meat) cubed into about 1" chunks and patted dry (you can use whatever cut of meat you have on hand - I just happened to have blade steaks)
2 large carrots cut into bite size chunks
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 large potato, peeled and grated
2 celery stalks, chopped
2-3 Tbsp canola oil (for searing the meat)
1 tsp dried rosemary
2 tsp dried thyme
1 cup beer (dark beer or stout is best, but I just used a lager that I had in the fridge)
2 cups beef broth/stock (mine had salt so I omitted adding any more salt)
1 cup cold left over coffee (make an extra cup in the morning and use it for the stew)
1-2 bay leafs
Salt & pepper to taste
2 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 can tomato paste or 1/2 cup leftover tomato/spaghetti sauce (which is what I used)

In a heavy bottom 4qt pot, heat 2 or 3 Tbsp oil on medium high heat.  Add the beef to the pot making sure it is only a single layer.  Brown all sides of the meat cubes.  Do the meat in batches if necessary, making sure the pan stays at medium to high heat to sear and brown the meat. You want the meat juices to caramelize and leave those little brown bits in the bottom of the pan.  Keep the meat aside in a separate bowl once browned. Add the onions and lower the heat to medium.  Sweat the onions so that it picks up all the brown from the pan.  Add the garlic, tomato paste, carrots, and celery and cook for a minute or two to cook the garlic.  Add the meat back to the pot along with the shredded potato, the liquids, and your spices.  The shredded potato will cook down and sort of dissolve into the stew and thicken the liquid.  Reduce heat to low and let simmer for at least an hour, stirring occasionally as the ingredients will sink to the bottom of the pot.  Once it has simmered for about an hour, stir 2 Tbsp of oil into 2 Tbsp of flour and slowly pour this into the stew while stirring so that you don't get any lumps.  This will thicken the stew if the potato hasn't thickened it enough. Cook another 15 minutes to make sure the flour is cooked and serve.

I think this is such an easy and versatile recipe since you can use whatever cut of beef you have on hand; you can switch up the herbs & spices; and you use whatever vegetables you have in the fridge.  I was going to add some kale (collard greens), but I forgot.  I think next time I make it I'm going to add a little worchestshire sauce and maybe a little dijon mustard just to see how that tastes.

I really hope you try this stew.  It was so delicious.  And if you do, let me know how you liked it. :)

Talk to you later...

Cat

Baking Sour Dough Bread

One of the things I've been trying to learn to do lately is to bake bread.  There's something about the satisfaction of soft, hot bread out of the oven smothered in melting butter that just transports you to heaven.  I had really good success with white bread thanks to a recipe I found on the Our Best Bites site.  They have loads of information that really helped make my attempts a success.  I had tried to make bread quite a few years ago (over 20 years ago) and my loafs of bread were more like brick doorstops. So, I didn't try it again.  My husband actually got me into it.  We bought a big new top of the line Kitchen Aid for ourselves for Christmas.  My husband always makes pizza dough from scratch and he was getting tired of kneading it by hand all the time, so he wanted the Kitchen Aid.  Then he started to experiment with bread.  Well, a few loafs turned out, but for the most part, they weren't that great.  So, I thought I would try to see if I could do it (kind of a little bit of competition).  Well, I researched how to make good bread first on the internet and that's where I found the Our Best Bites recipe.  My first attempt with that recipe was so successful, that I thought, hey this is easy.  Yeah right.  My next two batches weren't that great.  They were heavy - but still soft - so that meant I used too much flour.  Then I thought I'd change gears a little bit and try making sour dough bread.  I had watched a show years and years ago about a woman who's sour dough starter was from one that had been passed down for a couple generations and was purportedly a hundred years old.  I have since read that it is true that some old family recipes today are using starters that their grandmothers started.  Well, my first starter started great, but I wasn't ready to make the bread yet, and when I tried to make the sponge, it just didn't work.  I was a little disappointed, so I started over.  This time, I made sure I didn't have anything happening for a few days and made a starter which worked great, then the sponge and that went like crazy.  It was great.  It was all going a lot faster than what I had read, so I thought I'm going to have a loaf of sour dough by the next day (it can take up to three days to get a loaf of sour dough).  I mixed up the dough and left it to rise.  And left it.  And left it.  It took forever!  Then I had to punch it down and let it rise again!  It took 2 1/2 days from start to finish to get one loaf of sour dough bread.  But it was so satisfying taking it out of the oven.  And it looked so perfect.  But the best part was cutting off big slices and lathering on the butter.  OMG!  It was good!  Here's a picture of the perfectly formed loaf just after it came out of the oven.

 

It doesn't look very big in the picture, but that's an XL pizza pan its on, so the loaf was probably a good 10" across.  It was enough bread to last us all week.  Good thing, because it took 1/2 the week to make it. :)

If you're interested in learning how to make sour dough bread, I found this site (click here) to be a great resource.  Of course, if you google it, you'll find hundreds of sites that will help you learn how to make great sour dough bread.

That's it for today.

Cat

Stuffed Calamari Recipe

I love seafood.  I am not, however, the greatest when it comes to cooking it.  I usually over cook it and then it ends up being rubbery.  There is a little greek restaurant about 2 blocks from our house that serves the most delicious stuffed calamari.  I order it in the appetizer size every time we go there.  We haven't been to the restaurant in a few months because my husband was put off with something with his last meal there and doesn't want to go back.  I've always enjoyed their food, but some things have changed and it isn't quite the same, but I'd still go if he would go with me.  So, I've been missing the calamari and decided I would try to make it myself.  I couldn't find a recipe anywhere on the internet for this dish, so I had to "wing it".  I think it came out very tastey - not quite as tastey as the one at the restaurant, but nonetheless, tastey.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the dish, but here's the recipe:

Suffed Calamari

Total cooking time approx. 1 hour.  Total prep time (after thawing the squid) approx. 30 minutes.

Pre-heat oven to 350F.  

Ingredients:

Sauce:
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup white wine
1/2 tbsp finely ground white pepper
2 rounded tbsp dijon mustard
salt to taste

In a heavy bottom sauce pan, on medium high heat, make a roux with your flour and butter, then slowly add the cream to make a very thick white sauce.  Turn the heat down to medium - medium low and slowly add the white wine, mixing with a whisk so as to not get any lumps.  Add the pepper, mustard, and salt and continue to cook until the alcohol is cooked out and the sauce has re-thickened.

Tip:  If you don't have white wine or don't want to use wine, you can substitute it with no/low salt chicken broth. (edit:  you will need to adjust the amount of salt you use if you use chicken broth with salt)

Calamari:
6 small whole calamari (squid - with tentacles and head removed - I used frozen)
2 lb ground chicken (you could use veal or turkey, but the restaurant uses chicken in theirs)
1 small leek, chopped finely (about 2 - 2 1/2 cups)
1 cup finely chopped pinenuts
1/2 tbsp finely ground white pepper
salt to taste

If you're using frozen calamari - thaw in a bowl of cold water, drain and pat dry.  Combine remaining ingredients in a bowl.  Stuff the calamari with the chicken meat mixture.

Ladle some of the sauce into the bottom of a shallow baking dish.  Arrange stuffed calamari in the pan and ladle over remaining sauce.  Cover with tin foil and place baking dish on a cookie sheet (the sauce may bubble over).  Bake in pre-heated oven for 45 minutes.  Remove the tin foil and finish cooking for another 10-15 minutes to brown up.

Serve with rice and vegetables of your choice.

You'll notice there is quite a bit of pepper in this dish.  Its the one spice I could definitely pick out in the restaurant version  I didn't add any other spices/herbs to the meat mixture because 1) I didn't want to ruin it, and 2) I could never tell if there was any other spices in it other than the pepper.  The pepper should make it a little spicy, but not over powering.  You may have to adjust how much pepper you use according to your taste, but I like lots and lots of pepper and those are the amounts I used.

I really hope you all try this dish.  I thought it was very yummy and quite easy to prepare.  If you try it, please let me know how you like it.

Talk to you later...

Cat