Category: meats

Fantastic Chicken Stew

In honour of the rare mid-April snowfall we experienced in Vancouver today, I’m posting this fabulous chicken stew recipe. It’s not too hard to make, and it’s full of flavour.  I’ve adapted a recipe for veal stew from a Western Living cookbook to make this.  Oh, and it’s so tasty if you use homemade stock – it’s pretty much vital to the flavour, so plan ahead and make some stock !

What you need:

2 tablespoons olive oil

4-6 chicken thighs, bone-in & skin removed

1 onion, chopped roughly

a cup or two of button mushrooms, halved

4 cloves garlic, finely diced

3 cups chicken stock

1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped finely

1 cup dry white wine

2 tablespoons  flour

5-6 small potatoes, chopped in half

4-5 carrots, cut into rounds

1 medium-sized zucchini, cut into rounds

salt and pepper to taste

What you do:

1. Heat a large pot to medium-high heat and add one tablespoon of olive oil, then add the onions. After about five minutes add the mushrooms.  Saute until browned, then remove from the pot.

2. Add another tablespoon of olive oil to the pot, then add the chicken and cook until browned on each side.  Add the garlic and cook for a few minutes. Add the chicken stock and cook, covered, for about 45 minutes.

3. Combine the wine and flour, then stir it into the pot. Add the potatoes, carrots, and sautéed mushrooms and onions. Bring it to a boil, then lower the heat, cover and cook for 20 minutes.

4. Add the zucchini and cook for about 15 minutes.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

I like to eat this all on its own, but it would be great served with a crusty bread.

Pasta with Butternut Squash, Capers and Raisins

This recipe comes from my mom – she’s been making it for years.  I’ve just changed a few things – I bake the squash instead of boiling it, which makes it sweeter (I think), I use less oil to cook the onions, and for meat-eaters I serve a bit of fried chorizo on top.  Oh, and a splash of wine, red or white, in the sauce, if I’ve got some on hand.

This is comfort food at its best – it tastes great, and it’s good for you.  I serve it on brown rice pasta, which is better for you and tastes so good, and works better for all the people who need to have gluten-free recipes.  I prefer the texture of it to whole wheat pasta, which seems grainier to me.  Just make sure you don’t overcook it – I always check it a few minutes before the recommended cooking time is up.

What you need:

1 medium-sized butternut squash

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 finely diced onion

4 garlic cloves, chopped fine

1 dried chili pepper, crumbled

1 – 796mL can plum tomatoes, chopped and undrained

2 tablespoons golden raisins

1 tablespoon capers

salt and pepper

pasta, 3-4 cups cooked, keeping in mind that 1/2 cup or cooked pasta is one serving

chorizo sausage, optional (if you’re in Vancouver, Windsor meats on Main street makes their own amazing chorizo)

parmesan to grate on top, optional (I use lactose-free l’Ancetre)

What you do:

1.  Cut squash in half, remove seeds and place on a baking sheet.  Bake for 30-ish minutes at 350F, or until a knife pierces it very easily.  Let it rest until it is cool enough to handle.

2.  Heat the olive oil in a large pan and then add the onion, cooking for a few minutes.  Add the garlic and chili peppers and cook for another minute.

3.  Add the tomatoes and their juice, along with the raisins, capers, salt and pepper and optional wine.  Let this cook for 20-30 minutes, or until much of the liquid has evaporated.  During this time you can boil the water and cook the pasta when the sauce is almost ready.

4.  Cut the squash into cubes.  I make cuts in it while it’s still in the peel, then scoop the squares out.  Carefully stir the squash into the tomato sauce, then combine with the pasta.

Top with a few slices of chorizo and some freshly grated parmesan.  So good, and fabulous as a leftover for my lunch today!

 

 

Chicken Tomatoes and Potatoes Oliver

My friend Jen has a Jamie Oliver cookbook, which is where I found this recipe – and it was a big hit with everyone who ate it.  There are a few steps involves in putting it together, but in the end you pop it in the oven, and it comes out ready to eat. When I first made it I had a fabulous variety of different coloured cherry tomatoes, but when I took these photos I didn’t have the same access to great tomatoes.  I recommend the variety, but it’s really good with just the regular red ones.

Of course I thought olives would be a good addition, because I think everything is better with olives.  If you don’t agree, feel free to leave them out!

What you need:

3/4  lb small new potatoes

6-8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

olive oil

salt and pepper

splash of red wine

5oo or so grams of cherry tomatoes

1/2 cup black or green olives

5 cloves of garlic, sliced

a few tablespoons of fresh oregano

red wine vinegar

What you do:

1.  Cook the potatoes in boiling water until you can pierce them easily with a knife.

2.  Cut each thigh into strips of three pieces each.

3.  Put a tablespoon or two of olive oil in a bowl with salt and pepper.  Add your chicken and mix it up so all the pieces of chicken get coated.

4.  Fry the thighs in a hot frying pan until they are quite browned and almost cooked through.  You can deglaze the pan with red wine if you want.

5.  Boil a pot of hot water and place the cherry tomatoes in it, after giving each one a little poke with a knife.  After a minute in the hot water, pour it out and rinse in cold water.  Then pinch off the skins.  If you’re in a hurry you can skip this step, but it tastes so good this way!

6. When the potatoes are cooked, give them a little squish, as you can see in the photo below.

7.  Put the potatoes, chicken, optional olives and tomatoes in a roasting dish.

8.  Using a mortar and pestle, bash up the oregano with some salt and pepper.  Add this to the pan, along with the garlic, a little olive oil, and a few sprinkles of red wine vinegar.

9.  Bake for 40 minutes at 400F.

Mushroom, Turkey and Hot Italian Sausage Lasagna, lactose-free

Lasagna is such a great dish for a dinner party – throw it in the oven before the guests arrive and you’ve got time to do a few last-minute things, and then sit down and relax a little while dinner cooks.

This recipe can be made lactose-free or lactose-full, depending on which way you lean.  For me soy and lactose-free cheese are revolutionary.  For cheesy/dairy people, just substitute with the real thing.  One product I never use is soy cheese; they don’t taste very good, and they stick to your teeth like melted plastic might.  Ick!  Instead I use lactose-free L’Ancetre cheeses, which tastes fabulous!

What you need:

1 recipe homemade pasta OR store-bought lasagna noodles

1 recipe Turkey & Hot Italian Sausage Tomato Sauce

1 recipe mushroom cream sauce

2-3 cups mozzarella cheese

What you do:

You have prepared all of your ingredients, and are now ready to put the lasagna together!  I used a 9×11 deep-dish pan for this recipe.  My homemade noodles were quite thin, so I was able to do 4 layers of pasta; if you are using store-bought noodles you might not be able to fit that many layer into your pan.  If this is the case you could assemble it in two pans, or save the extra sauce for another use.  (You can use the mushrooms to stuff some crepes!  And the tomato sauce could be served over pasta!)

1.  Spread a little tomato sauce on the bottom of the pan, about 1/3 of it.

2.  Lay out the noodles on top of the sauce.  If you are using homemade pasta you don’t need to cook it first.

3.  Now add a layer of the mushroom sauce, about half of it, then put some more noodles on top.  (Or, if you’re really into your cheese, you can add some extra mozzarella on top of the mushroom sauce.)

4.  Add another third of the tomato sauce, then more noodles.

5.  Now add the remaining mushroom sauce, then another layer of noodles.

6.  Final layer: the last of the tomato sauce.  The mozzarella cheese will go on half way through the baking.

So now you’ve got:

tomato, noodle, mushroom

noodle, tomato, noodle,

mushroom, noodle, tomato

7.  Cover the lasagna with foil and bake for 30 minutes at 350F.

8.  Remove the foil and sprinkle on the cheese.  Bake for another 30 minutes, then check to see if it has browned.  If not, then pop on the broiler for a minute, watching carefully so it doesn’t burn, until it’s browning and bubbly.

9.  Remove the lasagna from the oven and let it rest for about 20 minutes before cutting.  Letting it rest helps the pieces will stay together when you serve them.

Turkey and Hot Italian Sausage Tomato Sauce

Here’s a tomato sauce you can use for spaghetti or lasagna – I made it up to go in my Mushroom, Turkey and Hot Italian Sausage Lasagna.  It’s pretty easy to make, and just requires a bit of cooking time.

What you need:

3 spicy italian sausages

400 to 500 grams ground turkey

1 -796 mL can crushed tomatoes

1 -796 mL can chopped tomatoes

1 onion

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 cup white wine

1 bay leaf

2 tablespoons olive oil or butter

1 tablespoon brown sugar, or to taste

a few shakes of chili flakes

salt and pepper

What you do:

1.  Remove casings from the sausages, then cook them in a large pot until the meat is no longer pink, adding the turkey meat and chopped garlic part way through.  Break up large pieces of meat and remove excess fat.

2.  Add the canned tomatoes, the whole onion, garlic cloves, wine, bay leaf, olive oil or butter and chili flakes to the meat.  Cook on low heat for about an hour, or more if you’ve got the time.

3.  Remove the onion and bay leaf, and add the brown sugar, salt and pepper to taste.

Feel free to make a big batch and freeze part of it.

Beef and Chorizo Empanadas

If you’re looking for a savoury appetizer that you can make ahead, you might want to give this a try.   This recipe is an amalgamation of the empanada recipes I found on the internet – I put together all the elements that I thought would work well together.  And how can you go wrong with flavourful meat-filled pastry?

You can make the filling and pastry ahead of time, then assemble and bake them right before you need them.  Alternately, you can make them days or weeks ahead of time, then pop them in the oven right out of the freezer .  This is great for the times when you suddenly need something the serve and don’t have time to do any cooking.

What you need:

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 onion, diced finely

1 clove garlic, diced finely

1 carrot, diced finely

1/2 red bell pepper, diced finely

500 g extra lean ground beef

500 g uncooked chorizo, with casings removed

1/4 cup red wine, optional

1 teaspoon cumin

1 & 1/2 teaspoons smoked paprika

1 cup chopped green olives

1/2 cup golden raisins

2 teaspoons honey

salt

pepper

hot sauce

1 egg

lime wedges to serve

For the pastry:

2 & 1/4 cups flour

1 & 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 large egg

1/3 cup ice water

1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar

What you do:
1.  To make the pastry, blend the cold butter into the flour and salt with a pastry blender or your fingers.  Mix the egg, water and vinegar, and add them to the flour mixture.  Mix with a wooden spoon until combined, then wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

2.  Cook onion in oil until slightly browned, then add peppers, carrots and garlic, cooking for a few minutes.

3.  Cook the beef along with the chorizo, in another pan.  Break it up as it cooks so the meat is in fine pieces.  Drain excess fat, then add to the vegetable mixture.

4.  Add optional wine and simmer  for a few minutes.  Then add cumin, paprika, olives, raisins, honey, pepper and a few dashes of hot sauce.  Simmer until very little liquid remains.

5.  Season to taste – you may want to add more hot sauce, depending on how spicy the chorizo.   Remove from heat to cool before filling pastries. (I cool the filling the day before)

6.  Roll out dough to about half a centimetre thick.  Cut into circles with a cutter or bowl.

7.  Using your finger tip dab a little water along one edge of the rounds.  This will help the pastry stay sealed.

8.  Place the pastry in the palm of one hand, fill it, then lightly pinch it shut.  To  seal you can make a folded edge or close with a fork.

9.  Combine the egg with a little water, then brush onto each pastry.  Poke a few holes with a fork into the top of each pastry.

10.  Bake at 400C for 20-25 minutes, until golden.

11.  Serve hot with lime wedges.  Squeeze a little lime juice on top right before it goes into your mouth!

Rack of Lamb

I’ve never cooked a rack of lamb before, and in trying to do so I realized two things:

1.  It’s so easy

2.  It’s so tasty

So, here’s what I did, borrowing a recipe from Ina Garten that I only slightly modified.

What you need:

1 rack of lamb

2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary

2 cloves garlic

3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

optional: red wine for deglazing the pan

What you do:

1.  Blend all the ingredients (well, except the lamb!) in  a food processor.  I couldn’t get mine to chop the rosemary very small, and it ended up being great even with some bigger pieces.

2.  Coat the lamb with this mixture, and let sit for about an hour to allow the meat to become infused.

3.  Preheat oven to 450F.  Cook the lamb 20(rare)-25(medium-rare) minutes.  I did 22 minutes and it was perfect.

4.  Cover the lamb with a lid and allow to rest for 15 minutes.

5.  Cut the lamb into individual pieces and plate on the plate.  Quickly deglaze the pan with a little red wine, and use this to drizzle on top of the lamb.

Voila!  Delicious and pretty simple!