Showing posts with label stew. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stew. Show all posts

Friday, February 19, 2016

Shrimp Creole #FishFridayFoodies



A traditional Cajun recipe, this shrimp Creole is thickened by a roux and flavored with the holy trinity, tomatoes and, of course, a kick of cayenne for spice. 

This month Fish Friday Foodies are sharing international seafood soups and stews at my instigation. I had big plans to make a dish called moqueca, just like my Brazilian friend Betty taught me many, many years ago when we were living in the little oilfield town of Macaé together. But, in the end, my Cajun roots won out, and as you can see, I made shrimp Creole. I’d like to tell you that this is exactly as my grandmothers would have made it, but the honest truth is that I don’t remember ever eating shrimp Creole at either of their houses. I did consult a handful of good Cajun cookbooks though so I’m feeling pretty good about the authenticity. I’ll no doubt hear from my mother if I’ve gone astray and I’ll get back to you with corrections if necessary. But authentic or not, I can promise you it is delicious.

Like all good Cajun recipes, this one starts with a roux and the holy trinity of vegetables, onion, bell pepper and celery. Add in some butter, tomatoes, a little cayenne and a whole mess of shrimp and you’ve got yourself a delicious shrimp stew. Make sure you check out the linky tool (all those photos at the bottom) to see the other great seafood soups and stews my fellow Fish Friday Foodies have made.

Ingredients
1 medium onion
1 green bell pepper or capsicum
1 stalk celery
1/4 cup or 25g flour
1/3 cup or 80ml canola oil
1/4 cup or 63g butter
1 can (14 oz or 400g with juice) whole peeled Roma tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 lb 13oz or 825g cleaned shrimp or prawns (Mine weighed 4.4 lbs or 1984g with heads/shells on)
Salt
Cayenne pepper

To serve:
Cooked rice
Green onions
Louisiana hot sauce

Method
Discard any stems, peels or seeds, then chop your celery, onion and bell pepper up finely.

In a large heavy gauge pot or pan with a tight fitting lid combine the flour and oil to make a roux. Cook the roux over a low to medium heat, stirring often at the beginning and the constantly as it begins to brown.

Eventually you want to get to the color of old copper but be careful not to let it burn.



When the roux is done, add in the chopped vegetables and cook for several minutes, stirring well.



Add in the butter and cook for another few minutes, until the vegetables have completely softened.



Add in the can of tomatoes, half a can of water and the tomato paste.

Stir well and then turn the fire down to a simmer. Pop your lid on the pan and simmer for about half an hour, checking the liquid level and stirring occasionally. Add just a little water if it looks dry.

The tomatoes should break down as well, but feel free to mash them around with your stirring implement to encourage that.



Season the shrimp with a generous sprinkling of sea salt and add them to the pot, stirring well to coat them with the sauce.



Cook over a medium flame for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste the sauce and add more salt if necessary and cayenne pepper to taste.

Serve with cooked rice and a good sprinkling of chopped green onions. Put the hot sauce on the table so everyone can help themselves.



Enjoy!

Many thanks to our fearless leader, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm, and without further ado, here are the rest of our seafood soups and stews of the world:




Would you like to join Fish Friday Foodies? We post and share new seafood/fish recipes on the third Friday of every month. To join our group please email Wendy at wendyklik1517@gmail.com.

Visit our Facebook page and Pinterest page for more wonderful fish and seafood recipe ideas.

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Posted by at 2:35:00 AM 0 comments
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Sunday, October 25, 2015

Braised Venison with Plums

Lean but flavorful, venison benefits from long, slow cooking. The hint of sweetness from the lovely plums pairs beautifully with the lean meat, creating a rich gravy that can be served over rice, potatoes or pasta for an even heartier meal.

It's almost deer hunting season where I come from so I know a lot of folks will have their freezers well stocked before too long. In Dubai, if I want to cook venison, it comes from farms in Australia where the deer roam freely and are completely pasture fed and free from antibiotics or growth hormones. Many years ago, on a holiday in Tasmania, I booked my family to stay overnight on a deer farm. As we drove up the long and winding dirt road to the farmhouse, the deer ran away swiftly as a herd, reminding me more of a school of fish underwater, so fluid, graceful and in sync were their movements. We never did get photos of the skittish deer (understandably!) but dinner that night in our tiny house was a spontaneous meal of foraged wild mushrooms and venison fillets I bought from the farmer, then simply pan-fried. He gave me a quick tour of the spotless abattoir and the area where they hung the meat to age as well. The place is called Deerfield Farm and I'm pleased to say it's still in business, although under new management.

The little B&B sign cracked me up. Our tiny house was it! 

It’s such a lean meat that venison is best cooked either quickly like in a stir fry and served medium rare or braised, that is to say, fried lightly and then cooked long and slow in a closed container.  Since our Sunday Supper theme this week is Warming Trends, we are sharing recipes that will warm you up, from stews and soups to hot beverages and desserts, so you know I had to go the braised route.

I served this delicious warming dish over pasta but it would work as well with mashed root vegetables or rice or even atop soft polenta.

Ingredients
1 lb 9 oz or 710g venison
Fine sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons flour
Bacon drippings or olive oil for frying meat
1 large onion
3 cloves garlic
5 dark red plums (Mine weighed 13 1/4 oz or 375g)
1/2 cup or 120ml red vermouth
1 3/4 cups or 410ml beef stock
Several sprigs fresh thyme, plus extra for garnish
2 tablespoons corn starch

Method
Trim your meat of any silverside and gristle and cut it into bite-sized pieces.


Season the meat with a good sprinkle of salt and black pepper. Now sprinkle on your flour and then toss the pieces around gently to coat.



Chop your onion and garlic. Quarter the plums and remove the stones.


In a skillet over a medium to high heat, brown the meat in batches in a little bacon fat or olive oil. Be careful not to overcrowd the pan. Remove each batch as it browns and continue until all the pieces are done.



Add the chopped onions and garlic to pan and sauté until lightly colored and all the sticky stuff on the pan has loosened.



Add half of the sautéed onion and garlic mixture to the bottom of your slow cooker. Then add half of the browned meat along with any juices that have collected in the bowl. Follow those with half of the quartered plums. Sprinkle on half of your fresh thyme.


Repeat with the other half of everything.




Add in the vermouth and the stock.



Cook on low for about six hours without removing the lid. Go get cozy in front of a fireplace if you’ve got one, pour yourself a cup of tea or cocoa and read a good book until the whole house starts smelling wonderful.

Almost done now!



Remove meat and plums with slotted spoon, leaving behind the liquid.



Mix the cornstarch with a little cool water to make a paste.  Add a little of the hot slow cooker liquid into the cornstarch slurry. Add it all back into the slow cooker.

Put the lid back on and turn the slow cooker up to high for about 30 minutes, stirring periodically till the sauce thickens. Return the venison and plums to the pot and warm through. Taste for salt and pepper and add more if necessary.

Serve over wide egg noodles and garnish with some more fresh thyme.



Enjoy!

Many thanks to today’s Sunday Supper host, T.R. of Gluten Free Crumbley. It's not actually cold yet where I live but I LOVE this theme. Enjoying warming foods is yet another reason why God created air conditioning.

Beverages
Desserts
Main Dishes and Soups


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Posted by at 6:23:00 AM 0 comments
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Sunday, March 22, 2015

Irish Lamb Stew

Lamb shoulder is one of the tougher cuts so it is perfect for stewing, becoming melt-in-your-mouth tender as it simmers, creating its own rich gravy flavored by thyme, onion and garlic. Add in some Irish whiskey and lemon juice to brighten the whole pot. 

This week my Sunday Supper group is throwing a Spring Fling to celebrate spring recipes and my thoughts went immediately to lamb. It is the meat of choice in many cultures and countries for spring, as the weather starts to warm and the lambing begins.

We eat a lot of lamb at our house, whatever the season. It’s funny because in my growing up home, we never ate lamb. My grandmother thought it was too strong in flavor and she passed that prejudice on to my mother. It wasn’t until I started dating my British husband, that I discovered the delight of lamb and embraced the baaaah, as we used bleat when discussing lamb. Mom also didn’t like goat cheese for the longest time because she said she could taste the goat. My mother is a most adventurous eater, as I’ve written about here, so I am pleased to say that she got past her own childhood embargoes and will now eat both goat cheese and lamb chops. I am still working on her for leg of lamb or shoulder.

This stew starts with browning the lamb shoulder then adding onions, garlic and celery, along with Irish whiskey and lemon juice to the sticky pan. Then a long slow simmer makes sure that the meat is falling off the bones. When the nights are cold, as they still are in the frozen north of the US - never mind that we have passed the first official day of spring and it’s still SNOWING as I type this in Providence, Rhode Island - this dish will fill the kitchen with fragrant aromas and warm you, body and soul.

Ingredients
2.25 kg or almost 3 1/2 lb lamb shoulder, cut in thick slices
Flakey sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil
1 large onion
2-3 stalks celery
3 cloves garlic
Handful sprigs fresh thyme plus more for garnishing before serving, if desired
1/4 cup or 60ml Irish whiskey
2 tablespoons or 30ml fresh lemon juice
3 medium sized potatoes or more to stretch your lamb to feed more people
1-2 medium sized carrots or more to stretch your lamb to feed more people

Method
Season your lamb shoulder on both sides with a good sprinkling of salt and freshly ground black pepper.


Dice your onion, celery and garlic.



Pan-fry the lamb in a little olive oil, just a few pieces at a time, so you don’t crowd the pan and they can brown well.

Remove them to a plate and continuing pan-frying until all the lamb is well browned on both sides.



Add the onions, celery and garlic to the pan and give it a good stir.

Cook for a few minutes over a medium flame and then add in the whiskey and the lemon juice. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to make sure all the sticky bits on the pan are loosened.



Add the lamb back to the pan, along with any meat juices that have accumulated on the plate.

Toss in a few sprigs of thyme and cover the pot with a tight fitting lid.

Simmer, covered for at least an hour, but, really, you could leave it for two, checking the liquid level occasionally and adding in a little water if it looks like the stew is going dry.

Meanwhile, peel your potatoes and carrots and cut them into chunks. Keep them in a bowl of cool water until you are ready to add them to the pan.

When the lamb is tender, drain the potatoes and carrots and add them to the pan. Give the whole thing a good stir to coat the potatoes and carrot with the pan juices. Sprinkle with a little more salt and pepper and add some water to almost cover the meat, if more liquid is needed.



Cover your pot again and simmer another hour or so. Check the salt and pepper and add more if necessary. Garnish with a few more sprigs of thyme, if desired.



I always serve my lamb stew over white rice because I may not have been raised on lamb but rice and gravy was a childhood staple. In this, my grandmother would have been in complete agreement. Nothing better for a still chilly spring Sunday Supper than rice and a rich gravy.

I must confess that I also chose to share this recipe because lamb stew is one of my husband's favorite dishes. It's our 29th wedding anniversary today and although I am in Providence making new memories with our daughters, it is never far from my mind that I owe all of this to him. All of it.


Enjoy!

Are you ready for spring? I’ve got plenty of recipe inspiration for you today, along with our fabulous hosts, Valerie from Lifestyle Food Artistry and D.B. from Crazy Foodie Stunts and the Supper Sunday crew.

Beverages
Appetizers
Sides
Entreés
Desserts



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Posted by at 5:33:00 AM 1 comments
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Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Slow Cooker Beef and Guinness Stew - or Pie

When weather turns chilly, my thoughts turn to my slow cooker and a nice beefy stew with Guinness. Serve the warming bowls of deliciousness as is or top the stew with puff pastry and bake for a beautiful beef and Guinness pie. 

Whenever we are traveling and have the chance to eat a pub lunch, my husband almost invariably orders the beef and Guinness pie, if there is one on the menu. He loves the filling and the flaky puff pastry top. When decent pub grub is not available, I make my own. For stew beef to become tender, slow cooking is the way to go, so I like to use my crockpot to make the filling. After browning the meat, everything goes in the pot and I can get on with other projects like baking his favorite apple rhubarb strawberry pie. Pie for dinner and pie for dessert and he’s a happy man.

Ingredients
For the stew:
5 slices streaky smoked bacon
2 lbs or 950g braising or stew meat
1.1 lb or 500g marrow bones (optional)
1 1/2 tablespoons or 15g flour
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
1⁄4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 large onion (about 7 oz or 200g)
1 large carrot (about 5 1/2 oz or 155g)
1 large parsnip (about 5 1/2 oz or 155g)
1 can (14 oz or 400g) chopped tomatoes with their juice
1 can (12 oz or 355 ml) Guinness stout
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
Salt
Freshly ground pepper

For the pie:
1 sheet puff pastry (8 oz or 230g)

Method
Cut your meat into bite-sized pieces, removing any gristle you can see.



Lay it out in a single layer on your cutting board and season it with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Sprinkle it with the tablespoon and a half of plain flour and toss it around with your clean hands until well mixed.



Peel and cut the parsnip and carrot into pieces. Cover the parsnip with water in a small bowl until ready to use, to stop it from turning brown. Chop your onion roughly.



Cut the bacon into small pieces and fry until crispy in a non-stick pan. Remove the crispy bits from the rendered bacon fat and set aside.



Fry the meat in the bacon fat until browned on all sides, in two or three lots so that the pan doesn’t get crowded.

If you put too many pieces in at once, it will just steam instead of browning. As the batches get browned, remove them to a bowl.



Now you are ready to put everything in the slow cooker.

Start with the meat, then add the onion, parsnip and carrot. Top with the bacon, thyme and bay leaf. Pour the canned tomatoes in and then the can of Guinness.



Tuck the marrow bones down into the vegetables, if using.



Cook on high for three to four hours or until the beef is tender. Check the seasoning and add more salt and pepper to taste.

This can be served exactly as is or it can be baked as pie topped with puff pastry.

If you cooked your stew with the optional marrow bones, these can be put under the broiler or grill in the oven to brown. They are lovely served as an appetizer with toast on which to spread the marrow.

To make the pie, preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C.

Spoon your beef and Guinness stew into a baking pan and allow it to cool a little while your oven preheats. I like to use a small pan that holds the beef and vegetables with a good amount of the broth that is created while the stew slow cooks. Then I thicken the rest of the broth with a little flour and serve it as extra gravy with the pie.



Slice the outside edges off of your puff pastry sheet and cut a few slits in the middle.



When your oven is up to temperature, cover the filled baking pan with your puff pastry. Fold the sides up so they don't hang over the edges. Press down all around the edges to seal the crust to the pan. You can use the trimmed pieces to decorate the top, if you want.



Pop it in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the puff pastry is golden.



To serve, cut a piece of the puff pastry off the top and fold it back. Scoop the stew into your bowl and top with the puff pastry.



Enjoy!


Posted by at 9:03:00 AM 0 comments
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