Beef Stroganoff - my way

The morning after report.

The beef was still pretty frozen when I took it out to cook. I love my new fridge, but it's sometimes a bit too good at keeping cold things cold. The ice crystals made the beef very easy to slice. I cut the strips in half (it was a wide piece of meat), but that was just a stylistic preference.

The meat cooked easily and I got a nice brown coating on the bottom of my pan. I'm getting better at being able to watch a pan and not fuss with it. If the meat doesn't lay long enough before you try to flip it -- it will either stick and tear (leaving little meaty bits behind) or not deposit the brown bits on the bottom of the pan.

Once cooked, and set aside, I added 2 whole shallots (for some reason, I read the recipe as requiring 1 cup not 1/2 cup -- sigh) and 8 oz of sliced button mushrooms (I halved the slices because the SO doesn't like mushrooms--so small=good). I turned down the heat and let it cook, stirring occasionally and trying really hard not to scrape up too much of the brown bits. The mushroom stems went into my collection of food scraps for soup. The SO tends to notice the stems way more than the tops, so I don't often cook with them.

The chicken broth (I prefer the flavour of chicken broth to beef broth--and I had fresh homemade chicken broth in the fridge as compared to the box of stuff in the pantry) went in with the tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce. And then I stirred. My arms got a workout from the stirring. I scraped every bit of brown stuff up off the bottom and into the broth. Then I added the meat back into the pan (flank steak is pretty tough and the extra cooking time helped tenderize it a bit).

I set the noodles to boil, and ignored the sauce as it reduced (I did up the heat just a smidge under the sauce--because I'm impatient when my kitchen starts to become so wonderfully fragrant).

As the noodles were done, and the (nuked frozen) vegetables were ready I made the realization that I was out of sour cream. So I used unflavoured yogurt. Unfortunately, I didn't strain it. It had been sitting for a while, so I poured off the liquid and scooped from what was left -- but once added to the sauce, it separated rather than becoming creamy. I put the meat back into the pan and stirred it all together. The sauce wasn't a pale brown or a pink, instead it was brown with a multitude of white pokadots!

I served the mix (and the rather thin sauce) over egg noodles with a side of green beans for me and corn for him. It tasted delicious, but it didn't look too good.

Now I know better. This morning I googled "sour cream substitution" and realize that I should have (a) drained the yogurt for at least 30 minutes, (b) added 1 tablespoon flour and 2 teaspoons water to the mix before adding. This replaces some of the strained-out liquid without adding an acid, and the flour provides the thickening-agent that the fat (in the sour cream) would provide.

The recipe came out really well. We both liked it, and since I had friends cancel out on me (I had intended to double the recipe), I made 1/2, have leftovers for lunch today and have enough ingredients to make it again next week. It's a win-win situation.

The recipe

• 1 lb steak (top round or flank), cut into strips
• 1/2 tsp each salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp non-hydrogenated margarine
• 1/2 cup shallots, chopped
• 8 oz mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cup chicken broth (low fat, low sodium)
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp dried mustard
• 4 servings of egg noodles.
• 3/4 cup unflavoured yogurt (strained for 30 minutes)
• 1 tsp flour
• 2 tsp water
  

Directions

1. Measure out 1 cup of yogurt and place it in a fine sieve or piece of cheese cloth suspended above a bowl. Leave to drain for 30 minutes.
   
2. Cut the steak to the desired size and lay out the pieces.
   
3. Sprinkle steak strips with salt and pepper.
   
4. Dice your shallots and cut up your mushrooms.
   
5. In large non-stick frying pan, heat oil over high heat.
   
6. Add meat in single layer (working in batches if necessary) and cook until just brown on outside, about 1 minute per side. Reduce heat if the pan begins to smoke or if meat gets more than a bit brown. You're building a layer of brown on your pan here -- so patience is the rule.
   
7. Remove meat to plate and set aside.
8. In same frying pan, melt margarine over medium-high heat.
   
9. Add shallots and cook until starting to soften, about 2 minutes.
   
10. Add mushrooms and cook until tender and all liquid is evaporated, 8-10 minutes.
11. Put a pan on to start cooking the egg noodles. Bring the water to a roiling boil.
    
12. In a small bowl, whisk together broth, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, and mustard.
    
13. Return steak to pan and pour broth mixture over.
14. Scrape the bottom of the pan to get all the brown bits up into the liquid.
    
15. Simmer until liquid reduces and thickens slightly, about 12 minutes.
    
16. Cook the egg noodles (ideally they're done the same time as your stroganoff. Your stroganoff can wait, the egg noodles can't).
17. Prepare your steamed vegetables.
    
18. Mix the flour and water together to form a slurry. No lumps. Add it to the strained yogurt.
    
19. Add the yogurt mixture to the pan (stir to incorporate) and cook on low heat until heated through.
20. Serve over freshly-cooked egg noodles with a side of steamed (nuked) vegetables.
    

Roasted chicken legs with black bean marinade

I actually remembered to marinade something last week (I feel so proud!). The marinade itself was a simple mix of black bean garlic sauce, olive oil, lime juice, and chili garlic paste. I was a bit worried that the lime juice might make the mix too acidic - the last think I wanted was to roast already-cooked chicken.

I've not been cooking of late. My choice in meals have had less to do with nutrition and more to do with quick, hot, and full of protein. I have been trying to reduce the amount I buy - and use up what I do. Black bean garlic sauce is a truly amazing flavour, but there are very few recipes that use it.

I skinned the chicken legs (ew!) and then coated them with the marinade. I wrapped them up and put them in the fridge overnight. I've made this recipe before, but never with so long a marinading time. The extra time in the freezer was worth the wait.

By the next morning my fridge smelled pretty garlic-y, and by evening it was time to get roasting.

I roasted the chicken at 375 F for 50 minutes, turning the chicken once. I served it with some pre-bought risotto balls, spaghetti sauce, and salad. It was delicious.

Roasted chicken with black bean marinade
It's a great and tasty meal for a weeknight. The preparation can be done the night before, so all you have to do is come home and cook.

Ingredients:

• 12 bone-in chicken thighs or 6 legs with thighs
  

Marinade:

• 2 tablespoons Black Bean Garlic Sauce
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon Thai Chili Garlic Paste, or to taste
  
• 1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lime juice

Directions

1. Remove the skin and trim all visible fat from the chicken.
2. Mix marinade ingredients, then put the chicken pieces in a single layer inside a dish. Cover with marinade (on both sides) and let marinate for 6 hours or more in the refrigerator.
3. When ready to cook, remove the chicken from the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature while the oven preheats to 325 F.
4. Arrange the chicken on a roasting pan, keeping as much marinade clinging to the chicken as you can.
   
5. Roast about 50 minutes, turning several times and baste often.
6. When the chicken registers an internal temperature of at least 165 F, it is done.
   

Stir-fry chicken with vegetables

This recipe is taken from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman, p386 ISBN: 0-4717-8918-6, published March 2006.

I chose this recipe because I was looking for a nice, quick, chicken recipe. Following the advice in the book, I decided that stir-fried chicken and vegetables would fit the bill. The recipe is simple, and since I cook in a mise-en-place fashion, comes together very quickly.

Mise-en-place has its detractors, namely the one in my life who does my dishes, but I find it helps me organize my thoughts and keep on track with a recipe. While most of my experiments don't fail (too badly) I was having guests tonight and wanted something warm and pleasant to ward off the chilly rainy weather without having to steam up the kitchen. I opted to serve the meal with a blue-cheese and argulara salad rather than rice. The stir-fry didn't promise to have much sauce, and we all need more salad in our lives (if not the blue cheese, but more on that later).

I don't have a wok. I do, however, have a very heavy-bottomed skillet that works very well for meals like this. The trick is to get your oil hot before you start. The oil should cause anything that touches it to sizzle. A slight shimmer of heat should rise off the pan before you drop anything into it. Not only does this greatly reduce the time it takes to cook something; but it improves the flavour (or at least, that's my belief-- your mileage may vary).

So I put the oil into the pan and brought it up to temperature. I dropped some garlic and ginger into the pan and cooked it quickly, moving it all over the oil so that their flavours mingle. I removed it once the spices stopped snapping and were browning. I took them out of the pan and back into their bowl. Then I put in the onion and cooked it quickly in the flavoured oil. The onion is cooked when it becomes translucent; I cooked it just a little longer so that there were brown spots on the bottom of my pan. This process sounds wasteful (don't worry - I reincorporate the cooked spices and vegetables at the end), but it's an important step. The garlic and ginger add a depth of flavour to the onion like nothing else can. It also adds brown bits to the bottom of your pan. This is very important.

The onion was removed and I dropped the diced chicken breasts and a bit more oil into the pan. I kept the chicken moving so it wouldn't stick; but even so the browning on the bottom of the pan continued. When the chicken was opaque, I added a handful of diced scallions, and a whole lot of mixed frozen vegetables.

These I stirred quickly and then covered to allow the steam to work its magic. I stirred up the sauce (a combination of soy sauce, chicken stock, pepper, and sesame oil), took off the cover, and added it to the mix. I scraped the bottom of the pan then. Thanks to the few minutes of steam and the sauce, there wasn't much to scrape, but the little bit that did come up was caramalized nicely. Turning everything over to coat it in the sauce and incorporate the brown bits. I added the onion, garlic and ginger (see? told you I'd use them), then recovered the pan for a few minutes, to allow the frozen vegetables to soften.

The recipe actually calls for fresh vegetables; but it's not quite harvest season here -- and frozen vegetables are still a lot cheaper than fresh. The frozen vegetables need a slightly more gentle hand, and can never come out warm and crisp in the same way as fresh; but we'll survive.

The mix came out a lot darker than I'd thought it would. The chicken and lighter vegetables It was fairly dry and tasted really good, especially when topped with some toasted sesame seeds and diced scallions for garnish.

All in all - delicious.

The failure of a new paella recipe

I wanted to try a "new" paella recipe that I found on the ABC website. It sounded like it should taste good, if a bit too spicy for me. The following is the recipe with the changes I made to make it less hot. It was still too hot for me though, and something was definitely not to my taste. Paella to me brings to mind the taste of saffron and short-grain rice. This recipe lacks the saffron and uses minute-rice instead, which while absorbant, isn't quite the same.

The recipe was supposed to come in under $15 and serve 4 (which explains the lack of saffron and the specialty rice). The spices used are pretty costly when initially bought, but I had them all in my pantry and, based on the amount used, my cost should still be under the $15 goal.

Paella has a long tradition in Spain, and it's a wonderful community dish that has numerous cultural variations. Chicken and shrimp paella is one of my favourite versions, but I've also made vegetarian paella too (replacing the meat with beans and adding more vegetables).

Browning chicken in oil (with the skin on) is something that takes more practice than I have. My pieces were only lightly browned, and when served, the skin was gummy and unpleasant. It would have been better to leave the chicken in the pan to crisp more before removing it to a plate. Also, I think I overcooked it. The meat itself was very tasty, but the skin ... ug.

Medium salsa is hot for me. Hot salsa is inedible. This mix is something far north of hot salsa. The depth of flavour I was expecting might very well have been there, but I couldn't taste it. I couldn't taste much of anything--even with a glass of milk and a sour cream chaser.

Without thinking, I cooked 2 cups of basmati rice beside the dish. So now I have lots of cooked basmati rice and leftover chicken (hrm... I see chicken fried rice in my near future). Regardless, here was the failure along with a few changes for next time.

Ingredients

8 cups chicken stock

2 chipotle peppers in adobo (next time I'd leave this out)

1 tsp red chili flake (next time I'll reduce this to 1/4 tsp)

1 tsp chili powder (next time I'll reduce this to 1/4 tsp)

2 tsps extra virgin olive oil

1 two-pound chicken, cut into 8 pieces

1 med yellow onion, diced

2 tbsps fresh ginger, julienned

2 tbsps paprika

2 tsp red curry powder (next time I'll leave this out)

8 whole cloves garlic, peeled (next time I'll use 4 and mash them with salt & parsley)

1 red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces (next time I'll use 2 red bell peppers)

1/2 lb kielbasa sausage, sliced into 1-inch pieces

2 cups five-minute white rice (next time I'll use 2 cups short-grain spanish rice)

kosher salt (to taste)

black pepper, fresh ground (to taste)

saffron (to taste) (next time I'll add this in)

Directions

1. In a 6 quart saucepan, combine stock, chipotles, chili flake, and chili powder and bring to a boil.
   
2. Lower the heat to a simmer, and reduce the heat to minimum.
   
3. In a large 12-14-inch sauté pan, heat olive oil until almost smoking.
   
4. Season the chicken pieces generously with salt & pepper.
   
5. Brown them carefully and slowly until the skin is a deep, dark, golden brown. Work in batches so as not to overcrowd the pan.
   
6. When chicken is browned on both sides, remove it to a plate.
7. In the same pan, add the onion, paprika, red curry powder, garlic cloves, red bell pepper, and ginger.
8. Sauté until soft and golden brown, about 8 minutes.
   
9. Add the chicken stock to the onion/pepper mixture and bring to a boil.
   
10. Lower the heat and allow to simmer 10 minutes.
11. Place the browned chicken pieces in the broth and cook for 15 minutes.
    
12. Add 2 cups rice and the sausage to the pan.
    
13. Bring the mixture to a boil for 5 minutes, turn off heat and let sit for 5 additional minutes, uncovered.
    
14. Serve with a spring green salad.
    

Carnitas, my way

What follows is actually 2 recipes; the first takes a bit of preparation, and the second can be thrown together easily for a quick and delicious week night meal.

Beef brisket

This dish takes a bit of planning, but once made can be the source of several delicious meals.

Notes

There are tons of recipes like this out on the internet, and they're all about the same. Cover the meat with some kind of sauce, season to taste and cook until the meat's ready to fall apart. Most briskets are really fatty--but most of the fat dissolves into the sauce while cooking.

This recipe produces a very beefy-flavored beef brisket. It has no kick for a reason -- namely that, as the ingredient for other recipes, I wanted something fairly mild in flavor.

As always, season to taste.

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 10 hours
Serves: 6-10

Equipment

• Chopping board and knife.
• Measuring cups and spoons.
• Deep frying pan with cover.
• Wooden spoon.
• Crock pot

Ingredients

1	Onion, roughly diced
3 cups	Chicken stock
1	Carrot, roughly diced
1 stalk	Celery, roughly diced (leaves included)
2 cloves	Garlic, skinned and chopped in half
1	Bay leaf
2 cups	Ketchup
1 teaspoon	Cumin
1 teaspoon	Oregano
1/2 teaspoon	Salt
1 teaspoon	Black pepper, freshly ground
1	green bell pepper, seeded and rougly chopped

Directions

1. Combine the ingredients in the crock pot.
2. Set on low and cook for 8-10 hours.
3. Remove the meat from the crock pot and pull it apart with 2 forks.
4. Reserve the liquid separately.

Carnitas Tacos

A great way to use up pulled beef, this quick and easy meal can be served dozens of ways (covered in sauce, fried, etc); but this is the recipe that works best for me.

Notes

Caramelizing onions is a neat trick to add sweetness to a dish, but it's not always necessary. If you're in a rush, just cook the onions until they are translucent.

You can use flour tortillas (or any kind of flat bread) for this dish, but I prefer corn tortillas (the non-deep fried not from El Paso kind).

I like to add my heat at the table (thus I serve this with salsa). Feel free to add some kick with a blend of chili pepper, red pepper flakes and a few drops of choice chipotle peppers or hot sauce.

As always, season to taste.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves: 4 with leftovers

Equipment

• Chopping board and knife.
• Measuring cups and spoons.
• Deep frying pan with cover.
• Wooden spoon.

Ingredients

1	Onion, finely diced
1/2 cup	Chicken stock
2 cloves	garlic, finely diced
1 teaspoon	Cumin
1 teaspoon	Oregano
1 teaspoon	Olive oil
2 cups	Beef brisket, pulled
1/2 cup	Beef brisket sauce
1 cup	Cheese, finely grated
12	Corn tortillas
2 cups	Salsa (optional)

Directions

1. Put the olive oil in the bottom of a cold pan and bring it to temperature.
2. Add the onions and stir to coat.
3. Cook until the onions have caramalized, reducing the temperature as needed to make sure they don't stick or burn. Stir often.
4. Add the garlic and herbs and cook until fraigrant.
5. Add the beef brisket and sauce, stiring to incorporate.
6. Add another teaspoon of olive oil in a second pan.
7. Warm a corn tortilla, flipping when pockets begin to form.
8. Fill the tortia with 3 teaspoons of the meat and sauce mixture.
9. Add a pinch of cheese and roll.
10. Place on a plate, seam side down.
11. Cover to keep warm.
12. Repeat until the beef mixture and/or the tortilla are gone.
13. Serve immediately with salsa.

One-pot lemony chicken and couscous

A quick and easy weeknight dinner of chicken, vegetables, and couscous. The lemon makes everything taste fresh and the spices provide an unexpected depth of flavour for this simple dish.

Notes

This is a combination of two recipes: Spiced chicken with couscous and Lemony chicken with couscous. I wanted a one-pot meal with chicken thighs and couscous; but I didn't have all the ingredients for one, and didn't really want large chunks of tomatoes in my meal from the other.

My chile powder was quite dead; so the recipe didn't have the same kick that it would normally. The chile powder could easily be replaced by smoked paprika (to provide the same color but not the heat), or omitted entirely.

The vegetables in this dish could easily be replaced by your vegetable of choice (fresh or frozen). Adjust the cooking time accordingly.

If using fresh thyme, use the leaves from 2 sprigs and add them when you add the vegetables.

This recipe would work just as well with any cut of chicken (without bones). If using leftover chicken, additional olive oil may be required.

I will be making this recipe again. The lemon is defintely the strongest flavour; I liberally sprinkled lemon juice over my plate at the table. but even without the juice the zest in the meal is very noticeable in the couscous.

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves: 3

Equipment

• Chopping board and knife.
• Measuring cups and spoons.
• Deep frying pan with cover.
• Wooden spoon.

Ingredients

1 cup	Israeli couscous
1 tablespoon	extra-virgin olive oil
6	chicken thighs, boneless and skinless
1 teaspoon	ground cumin
1 teaspoon	dried thyme
1 teaspoon	salt
1 teaspoon	black pepper, freshly ground
2 teaspoons	chilie powder, divided (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon	allspice
1/2 teaspoon	ground cloves
2 cups	chicken broth, fat-free, divided
1	lemon, zested and cut into segments
3 cloves	garlic, minced
1 cup	peas, thawed if frozen
1 cup	corn, thawed if frozen

Directions

1. Put the olive oil into a cold pan and bring it up to medium-high heat.
2. Add the couscous and cook, stiring, for about a minute.
3. Pour the couscous out into a bowl and set aside.
4. Put the pan back on the heat and add the chicken. Sprinkle with 1/2 the chile powder. Brown well on both sides (3-5 minutes each side). Transfer to a plate and leave the drippings in the skillet.
5. Lower the heat and add the onion. Stir frequently.
6. When the onion becomes translucent, add the spices, garlic, and lemon zest (but not the salt). Stir for about 3 minutes.
7. Deglaze the pan with 1 cup of chicken broth, scraping the bottom of the pan well.
8. Add the remaining chicken broth, salt, and couscous to the pan. Stir to incorporate.
9. Add the chicken on top of the couscous. Do not stir.
10. Cover and cook for 15 minutes.
11. Remove the chicken to a plate and keep warm.
12. Add the vegetables and stir to incorporate. Cover for 2-3 minutes, until the vegetables are warm.
13. Serve with lemon segments.

Beef fajitas for 3, spanish rice and guacamole

Beef fajitas are one of those recipes that I tend to make when I don't really want to cook. Funny, because it still involves a lot of cutting, measuring, and the like. But I've made it so often that I can almost make it with my eyes closed (but then I'd probably cut myself and that would be bad).

So, with company coming, I set to work preparing the meal.

First I made spanish rice.

I diced up a red onion (I didn't have any others, so red it would be), and put half in a pot with a nob of butter. Once the foam subsided I added a cup a rice and stirred it. This toasts the rice and provides it some initial flavour. Then I added some chicken stock (freshly thawed in the microwave) and some pureed tomatoes (canned diced tomatoes pureed with an immersion blender). I then covered the pot and brought it to a boil. Once boiling, I lowered the heat, set the timer and promptly forgot about it.

By then, my guest had arrived and joined me in the kitchen. We chatted as I dug out my favourite frying pan. I coated the bottom with a teaspoon of olive oil, and tossed in strips of sandwich steak to fry. As the meat cooked I diced a clove of garlic, mixed it with 1 rounded tablespoon of cumin and half a tablespoon of chili pepper, and added that and the remaining half of red onion in with the meat. I cleaned, and cut a red bell pepper and a green bell pepper into strips and added that to the hot pan.I stirred the mixture to coat everything with the spices and meat juice equally. Then I added a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce and a cup of medium salsa to the mix. I stirred it again and let it cook until the rice was done.

I mixed another crushed and diced clove of garlic along with two tablespoons of crushed tomatos and two avocado's, adding another heaping teaspoon of cumin as I stirred. Once the lumps were mostly gone (or at least very small), I stopped and set it aside.

Taking out a second (and smaller) frying pan, I turned on the heat and cooked the corn tortillas until they were soft and pliable (8 seconds according to the package, less time in my experience). I then added a small amount of sour cream, an equal dollup of guacamole, a pinch of cheese and a ladel-ful of fajita mix. I then folded the hot tortilla around the mess and placed it seam side down onto the plate.

Three of these plus a third of the rice and another tablespoon of guacamole made the meal. It was delicious.

Beef fajitas

Serves 6.

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 lbs sandwich steak (preferably lean)
  
• 2 bell peppers (1 red, 1 green) cut into slices
  
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced (I used red)
  
• 1 clove garlic, minced
  
• 1 cup salsa
  
• 1 tablespoon cumin
  
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  
• 1/2 tablespoon chili pepper
  
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
  
• 1/2 cup guacamole
  
• 1/2 cup sour cream
  
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated
  

Directions

1. Coat the bottom of a frying pan with olive oil.
   
2. Cut the sandwich steak into strips and add them to the hot pan.
   
3. Mix the garlic, cumin and chili pepper together and add that to the pan, stir well to incorporate.
   
4. Cut the bell peppers into strips and add them to the pan. Stir well.
   
5. Mix the salsa and Worcestershire sauce together. Add them to the pan. Stir well.
   
6. Cook until the meat is cooked, the onions are nearly transulcent, and the peppers still crunchy.
   
7. Heat the tortillas slightly.
   
8. Fill in the following order: sour cream, guacamole, cheddar cheese, fajita mix.
   
9. Fold the tortilla and serve.

Spanish rice

Serves 3.

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 cup rice
  
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
  
• 1/2 yellow onion
  
• 1 teaspoon butter
  
• 1 cup chicken stock
  
• 1/4 cup cheddar cheese, optional.
  

Directions

1. Put the butter in a hot pan. Add the onion and the rice and stir to mix.
   
2. Once the onion starts to become translucent, add the tomato sauce and chicken stock.
   
3. Stir well.
   
4. Turn up the heat and wait for the liquid to boil.
   
5. Once boiling, cover and cook for the duration recommended for your rice.
   
6. Serve hot with a bit of cheese on top.

One frying pan pasta meal (sort of)

I bought a couple of Lean Cuisine's skillet sensations recently. They're quick and easy to prepare and are a great alternative for me on nights that I really don't want to cook (and the allure of take out beckons). From time to time I play with the concept of making such a meal from scratch. The skillet sensation is rather like pan hash, replacing the potatoes with pasta and gravy with whatever sauce you have on hand.

I grew up in a household where, if my father was cooking, it would either be something on the barbeque, a quickly opened can of Claude's Chicken Frico, eggs, or pan hash.

My father's recipe for pan hash is as follows:

Peel and dice cooked potatoes into freshly melted butter. Add diced chicken, or ham, or roast beef. Follow with a handful or two of frozen vegetables (whatever in the freezer is good), or leftover canned vegetables (do not drain). Add just enough water, or stock, or beer to keep the mess from sticking. Flavour with salt and pepper, cover with leftover gravy, and serve as soon as the potatoes have developed a crisp edge and everything is hot.

The recipe doesn't work well with fresh vegetables (I tried), but it works great with tinned meats or fish. My version's slightly different (and perhaps not surprisingly longer).

Drop a halved clove of garlic into almost foamless melted butter. Once the aroma rises, discard the clove. Add 1/2 a diced onion and cook until translucent. Peel and dice cooked potatoes and drop them into the pan. Add a cube of frozen chicken stock to the hot pan and stir well, making sure to coat the cold potatoes. Add a cup of frozen vegetables to the top of the mix. Cover for 5 minutes until the vegetables are thawed and starting to warm. Add diced protein or a full can of fish (drained and rinsed). Stir to incorporate. If it starts to stick, add another cube of frozen chicken stock. Crisp is good, sticking is not. Free with a spatula and stir. The potatoes will break up; that's OK. Season with fresh herbs (dill for fish, rosemary for chicken, tarragon for beef, oregano and thyme regardless). Dust with red chili flakes, salt and pepper. Cook until everything is hot. Serve at once.

Then I saw those pasta meals. I'm not a big fan of regular pasta (I shouldn't eat it anyways) but I've always loved pasta sauce. Its velvety textures, it's luscious smells; my mouth waters just thinking about it.

So, one Saturday night when I should have known better I tried an odd combination.

Spätzle (German egg noodles), broccoli, diced chicken, and brown sauce.

Make brown sauce. Cook pasta according to package instructions less 5 minutes. Add frozen broccoli in a steamer atop the pasta for the last 5 minutes of the cooking time. Drain (but do not rince) the pasta and add it to the pan. Set the broccoli aside to cool slightly. Season the pan with a cube of frozen chicken stock and a clove of diced garlic. Once the aroma begins to fill the kitchen, add the pasta, diced chicken, broccoli and brown sauce and stir to incorporate. Serve once everything's steamy.

Brown sauce is amazingly rich ...but bland. I'm not sure what I wanted with this. I ended up adding oregano, rosemary, hot chili flakes and pepper at the table to give it more flavour. It was good (especially with the herbs and spices) and I'll definitely try this again; only next time I'll try it using something like tomato arrabiata, or simple marinara as a sauce. Then again, maybe I should have tried making the sauce from paprika Huhn.

Once I get this recipe down, I'll go about seeing to amounts and actual instructions in some sort of structured manner. Right now, I'm playing with tastes.

Meatball soup

Originally from the Relish! menu planning website, I modified the recipe to reduce the salt. I picked the recipe originally because it seemed straightforward and probably could be modified to work with the crock-pot. My first test of the recipe was a resounding success.

Version: 2.0
Serves: 6 (1 1/2 cups each)
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 35 minutes

Equipment

• Measuring cups & spoons.
• Cutting board & knife.
• Dutch Oven.
• Ladle.
• Stirring spoon.

Modification/Notes
The original recipe used canned beef broth and onion soup mix. Both taste good, but I wanted something lower in salt. So, I switched to chicken broth and real onion. I also reduced the amount of butter down to a tablespoon (from 2). I had 2 cups of rice (cooked in chicken broth) in my fridge - so I added it to the soup to positive effect.

Ingredients

• 38-ounces frozen meatballs
• 1 onion, minced
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 4 carrot(s), thinly sliced
• 2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
• 26-ounces (6 cups) chicken broth, fat removed, low-sodium
• 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 3 tablespoons Italian parsley, chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano (or 1/2 teaspoon fresh)
• 1 teaspoon dried basil (or 1/2 teaspoon fresh)
• 1 bay leaf
• coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, freshly grated

Instructions

1. In a Dutch oven over medium heat, melt 1/2 the butter.
2. Sauté the onion until the onion begins to become translucent.
3. Add the carrots and celery, and continue to sauté for 4-5 minutes or until softened.
4. Add all the other ingredients except the meatballs and the cheese.
5. Bring to a boil.
6. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.
7. Add meatballs; cover and simmer meatball soup 10 minutes longer.
8. Remove the bay leaf before serving.
9. Serve topped with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano.