Hearty Vegetable Stew (BLR)

• 2 medium onions, minced
• 1 medium celery rib, minced
• 1 medium carrot, peeled and minced, plus 4 large carrots, peeled, halved lengthwise, and cut into 1-inch lengths
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• Salt
• 9 medium (about 1 1/4 pounds), stems discarded, gills removed, caps halved and then sliced 1/2 inch thick
• 10 ounces white mushrooms, wiped clean, stems trimmed and mushrooms halved
• 2 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 2 teaspoons)
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary or 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1 teaspoon fresh minced thyme leaves, or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
• 1 1/2-2 cups water
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 1/2 pounds red potatoes (about 4 medium), peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 cup frozen peas, thawed
• 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• Ground black pepper

Scraping out the gills of the portobellos or they would otherwise muddy flavor and color of the soup.

Mise en place.

Sweat the onions, celery, and carrots (I added some parsnips I had on hand) until vegetables are softened.

Add the mushrooms and cook until the liquid they release evaporates.

Add wine and reduce.  Then add broth, water, tomatoes, bay leaves, and potatoes and cook for about 1 hour.

 

The dish was fine, but hardly something that makes me want to give up meat really to prep and cook somewhat extensively.

The Ultimate Winter Couscous

from Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty

• 2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch chunks
• 2 medium parsnips, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch chunks
• 8 shallots
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 4 star anise
• 3 bay leaves
• 5 tbsp olive oil
• salt
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground tumeric
• 1/4 tsp hot paprika
• 1/2 tsp chile flakes
• 2 1/2 cups cubed pumpkin or butternut squash (from a 10 oz squash)
• 1/2 cup dried apricots, roughly chopped
• 1 cup chickpeas (canned or freshly cooked) [I went with canned]
• 1 1/2 cups chickpea cooking liquid and/or water
• 1 cup couscous
• large pinch saffron
• 1 cup boiling vegetable stock
• 3 tbsp butter, broken into pieces
• 2 tbsp harissa
• 1 oz preserved lemon, finely chopped
• 2 cups cilantro leaves

Bake carrots, parsnips, shallots, spices, 4 tablespoons oil and 3/4 teaspoon salt at 375 degrees F for15 minutes.

Add, in my case, butternut squash.  This along with the parsnips and the milk from the mac and cheese were all bought at the Boston Local Food Festival I went to with Ori a few weekends ago.

Bake for another 35 minutes.

Add apricots and chickpeas and bake until hot.

Mise en place up until right before the last photo.

Prepare couscous and melt a lot of butter in.

Put vegetable mixture over couscous and cover it with a veritable carpet of cilantro leaves.  Additionally, harissa and preserved lemon are mixed into the vegetables after they have left the oven.
I actually really liked this dish without wondering where the meat was.
Apparently some lady complained to UK paper the Guardian (where Ottolenghi has a vegetarian column although he isn't one) that the dish had too many ingredients.  I find that somewhat laughable.  If a cook is ambitious enough this dish shouldn't be that out of reach.

Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic (CATKTV)

• Table salt
• 1 (3 1/2 to 4-pound) chicken,  cut into 8 pieces (4 breast pieces, 2 thighs, 2 drumsticks) and trimmed
• 3 medium heads garlic (about 8 ounces), outer papery skins removed, clove separated and unpeeled
• 2 medium shallots, peeled and quartered
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3/4 cup vermouth or dry white wine
• 3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Brine the chicken 1/4 cup of salt dissolved in 2 quarts of cold water for 30 minutes.
Probably only the second time I've tried to break down a chicken before.  Certainly not perfect, but I got to practice.

Garlic, shallot, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Roasted at 400 degrees F for 40 minutes.

Through dry chicken with paper towels and brown until golden.

Throw all the ingredients together and roast until the thickest part of breast s registers 160 to 165 degrees.

Sauce, ready to be enriched with butter and some of the roasted garlic.

After spending the following few days easily peeling cloves of garlic to smear on italian bread I think it would have been brighter to peel the garlic before pushing it through a fine mesh strainer.

A fairly good dish.  Not exciting enough for me to want to make again.

4-Cheese Macaroni with Apples and Bacon (GK)

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter plus 3 tablespoons
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 4 cups cubed ciabatta bread
• 6 cups whole milk [Nice local stuff since Market Basket milk my parents bought had gone bad at this point and I went to the Boston Local Food Festival with Ori F.]
• 1 small onion, halved
• 4 ounces bacon (3 to 4 slices), cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 Fuji apples, peeled and diced
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 4 ounces sopressatta or other similarly spiced meat, diced
• 4 ounces cooked ham, shredded or chopped
• 1 pound dry conchiglie (shell pasta)
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 6 ounces whole-milk mozzerella cheese, grated
• 4 ounces aged Cheddar cheese, grated
• 4 ounces smoked Gouda cheese, grated
• 4 ounces Havarti cheese, grated

Mise en place.

Crisped bacon.

Garlic, three tablespoons butter and pepper flakes heated over medium.  Toss with ciabatta and toasted in the oven.

Process the bacon bread crumbs.

Apples are cooked in the remaining bacon fat until just soft and not mushy.  Toss with vinegar.

Crisping sopressatta.

Simmer the onion together with the milk for 15-20 minutes.

I wish I could actually have someone film me doing action-filled stuff like cooking a bechamel sauce (it becomes a mornay sauce once you add cheese).  First you cook the butter and flour together until it smells nutty.  Then you gradually add the milk...
And the whole thing seizes up like crazy until you nearly add all the milk and the texture loosens.  Then you finally reduce it until it coats the back of a spoon.

Stir in all the grated cheese.

Combine noodles with apple mixture.  Then add mornay sauce.

Cover with the bacon bread crumbs (a rather lot of them) and a tiny bit of mozzeralla.  I was supposed to use a smaller pan but I didn't haven't anything else I figured would be broiler-safe.

Too close/long under the broiler?

The dish sort of left me feeling as if I wouldn't be in some part happier just making it the way I did before I started cooking: out of a box with a packet of velveeta sauce.  It just didn't hit the spot, it wasn't lusciously creamy, and it makes me wonder if it was me or the recipe that messed up.
Next time I'm doing an ATK version of this dish.

White Chili with Chicken and White Root Vegetables (FM)

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 bone-in chicken thighs
• Salt and black pepper
• 2 leeks, trimmed, well rinsed, and chopped, or 2 onions, chopped
• 4 parsnips, chopped
• 1 celery root, chopped
• 1 large or 2 medium turnips, chopped
• 2 all-purpose potatoes, chopped
• 1 tablespoon fresh sage, or 1 teaspoon dried [I assumed incorrectly that I had dried sage, but I didn't]
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 dried mild chile (like ancho), or 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• Grated zest and juice of 1 lime
• 2 cups any dried white beans, rinse, picked over, and soaked if you like
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, plus more for garnish
• 1/2 cup chopped scallions, for garnish

Insane amount of white root vegetables and their peelings.  I've never worked with celery root before, but it smells phenomenal.  I wonder if people ever eat it raw.

I had to store them in 4 whole pieces of tupperware until the next day.  The potatoes darkened overnight, but they were old.

Mise en place.

Browning the chicken.

Sauteeing the leeks until softened.

After dumping everything in (except for the lime juice, scallions, and cilantro), I had to switch pots.

I cooked this silly dish for probably about 4 hours.  I was waiting for the vegetables to show signs of "almost disintegrating, but I never got there and stashed it in the fridge overnight to try again.  Thankfully, I had the bright idea of just checking to see if the vegetables were tender and so they were.
A good well-spiced dish with chicken that basically shredded itself after loooong hours of stewing.  At 6-8 servings, it's a rather unwieldy dish for the single chef.  Yeah, I imagine the dish will take me at least a week to eat at this point.

Thrillingly enough the cilantro came with roots which are not exactly all that easy to find, but Zak Pelaccio using them extensively in EYH so I rinsed/scraped/rinse what I had and threw them in the freezer until I accumulate enough to use in a dish.