Hearty Tuscan Bean Stew (CATKTV)

• Table salt
• 1 pound (about 2 cups) dried cannellini beans, picked over and rinsed
• 6 ounces pancetta or bacon, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1 large onion, chopped medium (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 2 medium celery ribs, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 3/4 cup)
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 1 cup)
• 8 medium garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 3 cups water
• 1 bunch kale or collard greens (about 1 pound), stems trimmed and leaves chopped into 1-inch pieces (about 8 cups loosely packed)
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary
• Ground black pepper

Mise en place with the beans that were soaked on the higher end of 8 to 12 hour range for this dish.  I think I've soaked beans once overnight.  I usually just skip the process.

Cook bacon in oil until lightly browned and fat has rendered.

Add vegetables and cooked until softened and lightly browned.

Add garlic and stir until fragrant.  Add broth, water, bay leaves, and beans.  Bring this to a simmer and cook in a 250 degree oven until the beans are almost tender.

Add kale and tomatoes.  Cook in the oven again until beans and greens are fully tender.

Remove pot from oven, submerge a sprig of rosemary in the stew, cover, and let stand for 15 minutes.  Remove sprig and bay leaves (I usually just remove bay leaves when I come across them while eating a dish).
The dish hit many of the same pleasure buttons at Top Chef's Stefan's Veal Goulash.  I probably could've cooked the dish a little longer (a problem I seem to be having recently), but I'm not quite sure it's something I'd do again.

Hungarian Beef Stew (CATKTV)

• 1 boneless chuck-eye roast (about 3 1/2 pounds), trimmed of excess fat and cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes
• Table salt
• 1 (12-ounce) jar roasted red peppers, drained and rinsed (about 1 cup)
• 1/3 cup sweet paprika
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 3 teaspoons white vinegar
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 6 medium onions, minced (about 6 cups)
• 4 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch thick rounds (about 2 cups)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cup beef broth, warmed
• Ground black pepper

Sprinkle meat evenly with 1 teaspoon salt and let stand for 15 minutes.

Paprika cream mise en place.  Paprika cream is actually sold commercially in Hungary and prevents this dish from tasting gritty from the 1/3 cup of paprika.

Breaking out the inexpensive blender I ordered from amazon.  Not amazed but it eventually did the job of processing the pepper, paprika, tomato paste, and vinegar.

General mise en place for the dish

Cook the onions, covered, until softened but not brown.

Add paprika mixture and cook until the onions begin to stick to the pan.

Add beef, carrots, and bay leaf and braise in the over for longer than I care to talk about.

The stew should be served over egg noodles or boiled potatoes, but I was seemingly too lazy for either option and ate the stew as is.

The beef was under-braised (the cooking had already consumed 3 days worth of free time) and I wasn't in love with the flavors, but I'd have been hard-pressed to know that there was a 1/3 cup of spice this dish.  I didn't buy sweet paprika for this dish but the normal paprika worked just fine.  I wonder exactly how inedible the dish would have been if made if pimenton picante.

Plantain and Meat Casserole (WBR)

Platanos Maduros (sauteed ripe plantains)

• 3 or 4 very ripe plantains, peeled
• Corn, grapeseed, or other neutral oil for frying

The mise en place for this dish.  Took ages for the plantains to get to this stage.  The first time around, they started to rot and attract fruit flies and I had to start over.

Shallow-frying the peeled and sliced plantains.

Finished product.

Plantain and Meat Casserole 

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or neutral oil, like corn or grapeseed
• 1 pound ground beef
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• 1 red or green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and roughly chopped [Spaced on this]
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano, preferably Mexican
• 2 cups chopped tomatoes (canned are fine)
• 1 recipe Platanos Maduros
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten, optional

Mise en place.

Browning the ground beef.

Cook onion and pepper (if I had any) until quite soft.

Add the garlic, spices, and tomatoes and cook until saucy.

Layer everything together, pour egg over (though I didn't notice it much the finished dish), and baked until heated through.

A tasty enough dish even though it didn't bowl me over.  Nice to see that sauteed plantains are really straightforward as long as you've got the ripe plantains.

My roommate Vanessa walked in at an early point in the dish and remembered hearing a Dominican friend of hers who often cooked a plantain and meat lasagna.  Bonafide culture, I guess.

Soy-Braised Lamb Shanks

from Home Cooking with Jean-Georges: My Favorite Simple Recipes by Jean-Georges Vongerichten

• Grapeseed or other neutral oil
• 4 whole (2-pound) lamb shanks, trimmed and patted dry
• 2 medium yellow onions, sliced
• 2 medium shallots, sliced
• 13 garlic cloves, sliced
• Kosher salt
• 2 Asian pears, cored and cut into 2-inch chunks
• 1 bunch scallions, green parts only
• 2 lemongrass stalks, smashed and thinly sliced
• 5-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
• 1 fresh long red (finger) chile, stemmed, seeds, and sliced [Neglected to remember this one]
• 4 whole star anise
• 1 1/4 cups semidry Gewurztraminer or Riesling [I used a random white wine I had already opened rather than going out to buy the right kind of 2 servings]
• 1 cup champagne vinegar [They only had normal white wine vinegar at Stop & Shop]
• 3/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup honey

Cut the portions of lamb shank in half since I was only cooking for 2.  I would have had to brown them in batches clearly if I had purchased more.  They barely fit.

Mise en place.

Cooking the onions, garlic, and shallots until golden brown and tender.

Dump the braising liquid in, bring to a boil, and then throw in the oven for about 3 1/2 hours.

Reducing the resulting liquid.

Resulting dish alongside parmesan encrusted summer squash from the same cookbook.  The squash is not really complicated enough to warrant the usual blog treatment but it was tasty.  The suggested side for the dish was a Jalapeno and Green Apple Duo but I'm not going to approach a side dish for 8 while cooking for two.
The braised meat was nice enough for braised meat, but I wish the flavors had been a bit more in my face.  The chile probably would have helped.

Ori said he liked watching me cook with such determination.

A Very Full Tart

Another one from Yotam Ottolenghi, but let's start off with:

Flaky Piecrust (HCEV)

• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into about 8 pieces
• 3 tablespoons ice water, plus more if necessary

Mise.  New bag of unbleached all-purpose flour in play.

Butter, flour, and salt.

Processed until it resembles cornmeal.

Knead with ice water until it forms a cohesive mass.

No expert yet at rolling out crusts.

I may also not have made enough pie crust for the following recipe, but I did my best pushing it up the sides of my first spring-form cake pan (I couldn't find a springform tart pan).

Draped with parchment paper and filled with a bag of dried black beans I had lying around.

Which didn't seem to be enough weight.  When I poured the black beans out into a jar for next time, I added some black-eyed peas I had open.  I thought it was weird that the crust was so golden already.

After uncovering the crust and seeing how burnt it was, I realized I had forgotten to turn the heat down in the over after roasting vegetables (see below).  Oh well.

A Very Full Tart

• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• about 6 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium eggplant, cut into 2-inch dice
• salt and black pepper
• 1 small sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch dice
• 1 small zucchini, cut into 1-inch dice
• 2 medium onions, thinly sliced
• 2 bay leaves
• 11 oz pie crust dough
• 8 thyme sprigs, leaves picked
• 1/3 cup ricotta
• 4 1/4 oz feta
• 7 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 2 medium eggs
• 1 cup heavy cream

Mise en place.  Including that ball of dough.

Vegetables prepped for their trip through the oven.

I forgot to take a picture of when I added the sweet potato but they went in after the eggplant had been in their for 12 minutes, followed by the zucchini for another 10-12 minutes

Peppers peeled and torn into strips.

Onions and bay leaves cooked over medium until dark brown.

Veggies ready to go.

The onions go in the bottom of the tart.  Followed by the roasted vegetables.  Guess I forgot the peppers had been roasted as well.

Topped by the cheese and tomatoes.  And the peppers.  The eggs and cream are whisked together and poured over.  Thyme is divided into two layers.  The tart is returned to the oven and baked until set.

Trista said she thought the tart must have been very expensive to make, but there isn't really anything pricey about it.  Maybe the cheeses lended themselves to a richness that could have come with a bigger pricetag.
Maybe I would have wanted something more complicated than thyme going on, but it was still a rather good dish.  Pretty looking for my first springform tart.  The varying textures and flavors of the roasted veggies were great and the tomatoes added brightness and acidity.

Chicken and Dumplings (CATKTV)

Stew

• 5 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 12 thighs)
• Table salt and ground black pepper
• 4 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 4 carrots, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 2 celery ribs, sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 1 medium onion, minced
• 6 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup dry sherry
• 4 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves

Dumplings

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 1 cup whole milk
• 3 tablespoons reserved chicken fat

Mise en place for a dish I've literally cooked 4 or 5 times by now in a little over a year though for the first time this season.  I'm a sucker for anything with a pot pie base.  Back when I first started cooking in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, I cooked an actual pot pie out of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.  I don't think I remember that wowing me.

This does it without the hassle of a crust.  I'm pretty sure the base in the pie got somewhat watered down.  I'd make this all the time if I thought it wouldn't kill or bore the hell out of me.

Browning the chicken.  You're supposed to split the oil between batches of chicken thighs.

But why add fat when all this eventually render out?  Silly recipe.

Way more than enough to make the dumplings.

Cook vegetables until softened.

Stir in flour to thicken the sauce.

Add back the chicken and everything but the peas and the parsley (which I didn't have).  Simmer for 1 hour.

I usually risk burning my fingertips shredding the chicken thighs because I'm too impatient to wait and wait for things to cool.
I was running out of time and saved that for the next day instead.  Looks delish, no? 

Whip up the dumpling batter, throw spoonfuls of it onto the simmering base, cover, and cook until they have doubled in size.

 

Perfect as usual.