A Morrocan Beef and Vegetable Tagine

So I'm once again venturing outside of my cookbooks and my comfort zone to try something new and different. Inspired by my bright and sunny jar of lemons slowly being salted on the counter top, I ventured to North Africa to make a rich and savory Tagine--though I should say a stew since I made it in my crock pot not one of these gorgeous dishes. I don't have any cookbooks with Morrocan recipes in it, but with two key ingredients in mind and a little google-fu I found a bunch of ideas and made this dish up as I went along. This is largely inspired by Jamie Oliver's recipe as interpreted by this blog post. I made a number of changes and additions--but it is essentially a stew, so it is pretty flexible!

Ingredients:

12 oz beef sirloin steak
1 1/2 lbs butternut squash pealed and chopped
2 cans diced tomatos
3 cups vegetable broth
1 yellow onion
1 medium head cauliflower
1 large egg plant
4 cloves garlic
1 small bunch cilantro
Sea Salt and freshly ground Black Pepper
2 tsp  Ras El Hanout Spice mix
2 tsp ground Cumin
2 tsp ground Cinnamon
2 tsp ground Ginger
2 tsp Sweet Paprika
Harissa to taste

 The first step is to prepare the dry rub. I was surprised to find the ras el hanout at Winco--and it was 2$ for the whole jar--that is not a lot! I had the rest of the spices--though this cleans me out of cumin and ginger, both of which I use a lot of in my cooking. I cut the steak up into cubes and tossed it in the spice rub. Ideally, I would have left it in the fridge for the seasoning to really infuse the meat. But I didn't get going until too late--and it was only in the fridge for about an hour.

The meat is lightly browned on all sides and then diced onion is added along with the chopped stems of the cilantro. These are sauteed until they slightly softened and then I slowly added the broth to de-glaze the pan. There was so much of the spices that sort of stuck to the pan that this was an important step--it toasted the spices and got them into the broth, which thickened it.

At this point I poured it all into the slow-cooker, along with two cans of diced tomatoes. The original recipe called for garbanzo beans, but I felt like I had enough protein with the beef and enough fiber from all the veggies. That got stirred up pretty well, and cooked for two hours on high. While that cooked I pealed and chopped the butternut squash and cut and salted the eggplant.

I added half of the butternut squash after 2 hours of cooking, and the rest after 3.5 hours. This allowed some to really break down and become part of the sauce, while some still had some texture left at the end. I also added some of the harissa to the pot to increase the spice.

While that continued to cook, I chopped the cauliflower and tossed it with some harrisa and lemon juice to marinate before being added to the pot. That went into the pot at the same time as the rest of the butternut squash. The eggplant, which doesn't need as much time to cook was added at about 4.5 hours.

At this point it was almost 9 p.m. and I was pretty hungry--though I'd been nibbling on the butternut squash and tasting the beef all along. I stirred in more harrisa, and served it with some chopped fresh cilantro on top. Total cooking time was 6 hrs on high, though it should have gone a bit more. to get the beef equally tender.

The Verdict: This is a rich and hearty stew--with very complex and developed flavors from all of the time cooking. The veggies provide a variety of textures, from some very soft butternut squash, to the cauliflower that still has some bite. Some of the beef was really tender and some was still pretty chewy--I think this is more the type of beef I used, I should have gotten more of a fatty cut and cooked longer and lower. It was still very good and I'm excited to play around with these flavors!

What a Croc! Giving the slo-cooker another chance

They want a 2nd chance, after a head bump

So I love the idea of turning on the crock pot when I leave for work and coming back to dinner ready to go--but both times I've tried it the food did not turn out well. Over cooked chicken one time and bitter parsnips and overcooked chicken the second time. Blogs and books sing the praises of the crock pot--and I so want it to work. So I'm going to give it another chance--this time with chili, a dish traditionally cooked for a long time. My plan is to prepare the pot on Sunday and keep it in the fridge to put on Tuesday morning with a timer to start two hours after I leave.So it will cook only 8 and not 10 hours, and then throw the fresh veggies in before I go to a water aerobics class Tuesday night, so when I get back it will be ready!

Chili is one of those dishes where recipes are hard for me to follow--I like it spicy, with lots of veggies and beans. I'm going to use chicken, because I already have it, and black and kidney beans because that is what I have. One of my cookbooks--Robin to the Rescue--has a recipe for a crock pot chili, and while I'm not following it (it is a Cincinnati style with cinnamon and not much spice), she did mention that it could be made two days before and stored in the fridge before cooking.

Ingredients:

1 can (15oz) black beans
1 can (15oz) kidney beans
3 cans (14.5oz) tomatoes (I used fire roasted, with jalapenos, and with chili seasonings)
1 can whole tomatos strained (this was the cherry tomatoes I mistakenly bought for the tomato soup)
1 green bell pepper
2 chicken breasts (about 1.75 lbs)
1 medium onion
1 bag frozen cubed butternut squash
1 pkt chili powder--I used parts of hot and regular
3 cloves garlic
2-3 chipolte in adobo
vegetable stock

This was pretty easy to throw together--lots of cans to open and combine! I drained and rinsed the black and kidney beans, and added them and the three cans of tomatoes to my crock pot. I roughly chopped the green pepper and the onion, and tossed it in with the frozen squash. I chopped the chipolte and tossed it in as well--I have never cooked with it before so I had to try it--SPICY but smokey and yummy! I stirred in the powders and grated the garlic. The chicken was cut in large cubes and added.

Because it was so thick and my pot is so large, I added some broth and some of the drained tomato juice. This should make a TON of chili--it is a good thing I just cleaned out my freezer! I have room in there for some of this yumminess.

So this morning I pulled it out of the fridge, gave it a stir, plugged it in, set it on low for 8 hours, and left for work with some trepidation. I always think I'm going to burn my apartment down when I do this. Fortunately, when I came home some 9.5 hours later my house smelled delicious, and not like smoke (well a little like delicious smoke.) I pulled out the chicken chunks, shredded them, and stirred them back in the pot.

 It smelled so good, but was a little more liquid than I would have thought after all that cooking. I guess the crock pot keeps a lot of the moisture from evaporating, and a lot of liquid must have come out of the veggies and chicken. Interestingly, I had thrown in a package of frozen chopped butternut squash, because I thought it would handle the long cooking well and add some veggies. But it cooked down and completely disappeared into the broth, but it added an important flavor component, so I'm not sad I added it.

As for toppings, I added a scoop of plain Greek yogurt, and some shredded chipolte cheddar. But I think it would be great with some cilantro, sour cream, guacamole, or even corn chips. I just wanted to dig into this chili and enjoy!

The Verdict:

This is a definite win for the crock pot--the end result was spicy, but with smokey and sweet notes from the chipolte and butternut squash. I'd read that the long cooking muted the flavors so I added plenty of chilies, in the tomatoes, in the seasonings, and with the chipoltes. I cut the peppers and onions into pretty big pieces and was surprised at how well they held up to the cooking--I could still get some texture to them. As I noted earlier, the butternut squash flavor was not apparent, besides in some sweetness and in the texture. It made a huge batch--I'll be eating this for the next week--with some spaghetti squash, with eggs, and anything else I can think of. It should also freeze well.

Mystery Cupcakes

I first read about this Mystery Cake on the caker blog, and immediately wanted to try it. Mostly to find out if you really could taste the secret ingredient. Plus I love spice cake. I actually found this recipe in one of my all time favorite cookbooks--mostly for the information and stories, since this is the first recipe I've actually made from it. It is the American Century Cookbook, and it combines history and recipes from the previous century--stories of how they developed and what their background was. So I can relate that this cake was first made using canned tomatoes, until the 1920s when people started using condensed tomato soup. It has many variations--some more of a loaf with nuts and dried fruit, others fancy layer cakes. This particular version is based on the Campbell's soup recipe, though I made cupcakes instead. I still do not have layer cake pans, but right now I only have two pairs of pants that fit--so priorities!

 Ingredients:
2 cups sifted all purpose flour
1 1/3 cups sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 (10 3/4 oz) can condensed tomato soup
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
2 eggs
1/4 cup water
cream cheese frosting

This is actually a super easy cake to make--I didn't have shortening or eggs, so I used light butter and egg beaters. All of the ingredients, except the frosting are dumped in the bowl and mixed on low until combined, scraping the edges. Once all are combined, the speed is increased to high and beat for 4 minutes. Honestly, I couldn't tell there was tomato soup in it--it was orange, sure, but it could have been pumpkin! I tasted the batter (the egg substitute is pasteurized, so it is safe to eat) and it didn't taste tomatoy. Then the batter is poured into muffin tins that have been sprayed or lined with paper cups (really, I don't have the right pan, do I seem like the sort of person who would have cupcake liners?) The cupcakes are baked in an oven pre-heated to 350 degrees for 25  to 30 minutes, or until a fork comes out clean.

The Verdict: Can I say YUM? They turned out super moist, not too sweet, and super spicy! The frosting was not the best, but the walnuts on top were a perfect foil for the moist and delicious cupcake. It was a rosy red color from the soup, but the cloves and allspice were really strong. I brought half to my sister's house for dinner and half to work for a coworker's birthday. I forgot to take a picture after I took them out of the oven, so I snapped this picture of one in my office. Note the mustard color of my desk--it is original to the mid 1960s when the building was open.

Tomato Soup the Long Way

We've spent several chilly days at work, and some of my coworkers remarked that their favorite meal for a chilly day was tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. So when we were planning a major overhaul of our computer systems, I offered to bring in some for lunch for everyone. Originally I'd planned on buying some canned soup, because I've never made tomato soup before, but with my culinary adventures on this blog, I thought I'd try making it. Well, it almost killed me, and is the most complicated dish I've ever made, mostly because I insisted on following the recipe exactly. Next time I'll either make substitutions or get a simpler recipe.
Ingredients:
3 large shallots (about 3/4 of a cup)
1 carrot pealed and minced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tsp vegetable oil
Salt
pinch ground allspice
2 cans (28 oz) whole tomatoes (roma or larger ones) drained and seeded.
2 tsp dark brown sugar
1 tbs all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups of BOTH low sodium chicken and low sodium vegetable broth
1/2 cup half and half
cayenne pepper

I thought I had bought everything for this recipe, but then I got back and looked at the recipe and saw it only served 4! I've never seen a soup that required so many ingredients and served so few people. So I needed to double it, but I didn't have enough tomatoes--so out I went in the middle of a snow storm to buy more. Fortunately I bought a lot more than what I'd need to double it, because it turns out I'd made a mistake earlier. The whole tomatoes I'd bought originally were cherry tomatoes--too small and full of seeds to use! The cookbook specifically instructs you to take the whole tomatoes and squeeze out the juice and seeds, discard them, and just use the shells of the tomatoes. It was a blood bath--like a scene from Dexter, with tomato casualties piling up everywhere.

Once that gristly task was complete, I turned to chopping the shallots--7 of them into teeny tiny pieces. The carrots were easier--the recipe says one carrot, but my carrots were pretty small so I did 3 for my double batch. Looking back I wonder why I chopped them so fine--this is a pureed soup-- it all goes in a blender at the end. But this book is kind of like a drill Sargent--you try to do what it says exactly how it says because through out the recipes is this unshakable belief that they have figured out the best/only way to do it and to venture off is to fail!

Once that was done I discovered the next problem--the tomato paste! I thought I had several cans in the pantry, and I did--only they expired almost three years ago. When I opened one it was black and stinky--disgusting, and unusable. This was sadly after I had already ventured out in the snow, and my sister wasn't answering her phone to see if I could borrow some. So I used the internet and found a recipe for making tomato paste from tomato sauce, which I had. It isn't hard: one can of tomato sauce, a small saucepan, and 7 to 14 minutes of cooking. It took a lot longer than I thought it would to reduce to a paste consistency, and my sister called right after I finished it, with paste I could borrow. I used my homemade paste, since I went to so much effort!

So more than an hour into this soup and I finally get to start cooking! In my large pot I put in some oil, heated it over medium heat, and added the shallots, carrots, and the homemade tomato paste. That cooked until the carrot was soft, and shallots translucent. I added the drained and seeded tomatoes to the pot and the sugar--and cooked until they were dry. Well, that is what the recipe said--but I'm not really clear on what that meant. Lots of stirring later, lots and lots, and I decided it was as dry as it was going to get and added the flour. That cooked for a minute and I added the broths a little at a time, bringing it up to a boil and then reducing to simmer for 10 minutes.

I used my new immersion blender to purify it, which was nice because it was hot and putting into a blender would have been another mess I didn't need. Once it was pureed, I added the half and half and let it cook some more. The directions say to season at this point, salt and pepper and cayenne to taste. 

The Verdict: The soup was delicious, though my blender did not get as smooth of a texture as I'm used to--so you could still tell there were carrots in there. It wasn't as strong of a tomato taste as I would have thought--less traditional, and more veggie strong. But the question I ask myself is: Is the amount of effort worth the result? It was popular at work--several staff member said it was their favorite of all the soups I've made. But it took me almost 3 hours to make--my knees hurt so badly after making it that my physical therapist told me I'd need to wear braces if I wanted to make it again (well, really that if I was going to cook all day, I should put my braces on). So if I do make it again, I will be modifying the recipe to be simpler, or I'll try a different tomato soup recipe altogether!

Salmon Florentine in One Pot

A surprisingly old picture of my dad and I--I think this was 7 years ago?

Growing up, I was never good at eating my fruits and veggies--in fact until this past year there were a whole bunch of veggies I was completely convinced were inedible. This might be because the typical vegetable side dish we had as a kid was a can of corn or a bag of frozen peas (I even have a vegetarian sister) or green beans in tater-tot casserole (pretty good actually). The strange thing is that my Dad LOVES all kinds of vegetables, and sometimes would cook some for himself, even though no one else would eat any. I guess this next dish is in his honor, since it features two foods I mostly associate with him: cooked spinach and salmon, and the fact that I'm making it in a Dutch Oven means it pretty much should be named after him.

So here is my second recipe from Glorious One Pot Meals, Salmon Florentine ala Bill. Though my Dad has made me salmon in probably 100 different ways, I'm not sure he's made this way. Maybe he will try it if it turns out well!

Ingredients: 
Olive Oil spry
Spinach--enough to fill the Dutch Oven
4 salmon fillets (around 4 oz each)
1 lemon, thinly sliced
6 cloves of garlic
4-5 tomatoes, thickly sliced
Salt and Pepper 
Italian Seasonings 
Red Pepper Flakes


This is a really easy dish to make, and uses relatively few ingredients. I tossed it together in five minutes or so--I think unwrapping the salmon was the most time consuming part. So you spray your glorious pot with cooking spray, and add a thick layer of spinach (I used a spinach/baby kale mix from walmart). I increased the seasonings from the book, because I thought the ingredients sounded a little bland. So I put the salmon on top of the spinach mix, and sprayed it with cooking spray and liberally seasoned with salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and red pepper.

Next I sliced the lemon super thin and pealed the garlic. That went in a layer over the salmon and spinach. I have a bigger pot than is called for in the directions so it didn't cover the whole layer, and I placed the garlic on the fillets under the lemons.

This deliciousness is covered by another layer of spinach, which is then covered with thickly sliced tomatoes. I bought WAY too many tomatoes, because the recipe said 5-6 so that is what I got. But I purchased huge beefsteak tomatoes, which were delicious, but enormous. I only used 4, and ate some with salt and pepper without cooking. I seasoned the tomatoes as well, and stuffed some extra spinach in so it was as full as I could get. Then sprayed the lid with oil, covered it, and stuck it in a 450 degree oven for 40 minutes. The fillets were frozen, but this seemed like a long time even so. However, it was perfect when I took it out!


 The spinach had shrunk to half the size as it cooked, but it was deliciously fragrant and fresh! The bigger tomatoes were a good choice because they really held up to the cooking process.

 The Verdict: This is the best thing I've made in a long time. I didn't want to stop eating it, even after I was full. The tomatoes were fall apart delicious, the spinach was lemony, and the salmon tender. There was something delightfully fresh and simple about this dish, though I really wanted more spinach to salmon (which I'm noticing is my complaint about every dish I make!) Next time I might try with a white fish--I have some hake in the freezer that would be good--lower calorie as well!