Tag Archive for 'bay leaves'

Sauerbraten

Published by Hal on January 29, 2008 in Hal's Hint and recipes. 2 Comments

Like I said a few nights ago, my wife has very German heritage, and we rather like German food. My wife’s family came over three or four generations ago, and brought some very German recipes over–last Christmas, one of her aunts even compiled some of them into a family cookbook. This particular one come from Stacie’s aunt Peg, whose note with the recipe reminds us that Stacie’s grandfather, Peg’s dad, loved this recipe.

I’ve not had the opportunity to make many of these family recipes, but I hope to be able to now that I’ve begun writing. I, too, have a book of family recipes that my aunts gave Stacie and me as a wedding present several years ago. We find, often times, that food is central to our family histories and certain dishes usually mean something incredibly special because of a particular memory or event associated with it. As I share these recipes, I’d love to hear of your family traditions and recipes.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups of water
  • 2 cups of vinegar
  • 2 onions, sliced
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 10 whole cloves
  • 6 peppercorns
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 4 pound beef roast
  • 12-14 gingersnap cookies, crushed

Procedure

Combine the water, vinegar, onions, and spices/herbs in a big zip top bag. Shake to combine, then add the beef roast. Allow the roast to marinate for 2 to 5 days, turning daily.

After the roast has marinated, remove it from the bag. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Brown the roast in a shallow sauce pan, in a small amount of fat, over medium heat. If your roast has a layer of fat, place the roast fat side down first. If you are using a standard pan, do not move the roast for at least five minutes, otherwise it will stick and tear. After five minutes, turn and allow another side to brown.

Remove the roast from the pan and strain the marinade. Add the strained marinade to the pan, whisking up all the brown bits from the bottom. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes. Add the roast back to the pan, cover, and place in the oven for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until it reaches the desired done-ness (about 140 for medium, 150 for medium-well; the temperature will increase about 10-ish degrees as the roast sits). Allow the meat to rest for at least 15 minutes before proceeding.

After the meat has rested, remove the roast from the pan and place the gravy over medium heat. Bring the gravy up to a bowl, and whisk in the gingersnap cookies to thicken the gravy. If you desire, you can sweeten the gravy with some sugar, to taste.

Hal’s Hints: Really, don’t move the meat once you place it in the pan to get brown. Second, this recipe makes a ton of food–6 to 8 servings. I cut it in half–if you do that, I recommend you bake for 45 minutes to an hour depending on desired done-ness. I also used apple cider vinegar because of its sweetness. You can use what ever you like the taste of, but I would stay away from distilled (no flavor) and balsamic (strange flavor) for certain.

Next–do you see those black flecks in the sauce, in the picture? Those are bits of yummy goodness from the browning process. Use a regular (not non-stick) pan and a metal whisk to whisk them up when you first boil the marinade. I have a non-stick cook set, but I just bought a regular saucier over the weekend with just this purpose in mind and it’s quickly becoming my favorite pan in the kitchen!

Finally, I don’t keep ginger snaps on hand as a matter of course, so I thickened the gravy with some corn starch. Bring the gravy up to a boil as directed. Combine 1 tablespoon corn starch with 1 tablespoon water (twice as much for the normal recipe). Then, whisk into the gravy and reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer for five minutes, then serve

Chicken & Corn Chowder

Published by Hal on January 29, 2008 in recipes and rotisserie chicken. 2 Comments

I went to a training today that made me realize that I really should have a privacy policy for this site. Initially, I didn’t because I didn’t think I collected any information about the visitors to the site, but then I realized that’s not so–I use Feedburner for my feed stats and Google Analytics for my site stats. These two programs tell me who is clicking on my material and how they got to this site. So, consider yourself disclosed :) I don’t know exactly who you are, I just know that someone from some where is coming here using some key words typed into Google.

So, the point of telling you all that wasn’t so much to give you notice as it was to share some really interesting things about how it seems you guys are coming by this site. Three of the most popular searches are for “how to chop basil,” “how to cook pin oats,” and “recipes with a rotisserie chicken.” Hating Paula Deen is up there, too, but since I actually like Paula Deen, I’m choosing to ignore that ;)

This tells me that I need to write more “How-to’s” (thinking about what to do next), find a recipe for pin oats besides oat meal (I’m working on it–it’ll probably be a cookie), and write some recipes with that crazy rotisserie bird. Who knew it would be so popular?

Well, I can satisfy one of these needs tonight. My wife and I picked up one of these little guys at the store yesterday for dinner last night, but we got side tracked and made something else instead (hopefully I’ll be able to tell you what in a few days). My wife is also not feeling too great, so I needed to come up with something with some nutrients and simple. Chicken soup came to mind–but, wait, I have all these root vegetables (including little potatoes), some whole milk I’ll probably never get to finish, and a shiny new saucier. Chowder-time!

Before tonight I was thinking that most chowders were potato based, but in doing a bit of research, that doesn’t seem to be the case–rather, it’s a thick soup, with heartily cut ingredients, made from whatever a cook had available. We associate it with clams and seafood in the US because of New England, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be so. In fact, I say this dish epitomizes the idea of chowder, since I took what ever I had on hand, threw it in a pot, and called it dinner!

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 carrot, diced
  • 1 celery rib, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 5 small potatoes (1 1/2″ diameter), halved, then quartered
  • 1 cup shredded chicken (from a rotisserie chicken)
  • 2 cups chicken stock
  • 1/2 cup frozen corn
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon fresh black pepper
  • 1/2 cup of whole milk

Procedure

Combine the oil and butter in the bottom of a 2 1/2 quart saucepan, over medium to medium-high heat. Once the butter has melted, add the onions, celery, and carrots. Cook until the onions are just starting to caramelize, then add the garlic and the potatoes. Cook until the potatoes begin to show color at the edges, stirring occasionally.

Add the chicken, chicken stock, corn, bay leaves, tarragon, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and allow the chowder to simmer for about 30 minutes, until the potatoes are fork tender and begin to fall apart. Add the milk to the chowder, then stir to combine. Serve immediately.

Initially, I thought I was going to need to make a roux, but then I remember I was cooking with potatoes. Potatoes have enough starch in them to be a good thickening agent for whatever your cooking, especially if you cook them until about when they fall apart.

This recipe is really as simple as putting the ingredients in a pot and calling it dinner. What I loved about this is that it takes almost no effort, and the payoff is huge! This makes a delicious chowder, and feeds about four. Trust me when I say you don’t need anything else but a bowl of this for your dinner.

Wholesome Wednesday: 127 Foods That Fight Fat

Published by Hal on December 19, 2007 in Wholesome Wednesday. 5 Comments

Greetings! You’ll notice I changed the title of the Wednesday segment. Since this blog is about food, and this segment is about how food interacts with your body, I thought it was more appropriate that the segment title deal direction with food. Thus, Wholesome Wednesday was born.

Yahoo Health has a great article on 127 foods that fight fat. Problem is, they don’t really break it down in an easy to read format. Plus, if you want to learn math, this isn’t the article for you: I only count 54 foods, or food types.

I’ll cover these foods and my thoughts on them over the course of the next two weeks in a multi-part Wholesome Wednesday segment. Today, we’ll begin with the first 4 sections of the “Any Time List.”

Fruits and vegetables
All fruits and vegetables—raw, cooked, fresh, frozen, canned—belong on the Picture Perfect Anytime List. Avoid any packaged fruits that have added sugar. Otherwise, the more fruits and vegetables you eat, the better.

I think this is very sound advice. Fruit has countless benefits: it provides fiber for your body, provides antioxidants that fight aging and cancer, and generally fills you up without making you uncomfortable. I heard on the radio the other day–and I’ve heard this more than once–that those folks who eat an apple before each meal ate something like 300 calories less, on average, than those who didn’t. And, it had to be an apple–apple sauce, apple juice didn’t work.

Soups
You’ve heard of value for your money. Soups give you very good value for the calories. They are filling; a bowl of soup can be an entire meal. They are satisfying. For many people, they are more satisfying than raw vegetables, while many give you all the benefits of veggies (if you choose the soups chock full of vegetables). They are inexpensive, convenient, easy, and quick to make. Soups don’t make you feel like you’re on a diet. Above all, soups are versatile. They can serve as a snack, as part of a meal, or as a cooking ingredient.

The idea here is to fill yourself up on food that’s got high volume but low calories. This works in most soups because they are broth based and broth is mostly water. However, you need to be careful not to mistake this advice for cream based soups. While tasty, and a delicious occasional treat, cream based soups are loaded with fat and calories–and I think they defeat the purpose of eating a soup before a meal. Incidentally, I’ve heard the same thing about eating a broth-based soup before a meal as I have about eating an apple before a meal. Maybe we should all try it–we’ll be healthier as a result, at least!

Sauces, Condiments, and Marinades
Put the following items at the very top of your shopping list. They’re invaluable for adding flavor, moisture, texture, and versatility to every food and every meal.

  1. Salad dressings: oil-free or low-calorie (light or lite)
  2. Mayonnaise: fat-free or light
  3. Sour cream and yogurt: fat-free, plain, or with NutraSweet (or low-fat nondairy substitutes)
  4. Mustards: Dijon, Pommery, and others
  5. Tomato puree, tomato paste, and tomato sauce
  6. Clam juice, tomato juice, V8 juice, and lemon or lime juice
  7. Butter Buds or Molly McButter
  8. Cooking sprays (such as Pam) in butter, olive oil, garlic, or lemon flavors
  9. Vinegars: balsamic, cider, wine, tarragon, and others
  10. Horseradish: red and white
  11. Sauces: salsa, cocktail sauce, tamari, soy sauce, A1, Worcestershire sauce, barbecue sauce, ketchup, duck sauce, chutney, relish, and others
  12. Onion: fresh, juice, flakes, and powder
  13. Garlic: fresh, juice, flakes, and powder
  14. Herbs: any and all, including basil, oregano, tarragon, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, dill, chives, sage, and bay leaves
  15. Spices: any and all, including cinnamon, cloves, ginger, cumin, nutmeg, coriander, curry, paprika, and allspice
  16. Extracts: vanilla, almond, peppermint, maple, coconut, cocoa powder, and others

I think this is a fun list. However, I do not have a lot of these items, which goes back to the well-stocked pantry debate. Only use from this list what makes sense for you. Line-by-line:

  1. Salad dressings: Definitely, have some salad dressings on hand. However, only buy what you’re going to use and what you can’t make easily. We have ranch dressing on hand, but we can just as easily whip up a vinaigrette as we can pour processed soybean oil from a bottle.
  2. Mayonnaise: Only have mayonnaise if you’re going to use mayonnaise. We will use maybe 2 cups in a year for anything, so we only have like a 10 ounce jar.
  3. Yogurt & Sour Cream: Yogurt is a good thing to keep on hand–it’s a good snack, and there are studies that demonstrate the importance of having a low-fat source of dairy in your diet for promoting a healthful weight. We only buy sour cream when we need it, and we splurge–have you looked at the ingredients list on most sour creams? Non-fat milk and emulsifiers? No thank you. Go for Daisy, if your grocer carries it. 100% real sour cream, no additives. And, it holds up better than that emulsified crap.
  4. Mustards: Mustards are good. You can make a Dijon crusted pork chop, or use some as in emulsifier in your vinaigrette!
  5. Tomato products: Yep on tomato products. These are common in Italian style cooking, as well as Middle Eastern cuisine. You can make something delicious and tasty in no time. And, for the men–Lycopene, an compound with links to reduced rates of prostate cancer.
  6. Clam juice, tomato juice, lemon & lime juice: Hmm. This doesn’t seem like something the common cook would use very often. Buy your lemons and limes fresh if you need the juice. Unless you’re making margaritas for the Titans.
  7. Butter flavored sprinkles: I say no to butter flavored compounds. Use the real stuff, just go easy. And I’m serious–use butter, not spread, not margarine. Your tastebuds will thank me.
  8. Cooking sprays: I also say no to cooking sprays. The chemical propellant is a disaster with non-stick surfaces. Get a Misto and go to town. It’s much better, and your cookware will thank you.
  9. Vinegars: I agree whole heartedly–have a variety of vinegars on hand.
  10. Horseradish: This depends on how much you’ll use it. I’ll tell you what–American horseradish is something awful to me, but when we were in Austria over the summer, the horseradish they use with their sausages was delectable! It was sweeter and milder than American horseradish. Get some, if you like sausage.
  11. Lots ‘o sauce: I have three of these: ketchup, soy, and Worcestershire sauces. The rest you can make or buy as you need them.
  12. Onions: Definitely have some onion powder and fresh onions. You can dice them really small and grate them for their juice. Don’t waste your money.
  13. Garlic: See number 12
  14. Dried herbs: Only have as much as you’ll use, or use what you have. Herbs don’t really go bad, but they do lose their potency after a while. You can always plant fresh, too. I think this will be my spring project (but it will have to be a window garden, cause we don’t have the space!).
  15. Spices: Same as number 14. Spices do the same thing. They just taste so much better when they are fresh, anyway.
  16. Other aromatics: I have vanilla extract and cocoa powder. Vanilla is the most versatile plant, because it goes with almost everything.

Dressings and Dips
I recommend fat-free or light dressings and dips. The light category—low-fat, reduced-fat, and low-calorie—is midway between totally fat-free and regular, and it’s often more pleasing to the palate than fat-free. Dressings can be used as all-purpose condiments, dips, toppings, even cooking liquids. They already contain a mixture of ingredients, so just slather them on vegetables, seafood, and pretty much anything else. Or cook with them to make up for the lack of butter or oil. I recommend keeping several varieties of dressings and dips on hand, including at least one creamy version. Try brushing a light creamy dressing on seafood, then broiling; the dressing adds moisture and flavor.

I agree, but we also discussed this in number one above. I think a more fitting item here is to keep soup and dressing packets on hand, to mix with your sour cream and/or mayonnaise. Plus, you can use the packets for other recipes, as well. I think that’s the more frugal choice.

Check back next week when we look at the next four categories in this article. (And, of course, check back daily for other features here at the Common Culinarian!)

Recipes: Bourbon Pork

Published by Hal on December 10, 2007 in Hal's Hint and recipes. 2 Comments

I love bourbon–it’s actually one of my favorite liquors. I’d love to style a restaurant with bourbon as the key ingredient. Keeping that in mind, I looked for a bourbon glaze that I could us with some pork chops we picked up from the grocery the other night. I found one here, that I modified slightly to fit my particular available ingredients.

Bourbon Pork

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup bourbon
  • 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup onion, grated
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar (light or dark–I used light; the recipe above called for dark)
  • 1/2 cup butter, melted
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 4-6 boneless pork chops, trimmed and cut into about 1 inch cubes
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • rice
  1. Combine the bourbon, garlic, onion, brown sugar, butter, and honey in a large bowl. Whisk together.
  2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
  3. Add the pork to the skillet and allow to brown (Hal’s Hint: Take the meat out of the fridge at least 10 minutes before you put it in the pan. Once it’s in the pan, LEAVE THE MEAT ALONE! Let it hang out for about 5 minutes before you attempt to turn it. If you don’t, the meat might stick and tear or won’t brown as quickly).
  4. Add the bourbon glaze and allow to come to a boil.
  5. Stir until the glaze is reduced by about half.
  6. Serve with cooked rice.

(Hal’s Hint: I like to add spices to my rice to make it more aromatic. I added a stick of cinnamon and three small bay leaves to this batch of rice, making it a little sweeter and full of flavor. Remove these before serving.)

Bring the glaze to a boil and reduce by half.Serve along side aromatic rice.Another view.

My thoughts: My wife really liked this. I thought it was a pretty good interpretation of a bourbon sauce dish you’d get at a Chinese-American restaurant, so I call this “Carryout at home.” However, it was too sweet for my tastes. My wife and I suspect this is because I used 1 cup of sweet stuff (1/4 cup of honey, plus 3/4 cup of brown sugar). I did this because I needed more liquid to carry the flavor of the bourbon and I didn’t want to grate another onion–I had grated one, plus the half of one from last night’s dinner. In hindsight, I probably could have done without, used water, or added something savory (like diluted soy sauce–1 tablespoon soy sauce to 3 tablespoons water).

Regardless, I thought it was tasty. It was just too sweet for me usually. I have another bourbon glaze I’d like to try, but it’s more like a barbecue sauce so I’ll need to wait until I have a brisket or some ribs. Plus, my wife doesn’t like barbecue sauce much, so I’ll need to a new guinea–I mean, taster :).