Weather is Cooling and Time for Soups

Having allowed my website to lapse, due to many complaints (mine) and difficulties, I am using solely my blog for publishing recipes these days. Also, without all those recipes on my website available anymore, I have been trying to get them published here in my blog, so they continue to be available. 
 

Add Beef with Sweet Cabbage

What with all the website recipes not there anymore, the other problem is that I have a whole lot of places where there are links to a recipe on the website - and the website is not there any longer, and this is not good in any way, so I have been going over my blogs, starting from the very first post, correcting link errors wherever I can find them. There were and still are, lots of posts that are missing photos - only heaven knows what happens "out there" online! All I can say is that it is a very slow and tedious process, going through all my posts, updating, updating. And something else - I realize that there is a  glaring lack of certain recipes. Even when I though I had all my lists made, something else comes up. One is one of my Mom's recipes. In flavor, it was one of my favorites. However, she made it with beef short ribs, notorious for a lot of fat and bone, with a little meat that you really have to fight for. That made the recipe one I didn't try to make for a long time. Then one day I thought, "Hey, what if I used a different meat?" 

Living in Guatemala at the time, I used what I later found was brisket. I find brisket, especially when cooked in a soup, gives really great flavor. I happened on it by chance in Guatemala, as I was young and with little cooking experience, but I stuck with that meat ever since, because it turns out so delicious. Mom called the recipe "Beef with Sweet Cabbage."

Beef with Sweet Cabbage

Serves 8 - 10

1 (2 – 3 pound) brisket

Beef with Sweet Cabbage

1 large onion, diced
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
¾ cup ketchup, or as needed
¼ cup of sugar
2 – 4 tablespoons vinegar
A few grinds of pepper
2 - 3 large potatoes, peeled, cut in 1-inch dice
1 small head of cabbage, in cubes

Place the brisket, onion, bay leaves and salt into a large soup pot with a tight fitting lid. Add water to just cover. Bring to a boil on high heat, then lower heat to a simmer, cover and cook for at least 2 hours, or until the meat is tender. Remove the meat and bay leaves from the pot. Set the meat on a platter until cool enough to handle.

Slice the meat across the grain into 2 – 3-inch sections. Break the sections into smaller pieces and pull the meat apart into strips. Return the meat to the pot.

Add in the ketchup. The soup should be nicely reddish. If it is not, add more. Add in the sugar and some of the vinegar. The goal in this dish is a nice sweet/sour balance between sugar, salt and vinegar. If the dish needs more vinegar, add a little at a time. Conversely, if it needs more sugar, add more. Remember it is easier to add more, but it cannot be taken back out. Start small and build the flavor. Grind in some fresh black pepper. Add in the cabbage and potatoes, stir, bring pot back to boiling, lower to a simmer, cover and cook for at least another half hour, or until the cabbage and potatoes are very tender.

NOTE: If you can only find a large cabbage, use only half, or as much cabbage as preferred.


My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

Crock Pot to the Rescue - Again

There are days I am just unprepared. No ideas in mind for dinner at all. It's already after 10:30 AM and I have nothing thawed. What to do?

I went to the freezer and mulled a bit. We have a freezer full of a half a cow, so it isn't that there aren't options. Still. It's been such a long winter. Far too cold except very recently to even consider grilling. I have made my One Skillet Hamburger Meal about 15 times in the last few months. At least it seems that way. I've made stews over and over. A couple of roasts, either in the crock pot or oven. The trouble is that most of the meat is either hamburger or roasts. Some of them are cut strangely and look far different than what you see in the supermarket. Anyway, to make a long story shorter, I got out a chuck roast.

Crock Pot BBQ Chuck served on Root Vegetable Flatbread

The roast was probably about 2½ or 3 pounds, though I forgot to weigh it to see. It was very thick, but small enough around to set into my crock pot. To speed things up just a bit, I put the roast into the microwave to defrost just a little. I never thaw something completely in the microwave. I hate to even use the microwave at all, frankly. With that in mind, I set it to defrost something that weighed 1 pound. I turned it over twice during that short period. It was still hard as a rock when I was done, but I know it had to have some effect. 

Next I wondered what to do for flavor. My husband has always loved roast beef, but since he had some bad teeth, then had to have one extracted, and it didn't heal as well as it might have, due to constantly chomping down on things, he has been rather resistant to the idea of a roast. The pieces are larger, and it's too much bother to cut them smaller for eating. So I have made a couple of roasts, but he doesn't come back for leftovers. Not good, because that usually means I need to make something else. And who gets to eat the leftovers? 

I recently had made a new batch of my:

Sweet Tangy BBQ Sauce

Sweet Tangy BBQ Sauce

Makes 5 cups

2 tablespoons olive oil (or other cooking oil of choice)
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 jalapeno, seeds & membranes removed, finely minced
½ cup pineapple juice
¼ cup orange juice
3 tablespoons lime juice
3 tablespoons Barbecue Spice Mix (below)
1½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon celery seed
3 tablespoons yellow mustard
1 tablespoon tamarind paste
½ cup honey
3 cups ketchup
1 teaspoon liquid smoke, optional
6 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter cut into ½-inch cubes

Mince the garlic and the jalapeno together and set aside. Heat a large saucepan. Chop the onion finely. Put the oil into the hot pan and add the onion, along with the salt and sauté at medium heat for 15 - 20 minutes, or until the onion is deep golden brown. Add in the reserved garlic and jalapeno and sauté for 5 minutes more. Add in the juices and stir to dissolve any browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Add in the Barbecue Spice Mix, black pepper, ground ginger and celery seed and stir to combine. Add in the mustard and tamarind paste and stir to dissolve the tamarind. Add in the honey and ketchup, with the liquid smoke if using. Stir to combine all the ingredients. Bring the mixture to a boil, being very careful it does not splatter on you. Cover the pan, reduce heat and allow to simmer for about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from heat, remove lid and add in 2 little cubes of the cold butter at a time, stirring to dissolve before adding more.

Allow the sauce to cool before storing in the refrigerator. If desired, it may be frozen until needed. 

Barbecue Spice Mix

Barbecue Spices

Makes ½ cup

4 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons smoked paprika (Pimenton de la Vera)
2 teaspoons ancho chile powder
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon ground cassia cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground thyme
¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
¼ teaspoon ground dried ginger
¼ teaspoon dried chipotle powder

Directions: Combine all herbs and spices together and store in a glass jar with tight fitting lid.

NOTES: If using as a spice rub for a meat, mix into the entire amount: ¼ cup each of Kosher Salt and light brown sugar. Mix well and rub all over one whole chicken, cut up and allow to rest overnight, refrigerated, before grilling.

I was thinking BBQ, though I had never really done this with beef. I decided to chop a half onion left in the fridge and threw that into the bottom of the crock pot. I set the roast on top of the onions, to allow some juices to get underneath the meat while cooking. I poured on 1 cup of the BBQ Sauce. I happened to have a bottle of Fonseca Bin 27 Port setting on the counter (we hadn't gotten around to finishing the bottle), so I poured in 1/2 cup of the port. I added 3 cloves of garlic, sliced very thinly, 2 little bay leaves and a teaspoon of salt. Put the lid on, turned it to the higher temperature and hoped for the best.

After 6 hours, the meat was tender and there was plenty of sauce in the pot, though it was thinner than my husband likes. It did have a lot of fat floating on top, so I took some paper towels and did a quick slide over the surface to pick up fat. It took quite a few of those half-sheets sized paper towels to get most of the extra fat off there. I took the roast out and mixed up about 3/4 cup of water with a half cup of flour and whisked that into the pot. Still on high, it came back to a simmer quickly, so I covered it and let it go. Meanwhile, I started pulling the meat off the bones and other thick things in there - I tell you, this "chuck" looks nothing like chuck in the grocery. All in all, there wasn't that much meat, considering the size of the original roast. It was still plenty though, so once I had it off bones, and took off any fat, I shredded the meat and added it back to the pot. It tasted really great. I am sure the port was not 100% necessary, but it would add just that little sweetness, so it's up to you.

Crock Pot BBQ Chuck

Crock Pot BBQ Chuck

Serves about 6

1 chuck roast 2½ to 3 pounds
1 cup Sweet Tangy BBQ Sauce, or your favorite brand
½ cup port, or other liquid
1 small onion, diced
2 - 3 gloves garlic, sliced thinly
1 or 2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon salt

To Thicken:
½ to ¾ cup water
½ cup flour

Place the onion in the bottom of the crock pot and set the roast on top. Pour the BBQ sauce and port over the roast and add in the garlic, bay leaves and salt. Cover and cook about 6 hours on high if the roast is frozen or mostly frozen, or on low if the meat is thawed. Turn the meat over once during this period so both sides are flavored well. 

Once cooked through, remove the roast from the pot and set on a plate until cool enough to handle. Meanwhile, whisk together briskly the water and flour. If it is too lumpy, pour it through a strainer into the crock pot to thicken the sauce, whisking at first to blend well. Cover the pot while working with the meat, allowing the sauce to thicken and the starchy taste to cook out.

Remove any bones or large chunks of fat from the meat. Shred the meat as desired, then add it back to the pot to reheat through. This is good on a bun, or on my Root Vegetable Flatbreads.



My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

Spaghetti - Ahhh

Who doesn't love spaghetti? Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, I mean, and obviously, outside of vegetarians. Just the smell of the sauce cooking is evocative. Early in our relationship, I found my husband loves spaghetti....just not the way I made it. I pride myself on my cooking, so that was quite a blow. I thought it was pretty good. But, his preference was Ragu. His main beef (pardon the pun) about my spaghetti sauce is that it became watery on the plate. He does not like that watery residue. I cannot quite understand the problem, but problem it was, anyway. Why it would take so long for me to figure out how to remedy this difficulty is a question I cannot answer, except for sheer ennui. I hate trying to get specific enough answers about what, precisely, is right or wrong, as that usually ends in frustration. He likes things just a certain way; there is no rhyme nor reason. It has been far easier to buy a jar of Ragu periodically than to mess with the status quo.

Spaghetti Sauce over Linguine with Parmigiano-Reggiano

So here I am, over 20 years later, and it strikes me that I could probably approximate the Ragu sauce he loves! And, when I do something like this, as with my Sloppy Joes recently, and he cannot tell it is not the name-brand jar or can he loves so much, but my own concoction - I consider that a win. I have been writing a lot lately, it seems, about what my husband doesn't like. I am writing mainly to show that there is a way to appease even the pickiest eaters. Maybe not all the time, but it is possible. For me, this is a challenge; moreso lately since I have been focused on creating my own recipes. Everyone has likes and dislikes. Some people have more dislikes than others. This is life. When life hands you lemons - turn them into candy! (More on that subject in another blog. . .)

Closeup of Spaghetti Sauce

Then there is the subject of pasta. Spaghetti pasta is great. However, it seemed that after a time I started noticing that hubby didn't seem to like the round noodles so much; too slippery. I switched to using linguine, and that seems to be working far better, so we use linguine when I make "Spaghetti."  Regardless, I did come up with a viable sauce that hubby liked a lot, so I post this here in the hopes that maybe others with similar difficulties will try this out. Obviously, you do not need a problem to make this an option. The sauce was, in my humble opinion, spectacular. The only thing better would be to use fresh herbs, but none were available when I made this sauce. Fresh basil, fresh oregano, and maybe some fresh marjoram would have made this even better. My husband loves green pepper, so green peppers are in this sauce, as well as mushrooms. These are personal preferences and can easily be left out. To counteract the "watery sauce" I added a little flour after browning the meat, so once the liquids were added, it would thicken. If you need a gluten free sauce, omit the flour. If you still want it thickened, use cornstarch mixed with a little of  the tomato sauce and add it in to cook.

Spaghetti Sauce

Spaghetti Sauce

Serves 8

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 pounds lean hamburger
2 onions, chopped
1½ tablespoons (4½ teaspoons) flour
4 - 6 cloves garlic
2 green bell peppers, stems and seeds removed, chopped
8 pitted green olives, minced
1 teaspoon capers, minced
1 (29-ounce) can tomato sauce +
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
1 (13.25 ounces) mushroom stems & pieces, drained
1 cup water
3 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons sugar, optional (rounds out the flavor)
2 teaspoons fennel seeds, lightly crushed
1½ teaspoons dried basil (use 1/2 cup, fresh)
1½ teaspoons dried oregano (1/3 - 1/2 cup, fresh)
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon ancho chili powder (NOT pre-mixed "Chili Powder")

In a large pot, heat the olive oil and add the meat. Brown the meat over medium high heat, breaking up any chunks well while stirring. Add in the onions and continue cooking for 2 - 3 minutes longer. Add the garlic, and cook 1 minute more. Stir in the flour, until it is no longer visible. Add all the rest of the ingredients and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, cover the pot and cook slowly for at least an hour, to meld flavors. Serve over your favorite pasta and pass the Parmigiana-Reggiano! Garlic Bread on the side is great, and a nice Chianti would be lovely alongside.

NOTE: This recipe could me made up to the point of adding in the flour, then placed into a large crock pot. Add all the rest of the ingredients to the crock pot, cover and cook on low for 5 hours or so.



My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

Warming Vegetable Soup on Another Cold Night

We had a brief spate of warmer weather, getting into the low 40s for about 3 days, but that is gone again, and we are back to sub-zero temperatures. It was at -12 when I went to bed last night, and tonight may reach -21. Again. Sigh. So, a nice warming soup is always appreciated on nights such as these, and yesterday I made my vegetable soup; a one-pot meal at its best!

Beef Vegetable Soup with Beans & Barley

My vegetable soup varies depending on what I have available. It could be beef vegetable or chicken vegetable. It might have more, or just other vegetables, depending on what is in the fridge when I decide. I like lots of flavors, all lending their goodness to the finished product. My husband likes a soup you can just about stand a spoon in, so adding everything but the kitchen sink is not a problem. He is a picky eater and likes

Saffron

few vegetables, most of which are the starchy ones like potatoes, peas and corn. When I add veggies all cut small, I can add things he would not normally eat, and he still enjoys it immensely. I find this a terrific opportunity to add vegetables to his diet. He also loves things like barley, beans and/or lentils added in the soup, as do I.

Some of the veggies I might add or substitute if they had been on hand are butternut squash, parsnips, green beans, zucchini, Napa cabbage and/or sweet potato. Things he won't tolerate, even when all mixed up like this are broccoli or cauliflower, but those could be added also, if they are favorites of yours. When I was in Guatemala, a favorite soup that was made often was called "Cocido", meaning "Cooked". Not that exciting a name, yet the resultant soup was similar to mine in flavors, but with all the vegetables left mostly whole. They would cook a chunk of beef with whole onion, carrots, a quarter or half of a cabbage, potatoes, some kind of squash, corn on the cob (maybe cut into 2 or 3 chunks), and many other things. I loved that soup. Another inspiration was my paternal Grandmother's soup. She added far less vegetables, but the broth was stupendous! Saffron was one of her

Figures 1 & 2: Browning meat & onion; adding vegetables

magic ingredients, and I love saffron with a passion, ever since that early introduction.

So, over the years I have made a vegetable soup, with ever-changing ingredients as the contents of my fridge or the seasonal availability changed. This is the soup I made last evening. During winter, I make this soup with a can of corn, where in the summer I might cut the kernels off fresh cobs. In summer I might add fresh tomatoes, chopped, where in winter I use a can of petite diced tomatoes. Dried beans can be added instead of a can, if desired - the soup will cook long enough that the beans will cook through. Be flexible. Be warned though: this makes a huge pot. By the time all the vegetables are added, you have a very large pot full and could feed at least 8 or 10 hungry people.

Beef Vegetable Soup with Beans & Barley

Makes a large pot of soup, to feed 8 to 10

Figures 3 & 4: garlic, ginger, cilantro, parsley

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 or 2 pounds beef stew meat, more or less as desired
1 large onion, roughly chopped
3 - 4 stalks celery, sliced
2 - 3 carrots, diced 
1 large bell pepper (or more than one, using different colors)
¼ of a cabbage, cubed 
1 - 2 potatoes, depending on size, peeled, diced8 cups water (2 quarts)
1 can (14.5 ounces) petite diced tomatoes with liquid
1 can (15.5 ounces) whole kernel corn, drained
3 -4 cloves garlic, finely minced
fresh ginger, equal to the volume of garlic, minced
1 large handful each cilantro and parsley, minced
2 bay leaves
a few sprigs of fresh thyme (leave whole and fish out later, or strip leaves and add)
3 - 4 teaspoons salt
a few grinds of black pepper
¼ - ½ teaspoon saffron, crushed

Figure 5: Bring to a boil

½ cup pearl barley (I prefer the long-cooking kind) 
1 can (15.5 ounces) white beans, drained and rinsed 
1½ cups frozen peas
 
In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil on medium high. Add the meat cubes and cook quickly, browning thoroughly. Add the onion and toss quickly, browning lightly. You want to see a fair amount of brown in the bottom of the pan. This gives both flavor and color to the soup. Add in half the water, to start, stirring up the brown in the pan. Begin adding in vegetables: celery, bell pepper, carrots, cabbage, potatoes (Figures 1 & 2). Add in the cans of tomatoes and corn.

Beef Vegetable Soup with Beans and Barley

Chop together the garlic, ginger, cilantro and parsley until fine and add to the pot (Figures 3 & 4). Add the bay leaves, thyme, salt, pepper and saffron. Add the pearl barley if using the long cooking kind. If not, wait for at least an hour before adding the barley. Cover the pot and bring to a simmer (Figure 5). Keep the soup simmering for at least 2 to 3 hours on very low heat. Wait to add the drained and rinsed beans and the peas until about 10 minutes prior to serving, just to heat through.



My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.