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Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

BEST Beef Stew Recipe

February 16, 2013 by Mary Frances 21 Comments

Best beef ste on a plate with mashed potatoes - adapted Lee Bailey's recipes.Last weekend, I promised you this BEST Beef Stew recipe, so here it is! As Monday is a holiday, I hope that you’ll find time to make it this weekend. It is so rich and delicious.

These recipes can also easily be cut in half if you don’t have a big crowd, as I did last weekend for just the two of us and we finished the last of our leftovers for lunch today. Yummy.

It really is better to make it a day or two before you plan on serving it, for this allows you to degrease it and let the flavors meld together and the whole thing becomes even richer.

The basis for these recipes, comes from Lee Bailey’s cookbook, Long Weekends, but I have made many changes, particularly in the BEST Beef Stew recipe. Omit the ancho chilis if you don’t like a bit of spice. I think the mashed potato recipe is brilliant with the addition of the cauliflower. It makes them lighter and even more delicious. If you think the title of stew is too plebeian, call it a braise or even beef bourguignon. Enjoy!!

BEST BEEF STEW RECIPE – serves 8

4 pounds boneless rump pot roast or chuck pot roast, cut into 1 x 2-inch chunks
2 cups hearty red wine
½ lb. pancetta, cut into ¼” dice
2 tbs. olive oil
2 large onions, thinly sliced
7 carrots, scraped and sliced ¼” thick
¼ cup unsalted butter
¼ cup all-purpose flour
3 cups chicken or veal stock
3 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tbs. tomato paste
2 small dried ancho chilis
1½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. black pepper
1 lb. white mushrooms, sautéed – see recipe below

Place the beef in a crockery bowl, add the wine, cover, and marinate, refrigerated, for 3 hours.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Boil some water. Place dried ancho chilis in a bowl and cover with ½ – ¾ cup of water and let sit to soften for 20 minutes.

Place olive oil in a Dutch oven and add pancetta. Sauté until golden on medium heat. Remove with a slotted spoon.

Drain the meat, reserving the marinade. Dry the meat well and brown it in batches over high heat. Set aside.

Add the onions and carrots to the Dutch oven and sauté until wilted and beginning to brown, about 7 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon.

Meanwhile, take ancho chilis (remove the stem and a few seeds) and ½ cup of the water they were soaking in and puree in a food processor. Set aside.

Pour out any oil that may be in the Dutch oven. Melt butter over medium heat in the Dutch oven and stir in flour. Cook, scraping the bottom of the pan, using a whisk, until the roux turns a dark golden brown. Add the tomato paste and stir for a minute. Stir in the stock. This will foam up, so stand back. Simmer a minute or two, then stir in the garlic, ancho chili puree and salt and pepper. Add the sautéed vegetables, meat, bacon, and reserved marinade. Bring to a boil quickly on top of the stove. Cover and bake until tender, about 2 hours. Allow to cool, then refrigerate overnight.

Remove the stew from the refrigerator an hour before reheating. Lift off the congealed fat and discard. Reheat in a preheated 325 degree oven, covered, until bubbly, about 45 minutes.

image_pdfimage_print
 

SAUTEED MUSHROOMS
While the stew is reheating, wash your mushrooms quickly and let dry thoroughly on paper towels. Trim ends and quarter. Heat 2 tbs. butter and 1 tbs. of olive oil in a heavy skillet on medium–high to high heat. As soon as the butter foam subsides, add the mushrooms and spread out over the bottom of the pan and do not touch the pan for 3 minutes. Then stir and flip the browned mushrooms over until they start to release the fat they have absorbed and brown some more, about 3 – 4 minutes more. Remove from heat and lift the mushrooms out of the skillet and stir in the finished stew.

If the sauce in your stew has reduced and is a bit too thick, thin it out with an extra cup of hot chicken stock.

Beef stew - marinated cubes of beef drying on paper towels.Browning carrots and onions for beef stew.

Browning the roux for beef stew.
Beef stew - browned meat  Beef stew finished in a pot

MASHED POTATOES AND CAULIFLOWER – adapted from Lee Bailey
– serves 8

As Lee Bailey says, you can boil the potatoes for this, but baking is better. Save the skins (sliced into strips), and at a later date butter and salt them and toast them for hors d’oeuvres. You can even grate a little cheese on top too.

2 generous cups cauliflower florets and tender stems
Whole or 2% milk
3 pounds russet potatoes, rubbed with oil and baked
1 large head roasted garlic
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Rub scrubbed clean potatoes with oil, pierce the ends with a fork and bake for 45 – 60 minutes until done. The skin should feel crisp and the flesh beneath it should feel soft. At the same time, take a whole head of garlic and slice in half. Drizzle a little olive oil on the cut ends, salt and pepper and wrap in aluminum foil. Roast the garlic with the potatoes for 40 minutes, until soft and browned a little.

Cover the cauliflower with milk in a large saucepan.  Bring to a boil, being careful not to let it cook over (that’s why you use a large saucepan for this).  Turn back to slow boil and cook until just tender, about 10 minutes.

Scoop out the hot potato flesh into a large, warm bowl. Squeeze the soft garlic pulp into the potatoes, using as much or as little as you like. I use the whole head. Cut butter into pieces and mash in with a hand masher (do not use an electric mixer, as it will make the mixture glutinous). Drain the cauliflower, reserving milk. Mash in with the potatoes, adding about ¾ cup of the cauliflower milk. Add a little more milk if you would like the potatoes creamier. Salt and pepper to taste.

Butter a casserole and scrape the mixture in. Smooth the top and rub with a bit of butter to make a thin film on top. Set aside, covered with a tea towel, until ready to reheat.  (This may be done an hour before dinner).

To reheat, put into a preheated 325 degree oven, uncovered, for 20 minutes.

Beef stew spinach salad with basil, beets pecorino, cashewsI served this with a baby spinach salad with basil leaves, roasted beets, Pecorino Romano cheese and toasted cashews, drizzled with a sherry vinaigrette. Toasted pine nuts would have been better, but I didn’t have any already toasted.

TIP: When toasting nuts for a recipe, always toast extra to have them ready to use on salads or green beans for another dinner. They will keep fine in a sealed plastic container.

 

Filed Under: Dinner, Meat, Salads, Sides Tagged With: baby spinach salad, beef stew, Julia Child, Lee Bailey's Long Weekends, mashed potatoes with cauliflower, pecorino Romano, roux, sauteed mushrooms, tips, toasting nuts

The fettuccine recipe

July 28, 2012 by Mary Frances 6 Comments

UPDATE: Thanks to Jenny Dechico for helping us find a new and improved name for this dish!

There was an article in the NY Times a week or two ago about the wonderful fresh bounty available now at farmer’s markets and because everything looks so good, the propensity to overbuy and then how do you store and use so many vegetables? I confess I am guilty of this, and because I am the daughter of a mother who grew up during the Great Depression, (and not to mention our own depression now), I hate to waste food.

So I made this one dish pasta meal, chock loaded with vegetables. I was going to make this a meatless meal until I discovered a little bit of spicy chorizo and some sweet sopressata that needed to be used up as well. I loved incorporating the dried sausages. First of all, when you sauté them, you release the fat from the meat so use just a tiny bit of olive oil and that sausage fat adds a lot of flavor! Also, I personally loved the chewy texture the dried meats provided – different and delicious. Now I just threw this dish together on Wednesday evening and we were ravenous so I’m sorry to say I did not measure or weigh the ingredients, but I did take pictures along the way! I hope you like this dish as much as we did.
Fettuccine with garlic, eggplant, broccoli, tomatoes, sausage, and pecorino romano cheese on a white plate.

FARMER’S MARKET PASTA WITH SAUSAGES AND PECORINO ROMANO CHEESE

– serves 4 – 6 as a main course

1 tbs. olive oil
8 cloves of garlic, minced
1 medium-sized eggplant, cut in 1/2” slices, each slice cut in 1/2” strips
Peanut oil
Fine sea salt
Coarse sea salt
1 head of broccoli rabe, ends trimmed, thoroughly washed and cut in 2” pieces
7 ripe plum tomatoes, quartered or cut in 6th’s, then cut in 1/2” pieces
4” piece of spicy chorizo quartered lengthwise, and then sliced 1/4” thick
3” piece of sweet sopressata, sliced 1/8” thick and then each slice cut into 4 strips
Pecorino Romano cheese, freshly grated to taste
1 lb. dried fettuccine
4 – 6 tbs. pasta water

Okay, so this may seem like a lot for you to do but a lot of these things can happen concurrently and it really is easy.

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Place your cut eggplant in a colander in a single layer and salt generously with fine sea salt. Stack additional layers of eggplant and salt on top of each layer. Let sit and drain for at least 20 minutes or longer. This takes the bitterness out.

Put about a tablespoon of peanut oil on a rimmed baking pan. Spread all over with a small paper towel. Pat dry each piece of eggplant and put on the prepared pan with space in between. Place on the lowest rack in your oven and bake for 25 minutes, until the bottoms are nicely browned.

When it is done, scrape off with a metal spatula and place on a plate.

Meanwhile, place the broccoli rabe in a large pot. Cover with cold water, and salt with coarse sea salt. Place the pot on high heat. As soon as you start to see bubbling along the edge of the pan, remove the broccoli rabe with a slotted spoon to a strainer or colander. DO NOT DRAIN THE POT, You will use this water to boil the pasta in a little bit.

Cut your tomatoes and put in a bowl. Salt with fine sea salt. Toss and let sit.

Heat 1 tbs. olive oil in a large skillet. Put the minced garlic in and sauté on very low heat for 5 minutes.

Have your sausages and grated cheese ready.

Add the sausages to the garlic and oil, raise the heat to medium and sauté for 6 minutes more. Add the broccoli rabe and toss and cook through until tender.

Reboil the broccoli rabe water, adding more if necessary. Boil the fettuccine 2 minutes less than the package instructions and then test to your liking. I like it al dente. Save some pasta water. Drain the pasta.

Put half of the fettuccine, half of the eggplant, half of the tomatoes, half of the broccoli rabe /garlic/sausage mixture, some cheese and 2 -3 tbs. pasta water together in a large bowl and toss. Finish with the remaining ingredients. Toss thoroughly to combine. Serve and top with more cheese if needed.

Salted eggplant in a colander.

Salted eggplant strips draining – removes bittterness

Broccoli rabe in a pot.

Parboiling broccoli rabe – removes bitterness

Salted tomatoes in a bowl.

Chopped, salted plum tomatoes

Garlic cloves on a wooden cutting board.

Garlic!

Chopped sausages on a wooden cutting board.

Sausages

Romano cheese on a wooden cutting board.

Pecorino Romano cheese – I just used the piece on the right

Broccoli rabe, sausage and garlic in a skillet.

Broccoli rabe, sausages and minced garlic sauteing

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: broccoli rabe, chorizo, eggplant, fettuccine, minced garlic, pecorino Romano, plum tomatoes, roasted eggplant, soprassata, The New York Times

Pesto!!

July 15, 2012 by Mary Frances 7 Comments

Pesto on a spoon.I had a dinner party this past Wednesday night that was so much fun. One of my senior designers who worked for me years ago, I think back in the late 80’s, was in town and got in touch. She now lives in Singapore. She connected with another former designer and I got in touch with Carl, who was the second person I ever hired for the firm in the early 80’s. So with other friends, we were 8 people in total and three were past employees of PM+CO! It was just great catching up. Linda is a vegetarian and I wanted to make sure the whole meal was amassed with local farm vegetables from upstate, to bring great country flavors to a NYC dinner party. So I started with a salad of farm lettuce and arugula from my garden, topped with roasted beets, Coach Farms goat cheese, toasted pine nuts and a sherry vinaigrette. I then roasted two huge trays of vegetables – yellow squash, zucchini, Portobello mushrooms, eggplant, Vidalia onions, smashed whole garlic cloves (from Ethel’s garden), red, and orange peppers and baby turnips – with Greek olive oil and French grey salt. I made a mass of steamed Jasmine rice, folded in Goya black beans (for protein) and for the non-vegetarians, I pan roasted 2 whole chickens seasoned with salt, pepper and Garam Masala. It was all really simple. I also had made some basil pesto the night before from basil in my garden, picked on Monday. I decided to put some of that in a bowl and people spooned it on everything and even took some home! I was originally going to fold the pesto into the rice and beans but after taking a survey from everyone during the cocktail hour, we decided this was the way to go. A dollop on top on the vegetables was divine. Barbara asked for a batch as her Christmas present and Mary Beth took a container full home. People just wanted to eat it straight. I really never dreamed of that for pesto. I just wanted to serve it because I had just made a bunch and with our youngest being in Europe, we couldn’t possibly eat it all, although pesto does freeze quite well.

We finished the meal with a rhubarb crisp (really quick and easy to make) topped with a little scoop of vanilla ice cream. Not bad for a weeknight dinner party!

Here is the pesto recipe. Remember, it’s all about the quality of the ingredients for any dish you make, so use the very best you can.

PESTO
-makes about 3 cups

3 cups of packed basil leaves, thoroughly washed and dried
6 – 7 large cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups Greek extra virgin olive oil (I like Athena brand)
1 1/2 cups walnuts
1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan (Reggiano) cheese
2/3 cup grated Pecorino Romano (Locatelli) cheese
salt
pepper

In a large food processor, combine basil, garlic and walnuts. Process to make a near paste. Scrape bowl. With machine on, slowly drizzle in olive oil. Scrape bowl again. Add the cheeses, a big pinch of salt and 20 grinds on fresh pepper. Process again, taste and add more salt, if necessary, to your liking.

A one cup portion is enough to coat 1 lb. of dried pasta, cooked. I like it on fusilli best as it can get in all the little groves for maximum coverage and flavor.

This freezes well.

Basil in garden.

Basil in my garden.

Pesto pasta and tomatoes in a white bowl.

Dinner with our good friend, Nancy, on Saturday, started with this course.

Filed Under: Dinner, First Course Tagged With: basil, Garam Masala, Locatelli, parmesan, pecorino Romano, pesto, PM+CO, Reggiano, rhubarb crisp, roasted chicken, roasted vegetables, senior designers, weeknight dinner parties

Dinner in 30 minutes – REALLY!

October 12, 2011 by Mary Frances 3 Comments

This is no Rachel Ray joke!

We arrive home very late on Columbus Day, having had business meetings upstate in Hudson.

I know I have broccoli rabe at home in Manhattan. I grab a pack of frozen sausage from the country house and do not put in it in a cool pack for the ride home so it will thaw. I will make pasta with broccoli rabe and sausage. However it is a mild Italian chicken sausage, BUT I have just picked a very hot serrano pepper from my garden!

Everyone is starved as we walk in the door at 8:30. I put all the other groceries away and get to work a little before nine.  How can I get dinner on the table quick? I ask for help from Zach’s girlfriend, Agata, and she does a beautiful job peeling and slicing the 6 large garlic cloves. And I continue with the neatest thing being using the broccoli rabe near boiling water to bring to a rolling boil to cook the pasta. It also flavored the pasta as well. Dinner was on the table at 9:23, served with a lovely bottle of red wine for the four of us and it was a feast! I hope you enjoy this as much as we did. My husband said this was the very best version of this dish I have ever made! And, it has the magical pancetta in it to give it the big full flavor. Here goes.

Pasta with broccoli rabe and chicken sausage in a bowl.

PASTA WITH BROCCOLI RABE AND CHICKEN SAUSAGE
1/4 cup olive oil
6 large garlic cloves, pealed and sliced
1 serrano chili pepper minced, with seeds (remove seeds if you do not like things hot)
1 3/8” thick slice pf pancetta, cut into small dice
1 bunch broccoli rabe, washed and cut into 2” pieces
1 -11/4 lb. mild Italian chicken sausage, removed from casing and broken up into small chunks
1 lb linguini – No. 6
3 tbs. pasta water
2 oz. grated Pecorino Romano cheese.

Peel and slice the garlic cloves. Mince the pepper. Warm the olive oil with the garlic, hot pepper and pancetta on low heat for 10 – 12 minutes in a large skillet while you’re cleaning the broccoli rabe. Trim the ends of the broccoli rabe and cut into  2” pieces, Wash thoroughly, twice. Put in a large pot, cover with at least 2” of cold water. Salt with coarse sea salt. Put on very high heat. When bubbles start to form on the edges of the pot, lift the broccoli rabe out with a hand mesh strainer or slotted spoon and drain in a colander. This partially cooks the rabe and removes the bitterness. You are saving the water to cook your pasta in. Raise heat on garlic mixture to medium, add your sausage and sauté until all pink is gone. Taste for salt and pepper but remember, the Pecorino is salty and that gets put in at the end. Meanwhile, bring the broccolli rabe water to a rolling boil and cook your pasta. Add drained broccolli rabe to sausage mixture and toss the combination. Save some pasta water and drain the pasta when done. I find it best to combine all in layers. Put 1/3 pasta in a bowl with 1/3 sausage rabe mixture and  1/3 cheese and 1 TBS. pasta water, toss to combine and continue with thirds and toss. Serve with more cheese if you like at the table, but it really isn’t necessary.

This dish is so creamy and delicious – even for people who say they don’t like broccoli rabe! It almost tastes like it has butter in it but it doesn’t. You will love it!

Filed Under: Dinner, Meat, Poultry Tagged With: broccoli rabe, chicken sausage, comfort food, garlic, Italian, pancetta, pasta, pasta water, pecorino Romano, Rachel Ray

Amazing lamb ragu

September 26, 2011 by Mary Frances 5 Comments

Lamb ragu with Girelle pasta from Fairway Market in a white bowl.
This dish is scrumptious!!! You have got to try it and see the look of love on the faces of your eaters!! Comforting and bursting with flavor, it’s a perfect Fall dish. This is the kind of dish that makes you want to crawl right inside of it, cuddle up and sigh. Really. And it’s quick, easy and special enough for guests!

PASTA WITH CREAMY LAMB RAGU & MINT
– serves 4

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound ground lamb
1 28-ounce can San Marzano tomatoes, crushed by hand, with liquid
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 pound dried penne pasta or Girelle as pictured
2 – 3 tbs. fresh chopped mint (or parsley if you don’t have mint)
Freshly grated Pecorino Romano

Warm olive oil in a medium skillet and turn heat to low. A minute later, add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until it becomes translucent, about 10 – 12 minutes. Meanwhile, set a pot of water to boil for pasta and salt it.

When onion is ready, add lamb and garlic to skillet and cook, stirring to break up any clumps, until all traces of red are gone, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and their juice to lamb mixture, then adjust heat so it simmers briskly, constantly. The sauce should thicken.

Put pasta in boiling water and cook to al dente – usually 1-2 minutes less than package directions.

Taste and salt and pepper your sauce. Take the sauce off the heat, add cream, stirring completely. When pasta is done, drain well, toss it with sauce, some grated Pecorino Romano cheese and half the mint or parsley. Sprinkle the remaining chopped mint or parsley on top to finish the dish. Pass more cheese at the table.

Lamb ragu with Girelle in a bowl with grated Romano cheese and cracked black pepper.

With more grated Pecorino Romano cheese and cracked black pepper

Filed Under: Dinner, Meat Tagged With: cheese, creamy, garlic, lamb, mint, onions, pasta, pecorino Romano, ragu, San Marzano tomotoes

Pasta with Tuscan Duck Sauce

September 15, 2011 by Mary Frances Leave a Comment

This is one of my family favorites – an often request! For everyone’s birthday, I always make whatever they want. Our oldest son requested this as his first course this year. Once, for my husband, who loves duck, I made a dinner that literally took three days to make – and we still ate at 11 pm!! It was Duck Three Ways and a whole host of other things that I have blocked out of my mind now, but I do remember I was ready to shoot myself in the middle of it. However, the meal was worthy of the highest restaurant meal – like Daniel – really! And my oldest son has been asking for it since, but I think I hid all the recipes and still haven’t recuperated. It’s been four years. And that was when we were moving from Summit, NJ, back to Manhattan and living in a temporary apartment in Summit with a crappy kitchen and an electric stove. But you know, I have a old electric stove here in the country and I think that if you know what you’re doing, you adjust and survive.

Here we go. Now remember, for a weeknight dinner, cook your duck the night before and this becomes a really quick meal – under an hour with a side vegetable.

PASTA WITH TUSCAN DUCK SAUCE – 4 main-course servings
3 duck legs
1 large onion, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, minced
Salt and pepper
1 1/2 cups dry red wine
1 28-ounce can plum tomatoes, hand crushed
1 pound cut pasta, like penne or fusilli
Grated pecorino Romano cheese

Trim visible fat from duck legs, then lay them, skin side down, in a 10-inch skillet. Turn heat to medium; when duck begins to sizzle, turn heat to low and cover. Cook undisturbed about 60 – 65 minutes (check once to be sure legs aren’t burning); the skin should be golden brown. Turn and cook until duck is very tender, about 20 – 25 minutes.

Remove duck and set aside. (Or if cooking the night before, remove duck, cool and refrigerate. Scrape cooled duck fat into another container and refrigerate. Then melt duck fat in a skillet and continue. You need to cook the onions in the duck fat because that is what adds the huge flavor.) Add onion to skillet with the duck fat and turn heat to low and cover. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is soft, about 15 – 20 minutes. Add the garlic. Set a large pot of salted water to boil for the pasta.

Add wine to skillet and raise heat to high; cook until liquid is reduced by about half. Add tomatoes that you’ve crushed by hand as you’re adding them, with their juice, and some salt and pepper, and cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture is saucy, about 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning. You will need some more salt and pepper. About 5 – 7 minutes after adding tomatoes, cook pasta. When it is al dente, (usually 1- 2 minutes less than the least amount of time they tell you on the package – taste it to be sure. It should be done but just done – no raw dry pasta in the middle but it should have some tension.) Drain it.

While pasta is cooking, shred duck from bone and add it to sauce near the end. You just need to heat it through now. and serve it with the pasta, along with cheese.

Filed Under: Dinner, Poultry Tagged With: Daniel, duck, pasta, pecorino Romano

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