Cider Beef Stew

Have you ever had a six-pack of hard cider and not wanted to drink it?  No?  Me neither.  But sometimes you want to mix things up and see what else you can do with that sweet nectar.  In one of those situations/moods, I was looking for some guidance for marinating a buffalo steak in cider, and happened across a list of Woodchuck-sponsored cider recipes.  This is the first one I had a chance to try:

Recipe

1 lb stewing beef
3 tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp allspice
2-3 tbsp oil
1 bottle cider
2 tbsp ketchup
1-2 onions
1-2 potatoes
1-2 carrots
1-2 stalks of celery
mushrooms (optional; I had 'em so in they went)

Place the flour, salt, pepper, and allspice in a plastic bag, then add the beef a few pieces at a time and shake to coat.  Brown the beef in the oil.  Add the cider and ketchup, cover and cook for 1-1 1/2 hours.  Toward the end, chop the onion, potato, carrot and celery - no need to go too fine here - then add and simmer for 30 more minutes.

Notes

After this first test, I'll definitely hit that list of cider recipes again.  I wasn't always 100% sure on the recipe - it didn't seem like enough liquid to stew the meat and then soften all the veggies.  Not everything will be submerged, but even so the potatoes steam to a nice softness while the carrot and celery add some texture.  The end result was a  bit on the sweet side - maybe just from the special summer edition though, and a dryer cider might complement the allspice better in the meat.

In any case, beef stew seems to be a pretty simple concept overall.  It's definitely something I'd improvise with the liquid base and produce I have on hand.  Cider's definitely not a bad option!

Chicken & Chickpea Stew

Hmm, not much to preface this with.  Original recipe here.

Recipe

2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 lb thin chicken breast, cut into 1/2" pieces
4 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2" pieces
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp red wine (apple cider) vinegar
1/2 c water
1 15-oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 cup spinach
instant grits
more butter, salt & pepper

Heat the olive oil and butter over medium-high, then add the chicken, carrots, garlic, ginger, paprika and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.  Saute for about 15 minutes, then stir in the tomato paste, then vinegar, water, chickpeas and spinach.  Cook about 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, prepare the instant grits, and top with the stew.

Notes

This recipe uses some good ingredients without a whole lot of work...  The instant grits help - and don't laugh, they're actually pretty solid!  Gotta say, though, as delicious as the chicken smelled with my generous servings of garlic, ginger, paprika, and all, some of those flavors seemed to disappear in the finished product.  Maybe it had to do with, I carefully halved most of the main ingredients in the recipe, but when it came time to add the chickpeas, I had a brain fart and dumped in the whole can.  Thus that iteration was a bit dominated by that component.  Still good, though:

Ale-Braised Duck Sausage

Sticking with the colonial cookbook, although this one had a distinctive French theme to it...

Recipe

1 lb duck sausage
1 large onion, sliced thin
1 medium shallot, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tbsp butter
2 cups dark ale
1 tsp mustard
1/2 cup demi-glace

Cut shallow diagonal slices into the sausage and bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes (if pre-cooked).  Meanwhile, cook the onion, shallot and garlic in a skillet with the butter, high heat for a few minutes.  Then add the sausage, then the ale to deglaze, scraping up bits from the pan bottom.  Cook at medium about 10 minutes, until the ale reduces to just coat the pan.  Remove the sausage and keep warm.  Add the demi-glace and mustard and cook about 5 minutes until reduced by half.  Serve over the sausage and whatever other elements you like.

Outcome

To be honest, this did not look promising at first.  I had trouble finding duck sausage, and when I did it was raw, not pre-cooked.  And I have no real idea what demi-glace is - I didn't copy that page of the recipe.  Then the big onion I had on hand was... really gross.  But I winged it - baked the sausage a while longer, used a small (backup) onion, and said forget that French demi-glace nonsense.  I also had some extra broccoli so I tossed that in there.

After all that, I was definitely pleased with how it turned out.  The end result was really rich and flavorful.  The sausage I used had, like, duck, duck liver, other animals, lots of good stuff.  Without the totally-avoidable complications, it's actually a pretty simple meal - all I had to buy was the sausage and shallot (although the beer I had on hand was more of the pale ale variety).  Served over cous cous.  Delicious and looking forward to leftovers!

Swordfish with Sherry-Cream Sorrel

In honor of our nation's 237th birthday (OK, coincidentally), I was leafing through the colonial Philadelphia cookbook and snapping hopefully-legible pictures of the recipe for later use.  First up was swordfish.

The Recipe

swordfish steaks
bay leaves
1/2 c sherry
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup shredded sorrel (or spinach)
butter, salt & pepper

Fish goes in baking dish(es) with a couple bay leaves (for the whole lot) and spots of butter on top.  Cook at 375 for about 10-15 minutes (until a cooked egg white-like film appears on top).  Remove from heat, get rid of bay leaves and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, boil the sherry, then add the cream and simmer for about 5 minutes until it thickens.  Stir in the sorrel and bring to a boil, then serve over the swordfish.

The Outcome

I liked this one because swordfish is a more highly-regarded piece of seafood, but the recipe itself is very simple.  You could just prepare the fish on its own (my one note is, as is endemic to cookbooks, it seemed to underestimate the cooking time).  Indeed, I was skeptical about the sherry-cream spinach element, but it actually came out as a kind of nice, tangy green element to the meal.  I didn't give it enough time to really thicken, but just tried to scoop out the leaves (of spinach, the suggested alternative).  Here's how it came out with a serving of sweet potato fries on the side:

Chicken Milanese

After overlooking the 3-hour cook time for Goop-style brisket, I made her Chicken Milanese my fallback plan for the night:

Recipe

chicken breasts/cutlets
bread crumbs
milk
olive oil

Fold the chicken between parchment paper (leaving plenty of space around...) and pound the crap out of it.  Gwyneth prescribes a pseudo-scientific 1/6" thickness, but I think the key takeaway is to make it as thin as you can before your neighbors complain.  Dip the chicken in milk, dredge through bread crumbs, and pan-fry in about 1/4 cup oil.  If it's thin enough, it should just be a couple minutes per side.

On the Side

Gwyneth lists a couple options to pair some produce with your chicken.  I started with her roasted cherry tomatoes and arugula, but substituted based on what I had on hand (which also happens to be some of my favorites).  I ended up tossing the tomatoes along with chopped sweet potatoes and carrots with some olive oil and spices.  Roasted it at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes - until the tomatoes split and the sweet potato was soft - then stirred in a few handfuls of spinach.

Here's the finished product:

Fried Catfish

For health and practical reasons, I've generally opted more for pan-frying than deep-frying.  Fried catfish is totally worth a shot in my book, though.  I had to range a little farther than Morton Williams across Second, but Food Emporium had the seafood and Kalustyan's (an incredible place) had other key elements like cornmeal and smoked paprika.  The Internet provided these guidelines.  Note that the recipe is as I did it for just one medium-to-large fillet; multiply out as needed.

Recipe

1 catfish fillet
<1/4 cup fine-ground cornmeal
<1/4 cup flour (you need a bit less than the cornmeal)
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp paprika
1 sprinkle cayenne pepper
milk
salt
oil (they recommend peanut; I used vegetable)
hot sauce (optional/to taste)

• Heat about a half-inch of oil in a skillet - until anything you put in it sizzles.
• Soak the fillet in milk.
• Mix the cornmeal, flour and spices.
• Sprinkle the fillets with salt and dredge through the meal mixture.
• Fry maybe up to 5 minutes a side (flip carefully!).
• If you have a big batch, keep the already-fried catfish warm in the oven at 200 degrees until ready to serve.
• Serve.  (With hot sauce, if desired.)

Notes

Once again, you can't take cooking times at their word.  I got an awesome sizzle when I put my fillet in the fryer, but at 3-4 minutes a side the thick part was still a little underdone.  Next time, I wouldn't worry about overcooking until the coating starts to look it.

I made it with a sandwich in mind, but ended up serving it over spinach-pepper jack mashed potatoes instead:

For once, my version actually looked like the pictures!

Quick Coconut Chicken

I LOVE breaded, fried things.  ESPECIALLY breaded, fried chicken.  BUT--unfortunately--breaded, fried things are not good for one and are not allowed Paleo-wise.  The solution?  THIS:

The coconut flakes on the outside can crisp up nicely, giving you that kick of crunchy exterior.  The inherent sweetness of the flakes adds a really interesting component not found in regular breading.  Serve with interesting dips or creamy sauces likes guacamole and it's just...WaBAM.  

Also, it's super easy and super fast.

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. chicken tenders

1/2 cup shredded UNSWEETENED coconut flakes

pinch of salt

1 egg

2 tbsp coconut oil

INSTRUCTIONS:

Heat coconut oil over medium heat.  Pat chicken dry, dip into egg mixture and roll in coconut flakes with salt until coated.  Cook a few minutes per side until done.  

NOTES:

I didn't have eggs around, so I just used extra virgin olive oil as the sticky element and it worked fine.