Ropa Vieja Stew w/Mashed Sweet Potato

"Cuisine at Home" is my favorite cooking magazine.  I've tried many others but they just don't measure up.  Cuisine also has some great cookbooks, and I just received "Soups, Stews, and Chilies".  Tonight for dinner I tried my first recipe; as expected, it was awesome!

4 strips thick-sliced bacon
1.5 pounds flank steak (or london broil), cut into 3 pieces and seasoned w/salt, pepper
1 medium-large onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 poblano chili, diced
1 jalapeno, diced
2 Tbsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1/3 cup masa harina
1 bottle beer
2 cups beef broth
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/3 cup sliced green olives w/pimiento
1 Tbsp. dried oregano
2 tsp. ground cumin
Salt to taste

** This is a very slight variation on the original ingredients due to what I had on hand. 
** London Broil is currently half the price of flank steak, so that's what I used

Preheat oven to 375.  Cook bacon in a large ovenproof pot (I use a porcelain enameled cast iron dutch oven) over medium high heat until crisp; transfer to a paper towel lined plate and set aside.  Brown steak in drippings, about 5 minutes per side; remove and set aside.  Add onion, chiles and bell pepper; saute until beginning to brown, 5 minutes.  Stir in garlic and tomato paste, cook 2 minutes, then stir in masa harina and cook 1 minute.  Deglaze pot with beer; simmer until nearly evaporated, scraping any bits from the bottom of the pot.  Add broth, bring to a boil, then return steak to the pot; cover and braise in the oven until fork-tender, about 1 hour (mine took 1.5 hours).  Remove steak from the pot, shred with 2 forks, then add back to the pot with reserved (chopped) bacon, beans, olives, oregano, and cumin.  Simmer 5 minutes, season with salt.  Serve with mashed sweet potato.

Mashed sweet potato
2 lb. sweet potato, peeled and cubed
3 Tbls unsalted butter
1 Tbls brown sugar
4 Tbls half and half
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch cayenne pepper to add a bit of spice, if desired

Boil potatoes in salted water until tender, 10 - 15 minutes.  Drain and place in bowl of mixer with butter and brown sugar.  Mix until potatoes start to mash.  Add half and half and seasoning.  Continue mixing until creamy.

Update: This is even better the 2nd day!!

~ Enjoy ~

Beef Stew

Mmmmmmmm, a perfect homestyle comfort food.  I usually like this on a chilly, cloudy day - but today ended up sunny and nice.  Oh well... the stew was still delish.  My husband doesn't like potato so I leave it out.  He likes his portion served over egg noodles and I like mine over mashed potato or brown rice.  There are many different vessels in which to make stew, but I prefer a porcelain coated cast iron dutch oven; one pot, stovetop to oven.

2 pounds stew meat
2 tablespoons light olive oil, divided
2 teaspoons butter (not margarine), divided
1-2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 onion, chopped
4 celery stalks, chopped
2-3 large carrots, chunked
4-5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup red wine
1 can diced tomato
1 1/2 cups beef broth
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 tsp italian seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste
Rice, potato or pasta for serving

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix flour, salt and pepper.  Coat stew meat well with flour mixture, set aside.  Add 1 tablespoon oil and 1 teaspoon butter in a 5 quart dutch oven over high heat.  Brown stew meat in 2 batches, adding more oil/butter between batches.  If you add all the meat at once it won't brown properly.  Set browned meat aside and add onion, celery carrot.  Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring often.  Add garlic, cook for about 1 minute more.  Add red wine, scrape up all the browned bits, and let it reduce by at least half, then add tomatoes, broth and seasoning.  Stir, cover and move to oven.  Cook for about 2 hours, checking for doneness at 1.5 hours.  Season with salt and pepper as needed.  If you got the meat coated well before browning, your stew should not need any thickening.  Serve stew over rice, pasta or potato.

~ Enjoy ~

Cheesesteak (not Philly)

There is no way I would commit blogicide by calling these Philly Cheesesteaks, but I think it's safe to say they were inspired by the ones from Philly. 

When I first met my husband I didn't eat a lot of red meat, generally only hamburgers or meatballs, because I just didn't know I liked beef if it wasn't ground and in a patty or a ball.  Boy, have I come a long way over the last 13 years.  Anyway, the first time he took me to a cheesesteak shop I got a chicken cheesesteak.  He just shook his head and begged me to try his sandwich.  Since that time, I've never had one made with chicken again.  Now we like making our own...

You will see carrot in the ingredient list, and it's not a mistake.  I didn't type carrot intending to write bell pepper.  Sometime within the last year I was making this for dinner and I'd just pulled some carrot out of the garden so thought I would use it in my cheesesteak meat mix.  It was so good.  My husband tried it this last time and he agreed, saying it's better with carrot than bell pepper.  So, here's the way we do it:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 carrot, finely diced or shredded
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced green or red bell pepper (optional)
1 pound sliced London Broil from the deli
1 teaspoon italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper, more or less to taste
4 soft french sub rolls
Sliced havarti or provolone

Preheat a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat.  Add olive oil, then veggies.  Saute just until soft, then add beef and seasonings.  Cook over medium heat until beef is heated through and well mixed with the veggies. 

For the cheese you can either:

• move beef into piles, cover the piles with cheese and put a lid on the skillet heating until the cheese melts.  Take the meat/cheese mix and put it on the sub roll, or
• put cheese on the sub roll, then top with the hot meat mixture

Just before serving I like to drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil on the sandwiches.

~ Enjoy ~

Barbacoa Beef Burrito

It's the first food post of my new blog.  I've spent the last week sick with a cold and stomach bug so I haven't eaten a real meal in awhile.  Now that I'm feeling better I was anxious for a good dinner.  I should start by saying that I rarely make a recipe as written.  Sometimes I make pretty minor changes and other times I change so much you could call it my very own.  Anytime I use someone's recipe I'll either link to the original or give credit and then talk about what I did different.  In this case, I'm using a recipe from thekitchn.com (which is a great cooking blog). 

This recipe calls for brisket... I went to the butcher and told them what I was making and they suggested I use a nice select beef roast instead... so I had them cut me a 5 pounder.  The first thing I did was slice it in half, then sear each piece on both sides in a skillet.  While it was searing, I put together the sauce.  I combined the chipotles (and sauce), onion, garlic, cloves, cilantro, salt, lime juice, and cider vinegar in the food processor.  I pulsed it until combined, added it to the crock pot and put the meat on top, then added 4 cups of beef broth.  I let it cook for 8 hours on low then shredded the meat.

Here's a little side note: I knew I was making pico de gallo and didn't buy enough limes for it, so before squeezing the juice from the limes for the barbacoa, I zested a few of them for use later in the pico.

A few hours before the meat was done I started on the pico.  I used equal parts tomato, white onion, and cilantro.  I added half of the fresh zest then some lime juice from one of those squeezer bottles.  Since I also forgot to buy jalapenos, I added a half diced red bell pepper.  For a little heat I added a few drops of Spontaneous Combustion hot sauce.  The pico was finished off with a bit of sea salt and oh my it was delicious!

Earlier in the day, I was cleaning out the garden beds - getting ready for spring planting.  I ended up pulling 10 pounds of carrots (and there's still more out there!).  As a snack while waiting for the main event, my husband suggested a carrot salsa... so here's what we came up with:

4 medium to large carrots, diced (we had 3 different colors)
4 roma tomatoes, diced
1 tablespoon cilantro, chopped (could use more, but it's all I had left)
1/2 large onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, finely diced/minced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 to 1 teaspoon lime zest
juice from one lime (or equivalent from a squeeze bottle)
couple drops Spontaneous Combustion (or 2 jalapenos)
Salt, to taste

For the burritos: Flour tortilla, plain greek yogurt (instead of sour cream), shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, barbacoa meat, pico.  It was FABULOUS!

Changes I would make: next time I will use a little less ground clove and less broth.  I will stick with the roast instead of brisket and 5 chipotle peppers instead of 4.