beef-thyme stew with mushrooms and swiss chard

beef-thyme stew with mushrooms and swiss chard
3T olive oil or vegetable oil
2 lbs beef chuck, cut into large-ish chunks
3 large onions, halved and sliced
1T garlic, minced
2T fresh thyme, leaves stripped off stems and chopped fine
1 14.5-oz can diced tomatoes
2 10-oz boxes white mushrooms, sliced thickly and sauteed
1 bunch swiss chard
red wine

1 baguette or loaf of rustic-type bread

[1] heat half of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. brown beef and remove to a plate (tent with foil).

[2] add remaining oil and turn heat to medium. when the pan is hot, add onions and garlic. when the fond on the pan is about to burn, add 1/2c red wine. add thyme and bring the mixture to a simmer. add diced tomatoes (including juice) and let simmer until thickened slightly.

[3] add the beef back to the liquid with any accumulated juices. let simmer 2 to 3 hours (yeah, sorry for the long cooking time) on low heat. stir it once in a while. you can transfer the stew to a large saucepan for this part if you like; make sure you cover it.

[4] add the swiss chard and mushrooms. cook 30 minutes.

[5] usually i hate stews that aren't thick enough, but this one is just on the edge of acceptable, consistency-wise. serve this one with french or country bread to soak up the juices.

[serves 4]

diner, 21.11.04 - 03.12.04

i am absolutely in love with jessica's warm pear charlotte. i am in love with jessica.

dimanche / austin : couscous with raisins, roasted chicken, roatsted vegetables, far breton

lundi / alice : salad, breadsticks, four-cheese ravioli with red pepper sauce, fruit salad with cannoli cream

mardi / jessica lee : chickpea soup, sharbat (apple-rosewater drink), moroccan carrots, b'stilla, warm pear charlotte

/ thanksgiving break /

lundi / milly : foccacia, farfalle with sauteed vegetables, blueberry buckle

mardi / waseem : chickpea salad, chicken with ham, tomatoes, and madeira, veg : macaroni and cheese, pumkpin pie

mercredi / cindy : green onion cornbread, chicken rice soup, vegetable fried rice, apple cobbler

jeudi / holly : frijolets con flavor, pollo asado, arroz de coco

vendredi / keith : apple-cheese meatloaf, veg : crisp vegetables + tofu in a spicy peanut sauce, bananas foster

who would have thought that cannoli cream would taste so good with graham crackers? i guess cannoli cream tastes good with everything (within reason; ie beef + cannoli cream = ...), but suddenly graham crackers taste good again, and not like sawdust.

beef stew, egg custards, and the shawshank redemption

first: jessica gives me a meyer lemon. i have always coveted meyer lemons. i hear they are better than regular lemons - the pinnacle of lemon-ness. accordingly, i adore jessica (as i usually do, anyway). and now i am faced with a dilemma: what do i make with this meyer lemon? as it is a fairly busy week (made better by the knowledge that i have passed economics) i settle upon a lemon buttermilk pie, which is a recipe from some sample magazine i got in the mail. for the record, the sample magazine - whose name i forget - is pretty much a clone of Cook's Illustrated, which holds a special place in my nerdy heart (i subscribe to three food magazines: gourmet for general things food; cook's illustrated for the science-y stuff; and saveur for sexy pictures of ethnic foods). this particular magazine pales in the face of cook's illustrated, but that pie on the last page still looks pretty good, so i decide to try it.

of course, i make enough pie dough for two pies, so i need to make another pie. with no advance planning, it's clear that i have two options: a custard pie or a vanilla cream pie. i take a look in the fridge to confirm the availability of eggs, then spot a gallon of apple cider leftover from the cabin trip. i have this fabulous idea that i must make an cider custard pie. 45 minutes later i have half a cup of reduced apple cider, which i add to...of all things, cold milk. since i didn't really want a curdled cider-milk pie, i settle for a regular custard pie, which has an extra egg in it that i had added to account for the extra liquid (the reduced cider).

fortunately, both pies (a) fit in the oven) and (b) come out before allie needs the ovens for cooking. the custard pie turns out wonderfully - in fact it is a very good approximation of a chinese egg custard. that one's a keeper (add an egg to the filling for the custard pie in the joy of cooking). the lemon buttermilk pie tastes pretty much like lemon meringue pie, but it is wonderfully lemony. my not-supertaster taste buds can't really tell the difference between meyer lemons and regular lemons.

second: i want to cook dinner on saturday night and so i go to star to buy ingredients. i decide to make the braised balsamic chicken with swiss chard that i had made the previous week, with a few changes. i exchange chicken for beef (because since coming to school i have developed a real love for red meat. it's inexplicable.) and add mushrooms. lots of mushrooms, because i really love mushrooms, especially sauteed with brown sugar the way my mother does it. the whole shebang is really for next week's lunch because at the dance troupe afternoon performance i tell george that i'll order in with him (which reminds me, i owe him money). as such, i allow myself to let the whole thing simmer on low heat for about 4 hours. we start watching the shawshank redemption during this time, and it's when the movie is over that i turn off the stove, pack away the beef-thyme stew (because it's a stew now) and pack myself off to sleep.

third: the shawshank redemption remains one of my favorite movies.

i can't help procrastinating...

on my take-home exam for 11.201: gateway - planning action. so i'd like to insert a short bit here. i just voted for some of my favorite restaurants in boston, for the zagat survey, with pigalle topping the list. but for those of us on more of a budget, i would say that my favorite restaurant ever is cyclops in seattle. it's just a neighborhood-type place, with an upscale-in-an-artsy-way diner decor. but it has the best restaurant MO. i went there with rob at the beginning of the summer and had this great chicken (since then trumped by the chicken at craigie street bistrot, simply because of the quality of the chicken), and rob had a really good risotto. we also had the first chocolat pot de creme either of us had ever had. man, that was good. that ranks among the best desserts i've ever had both for taste (chocolate and grand marnier doing something quite indecent) and for presentation (a small porcelain teacup with a twist of crystallized orange peel on top). mmm. but when i took my sister there when she visited, the menu had changed completely! i was sad for the chocolate pot de creme, which i have not been able to replicate, but the menu was still extravagantly stellar. it went from a french/mod cuisine to spanish/mexican/latin cuisine. i had this great chicken with olives, peppers, and rice. nora and i also had ceviche, me for the first time, which was excellent. she had the fish tacos, which were also pretty good. the berry cobbler that we decided to get even though we were stuffed, was absolutely enormous. that thing would be a four-person dessert at any other restaurant in boston. it was, as rob would say, "as big as my head."

anyway, i'm sure that the menu has changed a million times since i left seattle. but instead of perpetually opening new stores, i wish modern restaurateurs would take a page out of cyclops' book and open a neighborhood restaurant that has a flexible menu. if you're going somewhere for dinner, it's a special event (at least if you're an mit student) and you should eat accordingly by not choosing the same thing every time. cyclops' MO just helps diners along with a good idea. that way, both diner and chef get to experiment at will. if you are in seattle, cyclops is in belltown.

diner a la maison francaise, 14.11.04 - 19.11.04

dimanche / jessica : eggplant-tomato casserole, penne rosa, caramel-pear pudding cake

lundi / anna : chicken curry, vegetable curry, palak paneer, naan, rice pudding

mardi / marissa : onion pan bread, chicken mirabella, eggplant and onions in tomato cream sauce, fettuccine, green beans, tiramisu

mercredi / yi : mushroom ginger soup, pad thai, apples

jeudi / luis : pollo con mole, mole enchiladas, arroz, pastel de la libra de caitlin

vendredi / allie : grilled cheese sandwiches, vegetable stew, supersexy brownies

diner a la maison francaise, 07.11.04 - 12.11.04

just thought i'd start a record of lmf menus here. this is both for my own memory and to make those of you who don't live with me jealous. ;p this week:

dimanche / george : salad, lebanese rice pilaf, grilled lebanese chicken, hummus, lebanese pastries (shatila)

lundi / diana : pork chops, potato casserole, apple bundles

mardi / kay : penne alla vodka, french onion soup, pumpkin muffins

mercredi / lisa : indian bean soup, potato pizza, dessert tba

vendredi / carrie : pork tenderloin with roasted apples and onions, sweet potato - leek pancakes, spaghetti squash with mushrooms, rice pilaf, black and whites

cobbling leftovers into real food

first, before i forget, the recipe for pasta i made a while back:

pasta with bacon, onions, + tomatoes
1 pkg bacon
1 lb pasta (preferably shells)
1 1/2 lbs plum tomatoes, chopped (i suppose you could use 2 cans of diced tomatoes, drained, if you were really desperate)
4 large onions, diced
parmesan cheese
white wine, muscat, or water

[1] Fry bacon in batches over medium heat, until crispy. Pour off fat into a bowl between batches. Drain bacon on paper towels, then rip into small pieces. Put in a bowl, cover, and set aside.

[2] Use white wine, muscat, or water to deglaze the pan. Set aside fond liquid - it's fine if it has bits of stuff in it. Pour a few tablespoons of bacon fat into the skillet and fry onions until almost browned. Set aside in a bowl.

[3] Pour fond liquid into skillet and add tomatoes. Cook until reduced to a thick sauce.

[4] Pour sauce over pasta. Add onions and bacon, and toss. Add parmesan to taste and toss. Serve immediately.

[serves 6]

today was really spent cooking. i intended to wake up at my usual time, sometime around 7, but apparently my body thought it needed more sleep. i think it may have actually needed more sleep, as i didn't feel tired immediately after i woke up (at 10am). i then proceeded to make pancakes, the recipe of which i am still fiddling with. the past couple of times that i have used 2T of baking powder, there was definitely a baking powder taste, although they are still as fluffy and absorbent as they always are. i think i'll drop it down to 1T and see how it goes. i also tried splitting the milk between buttermilk and whole milk because buttermilk has no fat, but there was no noticeable difference. oddly enough, the egg whites were slightly runny (translate: old) but they whipped up faster than usual. was it the fork? or the metal bowl? who knows. maybe harold mcgee does!

i also cooked the niman ranch sausages i bought at whole foods. namely, the "pure maple pork sausage" variety, which are actually a partnership between niman ranch and "sausages by amy" - niman ranch raises the happy pigs and sausages by amy provides the sausage recipe. the sausages have a comforting ingredient list: niman ranch pork, pure maple syrup, water, kosher salt, spices, turbinado sugar, natural flavor, lamb casing. actual review of the sausages: i think they are probably better than any other sausages of the same type that i've had. i still have a special place in my heart for the ultra-unhealthy chinese sausages, but these were really good taste-wise - not overspiced, and juicy with pork juices rather than fat.

come the evening, i went to the kitchen to cook a package of mushrooms leftover from friday's menu. upon remembering that there was a package of basil also leftover from a menu and that we still had pine nuts, i decided to make pesto as well. good thing we had leftover parsley too, because there wasn't quite enough basil to make the pesto taste like pesto. then, as i was finishing the pesto i realized i had sundried tomatoes, so i added some of those. the result: parsley-basil pesto with sundried tomatoes. i added mushrooms and sauteed slices of chicken sausage to mine (i mixed the pasta with the pesto but left the mushrooms and chicken sausage in bowls for other people to add to theirs). it was quite a good combination. oh, as for the mushrooms, i just sauteed them on medium-high heat with some oil and then i added brown sugar when the liquid was almost all gone, and a bit of salt. mmm, caramelized mushrooms are wonderful. the recipe below is an approximation of the pesto i made; really it was a combination of what i had on hand. the chicken sausage was ok, but not really particularly special after having had the niman ranch sausages earlier - it was fairly bland.

and a short bit about thursday, which was a holiday, as well as both nina's and oliver's birthday. we made dinner - nina made pesto and i made this chicken dish from cook's illustrated - braised chicken in a balsamic reduction, with swiss chard. i had never had swiss chard, so that was a fun experience; it looks and tastes like kale, but is milder. highlights of the cooking process: i foolishly grasped the handle of my skillet after it had come out of the oven, for the umpteenth time (i MUST stop doing that); browning the chicken thighs in the oven, in the skillet, didn't really work so well - I ended up taking them out of the oven after upping the temperature from 350 to 400 (did i just not let the oil heat up enough?) and browning them on the stovetop. the dish itself as great, though the preparation was somewhat lengthy and complicated. it was very much a complete dish (and now i'm getting hungry again) with the meat plus vegetables, so it bears some connection to healthy. it also went extremely well with the pesto. we had a red wine - a malbec from argentina - with dinner and it was serviceable and nicely fruity, but a little harsh.

parsley-basil pesto with sundried tomatoes
1c basil leaves, picked off the stems
1/2c parsley leaves, picked off the stems
1/2c parmesan cheese, grated
2/3c to 1c extra-virgin olive oil
1 large clove garlic
1/4c pine nuts, toasted
scant 1/4c sundried tomatoes
salt to taste

1 lb fettuccine
extra parmesan cheese, grated, if desired

[1] Boil some water and blanch the basil (put the leaves in the water and wait for them to wilt, ~10 seconds or so). Take them out with a slotted spoon. If you want to be fancy, you can transfer them to a bowl of ice water to stop them from cooking further. Otherwise, transfer them to a food processor or blender.

[2] Add the pine nuts, parsley, clove of garlic, sundried tomatoes, and parmesan cheese. Pulse until it forms a paste.

[3] Add enough olive oil for the pesto to look, well, like pesto. Don't add it all at once; you can pour it through the feed tube if you want. Taste before adding more.

[4] Add some salt and pulse to blend, then taste and adjust if necessary.

[5] Boil water and add some salt and olive oil. Add pasta and cook. When draining the pasta, reserve a bit of the cooking water (a few tablespoons) .

[6] Add the reserved pasta water to the drained pasta and add the desired amount of pesto (you may not need to use all of it). Toss to mix and sprinkle with extra parmesan cheese if desired.

[serves 4]

it's been a long time...

since i last posted. in fact, a few months. i thus have a long list of things to say, hopefully interesting things. unfortunately, i haven't been able to keep up with my tech column, though this blog is more interesting anyway.

food kudos for best menus/dishes:
- jessica's desserts - rote gruze (red berry pudding with vanilla pudding sauce) and iles flottantes (drizzled with caramel and served with creme anglaise)
- lauren: white chili and fresh apple cake
- alice: the american food menu - hamburgers and apple pie; lemon-tarragon dip for the alumni thing
- austin: beef manhattans
- waseem: chicken and chickpeas with toasted pita bits
- betsy: "australian chicken" and mushroom curry
- sadie: pasta with peas and ham
- carrie: chicken + barley, cider spice cake with bits of candied ginger and whipped cream

food non-kudos: i like ice cream too, just not three times a week!

my menus thus far this year:

september / donald farfrae's home cooking
tattie and leek soup + cheddar-chive scones
forfrar bridies (potato-leek and steak-potato-leek)
ecclefechan tart

october / an early thanksgiving
chicken pot pie + sausage-sage stuffing
veg: fasoldha (greek bean soup) + creamed corn gratin
cranberry sauce
pumpkin pie + miriam's chocolate-walnut pie

tentative menu for november /
chicken mirabella (with capers and olives)
sauteed eggplant with tomatoes and onions
fettuccine + pesto

i have to say that the second menu went much better than the first, which was not particularly well-done in regards to scheduling. the second was a much better example of my planning skills; in fact we had little to clean afterwards, which was nice, and the pace of cooking was much less frantic than the first time. of course, this was largely due to the fact that i made the six pies the night before, and did a lot of the prep work (chopping vegetables) for the soup and chicken pot pie. the menu went over quite well, though, and i think i have found a final recipe for chicken pot pie. i made it a few weeks before my menu as well, with a bell and evans bird, which i think lived up to its expectations in regards to tenderness, though i couldn't taste much of a difference in regards to taste. yes, i roasted a chicken, only to tear it apart for chicken pot pie. the chicken pot pie was marvelous, if a little heavy on the thyme (i roasted the chicken with thyme butter underneath the skin and then put more thyme in the gravy for the chicken pot pie). when not roasting a chicken for pot pie, poaching the chicken breasts in chicken broth and fresh thyme is the way to go. for that menu, i also tried a new pumpkin pie recipe, which uses cream instead of condensed milk. i had always used the typical condensed milk recipe, but i can see why you would turn to cream after having tasted this pie, which was nothing short of wonderful. the crust didn't turn out as well as i would have liked, as it was rather tough. it probably had too much water in it.

recent restaurant exploits: i have been spending more money on shopping lately, rather than food, since the term has been so busy. consequently, i have only been out to the same old restaurants: bartley's, mary chung, pour house, california pizza kitchen. i learned this past week that oliver, one of my mcp classmates, is as passionate about mary chung as keith. i have high hopes that my palate will develop into something more extraordinary as time goes on. i had fond memories of the pumpkin cheesecake from cpk, which i last had about 5 years ago while having lunch at the natick mall with jenn and her mom. we had it last night, and while good, it was definitely not as good as i remembered it - the gingersnap crust was rather sweet, though the cheesecake itself was quite good.

for our alumni event, i made one of the best desserts i have ever tasted (and also one of the most complicated to make). (incidentally, a note about the ecclefechan tart, which is like pecan pie and can be found on epicurious.com: the pastry dough for this tart is wonderful, all flaky and tender. it's easy to make, and uses powdered sugar and cream instead of regular sugar and an egg to bind it. ) i have now made a grand total of three things (that i can remember at this moment) from my stash of cook's illustrateds: the brownies (pretty good, but not as good as lisa yockelson's brownies), the eggplant parmesan, and the chocolate-caramel walnut tart. it's rather a production: you make the crust, then the caramel bit, then the chocolate bit, then it gets baked, then chilled, but it's well worth it. the crust is absolutely wonderful, and the entire thing blends together like nothing else. it's the sort of special thing that i'll be making for my sister's birthday - a slot previously reserved for my chocolate mousse cake.

the challenge for my next menu: choosing a dessert. i am tempted to make the tiramisu again, which i generally make once a term, but i would like to choose something new. that said, nothing else really comes to mind. maybe linzer cookies? or possibly chocolate mousse. i would theoretically like to make the chocolate mousse cake, but i assume i will be too busy to make it. perhaps a chocolate custard pie. hmm, or maybe crepes. well, another week to decide.

chocolate-caramel walnut tart (from cook's illustrated, nov/dec 04)
the nuts used in the crust, in the caramel filling, and as a garnish must all be toasted; the entire amount can be toasted together on a baking sheet in a 375-degree oven until fragrant and golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. for cutting clean slices, dip the blade of the knife in warm water and wipe with a kitchen towel before making each cut.

walnut crust
1 large egg, separated
1/4t vanilla
1/2c toasted walnuts (2 1/2 oz)
1/2c (2 oz) confectioners' sugar
1c (5 oz) flour
1/8t salt
5T cold butter, cut into 1/2" cubes

caramel-walnut filling and garnish
1/4c water
1c (7 oz) sugar
2/3c heavy cream
3T butter, cut into 3 pieces
1/2t vanilla
1/2t lemon juice
1/8t salt
16-18 toasted walnut halves, plus 1c (5 oz) toasted walnuts, coarsely chopped (* only the 1c walnuts are chopped)

chocolate filling
2 egg yolks
1T plus 1/3c heavy cream
1/3c whole milk
5 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped fine
2T butter, cut into 4 pieces

[1] for the crust: beat egg white in bowl with fork until frothy; remove 1T egg white to second bowl and whisk in yolk and vanilla. process nuts and sugar in food processor until finely ground, 8 to 10 seconds. add flour and salt and pulse to combine. scatter butter pieces over flour mixture; pulse to cut buter into flour until mixture resembles coarse meal, about fifteen 1-second pulses. with machine running, add egg yolk mixture and process until dough forms ball, about 20 seconds. transfer dough to large sheet plastic wrap and press into 6-inch disk; wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate until firm but malleable, about 30 minutes.

[2] roll out dough between 2 large sheets lightly floured plastic wrap to 13-inch round, about 1/8" thick (if at any point the dough becomes too soft and sticky to work with, slip dough onto a baking sheet and freeze or refrigerate until workable). place dough round on baking sheet and freeze until stiff and cold, about 15 minutes (or refrigerate about 30 minutes). meanwhile, evenly spray 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom with non-stick cooking spray.

[3] remove dough from freezer; discard top sheet plastic wrap but keep dough on baking sheet. following illustrations above, line tart pan with dough (invert tart pan on frozen dough. press down so tart pan cuts through dough. flip the entire affair over and let tart pan stand 5 minutes, until the dough has thawed and slipped down the side of the pan. roll excess dough into 3/4" ropes and press into pan along fluted side. sides should be 1/4" thick). freeze dough-lined tart until firm, about 30 minutes. (can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and frozen up to 1 month.)

[4] meanwhile, adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 375 degrees. set dough-lined tart pan on baking sheet. spray 12-inch square foil with nonstick cooking spray and press foil inside chilled tart shell; fill with pie weights. bake until light golden brown, about 30 minutes, rotating halfway through baking time. carefully remove foil and weights and continue to bake until golden brown, about 5 minutes longer. cool on baking sheet on wire rack about 5 minutes, then brush hot crust with reserved egg white. reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees.

[5] for caramel-walnut filling and garnish: while crust is cooling, pour water into medium heavy-bottomed saucepan; add sugar to center of pot to keep granules from adhering to sides of pot. bring to boil over medium-high heat, covered, swirling pan once or twice to dissolve sugar. uncover pot and continue to boil, without stirring, until sugar is deep amber, begins to smoke, and registers about 375 degrees on an instatn-read or candy thermometer, about 5 to 10 minutes. remove pan from heat. carefully add about half of cream; mixture will sputter and steam. add remaining cream and let bubbling subside. return pan to low heat and stir with heatproof rubber spatula until caramel is smooth. add butter and stir until melted. remove pan from heat; stir in vanilla, lemon juice, and salt.

[6] add walnut halves to caramel and stir to coat; let stand until caramel is slightly thickened, about 8 minutes. using slotted spoon and allowing excess caramel to drain back into saucepan, transfer walnuts to wire rack set over baking sheet; set aside. stir chopped walnuts into caramel, then pour mixture evenly into tart shell. refrigerate, uncovered, on baking sheet until caramel is firm and does not slip when pan is tilted, about 20 minutes.

[7] for chocolate filling: whisk yolks and 1T ream in a small bowl. bring milk and remaining 1/3c cream to simmer in small saucepan; off heat, add chocolate and butter. cover pan and let stand until chocolate is mostly melted, about 2 minutes. using spatula, stir mixture until smooth; stir in yolk mixture. (chocolate should be thin and pourable; if too thick to pour evenly, set saucepan over low heat to warm mixture.) pour filling into caramel-filled tart shell, tilting tart pan as necessary to evenly distribute chocolate to edges of tart. bake on baking sheet in 300-degree oven until tiny bubbles are visible on surface and chocolate layer is just set (if pan is gently shaken, filling will appear very wobbly because caramel layer is warm), about 25 minutes. set baking sheet with tart on wire rak; arrange caramel-coated walnut halves on surface of tart, around perimeter. cool tart until just warm, about 30 minutes, then refrigerate, uncovered, until chocolate is firm, at least 3 hours or up to 24 hours.

[makes one 9-inch tart, serving 12 to 16]

quick, fake italian pasta

fettuccine with eggplant in a tomato-onion cream sauce

1 28-oz can whole tomatoes
3 onions, halved and sliced
1 medium eggplant, cut into 2"-3" long strips
2T olive oil
1/4c cream
1/2c parmesan cheese, grated
salt to taste

1 lb fettuccine

[1] heat oil in a large skillet. add onions and cook until translucent. add eggplant and cook about 6 minutes, until mostly translucent.

[2] add juice from whole tomatoes, then cut up tomatoes in larg-ish pieces and add to pan. let simmer 10-15 minutes, until eggplant is completely translucent and tender. meanwhile, make fettuccine.

[3] when eggplant mixture has thickened to the consistency of a thick soup, add cream and salt to taste.

[4] toss with pasta and parmesan cheese. add more parmesan cheese if desired.

[serves 4]