Black Bean & Butternut Chili

The chili recipe below was adapted from another blogger's recipe, which was adapted from a Cooking Light recipe.  I didn't want to change much, except for omitting the meat and making it in the slow cooker instead of on the stove.  I looked for instructions on how to adapt a recipe for the slow cooker and then modified the directions so that I could just toss it in the slow cooker.  It came out great - I think one of the reasons I really liked it was the red wine, which gave it a really unique flavor compared to other chili recipes I have made.   I stashed a bit of this in the freezer, but I'll probably make it again.  By the way - you can use any winter squash, and I'm sure different types of beans would work well too.  I'd like to try the original version with meat and red kidney beans sometime this winter.  (Note: do NOT cook dried red kidney beans in the slow cooker or you might die.)

Ingredients:

• A splash of olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onion
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic 
• 1 small chipotle pepper in adobo, finely minced
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ancho chile pepper 
• 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2/3 cup dry red wine
• 1 (28-ounce) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 (28-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained 
• 2 cups (1/2-inch) cubed peeled butternut squash or other winter squash 
• 1/2 cup water

Method: 

1. Add 2 teaspoons oil to pan. Add onion; sauté 8 minutes until the onions are a deep golden brown. Add tomato paste, garlic, chipotle and spices; sauté 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add wine; bring to a boil, scraping pan. Cook until wine has reduced a little, a few minutes. 

2. Add onion mixture to slow cooker.  Stir in tomatoes, beans, butternut squash, and water.  Cook on high for 4 hours.

Pan-Seared Scallops with Arugula Salad

For this arugula salad, I used a lemon-olive oil dressing with salt and pepper, shaken in a little glass jar.  We pan-seared the scallops, seasoned with salt and pepper, and de-glazed with white wine.  An easy weeknight meal using arugula from our CSA.  I ate double the salad part!

Beef Bourguignon

When I was sick not too long ago, I spent about 4 days on the couch.  All I could do was watch TV.  Of course, I watched a ton of Food Network shows, including one episode of Tyler's Ultimate where he made Beef Bourguignon.  I think it was snowing out, and it just looked soooo good.  I love the Mushroom Bourguignon, but I thought it might be nice to share the beef version with our families, so we invited them over for dinner and that's what I made.  (Thanks to my sister Haley for the photo.  I was too busy rushing around to take any myself.)

After seeing the show on Food Network, I went to the FN website for the recipe.  Lucky for me, I read the comments.  A lot of people had no success with it, and those who did made several adjustments.  One commenter recommended going to Tyler Florence's website and getting the recipe from there, so I checked it out and found that it was similar enough to be the same recipe, but with some BIG differences.  I decided to go with Tyler's website version instead as it seemed to address many of the commenters' failures.

Fortunately, everything worked out well.  Everyone seemed to like the food.  Some of the pieces of meat turned out too tough, I think they were too big, but that's my fault for not cutting them smaller.  One thing I want to make note of is that I did not feel great after eating this.  It just felt really heavy and not very nourishing.  I'm probably going to move toward some healthier and possibly vegetarian choices very soon.

Roasted Tomato Marinara

I first used this Roasted Tomato Marinara recipe at my mom's from her copy of the November 2010 issue of Cooking Light.  We loved it and were sad to have just now found it.  When I went to go find it on the website to make it myself at home, I found that the ingredient list was the same, but the directions seemed slightly different somehow.  None of the helpful tips were included.  As I looked at the page I noticed that the recipe had a horribly low rating, 2 or 2.5 stars, and when I checked the reviews, I saw that no one was having success with this recipe.

I feel bad saying this, but those people are dumb.  Really, they are.  Now, mostly I feel bad because I was that dumb once.  But I've since learned that YOU CAN CHANGE A RECIPE!  You don't have to follow it to the letter.  I've kept all the same ingredients and their proportions, with the exception of less water added, and I prefer to salt and pepper to taste.  What I'm doing differently that makes this, to me, a 5-star recipe, is all about the method.

Let's keep the ingredient list the same.  Now, the new steps:
1. Blanch and peel the tomatoes.  Then halve them and squeeze some of the seeds out and put them in a bowl.  Toss with the basil, oregano, sugar and olive oil as in the original directions.
2. Roast them at 450* until some of the edges start to darken.  You can take them out after 20 minutes, minimum, but longer is better (if you're able to watch them closely).
3. Smash them up if you like a chunky sauce, or puree them in the food processor for a smoother sauce.  I was doing double and triple batches, so I was able to use an immersion blender.
4. Follow the instructions for cooking the onions and reducing the wine as written in the original directions.
5. When you add the tomatoes, add half the recommended amount of water (about 1/3 cup for each batch).  Simmer for 15 minutes or longer until the sauce is a consistency you like.  Salt and pepper to taste instead of using the amounts provided.
6. Let the sauce cool - you can refrigerate it overnight if you want - and ladle 2-cup portions into labeled freezer bags.  We found it easiest to line a tall measuring cup with a bag and add a little extra, above the 2-cup mark, to compensate for the space taken up by the bag.

I made six times the recipe this way, yielding about 27 cups of sauce.  Sure, it took me three agonizing days - that's what 24 pounds of tomatoes will do to you - but it results in something delicious.  Those reviewers need to loosen up, take a step back, and adjust based on their needs.  I'm surprised I'm able to do this - I wasn't always - but it makes cooking infinitely easier on a person.

Marinara is a great staple to have on hand.  The first time we made it, we used some as a diavolo sauce, adding shrimp and crushed red pepper flakes.  You can use it in lasagna, eggplant rollatini, etc.  You can use it with spaghetti and meatballs.  There's a lot you can do with it, and as I use up my 27 cups this winter, I'll try to add some more ideas.

Mushroom Bourguignon

It makes me so happy to hear that my friends are obsessed with food like me!  I find that one food blog we often have in common is Smitten Kitchen.  My friend Hilary mentioned to me how great the Mushroom Bourguignon recipe was, and when I looked it up, my mouth started watering pretty much instantly.  It looked amazing.  With the weather getting colder, it's time for some comfort food!

Fortunately, it was exactly what I thought it would be.  I did have to boil the crap out of it at the end to get it to thicken enough - and I think I threw in a little extra flour too - but in the end, it was just unbelievably delicious.  I used local mushrooms from the Rutgers Gardens market, which were on the pricey side, plus they took forever to clean and slice, so I may go the route of convenience packaging next time.  I used frozen pearl onions (as recommended) to make that part easier as well - they worked out perfectly fine.  I thought they tasted good!

We ate these over egg noodles - haven't had those in years! - and again, it was amazing.  It actually tastes exactly how the picture looks.  It's also filed under "freezer friendly" on the Smitten Kitchen website, so that just makes it all the more attractive to me!  I will definitely be making this again, and hopefully saving some for later too.

Figgy Buckwheat Scone Failure

I have been waiting forever to make the Figgy Buckwheat Scones from Good to the Grain - even before the book came out, when the recipe was posted on 101 Cookbooks.  I knew it would be time consuming and although I wanted to eat them, I was putting it off longer and longer.  Today, I decided, would be the day, and had I known what I was getting myself into...

I got started on the fig butter while watching some TV.  If you read each of the recipes (the Fig Butter recipe as well as the recipe for the scone itself) you would think the fig butter would be the rough part.  Even with the specific directions and concerns outlined in the recipe, preparing the fig butter went smoothly.  It is delicious too - after I moved it to a container to put in the refrigerator, I licked the spoon.  Yum.  I might make bread soon JUST to have this on my toast.  It is DELICIOUS!  Even if you don't want the scones, you should make the fig butter.  It keeps for about a month in the fridge (and that's good, because it makes probably about 2 cups, maybe more) so I will be using it on my toast, waffles, etc.  I'm thinking it might even be good spread on the Pear and Buckwheat Pancakes I have in the freezer.  I'll probably give the scones another go as well with the proper ingredients.

That brings me to the main problem of this endeavor (or at least, I think it is).  The scone dough was coming along nicely, even though my hands were coated in gritty nubs of butter.  I opened my fridge for the next ingredient, heavy cream, which I should have known I didn't have.  I didn't want the butter in the dough to melt, so I used half and half.  That was a bad idea if I've ever had one.  The dough instantly became liquidy goo.  I added 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour, thinking it would return to a pliable state, but it didn't work.  I was about to add another 1/4 cup, when I decided I would keep the ratios at least closer to equal and use 1/4 cup of buckwheat flour instead.  This firmed up the dough somewhat, but it was ridiculously sticky.  I put it out on a large, heavily floured cutting board and tried to smush it out with my hands instead of - another missing "ingredient" - a rolling pin, which I don't think I have, at least not in my kitchen.  This, too, was a disaster.  My hands were covered in dough almost immediately and I had to wash them off.  I tried adding more flour.  No go.  I tried to scrape the dough off the board to make sure it wasn't sticking.  It was basically not happening.  I'm fairly certain it was the half and half that caused this problem as I know heavy cream is a different consistency.  Normally I'm good about using the ingredients the recipe calls for, at least the first time, but I had started before I realized.

I wanted to see if this was a total or just partial failure, so I decided to bake the dough.  Because of the viscosity of the dough, I decided to make muffin-shaped scones.  That way, they wouldn't spread out too much.  I sprayed the pan liberally, then baked them at 350* for about 25 minutes. 

Interestingly enough, it worked.  The scones are actually pretty good.  I split one in half to try, and spread some fig butter on it.  It was yummy!  At least I now have an interesting little treat to spread my fig butter on.  Next time I will be using the correct ingredients for sure.

 

Pan-fried Polenta with Sauteed Mushrooms and Garlicky Spinach

I have been wanting to try to make polenta for a while but I was hesitant because I didn't really know what to serve it with. I consulted The Book (we all know which this is by now) and found that sauteed mushrooms were suggested with polenta. How convenient that I had some mushrooms that weren't used for Thanksgiving. I wanted some green on the plate so I decided on spinach, and I used the Garlicky Greens recipe on 101 Cookbooks as a rough guide.

The polenta was easy to make, but a little difficult to work with when cutting it and frying it. First you cook it in a pot, then pour it into a pan (I used a loaf pan) to cool. You can let it sit there all day if you want. Then you just slice it and do whatever you are going to do with it. I wanted to pan-fry it. I tried my stainless skillet at first but this is not a good idea. You need nonstick for this. The stainless saute pan worked great for the mushrooms though, since you deglaze with a little wine (yum).

This turned out to be a nice, delicious meal. I think it was pretty balanced too - protein from the spinach and carbs from the polenta. I would like to try some lemon with the greens too - maybe zest instead of juice to give it a little something refreshing.

I thought I had pictures of this, but I can't find them. Sorry!

Chilled Watermelon Soup

Haley came over to cook with me today. We had planned this a while ago and she had picked out some recipes from my bookmarks that she wanted to make. For our appetizer/first course, she chose Chilled Watermelon Soup.

The recipe called for 6 pounds of watermelon, or 9 cups diced. I obviously have no idea how much anything weighs, because I ended up at the register with a 20 lb watermelon. Now I have a ton of watermelon. It was pretty difficult to cut up, and then it barely fit in the blender - it was kind of oozing out of the top. I also had to strain the soup, which was then a big squishy mess. It was a pretty color, though.

The soup was okay, but tasted more like a drink than a soup. I couldn't really drink too much of it. Then again, I am not a fan of soup. The general consensus seemed to be that the spoonful of added watermelon chunks, mint and feta was not enough and that these things should be prevalent in the soup. They also floated in the picture, but not in real life. Although I probably will not make it ever again, if I did I would reserve more of the watermelon chunks - maybe three cups instead of one, and mix the feta in with them instead of adding a bit by itself.

Salmon Packets

For 4th of July weekend, we went to this sweet party on the beach and had salmon in grill packets. Oh wait, no... that was Giada, not us, and we just watched it on TV. But it looked really good, so we planned to make it this weekend down the shore. (You can find the recipe here.) After we went shopping on Thursday night and bought frozen salmon, I found out that my mom was having some family over and I wasn't allowed to cook while she was cooking. I somehow managed to convince her that our menu of salmon packets with grilled asparagus was genius, despite the fact that she hates salmon, and is allergic to asparagus (it makes her sneeze). I also convinced her that we needed "real" salmon (as opposed to the frozen salmon that I had).

Ken agreed to help me with this, which was great since I now was making 4 times as many salmon packets as I had planned. We opened the salmon to get started, and saw that it still had the skin on. We didn't think this would work well in packets, but also couldn't figure out how to fillet it. Luckily, my dad (who also had no idea how to fillet) helped Ken out and they managed to get the fish in packet-size skinless pieces. I didn't actually touch any salmon. Yuck.

We brushed each piece of salmon with olive oil and placed each on a piece of foil, and then I added all the ingredients - salt, pepper, rosemary, lemon slices, lemon juice, wine, and just a few capers since we don't really like them. (My distaste for capers stems from a cooking disaster that occured a few years ago and made me have no desire to cook until now.)

Then, we folded up the packets. This was difficult because there was quite a bit of liquid in each and it wanted to escape. We put them in a pan in the fridge until our guests arrived and we were ready to throw them on the grill.

My mom cooked some chicken first, then told us it was our turn to grill our salmon. We put it on the grill and came back in ten minutes to check on it. We opened a packet and... yuck. It smelled like wine and was definitely not cooked. My mom had turned the grill off just before she turned it over to us and since it was still hot, we didn't notice. Oops! No problem though, we just turned it back on and cooked them for the ten minutes (again).


Once we finally got them cooked, everyone was hungry and attacked! I don't have any finished pictures, since they went so quickly. The finished product looked a lot like these pictures, just the cooked color of salmon instead. Luckily, everyone said it was great!

The filleting didn't go all that smoothly since we had no fillet knife or knowledge whatsoever, so we had some salmon left on the skin. We grilled it today with just olive oil, salt and pepper on it, and it was delicious. Salmon skin crisps up very nicely. It mostly came off the skin, but it was still good. I added a few pieces of salmon to my salad as well, which was delicious.