ratatouille

Here's what I did (with some help from the 'fuzz) to make the simplest possible ratatouille with all our farmer's-market late-summer vegetables:

• 2 onions, sliced
• 6 small eggplants (or 2-3 huge supermarket-style ones), diced
• 3 zucchini, diced
• a few sweet peppers, seeded and diced
• 3 large tomatoes, diced
• a few tbsp fresh basil, chopped
• salt, pepper, olive oil

Soften the onions (and maybe some garlic) in a lot of olive oil. Add eggplant and cook until it starts to soften. Add zucchini and peppers and cook until the zucchini starts to soften. Add tomatoes and basil and a fair bit of salt and pepper and simmer until the whole thing turns into ratatouille (about an hour, maybe less). Fix seasoning at the end. Serve with crusty bread, and then freeze some for the coming winter.

chicken and dumplings

Today I put chicken, onions, carrots, and celery in a pot with salt and pepper and covered it all (not quite) with water. I simmered it for two hours (checking seasoning now and then). I finished by dropping on top large spoonfuls of my my biscuit dough, as suggested by PMC in the comments of that post. It took less than 10 min for the dumplings to cook, at which point we had chicken and dumplings!

biscuits

Whew! Many cups of flour were harmed in the creation of this recipe, despite its incredible simplicity. But that's just because I didn't keep a log book! You would think I don't know how to do research.

Pre-heat the oven and a pan of some kind (I use cast iron as always!) to 400 F (200 C). Cut 3 tbsp butter into 1 cup of flour, 1.5 tsp double acting baking powder, and a large pinch each of sugar and salt. Mix in milk, a bit at a time, until the ball of dough just barely cleans the sides of the bowl. Knead the dough a few times on a floured board or counter.

Cut the dough into six parts (I roll the dough into a 5-inch-long cylinder and cut it into six slices, but it is traditional to roll the dough flat and cut it with a cookie cutter—is that rocket science?). Bake in the pan for about 25 or 30 mins or until starting to brown on top.

skillet cornbread

Put an iron skillet holding 1 tbsp butter in the oven and pre-heat to 350 F (175 C). Cut about 1 tbsp butter into 1 cup of cornmeal, 1 heaping tsp of double-acting baking powder, and 1/4 to 1/2 tsp salt. Break an egg into a 1 cup measure, and fill up to the 1 cup level with milk or buttermilk. Five minutes before you expect the oven to be ready, mix the wet and dry ingredients. When the oven is ready, tilt the skillet to spread the butter, and then pour in the batter. Bake for about 30 min or until lightly browned or until an inserted knife comes out clean. Serves four.

pot roast

Now this is not rocket science:

• few tbsp fat (I used rendered bacon fat)
• few lbs beef (I used the cheapest chuck the 'fuzz could find)
• few onions, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, etc
• salt, pepper, water

Sauté one chopped onion and the beef in the fat, turning occasionally, until the beef is brown. Then salt and pepper it very generously, add some water (I used less than 1 cup), and put in a 300 F (150 C) oven. After 2 h add vegetables, maybe peeled and quartered. Cook for another 1.5 h for a total of 3.5 h. Drain and serve with sautéed greens or equivalent, with some of the pot liquor as a sauce. Serves at least two per lb of meat.

Some would have you thicken the sauce to a gravy; I bet PMC would! Next time I might use cubed salt pork as the fat.

baked beans

I previously promised that I would figure out baked beans. I did, this Thanksgiving, making one of our five easy sides. Over the next little while I will post all the Thanksgiving recipes (if PMC doesn't beat me to it).

• 1 lb dry beans (yellow eye or soldier or jacob's cattle or white navy; it is hard to find any bean variety outside of Maine and maritime Canada)
• 1/4 lb fat, salt pork or bacon or butter (yes, butter!)
• 1/2 cup molasses (nice sweet molasses you are willing to eat straight)

Par-boil the beans in unsalted (yes, this is important, I learned the hard way) water in an oven-proof pot for 20 to 30 min, until the skins start to peel when you breathe on the beans. Pour off and reserve the pot liquor (PMC's word). Mix into the beans the fat and molasses, and enough pot liquor to not-quite cover them. Bake them, covered, at 250 F for 4 to 6 hours, checking every hour for doneness, stirring, and adding pot liquor as necessary. Never let the liquid in the pot get to the top of the top layer of beans.

At the end, stir in salt and pepper to taste. If they seem dry to you, add a bit more water to thin them. The important thing, whether you like to eat them soupy or dry, is that they cook without too much liquid in the pot.

Experiment with different kinds of fat, maple syrup instead of molasses (or a mixture), with mustard, rum, onions, or whatever strikes your fancy. You won't go bankrupt in the process!

eggs baked in sauce

• build a thick, chunky sauce in an ovenproof frypan
• make a few holes in the sauce into which you crack some eggs
• season with salt, pepper and grated cheese
• bake in a hot oven until the eggs are set
• serve over hot, buttered toast

"Thick, chunky sauce"? This is a method of, technique for, approach to cooking eggs and not a recipe per se. I can bash out a sauce that fits the bill in 10 minutes, so this is on the table in 15, baby. Here's tonight's sauce:

• chop a large onion and cook in some olive oil until the edges start to brown
• add chopped spinach and allow to wilt
• add some minced garlic, stir a bit
• add a volume of chopped tomato about equal to everything that's already in the pan
• cook over medium heat for a few minutes to let some of that liquid fry off
• season with salt and pepper

You could go all arrabiata on those eggs' ass by skipping the spinach and adding some chili pepper flakes or any hot sauce on hand. Hash, anyone? That's onion, cooked potato and leftover corned beef (not really a sauce, but...yum). By the way, add some beets to that hash and you've got "flannel". Of course, there's always puttanesca. You get the idea.

pumpkin...stew

Hallowe'en has come and gone. The boys were matching Incredibles this year, thanks to ML's handiwork, and brought in a fine haul of candy. For almost a month now, the front of our home has been decorated with, among other things, a bale of hay, a large and nasty looking fake rat and many pumpkins. Before the snow gets here (probably next week!), I thought we might eat our way through some of the decorations. No amount of stewing would make the hay or the rat palatable, but one of the smaller pumpkins (seeded, peeled and cut in chunks) made a delicious and rather pretty stew with the addition of the following:

• two leeks (mostly white part) and one medium onion, thinly sliced and braised in butter
• red and white kidney beans (the latter had been cooked with sage)
• frozen corn
• salt, pepper, fennel seeds, turmeric and paprika (mostly for colour)
• water to just cover

I brought this to a simmer and left if for about an hour. This is excellent (and totally veg) as is, but some sauteed merguez sausage is a wonderful addition just before serving

(Everything but the pumpkin and the seasoning had been kicking around the upstairs freezer for some time. Yes, I had a surfeit of leeks earlier this fall and already had a lot of soup in the fridge, so leek and potato was not an option at the time. I braised them and froze for later.)

stew, wonderful (generic) stew

Our love affair with stew continues with this basic recipe. The starting point of any meat stew is, naturally, meat. Take your pick of beef, pork or lamb (or venison or raccoon or ...). Shoulder, neck and shank (foreleg) are the choice cuts for stewing (beef shoulder is called chuck, BTW). For every pound of meat, you want

• a tablespoon of fat
• an onion the size of your fist, chopped coarsely
• a minced clove of garlic
• a cup or two of veggies coarsely chopped or beans
• a cup of liquid
• a tablespoon of flour
• seasonings

The technique is straightforward. Brown the chunks of meat all over in the fat in a heavy, ovenproof pan (I use a Dutch oven). Add the onions and stir until softened. Add the garlic and cook just until you can smell it. Add the flour and stir. Add the liquid and bring to a boil while scraping the bottom of the pot. Cover and put in a 250 degree oven for 2-3 hours until meat falls apart when you prod it with a fork. Root veggies (carrots, parsnips, spuds) are added about an hour into cooking and anything else about 15 minutes before you take the stew out of the oven. Canned beans or chickpeas are also added around then. I like to use beans to stretch my stew when possible. Some traditional stews, however, like boeuf bourguignon, just wouldn't seem right with this addition.

Unless you're making enough for an army, it takes about 30 minutes to get the stew ready to go in the oven. At this point you could opt instead for a slowcooker. On the low setting, most stews take 8-12 hours in the "mijoteuse". There is less evaporative loss, so cut the liquid and flour in half.

Now for the infinite variations. For fat, bacon or salt pork are popular choices. Try out the fat over medium heat before adding the chunks of meat. Of course, these fats add a strong (delicious) flavour to the stew. Butter, duck fat or olive oil are other yummy options. The liquid is usually some combination of stock and wine, but beer, fruit and vegetable juices and, heck, even water also work. If you're making a beef or veal stew and have real veal stock on hand (or some demiglace), then this is the way to go. For seasonings, I usually start with 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/4 tsp of pepper per pound of meat.

With beef, I like thyme and bay. Sage and rosemary are good with lamb or pork and white kidney beans. Cumin, turmeric, cinnamon and cardamom (Persian seasonings) are great with lamb and chickpeas. Mustard, thyme and brandy soaked prunes are great (and traditionally French) with pork (finish the stew with heavy cream). A heaping tbsp of chopped fresh parsley is a nice finish to any stew.

I serve stew either with bread alone (whatever I can find that most closely approximates the Sullivan Street filone) or with boiled potatoes or buttered egg noodles. I prefer to serve "mush", like mashed potatoes or polenta, with things less saucy, like roast chicken or pot roast or braised lamb or veal shanks (osso bucco).

boeuf bourguignon

• 1 lb bacon, chopped coarsely
• 1.5 lb onion, chopped coarsely
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 lb cheap beef, cubed
• 0.5 lb cheap mushrooms, sliced and sautéed
• wine, salt, pepper, bay leaf, etc

Try out the bacon and sautée the onions and garlic in the fat in an oven-proof pot. Remove the onions and bacon and reserve, making room to brown the beef in the rendered fat. Once the beef is brown, put the onions and bacon back in, and cover with a 3:1 mix of wine and water. Add about 1 tsp salt, a few (I used 8) peppercorns, a bay leaf, and maybe thyme or marjoram. Leave in a 300 F oven for 2 hr or more. Add sautéed mushrooms and put back in the oven for another 0.5 hr. Salt to taste.

I served this with sautéed spinach and PMC's favorite, Sullivan Street filone. I love this. It might be even better if either (a) I marinated the beef overnight in the wine, or (b) I put in only enough wine to cover the beef, and left the onions and bacon out until the last hour or so (so as to make a thicker sauce). But I ain't complaining.