K's "Semi-Homemade" Gumbo

We were in New Orleans over the holidays visiting with our friends K and J when it suddenly occurred to Amy to ask K how she makes her gumbo. In the proud fashion only a Southerner could pull off, K explained that she started with Zatarain's Gumbo Base and then "doctored it up." Now, Amy loves Zatarain's products. In fact, she once served Zatarain's Shrimp Creole to a New Orleans native who claimed disbelief that something so delicious could come from a Yankee's kitchen. (Well, with a little help.) And if Zatarain's is good enough for K, it's good enough for us.

Missing NOLA (and K and J!) already, we decided to make K's "Semi-Homemade" Gumbo yesterday and it was perfect. We don't serve ours with rice, just plenty of crusty bread to soak up the thick, gravy-like stew. And while we used boneless, skinless chicken thighs and andouille sausage in ours, any mixture of meat and/or seafood that you like can be thrown into the gumbo pot. This recipe made eight servings, so there was enough for dinner and a couple of Louisiana-style lunches. Laissez les bon temps rouler! We're going to have to make this for Mardi Gras!

And doesn't it look so good in our NOLA "Soup"-er Bowls?!?!?

K's Semi-Homemade Gumbo

Ingredients:

1 box Zatarain's Gumbo Base

6 cups water 

1 - 1 1/2 pounds pre-cooked chicken or sausage (or raw seafood), cut into bite-sized pieces

3 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil, divided

3 bay leaves

dried oregano, dried basil, dried thyme, salt and black pepper to taste

1 medium onion, chopped

3 celery stalks (including leaves), chopped

5 garlic cloves, minced

12-16 oz. frozen cut okra

1 14-oz. can petite diced tomatoes

In a large pot, combine the gumbo base, water, browned chicken and/or sausage (if using seafood do not add yet), 2 tablespoons oil, bay leaves, and a shake each of dried herbs, salt and pepper. Stir thoroughly and bring to a boil. In the meantime, heat last tablespoon of oil in a skillet. Cook onion, celery and garlic until softened. Add to the pot, then re-season with herbs, salt and pepper to taste. When mixture comes to a boil, reduce heat and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. As all of that cooks, put frozen cut okra in the vegetable skillet with 1/2 cup water.  Bring to a boil, cover, and cook on medium until the okra is soft. Then add the okra and tomatoes to pot. Continue to cook until the 30 minutes are up. (If adding seafood, add after 20 minutes of cooking, return to a boil, then cover and simmer another 10 minutes.) Serve over rice and/or with crusty bread.

Pork and Chipotle Pozole

We are so done with winter, with the snow and sleet and rain and the bitter cold that chills you through and through. But winter doesn't seem to be done with us. Craving warmth, we made this delicious one-pot stew that heated us right up (a little too much heat, actually, but we'll get to that). It's called pozole, and, according to the all-knowing Wikipedia, it's a traditional Mexican dish made with cacahuazintle corn (also known as hominy) and meat, and was originally only served on special occasions. The details about that include cannibalism so we won't go into that here so as not to ruin your appetite.

We were inspired by a variety of recipes we found online and made ours with pork. We weren't sure if we could find hominy, but we did find canned hominy in the Goya section at our usual grocery store, which, we are thrilled to say, seems to be stocking a much wider variety of products as of late. We had a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce in the pantry, and we used three of them to flavor the broth, and then decided next time we will only use two. Or maybe one. It was pretty spicy, so be forewarned. 

Other than that, we were delighted by the various flavors and textures in the stew, as we were with the easiness of making it. And as suspicious as that tin of Mexican oregano may look, it really is Mexican oregano and we suggest looking for it if you plan to make this spicy, zesty dish, because it really gave it an interesting flavor. 

Pork and Chipotle Pozole

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 pound boneless pork sirloin chops, trimmed and cut into bite-sized cubes

1 onion, diced

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

1-3 (to taste) canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, chopped

2 teaspoons cumin

2 teaspoons ground coriander

2 teaspoons Mexican oregano (crushed)

2 tablespoons plus 2-3 cups water, divided

2 cups low sodium chicken broth

1/4 cup cornmeal

1 15-ounce can hominy, rinsed

kosher salt and black pepper to taste

juice of one lime

Suggested garnishes: chopped fresh cilantro, tortilla strips, lime wedges

Heat oil in a large stockpot over medium heat. Add the pork and brown on all sides. Remove from pot and set aside. Add onions, garlic, chipotles, cumin, coriander and oregano and 2 tablespoons of water. Stir up all the browned bits from the pork, and cook until onion starts to brown, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 2 of the remaining 3 cups of water, chicken broth, then whisk in the cornmeal. Simmer over medium heat, stirring often. Add hominy, then season with salt and pepper to taste. If you want to add the remaining 1 cup of water, depending on taste and consistency, do so here. Continue to simmer until mixture begins to thicken, about 5 minutes. Return pork to the pot and add lime juice. Cook until pork is warmed through, about 5 additional minutes. Serve in bowls and garnish each serving with cilantro, tortilla strips and a wedge of lime (also a glass of water if you used 3 of the chipotles!)

Chef Lise's Irish Stew, or, Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We were just talking about green things, and here it is, St. Patrick's Day 2011. Our chef/friend Lise was on Good Morning Connecticut last weekend demonstrating how to make her Irish Stew, and since it looked so easy and sounded so delicious, we decided to make it for our annual Irish-themed dinner with our neighbors D and J. It's a nice tradition, actually - they make corned beef and cabbage, we make something else (neither corned beef nor cabbage are "Amy-approved"), and we have ourselves a feast to honor the patron saint of the Emerald Isle. As we tend to do, we made a few changes to Lise's recipe (with her blessing!), but followed the directions she provided in the t.v. segment which you can watch here. And guess what? As expected, the stew was both very easy and very delicious.

Boiled vegetables

D and J's corned beef and cabbage dinner

Instead of "black-n-tans," we have "black-n-greens":

Harp with green food coloring topped with Guinness

 

Ingredients:

note: per Chef's suggestion, we used Smithwick's Ale instead of the more bitter-tasting Guinness

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 pounds lamb shoulder chops, trimmed from the bone and cut into bite sized pieces

salt and pepper to taste

1 medium onion

2 carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks

2 parsnips, peeled and cut into large chunks

1 celery root, peeled and cut into large chunks

4 cups beef broth

1 bottle Irish ale (see note)

6-8 small potatoes, quartered (we used red, purple and yellow)

1 cup coarsely chopped leeks

1 bundle fresh thyme

freshly cut celery microgreens  or parsley for garnish

(celery microgreens pictured right, more on that in a post coming soon)

Plug in a 6-quart crockpot and turn it to high. Place trimmed lamb bones in crockpot (if you have any) to flavor the stew. In a cast iron pan, heat oil over medium heat. Season lamb pieces and cook in two batches, stirring gently, until evenly browned. Remove from pan to crockpot. Add all remaining ingredients except garnish to crockpot. Cover and cook on high for 3 to 3 1/2 hours. Remove bones and thyme bundle from crockpot and serve stew in large bowls with a pretty garnish, some crusty bread and a bottle of Irish ale to with. Erin go bragh! 

Chef Lise Jaeger Shares Irish Stew on Good Morning Connecticut

Chef Lise Jaeger shares Irish Stew: wtnh.com

Our good friend Chef Lise Jaeger was on Good Morning Connecticut on WTNH Saturday morning. Amy knows, because she had the honor of going along to assist. Bright and early Saturday morning, the two of them set off to the studio with coolers and bags full of ingredients and cookware (plus some finished stew for show, it being television and all). First they got Lise ready in the green room (which, to Amy's surprise, was actually green -  sort of a nice, calming, minty green). Then they proceeded into the studio to set up. Everyone in the crew was very nice and allowed Amy to watch the segment from a few feet away in the studio and even to take a few photos! Lise did  a great job and seemed like a natural on camera. The stew was exceptionally tasty and very easy to make, especially after Lise walks you through it in the video. And even though Lise didn't get a chance to mention them, the scones were amazing. Check out the video above and the recipes here.

P.S. Lise shared her recipe for Butternut Peanut Bisque with us in January, so check that recipe out while you're at it.

Beef and Barley...Stew?

The chill and scent of the air portended an approaching snowstorm. We had plenty of vegetables in the house (remains from a previous night's Rosemary Root Veggie Pot Pie), and picked up some beef stew meat at the store. Apparently, judging from our recent posts, it's soup-n-stew week here at A Couple in the Kitchen. We suppose there are worse things.

In the hopes of making our beef stew a bit healthier and heartier, we added some barley. A little too much, it turns out. The barley soaked up most of the liquid, giving it more of a risotto-like texture than a stew, which Chris actually preferred. Therefore, the recipe below explains what we did. If you like yours a bit more stew-y, either add more liquid or less barley. Besides that, we loved the tenderness of the beef and the flavors in this stew. The addition of a little balsamic vinegar right before serving gave it a nice zing!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs. beef stew meat, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

3 carrots, peeled, halved lengthwise and diced

1 onion, chopped

2 slalks celery, diced

1 parsnip, peeled and diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes

1 cup water

1/2 cup red wine

1 cup beef broth

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 cup uncooked barley

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Dredge the beef pieces in flour until lightly coated, shaking off excess. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large stockpot and, in small batches, brown the beef on all sides. Set aside. Deglaze the pot with a bit of wine or broth. Heat the second tablespoon of oil in the pot and add the carrots, onion, celery and garlic. Cook for five minutes, until onions are translucent and start to soften. Stir in the diced tomatoes and cook another minute. Return the beef to the pot. Add the water, wine, broth, bay leaves, thyme, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. The reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for one hour. Add the barley, cover and simmer for an additional 45 minutes, until barley is to desired tenderness. Discard bay leaves and stir in balsamic vinegar right before serving.