Beef Bone Stock

I've been on a stock kick for the last week or so. I love starting the day with a mug of no-salt stock (it's a log easier and quicker than making eggs), and I'm going to start experimenting with onion-less stocks for the food allergies out there.

Stocks can be stored in the fridge for a week, after 5 days or so re-boil it. You're effectively creating the world's  best petri dish. If you store it in the fridge let the fat rise to the top and create a barrier to the air. If you're going to freeze it, skim the fat off. I've heard ice-cube trays work well, and then you can pull out what you need and dump it into soups and sauces for flavor.

Basic Stock:
2 lbs  beef stew bones
5 onions
6 carrots
8 cloves of garlic
Black peppercorns (15 or so?)
Parsley

Quarter the onions, chop the carrots into 1" pieces, place them with the garlic and beef bones in a roasting pan and roast for 45 minutes at 400, turning the meat over at 25 minutes. Put everything into a stock pot and cover with cold water. Simmer for 6 hours. Strain through a colander and cheesecloth.




More complicated stock:
(Original recipe here: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/beef_bouillon_soup_from_oxtails/)

2 lb beef marrow bones
1 lb beef shank w/ bone
2.5 lb oxtail (one oxtail)
4 onions
3 carrots
1 heart of celery
Lemon zest from a lemon
The rest of the lemon
1 cup red wine (probably more, actually, no idea really. Enough to de-glaze the roasting pans and a dash more)
 14 oz mushrooms (plain white stuffing ones? No idea what they're called)
4 Bay leaves
Thyme
Black pepper


 - Quarter the onions and chop the carrots and celery into 1" pieces
 - Place the meat, onions, carrots, and lemon zest into roasting pans, cover liberally with ground pepper
 - Roast at 450 for 30 minutes until browning (not blackening). Turn the meat over at around 15-20 minutes
 - Set off the smoke alarm accidentally (don't do this, please. Your neighbors will thank you)
 - Place the roasted meat and vegetables into the stock pot. Add the rest of the ingredients
 - Deglaze the roasting pan with the wine, pour into the stock pot.
 - Add enough cold water to the stockpot to cover everything
 - Cover and simmer at least 6 hours. (I simmered it for 14).
 - Strain through a colander and cheesecloth
 - Refrigerate

Whipped Cream (and variations)

Whipped cream is easy and it tastes so much better than Cool-whip and any other storebought brands. Disclaimer: All amounts on this page approximate.

Ingredients:
 - 1 pint heavy whipping cream
 - 1 tbsp confectioner's sugar (to taste)
 - 1/2 tsp vanilla extract. (to taste, but vanilla extract is strong)


Add it all into a mixing bowl. Beat on medium with an electric beater for a few minutes, until it beings to form peaks. Bonus points if you chill the bowl and the beater attachements before making it, but I usually skip that step and it always seems to work out ok in the end.



Modifications for dessert coffee flavoring:
 - Use 1 tbps instant coffee instead of the vanilla (again to taste. Start with a half tbsp if you don't usually drink coffee)
 - Start with ~3 tbsp confectioner's sugar, and add more as needed to cut the bitterness of the coffee.



Modification for whipped cream with fish. Instead of sugar and vanilla, use:
 - 1 tbsp parsley
 - 3 chives, chopped
 - Lemon zest
 - Lemon juice
 - salt and pepper
NOTES: I really liked this the one time I made it, but I will probably experiment with the herbs and the amounts to get something a bit more tailored to my taste. Go easy on the lemon, it's easier to add it if you don't have enough than to take it out if it's too much. Worst comes to worst, you can squeeze some lemon juice onto the fish directly if the cream doesn't have enough. Original recipe here: http://food52.com/blog/365-savory-whipped-cream

Trifle

Same disclaimer as always: amounts are inexact, and I never make these the same way twice. Use as guideline and with caution. I made Chocolate Trifle #2 for an office party today, it turned out pretty well.

TRIFLE BASICS:
Ingredients
  - Cake
  - Pudding (I always use instant, it's easier)
  - Something(s) with a complementary flavor to your cake and pudding types. Call this ingredient1
  - Whipped Cream (I prefer homemade, I'll do a different blogpost for that)

Instructions
  - Bake the cake, or buy the cake pre-made if you're running out of time. Let it cool.
  - Get all of your ingredient1 ready  - chopped, crumbled, whatever it needs to make it ready to go
  - Get the pudding ready. If you're using instant pudding, mix it up so it's homogenous, but not so much that it sets
  - Layer as follows: Cake, pudding, ingredient1, cake, pudding, ingredient1, optional: whipped cream, cake, pudding, ingredient1, whipped cream  - Decorate the top
  - Refrigerate, serve cold.

Notes:
  - Trifle is best the second day, when the pudding has time to soak into the cake properly.
  - Consistency is important. Be careful that your extra ingredients don't change the consistency too much.
  - If you include a layer of whipped cream in the middle, make sure that your whipped cream is on the stiffer side of the cream <--> butter spectrum. It is a higher priority to make sure you have enough for the top than to put a layer in the middle.
 - I only put in a layer of whipped cream if I'm using a dish that has clear sides. In that case I will often double or triple the amount of pudding, as well, to make sure I'm getting clear striations.







Chocolate Trifle 1
 - Chocolate cake
 - Instant butterscotch pudding
 - Chocolate chips
 - Vanilla whipped cream


Chocolate Trifle 2
 - Triple chocolate fudge cake
 - Instant chocolate pudding
 - Layer one: crumbled Heath bar
 - Layer two: Peanut butter chips and accidentally-melted chocolate chips
 - Layer three: Peanut butter chips and crumbled Heath bar
 - Decorations: Raspberries
NOTES: Don't accidentally melt the chocolate chips. They form into a solid block of chocolate and completely ruin the consistency, and make it hard to eat with a spoon. Also, I'm not sure I liked the juxtaposition of the raspberries with the toffee and peanut butter. I would probably make it either/or next time. Also, when I made this I ran out of milk and had to make the pudding with a cream/water mixture that came out to about the right consistency, maybe 1/4 cream 3/4 water. I didn't notice a difference in final taste of the trifle.


Coffee Trifle
 - Coffee angel food cake (when making the cake, use coffee instead of water. Instant coffee works well for this, and you can tune it to how strong you want the coffee flavor).
 - Instant chocolate pudding
 - Raspberries/bananas/strawberries
 - Coffee whipped cream
NOTES: This one went over really well. Medium strength coffee flavor in the cake, medium-light coffee flavor in the whipped cream. I made the whipped cream sweeter than usual to offset the coffee flavor. I like the bananas VERY ripe so that they're almost mushy.



Fruit Trifle
 - Yellow cake
 - Vanilla pudding
 - Strawberries/Blueberries/Raspberries/Bananas, sometimes mango and peach as well
 - Vanilla whipped cream
NOTES: My favorite

Roasted Carrots and Sweet Potato Salad

4 Large sweet potatoes
2 lbs carrots
6 cloves of garlic
~3 tbsps fresh ginger
1/2 cup slivered almonds
olive oil
rosemary
salt
pepper



0. Pre-heat the oven to 400 F
1. Slice the carrots diagonally
2. Chop the sweet potatoes (~1/2 inch cubes)
3. Mince the garlic and ginger
4. Mix it all together in a big mixing bowl with enough olive oil to lightly coat.
5. Add a little bit of salt, a good amount of pepper, and a lot of rosemary
6. Spread out in one layer on a baking sheet or three.
7. Bake for 30 minutes.



My intentions for this was to create a bleu cheese and roasted vegetable salad. I'm not sure how well I like the bleu cheese right now with it, because it overpowers the taste of the vegetables. However, the sweet potatoes and carrots are very sweet, and do need something a little bit more savory to offset them. I made a LOT of the roasted vegetables and will update this more as I try different things with them. In the meantime, I'm thoroughly enjoying eating the roast veggies with just a tiny bit of bleu cheese.

Roasted Portobellos and Bleu Cheese

Ingredients:
2 Portobello mushrooms, de-stemmed
Soy Sauce
Bleu Cheese (2 tbsps, approx)
Olive oil
Black Pepper



1. Preheat oven to 425 F
2. Place portobellos on baking sheet gill side up
3. Add a dash of soy sauce to the mushrooms. I accidentally put too much, and had to drain them out.
4. Season with freshly ground black pepper
5. Add a dash of olive oil
6. Bake at 425 for 25 minutes.
7. Pull out of the oven and add the bleu cheese.
8. Bake for another 10 minutes until cheese is melted


While I loved these, definitely a bit too salty. I probably should avoid overdosing on the soy sauce next time around. Actually, next time I will probably skip the soy sauce altogether, since there is a lot of salt in the cheese. Other than that tasted very good. I ate them almost immediately when they came out of the oven, being careful not to burn myself.

Onion Pie

I went to make the Tomato Pie again to have something to eat and use up leftovers before Memorial Day, and I realized that all my tomatoes traveled north with my parents. Whoops. Having already pre-baked the crust I elected to try Onion Pie instead

Set 1:
1 pie crust (pre-baked)
5 Yellow onions (medium-sized)
5 Cloves of garlic
1 tbsp Sage
1 tsp black pepper
Butter

Set 2:
1/2 cup milk (more or less)
2 eggs
1/2 bag of grated cheddar cheese
1/2 bag of grated mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise




1. Pre-bake the pie crust at ~450 degrees F for ~8-10 minutes if you haven't already.
2. Pre-heat or turn down the oven to 350 degrees F
3. Slice the onions
4. Mince the garlic
5. Put the first set of ingredients in a frying pan over medium-low heat until the onions are translucent, ~20 minutes. Turn over every few minutes to make sure it is all cooked through.
6. In a mixing bowl, mix the second set of ingredients.
7. Pour the onions evenly into the pie crust
8. Pour the dairy mixture on top of the onions
9. Spread the mayonnaise  over the top of the cheese
10 Bake at 350 degrees F for ~30 minutes.


In conclusion, it is an incredibly rich pie, and tastes excellent but you can't eat much of it at a time.

Spinach-Tomato Quiche

Prep ~20 minutes, Cook ~45 minutes, Cool ~20 minutes

• 1 Pie Crust (9" pan)
• Crumbled feta cheese (3/4 the round container)
• 2 packed cups fresh spinach (I removed the stems for consistency's sake, but after wilting the spinach I don't know that it would have made that much difference. Frozen drained spinach would probably have worked just as well too.)
• Olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup heavy cream (the half-pint container)
• 1 green onion (you could use chives too, but my cats ate my chive plant last week)
• 1 Tomato, chopped
• Black pepper

1. Heat olive oil to a pan then cook the spinach until its wilted (~2-3 minutes)
2. Crumble the feta cheese into the bottom of the pie crust
3. Add the spinach on top of the feta cheese. Tease it out a little bit so the spinach isn't solid lumps.
4. Beat together the garlic, eggs, and cream. Pour over the spinach and cheese. Stir gently a little bit to make sure it gets into the spinach.
5. Evenly spread the chopped tomato over the pie. 
6. Sprinkle the top liberally with green onion and black pepper.
7. Bake ~45 minutes, until it's at a quiche-y consistency.

The original recipe only called for 3/4 cup heavy cream. I don't like having leftovers. The consistency seemed to come out pretty well despite the extra cream. I made this for an office party concurrently with the tomato pie. Total cook time from prep start to serving was 1.5 hours. Transport in pizza boxes works really well.

Also, cook the pies on top of a cookie sheet to catch any spills, especially if your oven isn't quite level.

Tomato Pie

Ingredients:

Prep ~20 minutes, Cook ~30 minutes, Cool ~20 minutes. Prep is significantly shorter if you cheat like I did and buy pre-made pie crust and pre-shredded cheese.

Pie Crust (9-inch pan)
3 Ripe Tomatoes
Salt
~1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
~1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3 Cloves garlic, minced
 Basil
~ 1/2 cup Mayonnaise




1. Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees.
2. Poke holes in the bottom and sides of the pie crust and bake ~10 minutes (I don't actually know why I poke holes in it, I've just always done it. It probably doesn't make a difference). Let it cool. Turn the oven down to 350 degrees.
3. Slice the tomatoes and lay them flat. Lightly salt. Let them sit for ~10 minutes, then blot any excess water. (This I do know why you do - it's so your crust doesn't end up soggy.
4. Put a layer of tomato slices at the bottom of the pie crust.
5. Sprinkle garlic and basil liberally on the tomatoes.
6. Sprinkle half of each of the cheeses on top of the tomatoes.
7. Repeat steps 4-5-6 with the rest of the ingredients.
8. Spread the mayonnaise over the top of the pie. This is slightly more complicated a step than those words indicate, because the top layer is shredded cheese and tends to squeegee around as you spread it. I might try mixing the cheese and mayonnaise before putting it onto the pie next time, but that might require measuring to figure out exactly how much mayonnaise is needed.
9. Bake at 350 for ~30 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling. Let the pie cool enough that you can eat it without burning your mouth.


When you are layering, you can layer a little bit above the edges of the pie crust. The cheese will melt into the tomatoes and it will lose a little bit of height. For decoration, I would probably bake tomato slices onto the top, and add some fresh basil leaves after its baked for garnish.


I made this and the spinach-tomato quiche for an office party. Tip for transporting them: Pizza boxes. They're the right shape, keep everything flat and contained, you don't have to cool the pies quite as much in order to take them safely in the car, and they insulate it enough that they're still warm when you arrive. (I let them cool for ~10 minutes before I took them on a 15 minute commute and they came out at exactly the right temperature.)

Mushroom Sauce

Basic red wine and mushroom sauce. Works over pasta, meat, pretty much whatever you want to put it on.



8 oz mushrooms, chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
5 cloves of garlic, diced
1 cup wine
2 tbsps butter
2 large heaping spoonfuls of flour
1 tbsp dried rosemary
water



1. Fry the mushrooms, onions, and garlic until they are lightly browned
2. Add the wine and simmer until the wine is reduced by about half
3. While the wine is simmering, mix the flour with enough water to create a paste, and get out any lumps
4. Add the butter, flour mixture, and rosemary to the pot
5. Let it simmer for another minute or two


I usually make this recipe or a similar cream-based one whenever I've got a cup of wine, whatever color, that has been sitting in my fridge for a while.

Potstickers

My version of potstickers. I haven't quite got all the kinks worked out yet. The taste is there, but the consistency doesn't always come out right.

Filling:
 - 1 package of ground turkey (~1.4 lbs)
 - 1/2 cabbage (you may want to try less than this, I think this is what is causing it to fall apart)
 - Fresh Ginger Root (I'm sure you can do this with dried, but I like fresh. I use apprx. a palm-sized piece of ginger)
 - 3 Eggs
 - 2 cloves of garlic
 - 1 can of water chestnuts (drained)
 - 1 tsp salt (don't put a lot in; there is plenty in the dipping sauce)
 - 1 tbsp sugar
 - 2 tbsp sesame oil


Wonton wrappers:
You can either buy a pack, often located in the fresh-food section near the tofu, or you can make them yourself. To make them yourself, 2 cups flour, 1 egg, 1 tsp salt, and enough water to make it a non-sticky ball of dough that you can roll out. Personally, I prefer making my own because I like larger wontons, but I'm often lazy.

Dipping Sauce:
3 parts rice wine vinegar
3 parts soy sauce
1 part chili oil
sprinkling of chopped green onions
sprinkling of diced ginger


Prep:
1. Dice all the ingredients finely. I typically don't bother skinning the ginger.
2. Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl

 To fill the wonton wrappers:
3. Set a cup of water near where you are working.
4. Put enough filling in the center of the wonton wrapper to make plump but not overstuffed dumplings
5. Wet the edges of the wrapper, then press firmly together.
 - For these steps, I typically hold the wrapper in the palm of my left hand, place the filling and wet the edges with the right, close the left hand to bring the edges together then pinch them closed with my right hand. This helps support the bottom of the wonton wrapper so that you don't break them.

To cook them:
6. Fry the wontons pinched-side-down to help seal them until they are golden brown on one side
7. Flip them over so they are pinched-side up
8. Pour enough water into the frying pan so that the wontons are mostly submerged (but not quite).
9. Let the water boil off until it is almost entirely gone
10. Cut one open to make sure that it was cooked all the way. Eat it. Don't burn your mouth.
11. If it hasn't finished cooking yet, add some more water.


I typically will fill enough wontons to get one pan going, then start filling the next batch while the first one is waiting for the water to boil off. When you boil it off it will end up very starchy at the bottom of the pan, so you probably don't want to let it go completely down. If you're going to use the same pan to make multiple batches, you can do about two batches before you need to clean out the pan.



They freeze very well either filled pre-cooked OR after cooking. You can throw frozen un-cooked dumplings directly into boiling water to cook. You lose the nice fried taste but its really easy. Cooked frozen dumplings can go straight into the microwave to be defrosted.




Other modifications I've done: Without water chestnuts, with  carrots, with yellow onion instead of green onion, added various ingredients from the dipping sauce directly into the filling (especially if I can't bring dipping sauce with me to wherever we'll be eating them, just be careful about how much salt you end up with)

Basic Polenta

Basic polenta recipe: From the food network http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/basic-polenta-recipe/index.html


6 Cups water
2 tsps salt
1.75 cups yellow cornmeal
3 tbsp unsalted butter


If you use salted butter, forgo one of the tsps of salt.



1. Bring the water and salt to a boil in the saucepan
2. Gradually whisk in the cornmeal
3. Turn to low and cook until it has a creamy, thick consistency (~15 minutes), stirring often
4. Add the butter, stir until melted


I ate some of it right away, and it was very oatmeal-like. For dinner I preferred it fried. Cut it into 1cm wide strips and freeze what you aren't going to use right away. It freezes very well, and you can throw it into the microwave to defrost.

To fry it, take the 1cm-wide strip and put into frying pan with a little butter or oil. Let each side get very lightly browned, or just to the point where the outside is starting to get a bit crunchy and the inside is creamy. Eat with anything. It went really well with the herbed chicken, although you can't fry it at the same time as the chicken or it turns mushy.

Nutella Cookies

2 Eggs
1/2 cup Nutella
cap-ful of vanilla
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1/2 cup butter-flavored shortening



1. Mix it all up
2. Spoon it onto a cookie sheet. Try to not eat all the batter before they get cooked. Despite how good the batter is, I swear that the cookies are worth letting some of the batter survive.
3. Cook at 350 for ~7ish minutes, or until they're done.


Enjoy.

Veggie Chili

My Chili tends to change depending on what I've got in the fridge. This time around:

Chopped ingredients:
1 Yellow Onion
2 Leeks
2 Bell Peppers (1 green, 1 red)
6 Cloves of Garlic
4 Tomatos
1 Serrano pepper (no seeds)
1 Jalapeno Pepper  (no seeds)

Other Ingredients
1 Large can diced tomato
1 Package of firm tofu
1 Package black beans
1 Large Can kidney beans
1 Small can red beans
1 Small can white beans

Spices:
Crushed red pepper (medium)
Chilli powder (lots)
Cilantro leaves (little)
Cumin (medium)
Basil Leaves (lots)
Cayenne Pepper (medium)
Oregano (lots)


1. Rinse and soak the black beans. Depending on how old they are, you may need to do this overnight. I did. Alternately, use a large can and just rinse them
2. Fry the onions and garlic in a large saucepan
3. Rinse the beans.
4. Add all the chopped and other ingredients to the large pot.Crumble the tofu in.
5. Add all the spices
6. Let it simmer until there is very little water left, ~3 hours. Stir occasionally.

7. Eat it with cornbread, or the polenta you've got frozen in your freezer.
7. Freeze a lot of it because there's no way you can eat that much chili.

Recipes I'm going to try when I have more time

Cooking tonight, potstickers for the Superbowl party at work tomorrow. Next week I'm going to try:

Pepper jelly: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/jalapeno_pepper_jelly/
Garlic Polenta: http://www.health.com/health/recipe/0,,50400000109413,00.html



Note to self: Remember to post the [very basic] polenta recipe.

Herbed Chicken Breast

Not wanting to go out and get food, I defrosted a chicken breast, cubed it (apparently you're supposed to cook it first so it doesn't dry out, but I figure it'll marinate and cook faster this way. I'm HUNGRY, and if I'm that hungry it will taste good whether its dry or not), and marinated it. I'm planning to pan-fry it later. I will update with how it turned out after ward.


Marinade:
- Some olive oil
- Some honey
- Some lemon juice
- Some mustard (plain yellow)
- Salt
- Black Pepper
- Celery seed
- Rosemary
- Sage
- Thyme


Update: It turned out very well. I fried with an onion and an apple, both chopped into pieces more or less the same size as the chicken. The rosemary and the mustard were the two flavors that really worked well of each other. Next time I would use 2-3 onions, or 1 larger one. I used normal yellow onions.

Banana Nut Muffins (With Vegan modifications)

As a need-to-get-rid-of-overripe-bananas recipe, I got this recipe from my mom for banana nut muffins. Had to make it as a vegan recipe once. It comes out well in both cases.

Original Recipe:
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1.5 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
0.5 tsp baking powder
1 cup oil
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
4 mashed bananas
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 c chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 F
Use muffin cups or grease a muffin tin
 Mix the dry ingredients together
Mix the wet ingredients together
Mix the wet and the dry ingredients together
Spoon into the muffin cup
Cook for ~25 minutes. They should be done when a toothpick comes out clean.


I prefer the muffins without chocolate chips. I've also used walnuts, pecans, and almonds in various incarnations of this recipe to good effect. I also would modify it to only use 1.5 cups sugar. These muffins as written are very sweet.

Vegan modification: use ~3 extra bananas instead of the eggs, and leave out some of the sugar. The ones I made came out very well but very sweet using two cups of sugar.