Battle Stuffed Pork Chop

There is an ongoing battle in my kitchen. The battle is over who is the sous chef and who is running the show. Obviously, I'm running the show, but Nic still insists on calling me "sous chef Kate." We have very different approaches to cooking. I lean toward a few flavors, preferably ones that are already in the fridge, and minimal mess making. Nic leans toward putting as many different elements into a dish as humanly possible, with no regard to what we already have.

Usually we compromise and we make only one dinner. But when we got these awesome, thick pork chops from the store this weekend and decided they were perfect for stuffing, we thought it would be fun to have a mini Iron Chef battle. And battle stuffed pork chop was on.


Nic made an apricot and pine nut stuffed pork chop wrapped in bacon with an apricot glaze (pictured above and above that). In the spirit of his style of cooking this required a trip to Whole Foods. But it was delicious, and very pretty when it was sliced open. The saltyness of the bacon balanced the sweetness of the apricot. Of course, I still insist that using bacon is kind of like cheating. What doesn't taste good wrapped in bacon?


I made a sage "pesto" and feta stuffed pork chop with lemon. Even I have to admit my dish was not nearly as pretty on the plate since there was no contrast of colors, but the flavors really popped. The acidity from the lemon helped balance out the salty, savory flavors from the herb and cheese.

(Did you like my fun food descriptions there like "balance," "popped." Ok, so I probably don't have a future as a professional food writer.)

In the end, we couldn't decide which dish tasted better. And don't think that's because we were being nice to each other. If one of the dishes had lagged behind, the other person would have definitely said something. But since Nic definitely won on presentation points, we will give him the win for Battle Stuffed Pork Chop. Tune back in for the next Battle.

If you're deciding which to make, I'd say Nic's is more impressive for company (bacon wrapped+glaze looks impressive), but mine has slightly less ingredients if you're going out to grab some stuff for a weeknight dinner. They're both ridiculously easy to make though (despite the detailed instructions that make them sound harder than they are).

Nic's Bacon-Wrapped, Apricot-Stuffed Pork Chops

Ingredients:
thick cut boneless pork chops, 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick

for each pork chop
4 to 5 dried apricots (unsweetened)
2 tbs. apricot jam
2 tbs. pine nuts
1/2 tsp. fresh thyme
1/4 tsp. salt
4 strips of bacon

for the glaze
left over apricot mixture from stuffing the pork chops
apricot jam
white wine

Directions:
-Optional: Soak the pork chops for about 2 hours in a salt water brine (enough water to cover the chops and about 1 tbs. of kosher salt for each pork chop). The pork chops can sit in this brine for up to 24 hours in the fridge.
-Remove the pork chops from the refrigerator about 30 minute before cooking to bring to room temperature.
-Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
-To make the cavity in the pork chop for stuffing, first cut a one inch wide incision in the side of the pork chop half way between the top and the bottom. Using a small knife, widen the cavity inside the pork chop, without making the incision larger. Be careful not to poke another hole through on the sides.
-In a food processor, combine the apricots, jam, pine nuts, thyme and salt, and pulse several times until the mixture forms a thick, chunky paste.*
-Using a small spoon, spoon the apricot mixture into the pork chop and stuff it. Don't over-stuff or the apricot will leek out while cooking.
-Place four strips of bacon, overlapping slightly at the edges, on a cutting board. Place the stuffed pork chop on one end of the bacon. Grabbing the edges of the bacon, role the pork chop until it is completely wrapped in the bacon.
-Repeat with all the pork chops.
-Heat an oven-proof skillet large enough to hold all the pork chops over medium-high heat. Use a small amount of oil in the skillet just to prevent sticking.
-When the skillet is hot, place the pork chops into the skillet with the seam of the bacon down.
-Let the bacon brown on all four sides (about 3 to 5 minutes per side), then put the skillet into the preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes (depending on thickness), or until the internal temperature of the pork chops is 160 degrees (so says the USDA, but if you don't want it to get too dry, take it out at 155 and let it rest under foil for 5 minutes).
-While the pork chops are cooking, put any leftover apricot mixture from stuffing the pork chops into a small sauce pan. Add about twice as much apricot jam as you added stuffing. (If there is no leftover stuffing, about 1/2 cup jam should be enough). Add 2 tbs. of white wine, and place the saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, the goal is just to warm the glaze. After about five minutes, if the glaze is still too thick, add more white wine gradually until it reaches the desired consistency.
-When the pork chops are done, serve topped with the apricot glaze.

*If you don't have a food processor, finely chop the apricots, pine nuts, and thyme and mix with the jam.

Kate's Sage "Pesto" and Feta Stuffed Pork Chops

Ingredients:
thick cut boneless pork chops, 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick

for each pork chop
2 tbs. fresh sage leaves
2 tbs. pine nuts
1 tbs. + 1 tsp. fresh lemon juice, plus extra for serving
1/4 tsp. salt, plus extra for serving
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
2 tbs. crumbled feta cheese

Directions:
-Optional: Soak the pork chops for about 2 hours in a salt water brine (enough water to cover the chops and about 1 tbs. of kosher salt for each pork chop). The pork chops can sit in this brine for up to 24 hours in the fridge.
-Remove the pork chops from the refrigerator about 30 minute before cooking to bring to room temperature.
-Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
-To make the cavity in the pork chop for stuffing, first cut a one inch wide incision in the side of the pork chop half way between the top and the bottom. Using a small knife, widen the cavity inside the pork chop, without making the incision larger. Be careful not to poke another hole through on the sides.
-In a food processor, combine the sage, pine nuts, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Pulse until the mixture becomes mostly smooth. Add the sage mixture to the crumbled feta and stir to combine.
-Using a small spoon, spoon the mixture into the pork chop and stuff it. Don't over-stuff or the mixture will leek out while cooking.
-Season the outside of the pork chop with a little lemon juice and a light sprinkling of salt and pepper.
-Repeat with all the pork chops.
-Heat an oven-proof skillet large enough to hold all the pork chops over medium-high heat. Use a small amount of oil in the skillet just to prevent sticking.
-Brown the pork chops on both sides, about 5 to 7 minutes.
-When the pork chops are browned on both sides, place the skillet in the preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes (depending on thickness), or until the internal temperature of the pork chops is 160 degrees (so says the USDA, but if you don't want it to get too dry, take it out at 155 and let it rest under foil for 5 minutes).
-When the pork chops are done cooking, season with a little more lemon juice and a light sprinkle of salt and serve.

Tabbouleh

I can't make tabbouleh without thinking of my roommate Marie laboring over many bunches of parsley, chopping with a knife that looked like it had a previous career as a letter opener. Marie was my French roommate in Cairo, and our knives (like everything else in our kitchen) were at least 50 years old and had never been sharpened. They probably weren't good enough to even bother sharpening to begin with.

But the dull little knife didn't deter Marie from making tabbouleh at least once a month to bring to expat potlucks all over Cairo. I remember watching her pull all the leaves off the bunches of parsley and mint with what seemed like infinite patience to me at the time. Then the slow process of chopping the herbs and the tomatoes and onions. Making tabbouleh seemed to be the ultimate labor of love.

I will never forget my awe when I came back to the states and got really sharp knives as a gift. Cooking became so much easier, it is unbelievable. And making tabbouleh became a much more manageable process.


Tabbouleh is one of my absolute favorite salads. Not only is it delicious, but you can keep the leftovers, and they even taste better the next day. (I dare you to try that with a regular lettuce salad that has the dressing on it. G-ross.)

This is more a how-to for making tabbouleh than it is a recipe, because the amounts are somewhat fluid. I recommend preparing all of the separate parts and adding them to the parsley gradually until you have the taste and proportions you like. I usually like a lower bulghur-to-parsley ratio than the pictures show, but I added my bulghur all at once by accident, then realized I had a little too much.

Idon't use a food processor to chop my parsley because I'm afraid of ending up with pesto. If you really can't bear the thought of chopping the parsley by hand (although a sharp chef knife makes this pretty easy) be sure to only pulse the food processor a few times.

Tabbouleh
Serves 6 to 8 as a side.

Ingredients:
2 large bunches of parsley
1 bunch of mint
1/2 cup fine bulghur wheat
1 1/2 plum tomatoes, or 1 large salad tomato
1/2 large white onion
juice from 1 1/2 lemons
2 to 3 tbs. olive oil
salt/pepper

Directions:
-Place the bulghur in a small sauce pan with 1 cup of water over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 to 20 minutes. The bulghur is done when it is soft and has absorbed the water. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
-While the bulghur cooks, take the first bunch of parsley and start to separate the leaves from the stems*, discarding the stems (or saving them to throw in a stock). On a large cutting board, using a sharp chef's knife, roughly chop the parsley. Run the knife through it in one direction, then run the knife through it in the other direction. Push the parsley back into the center and repeat.
-Put the first bunch of chopped parsley into a serving bowl, then repeat the process with the second bunch.
-Remove the mint leaves from their stems, and chop them. Chop the tomatoes and onion.
-Add the bulghur, mint, tomatoes, and onion to the parsley in the serving bowl. (If you think you have too much of any part, add it gradually).
-Squeeze the juice from one lemon into the salad. Add 2 tbs. of olive oil. Toss the salad.
-Add more lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper to taste.

*You don't have to get every little piece of stem off, but try to at least get the large center stems from each sprig. I've seen tabbouleh made with the stems also thrown in, but I prefer it to be mostly leaves.

Where Have All the Girl Scouts Gone?

Maybe I'm getting antzy too soon, but isn't it Girl Scout cookie season? CNN is writing about Girl Scout cookie selling ethics, so it must be the season of the Thin Mint. Apparently there is a "a flock of 3.7 million Girl Scouts" and all their unethical parents are hawking their cookies for them at work so their daughters don't have to take time away from their "soccer, Hebrew school, karate" commitments.

First of all, you think with a flock that big I could score a box of Thin Mints, but I haven't seen one yet. What are my coworkers the most ethical parents around or something?

Second, why weren't my parents so unethical? I was a Girl Scout for (far too many) years, and my Dad never took that little sign-up sheet to work. Just like my parents never put that stupid sticker on their car that said "Proud parent of a Burnside Honor Roll Student." And you know what, I'm okay with that. Sure, I had to sit my little butt at a table outside the bank to sell my cookies in the freezing cold, but at least I know how to make correct change and talk to strangers now! Look, I've even made a career out of talking to strangers. Although, I have to say, I think strangers like Girl Scouts more than reporters. But the point is, what are parents going to do next, do their kids Hebrew school homework and play in the soccer games for them?

Back to the cookies. I'll take as many boxes of Thin Mints as I can fit in my freezer, please. And one box of those ridiculously sweet ones with the caramel and coconut for Nic. (I checked the cookie descriptions on my local chapter's site and apparently they're called Samoas now, but I'm pretty sure they were Caramel Delights back in my days in the old Green and White.)

And even though I object to the practice on principle, I will compromise my beliefs and buy from some Girl Scout's parent if need be. I'm a sucker for a Thin Mint.

What are you ordering? If you like the peanut butter ones, have no fear, the Girl Scouts are apparently immune to the recent peanut butter recall fiasco. Whew. Close call all you Do-Si-Doers.

Photo by Flickr user bandita (Creative Commons license)

Sweet Potato Hash

My little cold from last week morphed into something much grosser, and I have not really felt like cooking at all this week. I've barely felt like eating. But last night I summoned the energy to try out an idea that had been swimming around in my head for awhile. I'm supposed to be eating more sweet potatoes (so says the nutritionist/trainer that visits our little apartment gym once a month) and even though I do love them just baked with a little butter and cinnamon, I wanted to try something different.

The apple might sounds strange, but trust me it adds a great flavor to the dish that works really well with the sweet potatoes and the sage. If you're not a fan of bacon, you could substitute olive oil, but I think the bacon really gives the dish a lot of flavor, so it would probably be better to reduce the amount used before eliminating it all together. We had these with dinner, but they would be a great dish for a brunch. And the recipe is easy to scale up or down based on how many people you are serving.

Sweet Potato Hash
Serves 2

Ingredients:
2 sweet potatoes
4 strips of medium-cut bacon
1/2 medium apple (I used Gala), diced small
2 tsp. fresh sage, chopped

Directions:
-Poke holes in the sweet potatoes and bake in a 400 degree oven for 40 to 50 minutes. The potatoes should give a little when you poke them.
(Shortcut: Poke holes and microwave each potato for five minutes or until softened.)
-Let the potatoes rest until they are cool enough to handle.
-In the meantime, chop the bacon into cubes, about 1/2 inch across. Cook the bacon over moderate heat in a large frying pan, until the fat starts to reduce from the bacon and the bacon gets crispy.
-When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, pull the skin off. (It should come off fairly easy, you shouldn't need a peeler.) Dice the sweet potato into large squares.
-When the fat has reduced from the bacon, add the diced apples and sweet potatoes to the pan, then the chopped sage. Toss (or gently stir) to combine. Cook over moderate heat for 5 minutes, or until the apples become slightly tender.
-Season with salt and pepper and serve.

New Header, Look Up!

Well not if you're reading this in an RSS reader. But the awesome MK made me a nifty new blog header, so I totally redesigned my formatting. Yes, I said nifty. I'm bringing it back.

Engagement Cake!

This is what I was working on for the better part of last week--a two-tier engagement cake for our friends Joe and MK. It was quite the experience trying to construct this cake. I had no idea what I was doing so I e-mailed back and forth with my friend Katie for instructions...28 times. I still turned a sizeable chunk of fondant a hideous brownish-red color (and died my hands a lovely shade of pink that lasted two days), but luckily Nic had convinced me to buy the jumbo size fondant at Michael's. I was so scared of coloring the fondant after that though that I tried to stick to simple colors...and I ended up making what would have been a beautiful baby shower cake. Too bad it was for an engagement.


Then we carried the cake to a great restaurant downtown for a little get together with some of Joe and MK's friends. And the waiters for some reason decided to put candles in the cake. Candles? So now it looked like a birthday cake. Actually it looked more like a cartoon explosive... Can you see how the candles are coming out at an angle? Sometimes you can't win.

The lovely Jaime took this picture (and the one at the bottom of the cake slices). I wish all my blog photos could be done by a professional. ::Sigh:: She also took a picture of my face when I saw that they put candles in the cake. It wasn't a pretty face.




Luckily despite the odd coloring and the candles the cake tasted great. So great in fact that after serving us our slices the rest of the cake seemed to have disappeared in the kitchen. Hmmm. The bottom tier of the cake was pumpkin with butterscotch-pecan filling and brown sugar icing (for MK, who loves all things pumpkin) and the top tier was chocolate with raspberry filling and icing (because Joe prefers chocolate).

The pumpkin cake was really dense but delicious, and the butterscotch filling and caramelly brown sugar icing were the perfect compliment. The recipe came Culinary Concoctions by Peabody, and for the sake of brevity, I'm not going to retype it. I didn't change anything, but I did double the cake portion of the recipe to make two eight inch cake layers (I had a little extra because the originally recipe is for a 9 inch cake), and I swapped pecans for the walnuts in the filling.

The chocolate cake was light and airy with a deep chocolate flavor. This cake was so good, I'm already looking for another excuse to make it. I like my cake on the light side of the dense-light cake texture scale, and I really love how simple this cake is to make. My Grandmom's original recipe tells you to just throw all the ingredients together and mix until combined. I complicated things a little, but I'm betting that it works just fine Grandmom's way. The only other changes I made to my Grandmom's recipe was to add a little salt and to use hot coffee instead of hot water.

The raspberry filling came from Katie, and the recipe is over here, but I only used it as an icing because I was covering the cake with fondant. Normally, I would ice the cake with a simple chocolate icing or glaze.

Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
1 3/4 cups cake flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups hot coffee (or water)

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees and position the oven rack in the center of the oven. Grease a bundt pan or two 8 inch cake pans.
-In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together for 2 minutes on medium speed, until smooth.
-In a separate bowl, combine the cocoa, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
-In a cup combine the hot coffee and the vanilla.
-Set the mixer to low, and add the dry and wet ingredients, alternating. Beat for 2 minutes on medium speed.
-Pour the batter into the prepared pan (or divide evenly between the two prepared pans) and bake on the center rack in the oven for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
-Let the cake cool for 15 minutes in the pan(s), then flip the cake onto a wire rack to cool the rest of the way before icing.

Noodle Pudding

I have been a very bad blogger lately. I apologize. But of course, I'm always ready with an excuse. I'm working on a BIG, food-related project that resulted in my hands looking like this:



If you can't tell the palms are dyed red. Not a good look on me...or anyone really. I'll post the project this weekend. (Hopefully.) But if you're curious, it involves baking, layers, and obviously a lot of food coloring.

Another reason for my lack of blogging is that several of my recent dinners turned out to be better in theory than in reality. Such as the chicken stroganoff I made to use these egg noodles with in the first place. But it was pretty horrible, so I decided to repurpose the egg noodles. This is a great recipe for an cooked, leftover pasta that uses things you probably have on hand already. It's not a very fancy dessert, but it doesn't have too much sugar in it (and I used skim milk and low-fat sour cream) so it can be a pretty good treat for the middle of the week.

This recipe is really flexible. I reduced the amount of milk in the original recipe to add the sour cream, but you can use two cups of milk and no sour cream. You can use raisins instead of dried cranberries, or any other dry fruit, or no fruit at all. But that would probably taste pretty boring. You can change the spices. Next time I think I'll try adding some cardamom and white raisins.

Now I'm going to go make some chicken soup and watch reruns, because I've come down with a nasty little cold.

Noodle Pudding
Adapted from The Minimalist column in the NYT, written by Mark Bittman (I know I need to start reading other people's recipes)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tbs. unsalted butter
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup low-fat sour cream
1/2 of a 1 lb. box/bag of pasta or noodles, cooked (about 4 cups)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
2 eggs

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, warm the milk, butter, sugar and spices. When the butter is melted, remove from the heat, and whisk in the sour cream. Let cool.
-While the milk heats, butter a small baking dish. Put the noodles into the baking dish with the dried cranberries. Toss the noodles and the cranberries to combine.
-When the milk mixture is cool, whisk in the eggs.
-Pour the milk mixture over the noodles.
-Bake for 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Homemade Refried Black Beans

I think my love for refried beans started when I was about 9. The only fast food restaurant my mom would let us eat from was Taco Bell, and even that was a rare treat. But we couldn't have anything with ground beef. This might have been around the time of one of the Mad Cow media frenzies, but I can't be sure. That basically left two choices from the Taco Bell menu: chicken soft taco or a bean burrito. I got one of each. I liked the chicken soft taco, especially with those little packets of hot sauce (this was before the introduction of the fourth level of heat: fire), but I loved the bean burrito. The ooey gooey beans all melted together with the cheese and the little cubes of onion. MMM.


When I was 19, I was introduced to my next level of refried love. At Rosa Mexicana. A sort-of upscale Mexican restaurant in D.C that served all of their meals with rice and refried BLACK beans. O. So. Good. Why hadn't I found these before?

Turns out they're also basically the easiest thing to make ever. So this isn't really a recipe, it's just more like a really good idea I felt the need to pass along. Try them in tacos, quesadillas, or my favorite--simple bean burritoes with cheese and little cubes of onion. They're so much better than the stuff from the can.


Refried Black Beans

Ingredients:
1 lb. cooked black beans (or 1 can), drained, with the cooking liquid reserved
glug of olive oil
1/2 medium white onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1 ancho chili (or a few shakes of cayenne pepper)

Directions:
-In a medium saucepan, heat the olive oil over moderate heat. Saute the garlic and onions until they are soft and fragrant, 5 to 10 minutes.
-Add the beans, cumin, chili powder, and chili and cooking stirring occasionally about 20 minutes or until the beans start to split and get very soft. If the beans start to get dry and stick add some of the cooking liquid, one tablespoon at a time.
-When the beans are soft, remove the whole chili, and mash with a potato masher or put in a food processor and process until smooth.

Spaghetti Carbonara w/ Brussels Sprouts

When I lived in Cairo, my Belgian roommate, Sara, met an Italian guy named Georgio. He had a slight speech impediment and he couldn't roll his R's, so when he introduced himself it sounded like "Jojo." He made us pasta and sauce one night, and he was talking about how he didn't understand how Americans eat pasta.

"In Italy, spaghetti carbonara is just eggs and bacon and cheese, but in America I order spaghetti carbonara and there is all kinds of other stuff in there!"

He said it in a good-natured way, not suggesting that the pasta was bad in America, just that it wasn't really spaghetti carbonara, and we should call it something else. Something all our own.

Well, Georgio, I'm sorry. I couldn't think of something all my own to call this. But just for you, I acknowledged that there is in fact a foreign ingredient in this spaghetti carbonara...

...and it is delicious.

My thought process went something like this: Brussels sprouts taste good cooked with bacon...I like to put cabbage in my lo mein...Brussels sprouts are basically baby cabbage...I could shred Brussels sprouts and put them in pasta...with bacon...spaghetti carbonara is made with bacon...I'll make spaghetti carbonara with Brussels sprouts!

A quick weeknight meal is born. Plus the Brussels sprouts make me feel less bad about eating a huge bowl of pasta tossed with bacon and eggs. And Nic and I both thought that we didn't really like Brussels sprouts, but when you shred them up (and saute them in bacon fat) they are actually very tasty. So give them shot. If nothing else, it is an excuse to eat bacon.


Spaghetti carbonara w/Brussels Sprouts
Serves 4-6

Ingredients:
1 lb. spaghetti or other long pasta
2 tbs. olive oil
6 to 8 oz. (about 6 to 8 slices) of bacon (or pancetta)
20-25 Brussels sprouts
3 eggs
1/2 cup Pecorino Romano cheese, plus more for serving
salt/fresh ground black pepper

Directions:
-Put a large pot of water on to boil to cook the pasta.
-While the water is coming to a boil, heat a large saute pan (I used my cast iron skillet) over moderate heat with the olive oil.
-Dice the bacon into 1/2 inch cubes, and add to the skillet when it is hot, stirring occasionally until crispy and the fat is rendered.
-In the meantime, remove the bottoms of the Brussels sprouts and any tough outer leaves, wash, and shred in a food processor (with a 2 mm blade) or with a sharp knife.
-Push the bacon to the side of the pan, and add the shredded Brussels sprouts, stirring occasionally. Let the Brussels sprouts sit in one spot long enough to brown slightly before stirring. The sproats should still be bright green but tender with just a few browned spots when done. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
-In a bowl, beat the three eggs then add the 1/2 cup of Pecorino Romano cheese and stir until combined.
-When the spaghetti is done cooking, drain, reserving the cooking liquid.
-Immediately return the pasta to the pot and toss briskly with the egg and cheese mixture. Add the Brussel sproat and bacon mixture (with all the cooking fat that might be unabsorbed) and continue to toss until combined. If the pasta is dry, add a little bit of the cooking liquid and toss.
-Top with more grated cheese and black pepper to serve.

Goulash

Nic made this great dinner last night while I was at the gym, struggling through an intense speed workout. My marathon is in just over three weeks so I'm trying to get in more quality time in my running shoes, which means a little less time in the kitchen.

Nic took the liberty of substituting the bacon from the original recipe with salami. I wouldn't have thought to do that, but it was tasty. This is a great, hearty winter meal, but I have to say it didn't taste quiet like what I remember eating in Hungary...probably because they don't use salami. I also told Nic to reduce the amount of caraway seeds from the original recipe because they're not my favorite.

I like my goulash over egg noodles, but you could serve it over mashed potatoes or with crusty bread or even on it's own like a soup. We halved the recipe, and it was plenty for a dinner and a lunch for the two of us. And it reheats very well, like pretty much any soupy-stewey food.



Goulash
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen, which Adapted from Gourmet

Ingredients:

1 cup of salami, finely diced (or 5 slices bacon, chopped)
3 lbs. boneless chuck, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 tbs. vegetable oil
4 medium onions, diced finely
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 tbs. paprika
1 tsp. caraway seeds
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup tomato paste
5 cups beef broth
1 to 5 cups water or beer (preferably beer, use the smaller amount for stew, the greater amount for soup)
1 tsp. salt
2 red bell peppers, finely diced

Directions:
-In an 8 quart heavy kettle, cook salami (or bacon) over moderate heat, stirring, until crisp and transfer with a slotted spoon to a large bowl.
-In the fat remaining in the kettle, brown chuck in small batches over high heat, transferring it as browned with slotted spoon to bowl. (If there is not enough fat to brown the beef, add a small amount of neutral oil, like vegetable or canola.)
-Reduce the heat to medium and add 2 tbs. vegetable oil. Add onions and garlic and cook until golden, stirring occasionally.
-Stir in paprika, caraway seeds, and flour and cook 2 minutes.
-Whisk in vinegar and tomato pasta and cook 1 minute.
-Stir in the broth, beer (or water), salt, bell peppers, bacon, and chuck and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Simmer the goulash, covered for 60 to 75 minutes, stirring occasionally.
-Season with salt and pepper.