Week 10: Lamb Stew a la Marshall Field's

Plan about 3.5 hours to make this, but it is incredibly easy and very tasty. Another dish with company over...and the company has survived to tell the tale! However, no photos this week. While I was getting the meat ready, a child of mine decided that was the perfect time to clean the fish tank...and spilled some of the yucky fish tank water all over the counter. Fortunately none of it got on the meat...but it prompted a mommy-meltdown, which is best remedied with wine. And Amen this recipe calls for wine so I had an open bottle and kept cooking!

Ingredients
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 pounds cubed lamb meat for stewing
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, minced
2 sprigs parsley
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 1/2 cups beef broth, plus more if needed.
1/2 cup dry red wine (three cheers for this ingredient!)
6 carrots, sliced into coins
2 cups pearl onions, or 8 small onions, peeled and halved
2 cups frozen peas

In a shallow bowl, stir together the salt, pepper, and flour. Add the lamb cubes and toss well. Place a Dutch oven over medium-high heat and add the oil. Add the lamb cubes in batches and cook, turning, for 10 to 12 minutes, until browned on all sides. Add the garlic, parsley, bay leaf, thyme, broth, and wine. Decrease the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 2 hours, until the meat is very tender, adding more broth if needed.

Add the carrots and onions, season with a littel salt and pepper, if needed, and continue cooking, covered for another 20 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Add the peas and cook for another 10 minutes. Serve in individual crocks.

My notes:

1. The lamb meat I got from the butcher was not in cubes, but rather in squares about 1-inch square, and only 1/4-inch thick. Coating all of that with the flour took some time (aside from the fish tank incident). I had 3 1-lb packages, so I'd coat a pound, then brown it while I coated the next pound. It sort of worked, but I ended up needing more oil for the browning.
2. I used more like one and a half bay leaves. It seemed like a more appropriate amount.
3. I used a syrah for the wine...drank the rest between me and the company. maybe THAT's why it tasted good?!
4. The broth...one small can was just the right amount. It measured to be more like 1 3/4 cups, but I ended up needing it.
5. Pearl onions...found them in the freezer section. I let them thaw during the two hours the meat was cooking.
6. I used 7 carrots instead of 6 just because it seemed like a lot of meat.

This would be an easy one to modify the vegetables, etc. But cooked as is, it was superb!

Week 9: Sour Cream-Cranberry Coffee Cake

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup wheat germ
1 teaspoon salt (not kosher salt)
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 scant cups fresh cranberries, roughly chopped
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 10-cup, fluted, nonstick Bundt pan with nonstick spray.

Combine the melted butter, sugar, eggs, sour cream, and vanilla in a large bowl and mix well. Stir in the flour, wheat germ, salt and baking powder and mix until just combined; do not overmix. Fold in the cranberries.

In a separate bowl, combine the pecans, brown sugar, and cinnamon and toss to mix well.

Pour half of the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle on teh nut mixture. Cover with the remaining batter. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until firm and golden brown on top. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before inverting onto a plate to unmold.

My notes:
I chose this with the intention of taking it to a Sunday noon potluck. It didn't make it with me, and it wasn't worthy of any pictures. That aside, the taste was wonderful!

• I only had salted butter, so I used that and simply cut out the salt the recipe calls for.
• I know it's not cranberry season so I used dried cranberries instead. I found a source that said you can use 3/4 dried cranberries to 1 cup fresh cranberries. It is best to let the dried cranberries soak in warm water for 1/2 hour before using them, so that's what I did.

Really, I followed the recipe. The problem came when I turned it upside down. It didn't come out in this lovely Bundt pan shape. It fell out in about 3 huge pieces, and 15 smaller pieces. Your guess is as good as mine as to why - maybe I didn't spray enough non-stick spray, maybe the dried cranberries really weren't an acceptable substitute, anything. But it didn't matter. The girls loved this, especially warm from the oven. So I'd make it again, but maybe I'll wait until cranberry season to see if that was the problem.

Week 8: Chicken Breasts with Tomato-Basil Sauce

This is another quick and easy recipe. The girls liked the flavor, but didn't like the chunks of tomato in the sauce. Someday they'll expand their horizons!

Ingredients

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

salt and freshly ground balck pepper

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 shallot, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

3/4 cup chicken broth

16 grape tomatoes, halved

1/4 cup fresh basil, thinly sliced

Preparation

Season the chicken breasts on both sides with salt and pepper. Dredge in the flour and shake off any excess.

Combine the oil and 1 tablespoon of the butter in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, place the chicken in the pan and cook, turning once, for 4 to 5 minutes on each side, until golden brown and cooked through. Remove from the pan and keep warm.

Add the shallot and garlic to the hot pan. Saute for 1 minute, then add the vinegar to deglaze the pan, using a wooden spoon to scrape up all the browned bits on the bottom. Add the chicken broth and tomatoes and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until reduced by half. Remove the pan from the heat. Stirring constantly, add the basil, remaining 2 tablespoons butter, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir until the butter is incorporated into the sauce.

Place a chicken breast on each plate and pour the sauce over. Serve at once.

I made one substitute to this...I couldn't find a shallot at the grocery store (user error on my part...I didn't know what it was until I got home and looked it up). So I used 1/8 of a red onion minced instead. It took me about 20 minutes to prepare this and serve it with a salad and mashed potatoes, as recommended by the chef in the cookbook.

Week 7: Canadian Cheese Soup

It's March and somehow I'm only in week 7 with this. Oh well! Some of these have had more than one recipe with it, so I'll consider it all good.

I'm not sure why we chose soup to do this week. Maybe it was the Canada vs. USA hockey game at the Olympics that made this one stand out. And sometimes, soup is just the right thing for dinner. Plus, this looked easy. I was ready for an easier recipe this time. I forgot to take pictures. But it is just soup...nothing fancy to see about it :)

Ingredients
4 tablespoons unslated butter
1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely diced celery
1/2 cup finely diced carrot
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon paprika
3 cups whole milk
3 cups chicken broth
2 pounds aged sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Place a large saucepan over medium heat and add the butter. When the butter is melted, add the onion, celery, and carrot and cook, sitrring for about 10 minutes, until the vegetables are soft. Sprinkle the flour and paprika over the vegetables and stir for 1 minute. Whisk in the milk and broth and bring to a simmer. Simmer, whisking occasionally, for 10 minutes, until thickened. Decrease the heat to low and whisk in the cheese, salt, and pepper. Stir until the cheese is completely melted and incorporated. Taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary. Serve hot.

This was good and easy. The one mistake I made was going a little cheap on the cheese, I think. The end result was a little chunky. Had I been willing to spend the $30 for the really good sharp cheddar cheese, I think this would have been avoided. But we bought cheaper bricks and my daughter had a good time shredding while I did the rest of the work.