Stew

Guinness Style Beef Stew

2 tbsp olive oil

2.5 lb stew beef, I got a whole package of cheep meat for $5. It cooks a long time, and is a good choice

3/4 tsp each salt and black pepper 

3 garlic cloves, minced 

2 onions , chopped 

6 oz bacon ,  diced 

3 tbsp flour

14.9 oz Guinness Beer (I just used a nut brown ale) 

4 tbsp tomato paste 

3 cups chicken stock/broth

3 carrots , peeled and cut into 1/2" thick pieces 

2 large celery stalks, cut into 1" pieces 

2 bay leaves

3 sprigs thyme

 

• Cut the beef into 5cm/2" chunks. Pat dry then sprinkle with salt and pepper.
• Heat oil in a heavy based pot over high heat. Add beef in batches and brown well all over. Remove onto plate. Repeat with remaining beef.
• Lower heat to medium. If the pot is looking dry, add oil.
• Cook garlic and onion for 3 minutes until softening, then add bacon.
• Cook until bacon is browned, then stir through carrot and celery. 
• Add flour, and stir for 1 minute to cook off the flour.
• Add Guinness, chicken broth/stock and tomato paste. Mix well (to ensure flour dissolves well), add bay leaves and thyme. 
• Return beef into the pot (including any juices). Liquid level should just cover.
• Cover, lower heat so it is bubbling gently. Cook for 2 hours - the beef should be pretty tender by now. Remove lid then simmer for a further 30 - 45 minutes or until the beef falls apart at a touch, the sauce has reduced and thickened slightly.
• Skim off fat on surface, if desired. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Remove bay leaves and thyme.
• Serve with creamy mashed potatoes!!

 

Gnocchi soup

Belive it or not, this is yet another great use for leftover chicken soup. Simply add a bag of spinach, packaged gnocchi, and a heavy pour of 1/2 and 1/2.

Matzoh ball soup

Another great way to have chicken soup with with Matzoh Balls.

Chicken wild rice soup

I love making chicken soup in the Insta Pot, but I am always looking for a way to change up the soup the following day so it doesn't feel like leftovers. This was good. I maybe added too much rice, but experience will help next time I do it. The trick to wild rice soup is added cooked rice to your soup. Wild rice takes up to an hour of cooking and can absorb 4 or 5 times its volume in liquids. It will suck your soup dry if you add it in its uncooked form.

Spicy Crab Soup

Can of crab meat, serano peppers, red bell pepper, creole seasoning or Old Bay, large crushed tomato, 4 C. boxed broth, corn, onions, parsley.

 

Gently saute pepper and onions in a small amount of butter until they are softened.  Add large can of crushed tomatoes and chicken or vegetable broth and increase temperature to medium high.  Add any vegetables you have handy and seasonings. Simmer until vegetables are tender, then add crab meat, warm and serve.  

This was good with rice the first day, and cheese toast the second day.

Wedding Soup

1 lb ground turkey

Large onion

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 C. celery, sliced

2 15 oz cans of beans (I used red beans and white kidney beans)

1 lg can diced tomatoes

2 boxes vegetable broth

parsley, chopped

Italian seasoning

box of small pasta shapes

Brown the turkey with onions and garlic. Season with Italian seasoning, black pepper, and parsley. Add celery and allow to cook a bit. Add tomatoes and broth, and allow to come to a boil. You can let it be until you are ready for dinner, then add less than 1/2 box of pasta, if you add too much pasta it absorbs all your liquid. 5-6 minutes to cook pastas and you are done.

Shrimp Gumbo

My favorite gumbo recipe.

Chicken noodle soup

Chicken, carrots

Ramen Upgraded

Barbeque sauce pork tenderloin and sautéed shitaki and crimini mushrooms make this beef Ramen very special.

Chicken Soup... Again.

Every Sunday is soup-er bowl Sunday lately.  Chicken soup is our normal go-to because it is low carb.  Hearty, easy chicken soup can be conjured up in 30 minutes with the Instant Pot. On the stove-top, it would normally take 3 or 4 hours.

3-4 lb chicken ($.97/lb at Aldis all week!)
4 carrots
1 head of celery
2 medium shallots
salt, pepper, paprika, ginger, ginseng, lemon grass, etc.

Place chicken in the Hot Pot.  Cut the top three inches off the top of celery and add the leaves to the pot along with two of the carrots.  Peel shallots, slice if you prefer, and add to pot along with your chosen seasonings.  Add water to Hot Pot  being careful not to fill beyond max fill line.  Place the lid on the Instant Pot, set the pressure valve to 'seal' and select 'Poultry', which will give 15 minutes of pressure cooking. (It will take about 15 minutes for the liquid inside to come to a boil and build up pressure, then it will pressure cook for 15 minutes. Total cook time 30 minutes). Strain soup.  Add in the extra carrots, shredded chicken, and more seasoning. Allow to sit on warm until carrots are tender.

Gumbo

3 quarts shrimp stock made from scratch.
1 lb. shrimp
1 lb. scallops
1 C. chopped onions
1 C. chopped celery
1 C. chopped green peppers
2 C. cup chopped parsley
3 large carrots
1 lb. okra
Salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste
File powder to taste

Pork udon

Basic miso soup
8 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoons instant dashi granules (or sometimes chicken stock)
1/4 cup miso paste

I added a package of cooked udon noodles, 1/2 C. frozen spinach, 1 cooked sweet potato, peeled and sliced, leftover pork tenderloin brushed with BBQ sauce.

Chicken and Dumplings

5 to 5 1/2 pound stewing hen giblets removed
3 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
7 to 9 cups water
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 3/4 ounces all-purpose flour
2 large eggs, at room temperature
Freshly ground black pepper

Alton Brown's recipe for chicken and dumplings is very good, and worth the extra effort. For this recipe you need a 7-quart pressure cooker or a boiled chicken.

Put the hen and 3 teaspoons of the salt in a 7-quart pressure cooker. Add water just to cover the hen. Do not fill above the cooker's "maximum fill" line, or 2/3 full. Cover and lock the lid. Bring to pressure over high heat, approximately 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to low, so that you barely hear hissing from the pot. Cook for 45 minutes.
Release the pressure using the cooker's release device (read the manual!) or cool the cooker by running cold water over the lid for 5 minutes. Open carefully. Remove the hen from the broth and set aside to cool. The meat should be tender and falling away from the bone. Once the hen is cool enough to handle, pull the meat from the bones in small pieces, cover and set aside. Discard the skin and bones.
Set a cheesecloth-lined colander in a shallow, wide, 6-quart pot and strain the broth, discarding the solids. Taste and season the broth with additional salt, if needed. Put 1/2 cup of the broth, the butter, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt in a 2-quart saucier, set over high heat, and bring to a boil. As soon as it boils, add all of the flour at once and stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture starts to come together, approximately 1 minute. Decrease the heat to low and continue stirring until the mixture forms a ball and is no longer sticky, approximately 3 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl and mix, on low speed, for 5 minutes with an electric hand mixer. Beat until cool and there is no more steam rising. Continue to mix on low, and add the eggs, 1 at a time, making sure each is completely incorporated before adding another. You may need to stop occasionally and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Before adding the last egg, check the mixture for consistency: It should tear slightly as it falls from the beater, creating a "V" shape. Transfer the dough to a 1-gallon resealable plastic bag. Cut off 1 corner of the bag to make a quarter-sized opening.

Bring the broth to a slight simmer over medium heat. Pipe 1-inch of the mixture and cut with kitchen shears directly over the broth. Repeat with the remaining batter. Cook, covered, until the dumplings are cooked through, about 8 to 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, add the meat and wait for 2 to 3 minutes before serving. Serve in bowls with freshly ground black pepper.

Potato Ham and Cheddar Soup

Beef Vegetable Soup

1 lb beef, cut into cubes
1 medium onion
6 C. water
2 bags assorted mixed vegetables
garlic, bay leaf, all spice, pepper

Brown beef and onions in soup pot.  Add water, garlic, bay leaf, all spice, and pepper.  Boil until beef is soft enough to eat.  Stir in frozen vegetables.  Serve when heated through. Mine took about 40 minutes.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

2 cooked boneless skinless chicken breasts (seasoned with North Woods or Taco)
3 quarts chicken broth (water and 1 Tb. chicken stock)
2 Tb. corn meal
1 diced poblano pepper
1 diced sweet ancient pepper (it's sweeter than red bell pepper)
1/2 C. frozen sweet corn
1 can black beans
1 small diced tomato, diced avocado, 1 package ($.89) corn tortillas cut into strips and toasted

In your soup pot, gently saute peppers until they are barely soft (2min?) then transfer to a broiling sheet with sweet corn.  Broil vegetables until they have a light black surface.  Fill soup pot with chicken broth and corn meal. Boil until corn meal is soft.  Add cooked, shredded chicken, beans, and vegetables.  Season with more taco seasoning or to taste.  Serve soup with corn tortilla strips, tomatoes, and avocado.

Fancy Italian Soup

1 package hot Italian sausage
1 box of tomato basil soup
1/2 lb cut green beans
1 can your favorite beans (I am re-hydrating cranberry beans because I'm cheep)
1 package frozen vegetables, or any leftovers in the fridge. I had a carrot.
1/2 box small pasta shapes

Cook Italian sausage in your soup pot.  Remove from pot, cut into chunks, then return to pot.  Add soup, beans, vegetables, and a small amount of water.  Add cooked pasta to soup (or pasta will soak up all your liquids). Season to taste (garlic, pepper).  Serve with bread sticks and pretend you are having a fancy Italian lunch at your favorite restaurant.

Your cost to make (excluding Parmesan cheese and bread sticks) about $6.50 for 4 servings. Add a bag of salad to complete your meal.

Soba Udon Soup

Soba noodles
Udon noodles (can you see we used all the miscellaneous noodles in the pantry because I didn't have enough of one kind!)
Instant miso soup

Boil noodles. Drain them, reserve the 2 C. boiling water needed to reconstitute your instant soup.  Prepare soup accourding to package, top with cooked noodles.  Serve with fried wonton wrapper. 

Ham and Trucker Potatoes

1 bag cube style hash browns
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
16 ounces sour cream
1 (8 oz) bag cheddar cheese

Combine all in a big bowl and spread into 9x13 pan. Wash the bowl.

1/2 stick butter
2 C. corn flakes (no need to measure)

Melt butter in microwave, in bowl, then add your corn flakes. Stir to coat. Use corn flakes to top the casserole. Bake the potatoes at 350* for about an hour.

Italian Wedding Soup

1 lb. ground turkey	1 Tb. beef boullion
1 large onion, diced	2 C. water
1 C. carrots	3 15 oz cans kidney beans
1 C. celery	1 15 oz can diced tomato
some green beans	1 15 oz can tomato sauce
fresh pepper	garlic
macaroni noodles	Parmesan cheese

Make soup, then add noodles at end. When you serve, top with Parmesan cheese.