Esther Ann's Beef Stew

Some of my earliest food memories are of eating this stew at my grandmother's house, and it was one of the first meat dishes I made on my own. Today there are a number of ways I could fancy it up, but it's too precious of a memory for that. For those without fond childhood memories to preserve, you might try switching in your favorite stew spices (marjoram, perhaps?) and browning the beef before starting the stew.

Esther Ann's Beef Stew

• 2 lbs stew meat (Grandma uses top round), cut into large chunks, perhaps 2-3"
• 3 celery stalks, cut into 2" segments
• 2 medium onions, cut in lengths
• 4 carrots, cut into 4 pieces 
• 1 C tomato juice
• 1/3 C quick-cooking tapioca
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 2 medium potatoes, cut into large chunks

Preheat oven to 300F.

Combine beef, celery, onions, and carrots in casserole dish. In a small bowl, combine tomato juice, tapioca, and seasonings. Pour over meat and veggies, stirring to cover.

Cover and bake for about 2 1/2 hours. Remove the cover and add the potatoes. Bake for another hour, uncovered, or until potatoes are very soft.

Can also be made in the crockpot by combining all ingredients and cooking on low for 8 hours.

Slow-Cooker Stuffed Greens

Even though he was sick, V still managed to put this together while I was out running errands. We both loved it, though I think the next time we make it I'll just use cabbage - I missed its flavor here.

Italian Sausage Stuffed Greens
adapted from here

• 4-6 large greens leaves (Swiss chard, kale, or collards)
• 1 lb. of ground Italian sausage
• Handful of breadcrumbs
• Small handful of Parmesan
• ½ onion, shredded
• ½ zucchini or carrot, shredded
• 1 egg
• 2 T. tomato paste
• Tomato Juice or V8
• Fresh Herbs, chopped

Wash greens and make an inverted “V” in the base of the leaf to remove the steam. Combine the sausage, breadcrumbs, parmesan, onion, zucchini (or carrot), egg, and tomato paste. Divide mixture and using the greens, roll into “burritos”. Place in crockpot and cover with tomato juice or V8 and fresh herbs. Cook on high for 1 hour and low for 3 hours.

Serves 4

slow-cooker compote

We made this compote as the finish to a simple Sunday supper menu. Simple, yes, but with many different dishes. Given the demands on our time (and on our stove), it seemed best to leave the dessert to the crock-pot. One of the guests brought the ice cream to go with it, and we served the compote warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Rhubarb-Strawberry-Vanilla Bean Compote
adapted from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker

• 1/4 c OJ
• 1 c sugar
• 1 lb rhubarb, sliced
• 1 vanilla bean, cut in half & seeds scraped out
  
• 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 2 pints strawberries, hulled & cut in half

Combine orange juice through vanilla bean (with its seeds) in slow cooker. Cover and cook on LOW 3-4 hours. Add the lemon juice and berries and stir to distribute. Continue cooking on LOW for up to another hour (though you can just mix in the strawberries and serve, I thought they were better cooked a bit).

serves 6-8

Summer Stew-Making

Friday: orange pork ragout with beans

It was finally briefly (and blissfully) hot, so the idea of simmering this ragout for hours on the stove was unappealing, at best. Also, I didn't read the recipe thoroughly (a major no-no, I realise) and was planning to use cannellini beans from a big batch I made at the beginning of the week. Given all that, here's what I ended up doing:

Orange Pork Ragout with Beans
Yields 4 servings

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 pound boneless pork shoulder, in 2-inch chunks
1 medium-size onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
juice of 1 orange
3/4 cups dry red wine
1 branch fresh rosemary
3 C cooked cannellini beans (canned beans would work fine, too)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Small pinch red chili flakes
2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

1. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large frying pan and brown pork over medium-high heat. Remove. Add onion, garlic and bell pepper. Sauté over low heat until soft. Stir in paprika and cloves. Stir in orange juice and wine, scraping bottom of pan. Return pork to pan. Add rosemary, black pepper and chili. Bring to a simmer.

3. Cook 10 hours in slow-cooker (my slow-cooker seems to be a little on the cool side so I cooked the ragout on high - for most cookers, I'd advise using the low setting here). Add beans. Cook an additional 4 hours on low. Season with salt. Scatter parsley on top before serving.

The changes I made were mostly standard ones for converting non-slow-cooker recipes to be used with a slow-cooker: half as much liquid (the slow-cooker doesn't evaporate as much as most other cooking methods, so it's easy for dishes to have too much liquid in the pot at the end); half as much spice (they can get intense and bitter when cooked for so long); about 6-8 hours on low for every hour of simmering. Because I didn't want my beans to get mushy, I added them late in the cooking cycle.

Overall, it worked! I wasn't a huge fan of the recipe, but Victor loved it.