Guinness-Braised Lamb Shanks + A Giveaway!

It doesn’t matter that Chicago is experiencing an apocalyptic “un-winter,” where daytime temperatures have been considerably higher than freezing, bordering on spring-like. It doesn’t matter that a year ago, the city (including my car) was buried under several feet of snow. And it definitely doesn’t matter that I haven’t wiped out once on a patch of devious black ice, since it hasn’t been cold enough for small puddles to freeze over. It’s only a matter of time before old-man winter hits hard again, and until I’m hitting the pavement hard again.

When you live in a place where the climate sucks for approximately 2/3 of the year, you can either sulk about it, or you can embrace it. Using a slow cooker is one of my ways of accepting the cold weather. What could be simpler or more satisfying? Brown up a tough cut of meat on the stove, saute a few aromatic veggies like carrots and onions, add some liquid and seasoning, and turn the knob to low. Go to work, where you absolutely, definitely do not worry about the electrical cord of the slow cooker malfunctioning. Causing fiery sparks to fly all over your apartment. Igniting kitchen towels, your greasy stove, and everything else within a 25 foot radius. Leading to a massive fire that takes down your entire apartment complex. Including your brand new 42-inch plasma screen. And everything else in your uninsured abode. No. You don’t worry about this. You don’t worry, because the inner dish of a slow cooker is usually made of glazed ceramic or porcelain, encased in metal. The slow cooker is self-contained, and cannot light on fire. Plus, you know better than to plug in a cord if the plastic casing has been compromised, or if the inner wires are popping out all willy nilly.

OK.

So, go to work. Come home 8-10 hours later, open the door and become instantly enveloped in the warm, inviting, delicious aromas of dinner. Prepare a simple side dish, if necessary. Or just sit down to a hearty meal. Who cares about the frigid outside world when you come home to a welcome like that?

Guinness-Braised Lamb Shanks with Chive Mash

I made Guinness-Braised Lamb Shanks for my friend, Meghan. She was coming over on a weeknight, so being able to use the slow cooker made dinner a breeze, even though I got home from work late. The recipe is from The 150 Best Slow Cooker Recipes, Second Edition by Judith Finlayson. It’s a fabulous book that goes beyond the typical chilis and stews that are commonplace in slow cooking. It includes recipes like  Portuguese Sausage and Shellfish Stew and Osso Bucco, and many recipes include mouth-watering photos of the finished dishes. The book fittingly ends with 22 desserts that you can make in your Crock Pot. I’m curious – have you even used your slow cooker to make dessert?

Although I haven’t made all 150 of the recipes, this lamb dish most definitely makes my personal list of best slow cooker recipes. The meat fell right off the bone, tender and flavorful, and the braising liquid was delicious spooned over chive laced mashed potatoes.

I’m giving winter the middle finger and giving this book away to one of you!

To enter the giveaway, leave a comment on this post about your favorite slow cooker recipe. You can earn an additional entry by following me on Twitter (@bethylou10) and sending me a tweet about slow cooking. You’ll also earn an entry if you subscribe to this blog – just leave another comment to let me know you’ve signed up. Finally, refer a friend who subscribes (again, give me details in a comment so it’s accounted for), and you’ll both have another chance to win! This giveaway is open until 11:47 pm on Monday, February 13. Why 11:47? Well, why not?!? A winner will be generated by random.org, and I’ll send you this fabulous cookbook! Yay!

Update

This contest is now closed. Congratulations to Sylvia, the proud new recipient of The 150 Best Slow Cooker Recipes, Second Edition by Judith Finlayson! Email me your address and I’ll send the book out to you ASAP!

Tags: lamb, slow cooker

Having a Laugh

It’s been one helluva week. It’s the kind of  freight train week that doesn’t stop for anything, when more to-dos get added to the list, even though nothing is getting crossed off.

Not much time for cooking, or at least cooking anything notable. I even missed One-Word Wednesdays because I didn’t have an interesting photo to post.

Until yesterday.

I received an email from an old friend, and it was just the kind of silliness I needed to soften the hectic pace that has dictated this week. Laughing at this email was sort of felt like a mini-vacation, and I didn’t even need to leave my desk. I laughed so hard that Diet Coke almost came out of my nose, so I thought I’d share it with you. Plus, it gives me something quick to post when time is too short to pull anything else together. Hope you enjoy it half as much as I did.

Beth,

I know you take your blog pretty seriously and all. I think you might want to figure out how to make this so you can strengthen your cooking chops for all the world to see. It’ll lend a bit more professionalism I think. No need to thank me.

D.

Crazy Eyed Kitty Pizza

Japanese Gyoza – I Just Can’t Get Enough

Pork Gyoza with Cucumber and Carrot Salad

My friend Brian and I dine out together frequently. Whenever we go out for sushi, I try to order gyoza, half-moon shaped dumplings filled with pork, shrimp and cabbage. Without fail, Brian mocks me (he’s a little heavy-handed with the sarcasm, but so am I), saying that I should leave all of the room available in my stomach for the good stuff  – fresh raw fish. He’s got a point. Seafood is the star of those meals. But I consider gyoza to be good stuff too, if they’re made from scratch. Sometimes Brian wins this war, and I forgo the gyoza. Now that I know how to make them at home, I may never order them at the sushi bar again.

Gyoza are cousins to Italian ravioli and Chinese pot stickers, and I like them all. Tasty meat and veg stuffed into a glutenous pouch? I’m all in. I made pork gyoza to accompany Chicken Udon Soup last week. The whole process was really fun, and the gyoza were savory and chewy.

I loosely followed this gyoza recipe on Rasa Malaysia.  First, you mix up a filling.  I omitted the shrimp in the original recipe, adding an equal amount of extra ground pork to save a little cash. I also used regular chives in place of Chinese chives. Then you scoop a small amount of the filling into the center of a gyoza wrapper, which are easily found in Asian grocery stores. Speed up the process by setting up an assembly line. Lay out several wrappers in a row, plop filling into all of them, brush the edges of the dough with water, and seal.

Porky Gyoza Assembly Line

Forming the wrapper into little purses was my favorite part of the recipe. There was something very Zen about giving up the idea that each gyoza had to look exactly the same, that each pleat had to be perfectly spaced. Catharsis by Japanese dumpling. What an awesome side effect!

After all of the purses are crimped shut, they cook for a few minutes in a neutral-tasting oil. Rasa Malaysia recommended using a nonstick pan, since the wrappers are slightly sticky. They look like little lightning bolts.

Gyoza Around the Clock

When the bottoms have browned, add a little water to the pan and cover to steam the dumplings. Oops – I don’t have a lid for that size pan, but a smaller lid did the job. The sound of the water repeatedly  bubbling up and hitting the lid sounded like a bad porno.

Hot, Steamy Gyoza

Because the water won’t evaporate if it’s covered, I poured almost all of it off after 7 minutes, leaving just a tablespoon or so in the pan. Cook the gyoza a bit longer to recrisp the bottom. Dunk into a dipping sauce made of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and chili paste. Eat as many as you can without spoiling your appetite for sushi, or just treat them as the main event and go nuts.

Tags: pork, side dishes

One-Word Wednesdays: Suspension

Coco Loto Roasted Coconut Juice with Pulp

Lemony Fettuccine Alfredo with Pulled Chicken and Broccoli

Lemony Fettuccine Alfredo with Pulled Chicken and Broccoli

I have a love/hate relationship with the meal I just ate. I loved eating it, but I’ll hate the amount of exercise it’s going to take to burn it off. Fettuccine alfredo is no joke. Consider its genetic make up: butter, heavy cream, a ton of Parmesan cheese, and pasta. It’s just not funny. It’s hyper-indulgent, but I’m all for eating in moderation (remember, I don’t eat the entire cake at work), especially if the fridge and pantry odds and ends add up to Fettuccine Alfredo.

Items in the refrigerator included all of the aforementioned heart-stoppers. Additionally, I had half of a huge roasted chicken breast left over from another meal, half of a lemon, a fresh, crisp head of broccoli and a whole bunch of Italian flat leaf parsley. With that kind of line up, it felt like the odds and ends weren’t suggesting that I make a creamy, fat-laden, carbo-loaded dinner. It seemed like they were commanding it. If nothing else, I respect the odds and ends and all of their opportunities, so I went for it. I made fettuccine alfredo, thinned the sauce with fresh lemon juice, steamed some broccoli florets, and tossed in pulled chicken.  It was soooooooo damn good. It was ready in less than 30 minutes, and if I had the magical powers to make pasta water boil instantly, it would have only taken about half of that.

So, the lesson of the day, Walloping Teaspooners, is that odds and ends can be a bitch on your waistline if you eat like this every night, but it’s not going to hurt too much to partake in the good stuff every once in a while, especially if it means that you’re using up ingredients that you have on hand. Worried about getting to much of the good stuff? Are you swiftly outgrowing your drawstring pants? Stop keeping heavy cream in the house!

Tags: chicken, pasta

Lemon Ricotta Pie with Red Grapes

Lemon Ricotta Pie with Red Grapes

While browsing through the newspaper yesterday, I was taunted by a gigantic piece of French Silk Pie in a Baker’s Square advert, and I’ve been obsessing about pie ever since. Cherry, banana cream, and Dutch apple, running rampant through my thoughts. Brainwashed by creamy chocolate custard and perfectly piped whipped cream. Thankfully, I work in a test kitchen, so my pie fixation didn’t hinder today’s productivity. I celebrated National Pie Day by making Lemon Ricotta Pie with Red Grapes, and by eating it for dinner.

Before today, I’d never had ricotta pie, but I’m a cheesecake lover and knew that a tangy ricotta custard would have a similar flavor. More importantly, there was an unopened container of ricotta languishing in the fridge, left over from lasagna experiments a couple of weeks ago. Remember my love of odds and ends? I practice that love at work, too. Even though I really wanted chocolate cream pie today, I  took care of that lingering ricotta cheese instead, and ended up with a darn tasty new pie recipe to add to my arsenal.

Slice of Ricotta Pie with Red Grapes

The texture of this pie is slightly granular from the ricotta. I’m thinking that pulsing the cheese in a food processor instead of creaming it with a mixer would produce a smoother, more refined custard, but I actually didn’t mind the roughed up texture. It really differentiated this pie from a typical cheesecake. Bitter lemon zest was offset by a traditional, sweet graham cracker crust. Pretty red grapes tossed with a bit of brown sugar and lemon juice made a great accompaniment. After all, cheese and grapes are a classic combo. Wine and brie, anyone?

Happy Pie Day 2012, y’all.

Lemon Ricotta Pie with Red Grapes

Serves 8.

1-1/3 cups graham cracker crumbs
3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1 container (15 oz.) ricotta cheese
3 eggs
1 lemon, zested and 2 tablespoons juice reserved
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
Pinch salt
1 tablespoon firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup seedless red grapes, halved

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Stir together the graham cracker crumbs, 1/4 cup of the granulated sugar, and melted butter. Press firmly into the bottom and sides of a 9 in. pie plate. Bake 8-10 minutes, or until the crust is fragrant and lightly browned. Cool shell slightly.

Lower oven temperature to 300°.  With an electric mixer, cream ricotta and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Add lemon zest, vanilla extract, cornstarch, and salt and mix until well incorporated. Pour into crust. Bake 37-40 minutes, or until the center of pie jiggles only slightly.  Cool at least one hour.

In a small bowl, stir together the lemon juice and brown sugar until the sugar dissolves. Toss with grape halves. Spoon over the top of the pie. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Tags: baking, pie

Chicken Udon Soup

Chicken Udon Soup

I’ve learned something important about cooking for people who cook for a living. They’ll happily eat almost anything, as long as they don’t have to participate in the preparation of the food. Almost ANYTHING. Peanut butter and jelly on rye bread, with caraway seeds. Flattened bags of Funyuns dust. Plain carrots that have been boiled to mush.    If someone else is cooking it, the professional chef in your life is eating it without complaint, even if the food is under salted or slightly overcooked . On the converse, if you put a little effort into making a decent dinner for the pro-cook, you’ll be lavished with praise and appreciation, and possibly even offers to scrub the dishes post-feast.*

I cook for Jon, the chef in my life, more often than he cooks for me. I’ll never say that the meals I make are better than his, and he’s much better about keeping the kitchen tidy while cooking is in progress. You might refer to me as Hurricane Beth when I make dinner, because the apartment is getting wrecked. Regardless, he is always appreciative of a home-cooked meal, and even though I always ask for his honest opinion, he rarely critiques my food. I’ve recently gotten over his compulsion to dump a pint of hot sauce all over everything, many times before even tasting a dish. I used to assume meant that the food-du-jour was flavorless and unsatisfying. Now I know that Jon just enjoys sweating at the dinner table and the colonic effects of super spicy foods. We all have our pleasures in life…but I’ll start to worry if I see him stirring Sriracha into cereal milk.

Last night I made a Japanese-inspired dinner, complete with cucumber sesame salad and pork gyoza, which were super tasty and will be featured here soon. Jon ate several spoonfuls of Chicken Udon Soup before adding in chili paste, which for me was akin to winning Bronze in the Olympics. (The day he doesn’t add any hot sauce at all will be Gold.) This clean, delicate soup is the kind of food that fortifies your soul on a cold day. Shiitake mushrooms, pulled chicken meat, star anise and ginger…the whole is so much greater than any of its parts. I snagged the recipe directly from this month’s Cooking Light Magazine, but you can get it right here. And you really should get it. Slurp up this soup as soon as you can.

*This is in no way guaranteed, but if you do receive an offer that involves dishwashing, respond with an unrepentant and enthusiastic “YES!” Failing to do so may decrease, or completely eliminate the likelihood of this offer in the future, in which case you have no one to blame but yourself, fool.

Tags: chicken, soup