CrockPot Stuffing

While SOME people are off cavorting in the sun & sea, the rest of us get to cook this Thanksgiving. I'd like to share a secret I discovered years ago when I had only one small oven, a medium sized turkey and 12 hungry people coming over for dinner: my crockpot! It is simple, healthy, leaves oven space and makes perfect stuffing every time. And the best part is that you get to use what ever stuffing recipe you like! The hard part is keeping people from lifting the lid to take a taste.

Inspiration: Not enough room in the oven for extra stuffing.
Time: 4-6 hours
Difficulty: easy
Special Equipement: CrockPot
Servings: whatever your recipe says

Make your stuffing as if you were going to stuff the bird. Put it in the crockpot and cook on high for 45 minutes. Turn to low and cook for 4-6 hours.

Grilled Minty Lamb

Last night I made Spanikopita. It was fantastic. Sauteed mushrooms, shallots and spinach all inside a crispy and buttery, triangular filo dough crust. So why am I not writing about it? I'll tell you why. I hate filo dough. It's such a pain in the butt. You have to move fast or it will dry out. If it's not perfectly thawed, it cracks. If it's too well thawed it sticks together. Pain Pain PAIN! So, before I add up the spanikopita recipe (it was too tasty not to), I want to get my technique down for working with filo dough so I can, in turn, make useful suggestions (instead of just using more butter, which is what I did). In the mean time, I think you should definitely try this simple recipe I used to grill a boneless leg of lamb to go along with the spanikopita.

Inspiration: My Big Fat Greek Wedding ("What do you mean you don't eat meat? That's okay I make lamb")
Time: 45 minutes
Difficulty: Super easy
Special equipment: Grill or grill pan
Servings: 2 legs of lamb.

Ingredients:
2 one inch thick lamb steaks, washed and patted dry
4 cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
2 tsp coriander seeds, crushed (or 1 tsp ground coriander)
1/2 cup mint leaves
1/4 cup olive oil.

1. Mash garlic to a paste with salt. Mix in ground pepper and ground coriander.
2. Mince mint leaves until they are very finely chopped. Add to garlic paste with oil and mix thoroughly.
3. In a one gallon ziplock bag, pour garlic mint mixture over lamb steaks so that it coates the steaks evenly. Remove air from bag and seal. Let sit for 30 minutes.
4. On a hot grill, or on hot grill pan, cook lamb heat by searing on both sides for 4-5 minutes. You want lamb to be medium rare (NO EXCEPTIONS!), so it should still feel tender when you poke it (like if you press your index finger to your lips). Let steaks sit for 10 minutes before cutting into.

Note: You can make paste in a mini food processor if you have one.

Baked Goat Cheese

I am extravagantly generous when it comes to most things. Even in these woeful economically down-turned times I’m still willing to spend lavishly on food, on friends and on myself. Money should not be an object when it comes to these all-important necessities. But there is one thing that I am stubbornly opposed to… and that is turning on the heater. My California born and bred husband can be blue to his toenails, huddled in a fetal position while his breath steams out of his silently screaming mouth, and I will still refuse to turn on the heat. Yes, I may be cruel. But it’s only 45 degrees outside right now. Put on some socks and suck it up.

And it is because of my attitude about turning on the heater, and because (I’ll never admit this to my husband) I’m kind of cold right now, that I am going to be defiantly contrary and post a recipe that should really only be eaten in the summer, at the height of tomato season.

Of course, this recipe can be enjoyed even in the dead of winter, while the remnants of our homegrown tomatoes are rotting on the vine because we’re too lazy to pull them out of the ground (I’ll get to them by Christmas, I swear.) But everything is better with freshly picked still-warm-from-the-sun tomatoes. Sigh. I’m feeling toastier already.

Cheap goat cheese works great in this recipe. I’m thinking of that massive tube you can get at Trader Joe’s for like four bucks. The good stuff is, of course, even better. But save the good stuff for when you’ve got the good tomatoes. This makes an excellent appetizer for parties or potlucks. But I must admit, we eat it for dinner quite often.

Inspiration: I’m not turning on the heater, damn it!
Time: 30 minutes
Difficulty: Super easy
Special equipment: An oven-proof dish
Servings: 2 as dinner (yes, we’re pigs) or a crowd as an app.

Ingredients:
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 handful of fresh basil leaves, chiffonaded’ed
1 T balsamic vinegar (especially important if you’re using winter tomatoes)
2 T fruity extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 (11 oz) goat cheese log
¼ cup toasted walnuts, finely chopped
1 good quality baguette, toasted until crispy and sliced thin

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350.
1. Mash the garlic with a pinch of salt until a paste is formed. Add the balsamic vinegar and then the oil, whisking briskly to form an emulsion. Toss the dressing with the tomatoes and basil. Season with salt and pepper. Pour the tomatoes into a soup plate or other serving dish.

2. Form the goat cheese into a disc approximately 1 ½" thick. Press the walnuts into the goat cheese to form an even coating. If you have extra walnuts, sprinkle them into the bottom of your baking dish and place the goat cheese on top.

3. Put the goat cheese in an ovenproof dish and bake for 15 minutes, or until the cheese is very soft when pressed with your finger.

4. Using a flat spatula, gently place the goat cheese on top of the tomato salad, sprinkle any loose walnuts over everything. Serve immediately with the baguette slices… A little dab of cheese, a topping of yummy tomato… Damn that’s good.

Note: The goat cheese can be prepped and stored in the fridge for up to 3 hours (any longer and the walnuts start to get soggy). Make sure you bring the goat cheese to room temperature before baking. The tomatoes can sit for about an hour at room temp before the basil starts to turn black.

Beef Gravy

My mom and I have an agreement. When a meal calls for it, she makes the gravy. It doesn’t matter what the function may be, or if some one wants to make it because they claim to make the best gravy. If my mother is involved with making dinner, she makes the gravy. From turkey gravy to gravy for roast beast and Yorkshire pudding, it is always perfectly flavorful, perfectly spiced and perfectly velvety. It doesn’t matter. My mom makes the gravy.

So why in the world would I post a gravy recipe to a blog in which my mother not only reads but also contributes to? The simple answer is that I want to teach you to make gravy so that I can post a number of my favorite wintertime comfort meals that would be lost without gravy. But let’s be clear. Although I make my gravy using the same ingredients she does. And although I have spent the last 26 years dutifully watching her make gravy, my gravy really does not compare. But it will get you to where you need to go, a winter of comfort food, slathered in the wonderfulness that is GRAVY.

Inspiration: Cold and rainy nights
Time: 20 minutes
Difficulty: Moderate (only because gravy can be tricky until you get the hang of it)
Special equipment: Heavy bottomed, mid sized pot
Servings: 8 hungry people

Ingredients:
4 Tbs. Flour
4 Tbs. Bacon fat (What? You don’t keep a jar in your fridge? Then fry up 1 lb of bacon and reserve the juices…I mean fat)
2-3 cups Beef Broth
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
¼ cup red wine
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Over medium heat, brown the flour in a heavy bottomed, medium sized pot, stirring constantly with a gravy whisk. Once flour is a golden brown, remove to a bowl or a plate (Note: you can do this ahead of time and store in your pantry).
2. Melt bacon fat in same pot, turning heat down to medium low. When liquefied, stir in flour with gravy whisk until flour has dissolved and made a paste.
3. Add ¼-½ cup of beef stock and stir rigorously. Paste will separate and come back together as you stir. Once it has come back together, continue adding the stock in ½ cup intervals, continually stirring and working out any lumps. Add enough of the stock so that you have the consistency you would like.
4. Reduce heat to it’s lowest setting. Add in onion powder, garlic powder, and wine. Salt and pepper to taste. As the gravy continues to cook, it will thicken further. You can always add more stock to thin it back out to desired consistency.

Note: You make poultry gravy the same way, but substitute rendered chicken fat for the bacon fat, and turkey or chicken stock for the beef stock.

Chicken Curry

Saturday night meals were always my favorite when I was a kid. We would break from routine meals during the week, and enjoy something that my mother could afford a little more time to make for us. Once of my favorites was my mother's version of Yellow Indian Curry. A Complexly flavorful dish with a surprising comfort food appeal. She would make up a huge steaming pot of it, and we would spoon it out plentifully over rice and then top it with coconut flakes, hard boiled egg whites and yolks, raisins, peanuts and bacon. I always remember noticing that when we were eating curry, the dinner table was quiet while we ate.


Inspiration: Sat night dinner at the blue house
Time: 60 minutes
Difficulty: easy
Special equipment: Heavy duty pot
Servings: 4 hungry people

Ingredients:
1/2 lb bacon, cut into bits
2 chicken breasts or 4 chicken thighs, cut into bite sized pieces and seasoned with salt and pepper
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1/4 cup curry powder (Madras Preferred)
4 cups chicken stock (can substitute veggie broth)
2 hard boiled eggs, yolk and white separated, and then shredded
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup coconut flakes
1/2 cup peanuts shelled
3 cups prepared rice (Sorry, I can't cook rice for the life of me, so I won't try to tell you how)

1. In heavy bottomed pot, and over medium low heat. fry up bacon until crispy. Remove to a plate with paper town. Pour our all but 2 tbs of bacon fat.
2. Over medium low heat, cook the chicken in the reserved bacon fat. Remove to a plate with a paper towel.
3. Over medium heat, Saute onions, and carrots in bacon fat (if you need to add 1 tbs of olive oil to keep from sticking, that's fine). After 2 minutes, add in curry powder and stir. The curry powder will stick to bottom, and that's OK.
4. When curried onions and carrots start to turn a dark caramel color, deglaze the pan with 1/2 cup of the stock. When the bottom is cleared, add another 1 cup of the stock and begin to simmer. Thicken until sauce coats the back of a spoon. (note, if you want to add green beans, this is an excellent time to do it) Add your remaining stock and bring back to a simmer.
5. When ready to serve, spoon over prepared rice and top with coconut flakes, raisins, egg, bacon and peanuts.

Note: I often add green peppers while sauteing the onions and green beans while simmering before adding remaining liquid. I also like adding shredded colored greens in at the very end before serving. This can be made vegetarian by using very stock and omitting the chicken.

Sloppy Joe the Plumbers

It's been just over 20 hours since Obama was projected as our next President. In those 20 hours, I can't help but notice the excitement level of those I'm around has spiked through the roof. Friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, complete strangers on the streets have an collective aire of hope pouring out of them, the likes of which I have never seen before. I can honestly say it is the most remarkable experiences of community I can remember.

Last night, my roommates and I hosted a Barack Obama election party with around 30 of our nearest and dearest friends. Each time a new state was called for Obama we raised a glass to the people of that state. The nervous energy mounted as we cried, "PENNSYLVANIA!" "OHIO!" "VIRGINIA!" It was really happening. No one could believe it. At ten seconds to 8 we started counting down to the close of the Oregon polls and the chance to raise a glass to our state. At the count of zero and the stroke of 8:00, we erupted as it was announced Barack Obama had been elected as our President. Cheers became fits of joy became hugs and became dancing for no reason. We poured onto the porch where our neighbors next door, and around Portland, were joining in the celebration. All for the hope of something better than what we've suffered through for the last 8 years. 20 hours later I'm still abuzz. I still have goose bumps.

Inspiration: Joe the Plumber
Time: 30 minutes
Difficulty: easy
Special equipment: Cast iron skillet
Servings: 10-15 sliders

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
1 tbs olive oil
1 Medium onion, diced
1 small green pepper, diced
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tbs brown sugar
1 tbs yellow mustard
1 8oz can of tomato sauce
12 slider buns

1. In a heavy skillet, over medium heat, brown ground beef. Remove from skillet and let drain.

2. In same skillet, saute onion, green pepper and garlic in olive oil until onions are translucent. Stir in brown sugar until it dissolves. Add mustard, tomato sauce, browned meat and stir. Reduce heat to low and cover. Let cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Preheat oven on broil. Turn slider buns onto a cookie sheet insides facing up, and slide into oven on top rack. Toast buns until golden brown (WATCH LIKE A HAWK!)

4. Spoon even amounts of sloppy joe mix onto slider buns and serve while hot.