Easy Beef Stew

We had a still-slightly-frozen boneless beef chuck roast, and we wanted a substantial but bother-free dinner by evening.

Easy Beef Stew in a Slow Cooker

Recipe

Cut the roast into 4 pieces and push them all into a 2-quart crockpot with no other ingredients.  Meat in a crockpot normally produces so much liquid that water is not needed.

Start cooking on "high", and when it is bubbling, turn it to low.  Allow to simmer through the day.

About an hour before dinner, start some rice.

Then remove 1/3 of the cooked beef and drippings from the slow cooker to save for another use.  Cut the remainder of the beef into bite-sized chunks and returned to the pot. Turn it up to "high".

Add:

2 small cans of mushrooms with their juice
1 onion, chopped and sauteed

Then saute in a pan:

1 Tb oil
1 Tb rice flour

When it is honey-colored, stir in:

1 tsp paprika

and immediately begin to spoon liquid from the crockpot into the pan, stirring out the lumps.  When you have a thick, bubbling sauce, scrape it into the crockpot and gently stir.  Allow it to simmer on "low" for 15 minutes or more.

Optionally, a small amount of vegetables can be added, primarily for color.  Green peas, carrot shreds, or mini-peppers in red or gold would work well.  We added 1/4 cup of fried okra that we happened to have on hand.  Okra adds a unique slippery kind of thickening most familiar to us in gumbo.

Easy beef stew served over rice

Note that this stew has a reddish color that in most cuisines is produced by tomatoes.  However what we have here is not tomato but paprika, a Hungarian - Balkan technique that produces an entirely different and characteristic flavor.

Season to taste.  Served over medium-grain white rice.

To see a full set of photographs showing how this dish was made, go to this set on flickr.   (It will open in a new tab or window; to return to this page, just close it.) The small pictures are thumbnails; click on each one to see it full-size, and to read the comments under it.  If you prefer to use the slideshow feature, you won't see the captions unless you click on "show info" (top right).

This recipe is #79 in the Baker's Dozen Challenge Countdown.

Red Sauce with Carne Picada

Red sauce with carne picada beef over gluten free penne

A simple pasta and meat sauce recipe using ordinary spaghetti sauce from a jar, some dried spicy spaghetti seasonings, and carne picada, small bits of sliced beef, rather than hamburger.

Modify to suit your household's preferences!  What is featured here is use of beef in a form other than hamburger. It doesn't really change the taste, but the difference in texture and appearance of this everyday food makes it interesting.

2 pounds carne picada beef
1- 24 ounce jar prepared sauce for pasta
Dry spaghetti seasoning blend, to taste

Brown meat in a pan in small batches, then put the browned meat into a 2-quart slow cooker. Skim off fat and add meat juices to the cooker.  Pour in the sauce, and cook on "low" until the meat is very tender. (Several hours.)  Stir in seasonings and turn off the heat, leaving sauce in the hot pot.

Bring a large potful of water to a boil and add gluten-free pasta.  Watch the pasta carefully because it will go very quickly from uncooked to overcooked!  Drain.  Serve sauce over pasta with some simple sides.

To see a full set of photographs showing how this dish was made, go to this set on flickr.   (It will open in a new tab or window; to return to this page, just close it.) The small pictures are thumbnails; click on each one to see it full-size, and to read the comments under it.  If you prefer to use the slideshow feature, you won't see the captions unless you click on "show info" (top right).

This dish is #94 in the Baker's Dozen Challenge Countdown!

Chili with Carne Picada and Red Beans

Chili with Carne Picada and Red Beans

2 pounds carne picada (thin-sliced beef)
3-4 cups red beans
1/4 cup corn meal
1 6-oz can tomato paste
1 1/2 cups water
Chili powder
Cumin
salt
1 Tb oil
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup bell pepper
Cilantro

Brown the meat in a pan, then pour it into a 2-quart slow cooker.  To this add beans, water, and tomato paste.  (If the pot looks too full, decrease water and/or beans.)

Wipe out the pan and return it to the heat.  When the pan is hot, sprinkle in the dry corn meal, and stir it while it browns to a light tan.  Add this to the crockpot for flavor and thickening. 

Pour about 1 Tb oil into the pan and saute the chopped onion and bell pepper.  Add these to the crockpot.  Add salt, chili powder, and cumin to taste.

Cook on low until the meat is tender, cornmeal fully cooked, and flavors well blended.  Stir in a handful of cilantro leaves and serve.

To see a full set of photographs showing how this dish was made, go to this set on flickr.   (It will open in a new tab or window; to return to this page, just close it.) The small pictures are thumbnails; click on each one to see it full-size, and to read the comments under it.  If you prefer to use the slideshow feature, you won't see the captions unless you click on "show info" (top right).

This dish is #95 in the Baker's Dozen Challenge Countdown.

Pork with White Beans

Pork with white beans in a slow cooker

2-quart slow cooker

2-3 cups white beans, canned or home-cooked
2-3 cups pork roast cut into large cubes
1 onion, chopped
1/4 cup diced bell pepper, fresh or frozen
2 cups chicken broth, canned or homemade
6 tiny pickled hot peppers (or similar)

Put it all into the crockpot, and sprinkle liberally with:

Smoked paprika

Since everything but the seasoning vegetables is already cooked, you need only cook on "high" until the onions are soft and the flavors are blended.

Good served with rice or potatoes or cornbread.  Good also served in a small bowl as soup, with croutons.

To see a full set of photographs showing how this dish was made, go to this set on flickr.   (It will open in a new tab or window; to return to this page, just close it.) The small pictures are thumbnails; click on each one to see it full-size, and to read the comments under it.  If you prefer to use the slideshow feature, you won't see the captions unless you click on "show info" (top right).

Chicken Soup and Stock

This recipe for chicken soup is both simple and delicious.  I learned it years ago from my children's grandmother, who brought it with her from the Balkans.  She stressed that all ingredients must be fresh, not preserved, and that every one of the ingredients is there for a reason.  The stock it produces is versatile; it can be used in any cuisine.

Place into a slow cooker, dutch oven, or soup pot one of the following:

Whole young chicken - if buying a fryer for soup, choose the largest available.
Chicken parts, any combination, 3 pounds or more.
Roasted whole chicken or roasted chicken parts.
Bones, skin, cartilege, fat, etc. of chicken, raw or roasted, from which the meat has been removed.

Chicken scraps make excellent soup; just skim the fat at the end, and strain out all the little bits.  A few pounds of necks and backs will produce fine chicken stock! Dark meat makes better soup than white meat.  The one thing you don't want to use for soup is boneless skinless chicken, especially not boneless skinless white meat.

Chicken-soup-to-be: just add water and heat

Add to the pot the following fresh (not frozen, canned, or dried) ingredients:

1 large or 2 smaller onions
2-3 carrots
1-2 tomatoes
1-2 stalks celery
fresh parsley including stems
2-3 cloves garlic
1 tsp salt
sprinkle of pepper

Water to cover

No need to chop the vegetables.  When served they are more appealing whole.

Our recipe assumes 3-5 pounds of chicken; if less, decrease the seasoning vegetables and perhaps the size of the pot.  Too much water makes thin soup!  If more, increase pot size, seasonings, and water proportionately. A roasting or stewing chicken will require longer cooking.

Chicken soup with soup vegetables in a serving container

Heat at medium high until the soup comes to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Cook until chicken is well done but still holding together. (How long this takes will depend on the age and size and therefore, the tenderness of the chicken, and on the temperature at which it is cooked; anywhere from one to several hours.) Lift out the chicken and strain the soup.  Adjust seasonings.

Set aside a portion of the soup for stock and return the remaining broth to your (rinsed) pot.  Sort through the residue in your strainer, and return to the soup all pieces that are good for eating (carrots, onions, and whatever else you like) and throw the rest away.  Now your soup is ready for whatever additions you want to make - see recipes for chicken soup here or here or elsewhere.

To see a full set of photographs showing various ways that chicken stock can be made, go to this slide show on flickr.   (It will open in a new tab or window; to return to this page, just close it.)  No need to read the captions as they are borrowed from various other sets.

Chicken Soup with Rice

In December I will be
A baubled, bangled Christmas tree
With soup bowls draped all over me
Merry once, merry twice
Merry chicken soup with rice

I told you once, I told you twice
All seasons of the year are nice
For eating chicken soup with rice

-- Maurice Sendak

Carne Picada in Lemon-Tomato Sauce

This recipe is delicious, fragrant - and serendipitous.  I found a package of "Carne Picada", whatever that might be, at Walmart.  It was last day of sale and marked down so I took it home to experiment with.  It seems to be very thinly sliced scraps of beef, with a bit of fat and gristle attached.  If nothing else it could be a welcome change of texture from the usual hamburger.  There are just under 3 pounds of meat (and "marinade") in the package.

Browned Carne Picada in a 2-quart slow cooker

Brown the meat in a large pan, in batches as it is a bit wet.

Lift the browned meat from the pan with a slotted spoon and put it into a 2-quart slow cooker

Skim the fat from remaining liquids and then add drippings to the crockpot.

Add:

1 onion, chopped and sauteed
1 large (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
2 slices lemon
1 diced carrot
1 tsp. salt
1 Tb Demerara sugar

Simmer on "low"  for several hours.  When your whole house smells like lemon, it's ready!

Serve over rice with a garnish of cilantro leaves

Carne Picada in lemon-tomato sauce over rice

 To see a full set of photographs showing how this dish was made, go to this set on flickr.   (It will open in a new tab or window; to return to this page, just close it.) The small pictures are thumbnails; click on each one to see it full-size, and to read the comments under it.  If you prefer to use the slideshow feature, you won't see the captions unless you click on "show info" (top right).

This recipe is #96 in the Baker's Dozen Challenge Countdown.