Showing posts with label beef/venison. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beef/venison. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Soup is on! Serving Beef Fajita Soup from the crockpot!

Two weeks ago, a slip on the ice landed me square on my shoulder and gifted me with some sprains and strains that have made cooking tricky. Thank goodness for the freezers and the pantry, but they are starting to look a little bare in the ready made foods department!  I had planned on making beef fajita soup in the crockpot on Monday and then realized that I couldn't reach the meat in the bottom of the chest freezer without using my injured arm, so that was postponed until today. Having asked A to get a packet of venison out of the freezer before he left for work, I was able to easily put together this soup with minimal arm movement. It's a new recipe for us from *The Slow Cooker Bible*, and after having tasted a small bowl of it in anticipation of dinner, I'm going to say it's one we'll do again. In fact, if the leftovers freeze well, I'll definitely be adding this soup to our list of core soup recipes! The flavor was very nice, the textures were good (onion was tender crisp, meat was tender, peppers were tender but held their form, the beans were the same as the peppers, and the diced tomatoes added a nice smoothness. The colors were beautiful, even with me using a large green bell pepper instead of a small red and a small green pepper. Tonight I'll serve this soup with piping hot cornbread muffins and local honey, but next time I will have dishes of shredded cheese, sour cream, fresh pico de gallo, and chopped cilantro to allow diners to add these to the top of their soup. This would be a very interesting soup course to precede enchiladas or to serve with a taco dip or empanadas. The success of this recipe also is a good omen for trying more recipes from this collection of recipes!

Beef Fajita Soup
1 lb beef stew meat (I used 1 lb 7 oz venison roast cut into bite sized pieces)
15 oz can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes with roasted garlic, undrained (I used a can of petite diced tomatoes and add 1 tsp garlic powder)
14 oz can beef broth (I used 2 tsp better than boullion and 16 oz boiling water)
1 small green bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 small red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 small onion, thinly sliced (we love onion, so I used a medium yellow onion, peeled and cut into thin wedges)
1 1/2 c. water
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp seasoned salt (I used Lawry's)
1 tsp black pepper

1. Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker. (I used my 4 qt round crockpot.)
2. Cover; cook on low for 8 hours. (Who really does 8 hours? You're at work for at least 9! I started mine at 9 a.m and served it at 6:30 p.m. and it was fine. This one has some flexibility but don't go too long or the peppers will be mush.)
3. Serve with desired toppings.
Recipe from *The Slow Cooker Bible*.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Crazy in Love with Pizza Kits and Leftovers

It was a rough few days to wrap up the week last week, but I'm back!

Friday night was family movie night, complete with pizza, french fries, and green bean fries. Yes, green bean fries. We went bold and daring and tried a copy cat recipe for TGI Friday's famous green bean fries. In one word - yum! I waited to post until I had also tried freezing and reheating them. I can now say that they freeze easily (just toss into a bag and freeze, no need to flash freeze, they don't stick together), and while they come out kind of rubbery when reheated in the oven, they turn out quite nicely when deep fried again for a minute or two straight from frozen. I used homegrown green beans and wax beans, water and beef base instead of the chicken broth, soy milk and Eggbeaters for the wash, and whole wheat bread crumbs. Here's the link for the recipe as I found it, but it can also be found in the top secret recipes book by Todd Wilbur, which by the way is generally a very good recipe book: www.recipesecrets.net/forums/recipe-exchange/19114-t-g-i-fridays-crispy-green-bean-fries.html. I will be making plenty of these green bean fries with my fall crop of green beans, wax beans, and burgundy beans, which I can then fry up in a couple minutes and love all winter long!

The other part of dinner was pizza, and I am in love with pizza kits, a true convert. I cook down plain tomato sauce in my 6 qt crockpot until the thickness of pizza sauce, then cool and bag in 1 1/4 c. measures in sandwich zipper bags. Squeeze the air out, seal, lay flat on a cutting board, and freeze. I bag 2 cups of shredded mozarella in another sandwich bag, seal, and freeze. A good handful (about 2-3 oz) of sliced pepperoni goes into a snack bag and then frozen. All of those parts go into a gallon freezer bag. About half of those gallon freezer bags also have added to them a ball of pizza dough tightly wrapped in plastic wrap. When I am planning on pizza, I pull one of the complete kits out of the freezer the night before and let it thaw in the fridge for 24 hours. Roll out the dough into an 18" pizza pan, spread the sauce, sprinkle the cheese, lay out the pepperoni, and bake for 12 minutes at 450 degrees. When I'm not so planning but want pizza, I pull out a kit without dough, thaw the sauce, mix up the dough of choice, the proceed as usual. Doing kits this way and buying the ingredients in bulk at Sam's, the cost of an 18" pepperoni pizza is $2.34. The cheeseless version that I eat costs about $0.75. I love pizza kits!

Now for making leftovers on purpose. Most people run from leftovers like the plague, but I'm embracing them! We're having venison kabobs for dinner tonight, and while the charcoal is hot, we're grilling up 4-5 lb of venison that has been marinated in garlic balsamic vinaigrette. We can freeze this grilled venison, which can be thawed in the fridge and warmed for dinner with mashed potatoes and steamed veggies, sliced thinly and placed on top of a bed of salad greens, diced and put into an omelet or fried potatoes, sliced thinly and put on top of pizza with onions and peppers, the list goes on! This will be a big time saver, plus it will maximize the expensive charcoal. Leftovers can be absolutely wonderful!

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Quick and Easy Comfort Food

Comfort food is different for every person. For me, it usually involves roasted meat, mashed potatoes, and/or gravy. Boiled pot pie in all its Pennsylvania Dutch glory, Thanksgiving dinner, meatloaf with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and savory beef gravy, roast beef crusty brown on the outside and juicy on the inside with creamy mashed potatoes topped with herbed gravy made from the drippings, baked meat pies with flaky golden crusts that I split open to reveal a steaming concoction of rich gravy, chunks of roasted meats, and bright vegetables. Of course, a comfort food meal for me absolutely must include a baked dessert - no fruit salad need apply for a comfort food meal! Creamy brown pumpkin pies that ease across your tongue, apple crisp with crunchy sweet topping and tender sweet apples underneath, cobblers that melt in your mouth and make you swoon, even a fabulous chocolate cake, moist but full bodied, subtle in its underlying flavors like cinnamon but with rich chocolate seducing your tastebuds.

Obviously, today is a day that I'm feeling the need for some comfort food! I don't have the time for boiled pot pie or even baked meat pies and I'm out of baked meat pies in the freezer, darn it. No thawed turkeys, chickens, or beef roasts hanging out in my fridge, either. Things aren't looking good for me! Then inspiration hits: my crockpot and the venison pieces in my freezer can make beef/venison tips and gravy and the mashed potatoes in my freezer can be reheated to go with them. I still have green beans and wax beans in the fridge from my harvest the other day, and I think roasting them will be a great side dish. Now for dessert.... I came across a recipe for vegan raspberry mocha cake the other day, and that sounds made to order for decadent but easy dessert. In fact, the recipe even looks like I can freeze 1/2 the cake for eating later - cut into serving size pieces, flash freeze, bag or put into a freezer container, then get them out to thaw when I want. Convenience comfort food I've made myself using whole foods, no artificial flavors, colors, or sweeteners, no preservatives, a fraction of the price, and no worries about my food allergies. I love it!

Beef/Venison Tips
1/2 c. flour
1 tsp salt (I prefer kosher salt for its cleaner flavor)
1/2 tsp - 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 c. beef broth/stock (I use 2 tsp beef base from Sam's Club + 2 cups boiling water, which costs pennies and tastes great)
Worcestershire sauce to taste, at least 1 tsp and up to 1 T
2 tsp tomato paste (can substitute in ketchup, but I prefer to use the less sweet, whole foods option of tomato paste)
2-3 lb cubed red meat - beef sirloin tips, beef stew meat, venison chucks, etc.
Optional: 1/2 c. chopped green onions and 1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced
Thickening paste: 3 T flour or cornstarch + 1/4 cup dry red wine, water, or broth (cool, not hot!)
Combine the flour, salt, and pepper and toss with the meat cubes to coat thoroughly. Place in a crockpot. If using green onions and mushrooms, add those.
Combine beef broth, worcestershire sauce, and tomato paste. Pour over everything in the crockpot, and stir well. Cover and cook on low setting for 7-12 hours. Crockpots vary, so check after 7 hours for doneness!
One hour before serving, turn to high setting. Make the thickening paste by stirring together the flour/cornstarch and the liquid until smooth, then stir into crockpot. If you add flour or cornstarch to a hot liquid, it will clump. Mixing it into a cool liquid first results in a thickener that doesn't clump.

Mashed potatoes from the freezer: make extra mashed potatoes, then portion the cool mashed potatoes into quart or gallon freezer bags (1 cup is a nice individual portion, and you can do 1 cup portions in sandwich bags and then put two sandwich bags in a quart bag or several into a gallon bag). I like to lay them on a cutting board and press flat, freeze, then I can stack them easily or stand them on end, plus they are only 1/2" thick or so which speeds up reheating. Reheating takes only minutes in the microwave.

Roasted Green Beans
Experience has made it possible for me to throw any roasted vegetable together. General rule of thumb: 1 lb vegetable (green beans, asparagus, radishes, onions, brussels sprouts, cauliflower) + 2-3 tsp olive oil + 1/2 tsp kosher salt or sea salt + 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper. Roast at a high temperature such as 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Times vary for each vegetable because of size and initial crispness. Green beans, wax beans, and asparagus take about 8 minutes, while brussels sprouts take closer to 45, cauliflower takes about 25. Vegetables can be placed into a gallon zipper bag with oil and seasonings poured in on top, bag closed, shaken, then poured into a shallow baking pan that can accommodate the vegetables in a single layer.

Vegan Raspberry Mocha Cake
3 c. flour
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 c. cocoa
1/4 c. oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 T vinegar dissolved in 1/4 c. water
3/4 c. strong brewed coffee or espresso (I've added 1 tsp instant coffee to 3/4 c. regular coffee)
3/4 c. raspberry preserves (I'm using homemade red raspberry jam, but I don't see why seedless raspberry jelly couldn't be used for those who hate the seeds!)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x13 cake pan or two round cake pans (guessing on this one since the recipe didn't give a pan size, just said "cake pans").
Mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, and cocoa in a large mixing bowl.
Slowly incorporate into the dry mix the oil and vanilla, then the vinegar in water, coffee, and raspberry preserves. When batter is well mixed, it will be smooth and creamy.
Pour into prepared cake pan(s) and bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean with no cake/batter clinging to it.
Cool before frosting or sprinkling with powdered sugar.
Recipe from http://vegetarian.about.com.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Cooking on an August Monday

The garden is slow this year because we've been struggling to hit 80 degrees, but the green beans and the wax beans are doing just fine and have arrived! Use or lose it, so I guess we're having beans for dinner. This is how most of my meals start out - I have lots of this or I need to use up that, and a meal builds around a specific element. Today I picked a couple quarts of green beans and wax beans, and I know that the meat we have the most of in the freezer is venison, so it's looking like venison and beans are my two elements for the day!

I saw a recipe the other day for a tossed salad that used a raspberry vinaigrette and candied pecans, and I think I can adapt that to go with steamed beans. Okay, we have a plan! I'm going to steam a combination of golden wax beans and bright green beans, then drizzle with fruit vinaigrette and sprinkle candied pecans on top. In fact, I have some cherry vinegar that has been steeping in the cabinet for almost a month now, so I should be able to make a simple dressing using cherry vinegar!

Now what to do with the venison? I retrieved from the freezer two pieces totalling 2 lb 13 oz so that I can have some leftover venison for another use later this week. One piece is definitely thicker than the other, so I'm going to thaw them in the microwave, then cut the thicker piece in half to make three equal thickness pieces. I'm going to marinate it in a simple balsamic garlic vinaigrette then we'll grill them tonight.

The kids aren't much for eating meats, and they are pretty picky about vegetables, so we need a third part of our meal that they'll be happy to eat. Tonight, I think that will be a new recipe: soft honey dinner buns, recipe courtesy of http://www.cookingbread.com/. They sound great, and the kids will be quite happy to spread jam across them and eat a couple. I'll get some veggie in at lunch time and let dinner be bread and fruit!

Add in some homemade applesauce from the pantry, a variety of homemade pickles and jams, and this should be a tasty, well balanced, and easy meal! The colors should be wonderful, too: the deep brown of the outside of the venison plus the pink tinted interior, the gently glowing wax beans with the brilliant green beans topped off with the rich nut pieces and the vinaigrette, the beautiful golden rolls, the bright colors of the jams and of the pickled carrots, garlic, and cucumbers. Crayola should never hire me to name crayons - they'd all be food colors!

Cherry Vinaigrette
1/4 c. cherry vinegar
1/4 c. olive oil
1/4 c. vegetable oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper
Whisk together all ingredients in a small bowl. Makes about 3/4 cup. Recipe from *The Big Book of Potluck* by Maryana Vollstedt.

Candied Pecans
1 T. butter or margarine
1 T. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. pecan or walnut halves (I'm using pieces because that is what I have)
In a small skillet over medium heat, melt butter and then stir in brown sugar. Add nuts and stir. Cook about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Dry on a piece of foil and separate so they won't stick together. Cool and store in an air-tight container. Makes 1/2 cup. Recipe from *The Big Book of Potluck* by Maryana Vollstedt.

Balsamic-Garlic Vinaigrette
2/3 c. olive oil
2 T balsamic vinegar
2 T red wine vinegar
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1 T fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
Whisk together all the ingredients in a bowl. Makes about 1 cup. Recipe from *The Big Book of Potluck* by Maryana Vollstedt.