For years I have been reading, in the craigslist food forum, about how wonderful this epicurious.com recipe for Mahogany Beef Stew with Red Wine and Hoisin Sauce was. But for one reason or another, I never made it. Until this week, that is, when the muse struck me and I decided to finally give it a try. It was just as advertised, great, with deep flavors, a little bit sweet, but not too much. Mike liked it, and so did our 5 year old guest Aegea (who seems to like my food more than my kids do). I served it with the Trader Joe’s Harvest Grains Blend that I will write about on my next post.
Marga’s Best Recipes
Category: Recipes (Page 19 of 26)
I was having a tea party, and of course I wanted to make scones. But I wanted to make vegan scones, because one of my guests is a vegan. I’m not experienced enough either as a baker or a vegan cook to transform a regular recipe into a vegan one, so I went in search of a vegan scone recipe. I found this one at allrecipes.com and decided to give it a chance – though the reviews did warn that the results resembled more a cookie than a scone. Indeed, they did, even though I didn’t use *any* of the soy milk and water the recipe asked for.
As cookies go, these were delicious. Chewy, full-flavored and just yummy. Some of the best cookies I’ve ever made, though probably with a flavor more suitable for adults (the kids all went for the glazed sugar cookies). In any case, I’d make them again even if I didn’t have vegan guests coming over. The one change I’d make is reducing the margarine & sugar somewhat (you will probably have to reduce the liquid as well).
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 4 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 3/4 cup margarine
- 1/2 orange, zested & juiced
- 2 Tbsp. poppy seeds
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400F. Oil two cookie sheets.
Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together. Add the margarine and work until the mixture resembles crumbs. Add the orange zest, juice and poppy seeds and mix well.
Scoop dough into cookie sheets (about 1/4 cup or 1-ice cream scoop sized) – the cookies will spread a lot, so make sure the scoops are far apart from each other.
Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the edges start to brown. Cool before serving.
Marga’s Best Recipes
I found this cookie icing recipe at allrecipes.com. It’s really good /once you alter the proportions/ of the liquid & corn syrup. It produces a creamy and glossy icing that dries out beautifully.
Ingredients
- 1 cup powdered sugar, packed
- 1 1/2 Tbsp. milk
- 1 1/2 Tbsp. corn syrup
- 1tsp. vanilla extract
- food coloring
Mix the sugar and milk in a small bowl until smooth. Beat in the corn syrup and vanilla extract, until smooth and glossy. If the icing is too thick, add more corn syrup.
Divide the icing into small different bowls. Add a few food coloring drops and mix well. Bush on top of sugar cookies. Let rest for 15 minutes to harden.
Marga’s Best Recipes
For some strange reason I was in the mood for meatloaf last week. It’s strange because I’ve only eaten it a handful of times in my life, and I’d only made it once before. Still, that’s what I wanted so that’s what I made. I decided on this recipe from (where else?) epicurious.com, because I had some bacon to get rid of (plus I love bacon). The recipe had gotten very mixed reviews, but the results were great – even though I put twice as much ketchup in the mixture, as the recipe called for (I always have to make a mistake in every recipe I follow). Mike, in particular, loved it. I’m recording it here so that I can find the recipe when I want to make it again.
Also last week I made Lemon Rubbed Chicken Legs with Garlic & Rosemary, also from an epicurious.com recipe. It was also delicious and very quick and easy to make. The sauce had a very intense lemony flavor which Mike and I loved. The only down part is that the sauce was pretty fatty – with all the oil and rendered chicken fat – but the chicken is very tasty even without it. Mika wasn’t fond of the rosemary, but Camila really dug it. It’s the sort of dish that I’d like to make again.
I went to A16 many years ago, when it first opened. It was pretty good, though I disliked the burnt crust of my pizza and there were some service problems ( you can read my full review). There was one wonderful pork dish, which I’m hoping to recreate sometime soon. I started cooking from the A16: Food + Wine
I chose that recipe because short ribs were on sale and I love short ribs. The results were, as expected, very good (I’ve seldom have had braised short ribs that were not good) – though this wasn’t necessarily the best short rib recipe I’ve made. Aegea, a picky 5 yo good friend of my kids, really liked them and I think she ate at least 3 short ribs by herself! (I’m always glad when I can make something little kids will eat). That said, I’d probably not make them again, but just because I’m still searching for the perfect short rib recipe (and there are many, many to try). This is a perfectly good one, however.
I should note, because the book notes, that despite the name this dish does not come from Genoa. It’s Neapolitan instead, and predates the arrival of tomatoes in the region – with onions taking center stage instead. One different ingredient that shows up in this recipe is an anchovy. I put it, but I wonder how much of a difference it made. Probably not enough to justify having to buy a whole anchovy tin (unless, of course, you’ll consume the rest of the anchovies). I followed the recipe pretty closely, I did only use 3 (rather than 4) red onions, more wouldn’t have fit into my pan. I also used dried rosemary rather than 1 sprig of rosemary, as I didn’t want to pay $2 for a package of fresh rosemary only to use 1 spring. Anyway, here is the recipe.
A16’s Monday Meatballs have (or did) become pretty famous among the crowd of the Craigslist food forum, where I often hang out. Still, they are quite laborious to make, so I hadn’t tried them. Having the book on hand gave me the opportunity to finally pay them homage, so I made them last Sunday. They were easier to make than I thought (though still laborious, mostly because you need to grind your own meat & breadcrumbs) and they have an amazing texture. There is a perfect balance between the meat, the bread and the other ingredients, so that the meatballs are light, but still substantial. Apparently the secret is having a greater bread-to-meat ratio – American meatballs tend to be heavier in the latter – but I’m sure the extra elements, like the ricotta, helped lighten them up as well. As much as I liked the texture, I wasn’t crazy about the taste. In sum: they were too salty. I used 1 Tbsp. of salt like the recipe required, and while I could taste some hints of herbs and other flavors in the meatballs, most of what I did taste was salt. So be forewarned, if you make them – start by adding just 1 tsp. of salt, and add more salt only after cooking a sample and tasting it.
I followed the recipe for the meatballs pretty closely, but I did make some necessary changes. I decreased the chili flakes to 1/2 tsp, from the 1 tsp the recipe asked for – and the meatballs were still too salty for my daughters (which dined on steamed broccoli instead!). I also ended up using regular parsley instead of Italian parsley – because I stupidly didn’t specify in my shopping list, so my husband bought what he thought I wanted – and I didn’t use San Marzano tomatoes for the sauce. My days of shopping all over town for special ingredients are pretty much over, if my local Safeway doesn’t carry a product, chances are I’ll have to substitute – so I used regular whole tomatoes with basil. For that reason, and the fact that basil is over $2 a bunch, I also skipped the basil leaves from the sauce. To tell you the truth, I thought the sauce was pretty good as it was – though I’m sure it’d be better the A16 way. Finally, I didn’t have grana cheese at home, so I used Peccorino-Romano cheese instead.
Below you can find the recipe as I made it, with recommendations on how to improve it in parenthesis.
On a final note, as you’ll the recipe calls for 10 oz of ground pork shoulder and beef chuck each. A butcher may sell you 10oz of those meats, but Safeway does not – so plan to buy a larger quantity of each (I got about 4lbs) and then use them in other meals. I made a braised beef with the beef, and A16’s braised pork shoulder with the pork.
- 1 packaged anchovy-fillet
- 5 lbs short ribs
- 2 Tbsp. Kosher salt
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 1/2 cups red wine
- 1/2 carrot, peeled & finely chopped
- 1 celery stalk, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled
- 5 black peppercorns
- 3 red onions, thinly sliced
- 3 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
- 1/2 tsp. dried rosemary
Take one anchovy, rise it under running water and then let it stand in water for a couple of minutes. Then chop it finely. Set aside.
Trim excessive fat from the short ribs. Season with kosher salt, cover and refrigerate overnight.
Preheat the oven to 275F.
Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil over medium-high heat, in a wide, heavy, oven-safe pot. Add the ribs, making sure they are not crowded, and brown on all sides – you may need to do this in two batches. Remove from the pot and set aside.
Meanwhile, put the wine into a small pot and reduce in high heat until it’s about 1/2 cup. Set aside.
Add 2 Tbsp of olive oil to the wide pan and heat over medium-low heat. Add the chopped carrot and celery and cook until the vegetables start to often, about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the chopped anchovy, garlic cloves and peppercorns and cook until the garlic softens, about 3 minutes. Add the onions and a pinch of salt and cook until the onions soften, stirring frequently, about 5-10 more minutes. Stir in the vinegar and wine and remove from the heat.
Return the ribs to the pan and sprinkle with rosemary. Cover (use aluminum foil if your pan doesn’t have a cover), put in the oven, and braise for 2 1/2 hours, or until the short ribs are soft. To serve, transfer the short ribs to a serving plate, cover with sauce and drizzle with some olive oil.
- 6 oz day-old country bread
- 12 oz boneless pork shoulder
- 2 oz pork fat
- 2 oz prosciutto
- 10 oz beef chuck
- 1 cup parsley (Italian parsley), coarsely chopped
- 1 Tbsp + 2 tsp kosher salt (1 Tbsp kosher salt)
- 2 tsp. dried oregano
- 1 1/2 tsp. fennel seeds
- 1/2 tsp. dried chile flakes (1 tsp.)
- 3 eggs
- 2/3 cup ricotta, drained if necessary (fresh ricotta)
- 1/4 cup milk (whole milk)
- olive oil
- 1 28oz can peeled whole tomatoes w/ basil (San Marzano tomatoes + basil leaves)
- Pecorino-Romano cheese (grana)
Preheat oven to 400F
Cut bread into small chunks and put into a food processor, process until finely ground. Put into a large bowl.
Trim excess fat from the pork shoulder. Put prosciutto and 2 oz of pork fat in the freezer for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, cut 10 oz of trimmed pork shoulder into 1″ cubes and put them in the food processor*. Process until finely chopped. Add to the bowl with the bread crumbs. Cut the beef chuck into 1″ cubes, and similarly process in the food processor. Put in bowl. Cut pork fat into chunks, process in the food processor and put in bowl. Do the same with the prosciutto.
Add the parsley, 1 tsp. of salt, oregano, fennel seeds and chile flakes to the bow. Mix with your hands until all ingredients are combined. Set aside.
In a separate small bowl, lightly whisk the eggs. Add the ricotta and milk, and whisk lightly until the ingredients are combined. Add the ricotta mix to the meat mix and combine with your hands.
Heat a small skillet (oil if necessary) and take a pinch of meat mixture, flatten and cooked in both sides until cook through. Taste and adjust seasonings.
Coat a large rimmed baking sheet with olive oil.
Form 1 1/2″ meatballs and place them in the baking sheet. Bake until browned, 15-20 minutes, rotating the baking sheet once. Remove from the oven and lower the oven temperature to 300F.
Pour the canned tomatoes into a large bowl and sprinkle 2 tsp of salt. With your hands**, break the tomatoes into small pieces.
Transfer the meatballs into a medium-size baking pan, packing them in. Pour the sauce over the meatballs, cover with aluminum foil and bake in the oven for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until the meatballs are tender. Remove from the oven and, if using basil, distribute the basil leaves throughout the sauce.
Before serving, grate cheese over the meatballs and drizzle with olive oil.
*You can also use a meat grinder, in which case you can grind the meats and bread crumbs together.
**You can also pass the tomatoes through a food mill
The last entree that I cooked from the A16 cookbook was Braised Pork Shoulder with Olives – an adapted version from A16’s “Braised Pork shoulder with chestnuts, olives and herbs”. Alas, I didn’t use chestnuts in my recipe, and instead of fresh springs of sage (4) and marjoram (2), I used herbs de provence – I was too cheap to buy the fresh herbs (I had the required rosemary leftover from another recipe), and didn’t have any dried marjoram, even though I thought I did. While this pork wasn’t as good as the one we ate at A16 many years ago (I rave and rave about it in the review), it was very tasty. Mike, in particular, really liked it – and he doesn’t usually like olives. The pork was super tender and very flavorful. The only problem was that it was too salty (this may be a general issue with A16’s recipes, it’s the second time I encounter this issue), when you make it use the amount of salt I recommend in the recipe below.
I had to return to the book to the library before I finished typing up this recipe, at this point, two and a half years later, I don’t think I’ll be getting it back.
I wouldn’t say I’m the biggest fan of Gordon Ramsay’s (I’d probably have to eat in his restaurants to really appreciate him), but I do like watching Kitchen Nightmares from time to time – even though the program is all in all pretty repetitive.
Anyway, I saw Ramsay’s cookbook (Gordon Ramsay’s Fast Food
One thing I can say, is that his book reflects his personality, at least as seen on TV. The book is completely frantic, going from one topic to another apparently randomly. Instead of having the recipes organized by ingredient, they are intercepted by recipes from different cuisines or courses. A chapter on working lunches, for example, is followed by one on Mexican flavors. The book is also very colorful and has pretty pictures of all the included dishes. The recipes are relatively simple, though not necessarily cheap.
The first dish I tried was his Pasta with pancetta, leek & mushrooms. Rather than spend $ on pancetta, I used bacon. I did use creme fraiche, which was a waste of money (I bought it at Safeway, it’s half as cheap at Trader Joe’s). I can’t imagine it made too much of a difference. In any case, I was not impressed. The dish was quite bland. It’d have been much better (but much more caloric) with twice the amount of bacon. I did add a lot of Parmesan cheese, and that helped – but then again, pasta with Parmesan cheese by itself is pretty good. I would not make this dish again. You can find my adaptation of the recipe below.
The second dish was Baked pork chops with a piquant sauce, a recipe which you can also find online. I followed this one pretty closely as well, though I used a different type of mushrooms and used dried thyme instead of fresh (because I couldn’t find fresh thyme last time I went to Safeway). My one big mistake was misreading “1 Tbsp” sugar for “1 tsp” sugar – so the resulting sauce was a tad too sweet. Mike liked the overall dish, but I wasn’t too impressed yet again. It just seemed like an average dish, not bad, not great. I probably wouldn’t make it again either. My version of the recipe (with the correct amount of sugar) is below as well.
BTW, IMHO, the recipe produces too much sauce for the pork chops, I’d either reduce it by a third or use it with 6 pork chops. I served them with buttermilk mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli.
Finally, I made Sticky Lemon Chicken, another recipe easily found online. Indeed, it seems that you can find many of his recipes online, so it may not be worth it to buy his cookbook at all (it’s pretty sad that he has to recycle old recipes into a new book, rather than coming up with new ones). In any case, even though I skipped the fresh thyme and parsley listed in the original recipe, the results were quite good. I should say that the recipe calls for 1 large chicken cut into pieces – there is no suggestion that the chicken should be boneless. HOWEVER, as I suspected, my bone-in chicken parts did not cook in the 15 minutes it takes for the sauce to cook. I’d suggest that you either use boneless chicken for this recipe, or be prepared to cook the chicken for at least half an hour. I’d also suggest that you cover the dish while cooking. My suggestions are incorporated into the recipe below.
When l originally wrote this posting, I forgot dessert! Indeed, I made one of the desserts from the book, the Banana mousse with butterscotch ripple, it was very easy, quite good and extremely caloric. Still, it’s definitely the sort of dessert you can whip up when you really, really, really want something sweet to finish a meal – and happen to have both bananas and whipping cream handy. I did like how easy it was to make the butterscotch. This was my second adventure in candy making (the first being toffee).
Recipes
Penne with Bacon, Leeks & Mushrooms
- 10 oz dried penne
- salt
- 2 Tbsp. olive oil
- 6 slices of bacon, chopped
- 1 large leek, finely sliced
- 8 oz button mushrooms, sliced
- salt & pepper
- 2 Tbsp. creme fraiche
- 1 bunch Italian parsley, chopped
- Parmesan cheese
Boil the penne in salted water until al dente.
Meanwhile, heat the olive oil to medium-high in a large skillet. Add the bacon and cook until golden brown. Add the leek and mushrooms; season with salt & pepper. Cook over high heat until the leeks are tender, about 6-8 minutes, stirring frequently.
Drain the pasta and immediately mix with the leek/mushroom mixture and the creme fraiche. Season again with salt & pepper. Sprinkle with the parsley and mix. Serve with Parmesan cheese.
Baked Pork Chops with a Piquant Sauce
- olive oil
- 4 pork chops
- sea salt & pepper
- 1 tsp. thyme
- 3 rosemary sprigs (leaves only)
- 1/2 head of garlic, separated into cloves but left unpeeled
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
- 1 red Jalapeño, seeded and chopped
- 8oz white button mushrooms, sliced
- 14 oz can diced tomatoes
- 1 tsp. sugar
Preheat the oven to 400F. Lightly oil a baking sheet large enough to accommodate the pork chops.
Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides of the pork chops. Place in the baking sheet and sprinkle with thyme. Put the rosemary leaves and unpeeled garlic cloves on top of the pork chops. Drizzle with olive oil. Put in the oven and cook until done 20-30 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. Heat 3 Tbsp. olive oil in a large saucepan and add the onion, red pepper, jalapeño and mushrooms. Cook until softened, about 6 minutes. Add the diced tomatoes and mix well. Season with salt and pepper and add sugar, mix. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 10-12 minutes, until the onions are tender and the sauce has thickened.
Once the pork chops are ready, let them rest for 5 minutes. Plate them, pour any liquid remaining in the baking sheet onto the sauce, and mix well. Spoon the sauce onto the pork chops and serve.
- 5 lb bone-in chicken pieces (or equivalent boneless chicken)
- sea salt & black pepper
- 3 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1 head of garlic, halved horizontally
- 1 tsp. dried thyme
- 2 Tbsp. sherry vinegar
- 2 Tbsp. soy sauce
- 3 Tbsp. honey
- 1/4 cup hot water
- 1 lemon, finely sliced
Salt and pepper the chicken. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and garlic and sprinkle with thyme. Brown the chicken on both sides.
Add the sherry vinegar and boil until reduced by half. Add the soy sauce and honey and shake the pan to mix. Add the hot water and lemon slices. Mix well. If using bone-in chicken, cover the pan and cook until the chicken is almost done (half an hour or so). Then uncover and boil the liquid until syrupy. If using boneless chicken, cook uncovered until the chicken is done and the liquid is syrupy, around 10 minutes, turning once.
Banana mousse with butterscotch ripple
- 4 large ripe bananas
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 3 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 1/4 cups whipping cream
- squeeze of lemon juice
- 1 oz semisweet chocolate
Place the bananas in the freezer for 1-2 hours, if possible. When they are ready, peel and chop them.
Meanwhile, make the butterscoth sauce by putting the sugar, butter and 2/3 cup of whipping cream in a small heavy pot and cooking it over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved and the butter is melted, stirring constantly. Let it bubble for a couple of minutes, still stirring, and then remove from the heat and let the sauce cool down completely.
Put the bananas, the lemon juice and the remaining whipping cream in a blender bowl. Blend until smooth and creamy.
To assemble, spoon some butterscotch along the sides of 4 glasses or serving bowls. Pour in the banana mousse and top with some more butterscotch. Grate some chocolate on top of each bowl and serve.
A few weeks ago I got a copy of Cocina Patagónica y Fueguina
The recipes in the book (which, btw, is in both Spanish and English) are based on the fauna and flora of the region. There are many for lamb, but also for hare, seafood and local berries. Alas, you cannot find those Patagonian products in America (or really, in other parts of Argentina), so the result of the recipes won’t taste the same as it would back then. Still, I figured I might as well try them.
Tonight I cooked Patagonian roasted lamb with apple-curry sauce. The original recipe wasn’t too clear on some of the measures, so I made them up as I went along. Also, I skipped the celery from the sauce because I didn’t have any. This is my adaptation.
It was pretty good. The lamb itself was great, and the sauce almost resembled a cream soup. It has a very delicate flavor, with only hints of curry. Alas, I think the sauce may be too mild for the lamb – I’d make it again, though I’d have to find something else to serve it with.
- 1 leg of lamb
- salt & pepper
- Worcestershire sauce
- 1 1/2 cups red wine
- 2 Tbsp. butter
- 3 large onions, chopped
- 3 Tbsp. flour
- 1 garlic clove, chopped
- 2 Granny smith apples, peeled and chopped
- 1 small bay leaf
- 1 tsp. thyme
- 1 Tbsp. curry powder
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 Tbsp. parsley, chopped
Preheat oven to 350F
Trim the lamb of excess fat. Season generously with salt and pepper. Place on a roasting pan and drizzle with Worcestershire sauce. Pour 1/2 cup of wine over the lamb. Place in the oven and roast until internal temperature is 145F for medium-rare – about 30 minutes per pound.
Meanwhile prepare the sauce. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and sautee until soft. Add the flour and mix well. Add the garlic, apples, bay leaf, thyme, chicken broth and 1 cup of wine. Mix well, bring to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes. Strain the sauce into a medium-size bowl and discard the solids. Mix the cream with the sauce and add parsley.
Slice the lamb and spoon sauce on top of it. Serve.
A few years ago I made Mohr Im Hemd, a type of Austrian chocolate pudding, as part of my international cooking project. It didn’t work out well for me 🙁
Yesterday I received a message with some hints on how to correctly cook it. I’m copying the message here for the benefit of those who want to make it.
—————————————————————————————————————————————
I’ve been looking for a “Mohr im Hemd” recipe for a number of years and your recipe worked just fine for me. Perhaps I can make a couple of suggestions that will make it work better for you as well.
First is the chocolate measurement. “One cup” is a challenge because the measurement is much affected by the fineness of the grating. I made it twice, once with 80 grams (not enough) and a second time with 160 grams (seems perfect). I also grated the chocolate very finely using a rasp – it was like dust and blended in very well. The chocolate in your picture looks like largish lumps.
Secondly, it is important to get the egg whites and the chocolate well-folded together. The chocolate mixture is quite thick, so add about 1/3 of the egg whites and fold it in to lighten it up before folding in the rest of the egg whites.
The resulting cakes were dark chocolate and very dense (and definitely homogeneous), as they are supposed to be. We’ve had “mohr im hemd” in Vienna a few times, but it is increasingly difficult to find a house-made version, rather than factory-made.
The sauce recipe seems to make way too much so I cut that back considerably.
Hope you find the time to read this and make some changes to the online recipe. I notice that your recipe is the same as that of Jakob Schmidlechner, the innkeeper of the Mohrenwirt restaurant in Salzberg, Austria.
Cheers – Jan Reatherford, Ottawa, Canada
For Xmas I made a completely unsuccessful Madeira Peppercorn Reduction sauce which required the purchase of green peppercorns in brine (which I found at the Pasta Shop at the Rockridge Market Hall). I wanted to use the leftover peppercorns for other dishes, so I looked for suggestions in my favorite cooking site, epicurious.com – fortunately there were several recipes that included the peppercorns.
Saturday night I made Chicken in a Dijon Sherry Sauce, which was OK though a bit bland for my taste (despite the fact that I added extra mustard & sherry). Mike liked it, though. Still, I don’t think I’ll make it again.
Last night, I meant to make Beef and Guinness Pie, but I couldn’t find puff pastry at the supermarket (and I was not going to make it myself). So I followed the recipe to make a beef stew, which I served over mashed potatoes (the box kind 🙁 ). The stew was amazing, very deep and rich, without being too dark, and just plain tasty. I am, therefore, copying the recipe below, because I mean to make it again (perhaps for St. Patrick’s Day). I think it’d be even better with bread (sourdough would be my choice, but then again, it always is). One thing – though I loved the stew, I didn’t particularly like the peppercorns. Next time I’ll omit them altogether.
- 2 Tbsp. flour
- 1 tsp. salt
- a sprinkle of black pepper
- 2 lbs beef chuck
- 2 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 3 Tbsp. water
- 1 1/2 Tbsp. tomato paste
- 1 cup beef broth
- 1 cup Guinness
- 1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp. dried thyme
- 2 tsp. brined green peppercorns, drained & chopped (optional)
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Mix the flour with the salt and pepper in a medium-size bowl. Cut the beef into chunks and put in the bowl with the flour. Coat well.
Heat the olive oil in a medium to large oven-safe pot, over medium-high heat. Add the beef and stir until it browns on all sides. Remove the beef from the pot (you can put it in the same bowl it was before).
Add the onion, garlic and water to the bowl. Cook until the onions softened, scraping any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Add tomato paste and stir for one minute. Add the broth, Guiness, Worcestershire sauce, thyme and green peppercorns (if using) and mix well. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat, cover and put in the oven. Cook until the beef is very soft, about 1 1/2 hours. Serve.
I have long been interested in Israeli couscous, but I had never really cooked it – for one, because it’s difficult to find. Trader Joe’s has started carrying it, though, and I have no doubt that it will become one of our starch staples. Though it’s probably not as healthy as whole-wheat regular couscous, it’s less messy (you can’t imagine the mess little kids can do with regular couscous), more attractive, and, most importantly, Mika really likes it.
Despite my inexperience with Israeli couscous, I felt it would be an ideal companion to the roasted rack of lamb I was serving. I wanted a side that would have a relatively soft flavor, so as to not compete with the lamb, that would be able to stand to the sauce I was serving with the lamb, and that would be good on its own. This recipe met all the requirements.
Indeed, I’m surprised at how it managed to be both quite simple and amazingly delicious. I ended up serving it as a 4th course, rather than a side, because my rack of lamb took forever to cook, and it actually worked pretty well on its own. I definitely ate a large plate of it. Those who waited say it also went very well with the lamb. My only concern with the recipe is how much butter it takes. When I make it again, I’ll try to reduce it to 3 Tbsp. and see if the results are noticeably inferior.
Toasted Israeli Couscous with Pine Nuts and Parsley
- 5 Tbsp. butter
- 2/3 cup pine nuts
- 2 large shallots, chopped
- 16 oz Israeli couscous
- 1 large cinnamon stick
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 3/4 cups chicken broth
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/2 cup Italian parsley, chopped
- black pepper
Melt 1 Tbsp. butter in a small pan over medium-low heat. Add the pine nuts and cook until golden brown, stirring occasionally. Set aside.
Meanwhile, melt 4 Tbsp. of butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add shallots and saute until brown, about 10 minutes. Add the couscous, cinnamon stick and bay leaves. Cook until the couscous browns slightly, about 5 minutes. Stir often.
Add the chicken broth and the salt and mix well. Bring the couscous to a boil, then cover, reduce the heat and simmer until the couscous is done and all the liquid is absorbed, about 10 minutes. Mix in the pine nuts and parsley. Add black pepper to taste.
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