Oxtail Soup

October 20, 2014December 5, 2014 / featherheadlady / 3 Comments

It’s soup weather! Soup is one of the ultimate comfort foods. It’s what you’re supposed to eat when you’re not feeling well. It makes your house smell good. It’s something you can add the leftovers from your refrigerator to. Soup recipes are fun to modify to suit your personal tastes. Add this vegetable. Don’t add this one. I had some nice looking oxtails from my favorite organic farm and decided they were the perfect beginning for a pot of soup. It’s what was for dinner last night. And it’s probably what’s for dinner tomorrow night.

Oxtails – about 2 pounds

1/4 cup olive oil

1 cup flour

salt and pepper

2 T tomato paste

1 large onion rough diced

2 stalks celery rough diced

5-6 garlic cloves

1 quart diced tomatoes

4 cups beef or mushroom broth

2 bay leaves

1 tsp thyme

2 carrots thin sliced

1 cup diced potatoes

1 medium rutabaga peeled and diced

1 cup fresh green beans cut in 1 inch pieces

Heat olive oil in a heavy kettle. Add flour and salt and pepper and oxtails to a zip lock bag and shake to coat. Brown meat on all sides, remove and set aside.

Add onion, garlic, and celery to the kettle and cook for 3-5 minutes over medium heat. Stir in tomato paste.

Add tomatoes, broth, bay leaves, thyme and fresh ground pepper and salt. Return the oxtails to the pan. Simmer for 3-3 1/2 hours. Remove oxtails and add carrots, potatoes, rutabaga, and beans. Additional celery and onion if you’d like.

Remove the meat from the bones and add that back into the soup. Oxtails are not very meaty but they provide a great flavor to the soup. Simmer for approximately 1 hour until the vegetables are tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve up with some crusty bread and you have a perfect hearty dinner. I didn’t have any good bread so I made baking powder biscuits but crusty bread or rolls would have been better.

You can add other root vegetables to this soup like turnips or parsnips. If you add fresh or frozen peas add them toward the end of the cooking process.

TIP: So many recipes call for 1 or 2 tablespoons of tomato paste. I open cans of tomato paste, put them in the freezer for about an hour, open the other end and push the tomato paste out. I slice the paste and put each section into a zip lock snack bag. I always have tomato paste handy.

Cranberry Sauce – Three ways

October 10, 2014October 11, 2014 / featherheadlady / Leave a comment

Cranberry sauce and poultry dishes just seem to go together. The sauce with whole berries is my favorite although I remember holidays when I was a child and my mother would get out the jellied cranberry sauce. She’d open both ends of the can and push the can shaped concoction onto a special dish and she would slice it. I think we liked it. We ate it. And I know a lot of other people who still favor the wiggly, sliceable stuff. Cranberries are not available year round where I live so this year I decided to can sauce to use year round. I also froze several bags for recipes like cranberry muffins or sweet potato crisp. I did cranberry sauce three different ways; plain cranberry sauce, spiced cranberry sauce with orange rind and cinnamon and cloves, and cranberry apple relish.

Simple Cranberry Relish

4 cups water

4 cups sugar

10 cups cranberries

Put your cranberries in a colander and wash them. Pick out the stems and any bad berries. In a large, heavy kettle combine sugar and water and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to medium and simmer for 5 minutes. Add cranberries and cook over medium heat for approximately 15 minutes without stirring until skins burst. Using a jar funnel ladle the sauce into sterilized pint jars, make sure the lips of the jars are wiped clean and put the two piece vacuum caps on your jars. Process in a water bath for 15 minutes making sure there are a couple inches of water over the jars. Put the jars on a heavy towel to cool. Pretty basic.

Apple Cranberry Relish

6 tart apples peeled, cored and diced

10 cups cranberries

3 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups water

1 1/2 cups golden raisins

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

3/4 cup cider vinegar

1 T cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp cloves

In a large heavy kettle bring the sugar and water to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 20-25 minutes. Using a jar funnel ladle into pint jars leaving a 1/2 inch of head space. Make sure jar lips are wiped clean, fasten two piece vacuum lids and process in a water bath for 15 minutes. Put the jars on a heavy towel to cool.

Spiced Cranberry Sauce

4 cups sugar

3 cups water

1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice

rind of one orange

2-3 whole cinnamon sticks

1 T whole cloves

10 cups cranberries

Combine sugar and water in a large heavy kettle and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Meanwhile remove orange peel with a sharp knife leaving as much of the white part on the orange. Cut the rind into very thin strips. Juice the oranges. If necessary add bottled orange to make one cup. Put the cloves in a mesh bag for easy removal. Add juice, rind, cinnamon sticks, cloves and berries to simmering sugar water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes until berries burst.

Follow the steps outlined above to bottle the sauce. Process for 15 minutes in a water bath and cool jars on a heavy towel.

I think I will have to make chicken one night soon so I can enjoy a jar of cranberry sauce. Any one of these would be a good addition to a carton of yogurt or over a dish of vanilla ice cream. Or add a few tablespoons of sauce to a turkey or chicken sandwich.

Stuffed Bell Peppers

September 22, 2014September 25, 2014 / featherheadlady / Leave a comment

Stuffed bell peppers…it’s what’s for dinner.

1 pound ground beef, pork or turkey

4 sweet bell peppers (red, yellow, orange or green…you choose)

1 T olive oil

1 medium onion diced

2 stalks of celery diced

pepper tops diced

2-3 cloves of garlic minced

1 cup cooked long grain white or brown rice

1 pint/can stewed tomatoes

1 14-oz can tomato sauce

salt and pepper to taste

1 T dried basil

1/2 cup shredded asiago or Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Cut off the tops of the peppers and remove the seeds. Par-boil the peppers in boiling salted water for 3-4 minutes. Remove and put the peppers in a casserole lined with non-stick foil. Preheat oven to 350.

Sauté diced onion, pepper, celery and garlic for 3-4 minutes over medium heat. Add meat of your choosing and brown. Remove from heat. Stir in rice, seasonings, and asiago or Parmesan cheese.

Combine tomatoes and tomato sauce and whisk together. Add approximately one cup of tomato sauce to meat and rice mixture. Fill peppers. Top with remaining tomato sauce.

Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Uncover and top with shredded mozzarella and bake for 15-20 minutes until cheese is melted and peppers are thoroughly heated. Plate peppers and top with some of the tomato gravy.

Serve with crusty bread, apple sauce and a tossed salad.

Today someone posted a recipe for stuffed pepper soup. Maybe tomorrow I’ll use the leftover peppers and make them into soup.

Addendum:

Day two of stuffed peppers. I decided to reinvent the leftover peppers and make soup. I sliced a carrot, diced a medium onion, diced a couple stalks of celery, and shredded a cup or more of cabbage. I put a tablespoon or so of olive oil in a heavy soup kettle and once it was hot sweated the vegetables for 3-4 minutes. I added a pint of stewed tomatoes, 4 cups of chicken broth, and the leftover peppers that I had diced. I also added a can of cannellini beans for a little extra protein.

I brought the the soup to a simmer and simmered it until the flavors were married.

I thought the soup was yummy served with some crusty bread and crackers. If you have family members who refuse to eat leftovers reinventing them is a perfect option.

Lamb Stew with Puff Pastry

September 15, 2014 / featherheadlady / Leave a comment

It’s a cold September Sunday and stew sounds comforting. I have lamb stew meat in the freezer but this recipe would be good with beef as well. Stews and soups are the kinds of one pot meals you can throw together with whatever you have on hand.

Get out your large Dutch oven and let’s get started with our stew. It’s what’s for dinner.

3 T canola or olive oil

1 # lamb or beef stew meat

1/3 c flout

1/2 tsp rosemary

1/2 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp fennel seed

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp salt

1/2 c dry white wine

3 T butter

3 T flour

4 c broth (beef, mushroom or vegetable)

14-oz can stewed tomatoes

1/2 c celery diced

1 c carrots diced

1 c rutabaga diced

1 c onion diced

1 1/2 c potatoes diced

3-4 cloves of garlic minced

1 pkg frozen puff pastry (optional)

1 egg beaten + 1 T water

Heat 3 T oil in heavy Dutch oven over med high heat. In a large zip lock bag combine 1/3 c flour and spices. Add stewing meat and toss to coat. Add meat in batches being careful not to crowd and brown.

Remove meat to a plate and continue until all meat is browned. Deglaze the pan with 1/2 c white wine (or broth) and stir to incorporate all the browned bits. Add 3 T butter and melt. Whisk in 3 T flour to form a roux. Continue whisking over medium high heat and gradually add the broth. I like to use “better than bouillon” to make my broth but use your favorite.

Once you’ve added the broth and it’s come to a boil reduce heat and add tomatoes (I use my home canned tomatoes) and diced vegetables.

Cover your pot and put in a 325 degree oven for 1 1/2 – 2 hours until meat and vegetables are tender.

Once the stew is done ladle into four individual oven proof dishes. Roll out the puff pastry and cut to fit the ramekins. Brush with egg wash and bake in a 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until pastry is golden brown.

Serve with a tossed salad.

You can change out or add other vegetables to your stew…green beans, turnips, parsnips, peas. You can serve your stew without the pastry… Just ladle into serving dishes and serve with bread and salad. Stew is one of the ultimate comfort foods.

Canned Stewed Tomatoes

August 21, 2014September 13, 2014 / featherheadlady / 1 Comment

Today was a canning day. Stewed tomatoes for lots of soup and chili days this winter. I bought a bushel of beautiful tomatoes from the farm market yesterday.

Because I was making stewed tomatoes the first thing I did was diced one large sweet onion, two sweet peppers and three or four stalks of celery. I did red and yellow peppers but green will work too.

Next step was to peel and core the tomatoes. I core and then put them in a pot of boiling water for a minute or so until the skins crack and slide off easily.

I core and peel about a quarter bushel at a time. Then I did a bite size dice and put them in a large stainless steel kettle over medium heat.

Once the tomatoes begin to simmer I stir in my diced vegetables and simmer them about 30 minutes.

We like garlic so I stir minced garlic into the tomatoes just before I begin filling my jars.

I use a canning funnel to ladle the hot tomatoes into jars that have been sterilized in boiling water. Once the jars are filled I add 1/2 tsp of sea salt and 1/8 tsp of citric acid.

The last step is putting the jars into a hot water bath making sure I have a couple inches of water over the jar lids. Once the water comes back up to a boil set the timer…35 minutes for pints, 45 minutes for quarts.

Now I have awesome tomatoes to enjoy all winter long.

Canning is a bit time consuming but not difficult at all. A half bushel of tomatoes yielded about 28 pints of stewed tomatoes. I will omit all the veggies for the second half bushel and hot pack a simple diced tomato.

Home-canned tomatoes make the best soups and chili and tomato sauce!

Pesto

August 21, 2014August 25, 2014 / featherheadlady / 2 Comments

A good friend gave me a beautiful bouquet of fresh basil from her garden.

I find my salad spinner to be the best tool for washing fresh herbs.

Once the basil is clean and dry it goes into the food processor:
2 cups of packed basil leaves
3 or 4 cloves of garlic
1/3 cup pine nuts
and pulse until leaves are finely chopped. With food processor running on low add in a slow, steady stream:
1/2 cup good olive oil

Add salt and pepper to taste.