Beef Stew Different Ways

One of the most comforting and delicious late winter dishes is beef stew.It's a bowl of rich goodness with a heady mix of a variety of parts, veggies and spices. What's great about it is that there isn't just one recipe,. There are ones from all over the world.

Regular contributor Julia Moskin wrote about this classic and its' variations in today's New York Times Food section.This is a great article for novice chefs because Ms/ Moskin include basics musts. Yes you have to use beef stock, The meat won't make its' own. The stew should always be covered when simmering,There's also a question of is any stew the same as soup, a braise or a pot roast? Not meaningfully. They're more or less all the same. What about the cuts? Start with a leaner meat . Look with cuts that feature cartilige, tendons and even a few bones.You can pick up beef labeled stew beef. Most grocery stores sell these in two inch chunks and smaller. Keep in mind that beef goes with all alliums, These are onions, leeks, garlic and scallions.Of course you can be brave and add potatoes for thickening and carrots for color and sweetness.The writer Laurie Colwin throws in bright green peppers while Manhattan cookbook store owner Nach Waxman did the outrageous  and tossedSin tomato paste. As far as other add in,s try red wine for an Italian spin or brown sugar for a south Asian or Caribbean vibe.Pork can be added too for more flavor . This is a staple in Mexican stews.

For those that are still undecided , there are four recipes to try out. You can try the absolute classic by The former Times food critic Mimi Sheraton. Generations of home chefs have used her recipes with great success. sShe uses brisket but you can use bomeless chuck or short ribs. Cheeks cna be used too. She adds tomato paste and paprika along with onions and carrots. It's served over potatoes or egg noodles. A different spin is braised short ribs with anchovies and peanuts adapted from the late Indian chef and entrpreneur Floyd Cardoz.It's not the usual mix but's still packed with  flavor. there are onions and short ribs along with Savoy cabbage and fresh ginger.It would be a nice chage up on a weekend night.Another Indian stew is Nihari taken from "Masala :Recipes from India _The Land of Spices  (Tenspeed Press) by Anita Jaisingham. GHee is used in this along with chickpea flour and garam masala. There is also turmeric for kick and color . Patti JInich gives it a Mexican twist by adding ancho and pasila chiles. There are also tomatillos cooked with Roma tomatoes . The veggies serve with reflect it's heritage. There is zucchini , corn, green beans and chayote squash(if you can find it right now.) Squeezes of lime are added for some zing and brightness.

Beef stew on a cold night is always the best. Try any of these whether a classic , Mexican or Indian one. The're all rib sticking good .

Tastes Like Homemade

 Sometimes it's hard to make meals from scratch.That's where packaged ,boxed and jarred foods come in handy. Yet there's always something lacking in their flavors. what to do? Add some home made touches and flourishes.

One of the easiest foods to amend is tomato sauce. Some are good and don't need any extras. Yet once in a while there is one that nneds a pinch of this or a dash of that. Adding a tablespoon of olive oil helps to create a smoother sauce.I did this with Shop Rite's Bowl an d Basket brand sauce. This is a little better than other in house brands because it's made in Italy.

A small can of mushrooms were also added for a more heartier taste. You could add oragano or pepper for more flavoring (don;t add salt, there's enough sodium in these processed foods)

It was served with this fusilli but it can be used for any kind of pastas from gnocchi to even ravioli. The same is true with certain baked mac packages too. You could easily add in some crumbled bacon or even minced ham to accentuate the cheese flavor. Any plain pizza can be upped a notch with a smattering of fresh veggies on top or a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.Even ramen soup can be jazzed up Korean style with a fried egg or some chopped scallions. Add a packet of soy sauce  for more flavor. 

Yes, it's easier to use packaged foods but they need just a dash of something. Give them that homemade flavor by adding a dash of something. It'll make for a quick yet flavorful meal.

Pasta Thick And Thin

 There are so many different kinds of pasta out there. What do you choose from?A delicate  angel hair or a robust bucatini? What holds sauce better Strads or pasta or the chunky , twisty kind? There are so many to choose from - yet which is the right one?

Keep in mind that not all pastas work with sauces or even as sides.Long strands or twiny ones like spaghetti which means twine and angel hair are perfect for those sauces that don't have chunks of tomatoes in them. Creamy sauces such as  carbonara or an Alfredo sauce work well with these too. These also make the perfect side pasta , especially with chicken or seafood. Definitely use the thinner and flat shaped linguine for any of the clam sauces or to accompany lobster Fra Diavolo.As for salads  - no. There;s a reason you rarely see any of these "long" pastas with mayo at a backyard barbecue. You could use the spaghetti or angel hair if you do want to make Thai peanut salad but that's about it. What about these pastas in soups? There is a trend now to make spaghetti soup which is a kid pleaser. Normally , however smaller  chunkier pastas are used for different kinds of soups. Think smaller orrichete or orzo along with pastina and wagon wheels for this. These are easier to manage on a spoon than slippery strands of angel hair or fettuccine.

What are the thicker pastas? Fusilli is one and it can be short corkscrews or long resembling thick coily  hair. The first is good with a thick  sauce rich with tomato chunks and mushrooms. I also think this kind makes for the perfect salad too.Mayo, even the vegan kind sticks to it as does a vinaigrette. It also is a great foil for celery and tomatoes as well as torn broccoli and cauliflower bits. Rotelli  is one of those rare chunky pastas that also works well in soup too. It's perfect with a hearty beef based minestrone. A thick and fun pasta to make is bucatini. Meaning little mouth in Italian it's as thick as a drinking straw and is perfect with a Bolognese sauce. You can use a ground beef sauce like that or be a bit more creative and try it with leftover London Broil cubes added to the sauce.Thicker pastas would also be great with vodka sauces as well.This a a creamy blend of whole cream cooked with tomato paste and a splash of vodka. The sauce can also work with calamarata , which look like short dense tubes. Try this kind too with a sauce brimming with veggies like broccoli,  and whole tomatoes.

Nothing beats a good pasta dish. It can be made with thin stands like angel air or thick like bucatini. Serve it with the right sauce and enjoy a delicious dish.

Kids On The Menu

 Should fancy restaurants bam kids? Do we want to discourage families from enjoying a night out? That's the controversy here in New Jersey. An upscale eatery has placed a ban on children under te age of ten. Is this a good idea? There are some pluses and more minuses.

The restaurant in question is Nettie's Spaghetti,in Tinton Falls, a fairly upscale town in oceanfront Monmouth County. The name sounds playful and welcoming for young ones yet it's more of a fancy place for date nights and small gatherings.It is expensive with no kid's menu in sight. A salad starts at fifteen dollars while a main meal of tuna cutlet goes for a whopping forty bucks and spinach fettucine is a pricey twenty-seven. Even the sides are expensive with eggplant and zucchini Parmesan going for eighteen dollars.Their signature spaghetti dish is almost thirty dollars, too dear for my tastes. Another distasteful aspect is that you're charged twenty dollars for cancelling a reservation within a day of reserving a table. Not even Manhattan's four star restaurants pull that trick. Not even David Burke , the famed chef who's conquoring the Jersey shore has done this.Now to add to this is the kid ban. This has infuriated parents all over the area. 

The question is is this a good thing? Go to Nettie's Facebook page and you see a myriad of fors and againsts.One person astutely pointed out that no restaurants makes money off a kid's menu.This makes sense because children don't have the appetite of adults nor do they order alcohol. There is an indeed a financial loss here however many other upscale places also have kids  menus. They don't seem to be bothered by the lost. Many others feel that the blame goes to the parents (let's face it  - it does).Moms and dads who let the little ones climb on the seats or run between tables need to be disciplined themselves.It just doesn;t fly whether it's in a McDonalad's or Wendy's or in an upscale place. A disciplined child is a delight to behold and a quiet well behaved one can eat at any restaurant. A respectful four year old is a better dinner companion than a drunk thirty something or a constantly complaining fifty year old. There's also the philosophy -which my parents believed in - is that children need to eat out.One to experience  dining out of the home and two, to exercise those learned manners. It does pay off. Eating out helps kids experience diffrent foods and to see the world outside their own.

Is Nettie's Spaghetti doing the right thing by banning kids under ten. That depends on who you ask. There are many opinions.Is there a right one? That's hard to say.

A Cinnamon Roll With Zest

 Nothing beats a home made cinnamon bun.There's something soothing about sinking your teeth into yeast y roll, cinnamon and a big dollop of cream cheese icing. Yet it can be made more delicious with the  addtion of orange. This takes  those chewy pillows to a whole new level.

Baker extraordinaire and regular contributor Gebevieve Ko gave a recipe for a new kind of cinnamon bun in Wednesday's New York TImes Food section.Hers is different in many ways.it doesn't require the usual yeast to make the dough rise.There is baking powder to give them an instant puffy  lift along with cream cheese.The cream cheese is not just for the icing.It,  along with butter and milk, gives the dough  a moist tenderness. Milk also helps the dough from drying out.This in itself is not  new recipe.On the website The Food Historian, Sarah Wassberg Johnson wrtes that the recipe has been  around since 1916.  The one big change which will be game changer is the addition of orange zest in the brown sugar and fresh orange juice in the icing. The last cuts that super sweetness along with giving the icing that lovely apricot sunset hue.The zest infused brown sugar cna also be used in the dough to enrich the citrussy flavor.Ms Ko's inspiration was from the now defunct Bogues Restaurant in Birmingham ,Alabama where  their main baker Ella Irby made them for a good chunk of the eatery's eighty-four yeears.

What kind of orange should be used? Ms. Ko dosesn't specify but many baking sites definitely recommend the navel ones. One can get you through this recipe. Making the orange sugar is easy.It's just zesting it over brown sugar.Gently rub the zest into the  sugar because the oil from the zest also soaks into it. Two tablespoons of it will be used for the dough while the rest goes for the filling. The dough is a mix of the dry ingredients first, flour baking powder and salt. The butter and the cream are smashed and rubbed into the flour with your fingers until fully incorporated. They should resemble crumbs. Add the milk at once and gently stir in with a fork. The dough should be frozen as you either butter a nine inch cake pan or iron skillet. The filling is easy Mix the cinnamon and cardamon into the orange sugar and heavily sprinkled onto the rolled out doughThe dough should be sticky when rolled out. It's then  cut into buns with a serrated knife. Bake ar 375 degrees Farenheit for twenty five to thirty minutes. You can make this glaze while the rolls bake.It's a mix of confectioner's sugar , cream cheese , orange zest and fresh orange juice. Let the buns cools off for five minutes then pour  the glaze over them.

A cold winter's day requires a cinnamon bun. Add some sunshine and a whiff of sunnier climes by  adding in some orange zest and juice into the recipe. It makes for a tasty spin on a delicious classic.

Reimagining Indian Food

 Everyone has preconceived notions of Indian food. There are the curries and samosas along with lasse to drink. Yet there's so much more to it and even better it's easy to create at home thanks to a cookbook author. It's an simpler way to approach this classic and ancient cuisine.

Regular contributor KimSeverson interviewed cookbook author and food specialist Raghaven Iyer in yesterday's New York Times Food section. Professor Iyer came from India in 1982 to study hospitality at the University of Minnesota. he already had a degree in chemistry and wanted to get away  his native Mumbai. There was one problem > He couldn;t cook.he tried but his potato curry was so bad that he wept. Using recipes his mon and sister sent he nea applied his chemistry background.It paid off so much that now Professor Iyer is one of the leading Indian cuisine authorities. He has written several books including The Betty Crocker Indian Home Cooking along with teaching countless workshops. he has instructed thousands of professional cooks how to incorporate the sophisticated balance of India herbs and spices in menus in universities , museums and company such as Google. Professor Iler has even worked with Target and created a line of frozen Indian meals for their Good and Gather brand.

Unfortunately he was diagnosed with cancer. His eating priorities changed as his colerectol cancer invaded his brain and lungs. he had always eaten vegetarian and is an avid yoga pratcicer and swimmer. This probably has helped him live longer, depsite the severity of his disease. This didn't deter him from creating comfort food recipes. His sister e mailed recipes for idli -  savory rice ball cakes from Southern India along with sambar - a stew made with lentils and mixed vegetables in a tamarind and spice sauce. He also ate bowls of yogurt and the brothy rasam - a light SOuth Indian soup, filled wit cumin, mashed tomatoes and garlic. Ms. Severson also includes his recipe for tofu with red curry paste. This is a tasty mix of tofu, fish sauce and eggplants cooked with white potatoes, red bell peppers and pamboo shoots. It's the red curry paste, a mix of tomatoes, red bell peppers.garlic ,lemongrass turmeric and shrimp paste. You can make it or buy it at your local grocery store. Basil and coconut milk are also added and the entire dish is served over basmati rice.

Indian food is easy to recreate thanks to Professor Iyer. They are tasty and easy to follow Try them for a taste of delicious cooking.

Don't Give Up GIve This Lent

 Ash Wednesday signifies the start of Lent.For many it's giivng up favorite foods, namely sweets and snacks. Yeti nstead of giving up , why not give. It can be food ,it can be time to cook for those who are alone or can;t cook for themselves anymore. Givng up is good. Giving is better.

Sacrificing your time to make a hot lunch for an elderly neighbor is always good. There's nothing like a hot homemade soup and a sandwich. You can invite themover or make a container and bring it to their house or apartment to cook up. Include a salad and rolls for a heartier meal. The weather is hopefully going to improve aswe move towards Easter. it would be a perfect time for an early picnic, whether in the local park or even the backyard. Pack sandwiches and chips if they can have them (or grape tomatoes if you can find good ones) along with drinks for sunny lunch out. This is also the time for severe blizzards too. Make sure those that can't get to the stores are well stocked. Buy extra staples such as milk, eggs and butter along with soups and frozen dinners. Make sure they have plenty of water, juice coffee and tea too.If it's a neighbor you can easily run over with hot food and  eat with them. Have the kids shovel and salt their walks and driveways too. 

Another good act is sharing. As we all know food prices have gone through the roof. It's horrible for those who are just eking by. If you can buy them groceries. Some stores are featuring buy one or two get the third free. Take advantage of this. Some stories like Acme and Stop & Shop have these kind fo sales on sodas and water. deinitely take advantage of this and share the third carton.There are also occasional sales on bags of apples and oranges. Give these to friends and family with kids so the little ones can have nutritional snacks. Check to see of there are sales on more expensive ticket items like cold cuts and certain sweets. Buy two packages of coldcuts or if there's a rare sale on rotisserie chickens then get an extra for family and friends who are struggling. Also eveyone loves homemade food packages.There's nothing to creating an extra lasagna or casserole.Bake two loaves or bread or an extra batch of cookies Warmer days can be perfect for an cookout for everyone. Take them out to dinner or lunch too . Many places like Applebee's are offering free meals for kids , perfect for loved ones with little ones.

Don't give up this Lent. Give instead. Think of those who are food challenged or don;t have family or friends in their immeidate area. Give them your time and food.