A Life, Lived

Swedish Meatballs with Red Currant Pan Sauce

Lately I've been trying to use up the bottles and jars in the fridge. There are a lot of them and they have been threatening to take over. LOL

This recipe was selected because it would help me use up a jar of my red currant jelly than had been taking up real estate for far longer than I wanted to think about.

Even though I didn't pick this recipe because I thought it would be amazing (such is the choice you make when the focus is getting rid of jars of stuff) it turns out it made for a really tasty dinner. I've made lots of Swedish meatball recipes before this this one yielded a sweet and savoury sauce that was delicious. The sauce would also be great with pork chops or grilled chicken.

Enjoy.

Swedish Meatballs with Red Currant Pan Sauce

6 ounces egg noodles
1 teaspoon unsalted butter
¼ cup grated red onion
¼ cup whole-wheat panko breadcrumbs
¼ cup 2% reduced-fat milk
3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
¾ teaspoon salt, divided
½ teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon grated whole nutmeg
1 pound 90% lean ground sirloin
Cooking spray
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1 cup unsalted beef stock
2 tablespoons red currant or lingonberry jelly
2 tablespoons sour cream

Cook noodles according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain; toss with butter, cover, and set aside.

Combine grated onion, panko, milk, dill, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, 1/4 teaspoon salt, allspice, and nutmeg in a large bowl; stir to moisten panko. Add beef; stir with your hands until combined. Gently form beef mixture into 20 balls (about 1 tablespoon each).

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add meatballs to pan; cook 6 minutes, turning occasionally, or just until cooked through (thermometer inserted into center of a meatball should register 160°). Transfer meatballs to a paper towel-lined plate; leave browned bits in pan.

Place flour in a medium bowl; gradually whisk in stock. Return pan to medium heat; add stock mixture and jelly to pan. Cook 2 minutes or until thickened and bubbly, stirring constantly with a whisk. Remove pan from heat; whisk in sour cream, remaining 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Serve meatballs and sauce with noodles.

Corned Beef Three Ways

Hmm, that almost sounds a bit dirty.

Mind out of the gutter people!

I cured my own corned beef again this year. I used a five pound piece of brisket. One of the downsides of corned beef is that it shrinks so much during the cooking process but I figured I'd have enough for some of my favourites with a piece that size.

The brisket had a big piece of fat running through it so I cut it in half through the fat and trimmed the fat off leaving me with two pieces.

The first I cooked for our St. Patrick's Day dinner. We bake it in the oven with a delicious glaze.

This piece of the corned beef provided six meals.

Then the other piece is used for other recipes.

Last Friday I made Reuben sandwiches.

Then on Sunday we had corned beef hash.

Lots of good eating from that one piece of beef!

Panang Curry with Beef and Shiitakes

If Thai curry is your favourite curry, you’ll find yourself loving this creamy less spicy Panang curry. The creaminess of Panang curry and it’s distinct strong flavors is addictive. In fact, I've made three in the past few months. Mind you, some of that has to do with the fact that the only container of Panang curry paste I could find in the store was huge and I am trying to use it up.

This curry uses Chinese long beans. I imagine that the name is offensive to other Asian countries. These beans are also known as snake beans or long beans. They look like a super long green bean and have a similar taste. They add a delicious crunch to this beef and mushroom curry. If you can't find them you could always substitute in regular green beans.

The strange thing about this recipe was the lack of peanuts. Panang curry has peanuts in it, in either crushed form or peanut butter is added. Most recipes call for 1/4 cup finely chopped peanuts. Other recipes suggested adding a tablespoon of peanut butter. I added some peanut butter to this - in the step where you mix in the broth (another unusual ingredient but it worked and made the fat content less than if you were to use all coconut milk).

Another change I made was the add the Thai basil leaves to the actual curry and not leave them as a garnish. We LOVE the taste of Thai basil and most Thai curries have the leaves added in at the end just before serving so they wilt and another delicate layer of flavour to the dish. I added about 1/2 cup of leaves (NOTE: you can also use the flowers as well).

I think when I make this again I may use another more tender cut of beef. Flank steak tends to be a tougher cut of beef and it doesn't cook long in the sauce to tenderize it. It wasn't impossible to eat, just a bit more chewy than I would expect in a curry.

I served the curry with some coconut scented jasmine rice. It made for an amazing dinner.

Enjoy!

Panang Curry with Beef and Shiitakes

1 (13.5- to 14-oz.) can coconut milk
1/4 cup Panang curry paste
1 cup lower-salt chicken broth, or homemade chicken or vegetable broth
2 Tbs. light brown sugar or light brown palm sugar; more as needed
1 tsp. fish sauce; more as needed
1-1/2 cups bite-size Chinese long bean pieces
3 stalks fresh lemongrass, trimmed, bruised, and cut into 3- to 4-inch pieces
1 lb. flank steak, cut into 1/4-inch-thick bite-size slices
1-1/2 cups stemmed, halved or quartered shiitake mushrooms
1 Tbs. thinly sliced fresh or thawed frozen wild lime leaves
Thai basil leaves, for garnish

Shake the can of coconut milk or stir it well (this creates a consistent thickness, since the fat often solidifies at the top of the can).In a 3- to 4-quart saucepan or wok over medium heat, simmer 1/2 cup of the coconut milk, stirring occasionally, until reduced by about half, 3 to 5 minutes. It will get very thick and shiny and may or may not separate; either is fine.Add the curry paste, whisk well, and cook, continuing to whisk, for 1 minute. Whisk in the broth, sugar, fish sauce, and remaining coconut milk. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.

Add the Chinese long beans and lemongrass pieces and continue to simmer, adjusting the heat as necessary. After 2 minutes, add the beef and shiitakes and continue to simmer until everything is tender and cooked through, about 3 minutes more.

Remove the curry from the heat. Season to taste with more sugar and fish sauce, and stir in the lime leaves. Transfer to a serving bowl (or serve right out of the pot). Remove the lemongrass pieces or tell your guests to eat around them. Garnish with the basil.

Stuffed Cabbage Soup

Like most of the world we are big fans of cabbage rolls.

We don't often make them ourselves because of the work involved. Also, we have a great Polish Hall in the city where we can buy some and our purchase assists seniors in need.

We have made cabbage roll casserole before. This is the first time we've seen a version that is a soup.

Now that cooler weather is here Friday is soup and sandwich night (in the summer it was burger night). I made this soup a few weeks ago and loved it.

It has all of the flavours of cabbage rolls without all of the fuss and bother.

One thing to be careful of - it calls for smoked paprika. I used HOT smoked paprika and the resulting soup was a bit on the spicy side. We liked it but I couldn't have served it to my mother. The hot smoked paprika on top of the cayenne pepper was just too much. Live and learn.

The soup takes about an hour makes. It makes 8 - 10 servings and freezes well.

Enjoy!

Stuffed Cabbage Soup

2 tablespoons canola oil
1 ½ pounds lean ground beef
4 cups chopped green cabbage
2 cups chopped yellow onion
1 ¼ cups chopped carrots
1 cup chopped celery
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground pepper
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 (15 ounce) can no-salt-added tomato sauce
4 cups unsalted chicken broth
¼ cup medium-grain brown rice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (Optional)

Heat oil in a large heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add ground beef; cook, stirring often, until the meat is cooked through and starting to brown slightly, 6 to 7 minutes. Add cabbage, onion, carrots and celery; cook, stirring often, until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.

Add brown sugar, paprika, salt, pepper and cayenne to the beef mixture; cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until the spices are toasted, about 1 minute. Stir in tomato sauce and broth, scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon to release any browned bits. Bring the soup to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir in rice. Reduce heat to low; cover and cook until the rice is tender, 30 to 35 minutes. If desired, sprinkle with parsley before serving.

Gemista - Greek Stuffed Tomatoes

When we visited Greece a number of the restaurants we went to featured stuffed tomatoes on the menu. In most cases they were stuffed with a meat, rice, herb, tomato mixture. You wouldn't think that they would taste amazing but they certainly did. When I was thinking for ways to use up the glut of tomatoes that we have I immediately thought of trying to recreate those stuffed tomatoes. Of course, with the joys of google you never have to recreate anything do you?

Since the temperatures have dropped below 'surface of the sun' I felt I might manage to turn the oven on and make this for dinner on Friday.

Three secrets to this amazing stuffed tomato recipe: a hearty, flavor-packed stuffing; sufficient amount of good extra virgin olive oil; and baking until the tomatoes collapse to tender perfection and the stuffing mixture inside is fully cooked through. Greek yiayias will tell you, if the stuffed tomatoes look too perfect, they're probably not very tasty!

These delicious, perfectly baked stuffed tomatoes may be considered a side dish in some Greek households; maybe served next to some lamb. But to me, these are delicious and hearty enough to stand on their own

I know these can be just a bit of a labour of love, but they are not complicated to make (and you can prepare them a little bit ahead of time.)

I made the mistake of using brown rice - it tends to not cook as well in preparations like this as white rice does. Needless to say there was some crunchy bits on the top of the tomatoes - not the end of the world by any measure. I think I'd increase the fresh herbs to really have that fresh flavour come through. Finally, my tomatoes were full of moisture - adding a cup of water to the dish was overkill. After an hour I was worried that the dish would overflow in the oven and sucked moisture out with a baster! You might want to try 1/3 a cup and add more if they seem dry.

Before:

After:

Enjoy!

Gemista - Greek Stuffed Tomatoes

8 peppers and/or tomatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion (diced)
3 cloves garlic (chopped)
1 cup tomato sauce (I used a simple roasted tomato sauce)
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 cup herbs such as parsley, dill and mint (chopped)
1/4 cup arborio rice
1 pound ground beef
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup water
2 tablespoons olive oil

Cut the tops off of the peppers and tomatoes and remove the seeds from the peppers and the insides of the tomatoes reserving them.

Heat the oil in a pan.

Add the onions and saute until tender, about 10-15 minutes.

Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, about a minute.

Add the reserved tomato guts, tomato sauce and oregano and simmer until it thickens and remove from the heat.

Mix the tomato sauce, herbs, rice, ground beef, salt and pepper.

Stuff the mixture into the peppers and tomatoes and place them in a baking dish.

Pour the water and olive oil into the baking dish.

Bake in a preheated 375F/190C oven until the liquid has evaporated and the peppers and tomatoes are roasted until slightly caramelized, about 1-2 hours.

Beef Stuffed Zucchini Boats

This is a perfect low carb recipe - one where you don't think it about being low carb while you are enjoying it.

There are so many different ways to eat zucchini, I think it is most often served as a  side dish. In this recipe zucchini is elevated to another level when it is stuffed and served it as a main course.

Followed out zucchinis are filled with a zesty tomato and ground beef mixture, topped with cheese, and baked.

Delicious comfort and no one will guess it is healthy . . .

Beef Stuffed Zucchini Boats

6-8 medium zucchini or 12 small
1 pound ground beef
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup onion chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
1 cup marinara sauce
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cup low-fat shredded cheddar or mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 375F. Slice zucchini in half, and carve them out with a spoon. Chop the zucchini pulp and set it aside. Line zucchini boats on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or lightly greased with oil.

Heat olive oil in a non-stick skillet. Cook onion for 2-3 minutes or until it begins to golden. Ad the garlic and cook for a few seconds. Add meat and cook until it's no longer pink, 3-5 minutes. Add the marinara sauce, zucchini pulp, italian seasoning and salt + pepper. Simmer for 8-10 minutes.

Spoon mixture into zucchini boats and top each with a drizzle of cheese. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the cheesy is fully melted and bubbly.

Sloppy Joes

Depending on where you live, a "Sloppy Joe" can mean many different things. The Sloppy Joe I love is the one I'm presenting here—a sweet and tangy ground beef concoction that you ladle onto a hamburger bun.

It's a mess. Intentionally so. Even though it's in a bun, it must be eaten with a fork.

It's also a delicious mess!

Lots of people open up a can of sloppy joe mix, dump it in some sauteed ground beef and call it dinner. Trust me on this - it is easy to make and the flavour is far superior.

Most recipes take close to an hour. Using the instant pot means dinner is ready in 20 or so minutes.

Now you notice right away from the pic below that there is something not quite right about our sloppy joes . . . I had to serve them on a bagel half because the brioche hamburger buns that I had purchased went into that black hole of small food items. We looked everywhere for those buns to no avail. The bagel was a bit more challenging to cut and eat but it's bread so i guess all was OK.

Whatever. You'll enjoy these, bagel or hamburger bun.

Oh yes, you'll also notice that I sprinkled some grated cheddar cheese on top . . . everything is better with cheddar in my book!

Enjoy.

Sloppy Joes

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 small yellow onion finely diced
2 celery stalks finely diced
1 small green bell pepper diced
3 cloves garlic minced or put through a garlic press
1 ½ pounds lean (93%) ground beef
1 cup tomato sauce
¾ cup ketchup
½ cup water
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons cornstarch, optional for thickening
2 tablespoons warm water, optional for thickening
6 hamburger buns, split and lightly toasted

Select the sauté setting and adjust it to high (more). Add the oil to the pot. When it shimmers, add the onion, celery, bell pepper, and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables start to soften, about 3 minutes. Add the beef and cook, breaking up the meat into small pieces with a wooden spoon, until no longer pink, about 4 minutes. Add the tomato sauce, ketchup, water, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, chili powder, salt and pepper. Stir to combine.

Lock the lid into place and turn the valve to “sealing.” Select pressure cook (manual) and program for 10 minutes at high pressure. When the cook cycle completes, allow the pressure cooker to cool without venting steam for 5 minutes. It's fine if the keep warm setting turns on. After 5 minutes, turn the pressure release valve to “venting” to manually release the steam. When the pressure valve drops, carefully remove the lid. (Always remove the lid away from your face.)

Stir the Sloppy Joe mixture. You can serve as is or you can thicken the sauce. To thicken, stir together the cornstarch and warm water in a small bowl until smooth. Add the cornstarch mixture to the beef mixture. Set the pot to “sauté” (You might have to turn off your pressure cooker and turn it back on to do this.) Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture bubbles and thickens, about 2 minutes. Taste. Season with salt and pepper as needed.

Spoon Sloppy Joe mixture on the bottom halves of the buns. Cover with the bun tops and serve immediately.

Instant Pot Red Wine Short Ribs

I mentioned in this post Beef and Porcini Mushroom Stew that it was a time for comfort food. I'm continuing that trend with this post.

Before Christmas Paul and I made a trip to Ontario's Mennonite country to visit the farmers' market and a few area producers. Happily the government recognizes this as essential travel.

One of the butchers we visited had these gorgeous looking short ribs. I didn't need short rib. I had no plan on using short ribs. However, you know how this works - if you see something amazing you snap it up immediately. It is a rule I learned the hard way (Jerry still bitter about missing out on an amazing pair of red leather shoes in Rome, but I digress . . .)

Anyways - back to the thread. In need of comfort and had beautiful short ribs.

Using google I found this recipe for short ribs made in the Instant Pot. It meant a dish that normally would take half a day to cook took just over an hour (slightly misleading because the recipe doesn't include the time required for the Instant Pot to come up to pressure).

This was excellent. . . a really rich, filling recipe, that is perfect on the coldest of winter days. These short ribs came out just as fall-off-the-bone tender as if they were simmered all day on the stove top.

I served them with creamy stove top polenta.

Enjoy

Instant Pot Red Wine Short Ribs

3 tbsp olive oil, divided
3 lbs bone-in, individual-cut short ribs
Kosher salt and pepper
1 small yellow onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and diced
4 cloves, garlic minced
1 ¼ cups dry red wine
2 cups beef stock
1 ½ tbsp tomato paste
2 stalks fresh rosemary, leaves plucked from stems and chopped
1 bay leaf
¼ cup cornstarch
¼ cup cold beef stock

Turn your Instant Pot to saute mode. Once hot, add 2 tbsp of olive oil.

Season the short ribs on both sides with salt and pepper, and saute them in the Instant Pot until they no longer stick to the bottom, then flip and brown the other side. Remove to a plate.

Add the remaining olive oil, and saute the onion, carrots and garlic until soft and the onions are slightly translucent.

Add ¼ cup of the red wine, scraping the bottom of the pot with a spatula or wooden spoon to release the bits stuck to the bottom.

Add the remaining wine, beef stock, tomato paste, rosemary leaves, and bay leaf. Add the short ribs back into the Instant Pot, submerging as much as possible in the liquid.

Place the lid on the Instant Pot, turn the valve to "sealing" and set it to pressure cook for 45 minutes.

Let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then carefully move the valve to "venting" to release remaining pressure.

Use tongs to remove the short ribs to a plate. In a small bowl, mix together the cornstarch and beef stock.

Turn the Instant Pot to saute mode, and bring the sauce to a boil. While stirring, slowly drizzle the cornstarch mixture into the Instant Pot. Continue stirring until the mixture thickens. Boil the mixture for 1 minute to cook out the starch taste.

Place one or two short ribs on a plate, and ladle some of the gravy over top.

 

Comforting Beef and Porcini Mushroom Stew

Good lord, if there ever was a time for comfort food it is now.

I had stewing meat in the freezer and a big container of dried mushrooms in the pantry. Google pulled me to this recipe that looked pretty amazing.

One of the issues of stews made in the Instant Pot is that they can be too liquidy because all of the liquid stays in the pot rather than be boiled off during a long slow cooking process. By placing the dried mushrooms on top you ensure that some of this liquid is absorbed. You also ensure that the stew has that umami that comes from the mushroom soaking liquid (in this case the actual stew).

I made two changes to the recipe - I added a small canned of cherry tomatoes (any chopped tomatoes without added flavouring would work well) because I like the interplay that comes with tomato in a beef stew. I also did not thicken with flour and butter because I don't care for the taste flour leaves in the stew. Instead I thickened it with corn starch added to some beef broth.

This stew hit all the right notes. We enjoyed it on a mound of mashed potatoes with some bread pulled from the oven just before dinner.

Much needed comfort here . . .

Beef and Porcini Mushroom Stew

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 pounds beef chuck, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 sprig of rosemary, de-stemmed and finely chopped (about 1 teaspoon)
1 medium red onion, roughly diced
1 celery stalk, cut into 1/2-inch slices
1/2 cup red wine (any tart, non-sweet red, like Chianti or Sangiovese)
1 cup salt-free beef stock
1 teaspoon salt (reduce if using salted stock and butter)
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 ounce (30 grams) dried porcini mushrooms, rinsed
2 large carrots, sliced into 1/2-inch rounds
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Preheat the pressure cooker (by pressing brown/sauté mode).

Add the olive oil and sear the beef cubes on one side (about 5 minutes). Add rosemary, onions, celery, red wine, stock, salt, and pepper. Mix the contents of the pressure cooker well. Sprinkle the mushrooms and carrots on top of the stew mixture.

Close the lid and pressure-cook for 15 minutes at high pressure. When time is up, open the pressure cooker with natural release (turn off the pressure cooker and wait for pressure to come down naturally, about 15 to 20 minutes).

In the meantime, in a small pan melt the butter and drizzle with flour. Mix into a paste and let it cook until the butter begins to make bubbles in the flour.

Remove the lid, tilting it away from you. Add about 6 tablespoons of the cooking liquid from the pressure cooker into the little pan with the flour paste and mix well to loosen the paste. Then, pour the mixture back into the pressure cooker base and mix well.

Bring the contents of the pressure cooker to a boil (by pressing brown/sauté mode) and let it simmer until thickened (about 5 minutes).

Horseradish Sauce

It is a long weekend in Canada which means many people will be firing up the BBQ and tossing on some steaks. One of my favourite accompaniments with steak is horseradish sauce. This creamy horseradish rivals the best I have tried in restaurants.

This horseradish cream sauce is so easy and will impress your dinner guests! It keeps well in the refrigerator for at least 2 weeks and only gets better as the flavors meld.

The horseradish taste is not overwhelming at all so 'horseradish phobic' folks (like Paul) will be happy. I would have added more horseradish if it were just for me.

Horseradish Sauce

1/2 cup sour cream
2 Tbsp prepared horseradish
2 Tbsp mayo
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp chives

In a small mixing bowl, stir all of the ingredients together. Serve right away or cover and refrigerate for about 2 weeks.