fall session: chicken pot pie

Chicken Pot Pie.  Yum.  Flaky crust, chunks of white chicken breast, so good.


We roasted chicken breast in the oven...

Then, thanks to guest pastry chef, Mary Kay, we made our own pastry top.

I will be honest, this is not the fastest dinner you will ever make but it is comfort food at its best.

Chicken Pot Pie by The Family Table

fall session: classic beef stew

Sauteeing beef chuck meat in olive oil at high temperatures is a smell that lingers on your clothes.  But the smell of beef stew braising in the oven with rosemary, thyme, bay leaves, red wine...that is a smell you could bottle and spray on a winter day to evoke cozy family snuggling over a fire, beef stew in their bowls.

Ok, enough corny imaginings.

I always used to make beef bourguignon for my classic beef stew.  A delicious, traditional, french braise.  The problem was that the french like to cook stews (coq au vin, osso bucco, boeuf bourguignon, lamb stew) with vegetables in the braise that then get strained out and new vegetables, non mushy, perfectly cooked, get added in.  That is all fine and great if you have a lot of time and don't mind arthritic hands from fishing out every little last morcel of beef stew so it does not get strained and thrown away.  BUT, this recipe, has the meat cooking with diced celery, onions, garlic and fennel that just melt into the sauce and don't need to be strained out.  Then, about half way through the cooking, you add in your dice of carrots, parsnips, potatoes, rutabagas (or whatever root vegetables you have on hand).  Still a delicious beef stew, with a lot less work.

I use beef chuck for my meat.  I look for the cheapest per pound price, either in bulk slabs that I cut up into stew size, or pre-cut meat.  You just want to make sure they are all the same size so they cook in the same amount of time.  For this week's class, the best meat deal was pre-cute beef stew from Costco, $5.88 a lb.  If you figure 1lb makes 2 servings, basically $3.00 a person, you are looking at a reasonable dish, even adding in the cost for the other ingredients.

Happy Braising.

Classic Beef Stew by The Family Table

fall session: quiche

I love a flaky quiche, homemade crust with oozing cheesy insides and tasty fillings.  I have a recipe I adapted from the smitten kitchen blog, which she in turn adapted from Julia Child and Marth Stewart.  The dough is all made in the food processor so that really cuts down on the time and mess.
The fillings can be so varied, they can use leftovers, they can be mixed and matched.  Some of my favorites are: sauteed leeks with fontina cheese, crispy bacon and caramelized onions with gruyere cheese, blanched broccoli with cheddar, roasted mushrooms with tarragon and chevre, oven roasted cauliflower with smoked gouda...you can really put your cooking creativity to work.

The two lovely Y.O.U. cooks, Amanda and Ellen, showing off their knife skills:

Tft, Quiche Basic by The Family Table

fall session: pot roast with honey roasted root vegetables

A rutabaga:

A cross between a turnip and cabbage.  The farmer's market is brimming with them and I found a recipe for making farm fresh rutabagas and multi-colored carrots meld into a pot roast with chuck roast.  Cook in the crock pot for 5-6 hours on high, perfuming the whole house.

Serve with a wheatberry salad and you have dinner.

TFT, BRAISE Pot Roast With Rutabagas and Carrots by The Family Table

braising: pork shoulder with guiness and dried cherries

I spent a lovely day cooking with the O'Meara ladies.  They planned a family dinner for twenty plus and then came and cooked their dinner with me, supporting The Family Table.  It was such a great idea and such a nice day!

We made a yummy dish, one that would be really good for St Patrick's day.  Pork Shoulder is trimmed, seared and then put in a dutch oven (or crock pot would work too).  The aromatics (onion, fennel, garlic) are then sauteed in the pork pot and deglazed with guiness and balsamic vinegar.  Dried cherries, molasses and orange peel are added for a sweet-ish, rich, wintery braise.  You can add chopped sweet potatoes in to make it a complete dish.  Steamed barley would also be really nice to slurp up the broth.  We also made the kale and brussel sprout salad (from BBQ Beef class in May, 2013) for some greenery.

TFT, BRAISE Pork Shoulder With Guiness and Dried Cherries by The Family Table

fall session: farro

Farro was our second focus in The Family Table grain series.  Farro dates way back to pre-Roman times (farro grains have been found in Pharoah's tombs) where it was a major food staple.  Farro has a similar flavor to brown rice, but has a nuttier taste.  It has a very low gluten content and can often be eaten by those with a gluten intolerance (although after making a yummy farro risotto for a gluten free friend, I found out it is not totally gluten free, sorry Tracy).  Farro is rich in fiber, magnesium and vitamins A, B, C and E. 

Farro is very easy to prepare:

If you think of it, soak the farro in water over night.  This will give you a head start on the cooking process, although it is not crucial.   Put the drained (or dry if you did not soak) farro in a pot and cover by a couple of inches with water and a good pinch of kosher salt.  Bring to a boil.  Lower the heat to a simmer and put the top on, stirring occasionally.  Non soaked farro takes about 30 minutes for an al dente taste.  If you soak it first, plan to cook it about 20 minutes.  Drain the farro and stop the cooking process by putting it under cold water until cooled.  It is ready to pop into a green salad, or use it for many farro salad recipes. 

In class, we made a farro "soup" with red wine, chicken sausage and mushrooms.  It was very hearty and when I swirled in truffle oil before serving, it made a very rich and lovely meal for a winter evening.  Please enjoy the soup and some other recipes I recommend:

Farro Soup with Sausage and Mushrooms by The Family Table

This is really delicious.  Perfect to accompany a simple seared or grilled filet of fish.

Warm Farro and Roasted Vegetable Salad with Fontina by The Family Table

This is a nice hearty vegetarian meal.  Easy to make a big pot of and freeze the unused part.  I like to freeze my soups and stew in ziploc freezer bags labeled with the name and freezing date.  I am looking into freezing things in quart wide mouthed canning jars.  Thinking that is an improvement as it elminates the plastic component and makes for easy defrosting in a hot water bath.  Often when I defrost ziploc bags in warm water, I spring a leak.  Let me know if anyone has any tips on can freezing.

Farro and Lentil Chili by The Family Table

Additionally, following please find some farro recipes that I have not yet tried but am hoping to soon.  Let me know what you think if you get inspired to try them out.

Farro and herbs salad, a lunch salad or good with maybe seared salmon or chicken:
http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/farro-herbs-recipe.html

A crisp, nice salad:
http://honestfare.com/bean-farro-salad-with-cilantro-apple-dressing/


And lastly, before i lose your attention:
http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipe/warm-farro-pilaf-with-dried-cranberries/

A great article on farro, including a very good risotto recipe.  I added some shredded chicken thighs, mushrooms and spinach to my farrotto and topped with some cheese and truffle oil, it was delicious:
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2011/01/fresh-recipes-with-an-ancient-grain-4-ways-to-prepare-farro/69313/

fall session: quinoa

The Family Table's fall season has started!  

(We always start with a breakfast treat and a cup of coffee.  These are quinoa carrot muffins.)

The focus of this session is grains: quinoa, farro, bulgar and barley specifically.  Last week, I gathered with five others to talk, chop, saute and share, while focusing on the taste and versatility of quinoa. Quinoa is a complete protein.  Excellent for vegetarian diets looking to maximize protein in their diets.  Quinoa actually dates back some 3-4,000 years to the Andes mountains.  It is high in amino acids, calcium, iron, magnesium and fiber.  It comes in white, red, black and rainbow.

How to Boil Quinoa:

• Rinse the quinoa, then put it in a pot (if you buy "pre-rinsed quinoa you can skip the rinsing step)
• Top the quinoa with water, covering by a couple inches.  Salt.
• Bring to a boil.
• Turn the heat down to a simmer, cover the pot.
• Cook until it is to your liking.  This usually takes about 20-25 minutes, you will see the "curlicue" emmerge from the grain.  Test it, it is done when it is soft.
• Drain the excess water out.

At this point you can use your quinoa for salad recipes, or as a side.  Mark Bittman suggests some great mix-ins in "The Food Matters Cookbook": olive oil, butter, any flavor pestos, fresh chopped herbs, dried fruits, sauteed mushrooms, onions, garlic, assorted spices such as cumin, coriander, chiles, saffron, turmeric, whatever you have on hand that you love.

How to Steam Quinoa:

(method thanks to Ellen King)

• Rinse the quinoa, then put it in a pot (if you buy "pre-rinsed quinoa you can skip the rinsing step)
• Top the quinoa with 1 1/3 the amount of water as quinoa (ie. 1 C. quinoa, 1 1/3 C. water).  Salt.
• Bring to a boil. Boil for about 3 minutes. 
• Cover the pot, turn off the heat and let steam for about 20 minutes.
• The quinoa is ready to use, no draining needed.

Cook a whole box.  Eat what you need and then make quart ziploc bags of the remaining and freeze.  Remember it is there, and then take it out and use as an accompaniment to stews, mix in for soups, use in a stirfry, the list goes on...

We made Quinoa Cakes, adapted from a wonderful nutritional vegetarian blog, 101 Cookbooks.

These are really tasty, satisfying vegetarians and carnivores alike (they make people think they are crab cakes).  In class, we cooked them up, made a simple marinara sauce with sauteed eggplant, then grated smoked mozzarella cheese for the top.  We did learn that it is best to saute them right before eating, they do not heat up well (texture suffers).  Once they are in patties, you can keep them in the fridge until saute time, or put them in the freezer for a future quinoa meal.  Just take them out to defrost the morning you plan to serve them.

Quinoa Cakes by The Family Table

Then we made a delicious composed quinoa salad with chicken, dried cranberries, cumin, lime juice carrots and greens. 

Chicken, Quinoa and Dried Cranberry Salad by The Family Table

And another yummy quinoa salad with cucumbers, chickpeas, spinach, mint, feta and a smoked paprika dressing.  I had never used smoked paprika.  It is such a lovely and rich spice (available at the Evanston Spice House). Quinoa is so versatile.

Quinoa, Chickpea and Spinach Salad With Smoked Paprika Dressing by The Family Table