spring session: chicken, mushroom, spinach lasagne with fontina cheese

Love this chicken, mushroom, spinach lasagne with fontina cheese.  It is not a light dish, but with a salad on the side, is a really nice EARLY spring supper.

You can make it in the morning or the day before and then keep it in the fridge until you are ready for it.  Pop it in the oven for 40 minutes and dinner is ready.

Chicken Fontina and Mushroom Lasagne by The Family Table

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: beans, white bean and escarole soup

Today in family table cooking we made beans.  A lot of them.  A lot of different ways.  I cooked pinto beans 3 ways: in the crock pot, over night for 7 hours on low; in the pressure cooker for 3 minutes after coming to full pressure (then letting natural release happen for 15 minutes after); and in a plain old pot, for about 1 1/2 hours at a simmer.  Conclusion: pick the method that fits with your personality.  Planning ahead and cooking in a crock pot is not for everyone, more for advanced thinking people.  Using the slightly scary pressure cooker is also not for everyone, you have to follow timing and directions very precisely and have to trust the times as you can't look and stir.  Maybe the good old fashioned pot cooking is a happy medium, although you have to be home for the time it cooks to test bean doneness.


We also made bean burgers.  You can make them with any type of bean, add any type of herbs, but here is the  basic recipe to launch from:

1 1/2 C cooked beans of choice
1 1/2 egg
1/2 C chopped herb of choice
1/4 C grated cheese of choice (parmesan, gryuere, combo of two)
2 tsp. dijon mustard
salt, pepper
squeeze of lemon juice
3/4 C breadcrumbs, mix of fine and panko
panko breadcrumbs for dusting patties with

Mash the beans with a potato masher or fork.  Add in egg, herb, cheese, salt, pepper and lemon squeeze, mix.  Add bread crumbs and test for consistency, adding more breadcrumbs or lemon juice to make it drier or wetter.  Shape into patties, dip into a bowl of panko to coat.  Put in fridge until ready to saute or put in the freezer if you are planning to eat them later.  When ready to cook, heat up a couple of Tbl olive oil, get the pan and oil hot, add in the cakes and brown on both sides.  Remove to a cookie sheet and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes at 325.  Serve on a bed of greens with a squeeze of lemon and mashed avocado relish.

I had a very hard time choosing the recipes and the bean types, there are so many good ones around.  I am going to attach a lot of links to some great recipes, so anyone wanting to have a bean bonanza can have fun.

Herbed White Bean and Sausage Stew

Giant Lima Beans with Stewed Tomatoes and Oregano Pesto

Giant Lemon Fennel Beans

Giant Crusty and Creamy White Beans

Porotos Granados
(yummy Chilean bean soup with winter squash, green beans, corn and smoked paprika)

Enjoy this recipe for White Bean and Escarole Soup

TFT, SOUP Cannellini Bean and Escarole

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

fall session: coq au vin

Coq au Vin is not as complicated as people anticipate. I think it is just the fancy name that throws them: "Coq au Vin". No one says "old chicken in wine", who really would want to eat old chicken in wine? Yet the name "Coq au Vin" evokes parisian bistros, waiters with long aprons, beaujolais nouveau and chocolate mousse (or it does to me).

Coq au Vin is perfect served for a fall dinner with buttered egg noodles, a simple green salad and crusty bread to lap up the sauces.  And, like all braises, make extra as it even tastier the day after.  Bon appetit.

The Green City Farmer's market was the perfect place to buy the lovely cippolini onions, the multi-colored carrots, the fresh grown celery and garlic and all the lovely wild and button mushrooms.

This was slab bacon from Fresh Farms in Morton Grove.  It was fantastic.  It added a smoky flavor and was so tender.

Coq Au Vin by The Family Table

in the garden: spinach

The spinach came up in droves this year.  The beds were covered with cold frames and underneath the mountains of snow was spinach, hibernating, readying itself for a great spring arrival.  One of the coldest winters in the Chicagoland area, it was a huge surprise to see such beautiful plants emmerging.

We have a mixture of spinaches: bordeaux, a red veined type; a flat leaf spinach; and bloomsbury, a ruffled variety.  All of them taste great as a salad or sauteed simply and quickly in olive oil with salt and pepper (sauteed shallots or onions and fresh lemon juice can also add a lot).  The spinach is magic as the more you pick, the more it grows.

I have been cooking it weekly at Mary Lou's place.  Some tasty recipes are linked below.

Lemon Couscous Salad with Spinach and Dill:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Lemon-Couscous-Salad-with-Spinach-Scallions-and-Dill-11838

Spinach Quiche
http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2008/09/spinach-quiche-revisited/

Wilted Spinach Salad with a Burst Tomato Vinaigrette
http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/wilted-spinach-salad-burst-tomato-vinaigrette.aspx

Asparagus, Tofu and Spinach Stirfry
I add many other vegetables to this, delicious, my go to healthy dinner recipe.  A crowd pleaser
http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/asparagus-stirfry-recipe.html

split pea soup with ham

Split peas.  So simple, so inexpensive, so good for you.  A member of the legume family, split peas are a really great source of fiber: which helps lower cholesterol and maintains even blood sugar balance.  They are also a good source of protein and have potassium and B vitamins. 

This recipe has some smoked ham in it, which does add a rich smoky flavor.  But feel free to sub in onions and fennel instead for increased vegetable flavor.

Split Pea and Smoked Ham Soup by The Family Table

winter soup session: mushroom soup

I feel sure that anyone my generation grew up with a memory of Campbell's creamy mushroom soup.  Or their moms used it in a three ingredient casserole.  Well this recipe brought me back, I had a visceral deja vu of that taste.  However, this soup is made from fresh yummy mushrooms, homemade stock with just a hint of mascarpone cheese swirled in for creaminess. 

Mushroom Soup by The Family Table

winter soup session: fennel and celery root

Who would have thought that this:

Would turn into this (with the help of 5 women peeling and zesting and chopping):

As I did my research on these vegetables, I found that both celery root and fennel are in the same family as carrots.  Celery root is full of Vitamins B and C, and potassium.  It lacks the sweetness that its cousins, carrots and parsnips, have and thus is low in carbohydrates.  It fills you up, but is very low in calories.  Fennel is full of anti-oxidants, is anti-inflammatory, has Vitamin C, potassium and folate.  They mix nicely together, as veggies in the same family do.  This soup is very easy and very filling.

We made it with these spicy cheddar shortbread crackers (featured in the lower left corner of the picture).  They were delicious, and with a food processor, they took no time to make:

http://food52.com/blog/7049-mark-bittman-s-spicy-cheddar-shortbread


Fennel and Celery Root Soup by The Family Table

winter soup session: cauliflower soup with coconut, curry and lime

Cauliflower, yum. 

My favorite way to eat cauliflower is roasting, and it is so simple.   Quick instructions:  cut the cauliflower head into florets, toss in olive oil, dust with salt and pepper and put on a pyrex glass pan or a cookie sheet.   Place in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes, or until starting to brown and caramelize.  Eat.

For a little change of pace, this curried cauliflower soup is simple, fast and delicious.  Aside from the benefits of cauliflower, this recipe has turmeric which has huge medicinal properties: anti-inflammatory; helps give relief to arthritis; helps to prevent colon and prostate cancer; helps to reduce polyps in the colon; lowers cholesterol; protects against alzheimer's.
Truly "magical" perks.

Enjoy.  I made a pot of rice and enjoyed my curry soup with sauteed zucchini and the rice.

Cauliflower Soup with Curry, Coconut and Cilantro by The Family Table

winter soup session: ribollita

"Ribollita" means "reboiled" in Italian.  Typically, as a family would continue to eat their minestrone day after day, it would get to be more liquids than solids as people would favor the beans and vegetables over the liquid.  To thicken it up, cubes of stale bread would be added to the soup.  A new meal was created.

To make ribollita, canned beans can be used (healthy tip: if you rinse well your canned beans you can decrease the salt in them by 50%).  However, it is yummier and healthier to use your own simmered beans.  And on a wintery day in Chicago, bubbling beans is a great zen activity, it feels satisfying. Once your beans are cooked, you can put them in a tupperware, or a baggie and freeze them until you are ready to make soup.

Ribolitta can be made with any vegetables you have on hand.  I give you the recipe for what I used, but feel free to use what is on hand.  Any fresh vegetables will make a delicious soup.  Although greens of some sort are a necessity.

Ribollita Soup 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

spring session: pork pot roast with root vegetables

The last spring class...pork pot roast.  This is a recipe I have used for both the dutch over and a crock pot.  Both ways come out nice and succulent, falling apart.  You can use any root vegetable here.  I added celery root, but I think turnips or sweet potatoes would also be delicious.

Enjoy.

Braised Pork Pot Roast by The Family Table

To go along with the pork, we made a quinoa salad, with orange zest, dried cherries, pine nuts and fennel.  See my last posting for the recipe with israeli couscous.  I like it better with the couscous (especially as I overcooked the quinoa in class!)