Time for Stew-Dijon chicken Stew with Potatoes and Kale

Everyone in other parts of the country think us Minnesotans must hunker down and stay in all winter long.  Not true.  We have some wonderful crisp beautiful days in during the winter.  Yesterday was not one of them.  It was damp and rainy/icy all day.  It was a good day for a stew.

Before I found "America's Test Kitchen," there was "Cooking Light's Annual Recipes".  These are great cookbooks that have a huge variety of recipes from typical American fair like chili to unusual, but tasty things like Peach Souffle or Tempeh Ratatouille.  They also have mini "classes" that help you understand why certain steps or ingredients are needed.  I have 5 of their cookbooks, my first was 2002.  I highly recommend them.  Check out the cookbook section at Half Price Books.  If you pick one up, let me know.  If I have that one, I'll pass on the recipes I've tried.

This recipe is from 2007.  The mini class was on stews. Some of the tips they talked about are basic and simple, but as a whole they add a lot.  Saute the aromatics such as leeks and garlic.  The brown caramelization will add a lot of flavor.  Dredging in flour adds a tasty crust to outside of the meat, while the flour helps build a roux for a thick sauce.  This goes hand in hand with searing the meat.  You want to add flavor, but not cook the meat at this time.  The brown bits in the bottom of the pan are delicious, but make sure they don't burn.  You'll deglaze the pan with wine or broth.  Also, I highly recommend investing in a good Dutch oven if you haven't all ready.  I love mine and us it all the time.

Have you cooked with leeks before?  They grow up from the ground and have many layers.  These layers trap dirt.  Here is an easy way to clean them.  Cut off the green parts and discard. Take the remaining stalk and halve it lengthwise.  Halve it again.  Then cut them in slices.  float the slices in cool water.  Swish around to clean.  Let then sit and let the grit settle to the bottom of the bowl.  Gently scoop out the slices and dry on paper towel.

I was surprised that the dijon in the recipe added so much flavor.  Make sure to use it.  Philly doesn't like mustard and I don't think he knew it was in there.  They recommend white potatoes (not bakers).  These are waxier and will hold up.  I couldn't find white potatoes, so you could substitute red.  It calls for thighs and breasts.  I'd probably just use breasts next time.  When you brown your meat, do it in batches.  You want there to be room to brown and not steam,  Serve this with some hearty bread and you have yourself a delicious dinner.  This is one of those meals that is even better the next day.  It also freezes great.  So, you can have a quick weeknight meal.  It makes 6 1 1/2 cup servings.

Dijon Chicken Stew with Potatoes and Kale

4 tsp olive oil, divided (I used more)
2 cups sliced leeks
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 c flour
1 lb skinless boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 lb skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 tsp salt, divided
1/2 tsp pepper, divided
1 c dry white wine
3 c fat-free, less sodium chicken broth, divided
1 T flour
1 1/2 c water 2 T Dijon mustard
2 c (1/2 inch) cubed, peeled white potato (about 1 lb)
8 cups loosely packed torn kale
crushed red pepper (optional)

1.  Heat 1 tsp olive oil in Dutch over over medium-high heat.  Add leek, saute 6 minutes or until tender and golden brown.  Add garlic, saute 1 minute (don't burn).  Remove and place in a large bowl.
2.  Place 1/3 cup flour in a shallow bowl.  Dredge chicken and shake off excess.  Heat remaining olive oil at medium high heat.  Add half of the chicken mixture, sprinkle with 1/8 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper. Cook 6 minutes, browning on all sides.  Remove and put in bowl with leeks.  Repeat with remaining chicken, 1/8 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper. .  (add more oil if needed).  Remove.
3.  Add wine to pan and deglaze.  Combine 1 c of broth with 1 T flour.  Whisk until smooth.  Add broth mixture and remaining 2 cup of broth, water and mustard to pan.  Bring to a boil  Add chicken mixture, remaining 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes.
4.  Stir in potatoes.  Cover and simmer 20-30 minutes.
5.  Stir in kale.  Cover and simmer 10 minutes.
6.  Serve.  Garnish with red pepper flakes if desired.

I forgot about this one...Yummy Pork Chops

I'm helping out and going into work a little later today.  It is snowy and cold, the perfect time to blog, but what to blog about????  I wanted to post a new recipe last Sunday.  I tried "Quick and Elegant Chicken" from my old Dayton's Potluck cookbook.  I guess it was quick, but way far from elegant.  It was gross and that is putting it mildly.  You would think if you took chicken breast and cooked it in a bunch of fattening things and added almonds it would be delicious.  Well, I was wrong.  Live and learn.  I have X'd it in my cookbook and added "yuck".

That cookbook does have a lot of good recipes that both my mom and I have tried.  Most of these don't require a lot of fuss and use common ingredients.  I was paging through and ran across a recipe I haven't made for awhile.  As a matter of fact, I think I'm going to make it this weekend.  I find that I use the word yum or yummy in a lot of my posts.    However this one is actually called "Yummy Pork Chops".

I learned a trick from "America's Test Kitchen" to keeping your pork chops flat while they cook.  Before you cook them, take a knife and make a couple of shallow slices along the curved side (the one with the rim of fat).  These slices should be perpendicular to the slices of the pork chop.  It works every time.

Yummy Pork Chops

3/4 to 1 T dried sage
1 tsp salt (don't need, but if you do use this, use low salt soup)
Dash of pepper
4-6 pork chops
vegetable oil
2 medium onions, sliced
10 3/4 oz can condensed potato soup + ~ 1/2 can of water
1 C sour cream (sour lean or light sour cream works just fine)
Chopped fresh parsley (optional)

In a small bowl, combine sage, pepper and salt (if using).  Rub mixture into chops.  In a a large skillet, brown the chops lightly in a small amount of oil.  Drain.  Add onions and soup.  cover and simmer 30 minutes (longer if you are using thick chops).  Spoon sour cream over chops.  Simmer uncovered 8-10 minutes or until chops are very tender.  Sprinkle with parsley.

A really good lasagna

I know a lot of people probably already have a great lasagna recipe.  I know it isn't rocket science, but mine has never been one to write home about.  So, when Philly wanted lasagna for his birthday dinner this year, I decided I'd better find a new recipe.  My "go to" cookbooks are "America's Test Kitchen" and "Cook's Country".   This recipe is found in both of them.  I used that recipe for my base, but modified it a bit.  I'm just going to post my modified version.  One of the things I noticed was that ricotta came in 15 oz package.  Not quite 2 cups.  So, I just added a bit of cottage cheese.

I also want to add that Philly requested a meat sauce that included sausage.  Now I hate sausage and I hate sausage in Italian food.  Well, for his birthday, I made the sacrifice.  I thought I'll just eat a little.  I used a pound of spicy Italian sausage from Cub (found in meat dept., without casings).  I made sure I broke it up into small pieces during the cooking process. I thought I could tolerate it better that way.  Well, I'm telling you, this recipe was delicious.  Now, was the heavy cream in the sauce or was it the 4+ cups of the cheese that mellowed the sausage flavor?  I don't know, but I loved it.  As far as Philly is concerned, the more cheese the better.

This was my first time using the no boil lasagna noodles.  I'm not sure if you can use those and make this recipe the night before????  This time I made my sauce the night before and then just assembled the lasagna the night of.  It would be worth a try to make it all the night before.  The no boil noodles are a little bit more expensive.  I might even try it with regular noodles, but not boil those.  Sounds like we'll be eating a lot of lasagna in our future.

We'll call this one....

Philly's Meat Lasagna

Sauce
1 T olive oil
1 onion minced
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 lb of spicy Italian sausage, without casings
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 c heavy cream
1 (28 oz.) can tomato puree
1 (28 oz.) can diced tomatoes
some Italian seasoning

Layers
2 c. whole-milk or part-skim milk ricotta cheese
+ a little cottage cheese (a couple of oz)
1 1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
~1/2 T dried basil
1 large egg lightly beaten
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 pkgs no boil lasagna noodles.
4 c shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Adjust oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2.  For the sauce-  Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat.  Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, but not browned, about 2 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds (careful not to burn).  Add the ground meat, salt and pepper; cook, breaking up the meat into little pieces.  Cook until it loses its raw color but has not browned.  Temper the cream and then add to the meat; bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid evaporates and only the fat remains, about 4 minutes.  Add the tomato puree, diced tomatoes and Italian seasoning; bring to a slow simmer and cook until the flavors are blended, about 3 minutes.  Set aside.

3.  Cheese mixture: Mix the ricotta and cottage cheeses, 1 c of the Parmesan, basil, egg, salt and pepper together.  Set aside.

4. Assembly:  Smear the entire bottom of a 13" x 9" baking dish with 1/4+ of the meat sauce (avoiding large chunks of meat).  Arrange a layer of noodles over the sauce.  Break some of them to fill in the ends.  Drop 3 T of the cheese on each full noodle and some more on the broken noodles.  Smear the cheese over the noodle layer.  Sprinkle with 1 c of the mozzarella.  Spoon 1 1/2 c of the meat sauce evenly over the cheese.  Repeat the layering of the noodles, ricotta mixture, mozzarella and sauce twice more.  Top these layers with another layer of noodles.  spread the remaining sauce over these.  Sprinkle with the remaining mozzarella and the the remaining 1/4 c Parmesan.

5.  Lightly spray a large sheet of aluminum foil with vegetable oil spray and cover the lasagna.  Bake for 15 minutes, then remove the foil.  Return the lasagna to the oven and continue to bake until the cheese is spotty brown and the sauce is bubbling, about 25 minutes longer.  Cooking time will be longer if the lasagna has been refrigerated.   Let stand 10 minutes before serving.