Mom’s Spaghetti Sauce

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I’ve always been a firm believer in pork cuts in a tomato sauce. It adds an unbelievable richness and depth of flavor that cannot be attained with simply beef. But, to make a proper “gravy”, it’s an all day process. Browning the sausage, beef, and pork. Sauteing the onions and tomato paste, reducing down the sauce for-ever. Delicious, but time consuming.

My mom always made spaghetti sauce to use up leftover ham. Apparently, her mother opted to use ham in her sauce as well. It’s delicious, easy, and a change of pace from your run-of-the-mill spaghetti sauce using ground beef. Since I’ve got a house full of boys, I opt to add ham as well as ground beef. But, feel free to make the recipe using exclusively ham. Great way to use up those Easter leftovers!

Mom’s Spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked ham, diced
1 lb ground sirloin
1/2 medium onion, diced
4-6 mushrooms, sliced and chopped
1/2 green pepper, diced
1 large jar marinara sauce (3 cups)
1/3 cup white wine
olive oil
kosher salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the diced ham, and saute for several minutes, until starting to brown. Remove from pan and set aside. In the same pan, brown the ground beef until nice and dark brown. Drain grease and remove ground beef, setting aside with the ham. Add more olive oil to the saucepan, and saute the pepper, onion, and mushrooms until starting to soften. Add the jar of marinara, the white wine, as well as the ham and ground beef; stir to combine.

Reduce heat to low, and simmer for an hour, stirring several times. Serve with a crisp green salad, and crusty garlic bread (recipe to follow tomorrow!).

Maryland Crab Soup

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It’s springtime here on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and that means that crabs are starting to come back into season. Crab soup traditionally comes in two varieties; Cream of crab – a, well, cream based soup. And, Maryland crab – a tomato based soup. My husband is a fan of the Cream, where I am a Maryland kind of gal.

This recipe is for the tomato based soup, and it’s wonderful. A little heat from the old bay, lots of flavor from the crab meat, and tons of veggies! My 3 year old loves it. I always find that soup is a good way to get anything I want to into him!

On another note, we have a new addition to the family. I’m such a horribly slack blogger, you would think I would have posted something earlier…but time is just running away with me these days! So, without further adieu, this is William or “Will” for short. He was born December 19th, and was a hefty 10 lbs at birth. He’s now going on 5 months, and is close to weighing 20 lbs. He is a beast! While Andrew is a carbon-copy of Jon, I think I’ve finally got one that resembles me now. He’s such a sweet and happy baby boy, we are truly blessed!

Okay, back to the soup. It makes a relatively large batch. But, leftovers freeze well. I like to make my own seafood stock with various shells that I leftover from seafood. Crab, shrimp, lobster – all cook down to make a beautiful stock. If you don’t have any of those things available though, try substituting bottled clam juice. I think it would be just as good!

Maryland Crab Soup

2 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 cup frozen lima beans
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1 cup sliced carrots
large handful of green beans, chopped
1 small onion, diced
1 stalk celery, thinly sliced
1 large potato, peeled and diced
1 tablespoon Old Bay Seasoning
2 cups beef broth
2 cups seafood stock
1 pound crab meat, picked clean for shells
2 cups water
1 tbsp olive oil
kosher salt and black pepper

Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat for 2 minutes. Add onion, celery, and carrot and saute for a couple minutes, until tender. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a large dutch oven, bring beef broth, seafood stock, and water to a boil. Add the sauteed vegetables, as well as the corn, lima beans, tomatoes, potato, and green beans. Reduce heat to low, and simmer covered for about 30 minutes.

Add the crab meat and stir gently to combine. Simmer for another 30 minutes.

Taste and season with salt and pepper, and more Old Bay if you like before serving. 

Pot Roast with Stout Gravy

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Allow me to introduce you to this recipe. We go way back. I first stumbled upon it when browsing The Spice House’s website (which is owned by Bill Penzey’s sister. They’re just a whole family chock full of spice tycoons, I tell ya). At the time, St. Patrick’s Day was right around the corner. I’m not a huge fan of corned beef, unless it’s in hash form. The recipe called for Guinness to be used, so I though it would be a festive alternative to the traditional corned beef and cabbage. I was right, it was a huge hit. I went out with some girlfriends that evening, and when I returned…it had all been consumed by the husband.  And make no mistakes folks, it was a large roast.

Needless to say, it since became my standard pot roast recipe. So much more flavor that your  standard Crock-Pot variety pot roast. Not only that, but I feel like it’s been improved upon by trying out different beers. I had heard wonderful things about coffee-braised pot roasts. So, I thought it would be very interesting to combine the two. Again, boy was I right!

We have  2 oh-so-wonderful local breweries in my area (hey – we don’t have much, but we’ve got good beer by God!). Both happen to make wonderful, rich dark stouts that use coffee in the brewing process. The first is Dogfish Head’s Chicory Stout. If you haven’t heard about DogFish, and like beer, do yourself a favor and try something out. You can find them nationwide, if you look hard enough. The second is Evolution Brewing Company’s Rise Up Stout.  “Evo” started  up about a year or so ago, right here on the Eastern Shore, and have been putting out wonderful craft beers. Chances are if you don’t live in the Chesapeake area, you won’t find them. But, by all means, get out there and explore the beer coolers at your local stores. Lots of great microbreweries are springing up all over the place. I’m sure you could find something near you that is equally as wonderful!

I don’t list potatoes in the recipe, but feel free to add them in with the rest of the other veggies. I usually use red potatoes that I’ve halved.  However, it’s wonderful with mashed potatoes too. You want as much of the gravy as you can get, folks. Enjoy this recipe, I promise you that you won’t miss that corned beef a bit!

Pot Roast with Stout Gravy

1 3-4 pound chuck roast

2 cups beef broth

16 oz of dark-colored stout

2 medium onions, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

4 carrots, peeled and sliced into 2″ pieces

1 small head of cabbage, cut into wedges

2 tbsp olive oil

kosher salt

black pepper

3 tbsp cold water

2 tbsp cornstarch

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Season beef generously with salt and pepper. Heat oil in large dutch oven over medium-high heat for 2 minutes.  Place roast in pan, and sear well on both sides until nice and brown. Remove roast to plate and set aside. Add onions to the dutch oven and cook, stirring often, until the onions are starting to brown on the outsides. About 4 minutes. Add garlic and cook for an additional minute. Add the beef stock to the pan, then slide the beef into the stock. Cover, and cook for 1 hour.

Reduce oven temperature to 350. Remove the roast from the oven, add the stout, re-cover, and cook for an additional 1 hour 15 minutes.  Remove roast again, add the vegetables and re-cover. Cook for an additional 45 minutes.

To make the gravy, remove the roast (and, it will be falling apart!) and place on a platter. Then, remove the various vegetables and arrange them on the platter as well. Cover it with aluminum foil to keep warm while you make the gravy. Using a fine mesh strainer, pour the braising liquid into a medium saucepan. Combine the cornstarch and the cold water in a small dish, then add to the gravy. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the cornstarch works it’s magic and the gravy thickens.

You can try to slice the pot roast, but I just like to use two forks to pull it apart into large chunks. Whatever floats your boat, though!

Source: adapted from The Spice House

Cashew Chicken

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cashewchicken

I’ve always been a fan of stir-fries. Crisp veggies, tender strips of various proteins, savory sauces, rice – the perfect one dish meal. I came across this recipe when browsing old issues of Cook’s Country Magazine. I love their recipes because they are usually very easy. Wonderful on those nights when you just don’t feel like cooking!

I’ve always got a cache of boneless skinless chicken breasts, and we adore snow peas in this house…so I knew this one would be a winner.

On another note – can anyone believe it’s November already? This year has just flown by. I’ve signed up for a cooking class at the local community college. I have to wear a chefs jacket and hat – it’s so much fun! It is an International Cuisine course. This semester is mainly focusing on Asian and Caribbean cuisine. I have another 3 weeks of class, and I’m looking forward to signing up for another in the spring. Hoping to make a few “foodie” friends in the area. Not many of my friends really enjoy cooking, so I’d certainly like to find some who do!

Anywho, enjoy the cashew chicken. Really was a great dinner!

Cashew Chicken

Serves 4

Marinade and Sauce

1/2 cup mirin

6 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp + 2 tsp toasted sesame oil

2 tbsp + 4 tsp cornstarch

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 cup low-sodium chicken broth

3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Stir-Fry

2 tbsp vegetable oil

8 oz snow peas, halved crosswise

1 tbsp grated fresh ginger

6 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1 (8 0z) can whole water chestnuts, drained and sliced

1 cup toasted cashews, half of them roughly chopped

1. Whisk 3 tbsp mirin, 3 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp sesame oil, and 2 tbsp cornstarch in large bowl. Add chicken and toss to coat. Refrigerate, covered, for at least 30 minutes or up to 2 hours.

2. Whisk broth, Worcestershire, remaining mirin, remaining soy sauce, remaining sesame oil, and remaining cornstarch in separate bowl and set aside.

3. Remove chicken from marinade and pat dry with paper towels. Heat 2 tsp vegetable oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Brown half of the chicken, stirring occasionally, until no longer pink, about 4 minutes. Transfer chicken to plate. Repeat with additional 2 tsp oil and remaining chicken.

4. Add remaining vegetable oil to empty skillet and heat over medium-high heat until shimmering. Cook snow peas until bright green, about 1 minute. Add ginger, garlic, and pepper flakes to pan and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in water chestnuts and reserved broth mixture and cook, stirring constantly, until sauce is thickened, about 2 minutes. Return chicken, along with any accumulated juices, to skillet and cook until heated through, about 1 minute. Remove from heat, stir in cashews. Serve.