Lamb and Mushroom Shepherd’s Pie – On thrifty splurges…

Tags

cremini mushrooms, lamb, leftover mashed potatoes, mashed potatoes, mushrooms, one pot, Shepherd's Pie, stew

Perfect for a chilly day.

Just because you’re trying to save money at the grocery store, doesn’t mean that you have to live on just rice and beans your whole life. Every now and then you have to treat yourself to a little something-something.

If there’s a good deal on a more ‘luxury’ ingredient, snatch it up and make yourself something nice! I found a good deal on ground lamb for just $3.98 per lb as it approached it’s ‘sell-by’ date and I’m going to turn it into two yummy meals. It seems like my fireman was on the same page as me, because when he took a trip down the hill and visited a farmer’s market with his folks he found a good price on some nice cremini mushrooms. With some extra mashed potatoes leftover in the fridge, that seemed like the perfect storm for a nice shepherd’s pie.

What a pretty bag of funghi!

When you think about it, so many of our most beloved dishes were made to stretch out a little bit of something expensive or fancy.  Savory pies, every sort of dumpling under the sun, most soups, stuffed pastas, satays…  Just like every thrifty person since the dawn of time has figured out, if you can pick a dish that economically utilizes a more expensive ingredient, you can get a better bang for your buck.

This dish costs more than my usual dinner-fare, but I think it’s a really great value for the high quality ingredients. A splurge on fancy ingredients doesn’t hit so hard when you know you got a good deal; I think it makes it taste even better.

Lamb and Mushroom Shepherd’s Pie

Serves 2 – 4 – cost approx $2.20 per serving

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb gr lamb ($1.99)
• 2 cups cremini mushrooms, caps quartered and stems small dice ($2.50)
• 1 onion, small dice ($.25)
• 2 carrots, small dice ($.18)
• 2 ribs celery, small dice ($.10)
• 4 Tbs/ 1/2 stick butter ($.37)
• 1/2 tsp dry thyme
• 2 Tbs tomato paste ($.05)
• 2 Tbs flour
• 1/2 cup red wine ($.15)
• 2 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup stock – doesn’t matter, vegetable or meat stock will be just fine
• 2 Tbs minced parsley (optional)

• 4 cups leftover mashed potatoes ($.75)
• 2 Tbs parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  In an oven safe large pan or pot brown the lamb, seasoning with salt and pepper. Remove meat, leaving the fat in the pan. Sear caps, over medium high heat and season with salt and pepper 8-10 min. Trust me! Get them nice and brown, only stir it a few times to get them happy and browned up.

Reduce the heat to medium and add in the butter, minced onion, carrot, celery, and mushroom stems and then sauté 5 minutes. Return the meat to the pan and cook 5 minutes more. Add the tomato paste and flour, cook 3 minutes.  Add in the wine, Worcestershire sauce and cook 2 minutes, then add in the stock. Simmer for 10 minutes. Taste to check the seasonings and add salt or black pepper if needed. Finish the lamb stew with the parsley.

Saucy goodness

Top with the mashed potatoes and sprinkle with the parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

Caribbean Lentil Stew with Jasmine Rice and Roti – The Lentil Adventure Continues!

Tags

caribbean, lentil, stew, vegetarian

As I stare at that huge box of lentils, I have challenged myself to make at least one lentil dish every week.  Hopefully, if I keep it up the lentils will be gone by the end of the year…  Seriously, there’s so many!

This one was a winner, my fireman liked it and my lovely Mother In Law really liked the leftovers he brought over during a visit.  I thought it was quite tasty for that matter too.  I love the exciting flavors of Caribbean food that came from the mixing of African, Indian and European cooking styles using American ingredients.  It’s also quite convenient that most of the spices necessary for creating some magical Caribbean flavors are probably already in your pantry.  (If not they’re in your regular grocery store) Also, serving this lentil stew with rice and flatbread really stretched out a little bag of lentils into a big meal with tons of leftovers.

Caribbean Lentil Stew– served with jasmine rice and roti (whole wheat flatbreads)

Serves 6-8 – cost approx $.53 per serving per serving, including sides

Ingredients

• 2 Tbs vegetable oil
• 3-5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbs ginger, minced
• 1 small onion, small dice ($.37)
• 2 carrots, small dice ($.10)
• 1/2 bell pepper, small dice ($.50)

• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp corriander
• cayenne pepper, to taste
• 1 tsp tumeric
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp garam masala or 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1 inch cinnamon stick or 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 2 cloves
• 1 bay leaf

• 1 lb lentils, soaked in cold water ($1 in most stores)
• 6-8 cups vegetable stock
• cornstarch (optional)
• 1/2 bunch cilantro, minced ($.25)

Heat the vegetable oil over medium heat in a large pot.  Saute the garlic and ginger 30 seconds or until wonderfully fragrant.  Add in the onion, carrot and bell pepper and saute another 3-5 minutes.  Add in all the spices (all the ingredients in the second set and saute 1 minute.  Heating the spices helps to bring out all their wonderful flavors!

Add in the lentils and cover with enough vegetable stock to just cover the lentils.  Simmer for 30 minutes or until the lentils are fully cooked, you may have to add more stock if it starts cooking down too much.  If you want it more soupy (and boy would it make a yummy soup!) you can add more stock, if you want a thicker stew you can thicken it up with a little cornstarch slurry, the power is all in your hands.

Taste your wonderful stew and add salt to taste.  Garnish with cilantro and yum it up with rice and or some hot flatbreads!

Gypsy Chickpea Stew with Apricot Rice Pilaf – Another vegan dish that’s good any day of the week!

Tags

apricot, chickpeas, gypsy, rice pilaf, stew, vegan, vegetables, vegetarian

 

As much as I love bacon and cheese (and I do!), I really like having experience cooking vegan dishes and having a few proven-yummy vegan recipes in my back pocket.  These days there are people with every sort of dietary restriction there is, and chances are, someone that you know and love has one.  From people who don’t eat meat for ethical reasons, people with all sorts of allergies and people who have religious restrictions to their diets.  My Soon-to-be-Mother-in-Law belongs to an Orthodox Christian church and requires an almost vegan diet during their period of Lent.  (Luckily, she’s a creative and curious cook that doesn’t mind testing out all sorts of international recipes!)  With a couple of great vegan dishes in your repertoire you can serve everyone you love a dish that they will love.

Chickpeas lend themselves to any sort of cuisine that touches the Mediterranean and I love to keep them around.  I started out wanting to make a Moroccan stewed chickpea dish, but then I started throwing in all sorts of spices and flavors and it came out like something delicious that traveling gypsies would make.  It’s a spicy chickpea and vegetable stew served with a sweet and savory apricot rice pilaf.  It’s got a complicated and rich flavor and it’s dirt cheap, just the way I imagine gypsies would like to have their dinner.  Yum!

Gypsy Chickpea Stew

Serves 4 – cost approx $.80 per serving, including Apricot Rice Pilaf

Ingredients

• 1/2 onion, medium dice ($.12)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 small green bell pepper ($.30)
• 1/2 stalk broccoli, medium dice ($.35)
• 3 carrots, medium dice ($.17)
• 2 Tbs olive oil

• 1 Tbs cumin
• cayenne pepper, to taste
• crushed red pepper, to taste
• 1″ piece cinnamon stick
• 1 Tbs garam masala – it’s an all purpose Indian spice mix, it might lend a different flavor, but you could use any middle eastern spice mix or chili powder as a substitute
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• pinch saffron, literally a few threads, it’s super expensive – tumeric would be an excellent substitute

• 1 can diced tomatoes ($.59)
• 1-2 cups vegetable stock
• 2 Tbs minced parsley ($.12)
• 1 cup dry chickpeas, cooked and drained ($.47) – you could substitute 2 drained cans of chickpeas
• salt, to taste

Start by sauteing all the vegetables in the olive oil over medium heat for approx 10 minutes.  Add in all the spices in the second set of ingredients and cook for 2-3 minutes more.  Add in the remaining ingredients and simmer for 10-15 minutes, uncovered so that the juices reduce.  Taste and adjust the seasonings as necessary.  Serve with Apricot Rice Pilaf, recipe below.

Apricot Rice Pilaf

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 1/2 onion, minced ($.12)
• 1 1/2 oz, approx 6, dried apricots, diced ($0, my fireman saved me the dried fruit that he doesn’t like eating plain from his fire camp lunches because he knows that I can cook with it, he’s so thoughtful of my uber-cheapness!)
• 2 cups long grain rice ($.47)
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• salt
• 1 bay leaf
• margarine, to taste

Start by heating the olive oil in a medium sized pot over medium heat, saute the onion 5-8 minutes or until fully cooked and translucent.  Add in the rice and apricots and cook 2-3 minutes more.

Add in the vegetable stock, salt and bay leaf and bring to a simmer.  Cover the pot and set over low heat for 15-20 minutes.  Fluff the rice with a fork and taste to adjust the seasonings, add margarine and cover and let sit another 5 minutes so that the margarine melts into the rice.  Yum!

Shortcut Cassoulet – French flavors for the poor and busy!

Tags

bacon, cassoulet, chicken, French, stew, thighs, vegetable

I’m super-picky about cooking shows.  I absolutely hate the competition shows and especially ones with ‘tough-love’ angry chefs, but then again, it’s a little too close to my reality to enjoy.  I certainly prefer more relaxed cooking programs and one of my favorites is FoodNetwork’s ’10 Dollar Dinners’ with Melissa D’Arabian, and her ‘Weekday Cassoulet’ was the inspiration for this dish.

I have only had cassoulet a few times (and I have yet to visit France), but from what I understand, it’s that dish that took a French Mom all day to make and her family just adored her for it.  It’s a hearty stew of confit duck, pork, sausage, white beans and vegetables with a bread crumb crust that turns into magic under the hands of the right cook.  My version uses chicken thighs, slow cooked with some of their own fat, to mimic that confit flavor, pared up with the traditional vegetables and herbs.  As much as I would love to use all those exciting meats, they don’t really fit into my budget and there’s plenty of protein and flavor in my take on this stew with the chicken, beans and hint of bacon.

For this dish, my crockpot was the key player, cooking the chicken thighs with the beans while I was busy with my day, imparting that ‘all day-flavor’ with quite minimal effort on my part.  When I was ready to start with dinner, it was just a quick saute followed by a stint in the oven.  As with a traditional cassoulet, my version took a long cooking time, but mine took only a small amount of attention on my part!  Paired with a loaf of rustic bread or baguette, and you have yourself a little taste of the French countryside!

Shortcut Cassoulet – served with ciabatta bread

Serves 4 – cost approx $.90 per serving, including bread

Ingredients

• 1 cup dry white beans or cranberry beans ($.65)
• 2 chicken thighs ($.99)
• 1 tsp dry thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4 cup chicken fat (optional) – I save mine by skimming the fat off the top of my chicken stock.  It’s amazing stuff!

• 3 slices bacon, cut in thin strips ($.47)
• 1 small onion, small dice ($.15)
• 2 carrots, small dice ($.12)
• 2 ribs celery, small dice ($.09)
• 1/2 head garlic, minced – divided use ($.12)
• 1/2 cup white wine ($.25)
• salt and black pepper, to taste

• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 2 Tbs minced parsley
• 2 Tbs olive oil

Start off by halving the chicken thighs, straight through the bone, like a champ!  It’s easy if you have the right tools.  Use poultry shears or go bad-ass-Benihana-chef on it and use a cleaver.  Be sure to be careful and know where your fingers are at all times, both of those instruments are quite powerful, and with great power, comes great responsiblity (to not cut off your digits).  Put your halved chicken thighs and everything else in the first set of ingredients in your slow cooker along with 4 cups of water.  Cook on low for about 6 hours.  You’ll notice that there’s no salt here, that’s on purpose, salting beans while they cook can cause them to get tough.  Also, don’t throw out that cooking liquid, you’ll need to use it later!

When you’re ready to make dinner, preheat your oven to 375F.  Start by cooking the bacon in a dutch oven or large cast iron saute pan.  When the bacon is mostly cooked, add in the onion, carrots, celery and most of the garlic.  (Reserve 1 tsp of minced garlic for a later use.)  Saute the veggies and bacon over medium heat for 10 minutes, or until fully cooked through.  Season with salt and black pepper.  Deglaze the pan with the white wine and cook until it’s almost all the way reduced.  Using a slotted spoon, add the chicken thighs and beans from the slow cooker into the pan with the vegetables.  Next, add some of the flavorful cooking liquid in the slow cooker to the pan of cooking yummies, you want the level of the liquid to be just below the level of your chicken and vegetable mixture.  Pop the whole pan into the oven, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

While the cassoulet is in the oven, mix all ingredients in the last set, plus the reserved minced garlic, to make the bread crumb mixture that tops the dish.

Pull out the cassoulet, and set it on a your range or a hot-pad for a moment.  Poke at it with a spoon and smash up some of the beans to make the stew liquid thick and hearty.  If necessary, add some more of that reserved cooking liquid to bring the liquid level to just below the level of all the goodies.  Sprinkle the bread crumb mix over the top and bake another 15 minutes.  Viola!  Now you’re ready to eat!

Pasta con Ceci Stufati – I’m taking on ‘Meatless Mondays!’

Tags

ceci, chickpeas, pasta, stew, Tuscan, vegan, vegetarian

If you think about human evolution, until quite recently, meat was never a regular component of our diets.  Our ‘hunter-gatherer’ ancestors ate seasonal fruit and veggies and gorged themselves on meat whenever the hunters were successful (which, I think, was less often than we all imagine).  Our agrarian ancestors in Mesopotamian cities or pastoral Ancient Greece had domesticated livestock but they had to make stretch out amongst very large families or was eaten only on special occasions.

Basically, only modern, first-world humans think that it’s normal to have a 16oz rib eye for dinner most nights of the week.  And even then, our ancestors a generation or two ago who regularly enjoyed plates full of chicken fried steak with biscuits and white gravy were waking up at evil hours to bust their hind quarters without end on the farm!  I think we can all agree that’s not level of activity most of us experience these days.

It’s time to wake up America, the way we eat isn’t healthy!  Completely disregarding demons like processed food, soda and agro-business, we need to adjust the macro-nutrient proportions that make up our regular meals.  [protein:carbs:fats]  Certainly, keep your T-Bone and loaded baked potato for a special treat; but a healthy, protein rich, vegetarian meal every now is what we all need.

Clearly, I could rant on and on endlessly about what’s wrong with the American/First-World food system.  Instead of boring and guilt-tripping everyone to death all at once, I’d like to put up a pint-size diatribe along with a tasty vegetarian or vegan recipe every Monday for my next little series.  I hope you guys like it!  Let me know if there’s a specific recipe or cuisine you want to see!

My tulips are starting to bloom!

Pasta con Ceci Stufati – Pasta with Stewed Chickpeas – served with bread

This recipe is based off of one in the book ‘Cucina Povera,’ a favorite of mine with recipes and stories from leaner times in Tuscany.

Serves 3-4 – cost approx $1.03 per person, including bread

Ingredients

• 1 onion ($.30)
• 2 carrots ($.13)
• 2 ribs celery ($.11)
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 1 cup chickpeas, soaked overnight ($.41)
• 15 oz can tomatoes – any type, such as crushed, whole, dice, etc. ($.50)
• 1 Tbs dried Italian herbs – I used a pinch each of thyme, basil, oregano and rosemary
• 3 cups vegetable stock
• 1/2 bunch greens, thinly sliced – any type, such as chard, collards, spinach… ($.50)
• salt, to taste
• 1 lb pasta ($.89)

Start this lovely vegan meal by putting the onion, carrots and celery into a food processor to chop them very fine.  Heat the olive oil in a large sauce pot or saute pan and saute the finely chopped veggies and the garlic cloves for 5 minutes.  Add in the chickpeas, tomatoes, dried herbs and stock and bring to a simmer.

Gently simmer the sauce for 1-2 hours, or until the chickpeas are tender.  Add in tougher greens, like collards or kale, 20-30 minutes before the dish is done and more tender greens, like spinach or chard, 5-10 minutes before the dish is done.

Steamy!

Adjust the seasonings and toss with your favorite sort of cooked pasta.  Buon Appettito!

American Minestrone – Sunday Soup-day winds down…

Tags

American, bacon, beans, garlic toast, greens, hearty, minestrone, soup, stew, vegan, vegetarian

It’s been so beautiful here in the mountains, it hasn’t snowed in nearly a week! I have my herbs and veggies in some dirt, soaking up the sunshine. I think this just may be my last Sunday Soup-Day post.

In Tuscany, minestrone is made from the basic pantry staples with whatever else looks fresh and wonderful thrown in; I’m using just that philosophy with this soup!  It’s a classic Tuscan canvas, painted with American ingredients for this one-pot meal.  Just omit the bacon and you have an amazing vegetarian soup, take out the bacon and the Parmesan rind and it’s even vegan.

The last time I was in Italy, I was trying very hard to learn as much of the language as I could, especially food words.  A ‘minestra’ is a light, brothy soup, where as a ‘minestrone‘ (the ‘one’ part means ‘big’) is a hearty, stick-to-your-ribs affair.  My adopted Nonna was making a big batch of minestrone and kindly explaining everything to me along the way.  She carefully fried up slices of bread and rubbed them with a garlic clove, and there we struggled to teach me the word ‘crocante,’ which means ‘crispy’ or ‘crunchy.’  The delicious soup was served with her lovely garlic toast at the bottom of the bowl.  Right them I was able to stump an Italian grandma in matters of the kitchen for the first/last/only time when I asked (in semi-intelligible Italian) why she went through the effort of making the soft bread, into crunchy toast, only to cover it in soup and make it soft again?  She thought about it for a minute and came to the conclusion that it didn’t matter, that’s the way it had always been done and it was delicious.  If it ain’t broke…

American Minestrone – served with garlic toast

Serves 8 – cost approx $.57 per serving

Ingredients

• 2 cups dry beans of your choosing – canellini or cranberry beans would be most traditional, I used cranberry beans ($.97)
• 4 slices bacon, cut in thin strips ($.50)
• 1 large onion, small dice ($.33)
• 2 large carrots, small dice ($.20)
• 3-4 ribs celery, small dice ($.25)
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced thin
• 1 bunch greens of your choosing, 1/4 inch slices – Tuscan kale would be traditional, my neighbors collard have sprouted in their cold frame, so that’s what I used!  Thank you friends! ($0)
• 1/4 head of cabbage, 1/4 inch slices ($.35)
• 2 Tbs tomato paste ($.16)
• 1/2 cup white wine ($.13)
• 8 cups vegetable stock
• 1 lb potatoes, 1/4 inch dice ($.25)
• 1 cup grain of your choosing – farro would be quite Tuscan, I used pearl barley because it’s cheap and accessible here in the states ($.43)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 parmesan rind (optional)
• fresh herbs of your choosing – I used thyme and parsley ($.25)

• 1 loaf rustic-style bread ($.50 – homemade ftw!)
• 1 garlic clove

So, today I’m going to write the recipe two ways, one more detailed and one more brief for you adventurous cooks like myself.  I can’t remember the last time I followed a recipe to the letter!  It’s good to remember that recipes (to quote one of my favorite movies) are more what you’d call ‘guidelines’ than actual rules.

Start this soup by putting your beans on to boil.  They’ll need an hour or so to cook, so get this on first so they can cook away while you gather and prepare all the other goodies.  If you’re strapped for time, the beans would be happy in the slow cooker in low all day while you’re at work or your could substitute canned beans.

Short Recipe:

Render your bacon in a LARGE pot.  When all the fat has come out add in your mirepoix and garlic and saute until translucent.  Toss in the cabbage, greens and tomato paste.  Brown up the tomato paste a few minutes then deglaze with the wine.  Add all remaining ingredients, except the fresh herbs, bread and garlic clove.  Simmer until everything is done.  Taste to adjust the seasonings, add back the beans with some of their cooking liquid and finish with the fresh herbs, let simmer a few minutes to meld the flavors.  Serve over garlic rubbed toast.  Done!

Now that’s a steamy pot of goodness!

Long Recipe:

Over medium head, cook your bacon in a LARGE pot until the fat has come out and the bacon is cooked.  When all the fat has come out add in your mirepoix (onions, carrots and garlic: those pantry staples I was mentioning earlier 🙂 ) and garlic and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add in the cabbage, greens and tomato paste.  Cook for another few minutes, until the tomato paste has started to brown a bit and stick to the bottom, then deglaze with the wine.

Add all remaining ingredients, except the fresh herbs, bread and garlic clove.  Simmer until everything is done, anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour depending on the type of grain you’re using and the size of your potato pieces.  Taste to adjust the seasonings!  Remove the bay leaf and parmesan rind (if you used it) and add back the beans with some of their cooking liquid and let simmer a few minutes to meld the flavors.  Finish with the lovely, fresh herbs.

While the soup is cooling down to a temperature human mouths can comfortably tolerate, toast up 1/4 inch slices of bread in whatever manner you see fit.  Rub the warm toast with the garlic clove and place a piece in the bottom of each bowl.  Pour over the soup and dig in!

African Groundnut Stew

Tags

african, chicken, peanut butter, stew

It’s a shame, a cryin’ shame!  I really feel like the cuisines of Africa are grossly overlooked.  In my ‘International Cuisine’ course in culinary school, only Moroccan and Egyptian foods were even discussed, leaving the rest of the African continent woefully neglected.

In all the whole book case of cookbooks that I have, there were only several variations one African dish, a ground nut stew.  But for me, it seems to have be a good starting place.  You could switch out the proteins in this dish, you could use chicken or pork or even some garbanzo beans if you wanted to make it vegetarian.  I hope that as my cooking explorations continue, that I can learn to make more African dishes.

African Groundnut Stew –served with bread.  I made a loaf of ciabatta, but any sort of naan or flatbread would be quite nice.

Serves 3-4 – cost approx $.59 per serving

Ingredients

• 1 chicken breast, cut in bite size pieces ($.22)
• salt – to taste
• red pepper flakes – to taste
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp corriander
• 2 Tbs vegetable oil
• 1/2 ” piece of ginger, minced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 onion, medium diced ($.10)
• 1/2 green bell pepper, medium diced ($.25)
• 2 carrots, medium dice ($.19)
• 1 bay leaf
• 4-6 cups chicken stock – or vegetable stock if vegetarian
• 1 tsp parsley flakes
• 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes ($.30)
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter ($.25)
• 2 Tbs lemon juice

Start by tossing the chicken pieces with the salt and dry spices.  Heat the vegetable oil in a large pot and saute the chicken 3-5 minutes.  Once all the pink is gone from the chicken, add in the ginger, garlic, onion, bell pepper and carrot.  Saute another 5 minutes.  Add in the stock, parsley flakes and bay leaf and bring to a simmer.

Simmer until the chicken and vegetables are cooked, another 10 minutes.  Add in the can of tomatoes with all their juices and return to a simmer, stir in the peanut butter.  Start with 1/4 cup of peanut butter, give it a taste and see if you want to add more spices, salt or peanut butter.  Pretty tasty, no?  Finish with a squirt of lemon juice and your spoon.

Borscht with faux creme fraiche – in Russia, soup eats you!

Tags

beef, beets, borscht, cabbage, creme fraiche, stew

As far as beef goes, soups and stews have been the way to eat up the less tender bits since the dawn of time.  It’s perfect for those tasty little nubbins, because those bits have the most flavor.  With most meats there is an inverse relationship between tenderness and flavor.  Sure, a filet mignon melts in your mouth, but nothing beats the beefy flavor of a pot roast or seared flank steak!

For a special treat, I braised a lovely grass fed chuck roast earlier in the week and making a big ol’ pot of borscht seemed perfect for my leftovers.  I bulked up my borscht with some potatoes, making it more of a hearty stew, all the better for filling up hungry men!  If you have a lot of hungry hungry hippos to feed, a loaf or two of fresh bread would help to stretch this soup out.

For all that it’s a big, chunky, man-pleasing beef stew, the little girl inside of me loves that this soup is pink as pink could be!  Beets have that way of turning EVERYTHING fuchsia, like your hands, cutting board and whatever dish you happen to use them in.  Whenever I cook with beets, I always have to run around my kitchen doing my best Lady Macbeth “Out! Out! Damn spot!” impression before I wash all the pink off my hands.  (If you’re a fancy person that can’t risk going to work with pink hands, I would recommend wearing gloves when preparing beets.)

Borscht – served with faux creme fraiche

Serves 4-6 – cost approx $1.02 per serving

Ingredients

• 12 oz beef – cooked leftovers or raw stew meat, doesn’t matter… ($2.50)
• 4 medium potatoes, peeled, 1/2 inch dice ($.30)
• 2 Tbs veg oil, olive oil or bacon grease, your choice!
• 1 onion, thinly sliced ($.25)
• 1/3 head of cabbage, thinly sliced ($.66)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbs tomato paste ($.13)
• salt
• 1 15 oz can beets, drain and reserve the juice thinly slice the beets into matchsticks ($.79)
• 2 Tbs minced parsley
• 2 Tbs red wine vinegar

• 1/2 cup sour cream ($.25)
• 1-2 tbs lemon or lime juice
• pinch salt

Put the beef in a large pot and fill with about 8 cups water (about half way up the pot), bring to a simmer.  If your beef is already cooked, simmer for a just a half an hour to an hour to make the meat fall apart tender.  If you’re starting with raw beef, simmer for a few hours to make it fall apart tender.  This is an excellent step to do in the slow cooker while you go about your busy day, I would put the cooked beef on low for 4-6 hours and raw beef on high for 6-8 hours.

Begin with the other ingredients of the stew about an hour before you want to eat.  Put the potatoes in to simmer with the beef.  (If you’re using the slow cooker, crank it up as high as it goes, or whatever setting makes it go at a nice simmer, and put the potatoes in about 2 hrs before you want to eat.)  Add in the reserved pink juice drained off of the beets.

Heat the 2 Tbs of the fat of your choice over medium heat in a large saute pan, and cook the cabbage, onion and garlic for 10-15 minutes.  Add in the tomato paste to the sauteing veggies and cook another 5 minutes, forming some good brown crud on the bottom of your pan.  Add the veggies to the cooking beef and potatoes.  Take a ladle of the beefy broth from the pot (or crock pot) and put it in your saute pan so that you can loosen up and scrape off all those browned bits and then pour it back into the soup.   Add in the sliced beets.  Let simmer for another 20-30 minutes to meld the flavor, check the seasonings and add salt to taste.   Finish the soup by adding in the red wine vinegar to give it a pleasant tangy flavor and the minced parsley.

For the faux creme fraiche, mix up the sour cream, citrus juice and a pinch of salt.  You can add a little bit of water too to make it a nice, pourable, yogurt-like consistency.  Put a nice dolop on top of your soup and dig in!  Or you can put it in a squeeze bottle so you can play Jackson Pollock on the top of your soup bowl!  I’m a big proponent of fun and interactive food. 🙂