In The House Stew

Kristy at The Crislers has asked for crock pot recipes.  If you’ve got one, you can go to her blog and help her out by leaving your recipe there.  If you don't have a recipe, you should go there anyway and read her blog.

I love my crock pot (slow cooker, for those of you who call kleenex “tissue”).  A few days ago I made this recipe for the first time.  It was very well received by the clientele here in the Common Household, all three of us.  It doesn't quite meet Kristy's request for "tried and true" recipes, but I think it's a good one.

I also have two other crockpot recipes on this blog, here (Peanut Chicken) and here (Financial Crisis Soup).  (But my all-time favorite “soup recipe” is here.)

I am calling this “In the House Stew” because I changed the original recipe in major ways, based on what I did or didn’t have in the house.  (Sometimes I simply can’t face the grocery store.)  My husband always wants me to change my recipes by adding cream of mushroom soup, but the very idea disgusts me.  Even thought I didn’t make that change, he truly enjoyed this stew. 

The whole reason I decided to make this in the first place was because I had a sweet potato (okay, actually, it was a yam) in the house.  My husband usually calls such a yam The Ornamental Sweet Potato.  I am prone to buy a yam for some recipe or other, and then not have the enthusiasm to make that recipe, so that the yam sits on display forever, looking nutritious.  This time the yam was fresh and I did not want it to become ornamental.

Here are the changes I made.  I would bet the original recipe would be even more delicious.

- I used beef instead of pork, because I had beef in the house.  Major shift in taste.

- I used half a can of plain diced tomatoes, because that’s the amount that was leftover in the fridge.  The stew was quite thick, probably because it had only half the liquid it was supposed to have.  Next time I will use a whole can.

- because the tomatoes didn’t have green chilis in them, I added 1/16 tsp red pepper. 

- On a whim I decided to throw in a stick of cinnamon.  Yum! Took it out about half-way through cooking, when it had unfurled and the house was smelling nice and cinnamony.

- I used regular yellow onions instead of scallions, because I had onions in the house, but no scallions.  Also, are scallions the same as green onions?  Either way, I didn’t have them in the house.

- I never got around to putting in the lime juice, although I did have it in the house.  I think lime juice would go better with pork than with beef.

- I did not put in cilantro, because I didn’t have any in the house.

- I cooked it for about 6 hours.

- I fully intended to serve it as suggested, with a salad of black beans, orange, and red onions, but got engrossed in actual paid work, so I never got around to making the salad.

Cuban-Style Pork and Sweet Potato Slow Cooker Stew

A Weight Watchers recipe

7 SmartPoints per 1 ½ cup serving.

Prep Time: 15 min    Cook Time: 7 hr 5 min          Serves: 4        Difficulty: Easy

Description

This stew's both a little spicy and a little sweet. Serve with a salad of black beans, orange and red onion tossed with low-fat vinaigrette.

Ingredients

1 pound uncooked sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces

(I used one large yam.  I have no idea how many pounds it was.)

1 pound uncooked lean only pork loin, cut into 1-inch pieces

14 ½ oz canned diced tomatoes, with green chiles

1 clove garlic clove, minced

1⁄4 cup unsweetened orange juice

2 medium uncooked scallion, chopped (green parts only)

½ tsp table salt

¼ tsp ground cumin

¼ tsp black pepper

2 Tbsp fresh lime juice

2 Tbsp cilantro, fresh, chopped

Instructions

1. Place potatoes, pork, tomatoes, garlic, orange juice, scallions, salt, cumin and pepper in a 4- to 5-quart slow cooker; cover and cook on low setting for 7 hours.

2 .Stir in lime juice and cilantro; cover slow cooker and cook for 5 minutes more. Yields about 1 1/2 cups per serving (including some cooking liquid).

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Just in case you want to exactly replicate my stew protocol, here is my revised recipe.

In The House Stew

Ingredients

1 large uncooked yam, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 pound uncooked lean beef stewing meat, cut into 1-inch pieces

half of a 14 ½ oz canned diced tomatoes

large dollop of minced garlic – probably about 1 ½ tsp

1⁄4 cup unsweetened orange juice

2 small yellow onions, chopped

1 cinnamon stick

½ tsp table salt

¼ tsp ground cumin

¼ tsp black pepper

1/16 to 1/8 tsp red pepper

Instructions

1. Place all ingredients in a 4- to 5-quart slow cooker; cover and cook on low setting for 5-6 hours.

2 .Remove cinnamon stick after a few hours.

Serve.

Sweet Potato Rolls is another delicious way to use a yam,
Ornamental or Not.

Not Your Grandmother's Kugel

In the days of the ancestors, it was decreed that the whole people should gather in a solemn assembly to celebrate the Lord’s creation, and to begin the Days of Awe. 

And the Lord said to the people, “Thus shall you celebrate:  by preparing a sweet mixture of eggs, sour cream, sugar, wide egg noodles and dried fruit of the vine.  And you shall call this mixture noodle kugel.  From this day forward you and your children and your children’s children shall partake of this meal.”

And the mother-in-law said to the daughter-in-law:  “You shall make my noodle kugel recipe, for there is no other that will please my son.  I have decreed it.”

And the daughter-in-law undertook to do as she was instructed to do.  She approached this task with joy, saying, “At last, a Jewish recipe that does not involve chopping everything into little bits or cooking a hunk of meat for hours.”  But lo, her mother-in-law’s recipe for noodle kugel listed not all of the ingredients.  It was not clear if it required ½ an ephah or ¼ an ephah of sugar.  It gave not the baking temperature; neither did it tell the type of baking pan to use.

And so the daughter-in-law set out to gather unto her all manner of noodle kugel recipes.  She took butter of kine, egg of chicken, cream of sour, wide noodles of egg, and brought forth a fine noodle kugel in a lordly dish.  And she saw that the thing pleased her husband.

As the years passed, the daughter-in-law began to be horrified at the fat content of the noodle kugel and at the vast quantity the recipe made. The heart of her husband was not well within him.  Seeking to do her husband good, like a merchant ship she launched forth and communed secretly with Google to find a healthier and smaller recipe.

And so, at the beginning of this year 5775, the husband spake unto his wife, saying, “Lo, the high holidays are upon us.  It is my fondest wish that we should have noodle kugel during this time of festive convocations.”

And so she girded her loins with strength, and assembled lower-fat ingredients; she set to cooking.  Eating not the bread of idleness, while the noodle kugel was baking she went outside and raked a multitude of leaves to the top of the hill.

Looking well to the ways of her household, she served the noodle kugel.  And lo, her teenaged child arose up, and called her blessed; her husband also, and he praised her, saying, “Now this is the only dish which is not made better by adding cream of mushroom soup.  Many daughters-in-law have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all."

Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that maketh a good low-fat noodle kugel, she shall be praised.

                                                                                        - The Book of Comestibles 31:10-31

     Noodle Kugel 

    

Makes one 9x9 square pan.

     1 cup cottage cheese (lowfat is fine)

     1 ½  cups (12 ounces) sour cream (lowfat is fine)

     1 ½ Tablespoons milk

     3 eggs, beaten

     1/4 cup sugar

     ½ tsp. vanilla

     ¼ cup raisins, or chopped apple, optional – I use both

     8 ounces wide egg noodles

     cinnamon and sugar for topping (mix together 1 Tbsp sugar with 1 tsp cinnamon)

     ¼ cup corn flakes, crushed

Grease a 9x9 square baking pan.  Preheat oven to 350 F.

Cook the egg noodles in a large pot of water till tender. Drain.

Meanwhile, mix in a very large bowl the first 7 ingredients. Combine with the cooked noodles, and turn into the baking pan.

Top with some cinnamon and sugar, and also some crushed cornflakes if you like. Bake in a 350 oven for about 45 – 60 minutes. Cut into squares to serve.

Makes 12 servings.

(If you use 1% cottage cheese and low-fat sour cream, each serving is 5 Weight Watchers PointsPlus.)

Polyglot Snacks

A few weeks ago, our two oldest kids came home from college for March Break.  It was just like old times, with all five of us at dinner. I served a fine Italian meal:  angel hair pasta with Ragu sauce from a jar.  This is one of my ‘emergency’ meals, served when

(a) I can’t think of what else to make, or

(b) I am in a hurry because I have to go on a trip out of town the next day,

either of which constitute a Common Household meal emergency.  In this case, both (a) and (b) applied.  Here is the conversation that ensued.

Husband: This angel hair is like Ramen noodles, only without the flavor packet.

(With this comment, my husband probably intended to criticize the meal.  I considered it a compliment.  I may use sauce from a jar, but I draw the line at using flavor packets.)

Older Daughter:  You know, “flavor packet” would be incomprehensible to somebody from the 1920s.

Me:  Or to the French, at any time in history.

Son:  How do you even say “flavor packet” in French?

(Despite the fact that I was a French major in college, at that moment I could not come up with a French equivalent for either “flavor” or “packet.”)

Me:  Well, the French have flavor, but not in packets.

Husband:  Maybe you call it a “flavor pouch” in French.  “Sac de flaveur!”

(He said this with a vaguely French-like wave of the arms.)

Me:  “Sac” means “bag.”

(Anyone can easily remember this because in middle school French class we all learned that “cul de sac” means “ass of bag.”  Aren’t we glad we are not in middle school any more?)

Older Daughter:  But bags are for Cheetos.  “Sac de Cheetos!”

Son:  Their advertising slogan is “Dangerously Cheesy.”

Older Daughter, drawing on 6 years of Spanish classes:  Peligrosamente Quesamente!

Younger Daughter:  I wonder how you would say that in Latin.

* * * * * * *

Later thought led me to conclude that a direct translation of “flavor packet” into French might be “paquet de goût” (pronounced ‘pah-KAY deh GOO’).  That sounds an awful lot like “packet of goo,” which confirms to me that the French have too much culinary intelligence to need to refer to flavor packets at all.  Paquet de goo is what you get when you open a can of cream of mushroom soup, another of my husband’s favorites.  I’ll bet the French would not recognize that stuff in the can as cream of mushroom soup.

How would you say "flavor packet" in your native language?

Dinner Conversation about Future Dinners

Last week, Kristy said she was in a cooking funk.  I am too – maybe it is a symptom of grieving.  Even so, I should know better than to ask for dinner ideas from the Common Household, especially while we are eating dinner. 

A few nights ago we had this conversation, which came up because the Common Household Husband expressed some discontent with the dinner I had prepared since coming back from the Old Folks Home.  I had gone for several days to help my Mom cope and plan the memorial service which will be in a few weeks.  At the Old Folks Home there is food just everywhere.  

Once we were all back home, my husband wanted to pick up take-out, but I just wanted something simple as an antidote to the overabundance and gourmet nature of the food I ate for four days.  That sounds an awful lot like the Israelites complaining about God's wonderful gift of manna, but that’s just how I felt.

Me:  If you are at all interested in what we are going to have for dinner this week, please make suggestions for what I should cook.

Husband:  I’d like meatloaf.

Youngest Daughter:  Mommy, you know what I always ask for. 

Me:  I have no idea.

YD:  I’d like M and C.

Son:  What is M and C?

Husband:    Mice and Cockroaches!

Me:  Oh, PLEASE!  I am trying to eat here.

YD: M and C is macaroni and cheese!

Husband:  Ramen noodles aren’t too bad either.

YD:  Ramen noodles taste pretty good as long as you use the flavor packet!

Son:   What if I used the mac ’n’ cheese flavor packet on the ramen noodles?

YD: You could do that.  You could use the mac ’n’ cheese packet, and also substitute the mac ’n’ cheese pasta in place of the ramen noodles.

Husband:    Or you could substitute cream of mushroom soup.  In fact, I think I would like cream of mushroom soup noodle loaf.  Put it in the fridge and it would be sort of like meat loaf.

Me:   (further losing my appetite for the dinner in front of me)

YD: Poor Daddy.  You love cream of mushroom soup so much that you would eat it congealed.

Husband:    Well.  Cream of mushroom soup probably does have clotting factors in it.

And then ensued a whole conversation about blood.  During dinner.  While I was eating.  Is it any wonder I am in a cooking funk?  And how is it that I have raised children who speak positively of ramen noodles?