Moroccan Stew - YUM!

A delicious-looking Moroccan treat with pitiful-looking naan bread...(sigh)

One of my two wonderful, lovely daughters died four years ago, and, other than simply putting edible food on a table I just stopped cooking. The last few months have seen a renewal in my cooking desires. Maybe it's because it's an honor to cook in Remy's memory, maybe because it's simply that I've managed to move on from complete devastation to lingering, but manageable devastation. I'll always cook in honor of my daughter (and my mom, Mary - one of the best amateur chefs that ever lived), and I now want to do that once again! I'll never be the cooks they both were, but I'll damn well try!

I found this recipe online (of course!) at ambitiouskitchen.com. Though I followed it somewhat, I deviated because I didn't have some ingredients and changed a few others. Pretty sure most folks do this, so, even though it's someone else's recipe, it's changed. Oh dear.


Use vegetable stock and this is a vegetarian/vegan delight.

oil, grape seed or olive, for sauteing

1 medium onion, chopped

6 garlic cloves, minced

3 carrots, slice length-wise and chopped

2 or so t. cumin

2 or so t. cinnamon

1 or so t. tumeric

1/4 or so t. cayenne

1 13 oz. box crushed tomatoes

3/4 can tomato paste

1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes

4 C. or so chicken bone broth (or chicken stock)

1 box pre-chunked butternut squash

1 C. lentils (I used Umbrian lentils - it's what I had)

1 15 oz. can (Sclafani - my favorite brand) chick peas/garbanzo beans

salt to taste

black ground pepper to taste

fresh juice of 1/2 large lemon (important)

chopped parsley for garnish

stewing in the pot...

Heat oil in a soup pot and add onions, garlic and carrots. Cook until all is looking slightly done. Stir in spices and saute until spices are releasing their flavors/fragrance. Add everything through the salt and simmer for about 20 - 30 minutes until the squash and lentils are done. Stir in the lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Taste and correct seasonings,

Serve with warm Moroccan flat bread, naan or pita bread. A dollop of plain Greek yogurt would be good.

~~~

YUM!

'till we feast again!

xoabb 

Butternut Squash Puree, Inspired by The Pioneer Woman

What a bowl of deliciousness!

My co-worker/office-mate, Jane, made this butternut squash puree for one of her family's sides this past Thanksgiving and brought me some for me to try. O. My. God!! What deliciousness it was! She saw the recipe on Ree Drummond's The Pioneer Woman website and the rest is lovely-tasting history! (Since PW's original recipe was posted in 2007, it's been redone, but I think the original recipe's photos are better.)

Do yourself a favor and make this! You'll be delighted! 

This is a true throw-n-go recipe as all flavorings are to your taste. 

To serve 10 - 12 folks: 

2 butternut squash, halved length-wise, seeds removed

1 stick++ unsalted butter

8 T. pure maple syrup (start with 8 T. - sweetness to your taste)

salt to taste

white pepper to taste (don't forget this!)

Preheat oven to 350º. 

Place squash, cut side down, on a cookie sheet. Add enough water to pan to come up about 1/4" on the squash halves. Roast for 30 - 40 minutes or until fork tender. Scoop out the squash into a food processor bowl and add remaining ingredients. Pulse processor on and off until all is well blended and quite smooth. Serve hot. 

You can make this a day or two ahead. Store in the refrigerator in an oven-proof serving dish. About 4 - 6 hours before reheating, take out of the fridge so it can come to room temperature. About 30 - 40 minutes before dinner, put in a 350º oven till all is nice and hot once again. 

YUM!

'till we feast again! 

xoabb

Charred Butternut Squash - YUM

Roasted and then broiled, all kinds of butternut goodness!

I love all winter squashes, (well, spaghetti squash not so much). There are a lot of recipes online for roasted squash with pure maple syrup, but not many for charred butternut squash. While this recipe was a happy accident, it's one that's just delicious and worth repeating. Confession time: I forgot about the fact I was broiling the squash after it's 40 minute bake....uh oh...char time! 

Stew Leonard's, a local food store here in Norwalk, CT, sells clamshells of butternut squash that are peeled and cut up - makes this entire recipe easy easy. 

Preheat oven to 400º.

1 16 oz. container prepared butternut squash (or 1 whole butternut, peeled, seeded and chopped)

salt, to taste, about 1 t.  

pepper, fresh ground, to taste, about 2-3 t. (I like it hot so add more)

2-3 T. pure maple syrup - Aunt Jemima just won't do

1-2 T. extra virgin olive oil

cookie sheet, parchment paper, aluminum foil

Place squash in a bowl. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss well. Pour maple syrup on the squash and toss well again. Add the olive oil and give all a final toss. Put squash on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet and cover with the aluminum foil. Bake for 20 minutes. Take foil off and bake for an additional 20 minutes. Turn on the broiler and broil until your desired amount of char occurs. I was lucky - almost nuked mine. Watch carefully while the squash is broiling! You can make this ahead as it's delicious at room temperature. Reheat if you want. 

Recipe by me and a lot of other folks.

~~~

YUM!

'till we feast again! 

xoabb

Beef & Butternut Slow-Cooker Stew - MAJOR yum

Beef & Butternut Stew
before the slow-cooking

Jane (my good friend and co-worker) told me about this really great food blog called Skinny Taste. My first introduction to her recipes were her crazy-good 2 ingredient bagels - you've gotta try them - sublime they are! And now on to her stew. Jane has made it and said it was just delicious - her family thought so too - so I decided to give it a try, even though I'm the only one in my family that likes butternut squash. (Didn't tell the hubs it was squash. Guess what? He ate it and LOVED it! Sneaky, that's me!) Skinny Taste's Gina Homolka wrote that she found the recipe in one of Giada de Laurdentiis' cookbooks (Giada's recipe here) and changed very little of it. 

The recipe calls for kabocha squash, which I couldn't find. It was suggested substituting butternut squash, which I did, and the lovely time-saving thing was that Stew Leonard's has containers of already peeled and cut up butternut squash! Time saver! 

Since we didn't start to make this until the afternoon, we ended up slow-cooking it on high for about 4 1/2 hours instead of the original on low for 8 hours. Can't imagine it would have been any better cooked the 8 hours! 

butter - used for sauteing

1 large sweet onion, large diced
2 cloves garlic or same amount of tube garlic
1++ T. fresh rosemary, chopped
1++ T. fresh thyme, chopped
2 T. or so flour
salt & pepper to taste
2 lbs. stew beef, trimmed and cut into 2" or so cubes
1/2++ C. Marsala wine
1 lb. butternut (or Kobucha) squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1" pieces
1 14.5 oz. can petite diced tomatoes
3 C. organic beef broth
2 T. fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish

*4 T. butter
*4 T. flour

crusty baguette
egg noodles 
baby peas

In a large skillet, heat some butter over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, rosemary and thyme and saute until onion is tender, about 6 minutes. Set aside in crock pot. Put flour, salt and pepper in a large bowl and mix. Add the beef and toss to coat. Saute beef in batches until browned on all sides, adding more butter as needed. Set beef aside in crock pot. Add Marsala and beef broth to skillet, being sure to scrape all the brown bits up from the bottom. Pour broth over the beef/onion mixture in crock pot and mix well. Add the can of tomatoes and the butternut squash pieces and gently mix again. Cover and cook on high for 4 - 5 hours, or low for 8 hours. 

*(This step is optional; we wanted a thicker gravy/sauce.) Heat the 4 T. butter in a small skillet and stir in the 4 T. flour. Stirring constantly, brown the mixture. When browned, stir by T.'s into the stew until you get the thickness you desire. (This wasn't part of the original recipe, but we decide we wanted a thicker ~gravy~ than the recipe gave produced.)

When done, you can throw a bag of baby peas in the crockpot (just before serving), stir and sprinkle the top with parsley. 

We served this over egg noodles and we threw the bag of peas in with the noodles (just before the noodles are drained) instead of in with the stew. Either way, it's delicious!

Heat the baguette.

Delicious!

~~~

YUM!

'till we feast again! 

xoabb