Slow Cooker Green Chile Pork Stew

So, we launched the new year with, among other things, a new recipe.  We made some beef stew recently, but I was still in a stew mood and wanted to try something different.  I happened to see a recipe on allrecipes.com that got me thinking about a pork and green chile stew, and I used that as my starting point.  The recipe I started with looked essentially sound, but I knew that certain touches - like browning the meat beforehand and adding some tomato paste - would make it more flavorful.  I also decided to toss in a Serrano chile for some extra heat.   The beans are completely my own touch; I know from previous recipes that cannelloni beans go well with both pork and chiles, so they seemed a good touch here.

The results were good:  a flavorful, satisfying stew with tender pork and a subtle sort of heat.  Definitely a good thing for a winter day.  

Some small notes.  As always, I used my mortar and pestle to grind up some cumin seeds, rather than using pre-ground cumin, because the pre-ground stuff loses a lot of the flavor.  I also cooked it in oil before adding the vegetables.   This touch tends to increase the impact of spices.

Also, I initially chopped the sweet potato into 1/2" chunks, and as a result, they all but entirely disintegrated by the time the stew was done cooking.  Next time I'll use 1-inch chunks of sweet potato. and that's what the recipe below calls for. 

Slow Cooker Green Chile Pork Stew

2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil

2 ½ lbs boneless pork loin, cut into ¾” cubes

1 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped

1 Serrano chile (seeds removed), diced

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 cans(7 oz) diced green chiles

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes

¼ cup low-sodium chicken broth

1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced into 1” pieces

1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano

2 cans (15 oz.)  cannelloni (white kidney) beans, drained

Shredded cheddar and Monterey jack cheese.

Heat one tablespoon of oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering.  Dry half of the pork cubes with paper towels, sprinkle with salt and pepper and add to the Dutch oven once the oil is heated.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the pork is browned on all sides.  Transfer the cooked pork to the slow cooker, then repeat with the remaining pork.  Do not wash the Dutch oven.  Reduce heat to medium.

Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the Dutch oven and heat it until shimmering.  Add the cumin and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.  Add the onion and Serrano chili and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is clear and tender.  Add garlic and tomato paste and cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute.  Add the canned green chiles and the diced tomatoes, stir and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has thickened.   Add the chicken broth, stir and use the edge of a spoon to loosen any fond from the sides and bottom of the Dutch oven.  Transfer the contents of the Dutch oven to the slow cooker.   

Add the sweet potato and oregano to the pork mixture.  Stir, cover and cook on high 5-6 hours.  Stir in the cannellini beans.  Cover, cook for 10-15 minutes.  Serve topped with shredded cheese.

Chicken and Vegetable Stew with Rosemary Dumplings

Last night I made something a little different.  I got the idea from the 125th Anniversary edition of The Good Housekeeping Cookbook.  They had a recipe in there for Chicken with Rosemary Dumplings.  I used that recipe for a starting point to make a version of my own.

The result was a thick, hearty stew full of vegetables and bits of chicken, served along with wonderfully flavorful dumplings.  The entire dish had a rich chicken flavor.  With Juli and me working together, this dish didn't take too long to make, and even if it had taken a lot more time, it would have been worth the effort.

Try it.  I'm pretty sure you'll be pleased.

Chicken and Vegetable Stew with Rosemary Dumplings

yield = 5-6 servings

3           tablespoons vegetable or canola oil, divided
5           pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-
                size pieces
8           ounces cremini mushrooms, trimmed and quartered
1           teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
1           teaspoon salt
4           large carrots, peeled and sliced thin
2           large stalks celery, finely chopped
1           large onion, finely chopped
1           cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2           teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2     teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
1           large egg
1 1/2     cups milk
2 1/2     cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 1/4     cups water
2           cups frozen peas

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat until very hot.  Add half of the chicken pieces.1/4 teaspoon pepper and 1/8 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring often, until golden-brown.  Remove chicken to a bowl.  Repeat with the remaining chicken.

Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to drippings in the Dutch oven.   Add mushrooms, carrots, celery and onion and cook, stirring frequently, until vegetables are golden brown and tender, about 10 minutes.

While the vegetables are cooking, prepare the dumplings.   In a small bowl, combine 1 cup flour, baking powder, rosemary and 1/2 teaspoon salt. In another bowl, beat together egg and 1/2 cup milk.  Stir egg mixture into flour mixture until just blended.

Return chicken to Dutch oven.  Add chicken broth, water, remaining 1/2 teaspoon pepper and 1/4 teaspoon salt.  Increase heat to high and bring to a boil.   Drop tablespoons of the dumpling mixture on top of chicken and vegetables to make dumplings.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer 15 minutes.

Remove dumplings, chicken and vegetables to a serving bowl; keep warm.  In a cup, blend remaining 2 tablespoons flour with remaining 1 cup milk until smooth. Stir into the broth remaining in the Dutch oven.  Heat to boiling and let boil 1 minute or until slightly thickened.  Stir in peas and heat through (3 minutes). 

Add individual servings of chicken, vegetables and dumplings to bowls.  Ladle sauce over each serving and serve.

 

Southwestern Cabbage Jambalaya

We've been getting cabbage lately from our CSA.  Truth be told, neither of us are huge cabbage fans.  In fact, the only thing I can recall ever cooking with cabbage is egg rolls.   But since we have the cabbage, we've been looking for things to do with it.  And since our garden is giving us lots of hot peppers right now, something that would combine hot peppers and cabbage would be a real plus.

Looking online, I found an intriguing recipe on allrecipes.com for Cabbage Jambalaya.  That recipe got pretty good reviews, and several of the comments offered helpful ideas, so I decided I'd use that as the basis of my recipe.  That recipe didn't call for hot peppers, but since cayenne pepper and paprika are key elements of Cajun spice blends, I figured the hot peppers would work.    At the same time, I got another idea.  Bell peppers are pretty much ubiquitous in Cajun cooking, but there's something in bell peppers that makes them intolerable to me.   I like lots of other sorts of peppers, though, and the supermarkets have been getting in fresh poblanos, so I figured I'd toss those in to make something of a Cajun-Southwestern fusion recipe.

The result was a thick, hearty, spicy stew, and it was delicious.  The cabbage cooked down, became tender and absorbed a lot of the seasonings.  The flavors and textures of the spicy sausage, beef, and vegetables blended together well, and the seasoning and the mix of peppers provided a pleasant degree of heat.  The Jambalaya was also filling without being heavy.  This recipe is definitely a winner, and we're looking forward to enjoying the leftovers as workday lunches.

So, our first cabbage recipe turned out great, which makes us more enthusiastic about trying out some other ways of using cabbage.  Hopefully they will turn out as good as this, but even if they don't, we'll still have a good use for cabbage, because this recipe is good enough to earn a spot among our go-to recipes.

Southwestern Cabbage Jambalaya

yield = 9-10 servings

1 1/2             pounds andouille sausage, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1                   pound lean ground beef
1                   large yellow onion, chopped
4                   fresh chili peppers, minced
3                   stalks celery, minced
2                   poblano peppers, seeded and chopped
4                   teaspoons minced garlic
1                   teaspoon Cajun seasoning blend
1                   medium head cabbage, chopped
4-5               medium tomatoes, chopped
4                  cups beef broth
1 1/2            cup long-grain white rice

Brown the sausage in a large Dutch oven over medium heat.   Transfer the browned sausage to a bowl and set aside.

Add the ground beef, onions and chili peppers to the Dutch oven and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 3 minutes, then stir in the celery and poblano peppers and cook until the beef is evenly browned and the vegetables are starting to get tender (about 5 minutes).

Clear a space in the center of the Dutch oven and add the garlic and Cajun seasoning.  Cook for about 45 seconds, then return the sausage to the Dutch oven.  

Add the cabbage, tomatoes and beef broth.  Stir to mix the ingredients together, and scrape the bottom of the Dutch oven with the edge of a spoon to loosen the fond from the bottom of the pan.  Stir in the rice, bring to a boil, then cover the Dutch oven, turn heat to low and let simmer until the rice is cooked (about 30 minutes).   Serve with garlic bread or other crusty bread.

Suggestions:
If you'd like a dish with more or less heat, increase or decrease the amounts of chili peppers and Cajun seasoning to taste.  If you'd like something more authentically Cajun, use green bell peppers in place of the poblanos.

Notes:
We used Penzey's Cajun Seasoning and Rachel Ray Beef Flavored Stock-in-a-Box, which is Cook's Illustrated's pick for best commercial beef broth. 

Juli here.  When Jeffrey said we weren't cabbage fans, in my case that actually translates to I will not eat cabbage, I hate it so much.  So this recipe is ground-breaking for me!  It's very, VERY good, and if I was naming the recipe I'd call it "Cabbage Jambalaya for People Who Hate Cabbage."  Or maybe not.  Heh.  Anyway, don't be afraid to cook this, even if you really don't like cabbage. 

Mushroom and White Bean Stew with Campanelle

Today's featured recipe was inspired by a recipe presented at Kalyn's Kitchen.   That recipe - Mushroom, White Bean and Tomato Stew with Parmesan - looked pretty good, but there were a few things I knew I'd want to do differently.  One of the primary changes I made was to saute the mushrooms along with the onions, rather than adding them in later.   I knew doing that would intensify the flavor of the mushrooms.  I also changed up the amounts of various ingredients and added a wider range of seasonings.  None of these changes made the dish any more difficult or added significantly to the length of time necessary to prepare the dish.

This recipe makes a thick, hearty bean and vegetable stew, served hot atop pasta and topped with grated Parmesan... what's not to like about that?   Frankly, it's delicious, and hearty enough to be quite satisfying without any meat.   It's also easy and fast to make. 

Mushrooms and White Bean Stew with Campanelle

yield = 4-5 servings

1            cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 3/4      teaspoons table salt
2            tablespoons olive oil
1            large yellow onion, thinly sliced
8            ounces cremini mushrooms, washed, trimmed and quartered
8            ounces button mushrooms, washed, trimmed and quartered
1            teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
4            teaspoons minced garlic
1 1/2      teaspoon dried thyme
1 1/2      teaspoon ground fennel seed
3/4         teaspoons dried oregano
1/4         teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/8         teaspoon dried sage
1            can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes with juice
2            cans (15 ounces) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1/2         cup freshly-chopped parsley
1            pound campanelle, farfalle, penne or other hearty pasta
              freshly-grated Parmesan cheese for serving (to taste)

Heat the chicken broth in a small saucepan over medium-high heat.  Boil until the broth is reduced by half.  Set aside.

Add 4 quarts water and 1 teaspoon table salt to a large pot.  Bring to a boil.

While the water is heating up, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering.  Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until they have started to brown, then add the mushrooms, remaining 3/4 teaspoon salt and black pepper.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms have released their juices and the liquid is mostly cooked off. 

Clear an area in the center of the skillet and add garlic, thyme, fennel, oregano, crushed red pepper and sage.  Cook until fragrant (about 1 minute), then stir to mix.

Add the tomatoes, beans, parsley and reduced chicken broth.  Stir to mix, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Simmer 10 minutes or until the liquid has thickened.

By now the water for the pasta should be boiling.  Add pasta to the boiling water and cook per directions, then drain.

Serve mushroom and bean mixture atop the pasta and top with grated Parmesan cheese.

Options:
One could make this into a vegetarian dish by using vegetable broth in place of the chicken broth.  Going the opposite direction, this dish would also be good if one added some Italian sausage.

I used both cremini and button mushrooms, mostly because I didn't have enough creminis on hand, but for extra-rich mushroom flavor, you can double the creminis and skip the button mushrooms.

Hearty Slow-Cooker Beef Stew

We made up a big batch of beef stew recently, using our crock pot.   We used a recipe that first appeared in the October 2005 issue of Cook's Country and whilch has since been reprinted here and there among other America's Test Kitchen products (I first saw it in the Best-Ever Recipes collection).  Having made it ourselves, Juli and I understand why this recipe is so popular.   It is, with no hyperbole ever, easily the best beef stew either of us have ever had, and it's among the best things I've ever see come from a slow-cooker.

And even better, trying out this recipe got us to try out a new vegetable!

The much maligned parsnip.

The word "parsnip" conjures up thoughts of an old-fashioned, icky-tasting vegetable.They're a little tricky to grow in Iowa, because they hate heavy clay soil.  

I was a little squeamy about adding parsnips to the stew, because I imagined that their flavor would be unpleasant.  Silly me!  In the cooked dish, they're identical to the potato chunks in appearance, and virtually identical to the carrot chunks in flavor- maybe a little sweeter.  Jeffrey thought that it would be cheaper and easier to just add carrots, but I liked having them in the finished dish.

Some people think that parsnips are so named because they're a cross between parsley and turnips, but that's just an old wive's tale.  They do look a lot like carrots, but they are a pale yellow or white instead of the typical carrot orange.  Apparently you can eat them raw like a carrot, but the raw bite I tried was very fibrous, and I have to say I've never seen a recipe that called for raw parsnip.  If you have a recipe, please share!

You start this stew by cutting chuck roast into chunks, removing unnecessary, large chunks of fat as you go.  As written, this recipe calls for a lot of meat - 5 pounds of roast - so we ended up using two small roasts.  The beef is thoroughly browned in batches, then transferred to the crock pot.

Next you fry up some onions in a skillet.  When they're done, you stir in some tomato paste, chicken broth and soy sauce, then pour that into the crock pot atop the cooked beef along with a couple bay leaves and some tapioca (to thicken the stew juices).

Next you peel and slice potatoes, carrots and parsnips, toss them with a bit of oil and thyme and wrap the vegetables up in a foil packet, which is placed atop the beef/broth mixture.  After that, you cook it for about 6 hours, open the vegetable packet and stir its contents into the stew.   This technique is one of the things that makes this stew so good, in my opinion.  Cooking the vegetables in the packet, rather than in the stew itself, and then stirring them in toward the end preserves the flavor of the vegetables more than does cooking them in the stew the whole time.  As a result, each major ingredient of the stew - the beef, each of the vegetables - maintains some of its own distinct flavor, while all are joined together by the stew juices.   Plus, this method keeps you from ending up with mushy or fallen-apart vegetables.

Finally, you add a bit more seasoning and some frozen peas to the mix.  After 15 minutes, you ditch the bay leaves, season to taste with salt and pepper and enjoy a delicious stew.

This recipe makes a lot of stew, so we got a lot of great leftovers out of the deal, which we've been enjoying for lunch at work.

African Chicken Peanut Stew

The theme for the latest potluck lunch at my place of employment was soup and chili.  Several people, including myself, signed up to bring various sorts of soup, stew and chili, while the remainder of my coworkers signed up to bring crackers, bread, desserts, bowls, condiments, drinks and so forth.  It was probably the best potluck we've had yet.  All of the main courses looked and smelled delicious, and all the ones I tried were quite good.

You start by browning chicken thighs in batches.

When the theme of this potluck was decided, I knew right away what I wanted to make.  One of our favorite food sites, Simply Recipes, had featured a recipe awhile back for African Chicken Peanut Stew.  This is a variant of a dish common to many African nations; the recipe is noted as having origins in Ghana, but I've had more or less identical dishes prepared by acquaintances from Liberia and Ethiopia.  In fact, I have other versions of the same dish among my recipe collection, but I've never been particularly pleased with the results.  The version at Simply Recipes looked pretty good, so I thought I'd take another shot at the dish.

Then you saute the onions, and later some ginger and garlic.

Next you add chicken broth, tomatoes, peanuts, peanut butter
and some seasonings and return the chicken to the pot.
I took the chicken off the bone at this point.

I was very pleased with the result.  It is pretty easy to make, and not really very time-consuming, since all one has to do most the time is occasionally stir the stew as it cooks.  Although the soup is based around chicken broth, the most prominent flavor is that of peanuts, provided by both roasted peanuts and peanut butter.   Other seasonings include ample amounts of ginger, garlic, cayenne and black pepper, giving the soup a nice warmth that helps balance out all the sweetness.  Round it out with sweet potatoes and chicken and you've got a delicious stew, tender and flavorful.   The heat is prominent but not overwhelming, though I should note that I used only 3/4 teaspoon of cayenne, rather than the 1 teaspoon called for, as I wasn't sure how some of my colleagues felt about spicy food.  Other than that change, leaving cilantro as an optional garnish (since I know many people don't like it) and substituting diced tomatoes for crushed, I made the recipe as-written.

I made it a couple days ahead, transferred it to the
slow cooker, put it in the fridge and warmed it up
at work in plenty of time for lunch. 

Juli and I both really loved it when we sampled it, and it was also well-received by my coworkers.  Every comment about the stew was positive, and several asked about the recipe.  I noted that it was not my recipe, but promised I'd include a link to the recipe on my blog.   And, in keeping my promise, here's the link.

This is a winning recipe.  I'm sure we'll be making it again sooner rather than later.

Paprika Chicken and Dumplings

My Hearty Bean Soup isn't the only recipe I've been working on for a long time. Even older than that is my fusion of chicken and dumplings and chicken paprikash: Paprika Chicken and Dumplings. Based on where I found it among my recipes and how stained this scribbled-upon page was, I'm guessing I probably made my first version of this recipe probably about 15 years ago. Since then, it's gone through a lot of changes.

The basic idea is pretty simple: Cook up bits of chicken in a tasty Paprika gravy and add dumplngs, which serve in the place of the noodles or mashed potatoes one traditionally serves with chicken paprikah. I made up a batch of Paprika Chicken and Dumplings several months ago, before we started blogging. Juli liked the dish quite a bit, and has been asking for me to make it again for awhile now, but there was one thing I knew I would have to figure out before I made it again: How to make dumplings better.

The original recipe, written down so long ago (probably copied from some long-forgotten cookbook or magazine recipe) featured dumplings that tended to so chewy and leaden as to resemble rubber more than biscuit, and they were also pretty much flavorless. The much-revised version of that recipe I used a couple months ago resulted in biscuits that had some flavor, but which were still gummy and heavy. So, before I tried again, I did some research into how to make better dumplings.

First I dug through my cookbooks and other printed recipe sources to find as many chicken and dumplings recipes as I could. I did the same online, checking out allrecipes.com, the Cook's Country website and several of my favorite cooking blogs. Then I compared the recipes, looking for points of agreement as well as more unique options.

I noticed right off that some of the better-reviewed online recipes and one The Best of America's Test Kitchen 2011 intriguing feature in common - they all used buttermilk, rather than regular milk. That idea sounded like a keeper to me, The same recipe - Updated Chicken and Dumplings - from the Best of ATK 2001 featured another idea I liked. I'd already figured out that the number of eggs - a whopping three - in my old recipe was part of the problem. The ATK recipe cut the egg component down to a single egg white, so I decided to try that as well.

The research paid off, because this batch of dumplings was fantastic. They were light, fluffy and flavorful, and added a nice, light texture to the dish that contrasted nicely with the chunks of stewed chicken and flavorful gravy. After many years and lots of tries, I finally had a version of the dish I was truly pleased with.

Paprika Chicken and Dumplings

yield = 6 servings

Chicken Paprikah
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 pounds chicken thighs, skinned and boned
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon vegetable oil (if needed)
2 medium onions
2 teaspoons minced garlic
4 tablespoons sweet Hungarian paprika
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon marjoram
1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 cup chicken stock or broth
3/4 cup white wine
1 cup sour cream
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Dumplings
2 cups flour
1/4 cup chopped fresh paresley
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
4 tablespoons melted butter
1 egg white

Cut each chicken breast into 5-6 pieces and each chicken thigh into 2 or 3 pieces. Dry the chicken pieces with paper towels and season to taste with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering. Add the chicken pieces in batches, leaving a half-inch or so between each piece and cooking each batch of chicken pieces until lightly browned, then transferring the cooked chicken to a large bowl.

If there is more than one tablespoon of fat, drain off all but one tablespoon and discard the excess; if there is less than 1 tablespoon of chicken fat in the Dutch oven, add the vegetable oil. Add the onions and cook until they have started to brown. Stir in the garlic, cook one minute, then stir in the paprika, tomato paste, pepper, salt and marjoram and cook until fragrant. Return the chicken pieces, along with any accumulated juices, to the Dutch oven.

Cook 2-3 minutes, stirring often, then add the canned diced tomatoes, chicken stock or broth and white wine. Bring to a light boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer 45 minutes.

While the chicken simmers, add five quarts of water to a stock pot and bring to a boil. As the water heats up, mix the flour, chopped parsley, baking powder, baking soda and salt to a medium bowl and stir to combine. Pour the buttermilk into a small bowl, pour in the melted butter and stir. This will make clumps, which is fine. Stir in the egg white, then add the buttermilk mixture to the dry ingredients. Mix with a spatula until just incorporated, then roll two-tablespoon portions of the dough into small balls.

When the water is boiling, add the dough balls to the water one at a time.

When all the dumpling batter has been added to the boiling water, ladle 1/2 cup of the liquid in the Dutch oven into a bowl. Stir the sour cream into this liquid, then add the bowl contents to the Dutch oven and stir in to combine. Using a slotted spoon, test the firmness of one of the dumplings by pressing it lightly against the side of the pot. If it is somewhat firm, use the slotted spoon to transfer the dumplings one at a time to the Dutch oven. Stir them in very gently, cover and allow to simmer 10 minutes.

Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve.