Messy Kitchen Cook

I have seen lots of recipes for Beef Carbonnade and over time I have developed my own that seems to suit my household the best. A lot of them call for large slices of onions but not everyone in my house will eat them. By cooking them almost like I am making an onion soup, they are not as noticeable. Braising is one of my favorite ways to cook. As the chef Anne Burrell says, “brown food tastes good” and “cook low and slow”. These are two great ways to develop a deep flavored dish.

This recipe can be a basis to make lots of different dishes. Want to make a beef stew? Add diced carrots and potatoes about an hour before its done cooking in the oven. In our house we like to serve the beef over rice. Use your imagination!

Notes:

#1 – Bacon

I find the easiest way to cut the bacon is to take the whole package and cut it in half top to bottom. I freeze the other half for the next time I need bacon. This cut of bacon is referred to a lardon. Continue to thinly slice the bacon in the same direction. The below picture gives a good explanation of what I am talking about. Then break up the pieces a bit so they don’t form together when you are frying them.

#2 – Beer

For braising you can use whatever beer you like. It is traditional to use a darker beer like a Guinness but I am not a fan. I like to use Blue Moon. Two of the ingredients of it are coriander and orange peel which I believe plays well with cooking. It also does not give that strong after taste. If you like dark beer however, go for it!

#3 – Onion

If you’re not sure what I mean by slicing pole to pole, here is a great video to help. It also shows the proper way to dice an onion.

Ingredients:

4 pound chuck roast, cut into 1 ½ inch pieces
½ package bacon, cut into thin slices
2 onions, sliced pole to pole in ¼ inch slices
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 ½ cups chicken broth
2 cups beer
2 bay leaves

Cooking:

Salt and pepper the meat. Using a large dutch oven, brown meat on all sides on medium to high heat. You are not trying to cook them at this point you are just trying to develop the flavor. You do not want to overcrowd the pan so it will take several batches to do this. You need to be able to achieve the brown crusty outer layer. If you put too much in, you may just steam the meat.

Transfer to a bowl or plate when done.

Add the bacon to the pan and cook on a medium heat until brown and crispy, remove from pan. You don’t want to cook the bacon too fast because you are trying to render the fat out to cook the onions, and you do not want to burn the bacon.

Remove all but 2 tablespoons of the bacon fat in the Dutch oven,  and add the onions. Cook for about 30 minutes on low to medium heat. You are trying to caramelize the onions so be patient. If the pan gets a bit dry you can add a bit of olive oil. If you leave too much of the bacon fat in you will end up with a oil slick on the top of your braise.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees

Add garlic, thyme & nutmeg to the onions – cook for 30 seconds until very aromatic

Add tomato paste & flour – cook for 1 minute

Wisk in chicken broth. Give the mixture a good stir, scraping the bottom of the pan to get any bits loosened up.

Add beer, bay leaves and all meat – bring to a simmer.

Cover pot and put in the oven for 2 hours.

What do you need to make chicken stock? Just some time and a small amount of money.

Ingredients:

1 pound chicken thighs or legs, skins removed
2 chicken carcasses
1 large onion roughly chopped
2 celery stalks roughly chopped
2 carrots roughly chopped
3 large (5 small) garlic cloves, smashed
2-3 bay leaves
8-10 thyme sprigs

Notes:

What you are looking for is about 2 lbs of bones. You can use 4 carcasses or 2 lbs of cooked thighs and legs. I roast chickens about once a month (they are usually between 2-3 lbs including meat), so I just toss them in a zip lock bag and put them in the freezer. I have never paid more than $.99 per pound for my chicken thighs and legs. They are just going to get boiled so keep your overall price down.

Are you thinking about using dried thyme instead of fresh? You can…..but I don’t. You will find the flavor is better with fresh. I usually find it at my local grocery store for about $2.

What is smashed garlic? Just like it sounds, you want to squash it to open up and expose the inside flesh of the garlic. You are going to strain the whole pot later so you don’t even need to worry about the skins for his recipe.

Unless you have a specific purpose for the whole pot of stock, only add a little salt when cooking the vegetables to help them cook. You want to keep the flavor of the stock as neutral as possible. You will probably be adding salt to whatever you will be cooking it with later on.

To start:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Cook the chicken thighs or legs for about 40 minutes. You are really trying to get the roasted flavor here. Don’t worry about overcooking.

Turn the stove on to about a medium heat and coat the bottom of the stock pot with olive oil. Add the carrots, onions, celery, and a pinch of salt. Cook for about 10 minutes, until they are getting soft but not brown. Add the garlic and thyme. Garlic burns quickly so only cook until you can smell it, which is only about 30 seconds.

Once you smell the garlic, take the pot off of the stove. Add the carcasses and the cooked chicken thighs, then fill the stockpot with water. If you have a gas stove (I am jealous), then you can fill the pot with water from the faucet. I have an electric stove so I do this part a bit differently. It can take forever to get an 8 qt stockpot of water to boil so I have hot water on standby. I have a 4 cup glass measuring cup that I fill with water and microwave to get it hot.

Bring this to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Simmer this for about 3 1/2 hours, skimming the brown scum and fat off the top every once in a while. As the water reduces in the first 2 hours, I will add 2-4 cups to keep the level of liquid up. After a few hours, I will let the level decrease to concentrate the flavor.

Strain the stock and throw away the bones. I recommend having some cheese cloth on hand. You can strain without it just using a regular fine metal strainer, but you will have some of the fine bits in the stock. If you are going to use this for soup, you are definitely going to want to have a nice clear stock.

At this point you can freeze the stock in any size containers you would like. Most of the recipes I use call for stock by the cup have some small containers and will measure it out 2 cups at a time.

In order to help prevent freezer burn, I put a layer of plastic wrap with enough room for some expansion in between the stock and the cover. You want the surface of the stock to be exposed to as little air as possible.

Now I’m not going to say that I never use store-bought stock. There are times I am out of homemade and I don’t have the time to make a new batch. I do find I like the flavor of homemade better and I don’t waste as much. I don’t always use the whole quart from the store.

Have fun!

I had a ½ day on Tuesday and decided to do some cooking, all attempts ended up in foods I am not too proud of. That can happen when you are making a recipe for the first time. Never get discouraged. I know the changes I need to make, and I will blog about them later when I make a more delicious meal!

For today, let’s talk about some basics. One of the keys to successful  cooking is preparation. It doesn’t matter whether you are making up your own recipe or getting one from a book, being ready to go when the heat source first goes on is important. How many times have you gotten half way through a recipe and realized you didn’t have an important ingredient?

Mise En Place is a French phrase that is known to mean “everything in its place”. The first thing I do when I am going to get ready to cook is read the recipe. Do I have everything I need? If yes, then I move on to measuring everything out. This part can lead to lots of dishes, but as you can see my blog is titled Messy Kitchen Cook, so I don’t mind. I have been known to fill a dishwasher with one meal.

The next thing I look for is what I will be adding that I can combine into one prep bowl. Am I adding all of my spices at one time? Then I will put them all into one bowl. No need to keep them separate.  One exception is for wet and dry ingredients. I would suggest keep them separate until added. I have bought all different sizes of bowls through the years, but if you are near a Bed, Bath & Beyond, I have seen different size glass bowls. From very large down to the size of about a tablespoon.

I find cooking goes a lot smoother if I am ready to go.