Mexican Pozole

Who says you can’t have a fiesta in the wintertime? (Especially when it’s 48F outside. It’s like spring in the winter!) Unlike mexicanized restaurant food in the U.S., actual food in Mexico is fresh, vibrant, and light in a satisfying and hearty kind of way. Case in point: a crisp, refreshing version of pozole, served with Applegate pastured bacon and Greek yogurt as toppings. I added chayote squash and navy beans, too — I like having something to chew on in my soups — but as long as you include hominy and chili powder in your batch, you’ll capture the essence of pozole.

Pozole
Makes enough for 4 hearty servings, especially if you include all of the toppings.

1 small onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cups chicken broth
28 oz. can of tomatoes
15 oz. can of navy beans (my favorite brand of beans is Eden)
1 T. chili powder (I adore chili powder from Spice Hunter)
1 chayote squash, peeled, spongy core removed, flesh cut into 1″ cubes (optional, but adds to the Latin flair of the dish); if you can’t find chayote, opt for sweet potato
15 oz. can of hominy (I prefer yellow, but white works, too)

Optional toppings:
Cooked bacon from pastured hogs (see the Baked Bacon post for tips on finding and preparing top-quality bacon)
Whole-milk Greek yogurt
Chopped cilantro
Lime wedges
Thinly sliced cabbage
Chopped avocado

Drizzle a splash of extra-virgin olive oil into a large soup pot. Add onions and sautée over medium heat for 5 minutes or until the onions are soft but not yet brown. Add garlic, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook for another 2 minutes or until garlic is fragrant and soft. Pour in chicken broth, 1 cup of water, the tomatoes, and the beans. (Seeing as Eden beans are canned in BPA-free cans with sea salt and a pinch of seaweed, I add the contents of the entire can.) Stir in the chili powder and bring to a boil.

Add the chayote/sweet potato, reduce heat to a gentle simmer, and let the squash cook for 10 minutes. Poke a piece to see if it has reached its desired tenderness. (I like mine a bit chewy.) If you’d like to add more chili powder or a dash of sea salt, now’s a good time to do that, too.

Stir in hominy, simmer for another minute to heat everything through, and serve. Garnish with any or all of the optional toppings. Leftover pozole can be refrigerated for up to 5 days — like all tomato-based soups and sauces, the flavor deepens upon standing. You may like it even better the next day.

Enjoy!

Vegetable Medley Stew

Now that summer is on the way, I’m thinking about gardening and veggies and mounds of fresh produce.  It’s still a little bit chilly out, though, so I’m also still enjoying warm dishes hot off the stove.

In keeping with the winter-to-spring transition, this Vegetable Medley Stew is a cross-seasonal dish — it’s warm and hearty like a winter stew, but is chock-full of veggies and could easily be lightened into a peak-of-summer soup by adding more broth and fewer grains.  Likewise, you could season the stew/soup with whatever fresh herbs you have on hand rather than using dried sage (although the sage imparts a subtle lemony tang).  And with the addition of grains and lentils, the stew is both fragrant and satisfying…and will be for several days, because the flavors will deepen as the soup sits in the fridge.  Just add more broth when reheating if the veggies and grains have absorbed too much liquid for your taste.

Vegetable Medley Stew
Serves at least 4 as a main course.

1 large onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
32 oz. vegetable stock (or chicken or beef, preferably from pastured animals)
15 oz. diced tomatoes
1 zucchini (or yellow squash), chopped
1/2 cup dried lentils
1/2 cup steel-cut oats (choose gluten-free oats if you want this to be a gluten-free dish)
1 tsp. dried sage
Sea salt and freshly-cracked pepper to taste
1 cup curly spinach, coarsely chopped

In a large stockpot over medium-high heat, sautée onion and carrot in a pat of ghee or butter for about 5 minutes or until onion is soft and translucent. Stir in stock, scraping the bottom of the pan to deglaze it and bring those caramelized flavors into the liquid. Stir in tomatoes, zucchini, lentil, oats, and sage. Simmer for 30 minutes or until oats and lentils are tender. If it looks like the stew is getting too thick for your taste and you’d prefer a lighter soup, add another cup or two of stock (or water).

Season stew with salt and pepper to taste, then quickly stir in spinach. Take pot off heat and let sit for 3 minutes to soften the spinach. (The stew will still be hot enough to “cook” it.)

Serve hot, garnishing each bowl with a spoonful of a creamy cheese such as fresh mozzarella or soft goat cheese if you’d like.

Enjoy!

Mexican Mole Stew

Although we’ve become accustomed to the taste and style of European-made chocolates (most American chocolatiers stick to Continental methods when it comes to cocoa), the great chocolate traditions originally came from Mexico — specifically, the Aztec civilization.  They drank their chocolate unsweetened, accenting their frothing cups with chilies, cinnamon, and vanilla rather than sugar. Not surprisingly, their richly-blended hot chocolate beverages were the province of the ruling class.

Remnants of that penchant for combining cocoa and spices can still be tasted in today’s Mexican mole family of sauces.  They’re flavorful and thick (although not chunky) and are particularly popular with chicken.  Although many sauces qualify as “mole” from the standpoint of being a type of sauce — guacamole, for one — in modern culinary parlance, mole refers to the tomato-based sauce that also contains cocoa powder, crushed chiles, and cinnamon.

Whether you use a sweet chile like sweet paprika (which is dried sweet red bell peppers) or one that’s closer to cayenne is up to you.  Also, since certain brands of chili powder are blends of chile pepper and red pepper that have already been underscored by cocoa, cinnamon, and cloves, sometimes just choosing the right chili powder can give your dishes a bit of a mole feel.  You can also make your own Aztec version of hot chocolate by adding cinnamon, cloves, and a hint of cayenne.

Mexican Mole Stew

1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, cut into thin rounds
2 T. chili powder, preferably Spice Hunter
1 T. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. sea salt
32 oz. broth (can be vegetable, chicken, or beef, although if it’s the latter two, preferably broth from free-range animals)
15 oz. canned black beans (the Eden line of canned beans is BPA-free)
15 oz. canned diced tomatoes
3/4 cup frozen peas
3/4 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 cup pasta (corn pasta happens to go wonderfully with this recipe and is gluten-free, but any whole-grain pasta is fine)
Lime juice to garnish

In a stockpot or large soup pot, sautée onion in 1 T. butter or ghee over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until onion is soft. Add garlic, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook for another 2 minutes. Stir in spices and cook for another minute. (Heating the spices in the fat gives them a chance to release their essential oils and therefore their flavors.)

Stir in broth, vegetables, and almonds. Since I use Eden beans — which are in BPA-free cans and are only seasoned with kombu seaweed and sea salt — I like to add the entire undrained can of beans, but that’s up to you. (I find that the bean “juice” thickens the stew nicely.) Let stew simmer for about 20-30 minutes. More time won’t hurt a bit, so if you want to let it happily burble away while you tend to other matters, feel free. Stews like this taste even better when they’re cooked for a long time. (They’re also delicious the next day, after they’ve “married”!)

Check the noodle package to see how much cooking time your pasta requires and add it accordingly. If the noodles require 10 minutes, for example, stir them in 10 minutes before serving, then immediately remove stew from stove.

(Note: if you’d like to make this a meat stew, feel free to stir in strips/cubes of leftover cooked meat when you add the pasta. If you have a tougher cut of meat in mind — i.e., one that will benefit from long cooking — cook it at the very beginning with the onions and let it stay in the pot the entire time. I often brown oxtails at the beginning if I want to turn the vegetable stock into beef stock.)

Squeeze a squirt of fresh lime juice into each bowl before serving. You could also serve the stew with sour cream, cheese, or fresh cilantro.

Enjoy!

Scottish Winter Stew

Americans eat oats for breakfast and in the occasional cookie.  Scots eat them for breakfast, too…and for lunch and dinner and everything in between.  They eat them in scones and stews and porridges and even with fish.  And why not?  Not only are oats one of the most nutrient-rich grains on the planet, they have a wonderful habit of transforming watery soups into thick, satisfying stews.  (Steel-cut oats or whole oats, that is — the rolled variety has usually had its outer bran removed, and much of that thickening power lies in the bran.)

Steel-cut oats are pretty easy to find these days; you might even come across gluten-free oats, which have been grown and processed in their own fields and factories rather than being grown and processed alongside wheat.  Given the plenitude and reasonable cost of oats — not to mention their flavor and versatility — we could take some valuable lessons from the Scots!  Besides, cold winter days seem a lot less colder if you have a pot of hot stew simmering on the stove. Roasting the vegetables is optional, but again, why not drive off the chill of winter with some warm, aromatic roasting? Slow-roasted vegetables will also add a deeper, more umami-rich flavor to your stew.

Scottish Winter Stew

4 stalks celery, cut into 2″-long pieces (do not cut down the centers of the stalks as this would make the pieces too small for roasting)*
1 large onion, cut into thick rounds*
4 carrots, cut into 2″-long pieces (only split very wide chunks in half; leave the tips intact)*
1 knob celeriac/celery root, cut into 1″ cubes (optional)*

In a glass pan (or several pans), toss veggies with peanut oil, sea salt, and freshly-cracked pepper. Roast at 375 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until veggies are a golden brown, stirring at 15-minute intervals.

While veggies are roasting, get the soup going:

3 cloves garlic, sliced into thin rounds
8 oz. shiitake or button mushrooms, sliced
1 large tomato, chopped
4 c. chicken broth, preferably from free-range chickens
2 tsp. (combined) of any or all of these spices: thyme, winter savory, sage
Roasted vegetables (see above)
1/2 cup uncooked steel-cut oats

In a large soup pot, sautée garlic in butter or ghee on medium-low heat for about 2 minutes or until garlic is softened and fragrant. Add mushrooms and tomato and continue to cook, stirring often, for about 5 more minutes. Add chicken broth, spices, and roasted vegetables.** Increase heat to high and wait for the soup to barely come to a boil; when it does, notch the heat back down to medium-low and let it simmer for at least 10 minutes.  (This can be your holding point if you’re making the stew ahead of time — just let it quietly simmer for up to an hour.  You may need to add another cup of broth or water to the stew before adding the oats.)

When you’re about 20 minutes away from wanting to serve the stew, add the oats and let it simmer for another 15-20 minutes or until the oats are cooked through to your satisfaction. (I prefer mine to remain a bit toothsome.) Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

* If you’re sautéeing these veggies rather than roasting them, cut them into smaller pieces so that they will cook through when you pan-fry them.

** Also note that you can make use of any roasted veggie for this recipe: leeks, mushrooms, red peppers, corn, green beans…whatever you like and/or happen to have on hand. (A great way to use up leftover roasted veggies!)

Once Harira, Now Lasagna

The next time you have a big pot of chili or stew — in this case, I had made a batch of Moroccan harira — try creating a quick lasagna/casserole with your tasty leftovers.  All you have to do is cook some noodles (anything from penne to ziti to linguini), layer the noodles and stew in a greased baking pan, top with a cheese of your choice, and bake.  If you’d like to get really fancy, you can make a cheese sauce by beginning with a roux and adding enough cheese to it to make it a velvety consistency.  If you’re not inclined to whip up a cheese sauce, however, simply sprinkle or crumble your cheese of choice on top of the sauced noodles.  Bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until the top is bubbly and golden brown.

Some combination ideas:

Mexican:  corn pasta with chili and jalapeño Monterrey Jack cheese

Mediterranean:  wheat pasta with harira and a blend of Kasseri and Feta cheeses

Coastal:  rice pasta with chunky fish stew and farmer’s cheese

French:  semolina pasta with ratatouille and Brie

British Isles:  wheat pasta with Irish stew and mature Cheddar

Just poke around your fridge and pantry to see what you can find — no doubt you’ll be surprised at the quick dinner possibilities you already have in your kitchen!

A Tomato Lover's Stew

This African-influenced stew hovers somewhere between being a thick, Italian pomodoro sauce and American chili. You can spoon it over rice or couscous, serve it with crispy flatbread (in this case, a toasted pita with Parmesan cheese), or eat it all on its own. Be sure, though, to buy good-quality tomato sauce–it will be the foundation flavor for the entire dish. And although the lentils make it hearty enough not to need meat, you could also add leftover cooked chicken pieces to the stew if you’d like.

For the stew:

2 medium onions or 1 large onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 c. (8 oz.) mushrooms, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp. ginger
1 T. paprika
dash of crushed red pepper
15-oz. can of tomato sauce
4 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup corn kernels (fresh or frozen)
1 cup dried lentils (the red variety makes for a nice change of pace if you can find it)

Sauteé onions and pepper with 1 T. olive oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes. Add garlic and mushrooms and continue to cook, stirring, for another 4-5 minutes or until mushrooms have cooked through. Stir in spices. Sauteé for another minute or two, then add tomato sauce and corn. Carefully pour in stock and stir in the lentils. Reduce heat to low, then cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or until lentils are soft. (Check package for exact cooking time.)

Serving option: place a handful of baby spinach leaves into each soupbowl and ladle the steaming-hot soup over them just before serving. Top with freshly-chopped Feta. (The kind in the brine is far, far more flavorful than the pre-dried, pre-crumbled variety.)

Enjoy!

Nutty Southwestern Turkey Stew

Adding almonds to chili may seem odd, but their smooth character provides an intriguing contrast to the piquancy of the dish.  So does the sesame paste…although you may want to use actual seeds if you’re a big fan of crunchiness.  Cinnamon and chiles combine to form a spicy backdrop to the mellow chicken broth base.

Note:  this recipe makes enough for two, but you may want to double or triple that depending on how much leftover turkey you have and whether or not you’d like stew again the next day.  The good news is that it’s even better after it has sat overnight!

For the stew:

1 T. olive oil

2 medium onions OR 1 large onion, sliced

3 cloves of garlic

1 4-oz. can of green chiles

1 whole cinnamon stick

1 tsp. coriander

1 T. chili powder

Dash of cloves (less than 1/8 tsp.)

2 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup tomato sauce

2 T. sesame paste (tahini)

1 cup leftover turkey, coarsely chopped (or you could use chicken)

1/3 cup sliced almonds

Sauteé onions in oil over medium-high heat for about 2 minutes or until they start to turn translucent.  Add garlic and chiles and continue cooking for another 2 minutes.  Add spices; they should become very fragrant in less than a minute.  Carefully pour in broth.  Add tomato sauce and stir in the sesame paste, mixing it in thoroughly.  Add turkey and almonds.

Turn down heat to a very low setting and cover the pot.  Let it simmer for at least 30 minutes (an hour is better) before serving, being sure to stir it once in a while.  You might need to add more chicken broth if it looks like it’s getting too thick.  Serve with chopped green onions and/or a dollop of Greek yogurt.

Enjoy!