With work, travel for work, being sick for a bit, and getting 2 more tranches of our stuff from overseas, I haven’t made time to update this blog for a while. We’ve cooked and eaten lots of good stuff in the interceding weeks, and I’ll just touch on some highlights.
At Giant we found cheap marrow bone rounds about an inch thick. My husband put a pan on high heat and seared them off on both sides, added in mire poix, bay leaves, whole black peppercorns, and lots of water, brought to a boil, then turned down and simmered, for a gorgeous fond brun. The it got a squirt of tomato paste and was reduced further to make demi glace. We made sure to shove out any stuck marrow into the liquid before discarding the bones. Voila, the perfect base for sublime deliciousness.
That night, we made an amazing beef stew. In a ziploc, I put in a little flour along with some dried mustard, thyme, rosemary, and parsley. I added in cubed stewing beef and shook it about. In a big pot, I let some oil and butter heat up, and then seared off the meat. I then added chunks of potato, turnip, and carrot, and softened them a touch. I deglazed with some red wine, then poured in some of that lovely demi glace. Threw in fresh thyme, a dried bay leaf, a good dollop of dijon mustard, salt, and pepper, and let it cook for 75 minutes or so.
Added in chunks of mushroom and let it go another half hour. 
Ladled it out and topped with shavings of fresh horseradish.
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It was the perfect sick day food– rich, hearty, nourishing, and with a little kick to help clear the sinuses.
We froze the unused demi glace, and I’d had it in mind for a while to make French onion soup with it. Some light Googling led me to a revelation. It’s possible to caramelize onions in a slow cooker. That’s a full-on game changer, y’all. So, of an evening, I sliced up a big old mess of onions, and threw them in the slow cooker with a large knob of butter, some oil, a few sprigs of thyme, and some salt and pepper, set it to low, and let it go all night. I woke up to lovely smelling, browned, softened onions. A good bit of liquid and not quite as “roasty” as pan caramelized, but with a fraction of the active time/work, a totally worthy substitute, in my view. I plan to make batches and freeze at some point.
Anyway, in the morning, I dumped in the demi glace stock, and set the time to 9 hours on low. I came home to an indescribably delicious smell. To finish, the soup just needed a few glugs of Worcestershire and good balsamic, as well as salt and pepper. SO GOOD!
But I’m not one to stop at simply nom when we could do a little work and go full-on nomgasmic. We’d had a couple of frozen steaks which were of good quality, but somehow slightly disappointing as steak, with a bit too much gristle. For the second pair of them, I let them partially defrost and then sliced them very thin with a sharp knife (easier when still a bit frozen!). I got a cast iron pan going with some garlic oil, and sauteed mushrooms. I turned the heat up and added the thin-sliced steak. I also added some mustard, Worcestershire, and prepared horseradish, as well as salt and pepper. I let it cook through and allowed most of the liquid to evaporate.
I then pre-heated the oven and cut thick slices of good sourdough bread. I loaded the meat mix onto the bread, and tore off bits of taleggio cheese which I added on top. I popped it in the oven for the magic to happen.
When it was ready, I floated the open-faced cheesesteaks on the French onion soup:
The bread soaked up the goodness, but since it was thick-cut, hearty bread, it retained enough structural integrity that we could grab it and take bites. Oh man was this incredible. Melty cheese; tender, savory meat and mushrooms; toothsome bread with the right amounts of crunchy and chewy; and umami-licious soup. It’s like French onion soup and a cheesesteak and a French dip were on the Island of Dr. Moreau to be fused into a delectable Frankenfood. Seriously, you should make some version of this meal in the cold season.
We also had another great “slow cooker plus” meal at some point in the past few weeks. It started with crockpot pork shoulder, which went in with onions, bell peppers, a couple of canned chipotles in adobo, canned tomatoes, naranja (sour orange juice), a little bunch of culantro (a bit like cilantro but its own thing), ancho chili powder, Mexican oregano, cumin, cinnamon, salt, and pepper. Cooked on slow all day. When I got home, I pulled out the pork and shredded it with 2 forks. Then I took corn tortillas and briefly dipped them in the cooking liquid, filled with shredded pork and crumbled queso fresco, and rolled. I placed them close together in a baking dish. Spooned on some of the cooking liquid, some jarred salsa, and some crema. Added shredded cheddar on top and baked up. Those enchiladas were stupidly tasty, and did not need the guacamole we added on top, though that didn’t hurt.
We also found time these last weeks to take a couple of cooking classes at Sur La Table, which I’ve really enjoyed. From the Spanish meal, I especially loved a salad which has you roast off chunks of peeled pear with thyme and olive oil to puree into the dressing which includes olive oil, honey, and sherry vinegar. It gets drizzled over chunks of pear, Serrano ham, and Marcona almonds along with a heap of baby spinach. The flan was also excellent! And just this morning we learned about the complex joys of laminated dough, which is how you make croissants from scratch. Yum and then some.
I won’t say I’m entirely caught up on my culinary reporting, but that’s more then enough for now!