My Word with Douglas E. Welch

This recipe, found on the Food Wishes YouTube Channel, is all about the WOW! You will definitely be surprised by the amount of black pepper it uses, but once it is braised for several hours it all mellows in a wonderful flavor with a little bit of heat on the finish.

I made mine with a simple pot roast from the grocery, instead of the short ribs used in the video, but it came out wonderfully. I just cut the roast into about 6 large chunks. I would made it with short ribs though for anyone who might especially like them.

While this certainly takes a lot of time to cook, it doesn’t require a lot of attention. I did strain the sauce at the end before cooking it down as the rosemary had disintegrated and I personally don’t like chunks of rosemary needles in my food.

My version, just getting started

I served mine over polenta, just like the video. I have been using this accompaniment for braised meats and such for a long time. It is a great way of capturing all the juices, and the flavor they bring to the dish.

This is a wonderful collection of flavors and while I don’t often eat large cuts of meat like this, it is definitely a recipe I will make again!

One tip: If you don’t have a tight fitting lid for your large skillet or dutch oven, seal the top with aluminum foil and then cover with the existing lid and crimp the edges of the foil. This really helps keep all the moist, juicy, goodness inside over the long cooking time.

My largest skillet with foil seal. The foil covers the entire top and then is crimped at the edges.

Peposo dell’Impruneta (Italian Black Pepper Beef)

Food Wishes Finished Version

Some recipes have amusing, or romantic stories for how they came to be, but this peposo isn’t one of them, unless you consider making bad quality beef taste better by covering it in black pepper, amusing or romantic.

As the story goes, the workers who made terracotta tiles in the city of Impruneta, would place this stew into clay pots, and leave it their still-hot kilns overnight, where it would be ready the next morning. Since they were often stuck using less than fresh meat, copious amounts of black peppercorn was used to make the beef palatable.

Read this entire blog post – Peposo dell’Impruneta – Making Bad Beef Better Since Before Columbus on Food Wishes

Recipe: Peposo dell’Impruneta (Italian Black Pepper Beef)

Ingredients for 6 portions:

6 bone-in beef short ribs (about 8 to 10 ounces each)
1 tablespoon kosher salt to coat the beef
8 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 tablespoons black peppercorns, freshly crushed
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
3-4 sage leaves
3-4 small sprigs rosemary
2 cups red wine, preferably Chianti
2 bay leaves
salt to taste, to adjust sauce

Simmer on low, covered, about 3 1/2 hours, or until fork tender. Turn occasionally.

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Maple-Walnut Apple Crisp – Served

Our neighbor has two apple trees groaning with fruit. On our walk the other day, we asked them if we might have some of the fruit, since it appeared they weren’t harvesting it themselves. Sure enough, we found out they really didn’t care for the fruit, so we were given free reign to gather what we wished. The first bowl of fruit my wife gathered was turned into a large batch of applesauce. This second batch, though, becomes dessert for dinner with friend last night.

Apples on the tree

I went looking online for an Apple Crisp recipe to use for this batch of apples and, by happy synchronicity, came across a recipe that used 3 of my favorite ingredients — apple, walnuts and maple syrup. Win! I’ve included the recipe below.

The crisp came out very, very tasty. The juices were a bit thin. I wonder if mixing in a bit of the crisp mixture with the apples might help to soak up the juice and make the crisp a bit thicker. I would guess this has to do with the amount of apples and how juicy they are, too. That said, it didn’t effect the taste which was a perfect blend of apple, walnut and maple syrup.

It did take longer to cooking our over, going for 60 minutes instead of the 45 minutes listed in the recipe

Maple-Walnut Apple Crisp – Assembled

Maple-Walnut Apple Crisp – After Baking

Maple-Walnut Apple Crisp from My Recipes

For the crisp topping:

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup regular oats
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup chilled butter or stick margarine, cut into small pieces

For the apple filling:

3 tablespoons chopped walnuts
7 cups sliced peeled Rome apple (about 3 pounds)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions 

Preheat oven to 375°.

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, sugar, oats, and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon in a medium bowl; cut in butter with a pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture is crumbly. Stir in walnuts.

Combine apple and remaining ingredients in a large bowl; toss well. Spoon apple mixture into an 8-inch square baking dish or 1 1/2-quart casserole. Sprinkle with crumb mixture. Bake at 375° for 45 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.

We have been making pork shoulder, or in this case, pork loin in the crock pot for a while, but it took me some time to tie together the flavorful meat with warm, creamy (and sometimes, cheesy) polenta. I had first seen this done with Oso Bucco, but it only makes sense to do it with any sort of roast or stewed meat The polenta is a great starchy side and soaks up the flavorful juices of the meat.

My recipe for this dish is going to be much more vague than usual, mainly because it is simply so so easy.

Crockpot Pork Shoulder or Pork Loin

• 2 lbs pork shoulder or pork loin
• 1 cup Hard cider, beer, stock or any flavorful liquid
• Salt, Pepper and your favorite seasonings, to taste
• I used about 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp to 1tsp black pepper, several shakes of homemade Emeril’s Essence

Polenta (Italian Cornmeal Mush) based on the Joy of Cooking

• 1 cup regular cornmeal
• 4 cups water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 Tbls Butter
• 3oz Extra Sharp Chedder (or other favorite cheese)

Add salt to water. Bring water to  a boil. Slowly whisk in cornmeal. Bring back to boil, then lower to very low. Whisk quite frequently while it cooked until polenta creamy and no longer gritty to the tooth — around 40 mins. Once polenta is done, remove from hear and whisk in butter, cheese and black pepper.

Assembly

Spoon polenta into large bowl. Spoon over pork pieces and juices from crock pot. Add side vegetables directly to the bowl, if you wish. (I added green beans to mine, but forgot them when i took the picture.

We always have polenta left over, so we prepare a ceramic baking dish with cooking spray and spoon the remaining polenta into that. After an hour, the polenta will have set. We then cut it into squares to be stored in refrigerator of freezer for quick use with other pasta sauces or meats in place of pasta.

This dish is great at any time of the year, but especially as an easy, ready-to-eat dinner on those cold winter nights. Mix up the meats you use, spices, flavorful liquids you use until you find your favorites We have tried tomato-based sauces, balsamic vinegar sauces and more. It is pretty foolproof.

If you subscribe to my Pinterest page, my @douglaswelch Twitter account or my Google+ feed, you know that I am always finding recipes I want to try. This series, New Food, will highlight some of those finds as we make them for the first time in our own kitchen. Then, I’ll report back to you on the results — for better or worse! — Douglas

My version of Simple Soft and Chewy Ginger Cookies from One Perfect Bite

My version of Simple Soft and Chewy Ginger Cookies from One Perfect Bite

I am alway looking for new cookie recipes for my annual cookie party, but I am also trying to do a bit more baking throughout the year. These cookies looked so tasty, and the recipe so simple, it seemed and east and excellent cookie to try “just for the fun of it.” We were not disappointed with these cookies either. They are excellently spicy, crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside and well-balanced between sweet and spicy. The recipe worked perfectly, with the cookies coming out exactly as portrayed in the original blog post from One Perfect Bite. As someone who tries a lot of recipes, this is very welcome, as it isn’t always the case with many recipes.

Here are some process pictures from my baking and a slide show with all of my photos from this baking session.

Soft and Chewy Ginger Cookies

…from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Taste of Home magazine

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Additional sugar for rolling

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2) Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and molasses. In a separate bowl combine flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.

3) Roll into 1-1/2-inch balls, then roll in sugar. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until puffy, lightly browned and cracks appear. Remove to wire racks to cool. Yield: 2-1/2 dozen. 

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Previously on New Food:

• Humble Chicken Stew & Dumplings from Jamie Oliver
• Chicken Potato Veg Tray Bake from SortedFood.com
• Fried Radicchio with Chicken Breast – Leftover Mashup
• Radicchio Risotto
• Soft Pumpkin Ginger Cookies
• Video: Making Sparking Fruit Juice
• Cornflake Crusted Chicken Tenders
• Chocolate Porter Cake
• Slow Cooker Jambalaya
• Lentil and Sausage Stew
• Slim Scalloped Potatoes and Ham
• Sweet and Spicy Bacon Chicken
• Parmesan Paprika Potatoes

If you subscribe to my Pinterest page, my @douglaswelch Twitter account or my Google+ feed, you know that I am always finding recipes I want to try. This series, New Food, will highlight some of those finds as we make them for the first time in our own kitchen. Then, I’ll report back to you on the results — for better or worse! — Douglas

My version of Jamie Oliver’s Humble Chicken Stew & Dumplings

I recently came across this recipes from Jamie Oliver’s Save with Jamie, his most recent cookbook and it touched a chord with my wife and I.

She is a big lover of stews and soups, but I hadn’t really found a stew recipe that I really liked. Her own family recipe didn’t really work for me, so I thought this one was certainly worth a try. It ended up being quite tasty and provides a good jumping-off point for modifications and enhancements. I love this in a recipe, as one recipe gives me both interest and opportunity in exploring additional possibilities. I would say that this will probably make its way into our regular meal rotation. I am already thinking about addition additional veg, maybe some smoked sausage and other flavorful ingredients. It was easy to make and the majority of the time cooking is unattended in the over. I made this in a large, covered skillet in order to save on extra dishes and cleaning afterwards.

Humble chicken stew & dumplings by Oliver

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 leftover chicken carcass, plus up to 300g leftover cooked chicken
4 rashers of higher-welfare smoked streaky bacon
olive oil
2 onions
3 large carrots
2 potatoes, or 250g of celeriac
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
2 fresh bay leaves
200 g of button mushrooms
1 heaped tablespoon of plain flour

250 g self-raising flour
125 g cold unsalted butter

Method

Strip all the meat you can find off the chicken carcass, and put aside. Place the carcass and any bones in a large pan and use a rolling pin to smash them all up. Cover with 1 litre of water, bring to the boil, then simmer for at least 30 minutes, skimming away any scum from the surface.

Meanwhile, finely slice the bacon and place in a large casserole pan on a medium heat with a lug of oil, while you peel and chop the onions, carrots, and potatoes or celeriac into 2cm dice. Add to the pan along with the thyme sprigs and bay leaves. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring regularly. Halve and stir in the mushrooms, along with the leftover chicken and plain flour. Pour the stock through a sieve straight into the pan (topping up with a little water, if needed) and let it simmer for 20 minutes, or until thick and delicious, while you start your dumplings.

Place the self-raising flour and a pinch of salt in a mixing bowl. Coarsely grate in the butter and rub together until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add 100ml of cold water and bring into a ball of dough. Divide into 12 pieces and roll into balls.

When the time’s up, loosen the stew with a good splash of water if needed, season to perfection, then transfer it to an ovenproof pan and place the balls on top. Pop the lid on and bake at 190°C/375°F/gas 5 for 30 minutes, or until hot through and the dumplings are fluffy and cooked. Serve with some seasonal greens.

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Previously on New Food:

• Chicken Potato Veg Tray Bake from SortedFood.com
• Fried Radicchio with Chicken Breast – Leftover Mashup
• Radicchio Risotto
• Soft Pumpkin Ginger Cookies
• Video: Making Sparking Fruit Juice
• Cornflake Crusted Chicken Tenders
• Chocolate Porter Cake
• Slow Cooker Jambalaya
• Lentil and Sausage Stew
• Slim Scalloped Potatoes and Ham
• Sweet and Spicy Bacon Chicken
• Parmesan Paprika Potatoes

My latest cookbook, Recipes in Rotation, is now available from Bakespace’s Cookbook Cafe iPad app and web site. This contains 15 recipes first seen in the Recipes in Rotation series here on My Word with Douglas E. Welch. The cookbook is available for free.

You can download the Cookbook Cafe iPad app from the iTunes App Store  and then “buy” the cookbook from within the app or access the cookbook directly from the Bakespace.com web site.

Recipes in Rotation are the recipes we use most frequently here at our house. These recipes are in a special notebook that is always close at hand. While we often try to add new food to our family rotation (See the New Food series, also here on My Word), these are the standards we return to again and again.

Recipes in Rotation joins my previous 2 cookbooks for Cookbook Cafe:

I’m Making Cookies | Sharing Christmas with Friends

If you subscribe to my Pinterest page, my @douglaswelch Twitter account or my Google+ feed, you know that I am always finding recipes I want to try. This series, New Food, will highlight some of those finds as we make them for the first time in our own kitchen. Then, I’ll report back to you on the results — for better or worse! — Douglas

Chicken Potato Veg Tray Bake

I discovered Sorted (Sortedfood.com) when they became part of Jamie Oliver’s Food Tube network on YouTube. I have made several great discoveries there and the guys at Sorted not only have great food, but they also have great presentation in their shows. Check them out on YouTube.

Since Sorted has several videos on various “tray bakes”, I would guess that this is a phrase and meal that is common in the UK. It is so simple and makes a great idea for a relatively quick and easy  evening meal. It is basically chopping and roasting. It lends itself to nearly any combination of veg, so you can feel free to pick your favorites and whatever happens to be coming out of the shops or your garden during any particular season. Sorted also has a meatball tray bake that we all be trying vey soon, I am sure.

I did our tray bake on a large half sheet pan so that there was plenty of room to speed out the meat and veg so that it could get a little brown and crispy along the edges. Their original recipe calls for whole chicken breast, but I preferred to chop the chicken great into small cubes so that you would get a portion of meat and veg in each serving. My adaptation of their recipe is below.

Original recipe from SortedFood.com | Sorted on YouTube | SortedFood Web Site

Chicken Potato Veg Tray Bake

Ingredients

• medium white onion, sliced and separated into shreds
• two fistfuls of new potatoes, diced into medium chunks
• two sweet potatoes, diced into medium chunks
• 1 cup chopped carrots (or use whole baby carrots)
• shot of olive oil
• 2 chicken breasts, diced into medium to large chunks
• salt, pepper and some creole spice mix
• ½ a bulb of garlic
• Sliced lemons and lemon juice

Instructions

• preheat the oven to 400F
• peel and slice online into thin slices, separate into shred and spread over oiled tray
• scrub the potatoes, dice into medium to large pieces, toss in the oil with some salt, pepper and creole spice. 
• lay onions, potatoes, carrots and garlic on a roasting tray and roast for about 20 minutes in the oven. 
• prepare the chicken breasts by cutting away any fat or sinew, spicing with salt, pepper and creole seasoning, then dice into bit-sized pieces. 
• take the potatoes (still only half cooked) out of the oven and scatter the roasting tray with the chicken, lemon slices and lemon juice.
• stick the tray back into the oven for about 20 minutes until the chicken and veg are cooked through. 

Serves 4 

Want more food content? — Join me each Thursday for #KitchenParty live at 8pm EST/5pm PST.

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Circle Douglas on Google+

Previously on New Food:

• Fried Radicchio with Chicken Breast – Leftover Mashup
• Radicchio Risotto
• Soft Pumpkin Ginger Cookies
• Video: Making Sparking Fruit Juice
• Cornflake Crusted Chicken Tenders
• Chocolate Porter Cake
• Slow Cooker Jambalaya
• Lentil and Sausage Stew
• Slim Scalloped Potatoes and Ham
• Sweet and Spicy Bacon Chicken
• Parmesan Paprika Potatoes

If you subscribe to my Pinterest page, my @douglaswelch Twitter account or my Google+ feed, you know that I am always finding recipes I want to try. This series, New Food, will highlight some of those finds as we make them for the first time in our own kitchen. Then, I’ll report back to you on the results — for better or worse! — Douglas

Fried Radicchio with Chicken Breast – Leftover Mashup

Today’s recipe is a bit of a mashup from last week. We cook at home a lot, so there are always significant leftovers to be put to use. For today’s lunch, I poked around in the fridge and came up with this leftover mashup.

First you take some of the friend radicchio from last week’s Radicchio Risotto. Then, fry or grill some boneless chicken breast. We had some left over from our chicken, mashed potato, veg dinner a few nights ago. Heat these up together, add a bit more spice, or different spices as you desire. I added some more salt and black pepper (which I love) to balance the relative sweetness of the radicchio. You could also add in some balsamic vinegar. I don’t use this when making the radicchio for the risotto, as I think the vinegar would overpower the risotto. In this mashup, though, I think it would bring a nice kick to the flavors.

Fried Radicchio with Chicken Breast – Leftover Mashup

Ingredients

1 head radiccchio
1 Tblsp Olive Oil
1/2 cup white wine
Salt
Pepper
*Balsamic vinegar (optional)

Mozzarella or Parmesan Cheese

Pre-cooked fried, baked or grilled chicken bread (1-4 depending on how many people you are serving) 

Instructions

Chop radicchio into strands. Heat 1Tbls olive oil in skillet
Add salt and pepper to taste
Toss with tongs until wilted
Add 1/2 cup white wine
Cook until wine is absorbed an evaporated.
Add 1 tdsp balsamic vinegar, if desired

Slice or chop cooked chicken breast and add to radicchio to reheats

Plat up and top with mozzarella or parmesan cheese, if desired

Want more food content? — Join me each Thursday for #KitchenParty live at 8pm EST/5pm PST.

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Previously on New Food:

• Radicchio Risotto
• Soft Pumpkin Ginger Cookies
• Video: Making Sparking Fruit Juice
• Cornflake Crusted Chicken Tenders
• Chocolate Porter Cake
• Slow Cooker Jambalaya
• Lentil and Sausage Stew
• Slim Scalloped Potatoes and Ham
• Sweet and Spicy Bacon Chicken
• Parmesan Paprika Potatoes

Here is a playlist of all the videos I produced in February 2013.

You can find all my past videos on my YouTube Channel. If you enjoy a video, please click the Like button or Subscribe to the YouTube Channel. Doing that directly effects how many other people see my videos.

f you subscribe to my Pinterest page, my @douglaswelch Twitter account or my Google+ feed, you know that I am always finding recipes I want to try. This series, New Food, will highlight some of those finds as we make them for the first time in our own kitchen. Then, I’ll report back to you on the results — for better or worse! — Douglas

Radicchio Risotto

This New Food combines a bit of the old and a bit of the new. We make several different risottos already so when I saw a similar recipe I knew I could simply make our usual Risotto Milanese, sans the saffron, and ad the radicchio. Somehow I just knew that it would all work together even in this modified version and I was right. This is definitely a dish we will make again and it is gives us yet one more risotto variation to add to our Recipes in Rotation.

(View this recipe on Bakespace.com)

Radicchio Risotto

Ingredients

1 head radiccchio
1 Tblsp Olive Oil
1/2 cup white wine

1 quart meat or vegetable broth
1 medium onion
2 Tblsp Olive Oil
2 cups Arborio rice
Salt
Pepper
2 Tblsp butter
1/4 Parmesan cheese 

Instructions

In separate sauce pan, heat broth to steaming then turn to low
Finely chop the onion and add to large heavy-bottomed pan along with 2 Tbls of olive oil
Cook over medium-high heat until translucent and soft
Add rice, stir to coat in oil and butter and sauté for a short time (1 min)
Add first 1/2 cup ladle of warm stock to rice
Stir regularly to prevent sticking.
As the rice absorbs each ladle of stock, add 1/2 cup more.
Cook slowly to allow rice to develop a creaminess. 

Chop radicchio into strands. Heat 1Tbls olive oil in skillet
Add salt and pepper to taste
Toss with tongs until wilted
Add 1/2 cup white wine
Cook until wine is absorbed an evaporated.

Continue adding stock to risotto in 1/2 cup measures until rice is al dente, with the slightest bit of crunch.
Once rice is done to your taste, remove from heat, stir in butter and parmesan cheese.

Stir radicchio into risotto or simply use tongs to add to the top of plate or bowl. 

More risotto information

Want more food content? — Join me each Thursday for #KitchenParty live at 8pm EST/5pm PST.

Follow Douglas on Twitter
Circle Douglas on Google+

Previously on New Food:

• Soft Pumpkin Ginger Cookies
• Video: Making Sparking Fruit Juice
• Cornflake Crusted Chicken Tenders
• Chocolate Porter Cake
• Slow Cooker Jambalaya
• Lentil and Sausage Stew
• Slim Scalloped Potatoes and Ham
• Sweet and Spicy Bacon Chicken
• Parmesan Paprika Potatoes