Steak, Potatoes and Spinach with Blue Cheese

So... it's been a while.

Let me see if I can catch you all up in just a few sentences...
I'm two years older.
I've had a baby. She's adorable and getting cuter every day.
I've done a lot of decluttering and reorganizing to streamline my life.

I think that about sums it up.

Now, on to the reason for the post.

Isn't that gorgeous.  I made up some of it, and while I was cooking I said to my husband, "if this turns out well, I'm totally going to make a lazy wife post about it."  And it turned out amazing.

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Steaks with Red Wine butter - derived from Les Halles cookbook by Anthony Bourdain
The following measurements are not exact and should be tweaked to suit your own tastes.

1 small red onion (the original recipe calls for shallots)
1 cup red wine (I used Merlot, you can get inexpensive red wine but make sure its something you wouldn't mind drinking)
Salt
2 sticks of butter

Enough steak to feed your family
Salt & Pepper

To make the flavored butter:
Mince your onion, and put it in a pan, and a pinch or two of salt (depending on your tastes).  Add the wine and bring up to a simmer.  Stir occasionally until the wine has almost completely evaporated. Cool to room temperature. Soften the butter and blend the butter with the onion.  You can do this in a food processor, or a mixer, or by hand.  Just make sure it's fully incorporated and there's no large sections of plain butter.  Then get out some parchment paper or plastic wrap, and make a log out of the flavored butter and chill in the fridge.
You can also freeze the butter and use it at a later time - I have a bit in my freezer that I pull out any time I want some quick, easy, and delicious steak.

For the meat:
Salt and pepper one side of the steaks.  I like using top sirloin, but you can use whatever steak you like. Preheat your oven to 350.  Also, preheat an oven safe pan on the stove - I have a lovely cast iron skillet that works great.  Once the pan is hot, sear the seasoned side of the meat and season the other side with salt and pepper.  Sear all sides and then put the pan in the oven and cook until it's done to your liking.  My husband likes his steak well done, so I get everything else going before I turn the oven off and take the meat out to rest.  Once the meat is done, take it out of the oven and put a nice pat of butter on top and let the meat rest for 5 - 10 minutes so all the delicious juices get redistributed and the butter melts.  Mmmmmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Pan Fried Potatoes and Onions
I eat this for breakfast most days with a fried egg, but they're just as delicious for dinner.

3-4 medium sized Yukon Gold Potatoes (about 1 medium potato per person)
1 medium-large onion
1 Tbsp butter (you can use the wine butter in place of regular butter)
Dried Thyme (optional)
Salt

I use a 10" ceramic non-stick skillet for this recipe.  Preheat your pan on medium heat.  Chop your potatoes and onion into bite sized cubes (for breakfast, I like to slice them more thinly) Melt the butter in your preheated pan. Add the onion and potatoes, and sprinkle a pinch or two of salt and dried thyme.  Cover, stirring occasionally (or do that awesome chef-flick to flip everything) until the potatoes are soft.  Then remove the cover and still stirring occasionally, cook until it gets deliciously caramelized and browned - you may have to turn the heat down so it doesn't get blackened.

Creamed Spinach with Blue Cheese
I just made this up last night, so my recipe is very inexact.

1 bag frozen chopped spinach
1 tsp better than bullion chicken broth
1/2 tsp garlic powder (more or less depending on how much you like garlic)
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles

In a sauce pan on low/med-low heat, add frozen spinach, chicken broth, garlic powder - put the cover on until the spinach has thawed.  Once thawed, add milk and stir occasionally while it simmers for about 15 min.  Add the blue cheese and stir to melt it in.


Then you serve it all up and feel like you're eating at a 5 star restaurant.  I'm so glad I added that blue cheese to the spinach... and I'm also glad that I made enough last night that I have left overs to eat for lunch today :)

Hummus

My husband was recently bothering me because I had not made hummus last semester.  So, by request, I made hummus today.

Hummus is a Middle Eastern staple food.  When eaten with bread it makes a complete protein, which is awesome especially if you're vegetarian or vegan (though understandably less awesome if you suffer from Celiac disease).  Hummus is actually pretty easy to make.  It relies heavily on taste... so be sure you're tasting as you go.  So, here's my recipe, feel free to play with it and adjust as you like.

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Hummus, ala the Lazy Wife

1 lb bag dried chickpeas (you can, of course, use canned chickpeas, dried are sometimes cheaper)
Water
1 head of Garlic, minced
The juice of 2 Lemons
1/3 - 1/2 cup Tahini (Sesame seed paste)
1/2 cup Olive Oil
Salt to taste
Optional Hand full of Sun Dried Tomato, Red Pepper, Paprika, Basil, Avocado, Chipotle pepper, etc.

For the Hummus purists (No optional extras):
Soak the dry chickpeas in water overnight.  Drain the old water and cover the now plumped peas with water by about an inch over the level of the peas... it's not important to get the water quantity exact for these steps, just to make sure the peas absorb as much water as they need to become soft.  Bring the peas to a boil, cover and reduce heat to simmer.

My chickpeas have always boil over... but uncovered they smell funny, so choose your poison.

Lower: cooked peas, top left: pea skins, top right: naked peas

Once the chickpeas are soft (30min - 2 hours). It really depends on how much attention I'm paying... when they're soft to the touch (squish one between your fingers after letting it cool and see if it mashes easily) turn off the heat and let them cool.

Hummus with Sun Dried Tomato and dried red pepper

Hummus with olive oil and paprika

When you can handle them, strain the chickpeas and prepare for the "fun" part.  Now, some people just leave them in water and roll them around in their fingers to remove the skins, because the skins, for the most part, rise to the top and can be skimmed off.  I, however, am a perfectionist.  I sit down and watch something while I squeeze the skin off of each and every pea.  My other reason for this is because I do not own a food processor, and mash the peas with a potato masher, and I get a better consistency when I remove every skin.  If you don't care about texture or are blessed with a food processor, then go ahead and remove as much of the skins in whatever way you like.

After removing all the skins, put the peas in a medium to large size bowl.  Add the garlic, lemon juice, tahini, olive oil and some salt, and mash until you get a nice smooth paste.

Some of the ingredient amounts can vary depending on how moist or dry your chickpeas are, and how much you like or dislike certain flavors.  I happen to LOVE garlic, so I used a whole head... just enough to almost give me heartburn.  If you don't like garlic so much, then use 1-5 cloves or whatever you like.

If you find the mashing is not giving you a nice smooth paste, then add a little more tahini, olive oil or lemon juice, depending also on what flavor you think is lacking.  You do have to play with it a little, to get the right taste for your pallet.

If you're feeling a little more adventurous,  you can experiment a little more.

Make the original recipe, but at the end stir in some chopped up sun dried tomato, or some red pepper, or avocado... I know at the farmer's market I used to go to, there was a guy that had all kinds of interesting flavors of hummus.

In most of the Middle Eastern restaurants I've been to, they serve hummus with olive oil and paprika on it.

If you can't find tahini (which I couldn't for a while where I am) I substituted smooth peanut butter!  I know!  Sounds totally crazy, right?!  Well, I did, but I used a little less peanut butter and a little more olive oil and lemon juice, and lots of garlic.  Once it sat for a day in the refrigerator, it tasted pretty much the same as regular hummus, with maybe a little more of a nutty aftertaste.

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The historical origins of Hummus are unknown.  The earliest verified description of hummus comes from 18th century Damascus.  There were probably similar recipes before the 18th century, and in fact, the Egyptians ate a similar dish that used vinegar instead of lemon juice (which was the ingredient that arrived in the middle east later than all the others).  But it is still unknown where or when hummus, as we know it today, was first made.

Chickpeas are GREAT! Chickpeas are a good source of zinc, folate, and protein.  They have a lot of dietary fiber and are a good source of carbohydrates (especially for people that are insulin sensitive/diabetics).  They also contain phosphorus, magnesium and iron.

Citations: Wikipedia: Hummus, Chickpea

Preparations of Duck throughout the years

A friend requested that I find any old recipes I had for duck, so let's talk about duck.

Wild ducks have been hunted for food, down, and feathers worldwide since prehistoric times.  In America during the 1800's, there became a thriving commercial waterfowl hunting industry because of the need for food and the vast supply of birds.  Currently, most ducks used for consumption are farm raised rather than wild.

Ducks have been farmed for thousands of years; most likely farming started in Southeast Asia. They are farmed for their meat, eggs, and down. A minority of ducks are also kept for foie gras production. Their eggs are blue-green to white depending on the breed.

Ducks are more expensive and less popular than chickens because they have less lean white meat and are more difficult to keep confined than chickens are. Duck appears less frequently in the mass market food industry and lower priced restaurants and stores because of it's higher price tag.  Duck is generally only popular in "haute cuisine." 

(citations: Wikipedia: Duck, Mallard, Domestic Duck)

I will now include the recipes I have found for Duck, plus a traditional meal plan and those other recipes as well.  At some point, I'm going to give some really awesome traditional dinner parties, so I can use all of these delicious sounding recipes, and post about them as well.

If you are at all interested in what cooking was like during and before the 1920's, you should check out  Seven Centuries of English Cooking: A Collection of Recipes by Maxime de la Falaise.  It's awesome, and has all kinds of interesting historical foods! 

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A Mallard, Smothered; from Seven Centuries of English Cooking, Gervase Markham, 1660:
A 3 pound Mallard or wild duck
2 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 cup stock
1 cup white wine
1/2 cup chopped mixed herbs
1/2 cup currants
1/2 cup chopped dates
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp powdered cinnamon
2 Tbsp wine vinegar or 1/2 cup gooseberries (or cranberries)
2 slices of toast, cut in sippets (A small piece of toast or bread soaked in gravy or other liquid or used as a garnish).

Dust the duck with flour and brown it in oil; brown the onions in the same oil. Braise the duck in the same pan and add the stock, wine and herbs. Simmer for about 1 hour; then add the currants and dates and simmer for another 30min or until the duck is tender.  Remove the bird and keep it warm.  Add the butter, sugar, cinnamon, wine vinegar or gooseberries, reduce the sauce and pour over the bird in a dish garnished with sippets.

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Duck with Horseradish; from Seven Centuries of English Cooking, Charles Carter, 1732:
A 4-4 1/2 pound duck
2 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp butter
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 cup grated Horseradish.
Garnish:
Freshly grated Horseradish
1 sliced lemon

Dust the duck with flour and brown it in the butter on all sides. Add the chicken stock and grated horseradish and simmer gently until the duck is tender.  Remove the duck and carve it.  Arrange the pieces on a warm serving dish, then skim the fat from the surface of the sauce and pour the sauce over the bird. Arrange the fresh horseradish at each end of the dish and the sliced lemon around the edges.

***

To Stuff and roast a Turkey, or Fowl; from The First American Cookbook, 1796:
One pound soft wheat bread
3 ounces beef suet
3 eggs
a little sweet thyme
sweet marjoram
pepper and salt
and some add a gill (1/2 cup) wine

fill the bird therewith and sew up, hang down to a steady solid fire, basting frequently with salt and water, and roast until a steam emits from the breast, put one third of a pound of butter into the gravy, dust flour over the bird and baste with the gravy; serve up with boiled onions and cranberry-sauce, mangoes (a name sometimes given to the cantaloupe; and often attributed to any vegetable or fruit: melon, squash, green pepper, etc. that can be stuffed and pickled), pickles or celery.
2. Others omit the sweet herbs, and add parsley done with potatoes.
3. Boil and mash 3 pints potatoes, wet them with butter, add sweet herbs, pepper, salt, fill and roast as above.

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To Stuff and Roast a Goslin; from The First American Cookbook, 1796:
Boil the inwards tender, chop them fine, put double quantity of grated bread, 4 ounces butter, pepper and salt, (sweet herbs if you like; sweet thyme, marjoram) 2 eggs moulded into the stuffing, parboil 4 onions and chop them into the stuffing, add wine, and roast the bird.  This is a good stuffing for every kind of Water Fowl, which requires onion sauce (or gravy cooked with onions).

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This one is also a great guide to historical (and modern) cooking.  It has everything!

Roast Duck Dinner Menu; from The 1896 Boston Cooking-School Cook Book:
Cream of Lima Bean Soup
Roast Duck
Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Cauliflower au Gratin
Rice Croquettes with Currant Jelly
Grapes, Pears, Crackers, Cheese, and Cafe Noir.

Cream of Lima Bean Soup
1 cup dried lima beans
3 pints cold water
2 slices onion
4 slices carrot
1 cup cream or milk
4 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Soak the beans overnight; in the morning drain and add cold water; cook until soft, and rub through a sieve. Cut vegetables in small cubes, and cook five minutes in half the butter; remove vegetables, add flour, salt, and pepper, and stir into boiling soup.  Add cream, reheat, strain, and add remaining butter in small pieces.

Roast Duck
Dress and clean a wild duck and truss. Place on rack in dripping-pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cover breast with two very thin slices fat salt pork. Bake twenty to thirty minutes in a very hot oven, basting every five minutes with fat in pan; cut string and remove string and skewers.
Serve with Orange or Olive Sauce. Currant jelly should accompany a duck course. Domestic ducks should always be well cooked, requiring little more than twice the time allowed for wild ducks.
Ducks are sometimes stuffed with apples, pared, cored, and cut in quarters, or three small onions may be put in the body of duck to improve flavor.  Neither apples nor onions are to be served.

Olive Sauce: Remove stones from 10 olives, leaving meat in one piece. Cover with boiling water and cook five minutes.  Drain olives, add 2 cups Brown Sauce*.

Orange Sauce:
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1 1/3 cups Brown Stock*
1/2 tsp salt
Juice from 2 Oranges
2 Tbsp sherry wine
Rind of 1 orange cut in fancy shapes
dash of cayenne

Brown the butter, add flour, with salt and cayenne, and stir until well browned. Add stock gradually, and just before serving, orange juice, sherry, and pieces of rind.

*Brown Sauce: 2 Tbsp butter, 1/2 slice onion, 2 1/2 Tbsp flour, 1 cup Brown Stock, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp pepper.  Cook onion in butter until slightly browned; remove onion and stir butter constantly until well browned; add flour mixed with seasonings, and brown the butter and flour then add stock gradually.

*Brown Stock: marrow bones, beef, poultry carcasses, carrots, turnips, leeks, celery, parsnips and onion. Simmered and skimmed for several hours producing a dark brown liquid.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes
To 2 cups boiled & riced or mashed sweet potatoes add three Tbsp butter, 1/2 tsp salt, and hot milk to moisten. Beat until light, and pile on a vegetable dish.

Cauliflower au Gratin
Place whole cooked cauliflower (or cut for easier serving) on a dish for serving, cover with buttered crumbs, and place on oven grate to brown crumbs; remove from oven and pour one cup Thin White Sauce around cauliflower.
Thin White Sauce:
2 Tbsp butter
1 cup scalded milk
1 1/2 Tbsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
dash of pepper
Melt butter in saucepan, add flour mixed with seasonings, stir until thoroughly blended. Gradually pour in milk, stirring until well mixed, then beating until smooth and glossy.

Rice Croquettes with Currant Jelly
1/2 cup rice
1/2 cup boiling water
1 cup scalded milk
1/2 tsp salt
2 egg yolks
1 Tbsp butter

Wash rice, add to water with salt, cover and steam until rice has absorbed all the water. Then add milk, stir lightly with a fork, cover and steam until rice is soft. Remove from heat, add egg yolks and butter; spread on shallow plate to cool. Shape into balls, roll in breadcrumbs, then shape in form of nests. Dip in egg, again in crumbs, deep fry until golden and drain. Put a cube of currant jelly in each croquette. Garnish with parsley.

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Sounds good, doesn't it?  I may have to go out and get myself a duck to try at least one of these preparations. In the mean time, I think I'm going to have to try those Rice Croquettes, and probably the cauliflower au gratin.  I'll let you know how they turn out!

(If you have any questions, suggestions or recommendations for recipes... Please feel free to comment on any posts, or send me an email: thelazywife@gmail.com)