Easy Slow-Cooker Pork Tenderloin:

Delicious and lean, Hormel Marinated Tenderloins and Loin Fillets are on sale this week at 6 Harter House Supermarkets, Buy One Get One Free. (Sept 5 - 11, 2018)

I love recipes for my slow cooker. I can put it on early and have it ready when I come home.

What could be easier?

2 pounds of Pork Tenderloin

1 cup of water

1 pack of Lipton Onion Soup Mix

2 tbsp minced garlic

3 tbsp soy sauce

3/4 c red wine

fresh ground black pepper

Put pork loin in the slow cooker and sprinkle contents of soup mix over it. Combine all liquid ingredients and pour over meat–make sure to coat all sides. Spread garlic over top of meat–leave as much as possible on the top during cooking. Sprinkle with pepper. Cover and cook on low for about 4 hrs. When done, pour drippings and juices into a bowl to use as a ‘gravy’.

Craig Claiborne's Beef Stew

Yield:  8 servings

Time: About 2 hours

It would be hard to find a simpler meal than Mr. Claiborne’s hearty beef stew, which goes beautifully with buttered noodles and a stout glass of red wine. A small scattering of cloves adds a floral note to the gravy, augmented by just a little thyme, and the combination pairs beautifully with the carrots you add near the end of the cooking process, to prevent them from going mushy in the heat. Sprinkle chopped parsley over the finished dish, of course, a nod to the past that rewards in beauty and flavor alike.

Ingredients

• 4 pounds lean, boneless chuck steak
• ¼ cup olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
• 2 cups coarsely chopped onions
• 6 tablespoons flour
• 4 cups dry red wine
• 2 cups water (or beef stock) 
• 4 whole cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ teaspoon thyme
• 6 sprigs parsley, tied in a bundle
• 6 large carrots, about 1 1/2 pounds, trimmed and scraped

Preparation

1. Cut the meat into two-inch cubes.
2. Using a large skillet, heat the oil and add the beef cubes in one layer. Add salt and pepper and cook, stirring and turning the pieces often, for about 10 minutes.
3. Add the garlic and onions and cook, stirring occasionally, for another 10 minutes. Sprinkle with flour and stir to coat the meat evenly.
4. Add the wine and stir until the mixture boils and thickens. Stir in the water. Add the cloves, bay leaf, thyme and parsley. Cover closely and simmer for one hour.
5. Meanwhile, cut the carrots into one-inch lengths. If the pieces are very large, cut them in half lengthwise. Add them to the beef. Cover and continue cooking for 30 minutes, or until the carrots are tender. Serve the stew sprinkled with chopped parsley.

NOTES from other cooks

Trust your instincts on this one. Cook the beef in batches, cook the onions and garlic alone and then add the flour to the onions and cook to make a well browned roux before returning the beef to the pot. Allow most of the alcohol to cook off after adding the wine as it thickens. I went for adding rich flavor and used a cup of beef stock in place of the water.

I made the following changes to the base recipe:

I used 3 cups of wine (cab sauv) and 1 cup of beef stock

I let the alcohol burn off for quite a while (maybe 15+ mins)

I roasted some mushrooms and added them when I added the water

I cooked the whole thing about 30-60 mins longer than directed

I added potatoes and celery when there was 30 mins left

I added some extra thyme at the very end

Add fresh cranberry beans at the same time as the wine.

Add dumplings on top.

Serve this over mashed potatoes.

Add some tomato paste and more liquid if it's too thick.

Use a DASH of cloves, rather than whole cloves.

Enjoy!

from New York Times Cooking
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1321-craig-claibornes-beef-stew

Marcella Hazan’s Bolognese Sauce

Yield:  2 heaping cups, for about 6 servings and 1 1/2 pounds pasta

Time:  At least 4 hours

After the death in 2013 of Marcella Hazan, the cookbook author who changed the way Americans cook Italian food, The NY Times asked readers which of her recipes had become staples in their kitchens. Many people answered with one word: “Bolognese.” Ms. Hazan had a few recipes for the classic sauce, and they are all outstanding. This one appeared in her book “The Essentials of Classic Italian Cuisine,” and one reader called it “the gold standard.” Try it and see for yourself.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons butter plus 1 tablespoon for tossing the pasta
• ½ cup chopped onion
• ⅔ cup chopped celery
• ⅔ cup chopped carrot
• ¾ pound ground beef chuck OR you can use 1 part pork to 2 parts beef 
  (Harter House Boston Burger is 60% beef and 40% Pork)                
• Salt
• Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
• 1 cup whole milk
• Whole nutmeg
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 ½ cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juice
• 1 ¼ to 1 ½ pounds pasta
• Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese at the table 

Preparation

1. Put the oil, butter and chopped onion in the pot and turn the heat on to medium. Cook and stir the onion until it has become translucent, then add the chopped celery and carrot. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring vegetables to coat them well.
2. Add ground beef, a large pinch of salt and a few grindings of pepper. Crumble the meat with a fork, stir well and cook until the beef has lost its raw, red color.
3. Add milk and let it simmer gently, stirring frequently, until it has bubbled away completely. Add a tiny grating -- about 1/8 teaspoon -- of nutmeg, and stir.
4. Add the wine, let it simmer until it has evaporated, then add the tomatoes and stir thoroughly to coat all ingredients well. When the tomatoes begin to bubble, turn the heat down so that the sauce cooks at the laziest of simmers, with just an intermittent bubble breaking through to the surface. Cook, uncovered, for 3 hours or more, stirring from time to time. While the sauce is cooking, you are likely to find that it begins to dry out and the fat separates from the meat. To keep it from sticking, add 1/2 cup of water whenever necessary. At the end, however, no water at all must be left and the fat must separate from the sauce. Taste and correct for salt.
5. Toss with cooked drained pasta, adding the tablespoon of butter, and serve with freshly grated Parmesan on the side.

Notes:  Lisa added garlic and basil and used San Marzano tomatoes. (San Marzano canned tomatoes are available at Harter House in the World Flavors section.) Those always make a difference when it’s not tomato season. It was delicious. I simmered it for a very long tine. Probably closer to 4 hours than 3.

Recipe from the New York Times Cooking 
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015181-marcella-hazans-bolognese-sauce?q=bolognese




  

Japanese Fried Rice

This will be your new favorite rice recipe.

4 servings

Ingredients

4 C. cooked rice or 1 cup uncooked rice

1 C. peas

2 Tbs. carrots, finely diced

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 C. onion, diced

1 1/2 Tbs. butter

2 Tbs. soy sauce

salt

pepper

Directions

1. Cook rice following instructions on package (Bring 2 cups water to a boil, add rice and a dash of salt, reduce heat and simmer in covered saucepan for 20 minutes).


2. Pour rice into a large bowl to let it cool in the refrigerator.


3. Scramble the eggs in a small pan over medium heat.
   Separate the scrambled chunks of egg into small pea-size bits while cooking.


4. When rice has cooled to near room temperature, add peas, grated carrot, scrambled egg and diced onion to the bowl.


5. Carefully toss all of the ingredients together.


6. Melt butter in a large frying pan over medium/high heat.


7. When butter has completely melted, dump the bowl of rice and other ingredients into the pan and add soy sauce plus a dash of salt and pepper.


8. Cook rice for 6-8 minutes over heat, stirring often.

Thai Chicken Satay with Spicy Peanut Sauce



I've always enjoyed Chicken Satay, but I've never made them myself.

So now's my chance.

Of course, there would have to be one ingredient that I'm unfamiliar with.  You can find tamarind paste in an Asian or Indian Market. Or, I was able to find a substitute recipe for the Tamarind paste.

Ingredients

Chicken Marinade
     Bamboo Skewers

    
     1 pound chicken
     1/2 cup coconut milk
     2 TBL curry Powder
     1 Teas salt
     1 Teas sugar
    
     Peanut Sauce
     3/4 cup coconut milk
     1 TBL red curry paste
     2 TBL fish sauce
     3 TBL peanut butter
     3 TBL sugar
     1 TBL tamarind paste  * 

    Chicken Marinade

     In Medium bowl, mix ingredients together, cut chicken into strips, add chicken to bowl, mix to 

     coat well and let marinade several hours.

     Peanut Sauce

     Add well stirred coconut milk to a pan, on a medium low heat.  As the milk warms, add the curry paste, mixing to
      break up.  When you see the red oil shimmering, add the rest of the ingredients.

    * Tamarind Paste Substitute

     1 TBL chopped dates
     1 TBL Chopped Prunes
     1 TBL Chopped Dried Apricots
     1 TBL Lemon Juice

Place all fruit into a small bowl and pour enough boiling water over them to cover completely.  Let stand 5 minutes, drain water.  Place drained fruit and the lemon juice into a food processor.  Blend to a thick paste.  Store in fridge.
shopping list    

Enchilada Stuffed Spaghetti Squash

Spaghetti Squash is SO healthy.  It's also well liked by my family. 

This recipe has a little Mexican flare, which we all love.

I cooked the spaghetti squash first in the microwave, which only takes 15 minutes. If you’re partial to roasting it in the oven, by all means do that. You can cook the squash earlier in the day and scoop out all of the strands to use later. This will make dinner prep easy-breezy.

Just before serving, sauté some onions, garlic and red bell peppers, then mix them with black beans, corn and enchilada sauce before scooping the mixture back into the shells of the squash. A couple of minutes under the broiler will make the cheese all melty and golden brown.

This recipe can easily be made vegan (use vegan cheese) or gluten-free (use gluten-free enchilada sauce, such as Hatch). I went the easy route and used a canned enchilada sauce, but making your own enchilada sauce is pretty darn easy.  

A Helping of Healthy

There are more reasons to eat spaghetti squash besides its taste and texture. It’s a great choice when you’re looking for an easy way to replace more calorie-laden foods.

• One cup of spaghetti squash contains only 42 calories and 0.5 grams of fat. Pile it on to your plate!
• It’s a good source of Vitamins A, B6 and C, which are all powerful antioxidants.
• It’s a great source of potassium, which is good news for people with high blood pressure.
• If you’re following a low-carb diet, spaghetti squash may become one of your best friends. It has only 10 grams of carbs per 1 cup serving.

Enchilada Stuffed Spaghetti Squash

Ingredients

• 2 small (2 lb. each) spaghetti squash
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 (14 oz.) can black beans (drained & rinsed)
• 1 c frozen corn kernels, defrosted
• 1¾ c enchilada sauce
• ½ tsp salt, or to taste
• ½ tsp ground pepper, or to taste
• ⅔ c grated Monterrey Jack cheese
• 3 tbsp minced cilantro

Instructions

1. Using a large, sharp knife, pierce a spaghetti squash in several places.  Place the spaghetti squash in a glass baking dish and cook in the microwave on high for about 15 minutes, turning the squash halfway through cooking.
2. Before handling, let the squash stand for 10 minutes. Cut it in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds and fibers.
3. Using a fork, twist out strands of the spaghetti squash flesh and place in a large bowl. Let stand at room temperature. Save the shells of the squash for stuffing later.
4. Preheat the broiler.
5. Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet set over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the red bell pepper and cook until just tender, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cumin, and cook for 30 seconds.
6. Stir in the spaghetti squash strands, black beans, corn and enchilada sauce, and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
7. Scoop the spaghetti squash mixture into the spaghetti squash shells and top with the Monterrey Jack cheese.
8. Place the stuffed spaghetti squash onto a baking sheet and place under the broiler. Cook until the cheese is melted, about 2 minutes.
9. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

Chicken Francese

 

Chicken Francese, sometimes called chicken French, is one of those rare restaurant dishes that's truly easy to cook at home. If you can make chicken cutlets, you can make this lemony, buttery recipe; the only difference is an easy pan sauce that brightens the whole plate. This version includes lemon slices browned in butter, which are pretty and tasty but entirely optional. Although the name suggests that it's a French or Italian dish ("Francese" means French in Italian), it's actually neither: Like spaghetti and meatballs, it's a mostly Italian-American invention. Serve with something starchy to soak up every drop of the sauce; pasta is traditional.

Featured in: The Single Best Thing To Cook With Chicken Breasts. 

 

 

 

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons whole milk
• 1 teaspoon salt, plus more for seasoning
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ⅓ cup olive oil
• ⅓ cup vegetable oil
• 4 to 6 large boneless, skinless chicken cutlets (buy the cutlets thinly sliced, or buy regular boneless breasts and slice them in half horizontally to make thin pieces)
• 3 to 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 lemon, thinly sliced, seeds removed (optional)
• ½ cup dry white wine
• Freshly squeezed juice of 1 lemon, more to taste
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 3 to 4 tablespoons freshly minced parsley 

Preparation

1. In a wide, shallow bowl, whisk eggs, milk, salt and pepper until blended. Place the flour in a separate bowl. Line a baking sheet with paper towels.
2. In a wide skillet, heat olive and vegetable oils over medium heat until shimmering.
3. Working in batches to avoid crowding the pan, lightly dredge the chicken in flour and shake off any excess. Dip into egg batter, let excess batter drip back into the bowl and place in the skillet. Fry, turning once, until golden brown on both sides, about 4 minutes per side. Adjust the heat as the cutlets cook so they brown slowly and evenly, with a steady bubbling. Transfer to the paper-towel-lined pan and repeat with remaining cutlets.
4. When all cutlets are browned, remove the pan from the heat and pour off the oil. Wipe out the pan with paper towels. Return the pan to low heat. 
5. If making the lemon slices (if not, skip to Step 6 below): Melt 3 tablespoons of the butter and then scatter the lemon slices over the bottom of the pan. Cook, stirring gently occasionally, until the lemon slices are golden and browning around the edges, about 3 minutes. Scoop out the lemon slices and set them aside. 
6. Add 3 tablespoons of butter, the wine and lemon juice and bring to a boil. Boil until the liquid is syrupy, 3 to 4 minutes. Pour in the stock, bring to a boil and cook until thickened into a sauce, about 5 minutes. (It will thicken more when you add the cutlets.) Taste and adjust the seasonings with lemon, salt and pepper; it should be quite lemony and not too salty.
7. Reduce the heat, tuck the cutlets into the pan and simmer very gently until the sauce is velvety and the chicken pieces are heated through, about 4 minutes. Turn the cutlets over occasionally in the sauce. Place the browned lemon slices on top. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve, spooning some of the sauce over each serving.