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Recipe Project: Split Pea Soup

I cooked a lot when I was at my folk's house in December, but they also fed me heaps of good food.  One of those meals was a split pea soup made from one of their friend's recipes.  I loved it.  So a week ago I snagged a bag of Bob's Red Mill yellow split peas, and followed the recipe.  I'll make it again, though I may pick up a ham bone.  I threw in some thick cut bacon instead, which seemed to work.  Otherwise, this is a simple, tasty recipe that powered me through a number of tough swim workouts.

1 lb split peas
1 meaty ham bone (optional)
1 1/2 cups chopped onions
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp marjoram
1 bay leaf
1 cup diced celery
1 cup diced carrots

Sort and rinse peas. Cover with 2 quarts cold water, add ham bone, onions, and spices. Bring to boil and cover, simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Remove bone, dice, and return meat to soup, add vegetables. Cook another 30-40 minutes. Add salt and pepper and serve. Enjoy!

Recipe Project #3 and #4: The Pot Roast

I have a confession to make.  In the last two years, two books have profoundly altered the way I think about food.  The first, Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes, made me rethink diet entirely.  I ended up teaching it, and I'll teach it again.  It's an amazing extended argument about science and health.  I've not found another popular text like it.  I think this book is so important that I've been known to offer cases of beer if people would read just the first five chapters.  Today I offered my sister $10 per chapter (I'm serious, Sarah).  The other one is Eating Animals by Jonathan Saffron Foer.

What's challenging, is that GCBC shows the how bad carbohydrates are for us and EA shows how bad eating meat is for the animals and the planet.  This is clearly a bind.  The solution I'm currently exploring: low-carb vegetarianism.  I am not happy about this, but I've bought the health argument, and now I've been convinced of the moral argument.  Not acting would mean bad faith.  

I'm still working all this out, but the confession is to say: I expect the next few meat recipes will be my last for a while.  At least until I can verify the source of my meat.    

And with that:  Pot Roast!

This Christmas I gave my sister the Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond.  She loved it, and when she wasn't obsessing over it, I stole a few recipes.  This one I've made twice, in two different ways (thus cheating and counting it twice).  The first time I followed it exactly (opening shot).  The second time I didn't have any carrots so I substituted a bunch of turnips and it turned out just as good.  This the easiest and best pot roast recipe I've found.  It should become a staple in your kitchen :)  

 

 2-3 T olive oil
kosher salt
2 onions
6-8 carrots (or 6-8 turnips)
pepper
2 or 2 1/2 beef stock
3-4 fresh rosemary sprigs
2-3 fresh thyme sprigs

1. Preheat oven to 275

2. Salt roast

3. Cut onions in half, brown in oil and remove

4. Cut carrots (or turnips) in 2" pieces, brown quickly and remove

5. Brown roast, 1 minute per side

6. Use 1 cup of stock to deglaze the pan

7. Add all ingredients, rest of stock (until roast is half covered), and cook until done (3 hours for 3 lb roast, 5 hours for 5 lb roast)

Not My Mom's Meatloaf

I grew up on meatloaf, and I loved it.  But I've never cooked it myself (in fact, meat has never been a real staple in my post-adolescent life until about two years ago).  That all changed on Sunday, when I threw together a very tasty meatloaf.  The plan, however, was to make a beef stew (another family staple), but when Michigan law denied me a bottle of cheap red wine because it was before 12 on Sunday, I had to go to Plan B.  Stew is on the docket for today.  

This recipe was fun.  Dried some fresh bread crumbs, swapped out the cheddar cheese for a vegan variety, and boiled down a homecanned jar of tomatoes into a cup of sauce.  I even bought some ketchup.  It turned out amazing, and it smelled great while cooking.  Lesson learned from last time: I ate this over the course of three days.  Super simple, and I'd recommend this for a quick meal.

2 T butter
1 C chopped yellow onions
1 C fresh bread crumbs
1 lb extra lean ground beef
1/2 lb ground pork
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
2 large eggs
1 C grated cheddar cheese
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
2 tsp dried Italian seasoning

Ketchup, for serving

1.  Preheat oven to 350.

2.  In cast iron skillet, melt butter and saute onions for about 3 minutes.  Transfer onions and rest of ingredients to large mixing bowl and mix well, form into a loaf in your favorite shape.

3.  Place the skillet in the oven and cook, about 1 hour. Pour off juices and serve.  

Success and Failure with the Cornish Pasty

The inaugural meal in the Recipe Project is the Cornish Pasty from The Cast Iron Cookbook by Sharon Kramis and Julie Kramis Hearne (sisters, I assume).  This is actually rather simple, especially if you make the pastry early (and I'd recommend doubling it, so that you can skip that step the next go round).  Fresh ground pepper adds bite. 

The pastry was in the fridge cooling by 11, and at 1:30 I pulled it out and added all the chopped foods.  When I was at my parents, I cooked up a pot pie and had a horrible time with the crust.  It just fell apart.  This reminded me why you always try these recipes out before testing them on the public.  My parents were forgiving.  I ran into a different problem with the dough this afternoon.  I rolled the first batch of dough out too thin.  Once filled, I pulled the crust over.  It ripped.  I patched it up; it was ugly, but it worked.  But once it was in the pan, I realized I hadn't buttered the skillet, so I decided I should take it out.  Mistake.  The pasty completely fell apart.  After much grumbling and staring, I decided there was enough shortening in the crust to prevent it from sticking.  I was right. It cooked up just fine, but it looked a mess.

Lessons learned for the second which turned out beautiful. It makes four servings (cut each pie in half).  I ate the ugly one for lunch, then I reheated the second one for a post-swim dinner.  I would not recommend this mode of disposal.

I also don't believe in ketchup, but it wasn't missed.   

Next time: add carrots and smarter dough usage. 

Cornish Pasty

Pastry
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cups shortening
1/2 cup very cold water

Filling
1-2 russet potatoes, peeled and diced in 1/2 inch cubes (about 3 cups)
3/4 cup chopped yellow onion (about 1/2 onion)
1 pound top sirloin, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons salted butter, divided

Ketchup for serving

1.  To prepare the pastry, mix together the flour and salt in a large bowl.  With your fingers, mix in the shortening until the mixture has the consistency of coarse cornmeal.  Add the water and stir witha fork until it starts to stick together. Form into a ball, divide in half, and shape each half into a flat disk, 1/2 inch thick.  Cover each with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

2.  Preheat oven to 400

3.  Mix potatoes, onions, and sirloin in a large bowl.  Add salt and pepper.

4.  Roll out one ball of dough to 10" circle.  Spread half the filling over half the circle, leave 1" border.  Dot with 1 tbl of butter.  Fold circle in half, flatten, roll up edge leaving 1/2" border.  Cut a vents in the top.  Slide into one side of a lightly buttered 12" skillet. Do the same with the rest.

5.  Bake 50 minutes.  Cut in half and serve!  Don't eat it all in one day!