Angela’s Recipes

January 21, 2016

Another Amazing Lamb and Barley Stew

This recipe is different from the previous lamb and barley stew recipe in that it has tomatoes and I used part of a boneless leg of lamb rather than chops. I think this is even BETTER than the first recipe, which is why it’s called Awesome! :)

Awesome Lamb and Barley Stew

~2 pounds lamb roast (leg or shoulder), cleaned of all visible fat and cut into 1-2″ dice
3/4 cup flour for dredging
2 tsp dry mustard
S/P: 1 tsp each
EVOO
1/2 cup red wine
2 Tbl butter
2 med onions, 1″ dice
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbl tomato paste
Bouquet garni: 5 thyme stems, 2 4″ rosemary stems, 3 bay leaves tied with butcher twine
2 carrots, small dice
2 stalks celery, small dice
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes with juice
1 cup beef broth
2 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup barley
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 Tbl red wine vinegar
1 Tbl sherry or champagne vinegar

Heat a large dutch oven over med hi. Cover bottom with EVOO. Mix together flour, mustard and S/P in a bowl and dredge lamb chunks in it before browning in oil. Do this in batches so the lamb browns. When done, put in a bowl to stand by. Add oil as needed when browning lamb, then swab out excess oil when lamb is done. Pour in red wine to deglaze pan and get all that cooked flour off the bottom. Use a wooden spatula to scrape ALL the bits from the bottom of the pan. When pot is cleaned, pour the wine over the lamb that’s standing by.

Put butter in the pot and turn down heat to med. Add onions and cook for 5 mins. Add garlic and tomato paste and cook for 3-4 minutes – or until the onions and garlic are soft. Pour the lamb and wine mixture in and stir. Add the bouquet garni, carrots, celery and tomatoes. Bring to a simmer and simmer for about 5 minutes. Your stew should be VERY thick at this point.

Add in the beef and chicken broth, stir and bring back to a light simmer. Cover the pot and keep at a slow simmer for one hour, stirring occasionally. At the one hour point, add in the barley, cover and simmer another 30-40 minutes, until barley is softened. (You shouldn’t have a lot of fat in this stew. If your lamb was fatty, you may need to skim off the fat before you add in the barley. If you trimmed the lamb thoroughly, this is a low fat stew.)

After barley has cooked, add parsley and the vinegars. Check your salt level again.

Serve with crusty bread.

Yield: about 2.5 quarts. This stew freezes beautifully.

January 16, 2016

Asian Chicken and Chickpea Stew

This recipe started off as more of a Moroccan type stew, but somehow ended up with an Asian taste profile – but with chickpeas! It is light, low fat, low carb and very tasty! This is a small recipe that makes about 5 cups. Double if you want plenty to share or freeze.
asianchickpea

Asian Chicken and Chickpea Stew

4 boneless/skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1″ chunks
S/P
EVOO
1 medium onion, diced
1 small or 1/2 large red bell pepper, diced
1 leek, sliced (white and center tender parts only)
1 small pkg of creminis, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp cumin
.5 tsp dry mustard
.5 tsp ginger
.5 tsp coriander
.5 tsp smoked paprika
2 Tbl soy sauce
1 Tbl fish sauce
2 Tbl mirin
1 Tbl tomato paste
juice of one lemon
1 can chickpeas, drained
2 cups chicken stock
juice of one lime
.25 cup chopped parsley
Cooked Rice for serving

Cut up chicken and season with S/P. Sauté veg in evoo until soft. Add chicken and spices, cook over med hi for about 5 minutes. Add sauces and tom paste; cook for another 5 mins. Add chickpeas and stock, bring to simmer for about 10 minutes. Add juice of lemon and half the parsley and cook another 10-15 minutes at low simmer. Check for seasoning. Serve with lime juice and parsley garnish. Optional but recommended: serve over a quarter cup of rice.

Calorie counts based on 1.25 cup serving with rice (courtesy Livestrong.com)
Calories: 388
Fats: 12 grams
Carbs: 23 grams
Fiber: 2.5 grams
Protein: 24 grams

December 6, 2015December 8, 2015

Chicken Tagine

This Moroccan dish is called ‘tagine’ because that is what it is traditionally cooked in. Like this:

I cook mine in a dutch oven, but same concept. This dish is best with chicken on the bone. I used a whole chicken, but it would be great with just thighs. It’s a bit time consuming, but totally worth it. Serve over rice or with crusty bread.

Chicken Tagine
Prep/marinate: 2 hrs
Prep tagine: 15 mins
Cook: 2.5 hrs

Whole chicken, cut up (or 3# thighs on bone)

Marinade:
1/3 cup olive oil
2 Tbl garlic paste (or paste up 8 cloves)
1 tsp salt
.5 tsp pepper
1 tsp ginger (dried)
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika (sweet or smoked)
1 tsp cinnamon
.5 tsp turmeric
.25 tsp cloves

Tagine:
1 white onion, large dice
5 cloves garlic, diced
4-6 slices preserved lemon, sliced thinly (clean away fibrous bits and seeds)**
12 dried apricots, sliced
1/2 cup gold raisins
12 oil brined or kalamata olives, sliced
2 Tbl brown sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
2 cups chicken stock
Optional: You can add a heaping Tbl of cornstarch dissolved in some water if you want the sauce thicker. I usually do.

INSTRUCTIONS:
Mix up the marinade and slather it thoroughly on the chicken pieces. You can leave skin on or not, doesn’t really matter. Cover chicken and let sit in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Pull chicken from fridge and set aside on the counter. Preheat oven to 350F.

In a large dutch oven, spray with nonstick spray then put about 1 Tbl of olive oil in bottom. Put onions and half the sliced lemons on the bottom of the vessel. Layer chicken on top of onion/lemon layer. Put all the rest of the ingredients on top of chicken then pour on stock. Nestle the chicken down into the stock, which should be about halfway up the chicken. Cover and bake at 350F for 2-2.5 hours or until chicken reaches 165F.

**If you don’t have preserved lemons, I encourage you to make a batch! It’s easy, but you have to wait a couple of months to use the lemons. Recipe HERE. If you don’t have preserved lemons and want to make the dish anyway, just use the zest of two lemons, peeled with a potato peeler. Make sure there is no pith (white part). It will be similar, but not exactly the same.

December 6, 2015December 6, 2017

Preserved Lemons

Many Moroccan dishes call for preserved lemon. They are really easy to make and I encourage you to try them! It takes a couple of months to get them usable, but it’s worth the wait! If you don’t use them often, make a pint rather than a quart; I’ve included the instructions for that. They will keep for about a year. My last batch kept for 18 months.

Preserved Lemons
(One quart jar, wide mouth, with lid and ring; )
6-8 lemons for a quart or 4-5 for pint, with paraffin scrubbed off the outside
kosher salt
2 cinnamon sticks
2 bay leaves
6 cloves, whole
10 allspice berries

Cut 4 lemons in quarters cutting down toward the stem end but stopping before the end, so they look like stars. Put a tsp or so of salt in the bottom of a sterilised quart jar (put in boiling water for a couple of minutes then air dry). Push the first lemon, open side down, into the bottom of the jar. Add in a few cloves and allspice and another tsp of salt. Push in the next lemon. Put cinnamon sticks and bay leaves along the sides. Keep layering lemons, salt and spices, pushing down hard on the lemons so they release their juice. The number of lemons will vary due to varying sizes of lemons, so layer them until the jar is about one inch from lip. They should be pretty tight. If you don’t have enough juice to cover the lemons, use fresh juice from more lemons until there is enough (do NOT use bottled juice here!). You are making a salt and lemon juice brine to preserve the lemons.

You can make a pint jar instead, just use fewer lemons and halve the spices. Just make sure the jar is sterilised properly.

You do NOT have to process this jar with heat, the lemons and salt will do the job. Just seal the jar and put it in a cabinet. You need to shake the jar once a day for the first coupla weeks, so I kept it in my coffee cup cupboard so I’d remember. You can start using them after a month, but two is better. They get perfect after about six months. You could see some white web looking stuff stuff on them, it’s just a natural enzyme, it has no taste and it won’t hurt you. HOWEVER, if you see white stringy or puffy MOLD, the brine did not take and you’ll need to toss them. I find that Meyer lemons don’t preserve as well as regular lemons for some reason, despite the fact that they are the preferred lemon.

November 25, 2015December 18, 2017

Eggplant and Bison Lasagne

I had a pound of ground Bison 90/10 in my freezer, so I decided to use it for this dish. I highly recommend finding bison and trying it. It has a tangier, less fatty taste than beef. Any ground meat or poultry will work, but it will change the calorie count (courtesy of livestrong.com). This recipe makes only two complete layers. You can certainly make it taller by doubling the ingredients.

Servings
6
Preparation Time
30 Minutes
Cooking Time
40 Minutes

Eggplant and Buffalo Lasagne
3 small eggplants, sliced 1/4” lengthwise (use a mandoline if you have one) I used graffiti eggplants, which were lovely.
1# ground buffalo (or beef) 90/10 or less
1 small box cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 med onion, sliced
1 red bell pepper, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 sm call tomato sauce
2 Tbl tomato paste
1 15 oz container part skim ricotta
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup shredded parmesan
1/4 tsp dried tarragon
2 tsp dried basil (separated)
1 tsp marjoram
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbl worcestershire sauce
EVOO
S/P

Thinly slice the eggplant longways and put on a single layer on a sheet pan. Drizzle with olive oil and s/p. Roast in a 425F oven for about 10 mins, until it gets soft. When done, set aside. Turn oven down to 375F.

Put a large skillet over med hi heat and add olive oil, onions, peppers and mushrooms. S/P to taste. Turn down heat and cook over medium until they are softened but not brown; set aside.

In the same pan, add the crumbled buffalo (or beef) over med hi. Add garlic, worcestershire, tomato sauce, tomato paste, tarragon, 1 tsp basil, marjoram and cinnamon then sautée about 4 mins. S/P to taste. Turn off heat and let it stand.

Put one 15 oz container of part skim ricotta in a bowl with 2 beaten eggs and mix thoroughly. Add 1 tsp basil and s/p to taste.

Spray a 9×12 baking dish thoroughly with nonstick spray. Line bottom with eggplant slices, meat, veggies, ricotta and mozzarella. Do this procedure again. Over the top layer of mozzarella, sprinkle on the parmesan to get a lovely color on top.

Bake at 375F for about 40 minutes until bubbly and the top is browned.

One serving:
cals 446
fat 26.4
cholesterol 37.5
sodium 394.2
carbs 25.7
fiber 8.3
protein 30.2
sugars 14.1