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Lamb and Mushroom Stew
Thanksgiving is upon us, and definitely one of my favorite holidays. After all how can you not love a holiday that is about family and friends gathering to share good food and conversation? I am always amused by the many new recipes for Thanksgiving standards that come out each year, however I usually stick to the same old roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole and cranberry sauce. Why do I stick to the usual? Because I only eat this specific meal once per year and I know from over twenty five years in a row of cooking Thanksgiving meals what taste best to me.
That is not to say I don’t appreciate some new ideas for Thanksgiving favorites, because I do. I just cook up the new recipes I find afterwards, or for Christmas dinner. But to each his/her own and by all means learn new recipes for your holidays if that’s what churns your butter.
What I plan on blogging about over the next several weeks is the healthy meals you should be eating in between these big, rich meals that are coming at us for the next five weeks. I too will be eating the good stuff when it comes my way at parties and family get togethers, and will want to eat light healthy meals in between so I come out the other end of this five week food fest feeling good.
stew time
One of my favorite meals growing up in Colorado was a good leg of lamb, and the stew that usually followed the next day made from the leftovers. It qualifies as comfort food in my book. Today I give you my original Fast and Furious Cook lamb stew recipe that is very easy to make, delicious, and fairly healthy too. I have tested it this last week to be made in the crock pot and it came out great! During the next five weeks when you need a hearty, healthy easy to cook stew I hope you give this one a try and please leave comments on how it turned out.
Have a great Thanksgiving!
the goods
1 oz dried mushrooms, chanterelles or morel
2 cups water
1 pound lamb stew meat
1/3 cup flour
1 tablespoon oil
1 medium sized yellow onion chopped
3 stalks celery sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
1 clove minced fresh garlic
1 8 oz package white button mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup of dry red wine(Cabernet Sauvignon)
1 carrot sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
1-2 teaspoons Lawry’s seasoning salt
1 teaspoon dried thyme, optional
*Soak dried mushrooms in water for at least 10 minutes.
Dredge lamb pieces in flour and set aside. In a saute pan or enamel cast iron pot cook onion, garlic and celery in half of the oil on medium heat for five minutes stirring often. Add fresh mushrooms and cook stirring for another five minutes. Pour into crockpot, then wipe pan/pot clean and brown lamb in remaining oil on medium to medium high heat. Add lamb, wine, mushrooms, seasoning salt and carrots to crockpot and cook for 4-5 hours on high, or 6-8 hours on low heat. If you are able to stir it halfway through the cooking time it is helpful but not necessary.
Serve over a cup of steamed brown rice, or your favorite pasta.
Serves four.
in the crockpot
Note:
Dried mushrooms vary in the amount of grit hiding in the nooks and crannies. One way I have found to reduce the grit is to soak the mushrooms in a 2 cup pyrex measuring cup and stirring them gently before using them to allow the grit to settle on the bottom. I then take the floating mushrooms from the top of the water and add them to the dish I’m cooking and carefully pour the mushroom water into the dish leaving the last couple of tablespoons of liquid on the bottom to throw out with the grit that has settled there.
You can skip the fresh mushrooms and double the amount of dried mushrooms if you like.
If you can’t buy dried mushrooms in your local grocery store consider ordering them online as they don’t cost much to ship and at $5.99 for one ounce of chanterelles most people can afford that price. Here is a link to my favorite source: http://www.thewoodlandsatphillips.com/dried-mushrooms-1/
Goodbye FastandFuriousCook.com?
A Farewell to Blogging
When the bill came for blog hosting I was in shock! How could I justify paying $359.64 on a blog that has made less than $100 since it was started in November 2012? That doesn’t include the upcoming bill in December for email subscriber services for around $150. I have enjoyed developing recipes and writing about good and healthy foods for this last thirty-three months but the writing is on the wall. In a month or two I’ll probably shut it down and move on to travel/food writing as a freelancer.
Before that fateful day comes I’ll continue to post when the spirit moves me and my schedule allows. It takes four to five hours to put a blog post together, and I’m amazed at the women bloggers I have met that juggle kids, home and blogging. If you have enjoyed the recipes and writing I am glad for that. I am also glad to have discovered my love for writing and am grateful for this blog showing me that path.
Please help yourself to the recipes while they are still available. Looking back here are some of my favorites you might want to try.
In the soup category the winners are:
Royal Trumpet Soup
http://www.fastandfuriouscook.com/supper-club/
Gazpacho
http://www.fastandfuriouscook.com/visitors/
Mushroom Chowder
http://www.fastandfuriouscook.com/392/
In the main dishes section the winners are:
Aztec Slow Cooker Turkey
http://www.fastandfuriouscook.com/aztec-slow-cooker-turkey/
Salmon Rice Bowl
http://www.fastandfuriouscook.com/salmon-rice-bowl/
Grilled Portabella Sandwich
http://www.fastandfuriouscook.com/grilled-portabella-sandwich/
One Pan Wonder-Shrimp Fried Rice
http://www.fastandfuriouscook.com/one-pan-wonder-dish/
Lamb and Mushroom Stew
http://www.fastandfuriouscook.com/lamb-mushroom-stew/
Okay, after all that looking back I am getting hungry! Time to go upstairs and fix a fast and furious lunch with some corn tortillas and feta cheese that need to get used up. It is possible some miracle could happen and I get the assignments us bloggers hope for and I’ll keep it going, but don’t hold your breath. I hope you all continue to visit and comment on my blog over the next several posts before the end. Look for my posting once per week if time, and inspiration allows. Until then, eat well and treat your fellow mankind well too.
Halibut Ceviche
Gilding the Lily
My mother had many saying that have stuck with me all these years. Gilding the lily was one she used when something was needlessly overdone in an attempt to make it more pleasing. This past May I had the pleasure to dine at the world famous Herb Farm in Woodenville, Washington. I had heard for years how this exquisite restaurant would ply it’s customers with the freshest produce and other bounty from the Northwest.
It is a very expensive restaurant to visit and not easy to get in due to its popularity. I was thrilled to acquire reservations in late May during salmon season. My favorite salmon was on the menu and it was sure to be great. The only problem is the chef decided the lily needed to be gilded. Here was the rich and fatty king salmon from the Copper River near Cordova, Alaska butchered beyond belief with all manner of trendy restaurant excess. It was cooked in a sous vide method and served mushy and over seasoned ruining an incredible salmon entree.
The red salmon fared little better being over prepped with all manner of things a chef could do to impress the customers. If only he would have respected the fish for what it is, already near perfect, he might have thought to use the lemon thyme, from their herb garden, and high-end local butter on the salmon. At least the smoked salmon started on a skewer was done well. The rest of the meal was quite good and the wines excellent and rare. For $700 the two of us expected more though.
It’s hard to blame the chef being in the day and age of star chefs and dozens of cooking shows he was probably pressured to keep up with false notion that everything must have three to four items in the description of the meal to impress the customer. Here is what an item on the menu might look like:
Bogus Ranch lamb chops, grilled over young North West alder, in a sauce of Mt Rainier foraged blackberries scented with Columbia Valley Syrah.
Everything on the menu has to highlight two to three items of not-so-ordinary ingredients to be worthy it seems, at least in the high-end fine-dining restaurants.
Mix the tomatoes in gently.
What ever happened to grilled lamb chops with chef’s special seasoning blend? Or baked Alaska king salmon with fresh herb butter? Have we forgotten that when you start with quality ingredients they need little else to be great? I hope not. I’ll keep my eyes open to restaurants that don’t gild the lilly and still serve great food from the source. Meanwhile I’ll still cook up simple foods sourced from nearby farms, or my own garden and share the recipes free of charge to my readers.
This recipe for halibut ceviche takes a fish that is known for its versatility and flavor. Whether I’m baking, sautéing, grilling or stir-frying halibut it is one of my favorite gifts from the sea. This recipe lets the pure taste of the halibut come through while delighting the taste buds with jalapeno, onion, lime, cilantro and a hint of garlic. It makes an exceptional starter served with tortilla chips and avocado slices. Pair it with a crisp Pinot Gris or Chablis and you have a winner.
Halibut Ceviche
1 pound halibut filet
1/2 cup lime juice
1/2 cup chopped or sliced red onion
1-2 fresh jalapeños sliced thin
1 small clove of garlic minced
1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup chopped cilantro
1 1/2 cup diced tomatoes
1 -1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
Cut halibut in pieces 1 1/2 inch long by 3/8 inch thick and however high that particular filet is.
Put lime juice, jalapeños, olive oil and garlic in a medium sized mixing bowl and mix briefly.
Add halibut, onion and cilantro and mix.
Add tomatoes and salt mixing gently to not break up the tomatoes.
Store in fridge covered for 24-36 hours mixing three times about every 8-12 hours.
Serve with tortilla chips and sliced avocado garnished with fresh cilantro.
Serves 6-8
Soups and Salads
In Praise of Soup
It is definitely soup season. With the appearance of real winter this year as opposed to the last two mild winters we have had in Maryland I am willing to bet soup consumption is up here and in most North American households. The great thing about soup is it does well as a starter, a snack or a meal.
I have been on a soup theme for a couple of months now with post like the lamb and dried mushroom stew recipe I developed,(http://www.fastandfuriouscook.com/lamb-mushroom-stew/), Navajo Stew from the Moosewood Cookbook, (http://www.fastandfuriouscook.com/cold-weather-special/0) , and back in October I developed a Beef and Mushroom Chile recipe for my friends at Phillip’s Mushrooms in Kennett Square,PA,(http://www.fastandfuriouscook.com/soup-season/). All three of these are good choices for an entree type soup.
Lets take a look at some other great soup attributes. I suspect I’m not the only one that packs a lunch for a spouse that goes off to work Monday through Friday? My wife loves having a thermos of hot soup for lunch from the previous night’s leftovers,or freshly made that morning. There are several types of thermos bottles out there that will keep soup hot for hours if preheated properly. When your loved one opens up the thermos at work or school that day at lunch time out comes that wonderful aroma of home made soup. A much healthier and tastier way to eat at work, school or play.
Versatility is another great attribute of soup. You can tweak most recipes to your liking. If you want sausage, go ahead and add it t a bean soup, or Italian style tomato soup. If you want a cream soup but want to make it Vegan, just use coconut milk instead of cows milk. Vegetables are great in soups and you can find a soup recipe for just about any vegetable.
Soups can be very healthy too! Since we are coming out of the holiday season where many of us have eaten a fair amount of not-so-healthy foods it’s a good time to put healthy soups on the menu a couple times a week. Most bean soups are very healthy. Vegetable soups without cream are some of the best soups you can eat. One of my very favorite soups is my own concoction called Italian Tomato Soup,(http://www.fastandfuriouscook.com/italian-tomato-soup/0 a soup I posted back in November of 2012 just after launching my blog. This soup has the heartiness of a stew, and the health qualities of a bean or vegetable soup all in one pot. It’s a Vegan soup that can be changed for meat eaters by adding pork or lamb sausage to it, and it cooks in under one hour start to finish!
Soups are ethnic food. Take a Cuban black bean soup, of Chinese hot sour soup for example. Many cultures have their special soups. I love a good bowl of French onion soup when I visit France. When I used to cook in restaurants Portuguese fisherman soup, of French bouillabaisse was one of my favorites. to make and eat. I guess American’s have their chili to represent them on the ethnic soup stage as our best known original soup. Without chili I think the saltine cracker would disappear.
Soups pair very well with salads, and sandwiches for lunch, and many restaurants serving lunch offer such combinations on the menu. Even in the winter I like a soup and salad combo at lunchtime occasionally. Recently I developed a new salad dressing using cranberries in a vinaigrette style dressing. It’s quick, easy and delicious. It could be used on green salad or on chicken salad too. This would pair well with my mushroom chowder(http://www.fastandfuriouscook.com/392/) or my butternut squash and curry soup. So give this a try while fresh and frozen cranberries are still available, and let me know what you think.
Cranberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing
1/2 cup fresh cranberries, or thawed frozen cranberries
1-2 fresh lemons juiced, about 3 tablespoons
1/2 cup walnut oil, or canola oil
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
optional, a dash of Bragg’s Aminos, or soy sauce
optional, 1 to 1/2 package of stevia, or 1 teaspoon of agave
the ingredients
Mix all ingredients in a bowl with an immersion blender, or use a tabletop blender until cranberries are pureed. Makes about 18-20 1 tablespoon size servings.
ready for the immersion blender
Note:
Walnut oil works very well with this recipe, but it is more expensive than canola.
I like this dressing without the sweetener best.
This would work well with a variety of salads like green, chicken, pasta, or bean salad. Have fun experimenting.
Fresh cranberries freeze exceptionally well without any extra work. Just pop them into the freezer in the bag or plastic package they came in. I have used one year old cranberries from my freezer that had no freezer burn, or other bad taste.
Fast and Furious Cook’s Black Bean Soup Recipe
‘Tis the Season to Eat Smarter
Here we are at the start of the new year and already the television and radio campaigns are hitting us with weight loss, exercise commercials and stories. I heard a story on the radio this morning on bariatric surgery for those who just can’t seem to lose weight. That is one serious way to try and lose weight stapling your stomach! Surgery is not something to take lightly. I have watched the television show The Biggest Loser enough to have seen interviews with some of the contestants that had this type of surgery to lose weight. It didn’t work for any of them or they wouldn’t be on the show.
Hot and healthy soup.
I was over weight(topping out at 190) for about ten years towards the end of my twenty year cooking career and was lucky to be able to figure out what worked for me without having to try something as radical as surgery. I’m no expert on nutrition, but from my experience I can tell you it’s not rocket science to eat healthy. I dropped most of my thirty pounds in 60 days from eating a low fat, low sugar diet of my own design, and ate that way for the next two years. I kept off the weight and felt great!
I’ll share the key points of my current eating and exercise program with you to see if it can help those of you who might want to lose weight and feel better.
Eat three meals a day at the same time each day.
Eat low fat, low processed foods, or non processed foods.
Don’t eat past 6 pm, or whatever time is four hours before going to bed.
Exercise at least thirty minutes per day six days per week. Walking or bike riding is great!
Eat enough that you don’t feel deprived.
Have a splurge meal once every week or two, or splurge snack.
Eat lots of vegetables and beans.
Eat an apple a day.
Consult with a doctor, and or nutritionist.
See yourself as being thinner, and enjoy the ride.
After I got off this strict way of eating about twenty years ago I gained some of the weight back, but kept refining my eating habits until just three years ago fine tuned my eating to where I don’t have to worry about gaining weight again. Now I eat a diet of about 80% vegetarian/vegan meals to 20% meals with meat. Most of the meat I eat is wild salmon from Alaska, a sustainable healthy food source. I also eat chicken, and lamb two to four times per month.
Most of the recipes I have developed here on my blog are to reflect what has worked for me. I believe they are simple, healthy recipes that will work for you too. After all, the recipes reflect 42 years of cooking experience! What’s most important after the fact that they are healthy is they taste great too! Give it a try and see if this is the year you start eating healthier, and feeling better using my Fast and Furious Cook recipes.
Here is one of my favorite soups for you to start the new year right. It’s a black bean soup recipe I developed that takes about 25-30 minutes start to finish that tastes great and is good for you too! Please give it a try and leave your comments. Feel free to share with family and friends too.
Fast and Furious Cook’s Black Bean Soup
the ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil, or water, see note
1/2 cup yellow onion diced small
1/2 cup celery diced small
1-2 teaspoons minced fresh garlic
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 cups cooked black beans
salt and pepper
In a two quart pot saute onion, celery and garlic on medium low heat stirring often for five minutes.
Add cumin and continue cooking on medium low heat for three more minutes stirring often.
Add stock and increase heat to medium high while stirring well. Bring to a simmer and continue cooking for five minutes.
Add beans and simmer for five to seven minutes.
Using an immersion blender puree the soup, or a tabletop blender will do.
Taste the soup and add salt and pepper if needed.
Serves two but is easily doubled.
Note:
For a lower fat version use 1/4 inch of water instead of oil when sauteeing the onions, celery and garlic.
Top with a bit of steamed rice or quinoa if you like. I used a quarter cup of cooked quinoa in mine.
Silly Reindeer Games
Last night was Christmas dinner at our home, and with my in-laws visiting it made it even more special. We spent the day hanging out, and watching a bit of tv. We managed to eat quite well throughout the day as you might expect. The whole wheat waffles I made for breakfast came out great using hazelnut oil in place of melted butter, and topped with home made hot blueberry topping with just a touch of whipped cream.
We all enjoyed the Maitake Mushroom Chowder(http://www.fastandfuriouscook.com/392/) I made the day before for our simple lunch. After lunch came our nice walk in the sun to let our puppy Tucker chase sticks behind the school for some much needed high impact exercise. You got to take advantage of the sunny days this time of year in Baltimore!
decorated and ready
Around 3pm I put the leg of lamb in the oven for its three hour journey to tasty perfection. It was simply rubbed with Penzey’s lamb seasoning, fresh minced garlic, salt and pepper. I placed it on top of diced carrots, onions, and celery for flavor. What was real different was surrounding it with sunchokes. This was my first time cooking sunchokes and I went to youtube to find instructions on how to prep and cook the little nuggets. Lucky for all of us Youtube is there when you don’t know how to cook something like sunchokes. For those of you that don’t know about them they are native to North America and are a tuber. Think of them as a little potato with more flavor.
To round out the lamb feast was a nice starter of cauliflower, red bell pepper, sun dried tomato salad on a bed of shredded cabbage dressed with my mushroom salad dressing. We also had garlic mashed yukon gold potatoes, and succotash.
The pecan bars I baked the day before made for a great dessert when paired with a scoop of Keyes Creamery pumpkin ice cream. Mind you that this was not a low fat healthy meal, but well worth the calories!
The race course
To wind up the festivities we had bought four party poppers( a British tradition ?) with a reindeer theme. You haven’t lived until you have had in home reindeer races! These little wind up toys were inside the poppers and came with a race course. All four of us received a reindeer for the big race. A practice session was granted to get the feel of the equipment then off we went. My mother-in-law seemed to have the winner in the practice round as it flew straight and true. I had a fast little guy named Prancer, but he didn’t have a great sense of direction. My father-in-law had a confused reindeer that only excelled in running tight little circles. When the smoke had cleared Prancer won the race and the prize bag containing a $20 gift certificate to Trader Joe’s, a fine little note pad and pen set, and a candy cane.
The winner Prancer on the left
Some of our most memorable Christmas dinner parties have been the ones with poppers. So if you see some while out shopping the day after Christmas be sure and get some for New Years or Christmas dinner parties and party like a reindeer!
Food Options
You can’t please all of the people all of the time. I have heard this many times throughout my life, and believe it’s true. Take any favorite restaurant that you have been to and liked for years as an example. You might out of the goodness in your heart recommend that restaurant to a friend only to find out later that they didn’t think it was any good. It doesn’t matter that you have been there several times and always had a good meal there. We just don’t all enjoy the same food, movies, books, etc. Good thing there are options in the food world. While some restaurants may say on their menus,”No Substitutions Please”, I encourage substitutions. Take this standby of American, and Italian cuisine, Spaghetti with Meat Sauce. In this following recipe I encourage tweaking it. You could take the one pound of ground beef and replace it with:
1/2 pound ground beef, and 1/2 pound Italian Sausage
1 pound ground turkey
1 pound of sliced mushrooms
1 pound ground lamb
You could also take the 1 tablespoon of mixed Italian herbs and replace it with:
1 teaspoon dried basil, 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, and 1 teaspoon dried basil
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon basil
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, and 3 tablespoons fresh chopped basil in the last 5 minutes of cooking
3 tablespoons of fresh minced oregano, and 3 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
The options are almost endless, and fun to play around with. That is the reason I put ingredient options with many of my recipes. I want you to have fun playing around with a recipe, and tweak to your taste. Many of my main dishes can be vegetarian, vegan or meaty. So please enjoy this classic comfort food by inserting or deleting ingredients until you find what works best for you and let me know how it turned out.
30 Minute Spaghetti With Meat Sauce
1 cup diced onion
2-4 cloves minced garlic
1 teaspoon oil
1 pound 85% or leaner ground beef
2 15 ounce cans diced tomatoes
1 15 ounce can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon dried Italian herb blend
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon red pepper, optional
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt
In a 2 quart pot saute onions and garlic for 5 minutes stirring or until soft on medium heat.
Add ground beef and turn up heat to medium high stirring every 30 seconds or so.
Turn off heat and drain the fat. Return to stove on medium high heat and add the rest of the ingredients. When it starts to simmer turn down heat to medium low and simmer for 20 minutes stirring every 5 minutes.
Note:
*Ground beef can be omitted, and substituted with ground turkey, ground bison, mushrooms quartered or sliced, or even ground pork.
*Fresh herbs can be used, but be sure to add them towards the last 5 minutes so the delicate flavor doesn’t cook out of them. I like fresh oregano, thyme and basil for this type of recipe using about 2 teaspoons of each basil and oregano, but only 1 teaspoon of thyme.
*Diced green or red bell peppers are a nice addition. Just saute with the onions and garlic.
*This is a quick recipe. Be sure to have your water starting to heat up at the same time you start the sauce. You can cook this longer and more flavor will develop, but it’s plenty good in just 30 minutes.
*2-4 tablespoons of tomato paste can be added for a thicker sauce.
30 Minute Spaghetti Sauce
Will the Real Taco Please Step Forward
Mexican food in the U.S. is one of the least known ethnic foods we eat. We don’t know much about it beyond tacos, burritos, and nachos. The blame goes to our eat first ask questions later harried lifestyle. We seldom ask, is that all there is to Mexican food”? My eyes were first opened back in the 1980’s when I bought a book of Mexican recipes that were nothing like the foods I had eaten for years at Mexican restaurants in Colorado, New Mexico, and Alaska. These were bold new dishes with fish, and turkey in them. Chiles with names I had never heard of frequented the pages. It was so intimidating to find some of the ingredients I never cooked a single recipe from the book and lost it amongst the many moves that followed over the years. That cookbook did however open my eyes to a different aspect of Mexican food.
Baltimore is really my first experience with a wider range of Mexican dishes. Two restaurants stand out in this food voyage of discovery. The first was Fiesta Mexicana that featured street foods of Mexico City. Beef tongue tacos, strange and delicious sandwiches called tortas, amazing guacamole, and the best enchiladas I have ever had. Then came R&R Taqueria that was featured on the Diners, Dives and Drive Ins show. This was the first place I ate Mexican lamb. They slow cook a whole lamb in onions, garlic and spices then use it in taco that only costs $2.19! They also put it in other dishes like huaraches, and tortas. I was amazed at the taste and quality of their food. They have the best beef tongue tacos I have ever had. The tilapia and shrimp dishes were amazing too. This is stuff that you just didn’t see in most Mexican restaurants up until the 1990’s in most places. It seems that slowly but surely the true variety of Mexican Cuisine is showing up on American menus and it’s about time.
While browsing my library a couple days ago I spied Simple Food, Big Flavor by Aaron Sanchez. I decided right then and there I was going in search of a wider view of Mexican food and see if I could find a healthier version. Last night I dove into that book and Rosa’s New Mexican Table, by Roberto Santibanez to come up with the following dinner. I started by making Habenero Love from Simple Food, Big Flavor. It’s a fluffy salsa mostly made from bell peppers,(red and yellow), onion and yes, habenero. It’s a special salsa that is not too hot, but full of flavor. I doubled the amount of habeneros which made the heat just about right for me. The next dish I tackled was Mushroom Quesadillas that I turned into soft tacos, but other than that I followed the recipe. I rounded it off with a Mexican Red Rice recipe I found posted on a food blog. It made for a wonderful meal that many a vegetarian would love. So my challenge to you is to explore the internet and your library to open up the possibilities of cooking quick and healthy Mexican food in your home. I think you are going to love it.
Mushroom Tacos, Mexican Red Rice