Bison Stew

It's still winter! And a hearty pot of stew is just what we need.

Most stews are made with fresh lean meat, carrots, celery, onions and garlic, maybe potatoes, mushrooms and sweet bell peppers. Some may add mushrooms, turnips or parsnips. Seasonings are personal. Use a heavy bottomed dutch oven with a lid. You don't want to scorch your creation, and covering while it simmers will keep the juices from evaporating away.















For this lovely version, here is what I prepared:

• 2 pounds of lean, tender bison steak or roast - seasoned with essence and cubed
• 1 large onion - diced coarsely
• 1 teaspoon fresh or dried garlic slices
  
• 4-5 medium carrots - course chop
• 3-4 celery stalks - diced
  
• 1 1/2 cups button mushrooms - sliced
• 12 baby potatoes, skin on - cut in half
• 1 yellow and one red bell pepper - diced coarsely
• 1 can niblets corn

Seasoning:

• 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1 low sodium vegetable bouillon cube in 1 cup water - no MSG
• 1 tablespoon gravy browner - no MSG version
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
• some chili flakes to taste - optional
• 1 teaspoon marjoram
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 tablespoon parsley flakes
• 1 bay leaf - optional

Brown the meat in a little grape-seed oil in hot cast iron pan. Remove to dutch oven or stew pot. Cook onion, carrots, mushrooms and bell peppers in hot pan to bring out the sweetness and flavors. Add to meat in dutch oven. Add potatoes and corn with juice to pot. Season with pepper, bouillon, gravy browner, soy sauce and chili flakes. Add marjoram, thyme and parsley flakes. A bay leaf can be also added, but should be removed before serving.

To thicken add 1/3 cup flour to 1 cup cold water and stir with fork to remove lumps. Strain if necessary. Add to hot stew and simmer 20 minutes. If stew gets too thick, add a bit of water or other liquid until desired consistency. Taste before serving to see if seasoning is to your liking and adjust if needed.

Serve with fresh buns.

Medjool Date Loaf

Cultivation of the date may have its origins in and around the Persian Gulf as early as 6000 BC. Highly nutritious, the date fruit has been shown to be a potent antioxidant due to its free-radical scavenging abilities.

There are more than two dozen varieties of dates being cultivated today. For this recipe I choose the Medjool date. Originally grown in Morocco, it's now grown in California and Arizona. The Medjool date belongs to the 'soft' date group and its fruit is large, sweet and succulent -- perfect for this walnut date loaf.

The Brits lay claim to this as one of their traditional cakes. While I used a loaf pan, hence the name "Date Loaf", you can use a cake pan as the end product more closely resembles a cake than a bread.















Assemble the following ingredients to create a single loaf:

• 2 cups of dates chopped into small but not too-small pieces
• 1 cup of walnuts, broken into bite-size pieces
• 2 tablespoons rum or orange juice
• 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup of your favourite margarine
• 1 1/4 cups of lightly packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup boiling water
• 2 eggs well beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of shaved nutmeg

Preheat your oven to 325F and brush your loaf pan with margarine. Then, sift together your flour and salt and set aside, and beat your eggs well and set them aside.


Combine the chopped dates and walnuts, and drizzle your rum (or orange juice) over the mixture. Let soak.

Cream your margarine and gradually blend in the brown sugar.

Stir in the soaked dates and walnuts.

Then, dissolve the baking soda in the boiling water and stir in.

Now, stir in your well beaten eggs a little at a time and add your vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Finally, add the dry ingredients (flour, salt) and combine thoroughly.

Pour the final mixture into the loaf pan and place in your preheated oven.

Bake for 90 minutes (70 minutes or so on convect).


Remove and let stand on a cake rack for 15 minutes before loosening the edges.

Turn the loaf out onto the rack and let cool.




Serve, and Bon Appétit!!

Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Goat's Cheese, Basil, and Sundried Tomatoes

We went out for Valentine's dinner at a local restaurant and one of the entrees on the menu was a chicken breast stuffed with goat's cheese, fresh basil, and sun dried tomatoes, and wrapped in a layer of thinly sliced Italian ham or prosciutto. It was tasty, but a bit dry. We were sure we could imitate it but make improvements.















Prepare the following for 6 servings:

• 6 boneless & skinless chicken breasts
• 1/2 cup fresh basil chopped
• 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes already soaked, drained and chopped
• 3/4 cup goats cheese
• dash of essence
• fresh ground pepper
• approximately 18 thin slices prosciutto.

Using a food processor, whiz the cheese, tomatoes, basil and seasoning until smoothly mixed.















Lay the prosciutto out on a clean surface.















(Allow 2 slices for each breast and hold back the rest to wrap after stuffing each breast.) Lay each chicken breast on a pair of ham slices and slice open each breast to receive the filling.















Put a generous portion of filling in each chicken breast and close.















Wrap each in the prosciutto ham and use another slice to cover any exposed chicken or filling.
Drizzle some olive oil in a casserole pan and lay the stuffed chicken breasts in the pan.















Drizzle olive oil over all, cover with foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for an 30-40 minutes or so. Ham should be crisp and chicken cooked, with clear juices in pan.















The restaurant served this with with risotto and lovely steamed vegetables.

My version was served today with pasta and a fresh made vegetable tomato sauce. Fresh homemade buns and a baby greens salad with a tangy balsamic vinegrette rounded out the meal. And of course hot pickled peppers on the side for spice.

Mmm mama mia!

Pad Thai

Just look at these marvelous ingredients! Here's what we put together for a tasty meal celebrating the addictive and aromatic flavors of Thailand.















Prepare the following:

• 1/2 lime
• 1 egg
• 4 teaspoons fish sauce
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon ground dried chili pepper or 1-2 Thai chilies thinly sliced (spicy)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups chopped cabbage, carrots and celery (optional)
• 1 shallot or small onion diced
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons tamarind
• 1/2 package Thai rice noodles
• 1 chicken breast thinly sliced
• 1 cup cooked frozen shrimp
• 1/3 cup tofu - extra firm, julienned
  
• 1-1/2 cups fresh cilantro, chipped
  
• 2 tablespoons cashews or peanuts, roasted and chopped
  
• 1-1/3 cup bean sprouts, blanched and drained

Follow the directions for the Thai noodles. They are soaked in warm water for 15 minutes or so. While the noodles rehydrate, put the frozen shrimp in cold water to thaw. Tamarind must be made into a paste, so soak it in hot water for a few minutes, then strain. Drain both shrimp and noodles and set aside in separate bowls.















The actual cooking happens quickly so have all the prepared ingredients handy while you heat the wok. Add oil and the chilies, garlic, onion. Toss until the onions are soft. Add the chicken and stir fry until no longer pink. Add the fish sauce, sugar, tamarind and tofu. Stir fry a minute or two. Add the egg and stir fry. Add the shrimp, and rest of the veggies, including the bean sprouts. Stir fry a minute or two and add the noodles.

Add cilantro, toss and serve.















Garnish each serving with a wedge of fresh lime, cilantro and a sprinkle of nuts.
Viola!

Borscht

On my last shopping trip I purchased some beets and hoped to make them into Harvard Beets, a sweet and sour version of cooked beets. I boiled the beets in order to peel them but never made the dish...so I put the cooked unpeeled beets in a large zip bag and put them into the fridge. In a day or two, another recipe came to mind with all the lovely ingredients I had in my fridge. I had trouble finding a recipe for borscht in my cookbooks so went to the net to locate some borscht ideas. There were plenty. My intention was to incorporate any tasty ingredients I had on hand and use 2-3 recipes for a guide.

Make sure you have a large soup pot ready, and prepare the following:

• 1 large tin of white beans (I used Romano)
• 6-8 beets, boiled and peeled and cubed
• 4-6 carrots, peeled and diced
• 1/2 head of cabbage sliced (I used both chinese and purple)
• 6-8 cups water
• 3-4 potatoes diced (I used up leftover baby potatoes)
• 1 large white onion peeled and diced
• 2 sweet bell peppers
• 2-3 stalks celery diced
• 3-4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 3 litres chicken broth (low sodium, no fat version)
• 1 1/2 cups V-8 juice
  
• 1 tablespoon essence
• 1 teaspoon fennel seed
• 1 tablespoon dill weed
• 3 tablespoons white vinegar
• fresh ground pepper
• sour cream

I like to bring out the natural sweetness in the vegetables, so cooked them in a pan until tender.

Using a bit of olive oil in a cast iron frying pan, I cooked the cabbage, onions, celery and carrots and garlic, then the beets and peppers with some dill and pepper.

































Put the liquid ingredients into the large soup pot, add the potatoes and beans, then add the cooked veggies.
















If your pot is too small, don't over fill it but use more than one pot if need be. My picture shows a too full pot and I eventually brought out another pot to handle the volume.

Simmer the soup for about 2 hours. I used a hand blender to puree the soup. Cool the soup before storing in containers in the freezer. Remember to label and date the containers!

Serve with a dollup of sour cream if you like.