No-Fuss Beef Stew

This is the easiest Beef Stew I’ve ever made - and I’ve been making stew for nearly 50 years. Whenever I feel like stew made super easy, I reach for this recipe. Why? The meat doesn’t need browning. 

No-Fuss Beef Stew: 

2 lb. (about 1 kg) stewing beef, in unbrowned chunks (see Note)
Two 14-oz. (398 mL) cans diced tomatoes and juice
3 large Russet potatoes, in chunks
1 large onion, cut into eighths
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1-in. chunks
3 stalks celery, cut into 1-in. chunks
Salt, pepper, and garlic powder, to taste
¼ c. (60 mL) quick-cooking tapioca
2-to-3 tbsp. (30-to-45 mL) cornstarch, if required
1-to-2 tbsp. (15-to-10 mL) commercial gravy browner
Handful of frozen peas

Preheat oven to 300 deg. F. In a large, ungreased casserole, combine all ingredients except cornstarch, peas, and gravy browner. Stir from bottom to top, distributing tapioca evenly. Bake, covered, 3 hr., stirring occasionally.

About 30 min. before stew is done, if stew broth is not thick enough for your liking, drain off some of the liquid and cool slightly before stirring cornstarch into drained liquid. Mix well before returning to stew through small strainer, to ensure cornstarch mixture has no small lumps. Stir in gravy browner. Add frozen peas, stirring just until heated through, serving at once. Yields 8-to-10 servings.

Note: Don’t cut beef chunks too small, or they’ll disintegrate in cooking. 

No-Fuss Beef Stew is even better the next day!

For other stews, see One Click: Stew.

Dinner Party Series: Fabulous Femmes Film Fest (Second Annual)

I love to give parties! Not the lampshade-on-the-head type, or the small-talk cocktail type, or the no-shirt-too-big-to-stuff type. Other people give those types of parties. Not I.

I love to give dinner parties! Mine are invariably the kind in which everyone exercises the boarding house reach past and over everyone else. At my parties, everyone talks louder than the next person, and children should always be seen and heard! 

Early last year, a little after the Academy Award presentations, I came up with the idea of an in-home “dinner” party that would feature finger food and a couple of top-rated films. And so the First Annual Fabulous Femmes Film Fest was born. I forget what was on the menu, but Crantinis certainly played a role, as did The King’s Speech and Black Swan. Ron snapped the photo below as I set last year’s buffet table before my guests arrived and he departed. Ron understands that this event is intended exclusively for Fabulous Femmes. As cute as he is, he doesn’t qualify.

Setting up: The First Annual Fabulous Femmes Film Fest

Add your own special touches! Be outrageous!

The FFFF was so much fun that the Second Annual Fabulous Femmes Film Fest took place this past week. That event was so much fun that I had to take a nap when it was over. I hope the FFFF will become a tradition at my house - and yours! - for many more years, so I’d like to tell you a little something about this year’s table and the simple buffet that worked so well.

But before I do ... Hey! You men over there! Listen up! Raus! Scram! Vamoose! Today’s blog readership is strictly limited to Fabulous Femmes. Given that every woman is fabulous, every woman in my reading audience is included. Our secrets are ours to keep: We don’t want any men snooping!

This year, I took it easy. I prepared the main course - two make-ahead stews - and everyone else brought the rest. In addition to appetizers, No-Fuss Beef Stew, and Creamy Chicken Stew, we had mixed salad greens tossed with sweet onions and thin slivers of colored bell peppers, artisan breads, a beautiful fruit plate, a selection of cookies, and a surprise birthday cake with candles for a Fabulous Femme celebrating her mmmfff! mmmfff! (whoops!) birthday. There was wine and Prosecco (which has fizzy bubbles that tickle your nose). 

We are not talking this:

We are talking fun. No flames (except those under the chafing dishes). No competition (we’re all fabulous, remember?). No knife-sharpening. And definitely, no men (in the kitchen or anywhere else).

We watched movies, of course: Simultaneous screenings of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel on the big screen in the living room and The Artist on the mid-sized screen in the bedroom. And yes, Dollinks, there was popcorn - hot, buttered, messy - just the way we Fabulous Femmes like it. 

In the darkened bedroom, five Fabulous Femmes cuddled on the bed and on chairs with warm blankies; in the living room, six Fabulous Femmes squeezed together on the sofas. A good time was definitely had by all.

Chafing dishes kept the make-ahead stews hot.

Space-saving vertical chafing dishes: 

Ideal for soup or chili, too.

Be prepared and be organized: Napkins wrap cutlery.

Stew bowls, salad plates, small dessert plates.

Why should you care? Women need other women. Just as men bond over sports, women bond over hours of conversation - weeping, laughing, kvetching, gossiping. About what? About men, of course. Women strive to understand men the way Jane Goodall strove to understand chimps. Goodall succeeded; most of us have not. We Fabulous Femmes talked about men while munching Halloween candies. We cried about men while licking popcorn butter from our fingers. We laughed about men over bowls of stew, unsure whether it was the stew or our long friendships that warmed us on this cold, wet November day.

Treasure your women friends. They are all Fabulous Femmes, and so are you. Hold your own version of a Fabulous Femmes Film Fest and see what fun and mischief you can have. There’s some work involved - invitations to be sent, food to be made, dishes to be washed - but make it easy on yourself and ask others to share the load. It doesn’t matter if the dishes don't match and you don’t live in style. What matters are the smiles on your friends’ faces as they loosen up (ah, yes ... last year’s Crantinis) and open up. 

Breaking bread with women friends transcends any food!

Was it the stew that warmed us, or our friendship?

 

Matrimonial Cake

My dear friend Svend Hansen, who recently turned 89, gave me this recipe a few weeks ago. Although these squares are officially called Matrimonial  “Cake,” they’re an old-time bar cookie. Over the past few years, they’ve had a resurgence in popularity through their appearance in trendy coffee shops.

Edna, Svend’s late wife, used to make these bars: Svend now makes them, himself. Until her passing exactly 10 years ago to the day, Edna and Svend were fortunate enough to enjoy 56 years of marriage. Svend says the secret to a happy marriage is mutual love and respect: I second the motion!

Otherwise known as Date Squares, you’ll love the way these cookies hold together, rather than oozing and crumbling the way Date Squares normally do. If you’re a new cook or simply need a reminder of how good these are, Date Squares or Matrimonial Cake have a crumbly oat layer on the bottom, a date layer at the center, and another layer of oats on top. We can certainly vouch for the taste of Svend’s squares: Ron and I gobbled them up, leaving only a few crumbs on the plate that we were too embarrassed to photograph.

Matrimonial Cake:

To Prepare the Crumb Layer:

1-¼ c. all-purpose flour
1-½ c. large flake rolled oats
1 c. well-packed brown sugar
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt (see Note)
1 c. hard butter or margarine

Preheat oven to 350 deg. F. Lightly grease a 9x9-in. baking pan. Measure flour, oats, sugar, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl, combining well. Cut butter into oat mixture until crumbly. Firmly press slightly more than half of crumbs into bottom of pan. Set aside.

To Prepare the Date Filling:

1 lb. dates, cut up (see Further Note)
1 tbsp. brown sugar 
2 tbsp. lemon juice
⅔ c. water

Combine dates, sugar, and water in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil and immediately reduce heat to simmer until mixture softens. Mixture should hold together well but should not be dry. Cool slightly before spreading over crumb base. 

Sprinkle remaining crumbs evenly over date mixture, pressing lightly with your palm. Bake until golden brown, about 30 min. Cool completely before cutting into squares and gently lifting from pan.

Note: Old-time recipes usually contain more salt than wise in our diets. In the recipe above, I’ve reduced the amount of salt the original recipe recommends. I do this routinely, Dollinks. To further keep the salt levels down, I try to use unsalted butter or margarine as often as possible. The only place this doesn’t work is in yeast bread recipes. Always use the amount of salt that yeast bread recipes recommend. 

Edna’s handwritten notes on this recipe indicate that she, too, altered the original, which calls for just ½ lb. dates and granulated sugar. Edna’s version is excellent, but the recipe I’ve given above is a hybrid of what I make and she made.

Tomorrow: It’s another Dinner Party! This time at lunch, and this time for the FFFF! Don’t know what that is? You’ll just have to wait and find out! Hint: Tomorrow’s blog is exclusively aimed at women. Let the guys drink beer, scratch their bellies, and watch football with their buddies as we par-tay! We wouldn’t want men to know all our secrets, would we?

Spaghetti alla Caruso

It was 1873. The Italian families of his social stratum struggled to put bread on the table. Born into a poor family in Naples, he was the third of seven children, four of whom died in infancy. Apprenticed to a trade by the time he was 11, he didn’t have much formal schooling, but made up for it with his gift for singing - in the church choir, in the streets of Naples, in the cafés, in a resort. By the time he was 18, he had earned enough money to buy his first pair of new shoes.

He was Enrico Caruso, and by the start of the 20^th Century, he was famous - and famously booed onstage in Naples when he failed to pay members of the audience to cheer for him, as was then the custom. Although he later enjoyed a worldwide career, he never again sang in his native city, saying he would return “only to eat spaghetti.” So here is Enrico Caruso, and here is a modified version of the spaghetti that bears his name.

Spaghetti alla Caruso:

1 lb. spaghetti 
⅓ c. diced onions
1 c. diced green pepper
2 tbsp. olive oil or butter or margarine
1 lb. chicken livers, coarsely chopped (see Note)
1 c. sliced mushrooms
Two 14-oz. (398 mL) cans Italian-style tomato sauce
1 tbsp. tomato paste
¼ tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
1 tsp. basil
1 tsp. oregano
Parmesan cheese, as garnish

Add spaghetti to large pot of lightly salted boiling water, proceeding according to package directions. In a large skillet, sauté onion and green pepper in olive oil over medium heat until onions are translucent and green pepper is soft. Add chicken livers, cooking until tender and no pink remains. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer 10 min. Serve over hot, well-drained spaghetti, topping with Parmesan, as desired.


Note: Partially freezing chicken livers before chopping them makes the job far more palatable. Once they’ve been cut, rinse them under cold running water; blot dry before use. 

For what I suspect is a more authentic version of this recipe, see:

http://www.great-chicago-italian-recipes.com/spaghetti_alla_caruso.html

I would not use the shitaki mushrooms the recipe suggests. I very much doubt that they were available in Italy at the time Caruso scarfed down this dish! If you want to use a commercial mix of wild mushrooms, go ahead, but I’m sure that simple brown or white mushrooms will do very nicely.

Sauté onions until translucent ... green peppers, too!

Partially frozen chicken livers work best

They're far easier to chop

Sauté until no pink remains. Add remaining ingredients

Regular mushrooms are fine ... don't waste your money!

Mama Mia, that-sa good! I served it on fettuccine

Dinner Party Series: Guidelines and Tips

As regular readers know, I love color! If you think that means only the bright reds, yellow ochres, deeply saturated blues, turquoises, and pale greens you’ve seen on this website, you’d be very wrong. I love color in every shade and hue, and am especially interested in color’s effect on perception and mood. That’s why today’s Dinner Party Guidelines and Tips focus on setting a beautiful table. I’ve done several other blogs on tablescaping, because it’s a subject close to my heart. You'll find them indexed under that heading.

I recently found these pretty, complementary plates at Cost Plus World Market in Oregon, and marveled at how inexpensively almost anyone can set an elegant table for a very small outlay. 

The traditional blue-and-white "Willow" pattern makes its mark in 
gray. Paired with a square plate, it takes on a contemporary look

This beautiful jug complements the gray
Willow-pattern china I sourced in Oregon

But wait ... There’s more! (as the TV pitchmen say) 

I went online in search of serving pieces that would tie in with these beautiful plates. Just look what I found on an auctioneer’s website - 
this beautifully shaped jug in the same classic design! 

Although it sold quickly, you can always search for another. Twelve inches high, it’s described as a “mulberry pitcher in the ‘Pelew’ pattern, made by E. Challinor.”  The opening bid? A mere $70. 

The plates above are $7.50 apiece. Each piece of matching cutlery (sigh!) was less than $2.00. 

The perfect match for the gracious dishes, above

Although you may be thinking “bargain!” I found the dishes above too expensive, and didn’t buy them or the beautiful pitcher. But wait ... There really is more! I bought my Thanksgiving place settings in a California WalMart store at $2.50 a plate! You’ll see them next month, when I blog another in my Dinner Party series - this one titled Thanksgiving. 

What else didn’t I buy? I didn’t buy any ceramic pumpkins masquerading as soup bowls. They’re beautiful, but have only limited use (i.e., Autumn) and may present a storage problem.

Pumpkin-shaped soup bowls

Beautiful and trendy, but worth buying? You decide!

I’ve said it before and will say it again: If you see it, love it, and it fits your cupboard and your budget, buy it. If you aren’t sure, wait 24 hours before plunking down your dough. A well-considered purchase will give you, your family, and your guests years of pleasure. The satisfaction you feel from an impulse buy will probably be short-lived.

I check eBay and Craigslist for bargains when I search for interesting table settings. Many people no longer want Mom’s fine china. The seller wants to get rid of it, and I want to love it and use it and give it a good home. If the price is right, why not? One of my daughters-in-law even bought a collection of matched Waterford drinking glasses for the flat price of $50! 

Consignment stores, antique stores, and newspaper ads are other excellent sources for bargains in china and silver plate. Half the fun is in the hunt! 

I have one more tip: If you can’t find what you want, make it. I’d yearned for a nice red pitcher for years. I feel very, very proud of the serviceable, attractive pitcher I made in a ceramics studio last summer. On it, I wrote the word “Believe.” If you believe you can do it, you can. My completed pitcher cost $25. Given the memories it already holds, it truly was a bargain.

When all else fails, DIY ... Do It Yourself!

Shepherd’s Pie

I have a certain fondness for shepherds. I once flew so low over Scotland that I spied one running his sheep on the emerald grasses bordering the seas west of Scotland. It gave me a thrill. Peeking through a farmer’s fence, I once watched a ewe drop a lamb sticky with birthing fluid. Within minutes of her licking the baby clean, it  rose on wobbly stick legs. Another thrill. I was once wildly in love with a shepherd, but it was not to be. Rin-Tin-Tin had already been taken. 

Just as shepherds hold a warm place in my heart, Shepherd’s Pie holds a warm place in my stomach.With its mashed potatoes, vegetables, hot gravy, and meat (Oops! I’ve just given you the recipe!), it’s the ultimate comfort food. Whether you make this easy dish with cooked leftover roast beef, pork, lamb, or poultry, the method remain the same. The meat can be ground or chunked as you desire. For dinner last night, I made my pies with chicken. Here’s how!

Shepherd’s Pie:

3 large russet potatoes, peeled and chunked
2 whole garlic cloves, peeled
¼ c. butter or margarine
2-to-3 tbsp. milk
1-½ c. thick chicken gravy (see Note) 
4 boned and skinned chicken thighs, in chunks (about 1-½ c.)
1-½ c. frozen mixed vegetables
Paprika, as garnish

Preheat oven to 350 deg. F. Bring potatoes and garlic to a boil in lightly salted water. Reduce heat, simmering 15-to-20 min. Drain and mash potatoes with garlic. Stir in butter and milk. Mash should be thick, rather than soft. Set aside and keep warm. Stir gravy in saucepan over medium heat. Add raw chicken chunks, heating through until no pink remains, about 10 min. 

Divide frozen vegetables equally between two individual casserole dishes. Pour hot gravy with chicken chunks over vegetables, filling casserole ⅔ full. Spread with mashed potatoes to edge of casseroles. Sprinkle potatoes liberally with paprika. Place casserole dishes on baking sheet to catch oozing gravy. Bake 30 min., or until gravy bubbles under potatoes. Let stand 10 min. at room temperature before serving. Serves 2.

Note: This dish is an excellent use for leftover gravy.

Bring potatoes and garlic to a boil; reduce heat to simmer

Mash with butter and milk. Set aside and keep warm.

Save and freeze trimmed chicken skin and bone for the stock pot 

Four trimmed thighs yield about 1-1/2 c. chicken chunks

Add chicken to gravy, cooking about 10 min.

Use individual casserole dishes

Ladle hot gravy and chicken chunks over mixed vegetables

Spread with potatoes. Sprinkle with paprika before baking.

Traditional Sunday Roast Beef

On the spur of the moment last weekend, we invited our daughter-in-law and two of our grandchildren to a simple family dinner. We all have busy lives, and with the exception of Thanksgiving and the holiday season, we don’t gather family members around the table as often as we’d like. 

Paper napkins signal “informal” 

- but still offer jaunty flair

For this occasion, I served a simply prepared 4 lb. Bottom Round Roast (also known as an Outside Round or Silver-Side Round). As a two-person household, we have roast beef only rarely, so I’d forgotten that bottom rounds are one of the least flavorful and least tender cuts, with tough muscles, plenty of connective tissue, and almost no marbled fat. 

I slammed the thing into a 350 deg. F. oven with nothing more than a little seasoning - mistake! That laissez-faire approach works well for a more tender cut of beef, but this particular cut was tougher than an army drill sergeant. Still, we managed to chew our way through it while I made a mental note to remember that not all roast beef is created equal. 

For the right way to cook a Bottom Round Roast, see the excellent recipe at 

http://www.themeatsource.com/bottomroundroast.html Not surprisingly, low, slow cooking and a little moisture produce a delicious roast. A tough cut should always be served a little undercooked and thinly sliced. 

We had so much fun talking that - whoops! - the roast sat in the oven longer than it should have, at a temperature higher than it needed, to be sliced thicker than a plank. Cooked wrong, sliced wrong, each slab of gray meat lay on the plate like an accusation. The children’s tiny jaws worked furiously, like squirrels trying to choke down nuts.

To keep everyone in good humor, I served the kids Perrier, told them it was champagne, and pretended not to hear their mother whisper: “You don’t have to eat the meat if you can’t chew it.” 

I’ve always maintained that you can disguise any cooking disaster with one of three things: A massive blob of whipping cream, a huge spray of parsley, or liberal lashings of gravy. Our dinner featured all three: Its success was guaranteed! 

(Tip: When you make a mistake, don’t draw attention to it. For me to have said: “Ewwww! This roast is tough!” wouldn’t have made it any less so. This was a good time for me to keep my mouth firmly closed. Besides, I was focused on chewing, as were we all.)

Having roast beef always reminds me how economical a roast actually is. From this evening’s roast come tomorrow’s sandwiches and ample leftovers. The day after our family dinner, I made a Shepherd’s Pie, and still had plenty of roast for another day!

I’ve previously blogged a few of the recipes that were on our Traditional Sunday’s menu: I served the roast with plenty of Gravy, Roast Potatoes, Red Cabbage, and a simple bowl of buttery sliced carrots mixed with tiny Brussels sprouts (Tip: Make a small X in the stemmed sprouts for fast, even cooking). 

If I’d thought to do so, I would have made the traditional Yorkshire Puddings that work so well with roast beef and Gravy. You’ll find my Roast Potatoes, Red Cabbage, and the Yorkshire Puddings I should have made listed in the Index under Side Dishes (Tip: Always save, strain, and freeze bacon fat for future use. The potatoes, cabbage, and savory puddings all need a little bacon fat for their successful preparation; a different fat simply will not do for these recipes!). 

We finished dinner with the deliciously easy Company Plum Cake I blogged just over a week ago: It’s in the Index under Cakes: Fruit. I served this cake directly from the pan, passing around a whipping cream bomb. 

Had this been a formal, pull-out-all-the-stops dinner, the whipped cream would have arrived in a fancy little bowl and none of us would have punctuated lulls in the conversation with an idle squirt here, another there, and a third for good measure.

So here’s the Gravy recipe that saved the evening! I’ll publish my recipe for Shepherd’s Pie tomorrow. These recipes aren’t in the least bit fancy or difficult - the emphasis at our Traditional Sunday Roast Beef Dinner was to relax, throwing together something fuss-free while still presenting a welcoming table setting for our guests. Experienced cooks will have made these two recipes countless times, but if you’re new at cooking or don’t normally prepare roast beef, slip into your aprons, Dollinks!

Nicole’s Gravy:

I don’t use precise measurements: Everything depends upon the size of the chunk of meat or poultry, how much fat you add, and how much the meat releases.  Once meat reaches desired doneness, remove it from roasting pan (Tip: If you aren’t sure, use a meat thermometer). Tent meat lightly with foil and allow to rest (10 min. for most meats; 20 min. for a turkey) before carving. Do not wash roasting pan!

Heat drippings in roasting pan over medium-high heat. Sprinkle in just enough all-purpose flour to absorb most pan fat. Whisking quickly, thoroughly combine fat and flour, adding extra flour as needed. Continuing to whisk, cook about 1 min. over medium-low heat. 

Gradually add homemade or commercial broth (see How to Make Beef Stock), whisking until gravy reaches desired thickness. Be mindful that gravy thickens upon standing, so don’t be too heavy handed with the flour. If floating fat remains on the surface, add more flour and liquid or simply skim it off.

Season to taste (and do taste it!) with garlic powder, salt, pepper, and any herb or combination of herbs you fancy. You may want to use a splash of red wine in your gravy, or sliced mushrooms, or a spoonful of Dijon-style mustard; I sometimes do. You may also want to “cheat” by adding a gravy browning agent at this point. There are plenty of brands available: All produce an attractive, nicely colored gravy. 

Because this gravy contains bits of meat and the occasional flour lump, strain it before transferring it to your gravy boat. Stirring the flour into cold broth before adding it to hot gravy may slightly reduce the number of lumps, but the smoothest and best gravies are always strained, in my opinion. Substitute cornstarch for flour at your peril: The result is often a far thinner, less “substantial” gravy for those who want only a pale drizzle.

I’ve had cornstarch-thickened gravy in chi-chi dining rooms, and found it extremely unsatisfactory. If you’re going to have gravy, for goodness sakes, have gravy! You don’t do this everyday, so enjoy the splurge! The recipe also appears under One Click: Turkey.

Note: I like to make lots of gravy. Not only do guests forgive my culinary bloopers, but leftover gravy is a superbly reliable addition to homemade soups, stews, and dishes such as Shepherd’s Pie. More on that tomorrow, followed by Tuesday’s post of additional Guidelines and Tips for successful entertaining. And now I’m off to find some hungry shepherds! 

Tea lights, rather than high candles, hint at informality. 

Wooden serving platters highlight the meal’s relaxed tone.