Last Night’s Dinner

I subscribe to Food and Wine magazine, and when the October issue arrived last month, I was delighted to see an article entitled “Spanish Food & Wine (A Crash Course).” I’ve been playing more and more with Spanish flavors, and I guess you could say I’ve developed a bit of a crush. A recipe for Galician Fish Stew sounded particularly appealing, so I decided to work it into our dinner rotation soon.

The unseasonably warm weather we’ve had these last couple of weeks has not been particularly stew-friendly, so I was hoping I would have to put the dish off for too long, but as it turned out, yesterday was the perfect day for it – cool and rainy, just the kind of night when you want to curl up with something warm and hearty.

I fiddled around with the proportions of the original recipe just a bit – since I had only purchased enough halibut for the two of us rather than the four fillets called for in the recipe, I decided to reduce the number of potatoes as well. I haven’t gotten around to making a fresh batch of fish stock yet so I substituted plain water, but I kept everything else pretty much the same, and in the end, we had a richly flavored, light yet filling dish. The aroma of the paprika-garlic oil alone makes this recipe a winner.

Galician Fish Stew
(Adapted from a recipe by Janet Mendel in the October 2007 issue of Food and Wine)

For the stew:
Two 4-6 ounce skinless halibut fillets
Kosher salt
1 pound Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/2 inch thick
1 cup water (you can substitute fish stock or clam juice)
1/2 cup white vermouth (or dry white wine)
2 bay leaves
1 medium red onion, peeled and quartered
3-4 cups coarsely chopped Swiss chard leaves

For the ajada:
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3-4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon smoked Spanish paprika
Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

Season the halibut with salt and refrigerate for 30 minutes. In a large, heavy bottomed pot, combine the potatoes, water or stock, vermouth or wine, bay leaves, onion, chard and 1 tablespoon of salt. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.

Warm the olive oil in a small saucepan. Add the garlic and cook over low heat until golden. Add the paprika and red pepper off the heat, stirring well to incorporate, and set aside.

Lay the halibut on top of the potatoes and simmer, turning once, until the fish is just cooked through (6-8 minutes, depending on thickness). Remove the halibut to a plate, and spoon some of the stew into shallow bowls. Set the halibut on top. Ladle some of the broth into the garlic oil and bring the mixture to a boil. Stir well, pour it over the fish and serve.

A month or so ago, as I flipped through one of the food magazines I regularly read, I came across a recipe for a dish called Frogmore Stew. It was too warm at the time to think about making the dish, but I filed it away as an option for a cooler evening. Summer’s heat is waning now, and corn and tomatoes are at their peak of flavor, so I thought last night was the perfect time to make this dish. The only problem was, I couldn’t find the recipe I had originally looked at. A quick Google search turned up two recipes that sounded similar to what I remembered: Hugh Acheson’s recipe from Food and Wine, and The Lee brothers’ version. I ended up using these two recipes as a jumping-off point and winging the rest according to what we had on hand, and I have to say I was very pleased with the result. My version is in no way authentic low-country cooking, but it’s a darn tasty dish for a crisp early-fall night.

Frogmore Stew

1 tbsp. each butter and olive oil
1 lb. smoked sausage, sliced into 1/2 inch pieces (I used kielbasa from Tamarack Hollow)
2 cups diced red onion
2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
2 cups diced fresh plum tomato
1/2 cup white vermouth
3 cups water
2-3 bay leaves
1 tsp. Old Bay seasoning
1/2 tsp. smoked chipotle powder
1 tbsp. lemon zest
2 tbsp. fresh thyme
8-10 small/medium new potatoes, halved or quartered
2 ears corn, cleaned and cut into 6 rounds
1/2 lb. shrimp, deveined but with shells on
Kosher salt
Chopped fresh parsley and lemon wedges for garnish

Melt butter and oil in a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Add sausage and cook until browned. Remove and set aside. Add the onion, season with salt and cook a few minutes until soft. Add the garlic and plum tomato, another pinch of salt and cook a few minutes more. Stir in the vermouth and cook until mostly evaporated, then add the water, bay leaves, Old Bay, chipotle powder, lemon zest and thyme. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and add the potatoes. Cook uncovered until the potatoes are fork-tender. Add the corn and shrimp, cover, and cook until the shrimp are pink and just cooked through. Taste and adjust seasoning, remove the bay leaves, then ladle the stew into bowls and garnish with parsley and lemon wedges. Serve with plenty of crusty bread to soak up the broth.

We have picked up so much beautiful lamb from 3-Corner Field over the last couple of weeks that I’ve been cooking with it often. Though we don’t really celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, I had toyed with the idea of doing a lamb and Guinness stew, but after trudging through the snow to run our morning errands, the thought of schlepping back out to the bodega to get beer was really not sending me.

What I ended up doing was simple and super tasty. I dredged about a pound of cubed lamb in a bit of seasoned flour and shook off the excess, then added it to some hot olive oil in the Le Creuset. I browned the lamb on all sides, then added a cup of chopped shallot and a pinch of salt. When the shallot softened, I stirred in a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste and a couple of tablespoons each of ground cumin, coriander, turmeric, cinnamon and paprika. I added a pint of chicken stock and a cup of chopped tomatoes with their juice and stirred it all through. I noticed we had one Meyer lemon left, so I diced that up and added it as well, added a bay leaf, then covered the pot and allowed it to simmer for an hour or so.

I cooked some basmati rice and ladled the stew over it - I didn’t garnish it as I usually do, because we were tired and hungry and just anxious to dig in. It was lovely.

Wine Pairing: We drank the 2005 La Granacha Signargues Cotes du Rhone Villages. I always love Cotes du Rhone with lamb, and this one was a particularly nice bottle, with good fruit and spice.

This is one of my favorite stews to prepare, and while it has some richness to it with the addition of cream at the end, it never feels heavy to me, just hearty and warming and delicious.

I usually like to prepare this using bone-in chicken parts with the skin, often from a whole bird we have cut up ourselves, but we had some boneless breasts and thighs from Dines Farms in the fridge, and I’m happy to say it worked just as well using those - just keep the pieces in fairly large chunks.

Heat a quarter cup or so of olive oil in a deep, heavy bottomed pot. Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper, and then dredge them in a bit of flour. Shake off the excess and place the pieces a few at a time into the hot oil to brown, making sure not to crowd the pan. Remove the pieces to a platter as you finish browning them and set them aside.

Add a bit more oil to the pan and add about two cups of sliced leeks (white and pale green parts only) and about a cup of sliced celery. Season with a pinch of kosher salt and allow to cook over medium heat until softened. Add two cloves of garlic, minced, and cook for another minute or two. Stir a tablespoon or two of smooth Dijon mustard into 1/2 cup of white wine until dissolved, then add that to the vegetable mixture.

Once this is bubbling, add 2 cups of chopped tomatoes with their juices, the chicken pieces, 2 cups of chicken broth or water, and 1/2 lb. quartered new potatoes. Cover and allow to come to a boil, then reduce heat, taste to adjust salt, add about 2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves and about 1/3 cup chopped fresh tarragon leaves. Cover and allow the stew to cook over low heat for at least 1 hour.

Off the heat, stir in 1/4 cup of heavy cream. Garnish with additional thyme and tarragon if desired.

It’s still frigid outside, and we had nowhere to be yesterday, so after brunch, Mike read comics and cocktail books, and I thawed some lamb neck slices and curled up with the cats to watch Tony Bourdain eat warthog anus in Namibia. Much to my surprise, this did not kill my appetite permanently.

My plan for dinner was to make a lamb stew, but my usual preparation (red wine, root vegetables, herbes de provence) wasn’t really sending me. We still had Meyer lemons on hand, so I decided to use those, along with some olives, tomato, and warm spices like coriander, cumin and cinnamon.

I seasoned the lamb slices with salt and pepper, then dredged them in a bit of flour before adding them two at a time to the Le Creuset to brown in olive oil. I set the lamb slices aside, and added half a red onion, chopped, to the pan, sprinkled on a pinch of kosher salt, and allowed it to soften. I added three smashed peeled garlic cloves next, along with a tablespoon or so of tomato paste. I let the tomato paste begin to caramelize before mixing it into the onion and garlic. Next came the spices - a tablespoon of coriander seeds, half a tablespoon of ground cinnamon, and two tablespoons of ground cumin, which were stirred into the onion mixture.

I poured in a cup of red wine and a cup of crushed tomatoes, then added two Meyer lemons, seeded and chopped, plus one bay leaf. The lamb went back into the pot, and I added about 1/4 cup of water - just enough to bring the level of the liquid up to the tops of the lamb pieces. I placed the lid on the pan and let it come to a boil, then reduced the heat and let it simmer away for two hours, stirring it from time to time.

I added half a cup of pitted mixed olives about half an hour before the stew was done so they would add their flavor but not break down. I figured the olives would add some saltiness to the stew, so I waited to adjust the seasoning until the olives had cooked for a bit (and as it turned out, it didn’t need to be re-salted at all). I served the stew over couscous, and finished it with a bit of chopped flat-leaf parsley and a grating of lemon zest.

I was really pleased with the combination of flavors here - the sweet-tart taste of the lemon and the tang of the tomatoes and olives were a nice bright counterpoint to the rich lamb, and the spices were warm and heady. I’m definitely going to make this again soon.

Wine Note: We drank 2004 Ey Vigne Las Collas Grenache, an old vines Grenache with delicious smoke, pepper, and spice notes.

When Mike and I set out for the Greenmarket in Union Square on Saturday morning, my original plan for dinner was to pick up a nice fat chicken to use in a Provencal-style stew with lots of garlic and herbs, but when we saw the beautiful guinea hens that Violet Hill Farm was offering, we had to get one.

I decided on a whim to do a google search for guinea hen preparations when we got home from the market, and turned up this recipe for "Guinea Hen with Red Wine: Faraona al Vino Rosso" from Mario Batali. We had everything we needed for it with the exception of grappa, but we swapped in an equal amount of Armagnac instead. (Ah, the joys of having a well-stocked bar…)

I made a few other minor adjustments to the recipe: I cooked the crumbled sausage first (not sweet sausage as indicated in the recipe, but Flying Pigs Farm’s excellent “Mike’s Grandmother’s Hot Italian”), drained most of the fat, then added a bit of tomato paste and allowed it all to caramelize before adding the sausage to the stew. I also added a bit of marjoram and the soaking liquid from the dried mushrooms.

The resulting stew was rich and deeply flavorful, the flavors of the wine, mushrooms and sausage all definitely present, but none overpowering. The meat was some of the most tender and juicy poultry I have ever tasted. I was satisfied with one bowl, but I wish I had had room for another (Mike did). I bet it’s going to be fantastic reheated for lunch.