You can find a pretty good transcript of the recipe here (but not quite complete, annoyingly), if you don’t have the cookbook. Note that you will also need her instructions on sauteing mushrooms (this one is a direct, complete copy) and brown-braising pearl onions (close enough), even if you think you know how to do these things.

Some notes:

• One of the best things about the original recipe is the detailed information on wine. It recommends pairing with “a fairly full-bodied, young red wine, such as Beaujolais, Côtes du Rhône, Bordeaux-St. Émilion, or Burgundy,” and using any of those or a Chianti to go into the stew.
• 3 cups of wine = 1 bottle. I doubled the recipe. Whoo!
• I bought pre-cut-up stew meat, some of which was cut a lot finer than the other, and on the whole big chunks worked a lot better for drying and browning.
• Conversely, I couldn’t find an unsliced chunk of bacon anywhere, and regular old thick-sliced seemed to work okay.
• I over-salted because I forgot, as always, to account for the massive amounts of salt in bouillon cubes. Use caution, or perhaps better beef stock.
• Blanching helps when you realize you have to peel 48 pearl onions.
• I couldn’t really get the sauce to thicken in the end, but it seemed to end up okay just letting it reduce a lot even if it never really reached light-spoon-coating consistency. =/

For extras, here is the rosemary bread recipe I have been fussing with of late. It’s sort of long but that’s because the procedure is the complicated part; sorry. Start this ~3 hrs before you want to eat it.

• 2 1/2 tsp yeast, which is~1 packet
• 2 c. warm water, ~110-115 F, which is warm but just shy of scalding
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 4 c. flour. Bread flour is nice if you can get it, and if you do not consider extra gluten cheating.
• 2 tsp. minced fresh rosemary plus more for topping. Fresh is important! You can sub out some for fresh thyme.
• olive oil, corn meal, sea salt

Dissolve yeast in the warm water and sugar. If it’s NOT instant/fast-acting/bread-machine yeast, give it <5 min to froth up. Otherwise, immediately add flour, salt, and 2 tsp rosemary and stir until blended. Do not knead! Cover and let rise for 1 hour or until double in size; bonus points for putting it someplace slightly warm and moist.

Oil a baking sheet and sprinkle with corn meal. Perhaps try oiling your hands instead of flouring them, as the dough is super sticky, then divide it in half, shape each half quickly and loosely into a round by tucking the edges under, and place on the baking sheet. Cover and let rise another hour. The stickiness is again a problem; cooking-sprayed plastic wrap is the only thing I’ve managed to use that DIDN’T stick horribly and make the top of my loaves lumpy.

With bread, some last-minute rising happens in the oven and for that you want things hot and steamy (har). Start heating your oven early, maybe half an hour into the second rise, to 450 or “lots.” My oven here has no numbers on the dial between 350 and 500 so I use my imagination, but I don’t think getting it too hot is a possibility. If you have a pizza stone, put it in now. Also put a cast-iron skillet in the bottom of the oven (or something else which can be raised to high temps empty, then have cool water thrown in it without exploding).

When bread is again about doubled in size, brush with olive oil and top with more rosemary and plentiful crushed sea salt. Get yourself some water, maybe 1/4 cup, on hand near your oven as now you must act quickly! Put the bread in (just stick the pan on the pizza stone if using one, unless you want to get fancy and try to slide the bread onto the stone directly), dump the water on your previously-heated skillet or whatever where it will send up exciting clouds of steam, and close the oven door quickly. Bake 10 min, adding more water for steam if it runs out. Then turn the oven down to 375 and bake another 20 min or so until it’s golden-browny.

Tonight, Michael was off having fun with friends, so we took the opportunity to make something not only with vegetables, not only vegetarian, but vegan (gasp)—ratatouille. Unlike most French fare, the recipe for this rustic vegetable stew is somewhat flexible. We opted for the stovetop route, adding non-traditional yellow squash and substituting red bell peppers for the typical green, resulting in a very colorful dish (red, orange, yellow, green, and purple are all in the mix). It’s really very easy, once you assemble and chop up all the ingredients! Also: surprisingly delicious despite not having any suffering in it.

Rainbow Ratatouille

• 5-6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 6 cloves of garlic (or to taste), broken/crushed with the back of a knife and then chopped
• 1 large onion, sliced thin
• 1 large eggplant, cut roughly into 1/2 inch cubes
• 2 large zucchini, sliced into long strips and then cut into quarter-strips
• 6 small crookneck squash, cut into thin circular slices
• 1 large red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped
• 5 medium tomatoes (preferably slightly overripe), chopped roughly
• 1 tbsp each of dried thyme and oregano (or to taste)
• 1 cup shredded fresh basil
• red pepper flakes (to taste)
• kosher salt (to taste)

Sprinkle chopped eggplant and squash with salt while you start. Heat half the olive oil on medium-low, then cook the onions and garlic until onions have softened. Add the remaining oil, turn the heat up to medium; let the oil heat, but don’t let it smoke. Add the eggplant and cook until the eggplant is soft, about 8-10 minutes. Add the zucchini, crookneck squash, and bell pepper, cooking for another 10-12 minutes (stirring to prevent scorching). Finally, add the tomatoes and the seasonings, allowing everything to soak through. Let that stew for another 8-10 minutes (uncovered, as the tomatoes add a good deal of water). Serve with a baguette (and/or Rice-a-Roni if you have an entire shelf of your pantry dedicated to it because it is always on sale… *looks around shiftily*).

(Picture was taken right before the tomatoes went in.) Tomorrow: Sausage cappelini (with homemade pesto!) and bruschetta. :9

Image from mochimama's blog (mine didn't turn out so well...)

This is a super delicious dish that my mom likes to make from time to time.  I love it because it has a bit of everything – protein, fiber, carbs, etc. – all stewed together until delicious and flavorful.  It makes use of almost every standard Chinese ingredient that you can think of, so it may be harder to pull together if you don’t have a lot of them on hand. However! If you have an asian grocery store readily accessible, I guarantee that you can get these ingredients cheaply and benefit greatly in future endeavors with Chinese recipes! You will also need a heavy, heat retaining vessel to make the dish in – traditionally it calls for a lidded clay pot, but I made use of Jo’s dutch oven.

Ingredients (I basically made up approx. measurements for those who like specific directions to follow, so feel free to improvise):

Makes about 5 servings…?

• 1 lb ground pork
• 1 medium sized block of firm tofu (about a 3-inch square, give or take an inch)
• 1/2 cup minced green onions
• 1/4 cup minced fresh ginger
• 1 large egg
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/4 cup rice wine (“cooking michu”)
• couple pinches of salt and black or white pepper
• pinch of sugar
• cornstarch
• veggie oil
• 6-7 cups of chicken broth (50ish ounces, equal to one of those big cans)
• 1 packet mung bean noodles
• 1 can bamboo shoots
• 1 pound napa cabbage

First, combine the ground pork, tofu, scallions, ginger, salt, pepper, sugar, beaten egg, rice wine, sesame oil, and soy sauce in a big mixing bowl with your hands.  Mix it good!! Then, start adding cornstarch about a couple tablespoons at a time, micing it in thoroughly. You want the consistency of the mixture to be somewhere between too wet and too dry, enough so that it seems to hold together in one mass.

If you’re using a dutch oven like I did, start heating it on medium-low heat right about now.

Separate the meat mixture into thick patties, about three inches in diameter. Pour veggie oil into a deep skillet so that it’s about 1/4- 1/2 inches deep. Heat on medium-high heat and then drop the patties in, frying one side until it’s browned and then flipping over. Remove and put them on a plate.

Stick the dried noodles into a large bowl of cold water.

Pour the chicken broth in the pot along with the cabbage and bamboo shoots, then bring to a boil. As soon as it boils, bring down to a simmer and then add in the meatballs. Add a splash of soy sauce- enough to turn the broth slightly brown- and let it simmer for at least 30 minutes.  You want the cabbage to be soft and delightfully chewy.

Add in the noodles about 10 minutes before you want to eat the dish.  Serve and enjoy!

Some addendums:

• You can be creative with what you add to the dish – mushrooms and bok choy are pretty good additions!
• The most useful ingredents for chinese cooking that I mentioned before? Rice wine, sesame oil, soy sauce!
• Makes for great leftovers, though the noodles do get squishy.  However, the cabbage only gets better.