polenta

I can't believe how similar it is to what I usually cook although I never use any kind of liquor. I use tomato sauce and also grated carrots instead of cubes and some chopped peppers or other vegetables if I have. I sometimes make small meat balls instead of meat cubes. It's incredible how stews are so similar all over the world. I also don't cook it for such a long time.

Qsilv

Baldur's Braised Beef is heaven in a dish, no doubt about it.

But I don't agree that stews are the same all over! Ok, by definition they're wet and involve relatively large chunks of ingredients... after that everything can swap around, from spice to texture, and let's think a moment about the base -- beef? lamb? pork? rabbit? chicken? fish? veggie? wild game?

Dragon's mentioning Shiraz suddenly reminded me of one I used to make often, and now I think I will again... BUT... it's not a stove-top one! It's a true stew but you make in in the oven. (Ok ok you COULD do it in a crockpot... but trust me... the texture's better if it's come to fruition in a huge, rather flat, glass casserole.)

Stifado -- Greek Cinnamon Stew

Equal parts by weight, SMALL ONIONS and MEAT
(beef will be fabulous, but this is a perfect way to handle strong flavored meats like goat or pronghorn antelope)

Generous amounts of GARLIC and CINNAMON
Small amounts of ALLSPICE, CLOVES, a BAY leaf... a TOMATO or two...
SALT and PEPPER
(You could up the ante by experimenting with THYME, OREGANO, ROSEMARY)

OLIVE OIL (or meat fat) for sauteing
Half to a full bottle of a decent rich RED WINE (burgundy works well)

The key here is to use tiny whole onions so they hold together during a verrrrry long cooking/reducing process, when quartered large ones would have disintegrated into mush. The flavors will work either way, but the delightful texture of pearl onions makes the nuisance of peeling them really worthwhile.

If you look this up on the net, you'll often be told to marinate the meat ahead of time, but frankly it cooks so long that it sort of marinates in place (eying Baldur and getting ready to duck, here...)

Just peel and saute' the onions, then chunk and saute' the meat in the leftover onion-tainted skillet.

I tend to include the spices during the saute' process. Tho' I know some people freak at the idea of garlic getting "bitter" if it begins to toast, I'm not among 'em. (Well, I cheat and keep things moving a lot, so it doesn't scorch but just grows mellow.)

Then spread the onions, meat, tomatoes (chunked also) and spices into your casserole, and cover with half the wine... plus water if you feel nervous.

Rather low oven... 4 to 6 hours (yesss!!!)... keep peeking every 45 minutes or so and adding more wine as needed.

*I* allow it to go a bit dry between topping-up's, almost in a risotto-ish way, and again at the end... so there's a crusty quality to the top, while it's melt-in-your-mouth tender within.

...mmmmm..... ; >

Dragon

God that sounds good. Dragon would be very interested in trying pronghorn antelope. I've had Elk and found it wonderful, I wonder if antelope would be similar.

Qsilv

noooo...... Pronghorn is almost as strong a flavor as adult goat meat! Elk is mild... milder even than beef. Venison is in between, a bit stronger than beef, tho as with all game, youngsters and females are tenderer and milder, while a trophy stag will be tough and game-y.

polenta

What I meant was.... you begin by onion, you add the meat available in your area, you add vegetables and some liquid (water, broth, liquor, tomato sauce, etc) spices and you leave it quite a long time.

I like stews but I wouldn't eat that more than once a week. I agree that it's easy to keep and warm up once it's ready and this is an advantage.

I've eaten at Chinese or Oriental restaurants and their prepared rice tastes very good and it looks simple. Does anyone know the recipe?

Qsilv

Aaah Polenta, I see what you mean... and I love that way of looking at it. Getting a feel for the basic principles, and then just tinkering with what's available.

I once made up a sort of chart showing all the foundational possibilities... actually I did it to gain better control of baking stuff, but it... er... grew.. y'know how that goes? <L>

Hm... gotta see if I can find that when I get home; I'm pretty sure it's still pasted into the back of one of my favorite recipe books.

Dragon

I'm thinking you mean Chicken Fried Rice polenta. I've never made it myself but I found a recipe on AllRecipes.com

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Aprils-Chicken-Fried-Rice/Detail.aspx

This one looks a lot like the rice I'm familiar with at chinese restaurants except I'm used to them also having peas.

Qsilv

Which rice? The one with all the interesting little bits of veg and meats in it?

You know, oriental plain rice is generally short grain, cooked with quite a bit of moisture so it will stick together when you scoop up little masses with chop-sticks.

But for fried rice, you don't want it so gummy. So you either use this as a way to use up your leftovers from yesterday, or start with long grain. Jasmine is a delightfully fragrant long grain rice that still has a little bit of stick but not a gluey quality. (Basmati is one of the longest, slipperiest, most fragrant. I buy bags of it specially aged, but it's probably not what you want for this.)

The basics for the Chinese Fried Rice that I think you're referring to are simple enough.

Start with a decent layer of grease rendered from frying a smoky sausage cut up into fine bits - the classic sausage for this is a hard-cured link called lop chung (lap cheung).

Choose your goodies, cut to size, pre-fry them all lightly in a medium hot wok (or skillet... woks make it easy to keep flipping the mess tho) and remove each of the goodies to a side holding dish.

Toss in the rice, breaking up any little clumps as you go.

Add your other goodies back in, add the seasonings... and keep flipping!

Goodies:

green onions
yellow onions
eggs (beaten and scrambled)
peas or pea-pods
carrots
meat bits (sausage, chicken, shrimp...)

Seasonings:

fish sauce (comes in a bottle, like worcester but mellower - use just a spoonful)
sesame oil (a few drops add distinctive flavor)
ginger (classic combo with green onion)
hot green peppers (like serranos - again this is for seasoning, not mass)
soy (a *tiny* amount of the dark adds malty sweetness)
rice vinegar (if you feel the assemblage isn't quite tart enough)

polenta

thanks a lot Dragon and Qsilv.
There is one thing. Rice needs to be cooked so it needs some water. I use twice as much water as rice and leave it until it evaporates and has no more water indicating it's cooked. Do you agree?
I think the only real thing that I didn't know so much is the slightly beaten eggs. Thanks very much. This kind of rice is almost a dish in itself. Maybe some fruit and nothing else, right?

Qsilv

Yep, twice as much water as rice, a little more if you want it softer/stickier, a skosh less if you want it drier.

There's another way I learned, tho. Spread the top surface of the rice evenly in whatever cooking pot I'm using, then fill gently with water until the water comes up to the second joint on my index finger while that finger is pointing straight down and just touching the rice. Magic!

-

As accompaniment to what could certainly be a mostly one dish meal, I'd want something with a crisp texture, like salad greens and a slightly tart dressing... perhaps just a sprinkle of lemon/soy.

polenta

I'm surprised at how many people on Think Draw comment on recipes etc. I had the idea that people in USA and other developed countries bought ready-made food at the supermarket and only warmed it up. Here it' would be quite expensive if you did it every day and for the whole family. I thought it was cheap in US.

Dragon

That is a bad habit we get into (speaking for Canada anyway). I will admit to having a freezer full of frozen meals you just throw in the over or skillet but it is actually more expensive to do that than simply to cook yourself. I think most people will cook some nights and use prepared meals other nights (with the possible exception of Baldur, I don't think he ever uses boxed meals )
It's even more expensive to eat out or eat take out every night but I've known people who almost never cook at home and live off of high fat fast food.

Dragon

-r +n =oven

maddyjean08

Polenta, I agree with you, I do not like soggy rice in my stir fry. Then again, I don't like it very dry....... Dragon, I love your latest profile!

polenta

How much could a dish for one person cost? I don't really know if there are frozen trays for more than one person in developed countries. And what dishes can you buy? Are there also salt-free ready-made frozen trays?

maddyjean08

A dish for one person, do you mean like a frozen tv-dinner? I get mine for around 6, $7.00.........

Dragon

I'm not sure about salt-free ones but I often get things like full sized lasagna, we're actually cooking a tray of Chicken and Dumplings right now for dinner, we get 4 full servings out of these (that's a full dinner, we don't usually have to add salad or anything). They certainly make individual sized ones as well but we don't get them very often. I think they're around 4 or 5 dollars (CDN) but I can't really remember. I find these are alright for lunch but not really enough of a meal for supper. My boyfriend finds them far too small, he'd have to eat 2 to get a decent meal out of them.

Dragon

Thanks for the compliment maddyjean, I'm really happy with the way this dragon turned out.

indigo

I find that a lot of frozen and packaged processed food and meals
are very high in salt. You can chop up a bunch of veggies and put
that in rice or pasta and also using herbs and spices to make it tasty.
I use to use a lot of salt and my big weakness is potato chips...which I
will have now and then, the low salt ones. I also love dulse seaweed
but can only eat a bit, much to my dismay. The only frozen meal I will
buy is vegetarian lasagna.

sheftali52

Great discussion on fried rice. I've found that fried rice turns out great when starting with cold, cooked rice. At least that's how my mom always did it, so I do, too.