EuroStew: Mirepoix, Lardons & Booze

Long time no write. I really need to get into the swing of doing this properly. Well, let's try starting again!

A manly, rustic, hearty, lumberjacking, headcracking stew.

I'd like to say that this is a rustic French stew or an Italian classic or something. I suppose it is, in the sense that it's a few bits of meat with lots of fresh veggies and some basic seasonings. It works really well just by itself or served with polenta, rice, pasta, bread or loaded into vol au vents.

I've called it EuroStew because it's got a little bit of French, little bit of Italian, probably something else from another country I don't know the origins of. The basis is a Mirepoix (in French) or Soffritto (in Italian). Basically a mixture of onion, celery and carrots although my proportions are slightly different from the traditional 2:1:1 ratios for Onions, Celery & Carrots. I tend to go 2:1:1 Celery, Onion & Carrots, browned in olive oil with thinly sliced garlic. It also has port wine in it rather, than some weak little shiraz or other red wine. It has FORTIFIED red wine. Take that, vin du tableau!!

This freezes pretty well and since it's loaded primarily with vegetables including the lean proteins of the beans, it's quite healthy (providing you don't serve it with piles of cheesy potatoes or a bucket of pasta).

Ingredients (makes 4-6 portions, depending on serving size)

• 200g lardons (diced thick bacon)
• 200g stewing beef (diced)
• 3 cups diced celery
• 1.5 cups diced onion
• 1.5 cups diced carrots
• 1.5 cups sliced mushrooms
• 2 x 400g cans peeled tomatoes
• 1 x 400g cans 5 bean mix (or white beans)
• 1/2 cup tomato paste
• 1/2 cup port wine
• 4 cloves garlic
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Black Pepper
• 1/2 tsp Ground cumin seed
• Sprig fresh time
• Sprig fresh rosemary

 Method

1. Make sure three veg are finely diced to approximately same dimensions (for even cooking). Reserve celery leaves for end of cooking.
2. Add oil to hot pot, add half of sliced garlic.
3. When oil is good and garlicy (garlic has started to turn brown), add bacon and beef. Sautee until good and brown.
4. Remove meat from pot and remaining garlic.  Then add celery, onion and carrot mixture to pot. Lightly brown in beef and bacon juices.
5. Return meat to pot and add tinned tomatoes, port wine, tomato paste, leaves stripped from rosemary and thyme, and cumin.
6. Simmer on low for about an hour as meat tenderises and liquids reduce.
7. Drain beans from can and add to pot. Simmer slowly for another 45 minutes.
8. Add mushrooms and simmer for 15 minutes.
9. Finally, add shredded celery leaves, stir through, season with salt/pepper to taste and then serve.

Cooking Notes

• You may need to add some water depending on how much liquid reduces away during the simmering stage. Don't allow to get too dry, but you don't want it sloppy wet either.
• Serving suggestions : Shave some Parmesan or crumble some Feta over the top.
• Goes so well just by itself and served with crusty, delicious bread.

Kyuushoku Series : Red Lime Curry with Ginger Rice

Kyuushoku, also known as "spew-shoku" or simply "The Shock" by native speaking English teachers in Japan, is the Japanese school lunch. Introduced as part of post-war reconstruction during the modernisation of Japan, it was designed to ensure that the future of Japan (the children) would have at least one good meal a day. Well, good in the sense that it at least resembled a nutritionally sound meal for young people.

Different kinds of kyuushoku. 1950s and 1927s on the right.
I think it's legislated that kyuushoku must make
economy airline food look like Heston Blumenthal
is up the back of your plane cooking up a storm.

It still continues on today, and is generally prepared in a master kitchen centre and trucked out to the different schools served by that centre. A centre can serve a number of junior high school and elementary schools, and they will usually send out a bread item or rice item (carbohydrate), some kind of soup or stew (vegetables & proteins) and another item such as a piece of fish or gyoza or a hanburger patty (vegetables & proteins) and to round this repast off, some fruit or yoghurt. And ALWAYS a carton of milk.

Well, school has resumed and I am still without my kitchenware. I've been struggling by with my $8 frypan from the supermarket and 2-3 pyrex bowls but today I snapped and bought a proper microwave rice cooker. Basically, a microwave pot with a close fitting lid, inner rack and a steam release valve, it allows you to steam vegetables or meats or produce delicious rice!

As a celebration I thought I would share with you some of my own school lunches. One benefit to teaching is the regular allotted breaks and meal times - make it easy to keep to a diet and being busy and on your feet all day can discourage snacking. But when you sit down to lunch, you want something that will keep you going until you get home in the evening but won't make you fall asleep during the afternoon classroom fade.

I like rice meals for this because, although the rice has a high glycemic index the rest of the meal consists of proteins and vegetables that are low GI - the net effect of which is that you don't feel especially sleepy after eating. They're not particularly heavy to eat and because the portion size of the rice is small in comparison to the rest of the meal, it's just a good healthy meal. I usually have a piece of fruit with lunch as well which leaves me full up.

I usually get 5 portions out of these recipes - 4 for the freezer for lunches and one for dinner. And they only take about 20 minutes to knock together too. First up is a delicious Thai-style Red Lime Curry.

It uses a red curry paste, but it doesn't come out red. ILLUSION!!!!

Ingredients (makes 5 portions)

• 3 tbsp Red Curry Paste
• 1 Large Onion
• 1 440g Can of Chickpeas
• 1/2 tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 tbsp Butter
• 1 tbsp Minced Ginger
• 2 Limes (juice only - fresh is best)
• 125g Beef/Chicken
• Pinch each sugar, salt, cracked pepper
• 2 cups medium grain white rice
• 4 cups boiling water (for rice)
• 2 cups boiling water (for curry)

 Method

1. Finely dice onion.
2. Finely slice beef and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
3. Rinse rice thoroughly, then add the juice of one lime and the minced ginger to rice. Mix thoroughly.
4. Add boiling water to rice and microwave for 10 minutes.
5. Heat olive oil in non-stick pan and add red curry paste when hot.
6. Fry off curry paste for about a minute, then add onion. Cook until soft and translucent.
7. Add chickpeas (including liquid from can) and 2 cups boiling water.
8. Simmer for 10 minutes or until liquid amount is reduced by half.
9. Roughly mash chickpeas with back of spoon, then add beef.
10. Wait for liquid to reduce by half again and add juice of 1 lime.
11. Add butter just before serving.
12. Serve over rice.

Cooking Notes

• Fresh lime is soooooo much better than bottle juice. Don't use the plastic stuff - it's just naaaaasty.
• If using fresh limes, just roll them with a little pressure on the bench before juicing. You'll get a larger amount of juice from them.
• You can leave out the butter if you want, but this meal is just so low in oil and fat generally that I reckon you can get away with adding the butter. It makes the chickpeas creamy delicious, and because of the acidity of the lime juice it doesn't feel oily or heavy.
• Lime & Ginger rice is awesome. It smells so heavenly when cooking. If you're doing something with a coconut curry, try lime & ginger rice. Thank me later. Actually, no thank me now. Before you get so damn popular you don't remember who to thank.

Japanese Curry Mix

Well, again that was a long time between updates. I've moved to fantastic tropical Cairns to take up a new teaching position and that comes with a few fringe benefits. Apart from a 5 month "Wet Season", a beautiful selection of restaurants and and amazing scenery, there is bucket loads of insanely fresh produce here!

It's truly a cooking pleasure garden! Unfortunately, thanks to the Brisbane floods, all of my stuff (including the beautiful appliances and granite mortar/pestle I was gifted for Christmas) has been MIA and I've only just found out that the moving company was trashed in the floods (along with my stuff).

Sucky. So I've been living out of a microwave, tupperware, a few pyrex bowls and an $8 frypan I bought in the supermarket. One thing that is absolutely awesome about that combination though, is that I can make curries!

I particularly like Japanese curry, but I don't like the the fat it comes with when you buy it in blocks.  Japanese curry comes in two forms - powder (karee-ko) or blocks of "roux" (ruu). A roux actually comes from French cooking and is that standard mixture of fat & flour, such as flour & butter with a little milk to start a white sauce for a bechamel or mornay sauce, or flour added to fatty meat juices to make gravy.

OM NOM NOM NOM IN YOUR FACE EAT NOW!

Japanese curry roux is the spice mix combined with flour and a fat (usually palm oil - Satan's salad oil) and portioned in blocks which you add to the meat and vegetables the curry is based on. Each one of those blocks contains 110 calories, and 70 of those calories are fat!

So I preferred to buy the S&B Curry Powder when I was living in Japan (which is sooooo versatile) but it's very hard to come by in Australia. The one time I've found it in a specialist Japanese food store, it was a tiny tin with a big price tag. And it's not just about the fat factor, the powder is much more versatile - try tossing popcorn or fries through a tablespoon of the curry powder, or combine it with crunchy peanut butter to make a satay paste. So I began to investigate how to make my own. 

This curry is made from maids who are terrible at
making curry - the ultimate form of karmic justice.

Maki over at Just Hungry has a great recipe for a Japanese Garam Marsala she dug out of an old Japanese curry book, as well as a good breakdown of the S&B Curry basics (translated from their Japanese website). However, it's not a specific recipe. Allow me to present you with my recipe for a proper Japanese Brown Curry Powder.


Ingredients (makes 3/4 Cup Powder)

• 5 tbsp Ground Coriander Seeds
• 2 tbsp Ground Cumin Seeds
• 1 tbsp Ground Tumeric
• 2 tsp Ground Ginger
• 2 tsp Mustard Powder
• 2 tsp Ground Fenugreek Seeds (sub for 1 tsp dried leaves, ground to powder if needed)
• 1 1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper
• 1 tsp Ground Cinammon
• 1/2 tsp Ground Cloves
• 1/2 tsp Ground Cardamon
• 1/2 tsp Ground Dried Red Chillies

 Method

1. Combine all spices and store in an airtight container.
2. Drink lots of beer (Optional - can be substituted for hard liquor if after 10am).

Cooking Notes

• You can make it from whole spices if you want, but you'll have to measure the spices AFTER you grind them and toast them. Use fresh storebought ground spices, store the mix in an airtight container and it will be excellent!
• When using it, create your own roux with flour and butter (or oil of your choice) and add the curry powder. Or thicken your curry with lentils (for more protein & fibre) rather than with flour and butter.