Chicken stew with winter vegetables

[rosefox]

Tonight we made chicken stew for dinner. When Josh suggested it, I wasn't terribly enthused, because I think of chicken as bland-ish and stew as bland-ish and had no sense-memory of flavors attached to the concept of "chicken stew". But now I do! It tasted like chicken pot pie without the pie, and it was delicious.

The recipe is straight from Cook's Illustrated as usual. We didn't cut up the chicken thighs before stewing them; why bother? Once the stew was done, Josh encouraged them to finish falling apart into shreds. Neither of our local grocery stores had celery root, so we substituted turnip. The thighs came in packages of eight, so that's what we put in, and it did not feel insufficiently chickeny even though the recipe recommends using twelve. We cooked it on the stove for longer than suggested, as a loaf of bread was occupying the oven. (Homemade bread is an excellent accompaniment to this stew, incidentally.) The recipe as given below has half as much garlic (for my sake) and onion (for Chris's) as the original recipe; adjust as you see fit.

( Chicken stew with winter vegetables )

Their estimate is that this recipe makes six to eight servings; we added just a bit of rice to stretch it to eight. It is very, very filling even in small quantities. We will definitely be making it again.

Generic vegetable soup

[rosefox]

I spent a fair amount of yesterday looking up various soup recipes. They led me to conclude that you can make vegetable soup pretty much any way you want. So I improvised with what we had on hand, and I encourage you to likewise adjust this recipe to your own tastes and supplies. It's very flexible because you don't have to worry about different cooking times for different ingredients: it's all cooked into mush and then pureed.

You'll need a big pot for this. Our medium pot (5 quarts, I think?) barely handled it. Makes about nine 2-cup servings depending on how you adjust the quantities given.

The following are the ingredients I used, with suggestions for alternatives in parentheses.

Aromatics:
1 onion, chopped
(could be two, plus a crushed clove of garlic or two; or add miso to taste at the "season to taste" step)
Spices:
a few shakes/grinds each of ground cumin, powdered ginger, and black pepper
(you could also try curry powder, turmeric, mustard powder, ras al hanout, whole mustard or cumin seeds, paprika, cayenne, etc.)
Vegetables:
1 enormous turnip, peeled and chopped--seriously, it was bigger than the onion!
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
.5 cup tomato puree
(could also include other root vegetables, zucchini, squash, peppers; for the tomato puree, you can substitute canned diced tomatoes or peeled and de-seeded fresh tomatoes if you have good ones on hand)
Protein:
1 cup red lentils, rinsed and picked through (or beans, chickpeas, or raw nuts)
2 cups cooked white rice (or .5 cup uncooked rice and 1 additional cup water)
Herbs:
2 sprigs fresh thyme
(and/or any other fresh or dried herbs you like; parsley or cilantro would be particularly good, or dried bay leaves, or you could be adventurous and try marjoram or sage)
Liquid:
4 cups (one 32-oz. box) vegetable broth
3 to 4 cups water

In your big pot, heat oil and a few drops of water over medium heat until the water sizzles. Add a dash of salt. Sauté aromatics 10 minutes until softened. Add and sauté spices 1 minute or until fragrant. Add remaining ingredients. Cover and bring to boil over medium heat, stirring to keep things from sticking to the bottom. Reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding water as needed so the liquid just covers the solids.

Adjust seasonings to taste (I usually add a splash of lemon juice or balsamic vinegar, miso paste for extra umami, and/or salt and pepper) and simmer 15 more minutes or until all the solids are soft and mushy. Remove from heat and let cool 10 minutes. Remove thyme stems; if the leaves haven't already fallen off them, strip the leaves off and stir them into the soup, discarding the stems. (If using bay leaves, take those out too.) Puree the soup with a stick blender or in batches in a regular blender. At this point, if you're not eating it right away, you can distribute the soup into containers, let it cool to room temp, and store in fridge or freezer.

Before serving, return to pot and heat; add a splash of red wine vinegar or a squeeze of lemon or lime if you like; serve garnished with fresh thyme or parsley.

Lentils + rice = complete protein, hooray! There's probably a ton of fiber in there too. This is definitely Good For You as well as being tasty. And it's easy.

Most of the flavor in the soup comes from the broth and the spices and herbs; don't expect the vegetables to flavor it much unless you want to go to the trouble of roasting them beforehand. If your soup isn't very flavorful, add some vegetable boullion, or increase the spices at the 30-minute flavor-adjusting mark. The vinegar or citrus juice will punch it up too. Enjoy!

Chili with black beans

[rosefox]

The quantities here make about two gallons of chili. Do not double this recipe, even when cooking to fill the freezer. Two gallons is a lot! Make sure you have a big enough pot, or reduce the recipe as needed.

Ingredients

1 pound bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
4 medium or 3 large red onions, chopped fine
2 red bell peppers, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3–4 jalapeño peppers, chopped fine
1/2 cup chili powder
2 Tbsp ground cumin
4 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp urfa biber
2 teaspoons dried oregano, or 2 Tbsp minced fresh oregano
3–4 Tbsp lime juice
4 pounds ground turkey or beef
4 cans (16 ounces each) black beans, drained and rinsed
3 cans (28 ounces each) crushed tomatoes (ideally fire-roasted, but any will do)

Garnishes (put here so you remember to add them to your shopping list): lime wedges, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, chips, etc.

Instructions

Prep vegetables. Measure out everything that needs measured.

In the bottom of a big pot or nonreactive Dutch oven, fry the bacon until the liquid has cooked off, the fat has rendered out, and the meat is browned.

Add seasonings and fry for 1 minute. Add onions, peppers, and lime juice. If things stick to the bottom, stir in half a cup of water. Cook until vegetables are soft.

Add half the meat and cook 5 minutes, stirring to break up the chunks. Repeat with other half. Add beans and tomatoes. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer, and cook uncovered 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Serve alone or over rice; garnish as desired.

Source: http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/detail.asp?docid=4655