Basic Beef Stew and Sun-Dried Tomato Ketchup

I don’t like ketchup.

Is that un-American?

Almost everyone else I know douses french fries with ketchup. They use it on hamburgers. Even hot dogs.

NONONO, hot dogs are supposed to get mustard!!

My husband Ed gets the ketchup out whenever I grill a steak, make pot roast or serve anything he doesn’t really love, like fish.

NONONO, you don’t splash ketchup on branzini!!

Do you?

A neighbor of mine poured ketchup over scrambled eggs and into his mother’s homemade chicken soup.

OHNO! Absolutely not.

During the Reagan administration the USDA declared ketchup a vegetable, suitable for school lunch.

WHAT??????????

Fortunately, that decision was later reversed.

Okay ketchup lovers, do your thing. Have ketchup on whatever you wish. I am not convinced.

Except I got this new kind recently. I will confess here that it was given to me by Traina Foods, who asked my stubborn, anti-ketchup self if I would try it. If they could convince me I suppose, it might be a winner.

It IS!

No, I still would not, IMHO, ruin homemade french fries with ketchup of any kind. And I wouldn’t use it for steak.

But this stuff is splendiferous with braised brisket or other kinds of pot roast, beef stew and grilled burgers. It’s got more of a tang than standard ketchup, so the taste is roasted-toasted and tomato-y, not sweet. It’s thicker than most other ketchups too.

If you see this in the stores, it’s worth a try. Here’s a good, warm-you-up winter Beef Stew recipe you can use it with:

Basic Beef Stew

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon thyme leaves

1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon paprika

2-1/2 to 3 pounds beef chuck roast

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped

1 large clove garlic, chopped

1 cup red wine

3-4 carrots, cut into chunks

2 large Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

Traina Foods sun dried tomato ketchup

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Combine the flour, thyme, salt, pepper and paprika in a dish. Cut the meat into large chunks, about 2-inches. Dredge the meat in the flour mixture, coating all sides. Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a large, heat-proof casserole over medium-high heat. Using a few chunks at a time, cook the meat on all sides for 5-6 minutes or until lightly browned. Do not crowd the pan. Remove each piece to a plate as it browns. When all the meat has browned, add the remaining tablespoon vegetable oil to the pan. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook briefly. Pour in the wine. Return the meat to the pan. Cover the pan and place in the oven. Cook for 1-1/2 hours. Add the carrots and potatoes, cover the pan and cook for another hour or until the meat and vegetables are very tender. serve with sun dried tomato ketchup.

Makes 4 servings

Crispy Sautéed Potatoes with Rosemary

Did I mention that every New Year’s Eve I make the same dinner?

I know I have.

It’s very unlike me to do that sort of thing, but our little group has been spending the evening together for oh so many years that we know what we like and that’s what we want on that particular night. In the early days I experimented and served a new a tried-to-be spectacular entree each time. Most were terrific and there were a few notable failures, like the pseudo, gray-looking Beef Stroganoff that we laughed about for years.

So for years it’s been rib roast, which my mother-in-law taught me how to make, the way Ed likes it.

And always, always, these sauteed rosemary potatoes.

There are six of us for dinner but I make a double recipe (each serves six) because these potatoes are so fine with morning eggs.

Mmmmmmmm

Sautéed Potatoes

18 “new” or small red bliss potatoes

lightly salted water

2 tablespoons butter or olive oil

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon salt (or salt to taste)

freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary, optional

Place the potatoes in a large saucepan and cover them with lightly salted water. Bring the water to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer the potatoes 15-20 minutes or until they are fork tender. Drain the potatoes and peel them when they are cool enough to handle. Cut them into smaller pieces if you like extra crispy potatoes. Heat the butter or olive oil and vegetable oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the potatoes. Sprinkle the potatoes with the salt, pepper and rosemary. Sauté the potatoes 15-20 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally, or until the potatoes are browned on all sides and are lightly crispy. These may be reheated in a preheated 425 degree oven for about 6-8 minutes. Makes 6 servings

Kumquat and Mascarpone Crisps

My first experience with a kumquat was at a Chinese restaurant. It didn’t go very well. I must have been about 8 years old and I expected the tiny, orange looking thing to taste like an orange.

Surprise!

Kumquats are bitter, even when they’re cooked in loads of sugar, which they often are. And besides, the Chinese restaurant kind also came with a sticky syrup that was supposed to counteract the bitter fruit.

It didn’t, at least for my 8 year old self.

Time passes and our tastes change, don’t they?

I can’t recall when I next tasted a kumquat but it was a riveting sensation in my mouth. These kumquats were crusted with sugar and I couldn’t get enough of them to satisfy my now awakened taste buds.

It put me in a kumquat sort of mind and now, whenever the season comes around I buy a load and experiment with new ways to eat them.

I’ve made those sugared kind (not too often because I can’t stop eating them). Used them with chicken, cut them into salad, stir fried slices of kumquat with vegetables, cooked them into chutney.

But I’m always looking out for new hors d’oeuvre, so recently I cooked the kumquats with honey, to temper the bitterness, but also added hot jalapeno pepper and rich, creamy mascarpone cheese to bring all the taste sensations together.

This is a good one for New Year’s!

Kumquat and Mascarpone Crisps

8 ounces kumquats

2 teaspoons chopped chili pepper (such as serrano or jalapeno)

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

salt to taste

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons orange juice

2 tablespoons mascarpone cheese

2- 3 teaspoons cream or milk

crackers or chips

freshly grated nutmeg

tiny shreds of kumquat or orange peel

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut the kumquats in half and remove the seeds. Chop the kumquats and place them on the parchment. Add the chopped chili pepper. Pour the

vegetable oil on top and toss the kumquats and chili to coat all the pieces. Sprinkle with salt to taste. Bake for 20 minutes or until very soft. Place the ingredients in a food processor. Add the honey and juice and process until very fine and well mixed. In a bowl, mix the mascarpone cheese with the cream or milk (make it soft and smooth enough to pipe out of a pastry bag). Spread about one teaspoon of the kumquat mixture on crackers or chips. Pipe a small amount of the mascarpone mixture on top as a garnish. Grate nutmeg on top. Garnish with a tiny shred of peel. Makes about 36

Grandmother Sue’s, Vaughan Mitchell’s Fruitcake

My friend Vaughan Mitchell Z"L died this year.

I actually didn’t know him very well. In fact I only met him twice. But we became friends over email after his wife Sally, whom I met online on a medical information site, mentioned that every year her husband made the most fabulous fruitcake.

I love fruitcake.

Yes, there are people who love this thing that everyone’s supposed to hate. That, come Christmas season, is the butt of jokes. Vaughan and I were among these people.

So we started a correspondence about it.

The fruitcake he made was from an old recipe that had been in his family for generations, the original passed down from “Grandmother Sue.” I never asked him whose grandmother it was. Was she his grandmother’s grandmother? His grandmother? And now I’ll never know.

But Vaughan, who was a retired businessman who lived in Texas, used Grandmother Sue’s recipe as a base. He loved to tinker with it. Sometimes he added dried blueberries, sometimes candied cherries, sometimes pecans, sometimes almonds, most times bourbon — but once in a while he’d switch to brandy. And of course he had to bring it up to date. The original recipe had some instructions that included items like “half a ten cent bottle of vanilla extract.”

Best of all, one year he asked whether I would like one.

It was the best fruitcake I ever ate. 

For years after that we would both make Grandmother Sue’s Fruitcake and exchange one so he could taste my version and I could taste his.

Vaughan was a smart, funny, generous, soft-spoken man.

I miss him and will miss our fruitcake exchange.

I baked Grandmother Sue’s fruitcake this year. I’m thinking I should give one away.

But who should I send it to?

Grandmother Sue’s, Vaughan Mitchell’s  Fruitcake

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon each: ground cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

5 large eggs

1/2 cup molasses

1/4 cup bourbon

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup black currant jelly

1/2 pound golden raisins

1/4 pound dried currants

1/4 pound dried cranberries

1/4 pound chopped dates

1 pound mixed candied fruit (cherries, pineapple, citron) and/or dried fruit (apricots, prunes, peaches, pears)

1/2 pound coarsely chopped nuts

cheesecloth

bourbon

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Grease 3 8”x4”x2-1/2” pans (or 6 small loaf pans) and line the pans with parchment paper. Lightly grease the paper. Combine one cup of the flour and spices and stir with a whisk to blend ingredients evenly. Set aside. Place the butter, white sugar and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix at medium speed for 3-4 minutes or until creamy and well blended. Add the eggs and blend them in thoroughly. Add the flour mixture alternating with the molasses, bourbon, vanilla extract and jelly. Place the fruits and nuts in a bowl, add the remaining 1/2 cup flour and toss to coat the fruits and nuts. Add this mixture to the batter and blend it in. Spoon the batter into the prepared pans. Place the pans in a bain-marie (a larger pan filled with enough water to come halfway up the sides of the baking pans). Place the bain-marie in the oven and bake the cakes for 2 to 2-1/2 hours (less time for smaller loaf pans) or until firm. Remove the pans from the bain-marie and let cool for 20 minutes. Remove the cakes from the pan and let cool completely. Cut cheesecloth large enough to wrap the cakes. Soak the cheesecloth in bourbon and wrap the cake with the bourbon soaked cloths. Wrap the cakes in aluminum foil, then plastic wrap. Let mellow for 3-4 weeks. Check occasionally; if cheesecloth seems dry, brush a little more bourbon on top.

Makes 3 (or 6) fruitcakes.

Stuffed Grape Tomatoes

Every New Year’s Eve I invite the same people — my brother Jeff and sister-in-law Eileen and my cousins, Leslie and Neil. This has been our tradition for so many years that none of us can remember (or care to remember) what we did before.

Our kids used to be part of our celebration but they’re all adults now and the six of us have grown older together.

The photos are telling.

We spend the afternoon together, nibbling the hors d’oeuvre. Dinner is hours later and then we wait a few more hours for dessert. There’s no need to rush or to stuff ourselves all at once!

We put on silly hats, watch the ball in Times Square come down, toot some cardboard horns, hug each other and, to paraphrase the Haggadah, we say “Next Year in Stamford!”

I can’t imagine a better way to spend the evening. I feel so lucky, lucky, lucky to have these people in my life.

I cook the same dinner every year: rib roast, roasted potatoes and a vegetable that we all eat, like carrots or green string beans.

Except Eileen doesn’t eat meat so I cook a separate chicken breast (well-done to her tastes — she calls it “dead”) for her.

Dessert? Always an apple pie and a fruit crisp of one kind or another. Nothing fancy and it’s what we all like.

Hors d’oeuvres too. They’re mostly the same every year, but here’s where I try to experiment a bit on willing victims. So in addition to the smoked fish and gougeres and maybe some stuffed dates, I might make these Stuffed Grape Tomatoes.

Next Year in Stamford!

Stuffed Grape Tomatoes*

4 ounces ricotta cheese

4 ounces cream cheese

2 scallions, chopped

1 clove garlic, cut into quarters

1/4 cup halved, pitted black olives

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

1 teaspoon thyme leaves

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons to 1/2 cup plain yogurt

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

18 grape tomatoes

Place the ricotta cheese and cream cheese together in a food processor and process until creamy and well blended. Add the scallions, garlic, olives, parsley, basil, thyme, mustard and lemon juice and process until well blended. Add about 2 tablespoons yogurt and process, adding more yogurt if necessary, depending on what you will use the mixture for. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Wash the tomatoes and cut them in half. Scoop out the insides and spoon the cheese mixture into the tomato hollows. Makes about 36

*You can use this as a dip instead of filling tomatoes: add more yogurt to give the mixture a softer, more dip-like consistency.

Mom’s Fried Chicken Wings

MOM’S FRIED CHICKEN

• 12 chicken wings, cut into pieces
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon paprika
• 3/4 teaspoon salt or to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• shortening or vegetable oil

Rinse the chicken pieces and set them aside. In a large dish, mix the flour with the paprika, salt, garlic powder and black pepper. Coat the chicken pieces with the seasoned flour. Place them on a cake rack to air dry for 25-30 minutes. Heat the shortening or vegetable oil in a deep saute pan over medium-high heat (should be about 1/2-inch) to 365 degrees (a bread crumb will sizzle quickly when you add it to the pan). Add a few chicken pieces at a time (adding too many will make the cooking oil too cool) and cook, turning the pieces occasionally, for 8-10 minutes or until crispy and golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Makes 12

Lidia Bastianich in Stamford

I hear it’s gonna snow in Connecticut tomorrow. Maybe 7 inches or more. So of course the stores will be crazy today with people buying milk and rock salt and batteries.

But we here in the Northeast are used to ice and snow and hurricanes and what have you. We are sturdy people, people!

So, for you sturdy Nutmeggers: tomorrow, I think snow or no, Lidia Bastianich will be in Stamford, at Fairway from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. She’ll be signing copies of her new book, Lidia’s Commonsense Italian Cooking. You can also taste some of her pastas and sauces while you’re there.

Fairway’s at 699 Canal Street

Beef Pot Pie

Just because I’m a food writer it doesn’t mean everything I cook is either fancy or comes out tasting delicious. The other night, for example, I made a chuck roast and it was terrible. It was tough and I didn’t particularly like the seasonings I had tried.

But there I was stuck with it. I wasn’t about to throw out 3 pounds of meat.

So I cut some of it up and cooked it into a beef pot pie. Easy and simple enough. I made a fairly standard recipe but I included a small amount of beef bacon which really amplified the flavor.

Ed declared it “great” and had thirds. 

BEEF POT PIE

3 carrots, sliced about 1/2-inch thick

2 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into bite size pieces

2 ounces beef bacon

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

5 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3 cups beef, chicken or vegetable stock

3 cups cooked, cut up beef

1 cup frozen peas

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

frozen puff pastry

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place the carrots and potatoes in a large saucepan, cover with water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Drain and set the vegetables aside. Cook the bacon in a large saute pan over medium heat for about 2 minutes or until the pieces are beginning to crisp. Pour in the olive oil. Add the onion and cook for 4-5 minutes or until tender and beginning to brown. Add the flour, mix it in and cook for 1-2 minutes. Gradually pour in the stock, stirring constantly until the liquid is smooth and the sauce has thickened. Stir in the carrots and potatoes, the beef, peas and parsley and mix to distribute the ingredients evenly. Spoon the contents of the pan into a baking dish. Cover with puff pastry. Bake for about 25 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

Makes 4-6 servings

Stuffed Mushrooms

Take a look through magazines and on-line recipe sites and, if it’s hors d’oeuvre recipes you’re looking for, I think you’ll find a lot of fancy stuff that may have names like “kale toasts with scallop sushi and sea urchin foam.” And recipes for beautiful hors d’oeuvre that you admire but will probably never make and even if you do it won’t look like the photo.

Mine don’t anyway.

Besides, after years and years of observing folks at parties, I’ve realized that a majority of people seem to like the classics. The oldies but goodies. The easy stuff. The comforting kind of hors d’oeuvre. The ones that aren’t so gorgeous you’re afraid to eat them.

That taste terrific.

Like Franks-in-blankets and Spanakopitas.

And Stuffed Mushrooms.

Try these for your next party. They’re easy, they’re good, they won’t intimidate your guests and you can make them a day or so in advance.

Stuffed Mushrooms

14-16 large white mushrooms

3 tablespoons olive oil

4 ounces sweet Italian-style sausage meat, finely chopped

2 scallions, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tablespoons plain dry bread crumbs

1 teaspoon thyme leaves

1/4 cup vegetable stock

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Rinse and dry the mushrooms. Remove the stems, chop them, and set them aside. Brush the outside of the caps with one tablespoon of the olive oil. Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the sausage and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the scallions, garlic and chopped mushroom stems. Cook for 2-3 minutes, or until the meat is well browned. Add the bread crumbs and thyme and mix the ingredients thoroughly. Pour in the stock and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thickened. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon equal amounts of the mixture inside the mushroom caps. Mix ingredients well and use the mixture to stuff each mushroom cap. Place the filled caps on the baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes or until hot and crispy.

Makes 14-16 

Baked Stuffed Pears

We finished all the baked apples I made the other day. And not only did I miss having one for dessert last night, I missed the sugary floral fragrance of baking fruit.

Unfortunately I didn’t have an apple left.

But — pears do just as well.

Like these:

BAKED STUFFED PEARS

6 firm pears

1/2 lemon

2/3 cup chopped almonds

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons softened butter, maragrine or coconut oil

2 tablespoons raisins or currants

1-1/2 tablespoons dark rum

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 cup water

ice cream, sorbet or sweetened mascarpone cheese, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Peel, halve and core the pears. Rub the surfaces with the cut side of the lemon. Place the halves in a baking dish, cut side up. In a small bowl, combine the almonds, sugar, butter, raisins, rum, vanilla and almond extracts and mix ingredients until they are evenly distributed. Place equal amounts of the stuffing into the core of each pear. Add the water to the dish. Cover and bake for about 20 minutes. Remove the cover, baste 2-3 times and continue to bake for another 10 minutes, or until tender, basting occasionally. Serve plain or with ice cream or sweetened mascarpone cheese. 

Makes 6 servings.