Lentil Soup

Motivation:

Recipe adapted from Serious Eats.  Do not underestimate how much gremolata you'll need.  It's strong juju, but the people crave it.

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp Lemon Zest

2 Tbsp Lemon Juice

Fresh Parsley

1/2 cup Olive Oil

6 medium cloves garlic, minced (about 2 Tbsp)

Salt and pepper

1 cup leek, finely chopped

1 cup Onion, finely chopped

1 cup Carrot, finely chopped

1 cup Celery, finely chopped

1 lb dried lentils

2 bay leaves

2 quarts stock

Protein, slices sausage or bacon.

Mise en Pace:

Combine lemon zest, garlic, parsley, and 1/4 cup olive oil to form gremolata.  Chop all the vegetables and any protein you're planning on using.

Method:

Put 1/4 cup olive oil in stockpot and brown protein if using.   Soften onions and vegetables for about 5 minutes.  Add 1/2 of the gremolata and dry lentils.   Stir together and then add stock.  Add bay leaves. Simmer for one hour covered.  Add more stock if lentils absorb enough liquid to appear above the surface.

Blend 1/2 of the soup until smooth and add back to the stock pot with lemon juice and adjust salt.

Garnish soup with remaining gremolata.

Ghanian Curry

Motivation:
ChefSteps sent out an email with the skeleton of this curry recipe.  I finished fleshing it out and have had good success with it.

I've built this to be pantry/spice cabinet friendly.  You can sub in fresh ginger/turmeric or other spices if you want.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 Onions, chopped
• 5-6 cloves Garlic
• 2 Tsp ground Cumin
• 2 Tsp ground Cinnamon
• 2 Tsp ground Ginger 
• 1 Cinnamon stick
• 2 Tsp ground Tumeric
• 1 Tsp Salt
• 1 Tsp ground Pepper
• 1/2 Tsp ground Cayenne
• 6 Cardamon pods 
• 1 can diced Tomatoes
• 2 cans Coconut Milk
• Coconut oil
• 2+ lb Meat (chicken, lamb, goat, etc)

Mise en Place:
Set oven to 420 F.

Chop up onions, and any other fresh spices you are planning to use.  Cut meat into bite sized pieces.
Measure out spices in a bowl so they can be easily added at once. 

Method:
Heat oil in dutch oven, and then add Onions and garlic.  Cook until onions are soft and cooked down.  Add the spices and mix.  Once everything is smelling fragrant, add the can of tomatoes.  Add meat and two cans of coconut milk.  Stir and put lid on the dutch oven.

Cooked for about 2 hours.  I usually set the timer for when I need to start the rice cooking. 

After 2 hours remove from oven and serve on rice.

Pressure Cooker Chili

Motivation
This recipe is a mash-up of two recipes found online: ChefStep's Chocolate and Mustard Stew (which is excellent) and Bon Appetit's Beef Chili (which we had never tried before, but looked interesting). Essentially, the goal was to borrow the tried-and-true techniques from Chocolate Mustard stew and apply them to chili. This chili is made from actual dried chilies (no chili powder here) and will dye things an intense red color. The use of oxtails helps amp up the beef flavor.

Ingredients

• 4 large or 6 medium ancho chiles
• 2 dried guajillo chiles
• 2 dried pasilla chiles
• 5 cups beef broth
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 3-5 pounds boneless beef chuck
• 2-3 Oxtails (can sub beef short-ribs too)
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
• 2 large yellow onions, chopped
• 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 14.5-ounce can fire-roasted crushed tomatoes
• 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 1 12-ounce bottle lager
• 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

Mise en Place
Bring 3 cups of beef broth to boil, remove from heat, and add dried peppers. Cover and let sit for ~25 minutes. Transfer chilies and soaking liquid to blender and blend until smooth. Set aside.

Method
Sear oxtail and chuck in bottom of pressure cooker until all sides are very dark. Then remove.

Add tomato paste and sear until dark. Add a small amount of water, and scrape up all the good bits at the bottom.

Add meat back to pressure cooker and cover in the blended chili mixture. Pressure-cook for 45 minutes.

Relieve pressure. Pour off liquid into a separate container, and let it settle for a few minutes to separate out the fat.

While the broth is settling, remove meat from pressure cooker. Let cool, then pull oxtail away from the bone, and hand-shred chuck into smaller pieces.

Skim the fat off the surface of the broth and return the fat to the pressure cooker. Boil off the liquid on high heat until completely evaporated.

Add onions and garlic to pot. Cook, stirring often to loosen browned bits from bottom of pot, until onions are translucent and very soft, 6–8 minutes. Add cumin and oregano and cook, stirring, until spices start to stick to pot, about 1 minute. Add tomatoes and brown sugar and scrape bottom of pot to loosen spices, then add lager. Bring to a lively simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until beer is almost completely evaporated, 10–15 minutes.

Add shredded-beef, and reserved chile purée, to the pot. Thin down the chili with up to 2 cups of beef broth. Season with salt and pepper and simmer gently. Taste chili and season with more salt and pepper if needed. Remove from heat and stir in vinegar. Divide chili among bowls and top as desired.