Beef Tangine with Butternut Squash

A picture of this dish came up when I was browsing the CL website and it looked like a perfect winter night meal.
Not only does it look warm and toasty, it has great flavor and this dish has got a kick to it!

Ingredients
2 teaspoons paprika*
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper**
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (1-pound) beef shoulder roast or petite tender roast, trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 shallots, quartered
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
1 (14.5-ounce) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained
3 cups (1-inch) cubed peeled butternut squash (about 1 pound)***
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

*I used 1 tsp smoked paprika and 1 tsp regular paprika.
** I did not have crushed red pepper, only red pepper flakes, seemed to work just as well.
*** I only used 2 cups of butternut squash I didn't want to overwhelm the meal with so much squash.

Preparation

Combine first 6 ingredients in a medium bowl. Add beef; toss well to coat.

I let the flavors marinate while I chopped up the shallots and minced the garlic.

Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add beef and shallots; cook 4 minutes or until browned, stirring occasionally. (I used a pot since I do not have a dutch oven)

Add garlic; cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Stir in broth and tomatoes; bring to a boil.

I could not find pre-cut butternut squash so I just bought a whole squash, peeled and cut it into squares. I let the stew mixture come up to a boil, transferred into a big oven safe pot and added the butternut squash.

I let it cook on 300 for about 1.5 hours.
I bought slow cook meat (I could not find shoulder roast) because I intended to let this stew in the oven for two hours. Unfortunately slow cook meat really means it wants to be cooked in a slow cooker so my meat was still pretty tough! Next time I will know for sure that I need to use the pork shoulder or at least another type of roast.

I really like this recipe. The only changes I would make is I would make it in a crock pot next time and let it cook for 8 hours so that the meat is super super tender.

Cast Iron Pans

So I ashamed to admit that at the age of almost 30, and having been cooking for over ten years now..I had no idea about the wonders of a cast iron pan! My brother told me he wanted one for his birthday so I have just been doing some reading up on them. After some research, I am quite convinced that after I buy my bro one..I will also get myself one as well.

So here is what I thought was most interesting about cast iron pans.

1) They keep for ages, unlike stainless steel pans and your usual pots and pans, it seems like cast iron pans can keep for a very long time as long as you take care of them. (also they are probably more affordable than the normal pans!)

2) They are even distributor of heat.

3) They can move from the stove to the oven, so that is super useful if you want to make frittatas or dutch oven pancakes.

4) They are a pretty good asset to your kitchen, they make you look like a pro.

5) If you put cold liquid into a hot cast iron pan, it will crack almost immediately.

The interesting thing that I read about these cast iron pots, is that you have to keep them well seasoned. At first I thought that meant you had to season your meat pretty well before you plopped it into the cast iron pan (yes embarrassing but at least I am willing to admit that I had thought that)

Seasoning the cast iron pan is a process in which you would do something like the following:

"Preheat the oven to 350 degrees while you warm the pan gently over low heat on top of the stove. Using a brush or a paper towel, spread a tablespoon or so of a fresh neutral oil like corn or grape seed in the pan; the surface should be evenly covered, with no excess. Put the pan in the oven, bake it for about an hour and let it cool in the oven."

Sound intimidating? It's ok because apparently now there are cast iron pans available that are pre-seasoned! Pretty neat huh!

The Girl and the Goat..and why my BF is awesome.

My awesome BF surprised me with dinner at the Girl and the Goat. The Girl and the Goat just opened here in Chicago last year. There was a huge buzz about it even before it opened since the restaurant was being opened by Stephanie Izzard, the winner of the Top Chef Chicago season. Plus, add the the fact that Stephanie is actually from Chicago and seems like she is a sweetheart, her restaurant opening was one of the biggest piece of culinary news that Chicago has had!

Being a huge fan of Top Chef, Stephanie Izzard was my fav top chef winner and I have been wanting to come here ever since I have heard that Stephanie was opening a restaurant here in Chicago. My BF had told me a week ago that he had wanted to take me somewhere for dinner on Sunday night as a surprise. Since I knew that it takes about three months to get a reservation here I did not expect that we would be coming here. (I have checked with the online reservation site myself a couple times so I know that you have to look about three months in advance if you want reservations at a reasonable dinner time.) It turns out he made reservations in October! I was so shell shocked that we actually had reservations at the G&G, I could barely answer when the hostess asked us if we wanted to check in our coats.

For how crowded the restaurant was, we were actually seated right on time. We got there at 6:40, my BF reservations were at 6:45. We got a drink at the bar and were promptly seated. I was still in shock so I spent those five minutes willing my brain to realize we were actually at the Girl and the Goat! On our way to our table, the hostess wished us a great dinner which I thought was nice. (I was still too busy smilling like an idiot since I was amazed we were here!)

Here is what we ordered:

Lamb sausage stuffed calamari - interesting take on this dish, I thought it was pretty good, the lamb felt a little try but ground lamb does tends to be a little on the dry side. I thought it was delicious still!


Escargo meatballs - My BF loved this dish. I agree as well. The meatballs are so flavorful. I couldn't really taste the escargo but I could have eaten just the meatballs for dinner. Plus the meatballs came with these chinese long greenbeans that I love!


Goat liver mousse - I wanted to get something with goat since we were at the Girl and the Goat and figured this would be an interesting dish to try. The waiter also mentioned that the crumpets that came with this dish were homemade and I am a sucker for homemade bread! The goat liver was creamier than the usual pate texture and it tasted more like sausage than liver so I thought it was pretty amazing. Plus it came with little pickled sides that were pretty tasty.
Pig face - I was really expecting this to come...well more face like, but I overheard the waiter telling the table next to us that it is more like a headcheese and it is all grinded up together, cut up into patties and fried. It came with a fried egg on top, and the combination of the egg yolk and crispy pork...I mean you can't go wrong right?
For dessert, we ordered the blood orange sorbet. I am not usually a sorbet girl, but the combination of flavors in this dish, the orange sorbet with pistachio cake and crunchy savory parsnip crisps, along with this vanilla like custard pudding went shockingly well together!A view of the little kettle that our dessert came in, cute huh?

I was so happy that the G&G did not disappoint. When I watch Top Chef, sometimes I wonder how those dishes would taste since they always use the most interesting ingredients and weird combinations. I always think to myself, would that taste good? With the G&G I feel like all of the dishes sounded so interesting and had things I would never have thought would have gone together, but the textures and flavors all come together to make some pretty amazing dishes.

I also really love the decor of the G&G. It is a huge loft space, but still manages to feel homey. It was a lot bigger than I expected and I like that they tried to make as much seating space as possible, yet the place still looks super nice. Service at the G&G is attentive but not overwhelming, prompt and not pushy, so it is the perfect balance.

I am pretty amazed that my BF manage to keep these reservations a secret for so long. Especially since everytime someone brings up this restaurant I am always like I so want to go there! I literally was so shocked I was speechless..and if you know me, that is pretty rare! So BF thanks a ton, that was the best surprise ever!

Cheesy Potatoes

Ok sorry it's a new year and already I have been lazy. Don't worry I have been cooking...but have just been forgetting to take pictures and post about it!

I was going to a dinner party and decided to make some cheesy potatoes for my side.

After looking through over a dozen of cheesy potato recipes I decided to go for this recipe.

Ingredients Needed
2 lb. frozen, cubed hash browns*
1/2 cup butter
1 can cream soup*
1 cup sour cream
1 cup milk
8 oz. shredded Cheddar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper


I could not find frozen cubed potatoes so I just bought six potatoes, microwaved them for about 4-5 minutes and then cubed them. Note: my potatoes were a little crunchy still so I would microwave them a couple minutes longer if you go this route.

I always think freshly grated cheese tastes better so I grated a block of cheddar cheese for this dish.

I know this looks gross, but to start off the concoction, you put the butter and cream soup (I used condensed cream of chicken soup) into a pot and combine the two. After the butter has melted, take the pot off of the heat, add the cheese, sour cream and milk. Mix all ingredients well and spread into casserole. Bake at 350°F for 1-1 1/2 hours or until bubbly and browned.