Dinner

Safta’s Beef Goulash

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Ingredients

  • 1 medium onion chopped
  • 1.5 lbs chuck roast meat diced into 1 inch cubes (a little less is fine, whatever butcher recommends for slow cook roast meat)
  • 3 medium carrots peeled and chopped into large angled chunks
  • 2 tsp paprika (sweet Hungarian, not smoked)
  • 1 tsp chicken soup powder
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • Cracked pepper
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 tbsp sweet chili sauce (just a squeeze)
  • 1 cup water (water instructions needed)
  • 1 pack spaetzle (for serving)

Method

  • Heat oven to 325 degrees
  • Heat a medium dutch oven on medium
  • Cook onion in 2 tbsps hot oil 
  • Add diced meat to pot
  • Add all spices (paprika, chicken soup powder, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper) 
  • Mix everything well together
  • Add peeled carrots and stir
  • Add tomato paste, sweet chilli sauce and 1 cup water
  • Bring to a low simmer 
  • Cook on very low heat for 1 hour on stove top
  • Put in the oven for at least another 2 hours, up to 3 hours. Check every 30 minutes and add more water (1/4 cup at a time) if it’s looking a little dry

To Serve

  • Cook 1 pack spaetzle according to package directions
  • Serve on top of spaetzle

Whole Wheat Pasta From Scratch

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I was given a KitchenAid pasta press a few years ago as a gift and really enjoyed using it to make fresh pasta from scratch. I have to admit, the press doesn’t get used all that often because while it’s definitely fun to use, cleanup is it a bit of a pain. Yes, the results are great and the pasta deliciously fresh but it’s just not an every day kind of activity. Last weekend I had a bit of time up my sleeve and a craving for some whole wheat pasta so I thought “Why not?” Of course, just making pasta was the first step. I knew I’d have to compliment it with a delicious sauce and there were some strong opinions about the sauce needing to be tomato based. So I scoured the web looking for a recipe with my Ina Garten filter applied and lo and behold I came across this vodka-cream-sauce-like recipe published by Ina Garten titled “Nick and Toni’s Penne Alla Vecchia Bettola”. The recipe calls for Penne but I figured the Rigatoni that my extruder can make would be close enough. 

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Rainy Day Green Goddess Chicken

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We’ve had pretty miserable rainy weekend here in NYC. My favorite activity on a day like today is to finally take the time to cook a recipe that’s been on the to-do list. I have many of these on pinterest!

I had a craving for something roasted and meaty so this green goddess roasted chicken from Melissa Clark and the New York Times seemed just right for me. My favorite chicken recipe is Ina Garten’s perfect roast chicken because it’s simple to prepare and always comes out prefectly cooked, moist and flavorful. Oh and you  get a bonus side dish with that delicious roasted carrot, fennel and onion. I sometimes add potatoes to that dish to give me even more roasted vegetabls to devour. But I’ll have to reserve more details on that for a separate blog post. Today it was time for something new, something untested. I figured if I test this out on myself I’ll know if it’s something I could confidently prepare for a larger group.

I’ve never left a chicken to marinate or roasted chicken at such a high temperature so these were all new cooking techniques for me. The stakes were high for this Green Goddess Chicken recipe. So here’s what you do…

Prepare all your Green Goddess Dressing Ingredients.

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Combine and blend together.

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Here’s some video of the blending action for dramatic effect.

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Thankyou Dinner with Friends

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Last night we had some good friends over for dinner. We hadn’t caught up in a while, I love to cook and we also wanted to have an opportunity to say thanks for taking such good care of our dog while we were away over Christmas and New Years. T&R are always there to take amazing care of our dog when we go out of town. Thanks again T&R. It’s so nice to know that he’s in such capable hands and we know there are times that he can be a bit of a handful. You guys rock!

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