Soft Pretzel Bites & Hot Chorizo Dip

These two recipe were both winners. Caleb and I had this as a lunch/ snack today. The dip would be perfect to take to a party with tortilla chips, as well. And the pretzels, well, they would be perfect anytime. SO YUM!

These recipes came from Mel's Kitchen Cafe.

Soft Pretzel Bites

*Note: if using active dry yeast, increase the yeast to 1 tablespoon. Proof the yeast in the warm water and sugar (let it bubble and foam – maybe about 5 minutes) before adding it to the flour and salt.

*Makes about 2 dozen pretzel bites

Dough:
2 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
1 cup (8 ounces) very warm water

Topping:
1/2 cup (4 ounces) warm water
2 tablespoons baking soda
Coarse salt (optional)
3 tablespoons butter, melted

In a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer, place the flour, salt, sugar and yeast. Mix to just combine. Add the water and mix well, adding more flour, as needed, a bit at a time to form a soft, smooth dough that clears the sides and bottom of the bowl. Knead the dough, by hand or machine, for about 5 minutes, until it is soft, smooth and quite slack. The goal is to get a really soft dough that isn’t overly sticky. Lightly flour the dough and place it in a plastic bag; close the bag, leaving room for the dough to expand, and let it rest for 30 minutes or up to 60 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 500°F. Don’t be afraid of the high heat! This is what will help those pretzels to brown up perfectly and stay soft on the inside. Prepare two baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper or lightly greasing them.

Transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface, and divide it into about four strips of equal length. Allow the pieces to rest, uncovered, for 5 minutes. While the dough is resting, combine the 1/2 cup warm water and the baking soda in a liquid measuring cup (deep enough to dip the pretzel bites into). Make sure the baking soda is thoroughly dissolved. Sometimes I have a hard time getting the baking soda completely dissolved, so I just lightly stir up the mixture right before adding each pretzel.

Cut each strip of dough into about 6-8 pieces, about 1 to 1 ½ inches in width. You don’t have to be completely exact, just eyeball it. Dip each pretzel bite in the baking soda solution (this will give the pretzels a nice, golden-brown color), and place them on the baking sheets. Sprinkle them lightly with coarse, kosher, or pretzel salt. Allow them to rest, uncovered, for 10 minutes.

Bake the pretzels for 7-8 minutes or until they’re golden brown. Bake one sheet at a time – it won’t hurt the other pretzels to chill out for a little longer.

Remove the pretzels from the oven, and brush them thoroughly with the melted butter. Keep brushing the butter on until you’ve used it all up; it may seem like a lot, but that’s what gives these pretzels their ethereal taste. Eat the pretzels warm, or reheat them in an oven or microwave on low heat.

Recipe Source: adapted from this version

Hot Chorizo Dip

*Note: if you aren’t familiar with chorizo, it is a pork sausage that is usually cured and requires cooking prior to eating. The outer casing is easily (and should be!) removed prior to cooking. Chorizo is usually located by the other sausage-type meats in the meat section of the grocery store and it can range from mild to spicy so choose the flavor that suits your taste buds best! In a pinch, I’m guessing that another spicy-ish pork sausage would work in place of the chorizo.

*Makes about 2 cups

1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup minced yellow onion
8 ounces chorizo, casings removed and diced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups milk
8 ounce cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) medium cheddar cheese, grated
1 small can diced green chiles
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 2-3 minutes. Add the diced chorizo and cook, breaking up the chorizo into smaller pieces if you like, until it is cooked through, about 5 minutes. Pour off all but one tablespoon of fat from the pan. Add the flour and stirring constantly, cook for 1-2 minutes. Gradually whisk in the milk and combine well. Cook over medium heat until the sauce is thick, about 4 minutes. Add the cream cheese to the pot in tablespoon-size pieces and stir to combine as the cream cheese melts. Reduce the heat to low and add the cheese 1/4 cup at a time, stirring until each addition is melted before adding more. Stir in the green chiles and the salt.

Serve warm in a bread bowl or with tortilla chips.

Recipe Source: adapted from Joy of Cooking

Boeuf Bourguignon Soup

This recipe comes from a recent issue of Martha Stewart Living. It is delicious, and pretty easy as soup recipes go. I've never been a big fan of making soup-- too much chopping, too much planning ahead and simmering. But maybe making more soup can be part of me growing as a person! I made it even easier by using pre- cut stew meat instead of short ribs.

4 bone-in short ribs (2 inches thick, 2 lbs total) * I used about 2.5 lbs of beef stew meat.

coarse salt and pepper

2 tsp. cornstarch

2 Tbsp. EVOO

8 ounces white button mushrooms, quartered

3 carrots, 2 finely chopped and 1 cut into 3/4- in. cubes

3 shallots, minced

2 celery stalks, coarsely chopped

2 strips bacon, thinly sliced crosswise * as per my MO, I used 3 slices

1 Tbsp. tomato paste

2 thyme sprigs

1 dried bay leaf

1 C. dry red wine, such as Burgundy * I used [yellow tail] pinot noir

8 C. homemade or store- bought low- sodium beef stock * I love how they specified homemade or store- bought-- aren't those the only two kinds?

2 C. water

1. Season ribs (or stew meat) with 1/2 tsp. salt and some pepper. Coat with cornstarch. heat oil in a large heavy pot over medium- high heat. Lightly brown ribs on all sides, about 6 minutes. Transfer to a plate.

2. Add mushrooms to pot. Cook until browned, about 4 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and add cubed carrot to same bowl. Set aside.

3. Add shallots, celery, bacon, and chopped carrots to pot. Cook until caramelized, about 6 minutes. Stir in tomato paste.

4. Return ribs with plate juices to pot. Add thyme and bay leaf. Raise heat to high. Add wine. Cook, scraping up brown bits with a wooden spoon, until slightly reduced, about 1 minute. Add stock and water. bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, partially covered, until beef is tender, 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

5. (Remove ribs. Separate meat from bones; discard. Cut meat into bite- size pieces; return to pot.) * You can skip previous step if you use stew meat. Add reserved mushroom- carrot mixture. Bring to a simmer; cook until cubed carrots are tender. Season with salt.

I cooked whole wheat egg noodles (about 6 oz probably) and added them right before serving, just to give the soup a bit more substance.

Soup can be refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 1 month. Thaw before using. Skim fat from top and reheat.

This was really SOOOO good. You can see how using the stew meat simplifies this recipe immensely. I am picky about my stew meat though, because it is so often tough and yucky. I have had great luck with the stew meat at Right by Nature (they'll cut it for you if they don't have any in the case). This time, I used meat from Giant Eagle because I was there. I used a mixture of Nature's basket natural beef stew meat and their angus beef stew meat. I was very pleased with how it turned out-- tendered up quite nicely-- no gristle to speak of.

I am also posting the recipe for Horseradish chive bread, which in insanely good and goes insanely well with this soup!

Stuffed Shells

I've gotten out of my cooking and posting groove as of late-- partially because I'm not cooking as much, and partially because, when I do cook, I don't have time to post. I blame it on pre- holiday craziness. But here is a winner-- it was easy, tasted good, my kid (the one who actually eats real food) loved it, and it tasted better reheated! It didn't make as many shells as the recipe said it would (maybe I just over- stuffed my shells), and knowing that it reheats well, I might double the recipe next time and just freeze half.

This recipe is from Martha Stewart Living (I can't remember exactly which one).

1 box (12 oz) jumbo pasta shells

1 Tbsp extra- virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

4 oz thinly sliced prosciutto, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 red onion, chopped

1 head radicchio, cored and shredded (4 cups)

1 tsp red wine vinegar

12 oz. fresh ricotta cheese (1 1/4 C)

8 oz fresh mozzarella, chilled and cut into small cubes (1 C.)

salt and pepper

5 C. tomato sauce (I used my favorite pasta sauce)

unsalted butter, for dotting

finely grated parmesan for garnish

1. Bring large pot of water to boil. Cook shells for 10 minutes. Drain and rinse. Transfer to a bowl. Drizzle with oil. Let cool.

2. Meanwhile, heat oil in a large high- sided skillet over medium heat. Cook prosciutto, garlic, and onion, stirring, until prosciutto starts to carmelize, 6 to 8 minutes. Add radicchio; cook until tender but not mushy, about 4 minutes. Stir in vinegar; cook until evaporated. Let cool slightly. Stir in ricotta and mozzarella; season with salt and pepper.

3. Pour 2 cups sauce into bottom of each of two 8x12 in. baking dishes. Stuff 32 shells with 1 heaping Tbsp of filling each. Pack 16 shells into each dish. Cover with foil. Freeze if desired.

4 Preheat oven to 375º. Dot shells with butter. Bake, covered, for 40 minutes. Uncover, and raise oven temperature to 450º. Bake until golden and bubbly, about 15 minutes more. Heat remaining sauce; serve with shells. Garnish with parmesan.

**Notes**

1. I just used a 13x9 baking dish.

2. I think it would be super good with regular bacon, too.

3. I don't think I let the radicchio get tender enough, so watch that.

4. I think you could probably just put all the sauce in the dish, but it probably gets more golden without so much sauce in there, which is nice.

Cottage Pie

Tried another new recipe for dinner tonight. It was very good... meat, potatoes, vegetables, all in there... but I felt like it could have used a little more flavor. So I may try a few more spices next time I make it. I didn't have the fresh thyme that the recipe called for, so I just used some dried-- that might have been part of what was missing.

3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, divided

1 large yellow onion, diced medium

2 large carrots, cut into 3/4 in. pieces

coarse salt and black pepper

2 Tbsp. tomato paste

1 lb. ground beef or lamb (I used ground beef, magazine also suggests using left over turkey from Thanksgiving)

2 tsp. fresh thyme leaves

1 C. dark (porter) beer

2 Tbsp. all- purpose flour

3/4 C. frozen peas (I added more than this).

1 large russet potato, very thinly sliced

** I also added some sliced leeks because I had them. I thought it was too watery after it was done baking, and might leave out the extra cup of water next time.

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large skillet, heat 1 Tbsp butter over medium- high. Add onion and carrots and cook, stirring often, until onion is soft, 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and stir in tomato paste. Add meat and cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon, until almost cooked through, 3 minutes. Add thyme and beer and bring to a boil. Cook, stirring frequently, until slightly reduced, 2 minutes. Sprinkle flour over mixture and stir to combine. Add 1 C. water and cook until mixture thickens, about 2 minutes. Stir in peas and season with salt and pepper.

2. Transfer mixture to a 2- quart baking dish. Top with potatoes, overlapping slices. Season potatoes with salt and pepper and drizzle with 2 Tbsp. melted butter. Bake until potatoes are browned around the edges and tender when pierced with a knife, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

Slow-cooker Carne Guisada

This was delicious! The boys ate it, too, and it wasn't very spicy. I made homemade flour tortillas and served it with cheese and sour cream. Think I'll eat the leftovers over rice, though.

2 1/2 pounds beef chuck roast or bottom round, cut into 1-inch pieces

salt and pepper, to taste

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1 medium white onion, diced medium

1 medium green bell pepper, seeded and diced medium

1 large jalapeno, seeded and diced small

5 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin

3/4 tsp. chili powder

3/4 tsp. dried oregano

6 Tbsp. all- purpose flour

1 3/4 C. low- sodium chicken broth

1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes

2 bay leaves

1. Season beef with salt and pepper. In a large skillet, heat 2 tsp. oil over high. In two batches, cook beef until browned on all sides. Transfer to a 5-6 quart slow cooker.

2. In same skillet, cook 2 tsp oil, onion, bell pepper, jalapeno, and garlic over medium, stirring and scraping up browned bits with a wooden spoon, until vegetables are tender, 5 minutes. Add cumin, chili powder, oregano, and flour and cook 1 minute. Slowly pour broth into skillet, stirring until liquid is smooth. Simmer 2 minutes, then transfer mixture to slow cooker, along with tomatoes and bay leaves. Season to taste with salt and pepper and stir to combine. Cover and cook on high6 hours.

Recipe from Everyday Food, Nov. 2010

Black Beans and Sausage

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1 pound kielbasa or other smoked sausage, cut into 1-in. pieces

3 mediums carrots, diced

2 shallots, diced

salt and pepper, to taste

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 cans (15.5 oz each) black beans, rinsed and drained

2 cups low-sodium chicken broth

3 tbsp chopped, fresh parsley

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Add sausage and cook until browned on all sides, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Add carrots and shallots to skillet and cook until beginning to soften, about 4 minutes; season with salt and pepper. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add black beans and broth and bring to a boil. Add sausage, reduce heat to a rapid simmer, and cook until carrots are tender, about 12 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in parsley.

I recommend serving this with rice. We used Uncle Ben's Minute Rice, Spanish style, and it was awesome! This recipe is so simple and good. Yum, yum, yum!

Recipe from Everyday Food, November 2010