Catch a Tory

I've never cooked chicken cacciatore before ... but tonight I tackled it (without benefit of a recipe) ... and it turned out pretty well.  Today I bought four chicken thighs for $4.35 and decided to try my hand at this dish.  Here's how it went:

Rinse the chicken thighs and dry them thoroughly.  Salt and pepper them liberally on both sides.  Heat a large cast iron skillet over high heat.  Add a good olive oil (I actually used peanut oil tonight ... I couldn't find the olive oil) and heat until smoking.  Add the chicken thighs and cook them until well browned.  Remove the thighs to a plate and add one well chopped onion ($0.30), three slivered garlic cloves ($0.25) and one well diced Italian pepper ($0.50).  Then add a good sprinkling of red pepper flakes and some fennel seeds to taste (I like a lot of them).  Put a big can of good whole tomatoes ($1.69) in a big bowl and squeeze them to a pulp and then add them to the frying pan.  Add a good pinch of salt and some more black pepper grinds, a palm-full of dried parsley flakes, a bay leaf, and a good pinch of oregano.

Cook this sauce for about ten minutes and then return the chicken thighs to the pan along with a can of drained artichoke hearts ($1.89) or just artichoke heart bottoms and any juices from the thighs.  Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook another fifteen minutes or until the chicken is real tender.  (A few things I could have added but didn't -- some chopped-up sun-dried tomatoes and a good splash of red wine.)  In a separate pot boil a good quantity of salted water and cook some cappellini ($1.29).  Serve the chicken cacciatori over the pasta with a liberal sprinkling of Romano cheese.  Enjoy.  (You pick the side entrees ... maybe oil and garlic broccolini and a balsamic-vinegar tomato salad, see: My Tomato Salad.)

So, for around ten dollars I main-course fed very generously three people (with enough left for my lunch tomorrow.)  We all said it was delicious.  Not bad for a chicken-cacciatore tyro.

Beefy Stew

I made a beef stew last night and it turned out so well I thought I would share it. I found 1½ pounds of sirloin beef on sale so I decided to greet our change to autumn weather with a hearty meal. You can use round steak or even chuck steak for this recipe but cut it up in pieces about 1 inch square. (I think that supermarkets sell you beef stew pieces that are too big to cook and eat easily … and need to be at least halved.  Cooks Illustrated magazine recommends sirloin steak tips for beef stew.)

Dice one large onion and sauté it in a few tablespoons of olive oil. (Bacon grease would also be good.) Use a Le Creuset pot if available, otherwise, a cast iron one. Add a few chopped up garlic cloves and cook till transparent. Salt and pepper the meat well and brown it along with the onions and garlic. Next add a small package of mushrooms, cleaned and halved. Now clean and chop three carrots, two celery stalks (with leaves). Add them. After things are well amalgamated add a bouquet garni (I used a teaspoon of powdered bouquet garni from Penzey’s Spices. See here), one bay leaf, a half teaspoon of dried thyme, two tablespoons of chopped parsley, three squirts of Lea and Perrins, five peppercorns, five allspice berries, a third bottle of Bogle old-vine zinfandel, and a container of good beef stock (Emeril’s was good). Bring up to a simmer. Halve 7 or 8 baby Yukon Gold potatoes and add them. Mix well with a fork a heaping tablespoon of flour with an equal amount of softened butter and stir well into the pot. Continue simmering this concoction on the back of the stove for at least one hour (two is better). Then remove the bay leaf (and bouquet garni, if not powered) and adjust the seasoning. Serve with the remaining bottle of Bogel’s zinfandel and a crusty baguette. Enjoy!

Now, when done, if it is still light out, go out and rake some leaves.