Go New England!

Sorry to my Hoosier friends, but I am a New England girl at heart. Don't hate me too much. After a week of munchies: pizzas, dips and bite sized appetizers, I wanted to bring this blog around to something distinctly New England in honor of the Patriots. Honestly, I struggled. I don't like clam chowder. I am too cheap to have a good lobster recipe. I even checked for something Boston Cream pie related to no avail. 

So, I decided to go with flounder as it's a fish that I don't find as common out here in Indiana and, besides, seafood is always a New England thing!

Flounder with Shrimp Stuffing

Ingredients:

Fish:  1 1/2 lb. flounder fillets     5 tbsp. butter     2 tbsp. lemon juice     1 tsp. parsley
          1/2 tsp. paprika

Stuffing:  1 lb. uncooked shrimp, chopped     1/4 c. beef broth     1 tsp. pimento        
               6 tbsp. butter, cubed            1 small onion, chopped     1/4 c. bell pepper, chopped
               1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce     1/2 tsp. minced chives     1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
               1 1/2 c. bread crumbs

Directions:

1. In a skillet, melt butter.
2. Add onion, and pepper - saute until tender.
3. Add shrimp and cook until pink.
4. Add broth, pimentos, worcestershire, chives and cayenne. Heat.
5. Take off the heat, add breadcrumbs.
6. Spoon about 1/2 c. stuffing on each fillet. Roll up.
7. Place seam side down in a greased 9x13 baking dish.
8. Drizzle with butter and lemon juice.
9. Sprinkle with parsley and paprika.
10. Bake, uncovered, at 375 for 20-25 minutes, until fish flakes easily.

I always struggle with what the "right vegetable" to pair with different things. I'm certainly no gourmet chef but, for some reason especially with seafood, I just love a nice fresh vegetable on the side, not a starch like potatoes or rice.  And, of course, it can't be too mushy! If you time things right, you can cook this next recipe while your fish is in the oven so everything's fresh and ready to go.

Apple Green Bean Saute

Ingredients:

1 lb. fresh green beans     1 apple, chopped     1/2 c. walnuts     1/2 c. honey

1 tbsp. oil                           sesame seeds

Directions:

1. Saute green bean and apple in oil.
2. Add walnuts - cook until vegetables are crisp tender.
3. Stir in honey.
4. Top with sesame seeds.

Patriots to win today and ....

As always, have fun!!

Spaghetti Sauce 101 - Part 3

If you’re here, congratulations on sticking through over 2,000 words on making homemade sauce. You now have these stockpots full of heavenly smelling sauce and are at a loss of what to do.  First off, if nothing else, make some spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. You deserve it!

This process may have exhausted you and made you not want to do anything else. You don’t necessarily want to worry about storage right away as those pots are plenty hot and will take some time to cool off. In fact, depending on what time you take them off the heat, you may be able to just leave them on the stove overnight (covered) to fully cool down. If you’re worried about that, you can slide them in your refrigerator if you have room. But, really, how many people have that kind of room?

Lasagna time!

If you’re wanting something more than some fresh spaghetti and meatballs, then I would say this is an ideal time to make a lasagna. You can be prepping it before the sauce is even done so that you do a layer effect and are able to put it in the oven moments after the sauce is done. This will last longer than doing spaghetti, so you’ll have leftovers the next day while you are trying to bag your sauce and finish cleaning up from your day long adventure.

Bag it? Can it? Help!

How do you store all this yummy sauce that you’ve made? Can it? Bag it and freeze it? Either option is a-okay though I’m no canning expert. I leave that to others. I love my Foodsaver and use it all the time for just this very task. It’s a good investment too if you want to save money and buy your meat in bulk, especially when it’s on sale.  You can pick up the bags or rolls most places and if you buy the off brand ones, it can be pretty cheap. For bagging this sauce, I tend to use the gallon bags because I don’t fill them all the way and it’s less messy.  I recommend help with this step just because trying to hold the bag open and scoop the sauce without dripping it can be tough. Again, there’s no set measurement of how much to put in a bag. Only you know how much sauce you like in a dish. For Jeremy and I, I do about 8 ladles in 1 bag. That gives us a nice dinner of spaghetti and meatballs plus enough sauce for leftovers the next day. I find this method also is solid for freezing a bag to be used in cooking a casserole or other dish. For my lasagnas, I tend to defrost 2 bags to be safe. Once you seal your bags, lay them flat in the freezer. Once they are frozen, they stack very nicely and don’t take up too much space.

Congratulations!

You have survived your first sauce extravaganza. Was it worth it? Most definitely! I’d love to hear your thoughts on the process and any questions you might have. For those who already make their own sauce, I’d love you to chime in with tips and tricks that you use in the process. Let’s start a dialogue and get cooking!

Spaghetti Sauce 101 - Part 2

Welcome back. Are you refreshed and ready to start assembling this sauce?

I typically let the sauce simmer all day to really blend the flavors, so I do a lot of my prep work the night before.

Equipment

I have 2 enormous stockpots that I use for this sauce. I think my smaller one is at least 12 quarts. The bigger one may be around 20. It’s been a long time since I bought them, but I did get them at Walmart for a reasonable price.  I make sure my ladle, can opener, cutting board, skillet and a good knife or two are ready to go. Oh and keep your trash barrel close to where you will be opening the cans for easy disposal in the morning.

Ingredients

Chop all your veggies in advance to save time in the morning when you are layering your sauce. I put all the veggies in raw as it will be simmering all day.  As for the meat, it really depends on what you are putting in and how long you are doing sauce. In my case, I can usually put most meat in raw as it cooks all day long. If you are doing a smaller portion for dinner or dinner plus leftovers, you’ll want to skillet most meat and throw it in at least partially cooked, if not fully. I tend to put sausage in without pre-cooking. Pork and chicken usually get a browning in the skillet before they go in. I like the fact that they cook while in the sauce, soaking up the flavor and there’s less likelihood of the meat drying out.  Meatballs are a different animal all together.  I spend the time to cook them either the night before or early on in the day that the sauce will be simmering. I don’t actually put them in the sauce though. I find freezing them separately and throwing in just what I need for any given dinner is better. Of course, I bet you are asking yourself why I even cook them at the same time. I like the flavor of them in my sauce, so I’ll pour the grease from the cookie sheets into my sauce.

Good Morning

It’s assembly time. I’d like to say that the method I am about to describe is because I am O.C.D. but it’s more that I’m lazy and don’t want to spend a lot of my day constantly stirring, hoping that all the flavors are blending okay.  My stockpots are 2 different sizes, so I tend to divide my ingredients between them unequally. The bigger pot gets about 2/3 of the ingredients and the other gets about 1/3. Again, no one is doing an exact measurement here. I layer my ingredients in to help the process. There most likely will be multiple layers, so use the list below as a guide and repeat until you get to the top of your pots.

Crushed tomatoes – These go at the bottom as they tend to have more liquid. That’s especially helpful when it gets to full temperature and you don’t want scorching on the bottom of your pot.

Meat – I put in each meat separately as there’s usually plenty of room for multiple layers.

Diced tomatoes – There’s usually a ton of water in these tomatoes. I strain out about half before putting it in the pot.

Vegetables – I put in the garlic and onion together in a layer. Same goes for the peppers and mushrooms. Again, I wish I could tell you why – it just works out that way.

Tomato puree – Puree gets put in last of the big 3. This is the layer that looks most like your standard tomato sauce. I use it to put in the spices and cheese.

Spices and cheese – This is where the novice will ask for quantity. I don’t have a solid number for you. In fact, I don’t always do a spice layer either. I shake each of my spices over the pot, coating the layer of puree. Sometimes, I match up a spice to each of the other layers (e.g. basil – crushed tomatoes, oregano – meats, etc.) Either way, you are making a gigantic amount of sauce, so don’t  feel like there is such a thing as too heavy handed. You really don’t want to get to the end of this process and say “Oh, I really don’t have any flavor in there”. Same goes with the cheese. If you are truly nervous, then you can go a little light at the beginning and add spice throughout the day as you taste test it. I recommend taste testing it anyway to make sure it it up to your bar of excellence.

Tomato paste -Last but not least. I mentioned earlier using 2-3 of the small cans. In my recipe, I put 2 in the big pot and 1 in the small one. It will help things thicken up. At this point, add some sugar too. It will help cut the acid taste in your sauce. It doesn't have to be a lot but you definitely want some in there. You’ll get a better sense of just how much as you taste test throughout the day. Don’t add too much though – you don’t need your sauce to be sticky sweet.

By starting everything at different layers, you've pre-mixed your sauce to a certain extent. You’ll have to stir it occasionally throughout the day to ensure it doesn't scorch and to give yourself an opportunity to smell and taste the deliciousness. Simmer on low though you will be tempted to turn up the heat.  Dont. It’s simmering all day and even on the lowest temperature, it will boil a little by the end. If you can’t get that boil under control and it’s late in the day, it may just be time to turn off the heat and keep it covered.  That’s why you do need to watch it and stir. You don’t need a boil over mess on top of all this work, right?

Are We Done Yet?

By your pre-dinner time taste test, this sauce should taste pretty good.  Check out part 3 where I discuss using the sauce that night, being strategic with what you make and how you store all the extra sauce.

Spaghetti Sauce 101 - Part 1

I make my own spaghetti sauce. I can make it in bulk and freeze it, so it’s a huge savings, though it is a bit of an undertaking to do it on the 2 stockpot scale that I do. This post won’t be a formal recipe, more like general guidelines. Everyone’s tastes are a little different, so you just need to think about the flavors in your favorite tomato sauce and how best to replicate them.

For those people who aren’t big on the cooking scene, this might seem like an overwhelming task. I typically save it for a weekend, mostly so that it can simmer all day without interruption. Just remember this is not a difficult task, but bringing all the pieces together can be time consuming.

It’s Time to Shop

We’re off to the grocery story – what do we need? I’m going to do my tomatoes in the quantities I use for mine but truly if you are not into making a year’s worth at once, you can scale back proportionately.

I’ve honestly never made my sauce with fresh tomatoes. I’d love to hear from some of you that have to see if it’s worth the extra work. My first stop on my grocery run is Sam’s Club. You really can’t beat their prices on the canned tomatoes. They have 102 – 106 oz. cans for less than 5 bucks each. You can also get the big (28 oz.) cans at any grocery store for a pretty reasonable price, especially if you don’t want two full stockpots of sauce. So start with 1 can each of the following items: crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes and tomato puree. I also find if you can’t get puree at a good price that you can substitute in a plain tomato sauce. Look at the ingredients – they are very similar. If you don’t bulk buy, just pick up an equivalent amount of the 28 oz. cans. Also, you want to make sure you have tomato paste. I usually pick up a box of the small cans here though you won’t use all of them in one batch of sauce. For a batch this size, you’ll use 2-3, so unless you use paste for other stuff you may be better off buying it by the can.

While I’m at Sam’s, I usually take a look at their meat prices. I tend to do about a pound of each meat because I tend to like a variety of meats.  This is where you can have some fun. I always make meatballs and typically make extra because you can freeze them for other stuff too. I recommend 2 lbs of ground meat if that’s the case. Ground turkey is cheapest but sometimes I mix it up and do half turkey and half pork or beef. I also like Italian sausage and some chicken.  A few times, I’ve even thrown some pork pieces in – whether tenderloin, roast or chops. It all depends on what I have in the freezer or what’s on sale that week.

Next stop is the produce department. This one can be tough if you have different tastes in your house. If there’s something you like, but your partner does not, save adding it until later to whatever dish you are making with the sauce. It’s easier to separate the sauce into two containers to heat up and customize.  Quantities are difficult too just because it’s such a personal choice. I recommend any or all of the following: mushrooms, bell pepper (I prefer red), onion (I prefer sweet) and garlic. You can’t have a good sauce without garlic. I buy my mushrooms pre-sliced because the price difference tends to be minuscule and I find slicing them to be a pain. Two good sized bell peppers should do you just fine along with either 1 large onion or 2 medium ones. As for the garlic, I cheat here as well and pick up a jar of the minced garlic, usually a big one since I use garlic in everything. This way, you have the garlic pieces in liquid and you can pour both in.

Finally, we get to spice. Maybe you like it hot, maybe not. Maybe you think those store bought sauces just have no flavor. This is where the fun begins. I start with a big container of Parmesan or Romano cheese and then a trip to my spice rack. I don’t have a good rule of thumb except to tell you that I do shakes over  the pots of each spice. If you’re not sure on quantities, you may want to practice first with a plain canned tomato sauce and heat it up in small amounts so that you can spice them differently and see what you like. But, if you are like me, you’ve had plenty of sauce in your life so you already have an idea of what you like.  Plus, that’s a whole lot of work! The key is to trust your instincts and not over think things.  I recommend the following list of spices with the caveat that if you have a good Italian sausage, you don’t really need black or red pepper in your sauce. I have found it’s way overkill!

oregano

basil

bay leaves

italian seasoning

parsley

red and/or black pepper

onion salt

garlic salt and/or powder

adobo

Are you exhausted yet? I am! Check back for part 2 where we will discuss getting all these ingredients prepped and ready to simmer on your stove for the day. Then, we will conclude with part 3 – what you do with this massive amount of sauce once it’s all ready to eat!