This is my poor man’s Cassoulet, some day I’ll make the real thing, but Cassoulet is rather labour intensive. So for a cold Sunday afternoon, I cooked up a smoked ham hock and kielbasa with lentils, white beans and carrots and lots of chicken stock. As the beans and lentils cook the sauce becomes very creamy and rich. I will be making this again, but probably not until next winter.
This link is a more authentic version.
A simple Guinness Irish stew kicked up with veal stock and a Alberta AAA strip loin. Also in the stew are medallion of carrots and button mushrooms, served on a bed of boiled potatoes. Using the steak and veal stock instead of stewing beef, allows a much shorter cooking time since you don’t have to wait for all the connective tissue to break down in the stewing beef and the veal stock makes the sauce very savory. Although, if I could get my hands Rogue Brewery’s Chocolate stout I would have used that.
For Valentine’s day dinner I’d thought I’d try something a little bit different, but not too much different. We started with sautéed scallops fried to a golden brown and served with a shallot brandy cream sauce, truly decadent, the scallops were perfectly cooked.
For the main course we had pan fried veal chops with a green beans and mashed potatoes, the sauce was made from the pan drippings, shallots, mushrooms and veal stock. Ultimately, I have to say, I prefer my veal chops grilled, hands down.
This is a little project in progress, I have a Muscavy duck breast hanging in the basement where it's plenty cold enough for the slow curing of the meat. I first tried this delicious treat at the Paddock where my friend Gavin noted that he has made duck prosciutto in the past, so after getting the recipe he used, I'm off on a little culinary adventure. How will this turn out, only time will tell…
This is a very simple recipe from Martha Stewart, very simple to prepare and quite savory. Pound out some thinnly siced medallions of pork tenderloin, pan fry them and set asside in a warm oven to finish cooking. Toss in the celery and mushrooms to the pan and brown, deglaze the pan with a little white wine and then add some chicken stock and cream, reduce. Just before plating add back the pork and finish with some parsley, in this case a lot of parsley.
