A French Classic Gets An Iowa Makeover

I love French food. In this day and age fussy classic French dishes have fallen out of favor for most people but there is something about the classic techniques, traditional flavor combinations and history that keeps me coming back. There have been so many masterful French chefs just in my lifetime that have influenced not only me as a cook, but untold numbers of professional chefs.

It's no secret, if you have been following my blog for any length of time you know I love Julia Child. I love to read about her, read her recipes, would love to visit her kitchen at the Smithsonian (is it weird that I think of that as a honeymoon destination?). Thomas Keller is another chef I admire greatly. He is well known for his amazing French dishes. I could go on and on but who needs a list- you get the idea.

My interest in French food goes all the way back to high school. As a French student we often had food days and I always made pate choux for cream puffs and eclairs, or crepes with sweet and savory fillings. I mastered quiche by the time I was 15, including pastry. Souffles and mousses came next and by the time I was 18 I was making French dinners for my parents all the time. As a new wife in Texas I made many fancy dinners for friends and even won a recipe contest with a savory application for pate choux.

Poring over many different cookbooks for inspiration I found some vast differences in how chefs make coq au vin. Some use only thighs, others use breasts, some whole cut up chickens. Some recipes called for cognac and I even found one calling for bourbon! Most called for pearl or cipollini onions, which I was unable to find in my little store, so I used a large onion cut into chunks. I knew I wanted something along those lines, but it didn't need to be a clone of the classic- after all, I am using pork instead of chicken. So here is what I came up with, and I hope you will like it.

Porc Au Vin

6 slices bacon
8 oz package cremini or baby bella mushrooms
2 lbs boneless pork loin
flour, salt, pepper
1 large onion, chopped
3 carrots, scrubbed and sliced
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups dry red wine
2 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme leaves
1 teaspoon dried savory leaves
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
cornstarch for thickening

Cut the pork into rectangular pieces, similar to a stick of butter but half the size. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

I liked this rectangular but cubes will work too- just
cut large cubes

Cut the bacon into lardons. 

Lardons. Fancy French word for little strips.

Place bacon in a dutch oven and cook over medium heat until browned and crispy. 

Remove with a slotted spoon, reserving the fat. I used a spoon to remove most of the fat to a small bowl and reserved it to use with the pork. Trim the ends of the mushrooms and place in skillet, tops down, and cook for several minutes until browned. Remove to a bowl and reserve for later.

My mushrooms were pretty big so I halved them and
decided to brown the cut side.

Place a small amount of flour onto a plate. Dredge the pork in the flour and add to the hot pan. Add some of the reserved bacon fat as needed. Brown the meat on all four sides and remove to a plate.

Don't crowd the meat or it will steam instead of brown.

I just use the upturned lid of my Dutch oven. One less
dish to wash later. Add juices to the pot also.

When the meat is done add the onion and carrots. Cook and stir until the onion is translucent and not browned. Add the garlic, and cook for a minute or two. Add the thyme, bay leaf, and tomato paste. Stir well.

Give the herbs a good stir to bring out the fragrance, then
add the tomato paste and cook for a minute or two. You
want to cook out that tinny taste of canned tomato paste.

Add the wine to the pot, stirring to loosen the browned bits on the bottom. Return the meat to the pot, and the mushrooms, the chicken stock, and cover.

Smells so good already!!

Cook over medium low heat for about 45 minutes, until the meat is tender. I leave the lid just barely askew to allow some evaporation and the sauce will thicken. If you like, you can thicken the sauce with a cornstarch slurry. Sprinkle with the chopped fresh parsley before serving.

What do you serve with this French classic with an Iowa twist? The French influence hints at some steamed haricots verts with herb butter. Green beans, for us everyday people. A bed of buttered noodles rounds out the dish. Of course I had to get a lovely crusty baguette to go with it- can't have French food without a baguette!

Let's talk a little bit about the ingredients I used. Of course, fresh Iowa pork is a must have. At our house we like to buy whole pork loins and do our own butchering so we get exactly the cuts and sizes we want. I cut a nice size hunk of roast off a loin and cut that into my rectangular chunks of meat.

I chose an Iowa dry red wine to make this recipe, from Penoach Winery near Adel in Dallas County. Made from locally grown grapes Rustic Red is a very smooth and easy drinking red. It's dry but not wildly so, not as dry as a Cabernet, but not sweet at all- it's a great wine for a sweet wine fan to try as they expand their palate. Great with food, this wine is also lovely to have a glass in the evening, and with cheese or chocolate. Try it!

My pasta choice is another Iowa-made product. Zaza's Artisan Pasta comes from their Italian market in Iowa City and homemade pasta is their specialty. I don't live near their shop but luckily I am able to get it at the nearby aquaponics farm, which also carries Iowa-made products in their tiny shop. They have several different flavors of pasta, I had beet pappardelle and it was so delicious. The texture after cooking was firm and just perfectly tender. The edges had that "rough" look that only handmade pasta has. Very delicious. I can't wait to try more varieties.

This recipe is great for entertaining, and serves 6 to 8 people. Since only two of us live here, I have plenty for leftovers!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 55: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Winter Storm? Just make a pot of stew

Looks like our bizarre winter of weather in the 40s and 50s in January is coming to an end. A snowstorm is headed this way and finally, we will have some measurable snow to complain about. I'm actually looking forward to the snow. I have always been a winter lover, and while the last couple haven't been the greatest, with furnace problems, frozen waterlines and all sorts of other homeowner nightmares, I am looking forward to the beautiful snow.

Winter is also my favorite time of year for cooking. Roasting, braising, stews and soups, I love all of it. No one wants to heat up the house in August for a roast, but when the snowflakes are flying outside it's the perfect time. 

All my life I have made stew the way my mom did- chunks of meat, chunks of potatoes and carrots, all roasted together low and slow in the oven. That is the ultimate home cooking if you ask me. This time though I thought I'd try something just a little different. What if I roasted the vegetables on a sheet pan, instead of throwing them in the liquid? What would the texture be like? Would this even work? 

Folks, yes yes yes- this works, and it's definitely worth having a sheet pan to wash. The potatoes were tender on the inside but had texture on the outside, a nice crisp exterior from the roasting, and the carrots, that roasting brings out the sweetness in carrots like crazy. They were caramelized in spots, super sweet and so tender. Adding them to the gravy and meat at the last minute preserved the texture and gave good old stew a great big update.

Pork and Roasted Vegetable Stew

1 2-3 lb boneless pork sirloin roast

1 cup flour

2 tablespoons meat rub (we like Feiny's)

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne

cooking oil

1 onion, cut into chunks

4 cloves garlic, smashed

1 teaspoon dried marjoram

1 teaspoon dried thyme

4 cups turkey stock

3 tablespoons tomato paste

1 lb carrots, either baby carrots or peeled and cut into sticks

4-5 medium potatoes, scrubbed, cut in chunks (leave the peel on)

1 teaspoon meat rub (use the same as you do with the meat)

1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

Heat the oven to 300 degrees.

Prep the meat by trimming any fat on the outside. Cut into thick slices, and then into good sized cubes/chunks. From this roast I cut 6 thick "chops" and cut each chop into 6 big chunks. In a shallow dish combine the flour, meat rub, pepper, paprika and cayenne. 

Heat a couple tablespoons of cooking oil in a Dutch oven. 

Dredge the meat in the flour and add to Dutch oven; brown the meat cubes well, without crowding. You will have to do it in batches. 

I always remove the browned meat to the upturned lid of the Dutch oven- saves me a dish to wash. 

Once all the meat is browned, add another tablespoon of oil if needed and add the onion to the pot. Cook and stir for a minute or so. Add the smashed garlic cloves. Cook for an additional minute. Stir in the marjoram and thyme, and tomato paste. Deglaze the pot with the turkey stock, scraping up all the browned bits from the bottom.

Return the meat to the pot, cover and pop in the oven. The meat will need to cook about 2 hours.

About an hour before the meat is done, scrub and cut up the potatoes. Toss with carrots, a splash of oil and a teaspoon of the same meat rub. Spread out onto rimmed baking sheet. Roast in the oven alongside the meat until the vegetables are tender and browned; stir during roasting for even browning.

When vegetables are tender remove everything from the oven. The gravy with the meat should be nicely thickened, but if not, remove the meat with a slotted spoon and add a small amount of cornstarch slurry and cook over medium high heat til thickened. Return meat to gravy. Stir the vegetables into the meat and gravy. Sprinkle with parsley.

Serve in shallow bowls with bread for sopping up the gravy.

Like most "winter foods" you bet there were leftovers. You don't have so much of the same texture later, as the gravy does soften the potatoes, but the roasted flavor is preserved, and like similar favorites, this stew is just as delicious, if not more so, the next day.

As for that weather forecast, the missed it. We got a foot. Pass me the shovel, please.

The Gerwegian girl's braciole

I was so surprised the other day- at the grocery store they had the BIG pieces of round steak. The big ones- like I remember as a child, my mom slicing up and making pepper steak or stroganoff, or pounding the everloving life out of and smothering with cream-of-something soup and baking for a couple hours. Not the fanciest cut by any means, but certainly one of my favorite if for nothing but the memories. Anyway, there it was in the meat department beckoning to me to cook something really good.

If it was the right time of year, pepper steak would have been my first choice but in general I avoid certain kinds of grocery store produce in the winter, like tomatoes and peppers. It's just not the same as fresh from the garden or farmers market. Mushrooms, however, are available year round and pretty consistent PLUS they had a nice basket of fresh shiitakes begging to be taken home. Inspired by the recent picture a friend had shared with me, I decided a stuffed steak was in order.

What I ended up with is my own version of Braciole- without the Italian flavor profile. Mushrooms are a natural with steak and so easy to chop up and create a stuffing with. The shiitkes are a real treat to work with- once you pinch off and throw away the inedible stem they cut up into perfect firm little cubes of delicious. I chose cremini as my other mushroom (although I bought some of every kind they had in the store that day!), a little onion, garlic, some stale bread (do YOU keep your bread butts in the freezer for things like this?) and roll it up in some pounded out steak. Here is how I did it-

Mushroom Braciole

about 2 lb round steak (or similar- flat iron, flank steak, etc)

1 small onion

4 cloves garlic

4 slices stale bread

1 tsp chopped thyme

8 oz mushrooms- I used shiitake and cremini

salt and pepper

2 cups beef stock

1 tablespoon cornstarch

olive oil

2 tb butter

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. 

Cut or tear the bread into small pieces and spread out to let it dry as much as possible, set aside for now.

Cut the meat into 6 equal portions. Pound using a meat mallet until flattened and even in thickness. Pounding out to the right shape is a little tricky but try to get the pieces as rectangular as possible. I was so busy pounding away The Chef finally asked me if I was ever going to be done or was I building a garage.......sigh...... Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Finely chop the onion and garlic and place in bowl. Clean the mushrooms, trim off the stem ends (remove tough shiitake stems) and chop into small dice and add to bowl. 

In a medium skillet heat 2 tablespoons olive oil and butter. Add the onions, garlic, mushrooms, thyme and season with salt and pepper. Cook for several minutes until onions are softened and mushrooms begin to brown. Meanwhile, crumble the bread as much as possible in a medium bowl. Pour the mushroom onion mixture over and mix well. It might be a little dry, not like stuffing you'd serve at the holidays- that's ok, it doesn't need to be super moist.

Grab a piece of steak and place a scoop of the stuffing on it. Pat it and spread it out over the meat surface evenly, leaving a little edge uncovered. 

Roll up and secure with picks, or tie with string if you're especially handy like that. I use picks because, well..... I'm not. Continue with all pieces of steak until done. 

You might have some leftover stuffing. I did because I could only get 5 portions from my steak, and Louie enjoyed it thoroughly.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in that skillet you cooked the mushrooms in and brown the rolls on the outside; place in dutch oven or covered roaster/braiser. 

Mix the cornstarch into the beef broth while browning the meat and when done, deglaze the skillet with the broth. Whisk over medium high heat until slightly thickened and bubbly. Ladle sauce over the braciole in the pot; cover and bake for one hour and 15 minutes.

When done, remove from oven and let rest a few minutes so the stuffing will firm up just a bit. Remove picks from rolls and slice. Serve with pasta, rice or potatoes and the sauce. I have been making this dish for years and years and it's one of my favorites. Not very "gourmet" but certainly delicious and an old family favorite. Oh, I almost forgot- the Gerwegian??  German and Norwegian of course!