As House Andrews has taught us, sometimes fictional food refuses to stay on the page.
Virginia Woolf’s boeuf en daube has been haunting my kitchen recently. In To the Lighthouse, the dish drifts through Mrs Ramsay’s stream of consciousness:
“… an exquisite scent of olives and oil and juice rose from the great brown dish as Marthe, with a little flourish, took the cover off. The cook had spent three days over that dish. And she must take great care, Mrs. Ramsay thought, diving into the soft mass, to choose a specially tender piece for William Bankes. And she peered into the dish, with its shiny walls and its confusion of savoury brown and yellow meats, and its bay leaves and its wine, and thought, This will celebrate the occasion.”
Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse. The Hogarth Press, London 1927, p. 151. Featured image: AS Photo Family stock.adobe.com
I’m not dedicated enough to go to three-day lengths, so I brought it into 2026 with a one-pot recipe that’s ready in three hours.
Ginny (Ms Woolf if you’re nasty) doesn’t provide full details, so this is my noncanonical Provençal-Balkan version. Those in possession of delicate French sensibilities, please avert your gaze.
Boeuf en daube(ish)
- 500 g chuck, shin or other braising beef with a lot of connective tissue that can break down during long, slow cooking. Cut into 1.5-inch chunks.
- 200–250 ml red wine. A full-bodied French would be appropriately Provençal, but use any tasty red that isn’t too astringent. Don’t cook with wine you wouldn’t drink.
- 3 white onions, sliced
- 1 carrot, sliced
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon of umami paste we won’t tell the French about (optional, it oomphed both the meatiness and the oliviness)
- 1 sprig of thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 100 g olives. I used chargrilled Turkish olives, because I love their smoky, almost cured-bacon flavour, and this is my daube. You do what you will with your daube.
- Beef stock, as needed
- Salt and black pepper
Traditionally, daube is cooked slowly in a lidded terracotta daubière; mine went into an enamelled cast-iron casserole, though I imagine a slow cooker would be very happy with it too.
Brown the beef in batches in the casserole, then remove it. Soften the onions and carrot in the same pot, then add the garlic, tomato paste (and umami paste, if using). Cook until the tomato paste darkens and starts to stick, then deglaze with the wine. Return the beef and add the herbs and seasoning. Add stock if needed; the liquid should come most of the way up the ingredients without turning everything into beef soup. We’re braising here, not boiling.
Lid on, into a low 150°C (300°F in freedom units) oven, and leave it alone until the beef is completely tender, around 2½–3 hours. Check after 2 hours and take the lid off if you want to reduce the liquid more efficiently. This is also the point where you add the olives.
Crucially, judge by the beef, not the clock! I actually cooked mine for 3½ hours, because I’m still getting used to my new oven. I don’t have pictures because we fell upon it in a very stream-of-stomach-consciousness way.
Fig Tarte Tatin with Chèvre
French grand-mères can take a little respite from rolling in their graves: this one is considerably less blasphemous, and one of the most delicious things I’ve eaten in months.
- 12 fresh figs, cut into halves
- 70 grams sugar
- 30 grams of butter
- 50-60 ml of water – only if you need caramel training wheels
- 1 tsp of vanilla paste
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 sheet of puff pastry, cut about 3 cm/1 inch wider than the size of your tarte tray (shop-bought & ready-rolled, because ain’t nobody got time)
- 60 g fresh soft goat’s cheese
Make a caramel, each according to their skill.
I make wet caramel because I burnt so many pots attempting the dry method as a child that I once buried one in the garden so my mother wouldn’t discover it. Thirty years later, my parents have a tall saucepan tree, and I still start with the 70 grams of sugar in enough water to cover it. Bring it to a boil and let the water evaporate until the syrup begins to colour, then watch it closely and do not stir it as it turns golden brown. The distance between not caramel and oh fuck is surprisingly short – take it from me.
Once the bubbles are deep amber, add the butter, figs, vanilla paste and salt, and cook them on high heat for about 5 minutes. Turn the figs about half-way through, if they haven’t collapsed into glorious jamminess already. Carefully pour it all in a parchment-lined 20 cm tart pan, or ovenproof dish of choice. For a prettier finish, arrange them all cut-side down; otherwise, let the figs fall where they may.
Drape the pastry over the figs and tuck the excess around the edges, poke it with a fork all over, and bake for about half an hour at 200C (392F).
Once out of the oven, let it settle for a few minutes, then place a plate wider than the pan on top and flip the whole thing over in the traditional Tatin manner. At this point, I added a restrained scatter of dainty chèvre crumbs, befitting my delicate fairy princess nature.
Psych. Heavy is the hand that crumbles the cheese in this house, I obviously went for a boulder aesthetic. The balance between lush jammy figs and the tangy, yogurt-fresh goat cheese was ridiculously good. Ten out of ten, would risk the caramel again!
So that’s what’s been yummy in the Mod R kitchen. What have you been cooking lately?
Hahaha, Mod R, you are hilarious. And this sounds de-lish. Thank you!
Yummy First! 🍽️😋
Woohoo!
First?
Yes, I am, woohoo!
first?
I was so close! 😂
I made a ham and potato soup in my crockpot. This is significant for me, because I usually dont enjoy soups, I dislike potatoes and we had a grocery mix up where I got 3, 20lb hams I didnt order and the store refused to take it back.
I basically diced potaotes, left over ham and threw it into the crockpot with chopped celery, carrots and corn. Seasoned with garlic, ginger onion powder, thyme, rosemary and basil. I used chicken broth instead of water. Set on low for 8 hrs. I used a bit of cornstarch at the end to thicken it. Served with dinner rolls on a windy and coldish NJ night.
The family loved it. I liked it too despite the potatoes 😃
I will probably make it again.
This sounds heavenly, thanks for the recipe.
I am harvesting the last of my summer squash and zucchini – it has been a bumper crop this year and I have hidden zucchini and squash into everything I possibly could.
I did make double chocolate zucchini bread and lemon lime zucchini bread for the first time this year and they were both *chefs kiss.
Lemon lime zucchini bread sounds so yum!
Oooo those both sound good!
We had two Jurassic-sized zucchini plants this year and made several batches of Disappearing Zucchini Orzo from Barbara Kingsolver’s, “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle”. It’s one of our summer staples and is a delicious way to use a lot of zucchini.
Tacos…..tacos is what I made this week….because leftovers & diners can create their own by adding toppings of their choice….
My people hate it. They always passively comment “dinner, some assembly required”. Lazy sods 🤣
“say that again and you’ll be the chef for the next two weeks!”
Precisely!
You should make them do the cooking. (No take-aways allowed!) Maybe once they know the labor involved, they won’t feel so inclined to comment on your choices.
BDH response: It’s good enough for the Baylors. Or do you want to explain yourself to Grandma Frida, Mom (Penelope) with her sniper rifle, and Alessandro (aka the Artisan)?
I recently subscribed to Cozy Magazine and I made their cheddar sage biscuits with apple butter.
Your recipes sound so good! The olives are especially interesting. I found a yummy seasoning packet at a store in Ohio called Guinness Ale and Steak Pie Mix. I must get more when we visit my kid again. I used the slow cooker instead of the oven. I made the puff pastry a day earlier in the oven after cutting it into Napolean sized servings. I also used a whole chopped sweet onion and about 5 cups of sliced mushrooms. I also added meat and Guinness! I served it in bowls with a piece of plain puff pastry on top. The leftover pastry got made into dessert another day. Thank- you all for sharing recipes. The ham and potato soup is non dairy so my family can have it. There is always leftover ham during the holidays!
Something similar to daube, actually – it’s beef, pork and lamb stewed in red wine with bacon, onions, garlic, olives and corinths. Toward the end, add cognac, cream and green pepper corns. Very yummy!
I don’t know where to send this info… did you see that Dina is half off at GA the rest of Sept?
yes, thank you! it was shared on all IA social media platforms 🙂
Love the saucepan tree comment! Does it blossom in tiny, shiny saucepans? That was my immediate vision 🤣. All sounds yummy, Mod R, but won’t being doing any of it. No one likes olives except me and I don’t own (gasp) a tart pan. This was fun, thanks!
Hopefully HA is seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Keeping fingers crossed.
The PG version of this medieval classic 😀 https://oldenglishwordhord.com/2024/03/10/pintel/
You know, we had to read Roman de la Rose in French at my all-girl Roman Catholic HS, but I don’t recall that particular picture. Of course that was roughly half a century ago, and there’s not much about it that I do recall, tbh.
No one expects the
Spanish Inquisitionmedieval marginalia 🤣🤣😂🤣
I’ve made my famous soup stew which has no exact set recipe because it varies but has a lot of vegetables (frozen or fresh depending) and pulse of choice and sometimes a bit of chicken or rarely beef. It has a fair mix of spices (with a strong Bengali flavour thanks to my early school upbringing) leaning heavy on chilli and cayenne if no kids are eating it. And apparently I am strong on garlic but I don’t notice this myself. Sometimes I chuck a handful of rice in or break some spaghetti in too. I like it thick, hence stew. Always some sort of sofrito base, I like green pepper in it. I tend to make too much but it tastes better the next day so always good 😊
Always liked just enough “too much garlic”!
You can never have too much garlic – I love it even though it gives me dreadful heartburn.
Yes, I did just drool all over my keyboard.
What time do we show up?
Sounds wonderful!
Thank you for the thoroughly detailed recipe and its humor!
I have been rereading/relistening to the Hidden Legacy books. I realized how much meal description there is, yet not enough to make the recipes. I suspect they are staples in HA’s kitchen.
Would it be possible to create an Ilona Andrews cookbook? I already have some recipes from the blog, but maybe they could be collected and added to?
That is in the plans!
You are the bringer of joy today! I was hopeful, but didn’t realize it was actually in the works.
Please, please, pretty please tell me that passion cones will be in there? 🤞🏻🤗
In the plans, not in the works exactly! Maggie 2 before all!
Ok! I’ll wait p@tiently. 🤗
I pulled up Silent Blade to refresh my memory of passion cones (and see again if there was enough detail to try to make them) and it was already right at that spot! 😄
I no longer tackle such strenuous recipes. In my youth, I would have. Now I only cook recipes with a short list of ingredients and minimal prep. It works for me. Your energy for cooking is admirable. I’m sure it was delicious.
I seem to be on a nursery or soft white food kick, maybe for comfort?It has been a stressful time lately… I’ve been making lemon-mint possets for dessert whenever we have company, and tried an amaretto syllabub for people who’d already had my posset (wouldn’t do again—just too soft). For food, I’ve been on a cream cheese ramen kick (NYT recipe) and Jackie Kennedy’s marie blanche casserole. These are all very few ingredient recipes, and mostly quite elegant and not what you expect.
I recently made sweet potato gnocchi from Preppy Kitchen’s recipe. Mine tasted amazing, but looked more like orange chicken nuggets than it did gnocchi. I figured I could just grate more Parmesan on top to hide the appearance and it worked.
Love the recipe -a nice way to avoid kitchen wars
I picked the first harvest of beans -borlotti like type, made them with onion-garlic-rosemary a bit off guancale and garden sugotomatoes, this is special since in Scandinavia a good tomatoharvest is not a sure thing 😋
Served with homemade pesto (basil lives with the tomatoes in the greenhouse)
And stale sourdough bread -the best for toasting
oh! I didnt know what it was called but I’ve made a baked fig puff pastry with goat cheese, basil and honey
pretty much this method but doesn’t require making caramel, just melting honey
Currently making a batch of chicken and wild rice soup. Nothing too unusual or thrilling, but my home state of North Carolina has been experiencing Faux Fall lately, so of course it’s put me in the mind for soup.
Oooo, fig tarte tatin! What a brilliant idea.
Side note: I once stayed at Sissinghurst with friends (one of whom was the National Trust manager of the site) and got to poke around places not normally accessible to the public. One of these was Vita Sackville-West’s study in tbe tower. Among the many interesting items there is a book given her by Virginia Wolfe—a copy of To the Ligjthouse, with a note that it was the best thing she had written. When you open it, all the pages are blank.
If Authorlandia had dad jokes, this would be the most established 😀
I played with an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe yesterday – whole wheat flour for half of the flour, dark brown sugar, and chopped craisins and nuts for the chocolate chips. I thought they were tasty and slightly healthier. Spouse wanted to know where the chocolate chips were.
For my oatmeal raisin cookies at Christmas I marinate the golden raisins for a few weeks in a jar filled with brandy. I don’t like raisins and it changes the flavor. Drain them in a sieve over a bowl to save the liquid. It can actually get syrupy if you reuse it carefully! Fill the jar 3/4 of the way with dried fruit and add brandy to fill the jar. I’ve also made it with dried sweetened cherries. The cherry brandy is tasty and the cherries go into fruitcake!
I haven’t been able to cook much because we’ve not had an oven for several months (don’t ask). However, drum roll please, a new LG range was delivered this morning! Debates about what is to be cooked/baked first have started. The 9 year old is voting for brownies. Also in NC’s faux fall, so I’m leaning toward a nice pot roast and some crusty sourdough.
A quick and easy recipe to satisfy your 9-year old’s request!
Saucepan Brownies
Melt together over medium heat: 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter and 6 Tbsp cocoa
Add: 1 cup sugar and 1 tsp vanilla extract
Take off burner and stir in 2 eggs
Add 1/2 cup all purpose flour and a dash of salt
Pour into a greased 8” or 9” pan (smaller pan means thicker brownies) and bake in preheated 400 degree oven for 10 minutes, or until set (it may jiggle slightly in the middle)
Enjoy!
It’s been far too hot to cook much here until the past couple days. Mainly fish or chicken with tomatoes and basil out of the garden, diced potatoes, and green beans or spinach, dressed in olive oil with capers. Yours looks inspiring now the weather has cooled off a bit.
Last week, I made macaroni and cheese casserole (baked) with seasoned breadcrumbs on top and blistered cherry tomatoes as a side dish. I sneaked 1/2 cup of mashed sweet potato into the sauce and only used 1 cup of cheddar cheese. My family couldn’t tell the difference.
Awesome! Thank you! I made carrot cake today. Fiddling with the recipe. Added some fresh minced ginger and a spoonful of molasses!
I like to grow my own tomatoes, peppers, and herbs, so this is the time of year that I look for recipes based on what I have ripe that I need to use up. Last week I made Sonoran-style potato, cheese, and tomato soup (Caldo de Queso). I love making bone broth in my instapot and the recipe utilizes tomatoes, peppers, oregano, and zucchini or summer squash from the garden. I go rogue and crumble some tortilla chips on top for crunchies.
It’s been to hot to do a lot of cooking. Plus, the majority of my pots and pans are packed. I’m about to move into a new apartment, so not a lot of cooking for me.
I get the joyous task of moving 13 Le Cruset cast iron enamel pots to my new apartment. I wouldn’t give up those pots for anything. C’est la vie! 🙂
We seriously considered whether our LC casserole would make the cut in the recent move. Mr Mod R was willing to defenestrate, but it really had its shining moment this week going from hob, to oven to table 😀
I’m glad we went through the trouble now, even though it weights about the same as a small child.
Glad the pot made your move. I had more pots, but gave the ones I didn’t use to a friend. I told her that if she didn’t want them to give to others.
My favorite pot is the Chef’s Pot. It looks like a wok but a little wider. I have 3 of them.
Upper body workout here I come! 🤣
this time of year big on one pot meals: chili, lentil soup, chicken soup, spaghetti sauce, and absolutely love eggroll in a bowl….google it you will NOT be disappointed.
i LOVE eggroll in a bowl!! its a sort of deconstructed eggroll with wonton strips sprinkled over the top to add egg roll crispiness. you can used bagged shredded cabbage to avoid the chopping. i shared the recipe with my mom and she makes it for her and my dad almost as often as i make it for myself.
I get an annual fruit box and they’ve had a bumper crop of figs so lots of fig puddings and some savoury. While I like eating them raw, baked figs are always delicious.
Made a simple puff pastry fig tart with maple syrup and it was so good. Also since still good for plums baked some with figs and had it on top of my porridge yum. Now I know what to make next week when I get more figs in the fruit box. Thanks Mod R for the recipes
It’s officially Fall in California but were having a last gasp of summer heat outside. It’s been upper 80F to low 9o’s in the afternoons all week. I did make baked chicken with potatoes and yams covered in garlic powder and poultry seasoning last night. If I get the time, I’ll make pumpkin bread on Sunday.
I made Madeleines and then a friend was making cheese cake filling…and that was quickly injected into them.
I baked those boring but reliable chocolate chip cookies a few days ago. Except, my butter was cold and I was out of vanilla, so I grabbed the duck tallow leftover from a short-lived foray into dairy alternatives, and serendipitously there was exactly the amount I needed in the jar; and I subbed in almond extract for vanilla. Hubs and baby both snarfed em, so I count them a win.
Also made “the freezer is too crowded” soup. Did not go over as well as the cookies, mostly due to me not knowing to peel zucchini before freezing (I now know better).
Made a sausage and cabbage soup the other day. Browned home-made turkey sausage, sautéed a sweet onion, added some minced garlic and juice, then put in the chicken broth, chopped potatoes, carrot chips and chopped (not shredded) cabbage. Cooked until the veggies were soft enough to enjoy (and the potatoes fully cooked).
I have a boneless leg of lamb stuffed with roasted garlic cloves, minced onion, oregano, thyme, and rosemary cooking over a bed of potato and onion wedges as I type. It’s a “special” treat for the turn of the season (because the lamb was on “special” at the store. But also because lamb.)
There may be a blended squash soup in the offing, too.
Next week: white bean soup with ham and copious celery, onion, and herbs. The sourdough starter needs some time to wake up properly for the bread.
starting to get into (slightly) colder weather so made a big batch of broccoli cheddar soup. then made some baked potatoes, hollowed them partially out and used that as the bowls.
also made a batch of homemade rocky road fudge to take into work.
My favorite comfort food is potato soup. But my latest baking is a cheese and onion biscuit dough loaf. I bake in cast iron skillet because I love crunchy crusts.
Side note: while waiting for floor to dry, Beau decided to leave “gift” in middle of floor; nothing worse than doggy diarrhea, was reading an AI story on Facebook. HA books are being scraped; since a couple of lines I have only read in HA books.
This isn’t something I’ve made but something I wish to make/eat. I’m on my seventy-eleventh reread of TKWNKM and Shana’s sambocades haunt me. The recipe I saw had ingredients I don’t have and it just intimidated me for whatever reason.
I will be making the mushroom handpies though because those seem less daunting.
Mostly have been eating out of the pantry this week, but on Monday made breakfast as dinner of fried potatoes, Normandy blend vegetables, mushrooms scrambled with beaten eggs. Last week it was homemade pasta sauce with mushrooms(must remember to add salt next time)
i canned up french fries! i dug up the potatoes from my garden, and their skins all had blemishes on them (russetting/netting) and the internet said they wouldn’t store as well. so i cut the bigger ones into french fry shape and canned them in the pressure canner. they were NOT cooked before hand, so they are technically parcooked. when i’m ready to use them i just drain and rinse them, and then either bake or fry. it was a fun experiment. each pint jar is supposed to be enough for one serving. a quart jar is supposed to be two servings. i want to open a jar up now and try them out, but i’ve got plenty more potatoes to use up.
Soup season has begun. Hit the farmer’s market for fall harvest and found some beautiful leeks, potatoes , kale and carrots which made an awesome soup! Speaking of markets, the new survivor 51 tribal council reminds me of the Ribs Market. Maybe someone in their art department is a Maggie fan?
umami paste…. I read the ingredients and … well, it wasn’t the Marmite or miso paste I was expecting.
I made Cinnamon Streusel Baked Ostmeal for breakfast (my favourite). Supper was Cheesy Baked Eggplant over linguini. Tomorrow, the plan is Broccoli and Ground Beef stirfry. And I want to brew a batch of Chicken Muligatawny Soup, too.
It’s nice to have cooler weather and be able to heat up the kitchen.
I found this recipe on a German cooking site. It’s called Fliegener Jakob (flying Jakob) I have no idea why, but it’s quick, easy, and tasty.
4 skinless,boneless chicken breasts cut into bite-size pieces
6ounces bacon, diced or equivalent in real bacon bits
1⁄2cup finely-chopped onion
1 1⁄2cups heavy cream or 1 can full fat coconut milk
1 tablespoon curry powder
2 tablespoons sweet chili sauce (or a hot and spicy ketchup)
1 chicken stock cube or chicken base
salt and pepper, to taste
2 sliced bananas
1⁄2cup chopped dry roasted peanuts
To serve: cooked rice, toast points, or noodles and a green salad
Cook the chicken together with the bacon and onion until the chicken is no longer translucent and beginning to brown (about 10-12 minutes); drain off any excess fat and add the cream; bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to a simmer; add curry powder, chili sauce, stock cube and salt and pepper to taste (careful – the stock cube will add salt, too). Gently stir in the sliced bananas and simmer for 5 minutes.
Sprinkle over the peanuts and serve over rice.
^*I added 1 finely diced red pepper and the corn from two fresh ears (equivalent to 1 can, drained)
There are very few meals I will go into a big recipe over. This is not one of them.
Easy Pot Pie
1 can cream of potato soup (Campbells, of course)
1 can of mixed vegetables (drained) or whatever veggies you have leftover in the fridge (drained) or small cans of peas-n-carrots, corn, and green beans (drained)
1 large can of white meat chicken (drained)
Celery Salt
Pepper
Powdered Ginger
Dried Onion, Powdered Onion, or Powdered Garlic
Thyme flakes
1 can Philsbury Croissant rolls.
Grease a 9×13 casserole dish. Heat oven to 350F
In a saucepan heat the soup, veggies, and chicken, season to taste. Once hot, pour/spoon into casserole dish and even out to the sides.
Open and unroll Crossiant rolls, leave whole and seal the seams as best you can. Lay the croissant dough flat over the casserole, tucking in the edges as needed. If you have the “grands”/large croissant rolls, you may not need the whole can.
Bake 30min at 350F.
Can be served with a side-salad, but we prefer a side of jellied cranberry sauce for that bite of tart sweetness.
I made blueberry leather that my grandbaby loves. It’s incredibly easy. Just puree blueberries (I use frozen) and spread on a parchment lined cookie sheet. I use one with the little sides. Then dry in a 150 degree Fahrenheit oven for 6 or so hours. cut into pieces or strips or however you like.
I have actually made the chicken en cocotte from the Iron Covenant series, twice, after she posted it in the blog. It was one of the best chickens I ever made.
I have a fig tree full of fruit that will likely not ripen, as the weather has turned cool. and there has been little sun. I would love to try this tart. My go to with figs is a chicken dish that is started on the stove top and finished in the oven – I have been known to secretly lick the sauce off my plate…..
Frenchie here. 🙂
While making it you can infuse your caramel with fresh rosemary and have small twigs/leaves of it on top on the, hopefully not too restrained, goat cheese too, as a finishing touch. It tastes, imho, great.
And if you don’t wish to make said caramel a cheat would be to use rosemary (or thyme, works quite well too) honey. Enjoy 🙂
Be aware French people read your blasphemous recipes ! But to be fair. we also used cube broth, soy sauce and miso to cheat and have the same Umami flavor ! 😂 Also, I looked up the ingredients of your Umami Paste and it’s very simple ones with great tastes so. we won’t say anything to elite Chefs. Their aren’t in our kitchen anyway. 🤫
Thank you for this recipe. I’ll taste it soon !
Okay, I’m hungry now… I’m fortunate that one of the best BBQ joints is down the street from my house. I think I’m off to grab a brisket baked potato…
First: wait a second, UMAMI paste??!!! I have never heard of that, and it sounds absolutely AMAZING!!!! Thank you, Mod R, for giving me yet another ingredient to hunt down and experiment with! 😋👍 And your recipes sound AMAZING!!!!
So, it’s heading into cooler autumn weather here in NJ ( and we have a Nor’easter (rain, wind, etc) heading up the coast, so I have decided today is officially First Chili Of The Season Day. I am making my usual beef chili for my hubby, and pumpkin and sweet potato chili for me. I love staying in and cooking in the cooler days of fall!
I haven’t been able to fully get my cooking fixed in yet this fall since starting back to college as a 67-year-old coed. I forgot how much time and effort studying takes! But it’s been totally worth it as I’m having so much fun, especially in art and anthropology classes. 😁
However, we still need to eat in our house, and I still feel the overwhelming urge to both cook and eat homemade meals rather than takeout! I have therefore created quick (or make-ahead) versions of a lot of the favorite dishes in our house: chicken and dumplings, soups and stews, homemade pizza, spaghetti, etc….where there’s a will there’s a way! Also, leftovers to pack for yummy school lunches! 😁💕💕💕💕
Also….I talk too much!!!!!!! 😂
Kat, that’s wonderful! I went back at 61 and it ain’t easy!
Apparently Trader Joe’s is selling umami paste in the US. Good luck at college 😀
Mod R, you’re brilliantly funny and a damn fine cook. Thanks for the recipes and the giggles.
This post totally landed with me. I love stories that include food details–it just makes it all the more believable–and I’m guilty of stopping mid-story and searching recipes online for whatever the character is making/eating. The Fig Tart looks yummy. Figs are one of my favorites–confession: I love almost all food–and I often pair blue cheese on fruit-and-nut studded cracker with a dollop of homemade fig jam. And chèvre on toast with a glaze of homemade Damson plum jam and a cup of hot tea makes a terrific breakfast. Okay, now I’m hungry!
One last comment… I loved the food mentions in The Innkeeper’s Chronicles and TKWNKM!
Here’s my cold weather favorite stewy soup recipe. It’s quantity is intended for portioning into small containers for multiple lunches and larger containers several for 2-person dinners. It freezes well.
Red Soup (Beef & Veggie)
Ingredients:
2-3 Lbs Soup Beef, cut into small chunks (easier to do this if it is partially frozen)
12 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 Medium/Large Yellow Onions, sliced & quartered
2 bags of frozen mixed Soup Vegetables (w/okra if desired)
2 C (28 oz) Tomato Puree
8 C (2 qt) Water
1 Tbsp Table Salt (add more if desired)
1 Tbsp Ground Black Pepper
3-4 Bay Leaves
6 Tbsp Flour
1/2 Tbsp Prepared Horseradish
Optional: 1/3 C Chopped Parsley to sprinkle on top.
Instructions:
1. Cut meat into small pieces. Lightly coat with all-purpose flour. In large saucepan coated with 3 Tbsp olive oil, brown the meat on all sides. Do not overcook. Remove from pan and set aside.
2. In 16 quart pot coated with 3 Tbsp olive oil, sauté onions until tender. Remove from heat.
3. Add tomato puree, water, soup vegetables, meat, salt, pepper, & bay leaf to each pot.
4. Put pot back on heating element. Bring it to a boil then lower heat to let it simmer for one hour. Stir soup periodically to ensure ingredients cook uniformly.
5. Remove 1 C of soup from each and set it aside.
6. Pour the 1 T olive oil into saucepan. Heat it over medium heat. Whisk in the flour – whisking constantly— until flour turns chocolate brown color.
7. Mix the flour mixture into the reserved soup until it is fully combined.
8. Add the preserved horseradish to the reserved soup until it is fully combined.
9. Return the reserved soup to the soup pot and stir thoroughly. Let soup simmer for another hour.
10. Ladle soup into bowls and sprinkle chopped parsley on top if desired.
I love the tarte tatin idea! I make an even lazier version: melt the sugar in the oven in the dish on parchment paper, take it out, melt the butter in the hot sugar, followed by figs in this case. Put back in oven for a few minutes. Take out again and cover with pastry. Put back in oven until pastry is a nice golden brown.
It’s finally cool enough to bake. Made apple brownies with some of the neighbor’s apples. Made blueberry scones with the last set of blueberries from our bushes. Thinking about cake. I have found that cake gets eaten faster if you make it into muffins. When I take a cake somewhere, no one seems to want to cut into it. If I make mini muffins, people take more than one. Weird.
Best wine for cooking beef or lamb is Malbec. Once you use it in a beef or lamb recipe, you’ll never wanna use anything else.
That stew recipe looks lush, Mod R, thanks!
Must read To the Lighthouse. I can see why Ginny’s daube description inspired you. I’m keen to lift off a lid with a flourish now, too.
Errrr ….. *scratches head* Veggie hamburger in the oven? If that counts. And naan pizza!
This sort of thing is about the extent of my cooking skill
*salutes Mod R’s mad skills in these matters*
Protein (and snack) of choice. Sausage cheese balls. They are labeled as an appetizer but are great for breakfast or lunch. My group likes them with a hit of hot, so I use a pound of Hot breakfast sausage (my favorite is Jimmy Dean’s), 1&1/2 sticks of unsalted butter at room temp, 10 oz of fine shredded Mexican cheese blend (and yes, the bags come in 8 oz, so it takes 2). I am gluten free, so I use 1 & 3/4 cups of Red Mill 1 to 1 flour, 1 tablespoon (yes, tablespoon) of baking powder and 1/2 tsp of salt. Mix the sausage/butter until fully integrated, works best if both are at room temp. Mix in the cheese fully. Add the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix until doughy. May be a bit sticky. Make small balls and drop on a parchment covered cookie sheet and bake for 18 min at 425. As usual watch the baking, smaller balls take less time. I judge by how done the bottom of the balls are. Easy to freeze and use as wanted.
I had to smile. When I was little my mom took we kids for the summer to work on her Masters degree, leaving my dad home. Years later he confessed he made brownies and something went wrong. They were so hard he literally couldn’t get them out of the pan. So he eventually buried it in the backyard. Mom’s response, “I always wondered what happened to my best baking pan!”
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