Cooking recipes

Although the most popular way to prepare leeks is in olive oil (a vegetarian recipe served lukewarm or cold), leeks with ground meat or with stew beef are also widely enjoyed winter dishes.

3 leeks, washed and cut in 1/2 inch rounds
1/2 lb or more stew beef (some people like cooking leeks with lamb)
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, cut in half rounds
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp dill, finely chopped
1 tsp dry rosemary
1 1/2 cup water
salt

-Heat olive oil in a shallow pot and add stew beef. Cook until brown on all sides.
-Add leeks, onion, and carrots, and saute for 6-7 minutes or until soft.
-Add water, rosemary, dill, lemon juice, and salt.
-First bring to a boil, and then turn it down to low and simmer for approximately 1 hour.
-Serve hot with rice and / or crusty bread.

Heres another delicious certified Turkish eggplant recipe. I had mualle first in İstanbul at Çiya Restaurant. The owner and chef of Çiya, Musa Dağdeviren, is not only a great chef but also a passionate researcher of forgotten Anatolian recipes. He has traveled all around Anatolia and collected almost 4 thousand local recipes. Thats why Çiyas menu changes daily. One of those 4 thousand recipes, Mualle, is a summer stew from Antakya. Mualle that I had at Çiya was so good that I got very excited when I found Dağdevirens recipe in Food & Wine. Try this recipe before the last eggplants of the season start to disappear from farmers markets.

























3-4 long narrow eggplants, peeled in lengthwise stripes
1/2 cup green lentils
1 medium onion, chopped
4-5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
3 banana peppers or any long thin green chilies, seeded and chopped
2 tomatoes, diced
2 tbsp fresh mint, chopped or 2 tbsp dry mint
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tbsp tomato paste
2/3 cup olive oil
3 tbsp pomegranate molasses (you can find pm easily at Middle Eastern markets)
salt
























-Peel the eggplant partially and leave lengthwise stripes of skin. Cut them into 4 lengthwise. Chop every piece crosswise into 3. Place them on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt. Let them stand for an hour.
-Bring green lentils to a boil with 2 cups of water. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until lentils are soft.
-In a bowl mix tomatoes, green chilies, onion, garlic, mint, salt, crushed peppers, and tomato paste.
-Coat a small cast-iron casserole with 1-2 tbsp of olive oil. Put 1/2 cup of veggie mix on bottom. Cover with half of the eggplant, then half of the lentils, and half of the remaining veggie mix. Top first with remaining eggplant, then with lentils, and then with veggie mix.
-Pour olive oil around the side. Sprinkle pomegranate molasses.
-Bring the stew to a boil. Then cover and turn it down to low and simmer for 1-1 1/2 hours.

Mualle is good with rice and yogurt.

This is an odd little dish in some ways, but Ive been growing all these damn winter radishes and now I need to do something with them. You could use regular radishes too, if you can still find them. You can often get Ontario radishes in the bags much later than you expect.

One thing I have decided is that radishes is radishes. The quick spring kind or the big winter ones for storage: they all taste pretty much alike, some are just prettier than others or grow better. They sweeten and mellow when they are cooked, although a fairly slow cooking like this will leave them with a little bite still. I put in 4 different kinds of radish here, but apart from providing a little colour they all tasted the same. In spite of the rather unusual combination of ingredients here, we enjoyed this.

The sausage should be a raw, garlicky one, or you should be prepared to add some more garlic at the appropriate time (just before the apple cider and veggies go in).

2 servings
1 hour - 30 minutes prep time


250 grams (1/2 poound) garlic pork sausage
1 large onion
1 stalk celery
450 grams (1 pound) winter radishes such as daikon or lo bak
2 medium carrots
1 large apple
3 cups apple cider
1/4 teaspoon each salt & pepper
1 teaspoon fennel seed

Cut the sausage into bite-sized pieces, and put it in a large skillet with abut 1/4 cup water to get it started cooking, or a little oil if it is very lean. Get it started browning and letting off a little fat. Meanwhile, peel the onion and cut it into large chunks. Add them to the sausage and let them cook and brown as well. Chop up the celery and add it. Stir regularly.

As soon as the onions and celery go in, start peeling the carrots. Cut them into bite-sized pieces. If the skins of the radishes are thin and tender you can leave them on, otherwise they should come off. Cut the radishes into bite-sized pieces.

Add the carrots and radishes to the pan, along with the cider. Season with the salt and pepper, and the fennel seed, which should be ground. Simmer for about 30 minutes, until the radishes are tender. Stir regularly.

While the stew is cooking, wash the apple, and cut it in quarters. Remove the core, and cut it into bite-sized pieces. Add them to the stew 5 or 10 minutes before it is done. The cider should be reduced to a rich sauce, and the radishes should be tender.




Last year at this time I made Jap Chae.

Max often prepares this rustic and comforting stew  during hunting trips for his buddies,  on our F/V Chelsey for deckhands, and at home for us.   Its nothing short of incredible...

Servings (4)
Prep: 10 mins. |
Cook: 1 hr. and
45 mins. total stewing time

INGREDIENTS

· 1 lb. moose sirloin, cut into ½ cubes (or venison, or beef)
· 1 tablespoon olive oil
· 2 (15 oz. cans) beef broth
· ¼ onion, chopped
· 1 cup celery, chopped
· 4 carrots chopped
· 1 garlic clove, minced
· 1 (15 oz. can) Italian stewed tomatoes – retain juice, and break up tomatoes in a small bowl
· 1 pkg. dry pork gravy mix (mixed with 1 cup of water)
· 1 tablespoon worcestershire
· 2 teaspoons soy sauce
· Freshly ground pepper, to taste
· 1 russet potato, peeled, and cut ½" cubes (keep in cold water to prevent browning)
· ½ cup frozen peas
· ½ cup frozen corn
· 1 cup frozen broccoli, roughly chopped

METHOD

Heat a dutch oven, or heavy-bottom soup pot, to medium-high heat. Coat the moose meat cubes with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, then add to hot pot and sear meat to a light brown. Add beef broth and bring to boil while scraping bits off bottom of pot, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer moose meat on low for 1 hour.

Add onion, celery, carrots, garlic, stewed tomatoes, gravy mixed with water, worcestershire, soy sauce, and pepper to pot. Turn heat to medium-high just to bring stew to boiling, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add the potatoes, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes, then add the peas, corn, and broccoli and simmer for 10 final minutes. - Enjoy!