Albion ratatouille.

From plot to plate: chefs' kitchen garden secrets | Life and style | The Guardian
A classic summer vegetable stew that has many variations. Should the vegetables be cooked separately and be mixed only at the final stage? Should you use red or green peppers? Do you cook ratatouille on the top of the stove or in the oven? This ratatouille is best left for 24 hours before eating, to give it a nice firm texture.

Serves 4
olive oil 200ml
courgettes 6, sliced
onions 3, sliced
red peppers 2, cored, deseeded and sliced
aubergines 2, quartered and thickly sliced
garlic cloves 4, finely sliced
tomatoes 8, skinned, deseeded and quartered
thyme large sprig
bay leaf

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4.
Heat half the oil in a large frying pan and sauté the courgettes gently.
When softened and turning golden, transfer them to an ovenproof casserole, leaving as much oil as possible in the frying pan.

Cook the onions gently in the frying pan, until wilted, then add to the courgettes in the casserole.
Sauté the red peppers in the frying pan until softened, and add them to the casserole.
Add more oil to the frying pan if required and cook the aubergines until they are just turning golden.
Transfer them to the casserole.

Gently sauté the garlic until it just turns transparent, then add the tomatoes to the frying pan.
Season with salt and pepper, and cook until the tomatoes are very soft.
Together with the thyme and bay leaf, tip the garlic and tomatoes into the casserole, stirring gently to distribute the tomatoes among the other vegetables.

Cover with a lid and cook in the oven for 20 minutes.
Take off the lid and cook for a further 35 minutes.

Add the remaining olive oil and allow to cool completely.
Then cover the casserole again and keep the contents for 24 hours before serving at room temperature.

Goulash by Felicity Cloake.

How to cook the perfect goulash | Life and style | The Guardian
Felicity Cloake's perfect goulash.
Thick meat stew.

(serves 4)
600g shin of beef (or chuck steak if unavailable)
3 tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika
1 tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp caraway seeds
2 tbsp lard
2 onions, thinly sliced
1 green pepper, cut into rounds
Juice of 1 lemon
150ml sour cream (optional)
Chives (optional)

Cut the beef into large chunks.
Mix the paprika, flour, salt and caraway seeds together in a bowl then add the beef and toss to coat.
Heat the oven to 140C/gas mark 1.

Melt the lard in a heavy-based casserole dish over a medium-high heat, and then brown the meat in batches, being very careful not to crowd the pan.
Remove when golden and crusted, and set aside.

Scrape the bottom of the pan and add the onions and pepper, adding a little more fat if necessary.
Cook until soft and starting to brown, then pick out the peppers and set aside.
Stir the remaining flour and spice mixture into the onions and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring.
Return the beef to the pan and add water just to cover.
Scrape the bottom of the pan again, then put in the oven for 2.5 hours.

Stir the peppers and lemon juice into the goulash and cook for another half hour, or until the meat is very tender - you can remove the lid to let the sauce reduce if you like.
Check the seasoning, then dollop the sour cream, if using, on top of the goulash and snip the chives over it all before serving with crushed boiled potatoes or egg noodles.

Shop Paprika!

Goulash:
- Beef Goulash Soup with Tiny Dumplings

- Authentic Hungarian Goulash by June Meyer.
Meyer has the right idea when she says: "You can never use too much paprika. I like to use three tablespoons." And hurrah for that.
Meyer can afford to be heavy handed with the paprika, because her recipe contains very little else: "My family would never consider tomatoes or green peppers or other spices in goulash. Some other dishes would have tomato or green pepper, but not goulash."

- Thoughts for Food: Kettle Gulyas - recipe from Hungarian-American restaurateur George Lang's Cuisine of Hungary (1971), the first work in English on Hungarian cooking.

- Simply, it's goulash perfection - Page 2 - tribunedigital-chicagotribune - Hungarian goulash soup (Gulyas leves) By George Erdosh, Special to the Tribune.

- The Best Gulyás Recipe | The Hungary Dish

Beef Goulash Soup by Louis Szathmáry.

Beef Goulash Soup with Tiny Dumplings
From The Chef’s Secret Cookbook, by Louis Szathmáry.
Chef’s Secret: Be careful with the onions.
Their preparation is the most important part in making the soup.
Cold onions should go into a cold pot with the lard or bacon drippings (Bacon fat liquefies and becomes bacon drippings when it is heated.), then they are heated together.
This is important because if the post and the shortening are not, the onions will start to fry, brown and evaporate instead of turning into a thick soft substance.
The slurry (this is an expression from the food manufacturing industry) is the safest and fastest way to secure a lump-free soup without making a roux.
The melted shortening and paprika mixture gives the color to soup that housewives try for but seldom achieve.
My notes are more personal.
I used canola oil instead of the bacon drippings, omitted the caraway (because I don’t have any), the bell pepper (don’t like them), garlic salt/powder (don’t have any).
I made a double batch, but not the dumplings.
I just didn’t get that far.

For the soup
2 lb. cubed boneless beef, chuck or similar cut
2 cups finely minced onion
6 tbsp. lard or bacon drippings (see above)
1 qt. 3/4-to 1-inch potato cubes
1 small carrot, sliced
1 bell pepper, sliced
1 large ripe tomato, peeled and chopped,
or 4 tbsp canned tomato purée or 2 tbsp. canned tomato paste
1/4 cup flour
2 tbsp. Hungarian paprika
1 tbsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. garlic salt or 1 small pinch garlic powder
1 tsp. caraway seeds
1 small bunch green parsley
1 whole bay leaf

For the tiny dumplings
1 small egg
2 tbsp. water
3/4 cup flour
1 pinch salt

1. mix the 1/4 cup of flour with 1 tbsp. of the Hungarian paprika, 2 tbsp of the salt, the black pepper, garlic salt or powder, and the caraway seeds.
2. Tied the parsley and bay leaf securely together.
3. Sauté the onions over medium heat in a heavy skillet in 4 tbsp. of the lard or bacon dripping. When they become glossy, pour in a cup of water and add the carrot and the bell pepper. Cover and simmer over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes.
4. Spread out the meat on a cookie sheet and sprinkle have of the spice-flour mixture over it. Turn over the pieces of meat and try to coat them evenly.
5. Increase the heat to high. Lift the lid and let the water evaporate, so that the onions start to fry.
6. Quickly add the meat to the onions, one fourth at a time. Keep turning the meat with a spatula after each addition, waiting until the red color leaves before adding more meat.
7. When all the meat is added, decrease the heat to low. Cover the pot tightly and let it simmer for 5 minuted. Add 1/2 cup of water and and scrape the bottom of the pan. Cover again and let simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour, stirring once in a while.
8. From the remaining flour and spice, make a slurry by adding a little water. Be sure that it is completely smooth and without lumps. Keep it at room temperature.
9. Pour 2 qt. of water over the meant and increase the heat to medium. Add the fresh or canned tomato, parsley, and bay leaf. Once the liquid comes to a boil, stir in the slurry, pouring it in a slow even stream.
10. Cover and again bring the mixture to a boil. Add the potatoes and simmer over low heat until the meat is tender and the potatoes are cooked.
11. Just before serving, remove the parsley and, in a small saucepan, warm up the remaining 2 tbsp. of lard or bacon drippings. Add the remaining 1 tbsp. paprika and stir constantly until it warms and turns a vivid red. Put this in the soup.
12. To prepare the tiny dumplings: Mix the egg, water, pinch of salt, and flour in a small bowl with your hands, or you can use the paddle of an electric mixer. When these ingredients are thoroughly mixed, bring to a boil 1 qt. of water with 1 tsp. of salt. Dip the tip of a spoon into the boiling water. With the wet spoon, take a piece of dough no larger than a hazelnut and drop it into the boiling water by gently hitting the side of the pot with the spoon handle.
13. Dip the spoon into the water again, and repeat the process until all the dough is used. Decrease the heat and cook the dumplings for 3 to 4 minutes. With a colander, drain the dumplings and rinse them with cold water. Shake off all the water then add the dumplings to the soup.

Goulash by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

Hot food for cold days recipes | Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall | Life and style | The Guardian
In Hungary, the simple meal of meat and onions seasoned with paprika is called gulyás leves (Hung) /Goulash soup/ – which means cowboy's or cattle driver's soup.
What we think of as goulash, a soupy, stewy rib-sticker to which sour cream has been added, is more correctly called paprikás.
Whatever you call it, though, there are few dishes more comforting on a cold day.
Serves six.

3 tbsp vegetable oil, rendered pork fat or lard
2 onions, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
½ tsp caraway seeds
1kg beef shin, cut into 3cm cubes
1 ½ tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
1 bay leaf
2 green peppers, cored, deseeded and cut into thin strips
3 medium-sized tomatoes, cored, deseeded and diced
2 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and cut into 3cm cubes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve
Sour cream and chives

Warm a tablespoon of oil or fat in a large saucepan over a medium-low heat and fry the onions until they are soft and translucent, about 15 minutes.
Add the garlic and caraway seeds, fry for a further minute, then scrape the onion mixture into a bowl.

Raise the heat, add the rest of the oil or fat and brown the meat on all sides.
Remove from the heat, return the onions to the pan along with the paprika and cayenne, and stir until the meat is well coated with onions and spices.
Add the bay leaf and just enough water to cover the meat by about 3cm.

Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer gently, uncovered, for about an hour, until the meat is tender.
Add the peppers, tomatoes and potatoes.
Season and simmer for a further 20 minutes.
Serve with a dollop of sour cream and some chives.

Kitchen essentials, gadgets and pantry.

...commonly used in an Italian kitchen.
For drinking:
Moka Pot Brewing Guide - How to Make Moka Pot Coffee
Moka pot.

Duralex glasses.

For the stovetop:
Pasta pan, taller-than-wide 6-litre!
- the litre of water for every 100g of pasta rule.
A wide sauté or frying pan with a long handle.
Deep copper sauté pan.
A heavy casserole, which I call my peperonata pan.
For draining:
- colander with feet
- long tongs
- big slotted spoon
For smoothing:
A food mill (also called passatutto, purée sieve, moulinette, mouli légumes, or passe-vite) is a food preparation utensil for mashing and sieving soft foods.
It purees tomatoes, pulses, fruit, fish and other ingredients, separating the skin and tough bits: the wanted from the unwanted.

- The Minimalist - A No-Frills Kitchen Still Cooks - NYTimes.com: In fact, I contend that with a bit of savvy, patience and a willingness to forgo steel-handle knives, copper pots and other extravagant items, $200 can equip a basic kitchen that will be adequate for just about any task, and $300 can equip one quite well.

- How to Build a Baking Pantry, Part I: Ingredients (Beginner) | Brown Eyed Baker:

- Search Results | Brown Eyed Baker:

Orange & Sweet Potato Juice.

Nature’s Creamsicle: Orange & Sweet Potato Juice | Honest Fare
Use a masticating juicer.

Makes approximately 340 ml of juice.
Feel free to play with the ratio provided here depending on how much or little sweet potato flavor you like.
Adding some ginger is nice too. Best served cold and even better served over ice!
So:
1 medium-sized sweet potato
2 large oranges

Wash and peel your sweet potato.
Cut into chunks that will fit into your juicer’s shoot.
Peel your oranges and cut into chunks that will fit into your juicer’s shoot.
Add more sweet potato for a creamier juice.
Chill before serving or serve over ice!

In Search of Ragu...Bolognese.

In Search of Ragu - Roads & Kingdoms
Ragù Alla Bolognese #1
This version of ragù was published in 1982 by the Bologna chapter of the Accademia Italiana della Cucina, the closest thing to an authority in the matters of Italian cuisine.

300 grams beef (skirt or flank steak, preferably), coarsely ground or chopped
150 g pancetta, ground or minced
50 g carrot, minced
50 g celery, minced
50 g onion, minced
300 g tomato puree or peeled chopped tomatoes
½ cup dry white wine
½ cup whole milk

A little broth
Olive oil or butter
Salt and pepper

Heat a large earthenware or thick aluminum pan over medium heat.
Combine 3 tablespoons of oil or 50 g of butter and the chopped vegetables and cook until soft.
Add the ground beef and bacon and cook until browned, stirring with a wooden spoon.
Add the wine and stir gently until it is completely evaporated.
Add the fresh or canned tomato, cover, and simmer slowly for about 2 hours, adding broth when necessary.
Towards the end, add the milk to soften the acidity of the tomato.
Season with salt and pepper.
Makes about 6 servings.

Ragù alla Bolognese #2

This is not a definitive recipe, but rather a synthesis of the parts I loved most about the dozens of ragus I tasted in Emilia Romagna: the rich, gelatinous flavor of Massimo’s hand-torn super ragu, the whisper of tomato from Alessandro’s version (despite Massimo’s convincing protestations, the light sweetness and extra umami hit of tomato has a certain place in the sauce), and, of course, the pancetta from the grandmas of Savigno. Whatever you do, don’t serve this with spaghetti.
Try penne, rigatoni or pappardelle—something substantial enough to grab hold off the chunky ragu.

700 gr beef (oxtail, short rib, shank—something with fat, flavor, and preferably some marrow and gelatin), in one or two large pieces
Salt to taste
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 medium carrots, peeled and minced
2 ribs celery, minced
1 medium onion, minced
450 gr ground pork (preferably from the shoulder)
½ cup minced pancetta
1 small can whole peeled tomatoes (preferably San Marzano), drained and crushed
1 cup dry red wine
1 ½ cups chicken stock
1 bay leaf

Heat the oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven set over medium-high heat.
Season the beef on all sides with salt and cook until deeply browned all over.
Remove from the pan.

If the pan is dry, add another splash of oil.
Sauté the carrot, celery, and onion until soft, about 5 minutes.
Add the pork and pancetta and cook until lightly browned, then stir in the tomato and continue cooking for another 3 minutes.
Return the beef to the pan, add the wine, stock, bay leaf and cover.
Turn the heat to low and simmer for two hours, until the beef is falling apart.

Shred the beef by hand or with two forks and fold back into the sauce, discarding any bones, excess fat, or cartilage.
If the sauce looks too dry, add a splash of broth or water to get the right consistency.
Serve over pasta with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano.
Makes about 8 servings.

A ragu alla bolognese. By Rachel Roddy.

A ragu alla bolognese recipe to provoke debate | Kitchen sink tales | Life and style | The Guardian

Serves 4–6
40g butter
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
50g pancetta or unsmoked bacon, diced
1 bay leaf
200g minced beef
200g minced pork
50g chicken livers (optional)
200ml red or white wine
1 tbsp tomato puree dissolved in 150ml warm water or chicken stock
Salt and black pepper
150ml whole milk
500g fettuccine, tagliatelle or pappardelle
6 tbsp freshly grated parmesan

1 In a large, heavy-based saucepan or deep saute pan with a lid, heat the butter and olive oil, add the vegetables, pancetta and bay leaves and cook over a low heat until soft and fragrant.

2 Increase the heat slightly and crumble the meat into the pan.
Cook, stirring pretty continuously, until the meat has lost all of it’s colour and browned evenly.
Add the wine, let it evaporate for a couple of minutes, then add the tomato.
Simmer, uncovered, over a low heat for 30 minutes, by which time the sauce should have deepened in colour and have very little liquid.
Add a good pinch of salt, lots of black pepper and a little of the milk.
Cook slowly, covered, for another hour, every so often lifting the lid and adding the milk until it is used up.
The sauce should be rich, and thick, with very little liquid, but not dry, so keep an eye on it.

3 Warm a serving bowl.
Cook the pasta in plenty of well-salted water until al dente.
Drain the pasta, reserving some of the pasta cooking water, and tip into the warm bowl.
Sprinkle over half the cheese, the sauce, a little of a pasta cooking water and toss carefully, lifting the pasta from below with two spoons.
If it seems a little dry, cautiously add more pasta cooking water, toss again and serve, passing round the rest of the grated parmesan.

Rice Stuffed Peppers.

Garlic & Sweet Pepper Confit.

Garlic & Sweet Pepper Confit. | Honest Fare
Confit ,comes from the French word confire which means literally "to preserve" - cooked slowly over a long period of time as a method of preservation.
You can throw in some sea salt and cracked peppercorns or red pepper flakes or even some fresh herbs to add some depth to your confit.
I did all of the above, as well as some sweet Italian peppers in this particular batch.

There are so many practical applications for garlic confit in the kitchen, so it’s nice to make a big batch to keep in the fridge so you can:

1. Impress your friends with a no-big-deal snack of velvety garlic confit and crackers, like so…
2. Use the flavored oil in your cooking.
3. Whip some confit into a salad dressing or some softened butter.
4. Be cute about it and jar some up as gifts.
5. Or drop a few cloves into a pasta dish or a frittata, like we did here…

Cook time: 30-40 mins.
Double recipe to increase batch size.
Keeps in fridge for a month.
Adding the Italian sweet peppers is optional.
Feel free to experiment by adding fresh herbs like thyme, rosemary or basil or even dried herbs de Provence.
YOU NEED:
24 cloves of whole, peeled garlic
1 cup olive oil
Cracked black pepper
Sea salt
Red pepper flakes
Sprig or two of fresh rosemary, stem on
Splash of water
Several sweet Italian peppers
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350°F/176°C
Place garlic cloves, olive oil, splash of water, salt, pepper and herbs (if using) in an oven safe casserole dish.
Cover with lid or foil and bake for up to 40 mins or until garlic is nice and soft.
You’ll want the oil to reach a simmer, but not much more in order to avoid any browning, which will cause bitterness.
Remove from oven and let cool completely before transferring to storage container.
Remove stems, seeds and skin from Itailan peppers before serving.

OR:
- Onion and Red Pepper Confit Recipe on Food52