Beef Daube Provencal

Well lovely followers (or maybe just Talia), as you may or may not know, I love sweets (see my doughnut post here), so I do not blog as frequently about the non-decadent foods that I make.  However, in honor of my dear, sweet, loving grandmother celebrating another fabulous year on this earth, I had her over for a celebratory dinner the other day and made this lovely beef stew.  It was quite easy and well worth the (minimal) effort, so try it some time!  This recipe is courtesy of cooking light, so it is healthy, hardy meal that is good for the upcoming fall and winter evenings.

Your ingredients

Heat the oil and garlic until fragrant, then saute the meat until browned.

Remove the beef and deglaze the pan with the wine.  Add the beef back to the pot along with the remaining ingredients.  

Bring to a boil then cover and put in the oven for 2 1/2 hours.

Your finished stew after 2 1/2 hours in the oven.

 Beef Daube Provencal

Ingredients
2 teaspoons of olive oil (I used extra virgin olive oil, which worked out well)
12 crushed garlic cloves
1 (2-pound boneless chuck roast), trimmed and cut into 2-inch cubes
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
1 cup of red wine (I used Merlot)
2 cups chopped carrots (I used 2 cups of baby carrots)
1/2 cup beef broth, low sodium (I used beef stock from Swanson)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary (I omitted this because the store was out)
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
Dash of ground cloves
1, 14.5 ounce, can of diced tomatoes, undrained
1 bay leaf
**I also added portobello mushrooms to this dish and they turned out nicely**

Directions
1.  Preheat the oven to 300F.
2.  Heat the oil in a dutch oven or heavy bottom large pot over low heat and add the crushed garlic; heat for ~5 minutes until fragrant.  Remove garlic from pan and set aside.
3.  Turn the heat up to medium-high and add the beef to the pan.  Sprinkle the beef with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and a 1/4 teaspoon of pepper.  Cook for a total of 5 minutes, browning the beef on all sides.  Remove beef from pan and set aside.
4.  Deglaze the pan by pouring the wine into the pan, bring to a boil, and scrape up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan.
5.  Add the garlic, beef, and remaining ingredients to the pan and bring to a boil.
6.  Cover and bake at 300 F for 2 1/2 hours.  Discard the bay left and serve.  I served this dish with mashed sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli.  You could also serve it over egg noodles or rice.  It would also pair nicely with a squash, which are coming into season soon!

Enjoy!

Yeast Doughnuts

So, I have a secret to share, but please do not tell anyone else my secret.  Do you swear you won't tell anyone?  This is kinda a big secret, so you've got to swear.  Okay, I believe you.  Here it is: I LOVE doughnuts.  I love doughnuts so much that if I could eat at least 5 a day and not suffer any ill consequences, like fat-ass syndrome, or the need to help out the ol' pancreas with exogenous insulin, then I would do it.  I would eat AT LEAST 5 doughnuts per day.  At this point, you may be laughing...that's real nice.  Go ahead and laugh at my addiction...real nice.  But in all seriousness, aren't doughnut delicious?  And I'm not talking about the nation-wide chain kind either.  I'm talking about the local bakery kind or the lone, independent coffee and doughnut shop.  Now, get yourself these ingredients and start making these very simple, very delicious, doughnuts, but make sure that you have lots of other people to share these with, as the recipe makes a lot of doughnuts.  

Little pearls of wisdom:

--These doughnuts really taste best eaten the day of, but aren't horrible the next day either.

--The doughnut holes don't flip well because they're more round than flat.  What I did, and recommend, is cooking two holes at a time for one minute by holding them under the oil with a metal turner.

--If possible, weigh all your dry ingredients, as it is more accurate, which is what is best for baking.  This recipe is courtesy of Alton Brown, the master of weighing dry goods with some changes based on my experience making them as well as those of my favorite food blog, besides my own, Sydney @ crepesofwrath.net.

--For those of you that have baked bread, but not other yeast goods, please take note that in step 5, my dough never completely pulled away from the bowl like it does when I bake bread.  I stopped the mixing after the 5 minutes and didn't have any issues at all.
--The glaze is thick, but you want it that way.  Also, it tastes best once it has dried on the doughnut.  I preferred the cinnamon-sugar, but to each his own.

Your Ingredients

The combined dough rising in a warm area.

Roll out the dough and cut the doughnuts using the biscuit cutter or doughnut cutter. 

Let the doughnuts rise for 30 minutes.

Doughnuts after the 30 minute rise.

Once your oil is heated to 365 F, add the doughnuts to the oil, taking care to not over crowd the pan.

Flip the doughnuts after one minute.

If you're using the cinnamon-sugar, take the doughnuts from the oil and toss them into the cinnamon-sugar mixture right away.

If you're glazing the doughnuts, let them cool completely and then glaze them.

Yeast Doughnuts

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups milk (I used 1%)

2-1/2 oz vegetable shortening (~1/3 cup)

2 packages of instant yeast, or 2 scant tablespoons/14 grams of dry yeast from a jar

1/3 cup warm water (95 F to 105 F)

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup sugar

1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon nutmeg or cinnamon (I used cinnamon because I prefer that flavor)

23 ounces all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting surface (this is about 5-1/3 cups, but weighing is the best way to measure all dry goods **see little pearls of wisdom**)

Oil for frying (I used canola and filled my pan with about 2.5 inches of oil, but less would have worked)

Directions

1.  Heat the milk in a medium pan until just warm enough to melt the shortening.  Melt shortening into the milk and set aside to let cool to lukewarm in temperature.

2.  In the bowl of your stand mixer, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and stir gently.  Let dissolve for 5 minutes. 

3.  After that time, add the milk/shortening mixture into the yeast mixture.  Then add the eggs, sugar, salt, cinnamon (or nutmeg, or a mixture of both), and half of the flour.

4.  Using your paddle attachment, mix on low speed until the flour is incorporated, and then on medium until well combined.  Repeat with the remaining flour.

5.  Now, using your dough hook, beat on medium speed until the dough pulls away from the bowl and is smooth, ~4-5 minutes.

6.  Transfer the dough to a well-oiled bowl and allow to rise for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.

7.  On a well floured surface, roll the dough out anywhere from 3/8-inch thick to 1/2-inch thick.

8.  Using a 2-1/2-inch doughnut cutter or large and small pastry rings, cut out doughnuts.  Set on floured baking sheet, cover with a hand towel or tea towel and let rise for 30 minutes.

9.  Heat the oil in a deep fryer or a heavy bottom, deep pan to 365 F.  

10.  Once heated, gently place the doughnut into the oil 3-4 at a time, depending on the size of your pan/deep fryer.
11.  Cook for 1 minute per side and then flip.  Transfer to a cooling rack with paper towels, or directly into the cinnamon-sugar mixture.  Let cool 15-20 minutes before glazing, if desired.

Cinnamon-Sugar
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoons cinammon

Glaze
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar

Enjoy!

Mmmm...glazed!