One of the reasons this came out so well is that I cooked the short ribs long enough to kill the toughness but short enough to leave a really nice chewy texture.  So instead of the meat falling apart like eating pot roast or beef stew, it was like eating tender steak.  There was enough time for the flavors to come together and make a really nice sauce.

French Braised Short Ribs

• 2lbs short ribs cut into 1/2″ pieces
• 1T oil
• 1/2 of a medium onion, chopped
• 1T tomato paste
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 5 green olives, chopped
• 2t thyme
• 2t beef bouillon (or two cubes)
• 1 cup of water
• 10 mushrooms, sliced thickly
• salt and pepper

Brown the beef in the oil.  Let it get brown!  Add the onion half way through.  Add everything except the mushrooms and turn to low, cover and simmer for about 45 minutes.  Add the mushrooms and cook for another 10 minutes.  Is the sauce is watery when you add the mushrooms, turn up the heat and leave the lid off.

Serve with a starch like mashed potatoes or over some noodles.  I ended up just eating it straight.  YUM!

The post French braised short ribs appeared first on Frugal Cooking.

Canned beans are great because they’re still very inexpensive and can go from unopened can to table in 5 minutes or less.  In my pantry I usually keep plain black and white beans, refried pinto and or black beans and some flavored varieties, like Cuban-style black beans.  One of my favorite things to do with canned beans is to use them as a base for a leftover stew.  Below is a particularly tasty mix I created for a weekend dinner when I didn’t feel like cooking.  This made just one serving.

Brazillian-style black bean and left over stew

• 1/4 lb of left over low fat turkey polish sausage, cut in moon-shaped slices
• 3 large cooked shrimp, cut in half
• 1/4 medium onion
• 1t olive oil
• 1 roma tomato, chopped and drained
• 1/2 can Trader Joes Cuban-style black beans (black beans with onion and peppers)
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
• 2T parsley, chopped

Fry sausage and onion in olive oil until it is browned.  Add tomato and cook for another 5 min.  Add the black beans and heat through until simmering.  Add the shrimp and parsley to your bowl.  Add the garlic to the beans and cook another 2 minutes.  Add the bean stew to your bowl and mix well.

This recipe is based *VERY* loosely on the Brazillian feijoada stew that has all sorts of meat, sausage and black beans.  If you like the combination of meat and beans, you should definitely look up a recipe for feijoada and give it a try.  I’m sure I’ll post a recipe here soon since it’s one of my favorites.

This formula could work for lots of different left over meats and vegetables.  Take your left overs and add enough beans to make a nice stew and heat it through.  It could be as simple as that.  I like to caramelize some of the meat and vegetables first for added flavor.  I also like to add fresh garlic, onion and herbs to enhance the flavor.  Be creative!

The post Bean and left over stew appeared first on Frugal Cooking.

I sometimes watch this crazy show on BBC America called You are what you eat.  If you haven’t seen it before, it’s a British reality show centered around a natural nutritionist named Gillian McKeith.  She busts in on a fat person or family, chastizes them for their bad eating habits and then puts them on an insanely strict diet for 8 weeks.  It’s an entertaining show on many levels.  I’m actually watching it right now as I type this.

One of the items on this strict diet is aduki beans, also called azuki or adzuki beans.  These are the same beans that Chinese and Japanese cooks turn into red bean paste filling for pastries and other desserts.  Gillian claims these beans have some super healthy benefits but is never too clear about what they are.  Well, I just had make an aduki bean stew to see what all the fuss was about.  Of course, the other ingredients in this were what happened to be aging in my fridge.

Aduki bean stew

• 2 strips of bacon, chopped (see below for the vegetarian version)
• 3 stalks of celery, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 8 mushrooms
• 1t thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 cups of chicken stock
• 1 can of aduki beans, including the liquid
• salt and pepper to taste

Fry the bacon until crisp.  Leave the bacon in the pan but drain out some of the excess fat and save it for something else.  Add the celery, carrots and onions and cook for 10 min until starting to soften.  Add the mushrooms and cook another 5 min.  Add the thyme, bay leaf, chicken stock and aduki beans and simmer covered for 20min until thickened slightly.  Take off the lid and cook until it is at the desired thickness. Then add salt and pepper to taste.

Let me start by saying that this tasted a LOT better than I thought it would.  I would definitely make this again.  You could substitute any beans and vary the vegetables.  Root vegetables like potatoes, turnips or rutabegas would be delicious in this.  Even sweet potatoes would be great in this.  For a vegan version, substitute olive oil for the bacon and add brown rice or quinoa to make a complete protein.  Going the other way, you could add some boneless country style ribs or chuck to turn this into a meaty stew.  Fresh parsley would have been a nice addition at the end.  Dang!  I keep forgetting to pick that up when I’m shopping!

If you make this recipe or a variation of it, post a comment to tell us about it.

The post Adzuki bean stew appeared first on Frugal Cooking.

I called this a “ragout” because I used thyme, which I typically think of as a French spice.  You can just call it a stew if you like.  I love the way the beans thicken the sauce up without having to add any additional starch.  The final texture of the sauce is much finer and silkier than most stews.

Chicken and white bean ragout (stew)

• 3 chicken thighs
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 stalks of celery, chopped
• 2 cups mushrooms, sliced
• 1 can of pinto beans, drained
• 1/2t dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1T kitchen bouquet
• 2 cups chicken stock
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1T olive oil

Fry the chicken thighs in a stainless pan over medium heat with the olive oil.  It’s important to get the chicken well browned with the bits stuck in the pan getting well browned as well.  Watch the heat so that the bits in the pan don’t burn.  You only need to get a nice brown color right now.  The chicken will cook fully with the other ingredients later.

Remove the chicken and add the carrots, celery and onions and cook about 5-10 min until they start to soften.  Add the mushrooms and cook another 5 min.  Add the beans, thyme, kitchen bouquet and chicken stock.   Turn the pan down to low.  Add the chicken thighs back to the pan, cover and simmer about 15 min.

Remove the lid and check the consistency.  It should be thick like a stew.  If it’s too dry, add some water.  If it’s too saucy, turn up the heat and cook with the lid off until it thickens up.  Spoon some sauce into a shallow bowl and top with a chicken thigh.

Here are some minor variations that I think would be nice.

• Use fresh thyme and/or rosemary
• Mix in some fresh chopped parsley just before serving
• Use chicken breasts but fry them fully and add at the end
• Use great northern beans instead of pinto

Here are some more major renovations!

• Substitute bell pepper for the carrots to give it a Cajun spin.  Leave out the mushrooms and add hot sauce and/or cayenne to complete the theme.  Heck, swap alligator tail for the chicken!
• Swap chickpeas for the beans and change the spices to cinnamon, allspice, ginger and cumin.  Add chopped apricots and/or preserved lemons.  Serve with a couscous pilaf.

Remember that any ingredient in any recipe can potentially be substituted or omitted.  Use your creativity!  If you make this or any variation, post a comment to let me know.  I’d love to hear how you made this recipe your own!

The post Chicken and white bean ragout appeared first on Frugal Cooking.