Vintage Cookery: Chili Mac, from the 1958 Sunset "Cooking with Casseroles"

Vintage Cookery: Chili Mac, from the 1958 Sunset "Cooking with Casseroles"

 Ingredients

• 1 cup dried red beans
• 1 pound beef chuck, cut into 1-inch cubes
• Flour
• 4 Tablespoons shortening
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste
• 1 cup tomato juice
• 3 cups hot water
• 1 can bouillon
• 1 green pepper, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme
• 1 teaspoon monosodium glutamate
• 1 tablespoon chili powder, or to taste
• Salt to taste
• 1 package (8 oz.) macaroni
• 1/2 cup melted butter or margarine
• 1/2 up grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup pitted ripe olives

Directions

1.  
2. Soak beans in warm water for two hours, drain. 
3. Flour beef lightly.  
4. Melt shortening in large kettle, add beef cubes, onion, and garlic and brown.  
5. Stir in tomato paste, tomato juice, hot water, bouillon, green pepper, beans and seasonings.  Simmer until beans are tender, 2 to 3 hours.  
6. Season to taste.  
7. Cook macaroni until tender in boiling salted water; drain well.  
8. Stir in butter and cheese.  
9. Spread on a large greased ovenware platter or in a casserole.  
10. Reheat in slow oven (350 degrees) for about 5 minutes.  
11. Add olives to chili and pour over macaroni and serve at once to 8 to 12 persons.

 I do actually make this--with a lot of changes!  Canned beans, ground beef, a lot less fat, no msg, no olives (the husband), no green pepper (me) and cheddar cheese. 

It's yummy!

Chop O Matic

 

 

One of my favorite tools is this awesome 1950s Chop O Matic that I found for a $1 at a thrift store.  I love the design and I love the way it chops my onions.

 

 

Southern Italy Meets Southern US

So, this weekend I combined Uova in Purgatorio (Eggs in Purgatory) with Southern Biscuits. I've found many recipes for the eggs--some with the eggs poached in marinara sauce and some with the eggs baked on top of a layer of bread or potato pancakes and smothered in marinara sauce. In my version, I poach the eggs in marinara sauce and then serve them on top of Southern style biscuits, as if the marinara sauce was a gravy. Some versions had red pepper flakes, and some didn't. Being used to a lot of "South of the Border" cooking (having a mother-in-law from Texas who cooks awesome Tex Mex) this recipe reminds me too much of Juevos Rancheros, not to add the red pepper flakes to the marinara sauce and give it a little zing.

Ingredients:

• 1 batch Marinara Sauce
• 4 eggs
• 2-4 Southern Biscuits
• Parmesan Reggiano

Directions:

• Make marinara sauce.
• Break the eggs carefully into the heated sauce.
• Cover and cook for 3 minutes, or until eggs are cooked to your taste.
• Break open the biscuits on a plate.
• Gently place eggs on top of biscuits and spoon over the marinara sauce.
• Grate cheese over the top.

Pork Roast Day 5

So I made my fifth recipe using the left over pork roast nearly a week ago on Lunar New Year.  I made a sort of Chinese style bbq pork (char sui) served over noodles with pork broth and tea eggs.  Unfortunately, now that I'm finally posting it I can't remember what recipe I used!

So here is something similar:

Char Sui

Tinga Tostadas

Ingredients:

• 6 LB on the bone chicken thighs
• 3 cup water
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 4 roma tomatoes
• 1 LB tomatillos, husked and washed
• 1 jalapeno chile, stemmed and halved lengthwise
• 3 large cloves garlic, peeled,
• 1/4 cup adobo sauce
• 2 dried chipotle chiles
• 2 large onions
• 1 TB vegetable oil
• 1 tsp whole dried Mexican oregano

To serve:

• Corn tortillas, fried to make tostadas
• Diced avocado

Directions:

1. Cover the chipotles with hot water.
2. Combine the chicken, water, and salt in a crock pot and simmer for 4 hours.
3. Remove the chicken, run under cold water until cool and then remove the skin and bones and break the chicken into large chunks.
4. Reserve the chicken broth for another use.
5. While cooking the chicken make the salsa.  Cover the tomatoes, tomatillos, and jalapeno with water,
6.  Bring to a boil and then simmer about 5 minutes.
7.  Drain and transfer them to a blender along with the garlic, the adobo sauce the chipotles, and the salt.  Blend until fairly smooth.
8. Slice the onions, combine with the oil and oregano and cook in the microwave 5 to 10 minutes until they are soft.
9. Combine the cooked chicken, the salsa (I only used half the salsa and froze the rest for another use), and the onions in the slow cooker and cook for another 2 to 4 hours on low.
10. To serve, pile the chicken mixture on tostadas and top with avocado chunks.

This recipe came from Deborah Schneider's "The Mexican Slow Cooker"--Although, to be fair I did make several changes.  (she uses 2.5 LB boneless and skinless chicken thighs and only 1 cup of water.  I changed that because I love getting a nice broth.  She also used chipotles in adobo, where I used my home made adobo and dried chipotles.  My cooking method was also different). I really enjoyed this book and recommend it.

I ended up with enough chicken that we ate these tostadas for 2 days.  There is still half of the chicken left today so I will be using it to make pozole along with the leftover chicken broth.  Which should end up stretching my $6 chicken thighs to 4 days!

Tea Eggs

As I noted in the previous post, eggs are a traditional Lunar New Year dish, due to their relationship with fertility.  This recipe is traditionally made with black tea, but I've changed it up and used cinnamon tea.  I've also added food coloring--just because I personally associate red with cinnamon!

Ingredients:

• 12 hard boiled eggs
• 1/4 cup black tea (I used 4 cinnamon tea bags)
• 4 star anise
• Red food coloring (optional)

Directions:

1. Roll the eggs on the counter to produce cracks, but do not peel.
2. Cover the eggs with cold water and return to a boil.
3. Add the tea, star anise, and food coloring if you are using it.
4. Lower the heat to a simmer.
5. Simmer for 2 hours

Bacon and Eggs--Lunar New Year Style

Today for brunch I wanted to make something that celebrated Lunar New Year, which is a huge holiday for millions of people around the world.  Eggs and pork are both one of the many foods served traditionally for this holiday.  The pork symbolizes abundance and the egg fertility.  I also made a red sauce, as red is a celebratory and lucky color in China, where brides wear red for their wedding.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 cups of steamed rice cooked with 1/2 cup cook peas
• Bacon, fried crispy enough to crumble, 2 for each person
• Eggs, fried to taste, 2 for each person
• 2 TB chili paste (I used Korean gochujang)
• 2 TB sugar
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 2 TB peanut butter
• 1/4 cup rice wine.

Directions:

1. Combine the chili paste, sugar, garlic powder, soy sauce, peanut butter, and rice to form a smooth sauce.  
2. Warm in a small sauce pan on the stove.
3. Prepare your rice, bacon and eggs.
4. Fill each persons bowl with a bed of rice, 2 eggs, 1 strip of bacon, and one bacon strip crumbled.
5. Divide the sauce among each bowl.