Macaroni Treasure - Ultimate Comfort food

MACARONI TREASURE 

This is a simple – delicious – old family recipe.  My Mom was not the greatest cook in the world, God bless her…  She had 6 kids to feed on a budget.  We did love this dish, though, as kids.  Following her recipe, I found it to be a bit bland so I pumped it up with the addition of Pablano Peppers and Spanish Olive juice and also used Baby Bella Mushrooms rather than button mushrooms.  This is so good for a comfort food meal – you will find yourself making it often.  Feel free to add whatever veggies you have on hand for variety.  Carrots – leeks – bell peppers all would work.

• 1 pound Elbow Macaroni - Feel free to use Bowtie or Penne but I find the Macaroni is the best for this.
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 medium pablano peppers chopped
• 1 large package of Bella Mushrooms (Baby Portabella)
• 1 28 ounce can San Marzano crushed tomatoes
• 1 Tablespoon tomato paste
• About ½ of a 7 ounce jar of Spanish Olives with Pimento – Just make sure there are lots of olives studded throughout the pasta – you can do this to taste but it adds a very important flavor to this dish.
• 3-4 Tablespoons of the juice from the olives
• 2-3 cloves of garlic sliced
• About ½ lb or more of chopped meat
• Cheddar  Cheese – Enough to cover the top – mixed with a nice big handful of fresh breadcrumbs
• A few tablespoons butter to put on top or sprinkle cheese and breadcrumbs with olive oil for less fattening alternative.
• Pre heat oven to 350
• Bring plenty of water to a boil – add about 4-5 tablespoons salt.  Cook pasta until firm and almost done but still with a fair amount of bite.   It will finish cooking in the oven.
• Meanwhile – chop all the veggies.  I cut the mushrooms into quarters or eights depending on the size. 
• Cut the olives in half and set aside. 
• Sauté Meat until done – drain fat.
• Add onions, veggies and garlic and cook until soft.  Make a space in the pan and toast the tomato paste for 3-4 minutes.
• Add olives, olive juices and cook 3-4 minutes. 
• Add tomatoes. 
• Taste – add salt and pepper – or more olives or more tomato – or whatever you feel is needed.  It should taste very meaty – rich and moist with sauce – and a bit briny from the olives. 
• Put into a casserole – cover with cheese and breadcrumbs and bake until bubbly and browned on top. 

Oxtail Stew

OXTAIL STEW! 

I’ve been looking at many articles and have seen many TV shows about oxtail.. which is really beef tail. I decided to make some.

Here is what I used:

1 ½ lbs Oxtail

3 stalks of sliced celery (plus 2 for final stage)

2 peeled/sliced carrots (plus 2 more for final stage)

1 large onion or two small (plus one medium diced for final stage)

¼ cup diced scallions

3 cloves

1 teasp thyme

1 teasp fresh rosemary – chopped roughly

1 tabl soy sauce – for color

2 garlic cloves sliced

3 allspice berries – or you can use ¼ teasp dry – or to taste

¼ teaspoon Herbs de Provence

Dash of hot sauce

Salt

1/3 cup or enough to cover Oxtails for marinating brown sugar

Olive Oil for marinade

¼ cup or so of flour

Handful of golden raisins

¾ cup of San Marzano Tomatoes - diced

Few cups of a good stock – I used turkey stock from Thanksgiving and it was great

Red wine – about ½ cup

Scant amount canola oil for browning

Cut off some of the excess fat from the Oxtails

Rub the Oxtails with dry herbs, brown sugar, garlic and olive oil and place in a zip lock bag Squeeze out extra air and marinate for 4 hrs in the fridge.

..Let Oxtails sit out for about an hour to come to room temp.  ..Dry with paper towels. 

..Heat some Canola oil – nice and hot and add Oxtails to pan – brown on all sides – about 15 min.

…Remove to a side plate and discard all but 1 tablespoon of the oil

…Add celery, carrots, and onion to pan and scrape up the brown bits.

…Add wine and cook down until there is almost no liquid

…Add flour and cook for about 3 min.

…Add stock and soy sauce, diced tomatoes and add more of the herbs if needed  and hot sauce

 Simmer for 2 hours on low - add some more carrots and onion and celery so there are nicely cooked pieces in there and some golden raisins and once your meat is fall off the bone tender –Put in the scallions for the last 10 min.  …serve over mashed potatoes.