AMERICAN CHOP SUEY

AMERICAN CHOP SUEY

My mother, Rita Brosseau Piermarini, was a cook by default.  With five children and a hungry household, she prepared simple hearty food.  (Living next door to my grandmother, who was an outstanding cook, must have been intimidating.)  This recipe always confounded me---not because my mother did a great take on it---the history of it was always elusive.  This popular New England staple has almost no relationship to the Chinese dish and it is almost exclusively a regular item in New England diners.  Delicious!

  

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef

1 large onion, chopped

2 stalks of celery, chopped

Dash of salt

Dash of pepper

1 jar of Ragu meat sauce

1 lb. of cooked elbow macaroni

Brown beef and onion.  Add celery and just enough water (2 tbl.) to make the celery get tender.  Add remaining ingredients.  Simmer for ½ hour.

Eggplant Parmigiana

EGGPLANT PARMIGIANA

Eggplant is probably one of my favorite dishes to make and to eat.  When freshly harvested, this simple vegetable offers a variety of preparations.  This is my ultimate vegetable dish! 

Preheat oven to 350F

Ingredients:

2 to 3 small eggplants

Italian breadcrumbs

3 eggs

Grated parmigianno regianno

Grated mozzarella cheese

Skillet with extra virgin olive oil

Cooling rack

Lay out several paper towels and put cut slices of eggplant on the paper towels to absorb extra water.  In a pie plate, pour flavored breadcrumbs.  In another pie plate, place three eggs, a little garlic powder and a teaspoon of grated cheese (parm).  Toss these with a fork.  Dip slices in egg mixture and then coat with breadcrumbs. 

In a skillet, put extra virgin olive oil.  Keep heat on medium or everything will burn.   Fry coated eggplant slices on both sides.  Cool on a rack covered with brown paper. 

Put slices in baking dish.  Cover with sauce and cheese.  Bake for 20 minutes.

Chicken Soup

CHICKEN SOUP

Chicken soup is easy, tasty and satisfying.  My grandmother usually made chicken soup with a fowl.  She always had the fowl well cleaned out and reserved the neck and the edible organs (which she froze for other dishes).  The stock would simmer for what seemed like forever...she added only whole onions, celery with leaves and carrots, washed and trimmed of greens.  When the broth had turned a golden yellow, she removed everything by straining the broth into a colander over a large bowl.  She allowed the ingredients to cool while she placed the broth back onto the stove, adding fresh spinach or kale and red or white beans or cooked pasta or rice to the broth.  The result was delicious!

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken or fowl (remove insides; reserve neck and freeze everything else)

cold water

1 to 2 large white onions, peeled

2 to 3 stalks of celery, washed and white base removed but leave leaves

3 carrots, washed and greens removed

Place the chicken and neck in a slow cooker.  Cover with cold water.  Add other ingredients (cut up to fit slow cooker).  Simmer until serving time.  Take chicken and vegetables out of pot and put into a bowl to cut up.  Add any leftover pasta or rice (warmed up) and 10 ounces of frozen kale or spinach (thawed out).  Allow those to warm up a bit.  While that is happening, remove chicken from bones, cut up veggies and then serve by putting those back in the pot.  Lots of grated cheese and a crusty loaf of bread make this a hearty meal! 

TRI PIE

TRI PIE

This is a triple berry pie.  Make your own crust or use a store bought version.  Preheat the oven to 375F (if using a glass pie plate) or 400F with anything else.  Easy recipe...just choose three berries.

Ingredients:

6 cups of berries (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, etc.)

1/2 cup of sugar

1 tbl. of cornstarch

1 tsp. of lemon juice

Mix everything in a deep bowl.  Line the pie plate with the bottom crust.  Add berry mixture.  Dot with butter.  Add top crust and seal the crust edges.  Bake for about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes until crust is golden brown.   You can also choose fresh peaches instead of a berry, just measure carefully.  You may need to make this a deep dish pie if you have a lot of fruit, or two smaller pies.

BEEF STEW

This is my mother's recipe.  It is perfect for a slow cooker.

2 or 3 lbs. of beef (she used chuck)

2 to 3 onions, halved

2 stalks of celery with tops on, chopped

2 to 3 carrots, cut in bite size pieces

Water and beef bouillon (I use beef consommé when I make this …either works)

Just put everything in the crock pot and let simmer until beef is tender.  Salt and a little pepper work too.  

If you use beef consommé, four cans is good.  Or, use good beef stock (4 cups).   My mother-in-law also made a good beef

stew, adding tomato paste and peas (as seen in picture).  She used the tiny frozen onions instead of fresh.  Your choice. 

BEEF AND BARLEY SOUP

This soup is really delicious. 

Ingredients:

3 to 4 beef marrow bones

4 to 6 beef ribs or chuck pieces for stew (if you use ribs, leave on the bone until just before serving time…I really prefer the ribs because they provide better flavor)

2 stalks of celery (chopped with leaves on)

2 carrots, chopped

2 onions, halved

4 cans of beef consommé

(or 32 ounces of beef broth)

2 bay leaves

Salt & pepper to taste

Garlic powder (optional)

1 cup of cooked barley (I use fast cooking barley if I can get it)

Throw everything in the crock pot and walk away.  Allow this to simmer for eight hours

VEAL STEW

Ingredients:

2 lbs. of veal meat

1 carrot, diced

1 onion (peeled)  and one sprig of fresh rosemary wrapped in cheesecloth and well tied

1 can of tomato paste (with basil)*

1/2 cup of wine**

1 lb. of exotic mushrooms (fresh)

bay leaf

32 ounces of chicken stock

Everything goes into the slowcooker.  Veal doesn't have a lot of flavor so you need to add flavor to it.  If you have demi glace, add some.  Remove bay leaf and cheesecloth ball before serving.   You can choose to garnish with fresh parsley but for a weeknight dinner, why bother...just set out the cheese for grating and enjoy!

*Note about tomato paste:  buy Cento...it's the best

**Do not use cooking wine.  Even little bottles of wine are sold now everywhere so if you have no wine bottle open, buy real wine.