Beef Barley Soup

There is something about barley in a soup. It provides this thick, buttery texture to the whole broth. In fact, if you want to get really crazy, start a barley soup with a butter roux. The barley will incorporate the butter and make something truly awesome.

I made this soup with venison because it was in my freezer, but it is actually even better with ground beef. It is also really good with no meat at all and more vegetables. In fact, years and years ago when I was working at a restaurant, we got a huge bag of jicamas delivered by accident. They are usually eaten raw in a salad or in a stir-fry, but we used them in a soup with barley. Wouldn't you know, we actually had to start ordering jicamas because people went wild for the soup. And this was Bel Air, MD in 1996. Ceasar salad was considered ethnic food.

Ingredients: 3 quarts broth, 1 lbs 1/2 inch cubes of beef or venison, flour to coat, oil, 2 diced carrots, 2 diced celery spears, 1 diced yellow onion, 1/2 lbs chopped mushrooms, 3/4 cup barley, 2 tbs. thyme, pepper to taste (after it's done)

• Toss meat lightly in flour and brown in a hot oiled pan
• Remove meat and put aside, throw in vegetables
• Cooke vegetables until soft
• Add meat, barley and broth
• Bring to a boil and then cook on low for 2 hours (or overnight in slow cooker, as I did)

Serves 8 (1.75 cup portions)

Note: Especially with the slow cooker, browning the meat and sauteing the vegetables is not so crucial.

Frugal Factor: I would pay $4.50 for grass fed beef or $2.25 for supermarket beef, $2 for the mushrooms at discount produce (maybe $3.50 at the supermarket), and I'm guessing $0.75 for the carrot, onion, celery, and barley. So that's $5.00-$8.75 or $0.63-$1.10/portion. Either way, it's cheaper and better than a can.

Venison and Butternut Squash Stew with Dried Cherries over Quinoa

I haven't posted here for a while as I have been eating through the last few months of frozen food to make room for the 1/2 hog that I am splitting with my uncle (so that's 1/4 hog... good thing Marquita mailed us BBQ sauce for a Christmas present). So as a heritage hog somewhere in Lancaster County whiles away his last free-ranging days (perhaps occasionally looking over his shoulder) I'm back with some more recipes.

Speaking of free-range, my uncle also recently brought over a few pounds of venison from his wife's nephew in Virginia. Some people may blanch at eating Bambi's mother, but hunted meat is probably the most humane solution to "the omnivore's dilemma." I won't subject you to further ranting on the subject (that's Ted Nugent's job) but I will share an easy slow-cooker recipe.

The ingredients, if not the preparation, are based on a wonderful meal I had in New Orleans in November of 2004. My wife and I got tip from a staffer at Tipitina's to go up the street to this Dick & Jenny's. We arrived at the tucked away clapboard restaurant just as they were opening. Jenny led us to a pine table with mismatched wrought-iron chairs. Dick was in the kitchen. They had a few New Orleans-themed dishes on the menu but it was a cold night and I ordered the special, a seared venison loin over acorn squash with a cherry wine reduction.

Our meal arrived on mismatched plates with a cruet of wine, and I was so engrossed in my meal's surprising melding of flavors that I did not notice the crowd forming in the waiting area, a shed/indoor patio packed with folks on lawn chairs drinking wine and having a good time. Apparently Dick and Jenny's was a poorly-kept secret among the locals and they didn't take reservations, so we were lucky to get there early. Dick and Jenny apparently sold the place soon after the flood. Some say the magic is lost. (For all you Philadelphians, think Django).

Recipe: Venison and Winter Squash Stew over Quinoa (six servings)

Long hours in the slow cooker make the venison fork tender and the squash nearly falls apart. That, along with the dried cherries and spices, makes the dish reminiscent of a Moroccan tagine, so I served it over quinoa, a super-healthful whole grain that cooks up very similar to cous cous and stands up to a heavy sauce better to boot. Those without a slow cooker can instead use a dutch oven or a deep skillet with a tight-fitting lid. Just put it in the oven at 225 and check it a few times and add some water if needed. Even more than other stews, this tastes better the next day. In fact, I got a late start so the meat in mine was still a little tough at bed time Sat. night. I was too tired to let it cool long enough to put it in the fridge, so I just left it in the pantry overnight (this being winter, my unheated shed pantry was 34 degrees).

Ingredients: 1 1/2 lbs. venison roast, 1 butternut squash, 1 red onion, 1 apple, 1/4 lbs. raw sage breakfast sausage; 1/4 cup dried cherries, 1/2 cup port; a 2" cinnamon stick, 2 tsp. dried thyme, 1 tsp ground allspice, ; 1/2 tsp paprika, 1 tsp. salt.
1 1/2 cups quinoa, cooked with dried fruits (cook like rice - use 1:1 ratio of quinoa to water on stovetop, 1:3/4 in a rice cooker)

• Peel squash, cut in half, scrape out seeds and slice into pieces about a half inch thick and one inch long and toss in the crock.
• Slice onion coarsely and toss that in too, along with the cherries, port and seasonings and toss .
• Cube the venison and place on top of the vegetables. Break up the sausage and put it on top
• Chop venison into 1" pieces and put it on top of the squash (don't stir it in).
• Break up the sausage and crumble over the venison and. Cut the apple in half and put both halves on top, skin up.
• Cook for 6 hours on low, 2 hours on your slow cooker's highest no-stir setting (the long, slow heat cooks the meat, while the squash requires higher heat). When done, the squash should be almost falling apart and the meat fork-tender
• Salt to taste and serve over cous cous or quinoa. When cooking either one, toss in a few more dried cherries for added yumminess.

Notes and Substitutions:

• If nobody has hunted you some venison lately, you have two choices. You can spend a little extra to buy some from a tempermental man with antelope blood on his apron or you can use stewing beef or lamb from the store. In either case, if the meat you buy has fat, you may want to then omit the sausage - it's needed to provide to baste the venison, which is quite lean from running around the forest, not often a problem with farm-raised meat. Add some more of the herbs and spices to compensate for those in the sausage though.
• If you don't have any port, any light-bodied red wine (like pinot noir or Beaujolais) will work with a tsp. of sugar. You could even use Manischewitz (without the added sugar!).
  
• Dried cherries are hard to find and rather pricey, but their deep flavor and tart nature are worth it. However, you could substitute other dried fruits such as prunes, currants and raisins.
• Many slow-cooker recipes ask you to brown the meat and sometimes saute the veggies before placing in the slow cooker. However, simply keeping the meat on top of the vegetables in the crock serves much the same purpose without dirtying another pot.
• By the way, although it would be a very different dinner, a can of chick peas (liquid and all) could actually substitute for the meat and make this vegetarian.
  

Frugal Factor: The venison was free for me, but supermarket chuck roast is running $3.29/lbs at the right now so let's say $5 (I have no idea what Sonny's charging). The squash could have been got cheaper but it was $2 at the co-op where I also spent $5 on a bag of cherries and used about 1/4 of the bag, so that's $1.25. Everything else I already had, but I would overestimate the cost at $2.50 for the apple, onion, port, quinoa and spices. At six servings, that's $1.79/serving (or $0.96 with the free meat).

Stewed Leg of Lamb with Fava Beans and Fennel

I found boneless leg of Australian lamb at Shop Rite for $4.49/pound. That’s not much more than ground beef, so I bought a 4-pounder for $19. That was a little more than I needed to serve dinner for four, but when I started looking for recipes, I found one in the Silver Spoon that called for dividing a leg of lamb into boneless portions.

I adapted my recipe from their method. Chopping up the leg of lamb into chunks allowed me to cut away some of the fat and muscle membrane that give lamb the strong flavor that some find offensive. After discarding about 1/2 pound of that, I had one bowl of 10 large chunks, each about the size of a pear. This was about 2 1/4 pounds.

I also had a bowl with about 1 1/4 pounds of small or oddly-shaped chunks and a bunch of little bits of meat. These would have been great for Mongolian stir fry or something, but because I have a meat grinding attachment on my mixer, I ended up packing one a 20oz Ziploc container with ground lamb to use later.

Stewed Leg of Lamb with Fava Beans and Fennel Recipe

The rub: 3 tbsp fresh thyme; 2 tbsp olive oil; 2 tbs. salt; 2 garlic cloves; 1 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper; 3 anchovies.

The rest: More olive oil; 2 1/4 pounds lamb in pear-sized chunks (8-10 pieces); 1 bulb fennel, julienned; 1 chopped leak if you have it, 1 cup fresh frozen fava beans (thawed and shelled from tough outer pod); 1/2 cup vermouth; 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar; flour for dusting; 3 tbsp. lemon juice (or juice from one lemon)

• Combine the rub ingredients and smash them into a paste in some way. I use a mortar and pestle. A wooden spoon in a bowl or a food processor will do the trick. Toss lamb chunks in rub. You can marinate them for a while if you choose.
  
• Toss chunks with some flour, just to lightly coat. Heat olive oil in a dutch oven over high heat. Brown lamb chunks on all sides. Deglaze pan with vermouth, scraping brown bits off bottom of pan.
• Add a half cup of water, cover and place in 350 degree oven for 1/2 hour.
• Check on meat. If the liquid has evaporated, add a little more water. Toss in the fava beans and sliced fennel.
• Cook for 1/2 hour more. If sauce needs to be a little thicker, ladle it into a small saucepan and reduce over high heat, then pour back.
• Stir in add lemon juice and some more fresh herbs and serve.
  

Optional: For a one-pot meal, add some thinly-sliced potatoes and some extra water when you first put in the oven.

Ingredient/Equipment Notes: Fava Beans are a staple of the Mediterranean diet . Their smoky flavor lends itself well to lamb and many other things. In season, Iovine's sells them freah but for mucho dinero. I have been a happier person since I discovered that Broad Beans are exactly the same thing, because First Oriental Supermarket sells four brands in their freezer case for $1.50/bag.

Rolled anchovies in a jar are superior to canned, because jars have lids. I keep a jar in the fidge. It lasts me about a year, as long as I keep it topped off with olive oil. Vermouth is the same idea; unlike wine it keeps opened for months (at least for cooking purposes), and cheap vermouth is also more consitant than cheap wine.

If you don’t have a dutch oven or another pot with a lid that can go from the stove top to the oven, this one from Ikea looks pretty good. I have another one of their cast-iron enameled pans and it's quite nice. Or, for four times the price (and maybe 10 times better), visit Fante's. I love my very un-frugal (it was a gift) Le Creuset more and more these days, but I have never tested it side-by-side with my trusty old cast-aluminum one.

Frugal Factor: At 4.5/pound I used 2.5 pounds of lamb here, tossed 1/2 pound of fat, and saved the rest. So that's $11 for the lamb. Frozen Fava/Broad Beans, $1.50, Fennel bulb, $1, Vermouth, $1, other items from pantry est. $0.75. Total, $12 for 4 portions, or $3/portion for the lamb, which I served with leftover squash, leek and turnip which was $0.55/portion. So that's $3.45/portion total.