Canary Island-Style Chicken Stew

This is an awesome easy to make dish.  It comes from the Canary Islands in Spain.  This dish is like soup, best made a day ahead.  Being that it is winter I used canned tomatoes to make this dish.  I dislike buying tomatoes fresh in the winter because they usually come from a greenhouse and don't have very much flavor.  You can also leave the tomatoes out completely, perhaps adding an additional onion.  Serve this dish with fried or boiled potatoes, rice or pasta.

Ingredients:
1/2 kg (1 lb.) chicken
2 onions, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 tomatoes. chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
few sprigs of parsley
a pinch of ground cumin
a pinch of turmeric
1 glass of white wine
olive oil
1 bay leaf
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
a little flour
salt and pepper

Cut the chicken into pieces (I used 8 chicken legs), coat in flour and fry lightly in olive oil until golden in a saucepan.  Take the chicken out and add a little more olive oil and fry the onions, pepper and garlic.  Add the bay leaf and herbs.  After a few minutes, add the wine, tomatoes and the chicken pieces.  Cover and simmer until the chicken is cooked through.  Stir occasionally to prevent sticking.

Espaguetis con Atun y Salsa de Tomate (Spaghetti with Tuna and Tomate Sauce)

This is a dish from a collection of recipes from Almonte, Andalucia, Spain.  It is a very simple dish, you can use store-bought tomato sauce, or make your own.

Ingredients:
400 gr. (1/2 lb) Spaghetti
can of tuna
can of tomato sauce (or homemade)
grated cheese
olive oil
4 cloves of garlic
bay leaf
ground nutmeg
salt and pepper

In a large pan, heat olive oil and saute garlic.  As soon as they start to turn golden, add cooked spaghetti, ground nutmeg, tuna (broken-up with a fork) salt and pepper.  Then add the tomato sauce and mix.

Serve with grated cheese and chopped parsley.  You can also put the finished product in a casserole and bake until crispy on top.

Canary Island Beef Stew (Estofado Canario)

This recipes is an adaptation from a Canary Island cookbook that a friend brought back for me from his vacation there.  From looking through the cookbook, I noticed that the cuisine of the Canary Islands is very similar to cuisine on the Iberian Peninsula part of Spain.  Exception includes the a more extensive use of corn and sweet potatoes, however; the spices and flavors are all the same.  This delicious stew tastes better when allowed to stew on a low temperature for a long time then allowed to sit overnight so the flavors can mix.

Ingredients for 4 servings:

2 lbs. (1 kg) beef stewing meat
1 sweet pepper, chopped
5-6 cloves of garlic, minced
medium sized onion, chopped
2 glasses of white wine
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
sprig of fresh thyme (or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme)
salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in pot until hot.  Add the beef stew meat and brown on each side.  Remove from pot and add more olive oil.  Fry the onions, pepper and garlic until softened, about 3 minutes.  Add the meat again and the white white and the paprika, cumin and thyme.  Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer.  Simmer about 1 to 2 hours.  Served alongside starch of your choice (potatoes, noodles, rice)

Lamb Goulash with Green Beans (Lammgulasch mit grünen Bohnen)

I found this recipe in a cookbook my boyfriend bought for me called Das Thüringen Kochbuch.  I've never made goulash with lamb before but figured I've give it a try.  Green beans were in great abundance at the market and figured it was a perfect match.

Ingredients:
1 lb Lamb meat (cut from Shoulder, without bone)
1/2 lb. fresh green beans
6 potatoes
1 carrot
2 onions
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon of each, savory, rosemary and thyme
butter for saute
1.5 Liters broth (instant or homemade)
salt and pepper

1. Wash the meat, dry with paper towels and cut into mouth-sized pieces.  Wash the beans and snip the ends and cut into pieces that will easily fit a spoon.  Wash and peel the potatoes.  Carrots grate and set aside.  Peel and chop the onions.  Mince the garlic.

2.  In a dutch oven or soup pot, melt the butter in a pan.  Add the meat and brown on each side.  Add the onions and garlic and continue sauteeing.  Cover with the broth.  Cover and let cook on middle heat for 50 minutes.

3.  Then add the beans and the herbs (no salt at this point) and continue cooking for 10 minutes.  Then add the grated carrots and the potatoes and cook an additional 10 minutes.  Serve warm.  The soup can also be garnished with a dollop of creme fraiche or sour cream.

Chicken and Dumplings

This has always been one of my favorite dishes.  I know Cracker Barrel has an awesome version; however here in Germany they don't have any, so I've got to make my own.  Albeit I used the dumpling recipes from this link (http://tastykitchen.com/blog/2011/11/homemade-chicken-and-dumplings/), I decided to make my own stock by simmering a chicken in some water for 1.5 hours until it was nice and tender and began to fall off the bones.  This is a great method because you can also make some tasty chicken stock at the same time.    This dish takes a bit of time to make, but the stock and chicken can be prepared ahead of time.  It's well worth the wait.  Here's what you'll need:

1 2-3 lb. chicken
Enough water to cover chicken in pot
1 onion, cut in half
Dry herbs (whatever you would like to season your stock with)
2 bay leaves
3 Allspice kernels
Salt and pepper

In a large stockpot, place the whole chicken in the pot and fill with enough water to cover.  Wash the onion with the skin, cut in half, and add to pot.  (Leaving the skin on the onion gives color to the broth)  Add the 2 bay leaves and allspice kernels, dry herbs, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.  Once boiling, lower to a simmer and simmer for about an hour and a half.  Afterwards, take chicken out of the pot, strain the broth, discarding the onion, bay leaves and allspice.  Reserve broth.  Allow chicken to cook.  Once cool, pull meat off the bones and reserve meat.

For Dumplings:

2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
2 Tablespoons butter
a little less than 1 cup milk
2 quarts of chicken broth
3 cups cooked chicken

This is where it gets fun.  Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and butter with your hands untin incorporated, similiar to how you would make a pie crust.  Then add the milk and stir until well blended.  On a well floured (the flour will later thicken your stock, so don't be shy) surface, roll out dough.  Use a pizza cutter or knife to cut the dough into 2x2 inch squares. You could probably also use some small cookie cutters if you wanted.  Bring the chicken broth to a rolling boil.  Then drop the dumplings in one at a time (this is to avoid them sticking).  Reduce the heat to medium and cook for about 15-20 minutes until done.  You can test a dumpling and see if its cooked all the way.  Then, add the reserved chicken and cook until the chicken is warmed through.  Its now ready to serve!

Next time I plan on making the chicken stock well ahead of time, then refrigerate, so all the fat rises to the top of the container and solidifies.  I will then use the chicken fat to help make the dumplings.  I know this will make it more fattening; however, sometimes for me, taste usurps health :)