{daring cooks: cassoulet}

Our January 2011 Challenge comes from Jenni of The Gingered Whisk and Lisa from Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. They have challenged the Daring Cooks to learn how to make a confit and use it within the traditional French dish of Cassoulet. They have chosen a traditional recipe from Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman.

Okay so technically this challenge was to make a confit (any kind of food that has been immersed in any kind of fat for both flavor and preservation) and include it in a cassoulet (a french slow cooked stew). Now, I have to be honest, I had planned to do the garlic confit but in the end decided to skip it. I saw no point to it and decided the dish would be fine without it.

The recipe I chose came from the same source that all of my recent slow cooker dishes have come from: Slow Cooker – The Best Cookbook Ever. Other than the fact that the original recipe did not fit inside my slow cooker thus causing it to boil over a few times, it turned out great! For the final 30 minutes of cooking I transferred the slow cooker insert into the oven to allow the topping to crisp up. I recruited John for this part since it was a bit of a feat...the cassoulet was practically overflowing.  We did enjoy it though and it made for some delicious leftovers.

Recipe after the jump

{creamy tomato bisque}

I am a HUGE fan of the tomato basil bisque at Dish in Charlotte, NC. Its simply fantastic. Since discovering it, I've been searching for a recipe to try on my own and well, I've found it. Not only is it very simple to put together, but the flavors are incredibly delicious and it does a great job of warming you up on these cold winter nights. Serve it with a grilled cheese sandwich and don't be shy about dipping it in the bisque for extra deliciousness.

I do need to mention that I was not only excited about trying this recipe but was also very exciting because I was able to break in my brand new immersion blender! I might have been a little too excited about this but man did it make puréeing the soup a breeze. If you do not own one (get one! you won't regret it), you can let the soup cool and then transfer it to a blender to puree.

Recipe after the jump

{creamy loaded baked potato soup}

Its been nice and chilly outside giving me the perfect opportunity to use my crock pot to make all sorts of stews and soups. This week I attempted a loaded potato soup and I must say that it came out pretty delicious. I was all out of cheddar cheese so there is none in the soup but I felt it tasted just as good as if it had it in there. Leaving it out also made it a good bit healthier! If you have cheese I'd say leave it out of the soup but maybe add a little on top with the sour cream and bacon crumbles. Serve this up with a delicious sandwich or salad and you have a meal to warm you on these cold winter nights.

Recipe after the jump

{buffalo chicken chili}

Whoah mamma this was spicy! Dawn over at Vanilla Sugar posted this recipe and talked about how she had been sick and needed something spicy to open up her sinuses. If this chili didn't do it, I don't know what would. Salsa, spicey bbq sauce and jalepenos...need I say more?

Recipe and pics after the jump

{slow cooker pepper steak}

recipe source: allrecipes.com
Comfort food. Flavor. Colorful. Tender. This recipe was incredibly easy to put together and came out tasting oh so lovely. The only problem I had was smelling the delicious aromas all day without being able to eat it. I served it over some yellow rice to complete the meal. John was a huge fan of this dish and enjoyed the leftovers for his lunch.

{irish lamb stew}

recipe source: Eating Well
This stew was the exact comfort food needed for a cold winter night. The lamb was extremely tender and the seasonings perfect. The leeks were kinda stringy so I think next time I will chop them up to be a little smaller. Also, it definitely could have used more carrots and a little more salt. A very tasty stew though!

{beef chili}

recipe source: Eating Well
What better way to warm up after canon balls in two feet of snow than with some warm chili. The recipe didn't actually call for using a slow cooker, but I used one anyway. Playing in the snow sounded more fun than spending my snow day cooking. I cooked it on high for 4 hours and it turned out just as well as if I had done it the way they called for. We topped it with a little goat cheese and light sour cream and scooped it up with tostitos.

I altered the recipe by using ground beef instead of beef round. Now that I'm looking at the recipe again, I think I forgot the beer, that might have helped the flavor out. It all tasted good, but was just not the best chili I've ever eaten. It didn't really thicken up like the picture Eating Well shows, but maybe the beer would have helped. I think next time, I'd add more salt and possibly a small can of tomato sauce to help it out.

More pics after the jump

{chicken taco chili}

recipe source:: Ginas WW Recipes
This is hands down the best chili we've ever had. The flavor was a perfect combination sweet and spicy. Since the chicken ends up being shredded, I only put in 1.5 pieces of chicken and it turned out to be plenty. There is so much stuff in this chili that it didn't matter if there wasn't as much chicken. It definitely made 10 or more servings and has kept very well in the fridge. We served it over some yellow rice with a little sour cream and grated mozzarella cheese on top. One of the best things about this chili was that it was ridiculously simple and cheap to make since most of the ingredients were canned items. Make this.

More pics after the jump

{hungarian beef goulash}

recipe source:: Eating Well
This was amazingly delicious. The flavors were really good and the red peppers were very flavorful. I added a few carrots into the mix since I had them and needed to use them. We bought some potato gnocci to try with this and it turned out pretty good. Next time I think I'll use noodles though. Since I didn't have any paprika, I substituted some cayenne which gave it a really nice spicy flavor.

More pics after the jump

{crock pot santa fe chicken}

recipe source:: Ginas WW Recipes
I am really starting to like cooking with my Grandma's crock pot. This dish took all of about 10 minutes to prep and filled the house with a delicious aroma. Since we didn't have any rice to serve it over we ate it with some tortillas but it is fine on its own. The one teaspoon of cayenne pepper really spiced it up a lot! Next time I'll make sure to add a bit of sour cream on top to help cool our tongues.

More pics after the jump

{flemish beef stew}

recipe source:: Eating Well
This is a wonderful slow cooker recipe that has delicious flavors. I prepped it all in about 45 minutes this morning and cooked it on low for 8 hours. Everything came out nice and tender. I think next time I will add in more carrots and some potatoes. There was definitely a lot of meat in the stew and it easily could have had less. Of course John thought it was great!

More pics after the jump