French as in Dijon not Fries

This past week, the boyfriend drew the country France for our culinary pallets to discover.  I do have to admit that French cooking is one of my favorites to explore with since it is so delicate in many ways, but very complicated in others.

Great chefs like Jacques Pépin, use flavors that are unique to the region they are from.  So many flavors and recipes to try it was hard to narrow it down to just one.  I could have bought fresh French bread and Brie and could have called it a day (that's a treat in itself), but decided on a warmer dish since it was still on the slightly chilly side.

I opted to do a fairly quick stew, but had forgotten the French bread that would've gone well with it.  That didn't stop me though.

French Beef Stew

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds cubed beef stew meat
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 (14.5 ounce) cans Italian-style diced tomatoes
• 1 (14 ounce) can beef broth

Directions

1. Combine meat and flour in a large plastic food storage bag and toss to coat evenly.
2. In a 6 quart saucepan brown meat in hot vegetable oil. Season with salt and pepper, if desired.
3. Add diced tomatoes, beef broth, carrots, potatoes and thyme. Bring to boil; reduce heat to medium-low, cover; and simmer for 1 hour or until beef is tender.



French Beef Stew

4. Blend in mustard and serve.

Side note: Since I forgot the French bread, I needed to make a quick bread.  I had just gone to the grocery store that afternoon and didn't feel like going out again to just get bread.  I found a recipe for buttermilk biscuits made from buttermilk pancake mix.  It didn't turn out too badly, just a tad on the dry side.

This upcoming week we'll go back in time.  Also, there will be a new twist to the blog come April, so stay tuned.

In the words of Jacques Pépin: "happy cooking."

Celery Root at its Finest?

There are weeks when the boyfriend suggests something totally ordinary, and then there are weeks where he suggests something out of the ordinary.  He suggested that I work with celery root.  Earlier in the week, I decided to see what the not so ordinary vegetable had to offer.  I made the mistake of going to Ralley's to pick up a celery root.  I say a mistake because the celery root was the size of a small rock.  I don't have a problem with it being the size of a small rock, but paying over $3.00 for it was the mistake!  I'm a true believer in buying good food for cheap.

When I actually went to get the ingredient of the week, I went to a place called Sprouts and spent $3.00 for the celery root.  The kicker was when I found the celery root at the size of small boulder, I was a happy camper.

I used the celery root for a Jacques Pépin recipe called, celery root and carrot with fresh Dijon mustard.