Pancetta with Greenbeans - French Friday

I love a simple side of veggies and this was a keeper.  The green beans were fresh at the grocery store (we're lucky to have early veggies here) and I got a 1/4 inch slice of pancetta from the deli counter, then we were ready to roll.

We ate this with shepherd's pie, so I felt like we needed a couple of veggies to round out the plates: boiled beets and pancetta green beans!

The beans were simple.  Boiled for a few minutes in salted water then rinsed in cold, to stop the cooking.  The diced pancetta was browned in a large pan, some fat removed and the beans were tossed back in.  Done.  The browned pancetta bits were crunchy and salty served over the beans.  Easy dishes like this are perfect for the kids to help with.  They were in charge of: 

• snapping the ends off the beans
• watching the pot boil
• timing the various pots of water
• chopping pancetta
• stirring the pan

I confess that I was not ready to put them in charge of chopping the red beets.  At least, not until I figure out what removes beet juice from clothing!

You may remember my earlier delight in learning that both kids like roasted golden beets?  Well, I tried red beets, simply boiled, and they were not as big a hit.  I'll have to try red beets roasted next, to see if it's the roasting that makes all the difference!

For all three recipes, check out Around my French Table.

Hachis Parmentier - Comfort Food with a High Flash-to-Bang Ratio

This was comfort food of the highest order.  Hachis Parmentier, the french name for shepherd's pie, is essentially chopped beef under a mashed-potato topping.  Hachis means chopped, but I had to look thumb through wikipedia to learn that Parmentier was a nutritionist who convinced the french to eat potatoes.  And we are thankful for his work!

Parmentier had nothing to do with the flash-to-bang ratio though - that term comes from our army-based family member who has shared the ever-useful term with us.  High flash-to-bang?  You get a lot of flash for the size of the bang.  Low flash-to-bang?  It wasn't really worth the effort.  You can see how this could apply to cooking, right?

This dish had flash.  We made it on a Saturday and therefore had time to babysit a large pot of simmering beef while it became tender and made bullion.  We then had time to boil potatoes and mash them up.  Then we had time to chop the cooked beef into delightfully small pieces (this actually took relatively little time since it was falling-apart tender).  The hands-on time wasn't terrible, but it was worth every moment.  And I am really glad we made a double batch!  It freezes well and the leftovers are even better.

It was agreed by all that this was a keeper, and worth making from scratch.  There's a full recipe and a shortcut version using ground beef in "Around my French Table," or you can find recipes online.

Crock Pot Stew

Nights like tonight, I love the crock pot.  I knew we'd get home late and hungry.  Last night, I tossed together a beef stew and stashed the crock in the fridge.  This morning, I put it in the crock pot, set one of those timers in the outlet and plugged 'er in.  An hour or so after we left the house, it turned on, cooking:

1.5 lbs stew beef, cut into chunks

3 yukon gold potatos, cut into chunks

4 large carrotts, peeled and cut into 2-inch lengths

4 scallions, roughly chopped

2 14-ounce cans of fire-roasted diced tomatos

1 can of tomato paste

2 cups of broth

2 bay leaves

several grinds of black pepper

a dash of salt....

When we're not in such a famished state, I like to cook some egg noodles or some rice to serve with the stew, but this evening, dinner was on the table in a record 3 minutes.
Thank goodness!