NYE Special: Red Wine Stew & Croissant Bread Pudding

Red wine stew with pistachio cream and croissant bread pudding 

Ingredients

·        4 pound beef chuck roast

·        1 cup Butternut squash diced

·        1 cup green zucchini diced

·        ½ cup diced potato cooked

·        Herbs: thyme, bay leaf.

·        1 tbsp. Tomato paste

·        Half bottle red wine (the cheap kind)

·        Kosher salt

·        Beef stock or water or any stock

·         1 ½ cup yellow onion diced

·        4 garlic cloves finely chopped

·        2 sticks of celery diced

·        1 carrot any size diced

·        2 tbsp. regular flour

·        4 tbsp. olive oil

Recipe Preparation

Heat a large pot or Dutch oven. Meantime cut the beef, trim the really fatty parts and cut it bite size. Then sprinkle salt, pepper and flour evenly. In the hot pot add 4 tbsp. olive oil and sear the beef cubes (don’t add to many this will prevent the protein to have a nice color and instead will turn into a boiling soup.... yuck) when brown, take out the beef and reserve aside. Using the same pot add onion, garlic, celery, carrot and wine, scrape the brown parts at the bottom of the pot then add the tomato paste, return the beef and add the stock until it covers all the meat. Also add the herbs and taste for salt.

Cook at medium heat uncovered until beef is tender. Then strain the liquid and put the beef back        (only the beef not the rest of the vegetables, yeah you have to pick hand it, I know) add the diced butternut squash, cook for 12 min and add the zucchini (it only takes 4 minutes to cook).

In a different pan add 2 tbsp. of olive oil, when hot add diced potatoes and cook until well brown all sides.

Stew is better the next day, when you refrigerate the liquid the fat will solidify on top and you can remove it with a spoon easily. 

 Pistachio cream 

Ingredients

·        1 cup Greek yogurt

·         ½ cup roasted, chopped pistachios

·        1 teaspoon lemon zest

·        ½ tablespoon lemon juice

·        1 teaspoon honey

·        Pinch of salt

Recipe Preparation

Combine all together.

Croissant bread pudding 

Ingredients

·        2 pounds of croissants torn into pieces

·        4 eggs (2 whole eggs 2 egg yolks)

·        3 cups of milk

·        ½ cup of sugar

·        ¼ teaspoon kosher salt

·        Vanilla extract ( ½ teaspoon)

·        1 cinnamon stick

Recipe Preparation

Preheat oven at 300 degrees. Spread torn croissants on a rimmed baking sheet and bake, tossing halfway through and reducing oven temperature if bread is getting too golden, until pieces are very dry and slightly toasted, 25- 30 min (dry bread will absorb the custard without disintegrating, which is why this step is important). Let cool, then transfer to a large bowl.

Meanwhile, heat cinnamon, milk, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan. As soon as mixture starts to boil remove from heat, let cool five minutes and eggs and stir until well combined. Pour over reserved bread and toss to coat, scrape into a bowl cover with plastic and let sit in the fridge for at least 3 hours (this gives bread time to evenly soak up custard).

Brush a baking dish with butter and add the bread mixture and bake for 30-40 minutes or looks golden and puffed (insert a knife and it comes out clean).

Add some berries if you like.