When the weather gets colder, I get into the mood to make hearty meals that stick to your ribs and warm you up. I love a good pot roast, beef stew, pasta fagioli and other flavorful stews and soups, on cold winter days.
If you have been following Mommy Ramblings for a while, you will remember my posts about the best way to cook hearty soups and how to make the perfect beef stew. The right cookware, and the way you cook, really make a difference in how your recipes turn out. I love trying new things in the kitchen and, I have always wanted to try cooking in a Tagine.
A Tagine is a cooking vessel that is used to cook food at a low temperature, for a long time. The unique shape of the Tagine lid allows steam to circulate, which works to keep all the ingredients tender and moist. This kind of vessel and cooking method, works so well with dishes like pot roast. The end result is that type of meat that just falls apart so beautifully, and melts in your mouth.
I just finished cooking my second pot roast in my Emile Henry Tagine, and I don’t think I will cook pot roast any other way. There are so many great recipes you can make in a Tagine. My daughter loves cooking chicken tagine. Any type of recipe that you can cook at a low temperature for a long time, will turn out well.
There are many different kinds of Tagines on the market, but I prefer the Emile Henry Tagine. This Tagine is made of their Flame Ceramic and can be used directly on the heat of the stove or in the oven. This is perfect, because I love starting off on the stove cooking my onions and garlic, browning my meat, and then transferring it all to the oven, to cook for several hours.
You can see the video I made the first time I used the Emile Henry Tagine to make pot roast
We love the Emile Henry Tagine so much, which is why you will find it on Mommy Ramblings’ 2017 Holiday Gift Guide. A gift of Emile Henry Cookware, is a gift any cooking enthusiast will treasure. I know, I certainly do! My Emile Henry Cookware and Bakeware are staples in my kitchen, and they make cooking and baking for my family and friends, easier and better than ever.
Emile Henry Set of 2 Burgundy #9 Ramekins Giveaway on Mommy Ramblings Rules:
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My first would be my KitchenAid Mixer, it is actually my second one. My first was a classic and is still great but when we redid our kitchen almost 10 years ago, my husband bought me a bigger, badder one that matched our stainless steel appliances. I have the KitchenAid Professional 600 Series Bowl Lift Mixer in liquid graphite.
I never use anything else to mix up dough, cookie batters, cakes, frosting and so much more. It is definitely at top of my kitchen essentials list.
Number 2 would be a good set of knives. I have a Wusthof Knife Set with Knife Block. However, in our new kitchen we have a knife block that is built into a cabinet and a drawer with knife storage so we will be storing our knives there. With or without the block they are a great set of knives and tools.
I use it to make all kinds of smoothies, soups, frozen treats and more. It works so well and I love the retro look. If you are considering one, just go for it, you will not regret it. I just found out they now make a low profile VitaMix with a wider 64 oz container that fits under most cabinets. I am still confident I did the right thing because these blenders are workhorses that last forever. I also like the retro appearance of mine better that the low profile models.
My Electric Tea Kettle as a tea drinker is my best friend. I can bring it almost anywhere like in my office and have my tea without any hassle. There are all kinds of electric kettles, my daughter loves her Cuisinart CPK-17 PerfecTemp Stainless Steel Cordless Electric Kettle and has it at her desk at work. She says it is the best and can have her tea at the perfect temperature any time.
Well, that is my top 11. It was hard to pick and I could go on for at least another 11 that I feel are essential to the well performing kitchen. I will do that another time.
In the meantime, tell me what some of your top kitchen essentials are? I would love for you to share your answers in the comments.
That round stewpot is one of my favorite cooking pieces so I was thrilled to try out the oval 6.3 qt stewpot for my beef stew. You can see a video of me preparing this stew below:
The benefits of Flame ceramic is that it provides for slow, even cooking which brings out the flavors in your food. The lid is designed to make sure the flavored condensation circulates inside thanks to the dots underneath. The stewpots are made to be used on all types of stove tops, even induction with the addition of an induction disk. They also work in the oven and are dishwasher safe for easy clean up. Their color remains as beautiful and vibrant as ever through all that!
All Emile Henry products are made in France and come with a ten year warranty! We love the Emile Henry Stewpot so much we are adding it to our 2016 Holiday Gift Guide at Mommy Ramblings.
We also have a giveaway below where you can enter for your chance to win an Emile Henry Oval 6.3 qt Stewpot! Be sure and enter our giveaway for a Emile Henry Bread Loaf Baker and Butter Pot!
Emile Henry is sponsoring a giveaway on Mommy Ramblings! One lucky blog reader will win a 6.3 QT. Emile Henry Stewpot! Thank you to Emile Henry for the review product and for sponsoring this fantastic giveaway on Mommy Ramblings!!! Open to US residents.
Emile Henry 6.3 QT Stewpot Giveaway on Mommy Ramblings Rules:
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If you are looking for pointers, I can help. I will tell you that I do use bread flour, I add a little more sugar than my recipe calls for and make sure to use fresh, active dry yeast. The recipe I use is easy, it is actually the same recipe I use when I make my round bread in the Emile & Henry Bread Cloche. I do not change a thing, the only thing I do differently, is use the Emile & Henry Bread Loaf Baker.
This is the recipe I use:
3 cups of bread flour
1 cup of warm water (95 degrees F)
2 tsp of salt
2 tsp of granulated sugar
2 tsp of dried baker’s yeast
2 tbsp of milk
In a large bowl mix the bread flour, salt, sugar and dried yeast.
Pour in the warm water and knead for about 2-3 minutes.
Put the covered bowl in a warm place away from drafts to rise for 20 minutes. Uncover the dough and knead to remove the carbon dioxide, form the dough into a loaf. Grease the bread loaf pan with butter and flour and place the loaf of dough into the loaf dish. Cover with the top and let rise for another 45 minutes at room temperature.
Brush a little milk over the top at the end of the rise time and sprinkle with flour.
Bake in a preheated oven of 460 degrees F for 35 minutes and I remove it after a few minutes to a board.
Click on my video below to see me bake a loaf from start to finish.
We have a giveaway for this bread loaf baker and you can enter below. We will also be posting a giveaway for a Emile & Henry Butter Pot and Stewpot so make sure you follow us if you don’t want to miss it. We think Emile & Henry products make great gifts and we will be putting them on our 2016 Holiday Gift Guide.
Emile & Henry is sponsoring a giveaway on Mommy Ramblings! One lucky blog reader will win a Emile & Henry Bread Loaf Baker . Thank you to Emile & Henry for my bread loaf baker and for sponsoring this fantastic giveaway on Mommy Ramblings!!! Open to US residents.
Emile & Henry Bread Loaf Baker Giveaway on Mommy Ramblings Rules:
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The days are getting chilly and soup and stew weather is upon us. There is something about this time of year that makes it more comforting than any other time to enjoy a savory stew, flavorful soup or even a hearty chili.
I love to cook stews and soups this time of year. One of my very favorites that I grew up with, is Pasta Fagioli which means pasta with beans in Italian. It is a warm-you-up, stick-to-your-ribs, bowl of deliciousness.
This weekend I cooked a huge batch of it in my brand new Emile & Henry Stewpot. I love this huge 7 quart, red covered stewpot. It is big and that is good because being Italian we never cook a little bit of anything. I believe it had to be an Italian that coined the phrase “Go Big or Go Home”. We just always have enough for anyone that stops by. I have a big family, but stews and soups are so good the next day and even to freeze.
This huge stewpot is an entirely natural cooking vessel. This stewpot is part of Emile & Henry’s Flame® product line and can be used direct on heat (gas, electric or halogen), in the oven, the microwave, even on the barbecue. The cookware is highly resistant to thermal shocks and you can take it from the freezer and put right in a hot oven.
The cookware itself retains heat so your food stays hot longer. The cookware is wonderful for cooking simmered dishes like stews and soups but recommended by word renown chefs to use when cooking caramel due to its even heat diffusion. This stewpot makes caramel quickly and easily. We are going to try that out as my husband has been going on about wanting to make a sea-salt caramel.
Flame® Cookware is produced using raw materials directly from nature like non-treated clay, sand, filtered water and mineral oxides for the colorful glazes. So you know you are cooking in total safety. There is no lead, cadmium or nickel in them cookware and so no risk of contamination when cooking. The cookware is made in France from high fired Burgundy clay.
Since it is such an excellent heat diffuser as opposed to metallic cookware, it diffuses heat and does not conduct it. The cooking process is gentle and food does not burn, so you are left with the flavors of your food intact. Since it is such a great diffuser it performs well on lower temperatures. So very high temperatures are unnecessary and it is advised to start with low heat.
The cookware is very sturdy and resistant to mechanical shocks that make it a great choice in restaurants. The glazes used are very resistant to the dishwasher and the most aggressive of detergents
While my Pasta Fagioli was simmering I made a nice crusty round bread in my Emile & Henry Bread Cloche. You may remember when I showed you those last year. They are still one of my favorite kitchen items and the only way I make bread now!
When my Pasta Fagioli was done I served it with fresh grated Parmesan cheese and the fresh sliced bread. It was the perfect weekend dinner on a cold night for this family.
We think the Emile & Henry Stewpot makes a gift that will delight any cooking enthusiast on your gift list. You will find it on Mommy Ramblings 2015 Holiday Gift Guide!
Emile & Henry is sponsoring a giveaway on Mommy Ramblings! One lucky blog reader will win their own 7 quart Emile & Henry Stewpot ($240 ARV) . Thank you to Emile & Henry for this gorgeous stewpot and for sponsoring this awesome and extremely generous giveaway for our readers at Mommy Ramblings!!! Open to US residents.
Emile & Henry 7 Quart Stewpot Giveaway on Mommy Ramblings Rules:
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I consider myself a good baker but I never thought I could make bread the way I did last weekend. I had help from Emile Henry. I was sent the Emile Henry Bread Cloche and Baguette Baker in beautiful, warm red.
As I looked at the recipe book, I marveled at how quickly you could make bread, artisan style bread that looked delicious. I still doubted mine would turn out as perfectly. I started making the quick-bake recipe of the round bread and it was so easy.
3 cups of bread flour
1 cup of warm water (95 degrees F)
2 tsp of salt
2 tsp of granulated sugar
2 tsp of dried baker’s yeast
2 tbsp. of milk
In a large bowl mix the bread flour, salt, sugar and dried yeast.
Pour in the warm water and knead for about 2-3 minutes.
Form the dough into a ball and cover with a dish towel.
Put the covered bowl in a warm place away from drafts to rise for 20 minutes. Uncover the dough and knead to remove the carbon dioxide, form the dough into a ball. Sprinkle some flour on the platter of the bread cloche and place the ball of dough on the platter.
Cover with the cloche and let rise for another 45 minutes at room temperature.
Brush a little milk over the top at the end of the rise time and sprinkle with flour.
Make several incisions on the top and cover again with the cloche. Bake in a preheated oven of 460 degrees F for 35 minutes and then allow the bread to cool on the platter with the cloche removed.
The whole process was fast and easy and I cannot tell you how impressed I was when I removed the Cloche after baking and saw that beautiful round artisan style bread on the platter. It tasted as good as it looked and the whole family enjoy it right from the oven.
The baguette baker was the next thing I tried and even though the first time baguettes could use a little artisan tweaking the taste of them was better than anything we have ever tasted. The way the baker cooks the crust but leaves the middle soft and chewy is unbelievable. My kids ate those faster than you could say Bon Jour. The are definitely one of our new favorites and I only wish my parents were still alive to taste these breads because they would have loved them! I never knew that you could bake this kind of bread at home and now that we know, we are baking bread almost daily.
For the Baguettes we used the “Real French Baguette” recipe below:
2 cups of bread flour
1 cup of warm water (110 degrees F)
1 tsp of fine salt
1 tsp of dried yeast
I added about 2 tsp to 3 tsp of granulated sugar ( I added by eye)
Mix flour, salt and yeast in a mixing bowl and add the warm water and knead the dough about 5 minutes until you can form a smooth ball. Cover the bowl with a dish cloth and let rise in a warm location, away from drafts for about 40 minutes.
After 40 minutes, knead the dough again to remove the carbon dioxide and then divide into three equal portions. Sprinkle each piece with flour and shape into a rectangle about the size of your hand then roll the dough a little longer in length than the depression in the baguette pan and about 10 cm wide. Fold one side about 2/3 of the way over and then the other side 1/4 of the way over to form a cylinder shape.
Sprinkle the baguette pan with flour and turn the formed dough with the folded side on the bottom and place in the pan. Repeat with the other 2 pieces. Cover with the lid and let rise for 2o minutes while you preheat the oven to 475 degrees F.
After 20 minutes open the cover and brush with water, sprinkle with flour and make several diagonal cuts in each baguette.
Replace cover and bake for 25 minutes and then remove the cover and continue baking for 2 minutes until they are nice and brown.
As soon as these came out we ate them hot with fresh butter and they were gone in minutes!
If you like to bake bread or if you have never made bread, you have to try these Emile Henry accessories. You will not believe the bread you will be making and neither will your family.
Quality Bakeware For Breads:
Emile Henry enters the artisan bread baking category with the Bread Cloche. The ceramic Bread Cloche with its bell-shaped cover allows you to proof your bread directly in the bread cloche. The lid also traps steam from the baking bread to create an environment similar to a steam-injected oven. The steam gives the bread a crunchy, chewy crust. The Emile Henry Bread Cloche is sized for a round loaf made with 3-cups of flour. Recipe and Instruction booklet included. Like all Emile Henry products, the Bread Cloche is made of all natural materials and is backed by a ten-year warranty, which is not offered by any other ceramic manufacturers. Emile Henry is located in the Burgundy town of Marcigny, France.
The new ceramic Baguette Baker from Emile Henry bakes three, 13½inch long by 2¼ inch wide, artisanal French baguettes. The Baguette Baker traps steam from the baking bread to create an environment similar to a steam-injected oven. The steam gives the bread a crunchy, golden crust and a chewy interior. The Baguette Baker simplifies the process so home bakers have more consistent, delicious results every time they make bread. A recipe book is included with the product so even a novice baker will be confident in baking bread at home. The Baker, made in France from Burgundy clay.
Emile Henry’s Oven Ceramic bakeware and tableware is made in Marcigny France since 1850 from high fired Burgundy clay. The natural clay is unsurpassed for conducting and retaining heat. Emile Henry’s Oven Ceramic is made with an exclusive process to produce strong and durable ceramic bakeware and tableware for everyday use.
The quality of these pieces is extraordinary and the ease of use and clean up is absolutely divine.
Emile Henry is sponsoring a giveaway on Mommy Ramblings! One lucky blog reader will receive their own Bread Cloche and Baguette Baker- A $260 value!!! Thank you to Emile Henry for the review pieces and for sponsoring this awesome giveaway on Mommy Ramblings!!! Open to US residents.
Emile Henry Bread Cloche and Baguette Baker Giveaway on Mommy Ramblings Rules:
Enter to win using the Rafflecopter widget below. Good Luck!!!