Herself's Recipes

Bolognese is a great way to use up leftover meats. I prefer to use leftover ribs and rib roast but any meat will do: duck, chicken, turkey, beef, pork… The richer the meat the richer your sauce will be.

In a crockpot mix:

6 oz tomato paste ( 1 can )
6 oz water
1 cup white wine
1 cup milk ( whole milk or cream is best )
30 oz diced tomatoes ( 2 cans )

diced carrots ( ~ 2 )
diced onion ( ~ 1 small to medium )
diced celery ( ~ 1 large )
3 oz diced pancetta ( bacon will work if you don’t have pancetta )

1 to 2 pounds leftover meat ( shredded is best, diced very small if that’s not possible ) If you use less meat you need to cook longer to reduce the sauce, if you use more you can cook it a little less time before it thickens.

Put the crockpot on its lowest setting ( keep warm on some newer pots ) and cook uncovered for about 8 hours. You want the sauce to thicken up like a sloppy joe or chili mixture.

More traditional sauces use about half as much tomato paste as I have in this recipe and eliminate the garlic. Some people also add mushrooms. You’ll want to experiment and find what suits you best.

Bolognese sauces are also known as ragu sauces. The history of bolognese sauce is not clear. It was served in wealthy courts to noble families in the 1500s. The word ragu comes from the 18th century French word ragout. Bologna is supposed to be the city of origin. Beyond that not much is known.

I never seem to be able to make the orange sauce for duck correctly. I saw a raspberry port sauce in a magazine last month, and although an improvement, it wasn’t quite right so I tinkered a bit and here is an easy, great tasting version.

2 Tablespoons of butter
1 clove garlic, minced
Over low heat cook the butter and garlic until the garlic is brown.

Add:
3/8 cup red cooking wine
2 teaspoons raspberry preserves
1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 Tablespoon mustard
1/2 c fresh raspberries

Simmer over a very low heat until the sauce is reduced by half.
Serve over or on the side of roasted duckling.

If you are cooking a whole duck instead of just a breast, wash out the cavity and season the inside with salt. Poke holes in the skin so the melted fat can run off the duck and put an apple, onion and orange (any or all) inside the duck while it roasts to soak up some of the grease and add flavor.

I was reading an article about chicken Kiev in the NY Times Sunday Magazine and that turned out great when I tried it. I also found the seasoned butter goes well not only with chicken, but pork roast, boiled vegetables and seafood. It will keep in the freezer, and you can just chop off a chunk when you need it. This is a simplified version of the seasoned butter.

Seasoned butter

1 stick butter
1 large clove garlic grated
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 Tablespoon of basil, parsley or rosemary

Chicken
pound out chicken like you do for veal
wrap a slice of frozen, seasoned butter in chicken
place chicken in a section of muffin tin and bake
at ~350

Seafood
whip one egg
coat seafood with egg
coat seafood with bread crumbs
put a few slices of seasoned butter in pan with
fish and on top of fish and cook at 350′

Pork Roast
put some seasoned butter
in the pan with the roast and
baste occasionally while cooking

Vegetables
Use in place of regular butter with your
boiled or steamed vegetables