Month: December 2007

I love to make soup but it’s only recently gotten to be perfect soup weather. My soup making tends toward stews. I want lots of stuff in the pot- not lots of broth.

Last night I went to my local store and saw they recently upgraded their vegetable and produce aisle to a much better selection and presentation. Good going Bravo, thank you! I can now more easily stick to my pledge to eat more vegetables.

Determined to eat less red meat as we are we still had to deal with the pound of roasted lamb lingering in our fridge pre less red meat pact. It was a little overcooked and really not that eatable all by itself. Perfect for reincarnation in a stew.

I bought lentils and celery,onions and garlic,2 kinds of mushrooms,although I only used Baby Bella for this recipe. Baby carrots,again, but no shallots;Bravo hasn’t upgraded that much.I used that bottle of cab,that famous 8 dollar too sweet to drink wine.I also cheated with a whole can of low sodium vegetable broth.One day I will make my own stock.

We had rosemary on hand and I debated throwing in parsley but didn’t.

This stew was very easy to make.

Chop onions. Heat on high large deep pot with a heavy bottom. A heavy bottom pot is best because we will be reducing wine and don’t want to burn it. Pour in olive oil-just a splash or maybe two splashes. Throw in onions- stir them and watch them, on this high heat they may burn-cook on high for 2 minutes then reduce heat. Chop celery and lamb(You can use raw lamb or beef or chicken or any of those,pre cooked) toss in with onions.

Let all that cook for a bit.Then turn the heat back to high and pour in the red wine.I didn’t measure but I am pretty sure I put in a good cup and a half! You will have to pay attention to this part.You’ll want to notice how high in the pot the wine was before it started reducing and then turn the heat back down when it has reduced almost entirely.Then pour in a cup of vegwetable stock or broth. Lucky you if you have the real thing on hand.

Chop up the whole package of Baby Bella mushrooms and add to pot. Put in about half a bag of baby carrots.You can use regular carrots, too, of course. I love how baby carrots look in the pot which is the reason I use them-that and I think they are sweeter. Rinse a half or quarter cup of lentils and throw in. Lentils are great because they expand when cooking and do not need to be soaked or peeled or shelled.The lentil is my potato substitute. You could use green or red, doesn’t matter, I happened to use green.

Tear off 2 large sprigs of rosemary and add to pot. Then chop garlic (I used 4 medium cloves) and add. Grind black pepper and add a healthy amount of paprika but be stingy with the salt.If you add the salt to the pot before you reduced the red wine you would stand the chance of having a very salty stew because for some reason reducing intensifies the saltiness.

I let this cook covered on low heat for as long as I could before my starving boyfriend lunged upon the pot and ate 3 bowls in a row (about an hour and a half).

The rosemary had a delicious nutty buttery taste to it. I had one large bowl but would have eaten more if A. had shown more restraint.

This stew would feed 3 people. A. eats for two most of the time although he is male and couldn’t possibly be pregnant. If I say so myself this was delicious.