Beef Stew with Currant Jelly & Cream

When I saw this recipe I was very skeptical. Beef stew with currant jelly? And cream in the sauce? But Cherrie, my friend, had just raved about this dish, said she and her husband both craved seconds, and leftovers. So finally, I got around to trying it. And yes indeed, it is very good.

Apparently it’s a Wolfgang Puck recipe. And if you’re not of the school that likes all those soft, soggy vegetables that usually accompany stew, then this version will float your boat. There are no carrots sticks or celery pieces, nor potato cubes either. There is, however, a mirapoix (that’s French for the mixture of finely minced onions, celery and carrots, pronounced meer-a-pwah) that’s part of the flavoring agents used in much of French cooking. And, it happens, that Trader Joe’s (at least in our area) is now selling a quart container of fresh mirapoix. That’s what I used for this, and it made the prep work on it so very easy. In this case, the beef stew meat is marinated in wine and herbs (overnight, preferably), then you quickly sear the beef and mirepoix in some oil to bring out that wonderful fond flavor (the brown stuff that sticks to the bottom of the pan). Then you add a bit of flour to help thicken the sauce, and add broth and the marinade before simmering for a couple of hours.

Since this didn’t have any veggies, to speak of, I should have added some mushrooms. I think they would have made a nice addition. And I served it on a bed of linguine. Probably not traditional, but was very good with the wine gravy. This recipe is a keeper.

Cook’s Notes: Allow the beef to marinate overnight if at all possible (I gave it about 7 hours). You can use any kind of red wine, although I wouldn’t use anything sweet, since the gravy is sweet enough with the addition of the currant jelly. Be sure to bring the stew JUST up to a simmer and let it bubble very slowly (below a simmer) for the rest of the cooking time (otherwise the meat will dry out). And next time I’ll be adding some small button mushrooms toward the last 10 minutes of cooking.

Beef Stew with Currant Jelly & Cream
Recipe By: Cherrie S's recipe adapted from Wolfgang Puck, via Our House cooking school in San Juan Capistrano.
Serving Size: 8
BEEF & MARINADE:
4 pounds beef chuck -- cubed 1-inch
6 ribs celery -- coarsely chopped
6 large carrot -- coarsely chopped
3 medium onion -- coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cups dry red wine
2 whole bay leaves
1 tablespoon rosemary -- chopped
1 tablespoon thyme -- chopped
STEW:
1/4 cup peanut oil
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 quart beef stock
2 cups button mushroom -- cleaned & trimmed [my addition]
6 tablespoons currant jelly -- red type
1/2 cup heavy cream salt and pepper -- to taste
1. THE NIGHT BEFORE: In a large bowl, toss together beef, celery, carrots, onions, wine, bay leaves, rosemary and thyme. Cover and refrigerate overnight, stirring a few times.
2. THE NEXT DAY: Drain meat & vegetables and save marinade and set aside. In a large, enameled cast-iron pot, heat 2 tablespoons oil until shimmering, add meat & vegetables in batches and cook over moderately high heat until lightly browned on bottom, transfer to large bowl. Repeat with remaining oil and meat/veggies. Return meat and veggies to pot, stir in flour and cook, stirring about 2 minutes. Add red wine vinegar and scrape up browned bits, add reserved marinade, tomato paste and simmer about 2 minutes. Add stock and red currant jelly, season stew and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally about 2 - 21/2 hours until meat is very tender.
3. Ten minutes before serving add the mushrooms. Just before serving, stir in heavy cream, season and simmer for just a minute to heat through.
Per Serving: 738 Calories; 48g Fat (61.7% calories from fat); 39g Protein; 28g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 152mg Cholesterol; 1327mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain (Starch); 5 Lean Meat; 2 1/2 Vegetable; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 6 1/2 Fat; 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.

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Adobe Stew - and it's vegetarian and vegan too

It was some years ago now that we first had lunch at The Gypsy Den, in Costa Mesa (California). It happens to be in the same small shopping complex where we, my DH and I, get our hair cut, so we often try to make appointments around lunchtime. Sometimes my friend and owner/hair stylist Rachel, eat there together before or after the haircuts. But most often my DH and I eat there. He orders the same thing every single time we go. Mostly I do too. He has their Greek salad. I order a crock of their adobe stew.

So after eating this soup umpteen times, I asked one of the waitresses about it. She brought out a sheet of paper with a list of all the ingredients. It was up to me to figure out how much of what. That's all I had - a list of all the vegetables in it, and the names of the spices. I was amazed at how good it was, considering it was made with WATER. Not even broth. Not even vegetable broth. So their recipe is actually vegan and vegetarian if you don't count the cheese. I love it just as well,

no matter what you call it.
The restaurant fashions itself as a kind of hip, but very funky, mostly outdoor place. The OC Weekly described it this way: "nose-pierced babes woo scruffy-bearded grad students with promises of Foucault and vegetarian chili."

The Gypsy Den kitchen makes everything themselves, including their bread. They have lots of vegetarian items, but also make some sandwiches and salads with chicken and tuna, etc. The food is always - I mean always - good. I appreciate the fact that they make everything in house. The waitresses are a trip and a half - often with tattoos down their arms, in rather skimpy halter tops, tight pants, etc. You might not want to take your aging mother here, although I am one. But it's a favorite haunt of ours nevertheless.

So one time I decided to try making my own Adobe Stew. I came up with a kind of recipe. It's not the same as the Gypsy Den's, I'm sure, but it's close. Each time I've made it, it's been slightly different. Do notice how dark the broth is - so I assume they used a LOT of chiles. Cumin also adds to a dark-colored broth, but not THAT dark.

You can also buy ancho chili powder from some grocery stores, and also at Penzey's - and in fact that may be what they use rather than the dried chiles. Here in Southern California we have all kinds of fresh and dried chiles at our markets. Poblanos (a fresh chile) are at most stores, and anchos are dried poblanos. They're very mild, adding just about zero heat to the stew. Likely the chili powder does that.

So, first I'll give you the ingredient list - that way you can interpret it as you so choose. If you choose.

Gypsy Den Adobe Stew Ingredients: onions, oil, tomatoes (canned), garlic, bay leaves, oregano, ground cumin, ground coriander, chili powder, ancho chiles, corn, green beans, zucchini squash, yellow squash, pinto beans, water, cheddar cheese and jack cheese.

My scribblings on the day the waitress brought us the ingredient list.

Carolyn's interpretation of the "Gypsy Den Adobe Stew":

8 ancho chiles (if you don't know these, click here for info)

2 yellow onions, chopped

2 T. vegetable oil

2 pounds canned tomatoes, chopped, including juice

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1 bay leaf

1 T. oregano, crushed in your hands

2 T. ground cumin

1 T. ground coriander

1-3 T. (mild) chili powder, to taste

1 lb. frozen corn

1 lb. frozen green beans

1 lb. canned pinto beans, drained

1 lb. fresh zucchini, chopped

1 lb. fresh yellow squash, chopped

About 3 quarts water (a guess, use your own judgment)

2 cups grated cheddar cheese

2 cups grated Jack cheese

When I made it I soaked the ancho chiles in water for several hours. Probably overnight would be fine. Then you'd drain them (save juice), seed them and remove stems. Then combine the juice and chiles in the blender and puree. Set aside. When I've made it I sauteed the onions first, then added the garlic, the spices and let it saute a bit. Then I added water - a lot - the tomatoes, and the reserved ancho chile puree, and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. Then I added frozen corn, frozen green beans, and canned pinto beans. Bring it back to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes, then add fresh zucchini and yellow squash, which went in last. You add the cheeses on top of the soup and not so thick it doesn't melt.
Per Serving: 181 Calories; 9g Fat (44.2% calories from fat); 9g Protein; 18g Carbohydrate; 5g Dietary Fiber; 20mg Cholesterol; 399mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 1/2 Lean Meat; 2 Vegetable; 1 1/2 Fat.

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Pork & Green Chile Stew

My friends sometimes ask me, "how do you possibly come up with all the stories?" Or, "how can you write about every recipe?" Well, it seems that every recipe has its own story to tell. That's what makes cooking unique to each of us. It's how recipes are born. It's how a recipe from a website, or a cookbook, your friend Linda, or your Grandmother, with a slight change here and there, becomes your own. A creation from your intuition (well, sometimes it's just that you didn't have any carrots, so you used butternut squash instead, and it totally changed the dish). That's the start of a story.

"You must spend hours and hours at your computer?" they quiz. Well, yes and no. I do spend many hours a day at my computer, but I'm not always writing my blog. The blog though - it doesn't take that much time really, since I like to write. Writing comes easily to me. I wrote for 20+ years in my career. Writing was a big part of the job - I wrote mostly newspaper and magazine ads for companies wanting to hire people. Those small, medium to huge ads you see in the help wanted section week after week. There are ad agencies out there that do just that. Not product marketing type advertising, but people hunters. Not head hunters, but ads to encourage and entice people to apply for jobs. A client, the advertiser, would give us, the ad agency, some sketchy phrases about the job requirements, and about what this person would do. It was our job to fashion those phrases into cohesive sentences and paragraphs. Make the words logical. And their sequence make sense. Sometimes we'd use some fancy graphics to make the ad stand out. Other times it was a simple 2-inch ad with very small type. There were times when the ads were very hard to compose, I'll admit. Perhaps the client didn't give us much to work with. But usually there was enough.

So, you see, writing doesn't seem like drudgery to me. I always thought, years ago, that I'd find my inner voice - maybe a voice that would write a novel. But the reality is that my mind doesn't dream fiction stories. My head writes food stories. When I began putting all of my recipes into the MasterCook software, in one of the text cells I find that it invites me to explain the recipe. No, it doesn't ask that, but it seemed that with every recipe I entered, I had no difficulty at all writing up something about it. About when I'd served it. How I'd altered the recipe to suit a particular occasion. Or used the leftovers. Many of my recipes have long, evolved stories about their origin. Or who they came from. Like the Cold Green Pea Soup from our friend Pamela in England. Or the Bishop's Bread I just posted early last month from my mother's friend Mary. Or my mother's Apple Crisp.

Spending hours at the computer isn't hard work for me. (Hmmm. Just ask my DH how many hours a day I spend at the keyboard. Oh. No. Scratch that.) When I'm cooking, there are stages in most recipes when it needs to cook. So I flit over to my laptop that resides here in the kitchen and start a new story. Or finish one that's in progress. Or input a new recipe. Or insert a photo. Or even take a photo. I usually have 3-4 stories in progress at any one time. It seems that there is a kind of a schedule we bloggers keep. Gotta write a story. Gotta write a story every day. Almost anyway. I do my best. Perhaps there will come a day when I will look at this screen and tilt my head a bit and say, I have nothing to write about. But so far, that hasn't happened. I still have lots and lots of my own tried and true recipes to post here. It's just that I haven't made them recently, and I don't like posting a recipe and a story without a photo. You know that adage, a picture speaks a thousand words. So true with cooking.

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So, now that I've waxed on for 500 words, it's time to talk about this recipe. This one started when I read a new cookbook I received for Christmas. I think I've mentioned that I constantly update my Amazon wish list with everything from cookbooks to kitchen appliances, etc. So our son and his wife gave me a book I'd requested, Cooking with Cafe Pasqual's, by Katherine Kagel, the owner and mind behind the fairly famous restaurant in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This is Kagel's second book, and it's a nice addition to my library. I read it from cover to cover and put little flags on the pages I wanted to return to. One recipe that intrigued me was her version of Pork & Green Chile Stew.

Saturday, DH offered to go grocery shopping for me (he loves it, aren't I lucky?), so my mind immediately flipped to the stew. I put together a list. Now, in order to make sense of this whole story, you have to know that her recipe calls for 2 pounds of pork butt, corn, potatoes and nothing less than 16 fresh New Mexican or Anaheim chiles. I wanted to double the recipe, so that's 32 chiles. I thought - whew, that's a whole lotta chiles. But oh well. So, off my DH went. At his second stop, 20 minutes later he phoned. They didn't have pork butt. What would I like to do? Also, they had not one single Anaheim (California) chile pepper. He didn't have time to go to yet another store, so I said forget it, I'll make something else tomorrow.

Next chapter: that same afternoon I was doing some catching up on blog reading (I read a LOT of food blogs, which you can see if you look at the list down my right column). And when I've been away for 11 days, the catching up took me a long time. So, I was reading over at CooknKate, one of my favorites, and lo and behold, she was cookin' a Green Chile. Wow. Really? I studied the recipe. It was completely different than the one from Katherine Kagel. She had found the recipe over at Homesick Texan, another blog I read. I printed it out and decided to try THIS recipe instead of the other one. This one calls for 4 pounds of pork butt, poblano peppers (aka pasilla), jalapenos, tomatillos and beer! So today my darling hubby went out on another shopping expedition for me. He's so wonderful. This time he found pork shoulder, poblanos, jalapenos, tomatillos, cilantro and a fresh bag of masa harina. I was off and running (in the kitchen, that is).

The prep on this recipe did take more time than I'd thought. I mean - this is just a STEW for heaven's sake. The chiles had to be roasted, the tomatillos shucked, onion diced, garlic chopped, jalapenos minced, meat cut up in chunks. But the browning of all the meat was the most time consuming, and you wouldn't believe the state of my wood floors when I was done. My rubber-soled shoes slid along. Time out to wipe paper towels all over the floor. Reminder to have that carpet cleaned.

And when Kate mentioned about the heat from this stew making her eyebrows sweat, she was right. She cut down on the chiles from Homesick Texan's version, I decided to do the same. I used all five poblanos, but I used just two very large jalapenos. I shudder to think what this would taste like with more, or with the serranos. Five alarm for sure. More like ten alarm. I like spicy and moderately hot food, but this was too hot still. I've altered my version accordingly, and have upped the masa to thicken the gravy a bit more. We liked putting the mixture IN a flour tortilla, and the stew needs to be thicker for that. And I had a larger bottle of beer, so used all of it (probably 2 cups worth).

So you see, recipes evolve and morph. What's right for Kate, or Homesick Texan, become right for you when you make your own additions (or subtractions as the case may be). In either case, this pork green chile stew is a winner in my book. I'm looking forward to the leftovers. We each had just one cup in our bowls (ample) with a hot flour tortilla. Delish.

Pork & Green Chile Stew
Original recipe by: Homesick Texan blog
Source: CooknKate blog, and yet adapted more by me
Servings: 8
4 pounds pork shoulder, butt -- cut into 1-inch cubes
3 tablespoons flour
1 pound poblano pepper -- about 5, aka pasilla chiles
2 whole jalapeno pepper -- or more or less to suit your taste, minced
1 pound tomatillos -- cut in eighths
1 medium onion -- peeled and diced
6 whole garlic cloves -- minced
6 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons oregano
2/3 cup fresh cilantro -- or more if desired, chopped
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups beer
1/2 cup masa harina
2/3 cup sour cream
Salt and pepper to taste
1. Cut the poblanos in half, seed (and remove the white ribs) and lay out on a roasting pan, skin sides up. Rub each with a bit of olive oil, then broil until blackened. Remove to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set aside for 20 minutes, then (using rubber gloves if your skin is sensitive to chile heat) gently remove the skin. It should come right off if you're careful. Dice the chiles and set aside.
2. In a large Dutch oven or heavy-duty soup pot saute the onion in olive oil until just cooked, about 10 minutes. Add minced garlic and cook for a few minutes more. Do not brown the garlic. Turn off the heat and set aside.
3. Sprinkle the meat cubes with salt, pepper and some flour. In a large round skillet (or two, if you have them, because this takes awhile) heat olive oil and brown the pork cubes. Do not crowd the pan or they'll steam rather than brown. The crusty stuff adds lots of flavor to the stew. You may have to do several batches. As the pork is done, add it to the soup pot.
4. Once the meat browning is complete, add the chicken stock, beer, tomatillos, half the cumin, oregano and the jalapenos. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and low simmer, without a lid, for about an hour.
5. Add the remaining cumin, oregano and about half of the cilantro, and salt and pepper to taste, if needed. Continue to simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. If you can see visible fat floating on top, remove with a flattish spoon or ladle.
6. Add the poblano chiles and simmer for another 30-45 minutes until the meat is fork tender. Use a lid if the mixture is getting too thick (or add a little bit of water). 7. Remove a bit of the stew liquid to a small bowl and add the masa harina - with some additional water to get it to smooth out to a thin paste, then slowly stir this into the stew. Continue to cook for another 10-15 minutes until thickened. Serve in bowls with sour cream dollop on top, additional cilantro sprigs and hot flour tortillas on the side.
Per Serving: 689 Calories; 42g Fat (55.9% calories from fat); 50g Protein; 24g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 136mg Cholesterol; 334mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 6 1/2 Lean Meat; 2 Vegetable; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 4 1/2 Fat.

To print a PDF recipe, click title at top.

Aromatic Braised Lamb with Prunes & Pine Nuts

I don't know about you, but I don't cook lamb all that often. It's expensive, for one thing. And it doesn't appeal to everyone's taste. We've been known to barbecue a butterflied leg of lamb on many a family get-together, but it makes a lot, and I never seem to do well with the leftovers. Cold barbecued lamb just doesn't lend itself very well, to me, to very many recipes. I haven't made that in a long time.

But I was reading Food and Wine the other day and a Catalan lamb stew recipe jumped out at me. You know how that is - it just literally jumped off the page with my scissors and demanded to be made. Whole Foods had some nice boneless shoulder roasts, at $5.99 a pound, so that was an easy decision. It's New Zealand organic lamb, which is even better. Although I do like our Colorado lamb a lot too.

In case you don't know about Catalan cooking - it's an area of Spain that borders on France. And it contains the city of Barcelona (pronounced bar-tha-lona). Much of the area is mountainous. Lots of sheepherders. Therefore, lots of lamb, I'm certain. Lots of fish also since the lower triangle of Catalonia is the coastline containing Barcelona. My DH and I spent 4 days in Barcelona some years ago. All by ourselves. It's a very cosmopolitain city - and European. The restaurants of Catalonia are legend, with many world-reknowned chefs having come from there.

Having grown up in San Diego, right on the Mexican border, I assumed Spanish food was much like Mexican. Altogether wrong I was about that. Spanish cuisine is based a lot on fish, actually, but with fairly simple preparation of things, and not a lot of seasoning.

• The core of Catalan cuisine still comes from the trio of ingredients introduced into the region by the Romans. The trinity of bread, wine and oil has been used ever since in daily life. In Medieval times Arab influences were also to leave their mark on Catalonia and classic Moorish combinations of sweet and sour can still be seen today in favourite dishes such as rabbit with pears and duck with fruit. (from ezinearticles.com)

What's important from this culture to this recipe is the combination of meat and fruit. Very common there. One trip to France introduced me to the affinity of meat and prunes. Prunes are a very common filling for a whole roast chicken. So I was very open to the suggestion of prunes with lamb.

This stew was relatively easy to make - you do have to tediously brown the lamb chunks so they get browned on all sides (I made nearly a double recipe), and not crowded in the pan, either, or they steam rather than brown. But once that was done, it's a very simple amount of preparation (onions, garlic, red wine, carrots, prunes and pine nuts). And a little sprinkling of ground ginger and ground cloves, plus some grated lemon zest.

It was absolutely delicious. I made it a day ahead, separated the meat from the broth to chill it, then was able to remove all the fat before reheating it and adding vegetables (I used carrots and parsnips). Confession time: I forgot to brown the pine nuts, but they added a nice little crunch to the finished dish. I liked the way they looked in the bowl. I added water to the stew when reheating in order to get the vegetables under liquid to finish cooking. The broth was very flavorful (helped, I am sure, by the overnight chilling) and it was nice to thin it a bit. I'll definitely make this again.

Aromatic Braised Lamb with Prunes and Pine Nuts
Recipe: From Spanish Food & Wine (A Crash Course), Food & Wine, Oct. '07
Servings: 4
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 pounds boneless lamb shoulder -- cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes

Salt and freshly ground pepper
3 garlic cloves -- minced
1 medium onion -- finely chopped
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/2 cup water

One 1-inch strip of lemon zest -- minced
1 Pinch ground clove
1 Pinch ground ginger
1 cup pitted prunes
1 cup boiling water
2 medium carrots -- thinly sliced

[I added 3 parsnips -- peeled, sliced]
1/4 cup pine nuts
1. In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil. Add half of the lamb, season with salt and pepper and cook over moderately high heat until browned on 2 sides, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate and repeat with the remaining lamb.
2. Add the garlic and onion to the saucepan and cook over moderately low heat, stirring, until softened, 5 minutes. Stir in the wine, 1/2 cup of water, lemon zest, cloves and ginger. Return the lamb to the saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer over low heat until very tender, about 1 1/2 hours.
3. Meanwhile, in a heatproof bowl, cover the prunes with the boiling water. Let stand until softened, about 10 minutes. Add the prunes with their cooking liquid and the carrots to the stew. Cover and simmer until the carrots are tender, about 20 minutes.
4. In a medium skillet, cook the pine nuts over moderate heat, shaking the pan a few times, until the nuts are toasted, about 4 minutes. Let cool.
5. Season the stew with salt and pepper and spoon into bowls. Sprinkle with the toasted pine nuts and serve.

Per Serving: 189 Calories; 15g Fat (74.2% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 8g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 36mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 1 1/2 Vegetable; 2 1/2 Fat.

To print a PDF recipe, click title at top.

Cabbage Patch Stew

Okay, friends. Listen up. I'm sharing today one of my very favorite recipes ever. I've been making this soup/stew since about 1966. That's 40 years. Wow. Even surprises me! So why have I waited 6 months to tell you about it, you ask? Simple. It wasn't soup season. This is one of those dishes that sticks to the ribs. Hearty. Hot. If I had a restaurant, say, Carolyn's Country Kitchen, this would be at the top of the menu as Carolyn's signature soup. Or stew. Or stoup, as Rachel Ray calls these kinds of concoctions.

This is so much of a favorite that it's going onto my Top Fav's listed down the right column. Now, you need to love soup and stew to like this recipe. And vegetables. And cumin (although you could leave that out). To me, the cumin is an important component, however, even though it wasn't in the original recipe; that was one of my additions. And you need to like mashed potatoes.

Many of you know how much I like soups, and that I keep a regular stock of soups in my frozen soup library (see my post about my soup library here). The weather has finally cooled off here in So. California, and my fancy turned to soups right away.

This recipe is very easy. A tad different than the norm. It came from a 1954, small, Betty Crocker cookbook. I even remember when I first made it. In Fallon, Nevada. Why I was there is another story, and why I should remember that, I don't know, other than I fell in l-o-v-e with this soup!

Here it is in the pot, stewing away. Note the thickness to it - I had just added the cabbage. Over the years I've adapted it with my own additions (garlic, cumin, shrooms, some heat, etc.) but the basics are the same. A ground beef (or turkey or chicken) and vegetable soup (cabbage, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions and kidney beans) with a mound of buttermilk-enhanced mashed potatoes on top. As you eat it, the mashed potatoes just begin to kind of melt into the soup. This recipe is very forgiving. You don't like cabbage? Fine, leave it out. Same with mushrooms. Add corn. Or substitute something else or just leave out the things you don't care for. But, when you prepare it, it needs to have a thick consistency - not a lot of liquid, in other words, but mostly vegies. Here, below, it's in the bowl, ready for the mound of mashed potatoes. The soup mixture is not thickened (like a creamed soup where you've added flour), but it's "thick" with vegetables.

I make this in a very large quantity when I do it because it's a real winner for freezing. I make the mashed potatoes too, and pile them into smaller Ziploc freezer bags (doing the same procedure, flattening them out so they freeze and defrost easily), then the soup goes into a larger bag. When I want a quick dinner I just take out one soup and one potato bag to defrost.

Now mashed potatoes become a weird duck when you freeze them. They lose all their form and become mostly a liquid. So just a warning here - don't be alarmed and think the potatoes are ruined. Once you heat them up, the starch firms them right back up again. Amazing, but true. Sometimes I even put the potato bag (smaller) into the larger Ziploc bag, then pour the soup around it. Then it's all contained in one package. But then you can't get so much soup into the larger bag, so I usually separate them.

About 7-8 months ago, before I had my own blog, I was reading Tummy Treasure, Erika's blog. She was trying to make some thrifty meals, so I emailed her this recipe. She liked it so well she wrote up a blog post about it. I was so thrilled! Wow, my recipe in lights! If you'd like to read it, click here.

If soup season has arrived at your house, I highly recommend this one. A lot. Our son-in-law, Todd, is visiting us at the moment, and he ate two full bowls last night and would have licked the bottom if he could. My suggestion: you need to order up a bowl right away.

Cabbage Patch Stew
Recipe: Originally from a Betty Crocker cookbook.
Serving Size : 8
SOUP:

1 pound ground beef (or chicken, turkey or soy protein chunks)
2 medium onions -- sliced thin
1 1/2 c cabbage -- shredded or sliced thinly
1 1/2 c celery -- diced
2 cloves garlic -- minced
2 c kidney beans -- canned, undrained
2 c tomatoes -- canned, undrained
2 c fresh mushrooms -- sliced
2 tsp chili powder -- or more to taste
1 tsp ground cumin - - or more to taste (I usually add about 1 T.)
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 c chicken broth - - or water
1 tsp beef broth concentrate -- diluted in water

salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 c water

POTATOES:
10 med potatoes
1/2 c buttermilk

salt & pepper to taste
1 tbsp butter

1. Brown ground beef over medium heat. Add onions, garlic, cabbage and celery and cook until vegetables have lost their raw color. Add beans, mushrooms, tomatoes and seasonings (and some water if it appears to be too thick) and continue to simmer for 15-25 minutes. The original recipe called for the addition of 2 cups of water, but I'd recommend about 1 cup, maybe 1-1/2 cups.
2. Meanwhile, boil potatoes until fork tender and mash them using the butter, buttermilk and salt & pepper to taste

3. Serve about 1 to 1-1/2 cups stew per person in large bowls, then add scoops of hot potatoes on top.
Per Serving: 505 Calories; 18g Fat (30.9% calories from fat); 26g Protein; 63g Carbohydrate; 16g Dietary Fiber; 53mg Cholesterol; 155mg Sodium. Exchanges: 3 1/2 Grain(Starch); 2 Lean Meat; 1 Vegetable; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 2 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.
To view a printable recipe, click on title at top.