Spring Stew

The calendar says spring, but today it felt more like fall. The wind was cold and rosy cheeks filled the majority of my morning. Gloomy skies and warming hands by the fire had me thinking about warm dishes to warm my soul once I returned home with smoke clinging to my hair and clothes. I hate these moments where I have the time and urge to cook, but don't have any recipes on me. Luckily we have data on our cellphones and there's a plethora of food blogs online.

I stumbled across http://paleoleap.com/ (and don't worry I've modified that link so you can click it and this blog will stay in one page while that webpage opens in a new window...technology these days), a wonderful site explaining what exactly the paleo diet is. If you're interested in exploring it further I suggest checking it out. It's a great place to start out and a great place to become informed on what this diet I follow exactly contains. I will mention here that I do follow a modified paleo diet, so there are a few more restrictions for myself and a few food items I include in my diet that necessarily aren't included in the traditional paleo diets.

Now let me inform you...I have a deep love for stews. A thick, warm, meaty stew is absolutely glorious at warming the soul, something I needed today. However, I find I don't make enough stews because I hate grocery shopping and always think I have to buy so many ingredients. What I must remember though is that stew is a great way to use up any vegetables that you have lying around! As I've been buying everything fresh as I use it since I'm out every day and have the time to stop at the grocery store on the way home, I had to buy most of the ingredients fresh, but it wasn't so bad!

The recipe can be found here, http://paleoleap.com/hearty-beef-stew/. I followed it for the most part, but again I must confess that I fail badly at using the same measurements as recipes do. They suggest it makes 4 servings, but I have plenty for 5-6 people. I bought a bunch of carrots (not like a bunch as in quite a number of carrots, 5, 6...a bunch as in a group of organic carrots tied together. I believe there were...6 small-medium carrots) and did not peel them, but washed and cut them up instead. I kept the tops of the carrots (the leafy greens) because guess what! Carrot tops are great for you! They're filled with calcium, potassium and vitamin C. You can juice them too and use it as a mouthwash. Check out other uses at http://www.thekitchn.com/5-ways-to-eat-carrot-tops-183415.

I used about five stalks of celery and a whole sweet onion. Tossing the vegetables in coconut oil, I added a potato as I sometimes eat these for a filler, though I try my best to avoid potatoes. While these were cooking on low-medium heat I began to brown my meat, something they do not mention in the recipe, but I recommend it. In fact I was reading about this before, a good trick for extra flavor is browning the meat in the pot you're using for the stew so that the juices of the meat and caramelized pieces which you can scrape off the bottom of the pan add lots of flavor. I shall attempt this next time I make this stew.

Once everything had browned I threw it all into the pot, opened the can of tomatoes and dumped them in, added beef stock and broth and a package of sliced mushrooms. A few dashes of rosemary and thyme with a sprinkle of salt and pepper were the finishing touches. Putting the lid on, I let it simmer for an hour, stirring every 15-20 minutes and waited in anticipation.

At the hour mark I took the lid off, gave it one last stir before leaving the lid off and letting it simmer another 45 minutes. Now I would be more careful with this next time. I found that the vegetables cooked too much, and perhaps I cut them too small, but one should keep an eye on how tender they want their vegetables. Mine weren't horrible, but they were on the verge of melting into mush in your mouth.

When I came back to the stove top my roommate had wandered home and informed me that I'd made our entire hallway outside our apartment smell delicious. Too bad she's a vegan, but kind of good for me as there's more leftovers of this delicious stew. Now I did mention that I liked a thick stew, and this is far from it. Because it doesn't really have any thickener in it (not sure if I missed this or messed it up somewhere) I found it quite liquidy. But that is okay! Because this is a spring stew. It is now officially spring. And the taste makes up for the lack of viscosity.

I worried that the meat would be tough and hard to chew when I browned it as it looked a bit fatty. However it melted in my mouth. I nearly swooned as I took the first bite of it and had to express my satisfaction of the tenderness to my non-meat-eating roommate. This recipe deserves a five out of five...pretty good for the first time I've made a stew in the new pot I purchased yesterday!
Tomorrow expect an interesting post on a remedy my grandmother has passed down to clear skin! It's absolutely terrible, but I had to try it to see if it works and am now making a second batch out of a total of three that she advises I drink.
Cheers!
V