The Rules:
1. Make a stew/soup/chowder/gumbo that will fill you up and keep you full. It snowed on Halloween up here in Michigan, good stew/soup is a requirement to survive.
2. Even though I didn't post one myself on the dish that won me this post, make sure to post a final plated(Bowled?) picture, as well as a few of the process. I like to hear about the thought process behind cooking too, if you're not going strictly on-recipe.
3. Sticky this post
We'll close submissions the night of 11.10.14, and have voting over the next couple of days.
Previous participants: ghostoffuffle, veen, Complexity, _refugee_, flagamuffin, zebra2, rjw, wasoxygen, thenewgreen, humanodon
THIS. IS. CARNE. ADOVADA! So this is a Northern New Mexico thing. I have learned that this is what we call Mexican dishes that have been tex-mexified not in the direction of Texas and Jalapeños, but in the direction of poverty and excess lard and green chile. Growing up, making carne adovada was always an extraordinarily tedious affair. One had to buy the right ristra at the right time. Then one had to let it age. Then one had to boil the chiles for just the right amount of time to reconstitute them, then one had to let the sludge sit on the pork for just the right time, then one had to add garlic and oregano and shit, and one had to put it on the stove for like two days. I called my dad up for the recipe. I mentioned something about my mother’s toiling, terrible recipe, which I was willing to improvise on. Since they’ve been divorced for about 8 years, my dad said “well, I can’t give you your mother’s. I can give you mine.” I’m so glad he did. Start to finish: 1hr, including 30 minutes in the pressure cooker. Czech it out. 1) GET A LOT OF PORK. 2) CUBE THAT SHIT 3) (add salt and pepper, because I’ve been doing a lot of Blue Apron and they salt and pepper everything multiple times and it seems to work) 4) BACON GREASE OHH YEAH 5) BROWN THAT SHIT 6) What follows is a brief interlude on “crushed” vs “minced” garlic. There are purists who say that garlic should always be minced because it tastes better. I am not one of those purists. I got into a discussion a few weeks back (ghostoffuffle?) about the amount of time necessary to crush garlic being equal to or greater than the amount of time necessary to mince garlic. Suffice it to say that Step (6) is intended solely as a refutation of this. All times include photography and herding a 2-year old sitting on the counter: 0:00 0:20 0:30 0:35 1:00 1:25 7) Here is the primary place where my father’s recipe and my mother’s recipe diverge. 99 CENTS BOYEE (granted you need two with this much pork) 8) with oregano, right before the lid to the pressure cooker goes on 9) We’re now waiting half an hour. Considering we’ve pretty much got “pork” and “red chile sauce” we’re going to wing a salad. 10) Can’t help much with the mangos, but here’s a special tool for nuking things. This benriner/mandoline was purchased exactly six months before OXO started making them. If I had it to do over again, I’d probably buy the OXO rather than the Zyliss. But that was 2003 and the sucker gets used maybe three times a week. Take that, Alton Brown. 30 seconds later: 11) Another tool that’s virtually impossible to find these days: A decent, old-fashioned juicer. My wife bought this one at a garage sale for 50 cents. That seems to be the only way to buy them. 12) with cilantro and mango and salt and pepper and, having tasted it, ginger: 13) Yes, I know how to cook rice. Yes, I still own a rice cooker. Not only that, I own what I think is one of only two stainless-steel rice cookers on the market. It is dope, and it is also used twice a week or more. 14) Serve on rice with avocado and sour cream. Or, since we’re health-conscious, low-fat greek yogurt. Tastes even better. Perfect for cold days. (recipe serves, like, 6)
Yum. Grubski is like a high stakes poker game of deliciousness where everyone keeps raising the table limits.
Bah. This is like the simplest of recipes. I have fancier stews but I was hungry for carne last night and it's stupid easy. No pressure cooker? Slowcook it all day. No slow-cooker? Put it in a pot, put it on the stove and cook it all day. Put it this way: when you're literally soaking pork in red chile sauce for multiple hours, there's very little else you can do to it to fuck it up. It's a klutz's recipe. Unlike my mother's version, which usually involved forgetting what you had been doing with your hands about 20 seconds after you whip out your johnson to pee.
Goddamn, that's a tasty looking dish. Wasn't me- in fact, I preferred crushing until a guest broke the plastic handle off my cheapo OXO crusher. Was always confused by the assertion that mincing introduces more oil than crushing. But you know what does it best? Mashing in a mortar and pestle. Followed a recipe that called for that and I was tasting garlic for days. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether or not that's a desirable outcome. Might have to put this on the menu for next week, goddamn.I got into a discussion a few weeks back (ghostoffuffle?) about the amount of time necessary to crush garlic being equal to or greater than the amount of time necessary to mince garlic.
You gotta get that polished marble deal, way easier to maintain. But the grinding is still a royal pain in the ass.
I'm still limping along with the same Eos5D I took to Thailand in 2007. It's not even a good lens - it's a 28-105/4IS. I've promised myself a D800 when I've converted all my slides to scans. Hiccup in the plan; I got sick of making a 1998 Minolta Dimage Scan Multi II SCSI work via Firewire so I sold the works. The next plan is a macro lens and my mother-in-law's Zeiss slide projector and then I'll automate. I only switched to Canon when Nikon steadfastly refused to go full-frame. Now that the D800 is like a gajillion megapixels at 24x36, I'll likely not just go Nikon, I'll go prime. I really miss shooting medium format and the D800 is as close to a medium format digital as you can get without going stupid $40k Leaf-back Hasselblad.
So, I just ate dinner and after reading through this and looking at the pictures, I'm hungry again. That looks and sounds really tasty. We don't eat a lot of rice, so I don't think the rice cooker would come in terribly handy, but that mandolin would sure be nice to have. We own a garlic press and I've never used it. It seems that some of the oils from the garlic wouldn't make it to the dish, am I wrong? Also, what is that blue tubular device? I hear ya on the juicer, they're nice to have. My parents have one. I use my little electric juicer at least twice a week for cocktails. It's bad-ass, easy to clean and super fast. Nice work KB. That looks awesome, I want to make it.
Get a rice cooker. You'll eat a lot of rice. ;-) Fried egg, parmesan and rice? Mondo breakfast. Pork loin, egg, scallions and pineapple? MONDO fried rice. And my daughter rawks rice balls. So Zyliss makes pussilanimous little garlic presses that break. I'm not iron man but I've shattered two of them. The Messermeister is a tank. Probably weighs a pound. And the oils from the garlic definitely make it into the dish. Especially as every clove you press goes through the last clove you pressed. This is the "blue tubular device:" (there's another video online of how they work, but the nebbish actually cuts the ends off before using it instead of just throwing them in 4-5 cloves at a time)
So rezzeJ beat me to the punch, but since I already done did this challenge, I'll post what I got. rezzeJ, that looks superb, but do yourself a favor and get a good knife! Cook's Illustrated recommends this one, and it's cheap cheap cheap. Even cheaper across the pond, I suspect. Anyways. Tarka Dhal Start with red lentils and yellow split peas: Throw them in a saucepan with some oil on med, and add these: Appropriately skinned and diced, of course. Also add some turmeric, about a half teaspoon. Looks like this in the pot: When that's fragrant, add some stock. You can use vegetable or chicken- I used frozen chicken stock from the chicken I made a couple weeks ago. Gift that keeps on giving. Bring all that to a boil, then turn to med low and allow to simmer until the lentils have absorbed all the stock, and become soupy. About 20 min, more or less. Add salt to taste. Meanwhile, chop up some of this shit: That's mustard seed, tomato and onion (duh), arbol chile. In a perfect world I would've had some onion seeds too, but I can't find them anywhere around here. Heat some oil on med hi in a large saute pan, and add all of those ingredients: Cook down until onions are soft. You should probably turn the heat down at some point. Make some bread dough in advance. This probably should have gone at the top of the instructions. Bread is the unsung hero of any stew. I submit that no stew is complete without bread. If you can make it, great; if you have to buy it, fine. But have bread with your stew. I made flatbread, because I've never been able to find a decent naan recipe. Here's the dough before grilling: Here it is after grilling: Finally, fold the sauted veggie mix (the "tarka" in tarka dhal) into the lentils. Serve piping hot with bread. I also roasted some cauliflower with salt, pepper and olive oil, finished with a little lemon juice. Finished product: I'm really trying to get away from brown. Hence the fresh cilantro and peppers. Tada.
So, when I think "stew," I don't tend to think "vegetarian." When I cook at home, I have to do it in a way that both myself and my wife, a vegetarian, can enjoy. I'm really not sure what qualifies something to be a "stew," but hopefully this fits. I call it Tomato Peanut Stew. Here she goes: Before you do any of this, start making some lentils and some rice. -I shouldn't have to tell you how to do this. Figure it out :) -I forgot to take pictures of this part. But it's damn easy. now... Chop up an onion, some garlic and some fresh ginger. Throw it in a pan with some olive oil. Add some cumin, some garam masala, and some paprika. A lot of people will add the spices later, with the tomatoes. Those people are stupid. I added in the "meat" like substance I bought for my wife. It is supposed to replicate ground beef. If I were you guys, I'd use chicken or beef and add it in at this point. With the "meat" I added some beer. It always makes me a bit sad to pour beer in to anything that isn't my throat. Next, add in your rice, your lentils and some diced tomato. I used a 28oz can, but that's because I'm busy as hell and in this regards, I was somewhat lazy. You can absolutely chop your own tomatoes, -You're a go getter. -Add salt/pepper to taste Now add in 1 cup of peanut butter, chunky is good because it gives the dish some texture. If you're not a fan of peanut butter, then dial back the amount you put in. It really, really thickens the dish up. This WILL stick to your ribs. Check out the spoon sticking straight up: When plating (bowling) it, top it with some plain yogurt, cilantro and some sriracha. Yes, that's my attempt at a sriracha hub-wheel: I couldn't stomach the idea of a stew without meat, so I bought some thai peanut curry sausages and grilled those up and threw them in my bowl: My wife really liked the dish a lot, while I wasn't as enthusiastic about it. If I were to cook this again, I think it would be better with thai noodles and not rice/lentils. Thanks for the challenge OftenBen, I enjoyed the cooking process. You asked to explain our method of cooking. I don't really work from recipes and if I do, it's more for inspiration than direct guidance. I don't measure spices etc, I just sort of "go." -It's a very similar approach to how I do most artistic endeavors. I know just enough about cooking to be able to "improvise" a bit, which is fun.
I simultaneously applaud the vegetarian preparation and the curry sausages! Those by themselves sound like the beginnings of some awesome meals. I wholeheartedly agree on the food == art thing. A friend of mine came back from culinary school with this book and I drool over it every time I'm at his place. It lists ingredients alphabetically and gives good pairings and flavor profiles.
A few things. 1) Any particular reason not to do the lentils and rice at the same time? 'cuz that's how I've always done lentil-ey soups and it seems to work... 2) You're perilously close to one of Bellingham's most famous recipes. 3) You are drinking the beer, you're just taking a roundabout way of doing it. And trust me, you want to use good beer. I once got a coupon for $4 off a $5.99 12-pack of Hamm's Lite Ice. We bought two - I mean, what's not to like about $4/case beer? Until we discovered that it was so nasty you couldn't attract slugs with it. I poured some in some ground beef while making chili and rendered the entire meal inedible. My roommate at the time would drink anything... and while we ended up having to buy Scope way too regularly, we had more than half a case of that shit left over when we moved out a year later. It might still be under the sink.
Back when I worked in restaurants a chef told me to never cook with any wine that I wouldn't drink. Same goes for beer. -rice wine etc get a pass. As for the lentils/rice -absolutely, cook them together at the same time. Truth is, the lentils were already done I just needed to cook rice and add the lentils to them. But again, I'd go with Thai noodles if I made this again.
- 1. Prepare garlic, onion, carrot, parsnip, and potato. Preferably not using a knife as shit as mine, and thus doing a much better job. 2. Fire up the hob and get that onion and garlic softening. 3. This dish requires curry powder. I made my own. I mixed: 2 tsp ground coriander, 1 tsp ground cumin, 1/2 tsp Garam Masala, 1/4 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp cayenne/ chilli powder, and a sprinkling of salt/pepper. 4. After a few minutes, toss in the carrot, parsnip, and potato, Cook for 8 minutes or so until golden. Whilst this is amalgamating, start preparing a vegetable stock. 5. Add your stock, and 1-2 tablespoons of your curry powder. Bring it to the boil and add lentils, along with any desired seasoning. Cover and let simmer. Give it a stir every so often as the lentils will sink and stick to the bottom of the pan. 6. Once it's been bubbling away for 20 minutes, remove the lid and allow it to reduce a bit if needs be. 7. Serve precariously close to the edge of the table for added flavour. This was legitimately up there with the nicest things I've single-handedly cooked. The potatoes and lentils absorbed all those lovely herbs and spices, allowing the flavour to permeate throughout the entire dish. A lovely Autumnal mouth hug. It just fitted within with my postgrad food budget of £5 a day. It could have been cheaper, but I was out of all the prerequisite vegetables. I would highly recommend, and I'll definitely be cooking it again.
This stew is made up of spicy root vegetables and lentils. It's the first time I've made it, and stew in general. Coming in with my Grubski debut
I present a spicy vegetarian stew
A decidedly delicious merging of matter
That will get you full, but not fatter
This looks delicious. Do you have a baseline for the amount of vegetables and stock used in this?
I adjusted the recipe for one person. However, the original recipe, which aims to serve four, states this: 700g Potatoes (Roughly 300g) 4 Carrots (2) 2 Parsnips (1) 2 Cloves of Garlic (2) 1 Onion (1/2) 100g Lentils (50g) 1 litre of stock (450ml)
In the brackets I put the amount I ended up using.
Both my cooking and voting mojo is all shot as I'm travelling at the moment. Between interviewing quantum physicists, managing a theatrical enterprise from afar and delivering vast quantities of British chocolate to LA-based ex-pat Aussies I may be out for the next few rounds. But damn them raviolis looked good. Good luck you souper chowdering stewpifactors.
Wow, great entries (entrees?)! This is a good challenge. But, I can't stomach another soup or stew. I just can't. It's what I've been subsisting on for the past month. By the way, I discovered that buckwheat is a great way to add a starch to a soup or stew and it's generally cheap and really nutritious.