Simple Beef Stew and "Garbage Soup"

Ok, so I've been out of action for a few days. Lots on my mind, and this is the first chance I have to put pen to paper before a week in sunny Mexico. I'm excited, not only to sip margaritas on the beach, but also to sample the local culinary wares, and I hope to come back with a few pictures for the blog. Below I'm going to sketch out two rather humble recipes that I hold dear to my heart. To call them "gourmet" might be a bit of a stretch, but at the end of the day, what is important is that food tastes great and fights off starvation. What is nice about these two recipes is that they can be tweaked to incorporate left over veggies, with little or no exclusion. Also what is fabulous is that they both require one (1) (ONE!) pot. If you have a ceramic pot with handles that your Mexican grandmother gave you, fabulous! But, if you are like me and try to cook everything imaginable in a spaghetti pot, you aren't dead in the water either. A thinner bottom means lower heat and more checking on your progress, but you are dedicated to putting out good meals right? It shouldn't be a problem.

Simple Beef Stew

• 1 dinner plate with a mixture of All-Purpose white or whole wheat flour, kosher salt to taste, ground pepper to taste, and about half a packet of Sazon Goya. Check out http://www.goya.com/english/products/product.html?prodSubCatID=8&prodCatID=4 for a picture of the box, it is the second one down. If you'd like you can add a half teaspoon of dried rosemary or thyme to the flour, but I don't.
  
• about a pound to a pound and a half of cubed stew meat. I actually like to buy a Halal flank steak and cut it into about 3"cubes. Why? Halal meat, like Kosher meat, is simply better. I could get into why, but in the end, it just tastes better. Isn't that worth an extra dollar?
• 1 medium standard onion, minced as fine as possible
• about a tablespoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (you'll never see me saying "EVOO" but I do wish I could abbreviate. Curse your perky hide Rachel Ray.)
• a pinch of crushed red pepper for kick (totally optional)
• 2 of the small cans of beef broth or an equal amount of homemade beef or veal stock
• 1 small (minuscule) Turkish bay leaf. I would even cut a California bay leaf in half since its so much more pungent. I'm going to call this optional because my father HATES bay leaf and much like a shark can taste half a leaf in a pot of food large enough to feed a soup kitchen. If you don't like bay or don't have it, I will never know, and I wont get upset.
  
• about 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, or about a half of one of those cute little cans.
• here's where it gets interesting, about 2 cups of diced or cubed (depending on your taste and how big a morsel you like on your fork) of carrots, celery, zucchini, string beans, even rutabaga or other tubers and bulbs. Be careful with potato and other starches though as they will suck up a lot of liquid and will add to the cooking time. With this said, I personally like to add about 3 potatoes that have been cut into small cubes. The thing here is to use up the still-good but maybe a little wilted veggies in your rotter, I mean crisper.
  
• About a half cup of frozen peas that have been thawed. I list these separately because... well... you'll see below.
  

Ok. Put on some music that is good for cooking. I suggest Violent Femmes because they let me bounce around my kitchen and wail poorly sung lyrics into the air. Flour the meat cubes and set aside while "toasting" the red pepper for a few seconds in the olive oil. I like to throw in a little more salt and pepper for no other reason than I like my stew to be tasty. Go figure.

Brown the cubes of meat in the oil on all sides before extracting with tongs and setting aside on a plate. If there is no more oil left, add a little bit more before throwing in the onions and cooking until translucent and soft. Add the veggies (except for the peas) and stir with a wooden spoon until they get a nice golden brown and have softened just a bit. I am NOT going to give you a time on this because it takes a different amount of time each time you do it. This is one of the reasons I think I believe in God. What's that, you might ask? Browning POTATOES? Yeah. Wanna fight about it? Admittedly, though, you might want to add the potatoes a little later than the carrots and celery etc. Nothing should get black and tough.

Add the beef broth to the pot, turn down the heat to low to medium-low, and return the beef cubes AND ALL OF THE JUICE IN THE PLATE. Plop in the bay leaf and let it simmer until the potatoes are falling apart and the beef cubes are... well... also falling apart. I think this is usually about 30-45 minutes, but again; continental drift, the will of God, altitude above sea level, and sheer fate will alter this time, so check on it every so often. I don't usually cover this because I like the beef broth to concentrate, but partially covering it will help the softening process. Once the beef broth is no longer cold (I find cold beef broth a little nasty) taste the concoction and see if it needs a little more salt and pepper. 99 out of 100 times it does. Add a bit more to taste, unless of course you got "lucky" this time.

Once the carrots are tender, the meat is falling apart, the potatoes are soft, and basically all the current elements have achieved true spiritual creaminess, it is time to add the peas. Let them cook for not more than a minute or two.

Last step is to add the tomato paste and stir until it has mixed in well. You will see that shortly afterwards (and by shortly I mean within a few minutes) the pot will turn from a thin soup to a thick stew. Turn off the heat and let it cool a bit. Serve in bowls with crusty bread on the side. Great particularly in the winter!

And on the same vein... Garbage Soup

• The meat from 1 left-over roasted chicken, game hen, duck, or goose (after seeing the first draft of this post my girlfriend insisted that the DUCK I used last time made all the difference, so take that into account). Whack the bones with a big knife or cleaver and retain.
  
• 1 or two ears of sweet corn, the kernels stripped from the cob and the cob saved.
• Just like with the stew, about 2 cups of assorted veggies that have been cubed.
• 2 small cans of chicken broth or an equal amount of poultry stock in any incarnation. (Do you have grouse stock? I don't know what that tastes like. Give me a call. I want to hug you.)
• half an onion, mince
• about half a box of spaghetti (broken into fourths), elbows, orrichetti, whatever.
  

This is even simpler than the stew

First, boil the spaghetti in salted water until a few degrees above al dente. You want it to have a little crunch still.

Cut the recovered meat into cubes or chunks (about 2 to 3" is good, take into account the size you would want on your spoon). Throw this in your pot with EVERYTHING. The onions, the corn, the corn cobs, the poultry bones, the veggies, the onions, and the broth into the pot. Simmer on low to medium low for 45 minutes to an hour. Taste along the way, adjusting the salt and pepper to your liking. Eventually you will sap all the flavor you can out of the corn cobs and bones, probably at about 45 minutes. Remove these elements and discard, and simmer a little bit more. That's it!

If there is any left over, after refrigeration add to a pot with a little more poultry stock and simmer, salt and pepper to taste and re-serve.
Enjoy!

James