Monday, April 4, 2011

Stew review

Well, the stew was okay. The broth was a little thin. If I were more ambitious, I might have mixed some cornstarch and water and added it, but I lacked a container big enough to stir it into the stew. I had a bowl I could fit the batch into, but it was full.

Mushrooms would have been good in it. Fewer carrots. I just threw the whole package in because I didn't want any leftovers. I only can eat carrots in stew, cooked way soft and permeated with flavors other than carrot. The meat was tender; that's the best part of stew, is that the meat cooks till it's very, very tender. I was struck by the fact that all the vegetables in the stew -- carrots, potatoes, and onions -- are root vegetables. I guess those are particularly good for stew.

But enough about stew.

That reminds me of the old joke: "But enough about me. Let's talk about you. What do you think of me?"

As I anticipated last night, I was sorry this morning that I stayed up so late last night. Tonight I must, I really must, go to bed on time. Really. I must.

1 comment:

flask said...

i feel your pain, but the thing about browning things is the indescribably lovely complex chemical reactions that you ONLY get if you brown.

it has to do with long strings of proteins and carmelization of complex sugars, but it's just miraculous if you ask me.

it's possible to do a little of that ahead of time and deglaze the pan pretty quickly and then toss it all into the pot, but oh, my, what a difference!

full disclosure: if i make creamed chipped beef i brown THAT in a separate pan before tossing it into my precious little bechamel and it's only CCB, but oh, my.