Real Stew

Over the years, I have spent hours and hours calmly sitting by myself reading cookbooks. For those of us who are foodies, this is not uncommon. A cookbook to me is like a fashion catalog to a girlie-girl. As you can tell, I'm not a girlie-girl. Not that there's anything wrong with that--but it's not me.

I'm a nurturer. I love to feed people (especially on the weekends when I have more time to cook from scratch). I also love history and when the two loves come together I am ecstatic. It comes together in a cookbook entitled, "Real Stew," by Clifford A. Wright. I am big into soups and stews. I could easily eat soup every day of my life and be happy about it.

I bought this book a handful of years ago at first for the stew/soup recipes. But as I sat down to read it, I fell in love with the history Wright throws in with the recipes. It's a combination of travelogue, history and really good food. I loved it.

Ever wonder how to make Waterzooi? It's a snap. This Flemish stew is a delicious chicken stew filled with vegetables, eggs and a rich broth.

Instead of making Hamburger Helper for your family, how about whipping up a pot of Córdoban Farmer's Wife's Stew? This mélange is a cabbage and chickpea stew that has the taste and smell of cumin. Wright shares that this "is from the hilly farmlands around Cordoba, in Andalusia. It is called an olla cortijera de Cordoba, meaning 'the way the farmer's wife makes it.' and is an example of the simplest of preparations from cocina pobre, the 'cuisine of the poor.' " You can make it on the weekend when you have more time, freeze it and thaw it later in the week and it's still delicious. Toss in some buttered French bread and you are set.

The Córdoban Farmer's Wife's Stew

5 quarts water
2 cups dried chickpeas (about 1 pound), picked over and rinsed, soaked overnight in cold water to cover, and drained
1 large onion, chopped
3 large garlic cloves, peeled
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste
1 teaspoon freshly ground cumin seeds
1/2 pound Irish or Canadian bacon, diced
1 small head green cabbage (about 1 1/4 pounds), cored and chopped

Bring the water to a boil in a stew pot. Add the drained chickpeas, onion, garlic, olive oil, salt, and cumin. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for 2 hours.

Add the bacon. Cook until the chickpeas are soft, about 1 hour more.

Add the cabbage and cook for 1 hour. Taste and correct the seasonings, and serve.

Makes 8 servings.

(Recipe from Real Stew, by Clifford A. Wright)

If you are really daring you can try making Cacciucco. This recipe is on page 235. It's a fish stew from the Tuscan port of Leghorn. According to Wright, "traditional cooks add a stone taken from the sea to the stew so it can reach its true height of earthly perfection." The stew is full of bits and pieces of fish and shellfish. The ingredient list is a bit intimidating. For those who are brave, check it out. Me, I'm not that brave.

You could also try the Octopus Stew from the Island of Djerba. This recipe is from the Island of Djerba, off of the Sahel, the desert region of southern Tunisia, which was thought to be the land of the lotus eaters made famous by Homer.

I can't quite see myself walking into my local supermarket and asking the butcher for one pound of octopus and by the way, can you please clean it for me, too. Ummm....nope.

Don't let me scare you; there are plenty of normal sounding/ingredient recipes. You can make some wonderful Beef Burgundy, Irish Stew, Hungarian Goulash and Old Fashioned American Stew.

The world of stews and soups are at your fingertips with this cookbook.

Check it out. It's well worth the journey.

Real Stew: 300 Recipes for Authentic Home-Cooked Cassoulet, Gumbo, Chili, Curry, Minestrone, Bouillabaisse, Stroganoff, Goulash, Chowder and Much More

by Clifford A. Wright

Publisher: Harvard Common Press, 388 pgs.

ISBN: 978-1-55832-199-1

From Scratch

As a kid, my first real cooking creation was homemade pudding. Mom never really bought snacks and after school I'd get the major munchies. I couldn't eat just anything from the cabinets as what she bought was for dinners and off limits. I had to be creative if I wanted to eat.

What Mom did have was staples in her pantry. Flour, sugar, salt, cocoa and other basics were lined up nice and neat. The only problem was Mom didn't have any cookbooks. She made everything from memory. And as this was pre-Internet, I couldn't just pop on the World Wide Web and check out a recipe to make a snack from scratch.

So I became creative. I love chocolate, so I pulled out the cocoa. I tried to visualize what was in pudding. I thought of milk, vanilla and sugar. I had no clue about measurements when it came to the ingredients. It took a lot of experimentation to creative anything that was edible. I truly believe that my early pudding recipes was where my love for dark chocolate began--using Hershey's cocoa made for some deep, dark pudding.

I'd make small batches and would spoon the dark, gelatinous goodness while hiding from my siblings in my room. I wasn't going to share. They wouldn't have shared with me. Lol

I know for a fact this is where my love of cooking began--especially cooking from scratch. I truly respect how hard it is to make something from nothing. I take great pride in the fact that I can bake and cook from scratch. Cakes, cinnamon rolls, ice cream, candy and cookies. I do not need a stinking box mix. Give me the staples and I will create you some goodies.

It could be why I also collect cookbooks. Mama never had them, but now I have hundreds of them. You think I jest? I have bookcases full of them. My cookbooks cover a wide range of subjects, tastes, countries and are old to more recent. My oldest is from the 1800s, the strangest might be the road kill collection. Among my favorite cookbooks are my Taste of Home cookbooks because it's real recipes by real cooks. I love my Paula Deen books (her banana pudding recipe is a holiday staple for us). I also have a signed cookbook by Emeril Lagasse.

I have a collection of recipe cards that belonged to my husband's late Granny and Mother. Granny made amazing candy from scratch. I loved the homemade rolls his mother and grandmother made. Amazing tasting and they made it look so easy when I know it's not. I miss them. Women like Granny, Gwen (Jerry's mother) and my mother made their gravy from scratch. It's an art that I find hard to master. I know it's a matter of letting the roux cook the flour, you can't be too quick or it won't taste right.

Cooking means love to me. I love my family, so I cook for them. It's probably the reason Jerry and I have gained the weight we have over the years. I love to cook and we also love to eat. Lol

Here are some of my favorite recipes.

This isn't my recipe from years ago, but it's pretty darn close.


Thick Chocolate Pudding Recipe

4 Servings
Prep: 15 min. + cooling

Ingredients
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup baking cocoa
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Whipped topping, optional

Directions
In a 1-qt. microwave-safe bowl, combine the first four ingredients. Stir in milk until smooth. Microwave, uncovered, on high for 2 minutes; stir. Microwave 3-5 minutes longer or until thickened, stirring after each minute. Stir in vanilla. Pour into individual serving dishes; cool. Refrigerate. Garnish with whipped topping if desired. Yield: 4 servings.


http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes

----


Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding

INGREDIENTS
2 bags Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies
6 to 8 bananas, sliced
2 cups milk
1 (5-ounce) box instant French vanilla pudding
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12-ounce) container frozen whipped topping thawed or equal amount sweetened whipped cream

DIRECTIONS
Line the bottom of a 13-by-9-by-2-inch dish with one bag of cookies and layer bananas on top.

In a bowl, combine the milk and pudding mix and blend well using a handheld electric mixer. Using another bowl, combine the cream cheese and condensed milk together and mix until smooth. Fold the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture. Add the cream cheese mixture to the pudding mixture and stir until well blended. Pour the mixture over the cookies and bananas and cover with the remaining cookies. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Recipe from Paula Deen, as seen in The Lady & Sons Just Desserts: More Than 120 Sweet Temptations from Savannah's Favorite Restaurant, (Simon & Shuster).

---



Bailey's No Bake Cookies

This was passed down to me right after I married Jerry from his mother Gwen. My family loves these delicious cookies. Be careful, if you eat too many of them in a short time you will get a sugar-rush headache!

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1 cube butter
3 tablespoons cocoa
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups Minute Oatmeal

Directions:

Mix the first four ingredients in a pan and let it reach boiling. Stir often. After it has reached the boiling point, let it boil a hard boil for about five minutes.

Add the peanut butter, and vanilla. Let it boil again for one minute.

Remove from stove and add the 3 cups of oatmeal. Stir well to coat everything together.

Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper. Let it set until hardened.

Enjoy with a cold glass of milk!

Random Food Thoughts

I had to laugh at myself today. In a flash of awareness I realized how different I must be than most people. As we go through our workday, random thoughts flitter across our minds. Whereas for me, those thoughts usually tie to cooking. Not that I'm a chef. Far from it. I just like to cook. But what I really enjoy cooking are desserts. There is a reason my husband and I are a tad bit overweight. lol

So there I was, processing a handful of payrolls and what am I thinking about? A chocolate cake recipe I am thinking about trying out. I have this great recipe for a chocolate cake from scratch. I've made it before, but with a peanut butter frosting. I was thinking I could make the batter, but pour it into a bundt cake pan instead of a 9x13 pan and then create a flavorful center for it. I have some great blackberry preserves and I thought, "Wow, I wonder if I can mix that in some cream cheese to make a delicious filling for the cake?"

That's not the normal thing a person thinks about during their work day. At least, I don't think they do. I am not sure what it is about desserts that I love so much, but I can cook those until I pass out. I love being creative and mixing them up.

Regular food, I just process out to eat. Spaghetti, sloppy joes and the such are normal meals. I don't get creative with those because they mainly explode into doggie food if I do.

But I have to say, I do make kick ass desserts.

I'm thinking about melting some of those blackberry preserves and pouring them over the bundt cake when it's done as a glaze. Maybe add some fresh blackberries over the top.

I wonder what it would taste like, if I do? What thoughts go through your minds?


-----------------

Best Scratch Chocolate Cake Ever

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup baking cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup brewed coffee, room temperature

Directions:
In a mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat for 2 minutes. Stir in coffee (batter will be thin).
Pour into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan. Bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.