Vegetable Stew

Day 140

If you've been following this blog at all, you'll know that I'm a big, big fan of comfort food. Especially when it involves potatoes. So, stew is one of my favorite meals, right up there with roasted veggies.

Vegetable Stew

Laura's Vegetable Stew

Laura makes a really fabulous stew and there are a few different reasons:
1. She is really particular about the size of the vegetables; they all need to be pretty much the same size so they all cook at the same rate, and none are mushy and others too firm.

2. She also likes to have an even ratio of vegetables so it's not potato heavy or carrot heavy, etc. She usually uses two cups of each.

3. Another thing she does that I haven't seen anyone else do, is to cook the potatoes separately. There are 2 reasons for this: (a) so that the starch gets drained off before it goes into the stew and (b) so that she can control the amount they cook since she doesn't like overcooked potatoes.

4. She knows how to season a stew. Some people might try to wing it, or stick to salt and pepper, but Laura knows the kinds of herbs that bring out the best flavors. This time she even had some bay leaves that we dried a few weeks ago.

5. She makes the best dumplings. She makes little tiny ones, that are soft and chewy instead of the big, fluffy, doughy ones, and they're super good.

Stew Ingredients

3 tbsp peanut oil

Vegetables
4 or 5 potatoes
5 or 6 carrots
1 turnip (actually rutabaga)
2 parsnips
1 onion

Stew vegetables

Broth
1 box vegetable broth
1.5 - 2 liters of water

Seasonings
4 bay leaves
1/4 tsp sage
1 tsp thyme
2 tsp parsley
1/4 tsp pepper

Stew seasonings

Directions

Peel and chop all the vegetables. (Laura didn't use all the turnip nor all the potatoes I peeled, stopping when she reached the 2 1/2 cup mark to meet the ratio requirements. She had 1/2 cup chopped parsnip.) In a large stew pot, heat the oil and cook the onions until clear. Add the bay leaves and seasonings.

Onions, herbs & bay leaves

Add the turnips, carrots and parsnips with the vegetable broth and water and boil about 20-25 minutes until tender.

Boiling vegetables

In a separate pot, boil the potatoes and cook about 15 - 20 minutes until tender. Drain off the starchy water.

Potatoes boiling

Add the dumplings (recipe below) and cook 15 minutes, covered. Stir in the potatoes last.

Pot of Laura's stew

Dumpling Recipe

Original recipe here
Laura made two and a half batches of this recipe.

Ingredients

2-1/2 cups flour
1 tbsp and 2 tsp baking powder
2-1/2 tsp white sugar
1-1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp and 1-1/2 tsp butter
1-1/4 cups milk

Directions

Mix the dry ingredients and cut in the butter. Stir in the milk until a soft dough is formed. Pull small pieces of dough off the ball and roll in flour.

Making dumplings

Drop in the boiling stew and cover. Cook for 15 minutes.

This is too hot to eat right away. It's best to turn off the heat and let it sit for 15 or 20 minutes before eating. But of course that's torturous, so we don't, and we burn our mouths instead.

Hot stew

Reviews/Comments

Personally, I don't mind overcooked, or mushy, vegetables. I'm pretty tolerant when it comes to food. But, I have to admit, that Laura's stew is perfect. Absolutely perfect. Perfect 10.