Stewing over Saturday...

Well, this may be the first culinary defeat I chronicle on this blog. It was not a total failure, as everyone ate the stew and seemed to enjoy it (with a few additions), but it wasn't up to my normal standards. Ok, fine really the problem is that I didn't like the stew that much. I didn't like what I cooked! That has never happened before! Seriously!

There are a few "mistakes" I can point to that might fix the stew: for instance I used the wrong beer (yes I didn't like a stew made with beer, hell hath frozen over), I used half fresh/half dried herbs. Ok, there are two things I could change to make the stew better, if I ever make it again. For beer I recommend going with a good, smooth, dark beer such as Newcastle Brown Ale. I made the mistake of using Avery Celebration Ale, which is a great bear to drink, however winter ales tend to have some different spices to them and in this case it didn't work too well with the marjoram. For the herbs, use either both dry, or both fresh, I used fresh dill and dry marjoram and the dried marjoram was not right with the fresh dill.

This recipe comes from the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home, and it does say that you can use vegetable broth instead of beer (as if anyone would do that!). Now I made a massive batch of this stew for all the people at my house watching football, I'm going to tell you what I put into that massive batch, so feel free to halve it, or quarter it, as necessary. For this recipe you will need 3 medium onions chopped, 4 celery stalks chopped, 4 medium carrots cut into 1/4 inch slices, 4 parsnips cut into 1/4 inch slices, 4 potatoes cut into 1 inch cubes, 4 cups green beans trimmed and halved, 2 bell peppers chopped, 4 cups mushrooms (I used portabello) sliced, 2 tbsp fresh dill chopped (2 tsp dried), 2 tbsp fresh marjoram chopped (2 tsp dried), 2 bottles (cans) beer, 3 1/2 cups water, 2 tbsp dijon mustard, 2 tbsp molasses, olive oil, salt, pepper.

So to start, in a big pot, pour in a few good glugs of olive oil, then saute the onions and celery over medium heat until they are soft. Once again we don't want to brown them at all, just soften them up. After, add the carrots and parsnips. Mix it all together and let it cook for a few minutes. Next add the potatoes, green beans, dill, marjoram, beer, and water. Bring to a boil, then add the bell peppers and mushrooms. Next add in the molasses and mustard stir them in and let the stew simmer until the potatoes can be easily pierced by a fork. Salt and Pepper to taste. You may also want to add some more mustard, I probably added an extra tsp to my stew.

This stew looks gorgeous, all different color veggies and the brown broth, really make it a love dish to watch cook. People also seemed to enjoy adding shredded or cubed cheddar to the stew, they said that the cheese was a great addition. I would also recommend having some bread on hand for dunking, that was a big hit as well.

So really all in all not a total failure, but I didn't really like the stew, it happens I guess.

And voila, that is what I choked down ate for dinner on Saturday!