Stew

After making the empanadas the other day and thinking about cornish pasties, I got a hankering for meat and potatoes so I pulled out "Best of the Best from New York Cookbook: Selected Recipes from New York's Favorite Cookbooks" and got a recipe for holiday beef stew. I cannot find the cookbook online, but it's published by Quail Ridge Press in 2001 and edited by Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley.

The last time I used this cookbook I made Champagne Onion Soup. Its Holiday Beef Stew recipe calls for Brotherhood Holiday Spiced Wine. I'm not sure if it's a cookbook or a drinking book, because every time I use it I pass out.

I didn't have all of the ingredients listed for the Holiday Beef Stew. Instead of the spiced wine, I used Bodego Septima's cabernet sauvignon. Instead of the onion soup mix I tossed in three chopped onions and some salt. Instead of carrot, I... didn't put in any carrots.

When I was making it, I was afraid that it would taste too beefy. I put in two large cloves of garlic sliced into thirds and threw them in while it stewed. Towards the end of the cooking, I put in more salt, pepper, and some dried basil. I also added maybe a quarter cup of all-purpose flour to thicken it up near the end.

I woke up in the morning, cleaned up the mess I made cooking and tried out another bowl of the soup. Delicious.

No pics now, but I'll try to get some soon.