Lentil Stew

The last post I did was for a bean stew... since then there have been 12 atmospheric rivers dumping a record amount of rain in California.  So I am still making bean stews!  This is an update of a winter squash and bean stew that I do with lentils.  Lentils have all the wonderful protein packed benefits of beans, but they cook much faster: 20 - 30 minutes.  Plus they grow with much less irrigation than other crops like wheat and corn. I'm sure we will sometime soon find that important again. And while I love winter squash in stews, they are gone from the markets, but this works well with pretty much any vegetables you have around.  I added mushrooms and cabbage to this soup along with extra carrots. Plus as always a bunch of greens - in this case I used collard greens which I love in soups.  

 

Rosemary and Bay from the front yard

Don't hesitate to add plenty of red pepper, or some hot sauce at the end. Yesterday's batch was a bit under seasoned - I added a nice spoonful of salsa which gave it a nice kick.  

Here's what went into yesterday's batch: 

Chop and saute: 

Cook .. Just 30 minutes!

Add greens (chop first): 

And its done!

 The recipe: 

Vegetable and Lentil Stew with Sausage

This can be a clean the crisper drawer kind of soup, with any kind a vegetable

 

1-2 tablespoons olive oil 

1-2 slices of bacon (optional, good if you don’t use sausage)

2-3 links of pre-cooked chicken sausage (or use pork sausage – sauté instead of bacon)

1 large onion, chopped

1 to 4 carrots, sliced 

1 or 2 celery stalks, sliced (optional)

2 cloves of garlic

Red pepper flakes to taste

Rosemary (1-2 teaspoons fresh), bay leaves (2-3), and/or Italian Seasoning

More veggies as desired: mushrooms, cubed butternut squash or sweet potato, green beans, tomatoes

6 cups of liquid - 1 quart chicken broth plus 2 cups water (or all water or all broth)

1 pound of green lentils, rinsed 

 

1 bunch of greens (kale, mustard, chard), stalks removed, chopped (or baby spinach)

 

Herbs, lemon juice, salt, pepper, hot sauce to taste.

 

In a large pot, heat the oil.  Sauté the bacon if using.  Add onion, sausage, celery, garlic, chili (plus any veggies that would benefit from sautéing like mushrooms), plus salt to taste (I start with a ½ teaspoon).  When onions are translucent (5 minutes or so), add carrots and other vegetables, rinsed lentils, broth / water and bring to a simmer.  Cook for 25 or 30 minutes, until lentils are tender (don’t cook to the point of falling apart).  Add more water if desired. Add chopped greens.  Kale or mustard greens need to cook 5 to 10 minutes; baby spinach is done as soon as you have stirred it in. Taste – add salt, maybe a squirt of lemon juice, herbs, some pepper, maybe some hot sauce as desired. 

Lamb Stew with Chickpeas and Butternut Squash

Happy Holidays!

Ready or not, the holidays are here! Its been a busy year for me: 

Lots of time in Arizona with family and friends

 a wonderful vacation to Italy (including a week long clay workshop),

enjoying life in San Diego,

continuing as an arts commissioner for the city (this year I am the public art chair), 

plus enough time in the studio to fill the kiln. It's ready to do my first bisque fire of the year - just need to resolve a problem with the plug (which I wished I noticed a year ago when I last fired the kiln), but still hopeful I will get the glaze fire done before Christmas. What I haven't done all year is any food blogging. So here is a recipe that is perfect for the cooler weather.

Lamb Stew with Chickpeas and Butternut Squash

 This recipe was inspired by a NYT recipe which used canned chickpeas and no pressure cooker. Soaking the chickpeas is essential so they cook in about the same time as the meat, I have also adjusted the spices and added more broth to cook the beans. I also do a “shake” to coat with the spiced flour to keep from getting a bowl dirty… so I haven’t made everything harder to do!

5 or 6 servings, takes about 1 hour 45 minutes (not counting soaking time)

 

8 ounces dry chickpeas
 
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander  
½ teaspoon turmeric
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup flour
1 pound lamb stewing meat, trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
 
1 onion, diced
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 quart low-sodium chicken broth
 
~ 2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
 
Chopped fresh cilantro for garnish
 
About 8 hours prior to cooking the stew, rinse and soak the chickpeas. I use the strainer and cook pot to do this.  The water should cover the beans by a couple of inches, and I salt the water with a teaspoon or so of salt. When ready to start cooking, drain the water and dry the pot.
 
Combine the spices and salt in a bowl. In a large baggie, mix 1/4 cup flour and 1 1/2 teaspoons of the spice mixture, add the lamb and shake to coat. Set the cooker to “sear” and heat the oil. Put about one half the lamb pieces into brown, turning once. Remove and repeat with other half of lamb pieces, adding more oil if needed.  Remove the lamb and set aside. Add the onion and garlic to the pot, along with any remaining flour in the baggie. Cook for a couple of minutes. Add the chicken broth, stir up any stuck bits. Add the lamb, remaining spice mixture, and soaked chickpeas. Pressure cook using the “chili and stew” setting for 20 minutes (10.5psi, quick pressure release).   When complete, add the squash then use “vegetable” setting for 4 minutes (7.5psi, pulse pressure release).  Serve topped with cilantro.

Pressure Cooker Beef Stew

Merry Christmas!  Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday.   Also ... for those of you with my cookbook ... I am in the process of doing an update which includes my pressure cooker recipes (some that I have posted here, some that I haven't).  Drop me a line if you want one!



One of the things the pressure cooker excels at is cooking chuck roast... everytime I have cooked various recipes, the meat always comes out flavorful and tender.  I am not going to promote this recipe as "easy" ... even though I have simplified it from the "weeknight stew" recipe I used for inspiration, or quick ... even though it probably does cut an hour off the time it would take to cook on the stove.  But this does make a really, really good stew.  Serve to company good stew.

I took inspiration for this recipe from Serious Eats Pressure Cooker American Beef Stew, but short-cutted a couple of steps.   It could possibly be even better if you did the extra steps, but I'm happy with how this comes out. A couple of the key items I did keep in is adding gelatin to the store bought broth (if you had some great homemade chicken broth, you could skip this), as well as adding some high umami ingredients, like soy sauce, fish or Worcestershire sauce (the recipe calls for both, but I don't keep Worcestershire sauce in my pantry).   I also shortened the cooking time... I have found that a lot of the Serious Eats pressure cooker times are just way too long for the Breville pressure cooker.  I think the Breville's cook at a bit higher pressure, so if you are using a Instant Pot, look at the manual on their recommended cooking times.  And let me know how it works and I will update the recipe for both types of cookers!


On the beef:  you really want to use chuck roast (or chuck steaks).  Don't buy stew meat, this is often a mix of miscellaneous small bits of meat, that doesn't have the fat and tough connective tissue that nicely breaks down into tender meat under pressure. One of the twists on this recipe is doing the browning of the meat while in steak form, as it keeps from drying out the meat while still getting the nice brown flavor.

And one last note:  if you like to just have stew for 2, make a batch of the meat but instead of adding the potatoes and carrots, cool down the pot, then split the meat and gravy into 3 1 quart containers (or freezer zip lock bags).   Refrigerate (to store for a couple of days) or freeze each of these.  When you are ready for stew, put the mixture (thaw first if frozen) into a medium pot.  Add a couple of chopped potatoes and carrots, cook on the stovetop until the potatoes and carrots are done (about 45 minutes).  That is a quick and easy meal!

Beef Stew

Serves 5-6… I usually figure about 1/2 pound of meat per person.  

2 - 3 lb beef chuck roast
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons oil or fat (like olive oil)
Generous ¼ cup flour

3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
4 packets powdered unflavored gelatin (1 ounce)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce or Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons tomato paste (optional)
1 teaspoon dry or fresh thyme or other herb (rosemary, oregano, Italian herbs)

8 ounces mushrooms (brown cremini or white button), quartered
1 large onion, chopped
2 - 3 ribs celery, sliced 
2 - 3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup wine (white or red, or use more broth)

6 carrots, peeled and sliced
4 - 6 potatoes, cubed (peel if desired)
More fresh herbs (parsley, etc.)

Cut meat into steak-like pieces, each 1 to 1 ½ inches thick.  Salt the meat.  Heat the oil in pressure cooker using sear function.  Brown each side of the meat (do in single layer batches), and place on large plate to cool.   Meanwhile, mix the broth, gelatin, sauces and thyme in a large measuring cup.  If you would like, heat a bit in the microwave to get to pressure quicker. Set aside.  

Put mushrooms, onions, celery, and garlic into the hot cooker.  Add salt and pepper.  Let cook until onions are translucent.   Add wine; scrape any bits from the bottom.  Let the wine cook down by half.   

Cut the meat into 1 – 1 ½ inch cubes, removing any large chunks of fat.  Toss with flour.  Add the meat to the pot then then add the broth mixture.  Pressure cook using the “chili and stew” setting for 20 minutes (10.5psi, quick pressure release).   When complete, add carrots and potatoes then use “vegetable” setting for 8 minutes (7.5psi, pulse pressure release).  Serve with additional fresh herbs.