Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Leftover Stew

My husband has been the executive chef in our house for the past year and his cooking skills have really expanded. Because we've been trying to eat lighter, he's been making lots of soup, mostly experimental, but all good. But last night, he really blew my mind with his concoction, composed of extremely varied leftovers.

How varied? Um, like this:

1 cup Keema Mattar (an Indian dish of ground beef sauteed with onions, cinnamon, cloves, turmeric, cardamon, garlic, ginger, cayenne, and peas)
1 cup mashed potatoes (purple Peruvians, mashed with butter, milk, and horseradish)
1 1/2 cups chicken cacciatore, sans chicken (onions, garlic, chopped tomato, chopped and roasted red jalapenos--he thought they were roasted red peppers, and well, they were red, rosemary, and chicken stock)
1 cup chicken stock (left from making the cacciatore)
3/4 cup canned chopped tomatoes (ditto)
1 small bag radishes
Handful of baby carrots, chopped
frozen corn and peas

So what did this kitchen sink concoction become? A really yummy and spicy beef stew. Miraculously, the rosemary flavor disappeared, and the Indian spices were subtle. The radishes stood in for chunks of potato, and the mashed potatoes made for a nice thick (but not too thick) consistency. Because of the cayenne and the jalapenos, the dish was quite spicy, but with good bread on the side it was hardly noticed.

I brought the last bit of it for lunch today, and I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

No comments: