A stew from the old world.

Those that know me know I am big into Western Civ and food. Unfortunately I eat more than I read and instead of my old world knowledge growing, my waist does.

With the cooler temps in town I've been hankering for some root veggies. However, I wanted to put a theme to the meal, and in the interest of health I had hoped to reduce calorie intake as well. Stew, at least in my house was either one of two things; Veggie, with such worldly ingredients such as corn, okra, tomatoes and potatoes, or Beef, which generally had potatoes and carrots along with the meat. Both of these are very fine and quite traditional meals. I shun them not. However, they do contain some food from the new world.

In fact, it has long interested me how many foods our European ancestors snatched from the Americas and claimed as their own. For example, the Italians and all their culinary glory, are nothing more than food usurpers. Tomatoes, are a South American native, and are about as Italian as the eggplant which is from India or noodles, aka pasta, which are Chinese... Shall I go on? Still to be fair, I'm an Irishman by heritage and us Irish are know for potatoes. Which were first cultivated in the mountains around the Bolivia/Peru region. In other words the Irish have a bit of false foods as well.

Where was I?

Ah yes, with all these foods from the new world, along with peppers, sweet potatoes, corn, squash, both summer and winter, it's hard to understand just what Europe ate up until they sailed into the West. What does that leave? More than you may think, but take away just the two big boys, tomatoes and potatoes and you've got one hungry continent, from Madrid to Moscow and all places in between. I keep getting distracted. Grains, greens and roots. That's about it. It is with the roots that I am concerned with today. Most originate in what used to be Persia, the Iran region today. From there they moved into Europe over time.

Without further adieu, the ingredients: rutabaga, turnips, carrots, and parsnips. Now I left out a couple of others you may think about. Beets, the other major root, and onions and garlic. I used the latter two, but these are bulbs, not roots. Again, distraction.


Ingredient list:
2 sausages of your choice
1 rutabaga
2 carrots
2 parsnips
1 onion
2 celery stalks
a handful of mushrooms
salt, pepper and herbs.

Heat a heavy pot over medium heat and remove casings from sausage and cook until thoroughly browned. Really let these get brown.
While this cooks, peel and dice all those veggies.
Once the sausage is done, drain thoroughly and add veggies to the pot. Let them cook for a few minutes and then add the meat, salt, herbs, and enough water to cover.
Bring to boil and then reduce to simmer away for an hour or two.
Easily serves 4.

Pretty simple, yeah? The herbs are your choice, I used tarragon, a pinch of thyme and a bit of rosemary. The sausage is optional as well, I used brats. Also, note that I did not mention the turnips, or the garlic. I did make a garlic paste and threw that in, but I personally couldn't tell I used any. The turnips, I left out because I thought they would taste too similarly to the rutabaga.

After eating on this stew for a couple days, I was ready for something different. I roasted the turnips, with mushrooms, red onion, and whole garlic cloves, as well as parsnips and carrots. This method produced a much better flavor than just the boiling method, but that is no surprise. I will roast everything next time before putting the stew together. However, the difference between the turnips and the rutabagas was quite pronounced. I know this because left overs from both the stew and the roasted veggies were combined into one, delightful meal.

No potatoes, old school... I think these roots are lower in calories than the potatoes, which are tubers, or stems, not roots. Hmm, I'd better check that.

In a garden far far away...

First: I am sorry to the reader(s) of this blog for my lack of posts. This is a gardening blog, rightly so, the most severe drought in 50 years in this region, and the month of 100+ degree days kind of put me out of the mood. The fungus that I let go too long ended up killing nearly all of my tomato plants, but not before they paid off. The tomatoes were well worth the trouble I put in them, raising them from seed, and babying them so much my wife began to question my fidelity. After a month of dormant growth and neglect on my part, during which I changed jobs, started the fall semester and began a crazy house hunting campaign, the plants did something unexpected. They began to grow, flower and produce like it was May all over again. Going from brown crusty stems to vibrant bright green shoots over night, they are still on the mend, but laidened with fruits. I'm crossing my fingers for a fall crop of ripe, or semi-ripe tomatoes.

Second: After a couple of nights in the 40s, a welcomed break from the evil heat, something happened... The onions I set out this summer, bunching onions as they were called in the catalog, or as we call them in the West, scallions, which never grew more than chive size, began to take on a swamp-thing like growth spert. They quadrupled in size in a week, but what was more shocking was the seeds that I had planted, and thought died, never sprouting, sprouted near their now gigantor garden mates. That is when I learned about cold treatments for seeds, or stratification. Lettuce and onions are the two things I had the poorest luck in growing. Turns out I just needed to let those seeds chill out.

Right, well, I replanted enough lettuce to choke a rabbit. We'll see about that as well.

My posts may not be as frequent as when the blog opened, we are busy, but when we find a place, then steps in creating a real garden spot will be shared with all. Cross your fingers for Turkey Tomatoes.