Jun 12, 2016 1:15 AM GMT
Tomorrow (Sunday) my husband is making me a beef stew. I can't wait. He usually cooks mostly Italian dishes, but he finally caved to my nagging. Even though stew is more commonly a cold winter comfort food, it's always summer here in South Florida. If we followed the weather rule I'd never get any stew. So we'll lower the A/C. 
I wanted something similar to what my half-Irish grandmother made. I was too young to know how she made it (I was 10 when she died after a long illness), but I do remember some of what was in it. And what I've liked in stews since then. He also looked up recipes on the Internet.
So of course there'll be cubes of beef, and halved small potatoes, pearl onions, carrots, celery, mushrooms, green peas, all in a thick gravy. Along with fresh herbs he'll cut from his garden, and some red wine. He can hardly cook or bake anything without using wine; that Italian heritage part of him can't be suppressed even for a basically northern European dish.
Then it'll get cooked for several hours in a ridiculously heavy iron Dutch oven I bought him a few months ago. It benefits me to indulge his every kitchen cookware whim. He'll cook more than we need for our meal, the remainder a reheatable leftover for later, and some we'll give to friends.
I'll report here on the results, and his exact recipe if I can get it. And next he's talking about Beef Burgundy (Boeuf Bourguignon), and Noodles Romanoff, 2 more of my favorites. Now if I can get him to duplicate my grandmother's vegetable beef soup (as my late partner succeeded in doing) I'll have scored a grand slam!
It's nice to be indulged like this by him, but I also think not a bad idea for him to expand himself beyond his Italian cuisine, which he's already mastered and is just repeating. I'll try to get his recipes and post them, right here on the RJ "Food Channel". LOL! Although his cooking (but never his baking) is very free-form without strict quantities and times, more experience & gut instinct, just like his Italian mother & grandmother did, upon whom he bases his cooking style.
I wanted something similar to what my half-Irish grandmother made. I was too young to know how she made it (I was 10 when she died after a long illness), but I do remember some of what was in it. And what I've liked in stews since then. He also looked up recipes on the Internet.
So of course there'll be cubes of beef, and halved small potatoes, pearl onions, carrots, celery, mushrooms, green peas, all in a thick gravy. Along with fresh herbs he'll cut from his garden, and some red wine. He can hardly cook or bake anything without using wine; that Italian heritage part of him can't be suppressed even for a basically northern European dish.
Then it'll get cooked for several hours in a ridiculously heavy iron Dutch oven I bought him a few months ago. It benefits me to indulge his every kitchen cookware whim. He'll cook more than we need for our meal, the remainder a reheatable leftover for later, and some we'll give to friends.
I'll report here on the results, and his exact recipe if I can get it. And next he's talking about Beef Burgundy (Boeuf Bourguignon), and Noodles Romanoff, 2 more of my favorites. Now if I can get him to duplicate my grandmother's vegetable beef soup (as my late partner succeeded in doing) I'll have scored a grand slam!
It's nice to be indulged like this by him, but I also think not a bad idea for him to expand himself beyond his Italian cuisine, which he's already mastered and is just repeating. I'll try to get his recipes and post them, right here on the RJ "Food Channel". LOL! Although his cooking (but never his baking) is very free-form without strict quantities and times, more experience & gut instinct, just like his Italian mother & grandmother did, upon whom he bases his cooking style.
