Pantry Beef Stew and Greek Lemon Chicken Soup

 

Every year we hike down to Florida to visit with our clients who either live or winter there.  I pack a cooler full of fridge food and take bags of pantry groceries so we don’t have to shop as much while we’re there.  When we head home I invariably have some goodies from Bayway and from Ted’s Smoked Fish and from the citrus store.  And, a few leftovers.  This year the leftovers were pretty sparse.  A heart of romaine and a couple of bell peppers and half a sweet onion. 

 

Thanks to two days on the road and consequently two days of crummy road food, both of us had grumbly tummies when we finally got home.  The first evening we’d just gotten home and so we pulled out the Triscuits and the smoked fish dip from Bayway along with the smoked salmon from Ted’s.  Easy peasy. 

 

Saturday we slept.  And, slept.  And, slept.  Then when I finally got to the kitchen I really didn’t feel like cooking.  One of the recipes I’d read was from a Pampered Chef cookbook.  It was for Greek Lemon Chicken soup.  That sounded like it’d do really well with a grumbly tummy.  And it did.  It was so easy to put together.  I even used a can of chicken!  We had this for dinner and then I had it for lunch for three days and was ready to make more when that was done. 

 

Then, Sunday evening we felt better but after working all day I just didn’t have the energy to cook a big meal.  Pantry stew was created!  There’s a recipe for beef and noodles from a gal who used to own a noodle making business.  It calls for a can of beefy mushroom soup.  Something I’d never used until I wanted to make that recipe.  Then, I couldn’t find it at the grocery so ordered a case from Amazon.  You’re seeing what happened here, right?  Use up the soup!  There was also a can of roast beef from Costco that’d taken a tumble on its way to the shelf.  Dented cans should always be used asap as long you know when the dent was created.  Otherwise, they should be discarded.  Too risky!  Note please that I didn’t measure, just dumped…

 

Pantry Stew

Ingredients:

Handful of carrots (par-cook til al dente)

Onion

Garlic

Olive oil

Red wine – maybe a quarter of a cup

Tabasco

Worcestershire

Consommé

Beefy mushroom soup 

Can of beef

Handful of peas

Noodles

Directions:

Heat the olive oil to shimmering in a sturdy saucepan.  Once it’s hot toss in the carrots and onions.  When the onion is translucent, add the garlic and cook for a couple of minutes.  Then, deglaze the pan with  the red wine.  Add in a couple of good dashes of Worcestershire sauce and some Tabasco.  Then, pour in the soups and add the noodles.  You’re going to let the broth in the soups cook the noodles.  Finally, when the noodles are about three minutes from being done toss in a handful of frozen peas. 

 

Greek Lemon Chicken Soup

Ingredients:

2 c chopped cooked chicken

2 t olive oil

2 medium carrots, coarsely chopped

½ c chopped onion

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

1-2 t lemon zest

¼ c lemon juice (I used double the lemon)

2 T snipped fresh parsley (I omitted this)

1 can cream of chicken soup

42 oz chicken stock

½ t freshly ground black pepper

2/3 c uncooked long-grain white rice

 

Directions:

Heat the olive oil in a dutch oven.  Add the carrots and onions and cook until the onion is translucent.  Add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes.  Add the lemon juice, zest, cream of chicken soup, broth, and black pepper.  Once this mixture boils, add the rice, cover the pot and simmer on low for 15-20 minutes.  If you’re using the parsley, sprinkle it on top when serving. 

 

 

Drunken Irish Stew

It's Secret Recipe Club time and I got a FABULOUS blog this month.  In fact, the day we were assigned our blogs, I started reading it.  And, that evening on the way home we stopped at the grocery to buy stew beef so I could make this fantastic recipe. 

Don't you just want to grab a spoon and sit down with a bowl of that deliciousness?  I did and you can too!

Typically, I sit down with a blank piece of paper and make a list of the recipes I want to try.  Then, I go back through them and print half a dozen or so for Connie to read.  Then, once we've decided on one, I make it.  In the event we don't like it, I go back and make a second recipe...  I realized about 20 recipes into Amy's blog that I'd written down every one I'd read...  Hmmm, my normal method was not going to work. 

So, what is it about another blogger that makes you want to try everything on their blog?  Similar tastes.  In Amy's case, she's got such a wonderful way with seasoning.  All the flavors just pop off the page at you.  Her recipes are super approachable.  For example, Salisbury steak.  When I went back to get the links to her blog that's what her most recent post was.  Something I've never been terribly fond of because it's kind of blah.  But, in reading her recipe, she's got pizzazz in there.  It's a recipe we'll be trying.  Along with MANY others from her blog.

Here's how you find Amy:  The Savvy Kitchen.  I hope you'll enjoy Amy and her hubby Chris as much as I have!  Then, you can see other recipes from my fellow Secret Recipe club members below and at Secret Recipe Club.  To see Amy's original recipe go to Drunken Irish Stew.

What did we think?  Well, I was tempted to just stand at the slow cooker and eat dinner, but manners won out.  I did omit flouring the beef cubes prior to browning them and instead thickened the stew when I got home from the office.  This is the kind of dish slow cookers are made for.  That being said, this would also be wonderful tucked into the oven in a dutch oven for a few hours. 

Drunken Irish Stew

Ingredients:

3 cups diced russet potatoes, peel them if you prefer
1 1/2 cups diced celery
2 cups diced carrots
1 medium onion, chopped
2 T olive oil
2 lbs stew beef, cubed
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 T olive oil
2 c low sodium beef broth
3/4 c red wine
3/4 c Guinness beer
4 oz can tomato paste (the recipe called for 2T)
1 T white sugar
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 t dried thyme
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper  to taste
2 T cornstarch

Directions:

Put the vegetables in the bottom of your crockpot.  Brown the beef cubes in batches so they'll brown and not steam. 

As you're browning the last batch, add the garlic.  You want it to bloom and not brown.  Put the meat in the crockpot

and add some oil to the pan.  Add the sauce ingredients.  Bring the sauce to a boil, then reduce the heat and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes.  Be sure to scrape the bottom of the pan to release all the fond.  Pour the sauce over the vegetables and meat.  Cook on high for 4-6 hours and low for 6-9.  About 30 minutes prior to serving the stew, thicken it with about 2T of cornstarch mixed with an equal amount of water.

adapted from The Savvy Kitchen.  Thank you so much Amy!!!