Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Weekend Cookbook Challenge 12 - Stew

This months Weekend Cookbook Challenge - number 12 by the way! - is being hosted by Shaun of the California blog Winter Skies, Kitchen Aglow, and I could not be happier. Shaun has a lovely site and he cooks some delicious food. Shaun chose STEW as the theme and it is perfect timing - we got a huge dump of snow today. It is feeling very wintry right now.

A couple of years ago I received Company's Coming Stews, Chilies and Chowders for Christmas. I'd never even opened it until Shaun emailed me with the theme! But when I did, I had a hard time deciding what to make. I settled on an oriental type stew, for something different.

This was pretty good - I had it done in about 45 minutes and it was a nice change from the standard meat-and-potato stews that we usually cook. It also uses Chinese cabbage, which I love, and made enough for 7 servings, which means (the way Scott eats) we'll get at least a couple of meals out of it.

Chinese Style Stew
adapted from Company's Coming edition of Stews, Chilies and Chowders

1 lb steak, cut into thin strips
1 cup orange juice
1 cup water
2 tb tamari
1 tb sherry
1 beef bouillon cube
1 tb brown sugar
1 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp hot chili sauce (like Sriracha)
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 oz cellophane noodles
Boiling water (to cover the noodles for soaking)
3 cups chopped Chinese cabbage
1 red pepper, seeded and cut into thin strips
1 onion, sliced into rings
2 tb water
1 tb cornstarch

In a large pot over medium high heat, stir together the orange juice, water, tamari, sherry, bouillon cube, sugar, ginger, chili sauce and garlic. Stir in the beef strips and bring to a gentle simmer. Cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove cover and raise heat back to medium high. Add the cabbage, pepper strips and onion to the pot and simmer for another 10 minutes. In a large heatproof bowl, pour the boiling water over the noodles and let stand until the noodles are softened (3 or 4 minutes). Drain and add to the stew. Stir well. Mix together the water and cornstarch, pour into the stew and simmer until thickened.

You have until January 5 to email Shaun a link to your WCC post for this month's round up! Check the WCC site for all the details, or email Shaun at kitchenaglow AT yahoo DOT com.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Snow just begs for stew. Sounds like it's full of good foods to warm the soul.

Lis said...

Sounds delish - reminds me of my mother's home made chow mein - her's always had big chunks of meat and vegetables along with the chinese noodles, so it was more like a stew. I've never made anything like this, think I should get on that =)

Ruth Daniels said...

Sounds wonderful. Thanks for sharing this dish and for coming up with the whole idea of WCC!

Anh said...

Ths recipe sounds very nice. Like you said, a good change from all the meat stew! :)

52weeks said...

Sounds delicious and perfect for all this cold weather we're having. Just need an open fire now...

Sara said...

Tanna, you've got that right!

Lis, yes you should.

Ruth, thank YOU for being there every month!

WP, it's nice to have a change once in a while.

Simone, thanks!