In the light of the never-ending cold that feels terribly unfair but is, in fact, just a normal Canadian spring I bring you this to stick to your ribs and feel super good about life.
My birthday was a week ago (Happy Birthday, self!) (why thank you, self.) and we had people over for a scotch tasting fancy get together, which was a ton of fun and we all got to try many more scotches than we would normally buy for ourselves (those buggers can get *pricey*).
And what goes better with whiskey than a stick-to-the-ribs stew?
In fine "I've-been-drinking-since-breakfast" tradition, we made it up as we went along based very loosely on the idea of basing it on the jambalaya I make that we both love to DEATH (seriously, I'm making it again today.) but with out the beans and general southerness of it, and of course potatoes.
mmm.
1 large or 2 medium onions
3 cloves of garlic, minced
5 cups potato pieces (about the size of the last joint on your thumb. Yes, yours. I know things).
1 large sweet potato
1 can diced tomatoes or 5 fresh diced tomatoes
1/2 can tomato paste
1 cup raw barley
1 L veggie broth
1 can stout beer (Cobblestone Stout is vegan, or use Guinness if that's not a thing for you).
salt and pepper to taste.
microwave the potato pieces until half cooked and then toss in a deep frying pan with a T or more of Earth balance and pan fry with salt, pepper and a few glugs of the stout beer. The idea is that instead of the rather fatty Tofurkey sausages in the jambalaya, we replaced the fatty chewy texture with potato cooked in this way. Worked well.
chop the sweet potato into pieces, roughly, boil until cooked and then mash with salt and earth balance.
Chop and saute the onions in a touch of oil with a few grinds of black pepper and the minced garlic until the onions are translucent. Add the tomato paste and mix thoroughly and cook until the paste begins to turn browner. Add the barley and mix well and cook for another minute or two. add 1/2 cup of the stout and deglaze the pan, mixing well.
Add the potatoes, the onion mixture, the sweet potato mash, the rest of the stout and the tomatoes to the slow cooker and top with the whole L of veggie broth. cook on high for 4 hours, low for 2.
The result was a beautiful, very thick-sauced, rich stew that had everyone in the party wanting seconds.
success!
