true culinary confessions

[kindkit]

I threw the tripe away.

This would be the tripe I was cooking last week for a stew. After ten hours in the slow cooker, the tripe was still rubbery. It also had a slight but distinct unpleasant smell and a dank taste. I stuck it in the fridge for a couple of days, but couldn't bring myself to go back to cooking it. I don't like wasting food, but it seemed better to waste the tripe before I added chickpeas and sausage to it, so into the bin it went.

I ended up making a similar stew, only without the tripe. I browned some Spanish-style chorizo and some garlicky smoked sausage, added a chopped red onion and cooked it for a few minutes, added several cloves of minced garlic, then added cooked chickpeas along with their cooking water and a bit of crumbled dried sage. It was delicious. (The water from cooking dried chickpeas is very flavorful and can replace broth; if you're using canned chickpeas, I'd drain and rinse them and use chicken broth.)

At the moment I'm making a Thai-flavored vegetable soup. By which I'm mean I'm using the vegetables I had that really really needed using up--some zucchini/courgettes, some spinach, and some tomatoes--plus tofu, cooked in a combination of coconut milk and chicken broth with Thai red curry paste.

Soups and stews are about all I've really wanted lately, because it's been so cold here. Anybody have great recipes to share? I'm especially interested in ones without a lot of meat, or at least with the meat in the form of sausages or meatballs (or broth, of course), because I've been getting weird lately about the texture of wet-cooked meat.

Comments

[lilacsigil]

The problem with experimenting with new tastes is that sometimes it doesn't work out! After many sad experiences like this, we've made ourselves a deal that we only cook something new for a meal if there's a back-up (even a simple back-up like eggs and toast) because then it's only a disappointment, not a disaster.

A very simple pumpkin soup that can be made in any quantity:

Roast chopped open pumpkin (with or without skin) on a tray until soft. This can be done up to 3 days before.

Brown up some onions or leeks in olive oil in a big pot - also some garlic unless you have a problem with it like poor st_aurafina in which case use garlic-infused olive oil instead. Onions will give a better colour in the final soup, leek will give a better flavour.

Deglaze with white or pink wine if you like, or a bit of water.

Chop a peeled carrot or two, a peeled parsnip or two and about half as much peeled potato as pumpkin into the pot.

Season to taste with salt, pepper, cumin and (if you want) turmeric and curry powder.

Add water until vegetables are just covered, bring to boil, allow to simmer until the potato is soft.

Blend to whatever level of smoothness you like. Done!

Delicious with a bit of sour cream or Greek yoghurt added just before serving.

[st_aurafina]

You lying liar, you won't let me put curry powder in EVER.

SHE'S LYING, KINDKIT. HOW I SUFFER. HOW I LONG FOR CURRIED PUMPKIN SOUP. HOW I AM DENIED.

[lilacsigil]

I do too! I offer to divide it up so you can put curry powder in your half but you say it's too much hassle! Misrepresentation!

[kindkit]

Heh, I was on st_aurafina's side until you said that. How could curry ever be too much hassle?

. . . asks the person who hasn't cooked an Indian curry in ages because it's so much work.

[kindkit]

I've had tripe before and liked it (liked it a lot in pho, liked it okay in menudo), but I think perhaps it's one of those things that it's best to let other people cook for you.

Thanks for the recipe! When I've made pumpkin/squash soup before it's pretty much just had pumpkin and broth, and I always found the results bland--I'll bet the extra veggies in this one make it more interesting.

(I am sad that poor st_aurafina can't have garlic. Deprivation!)

[vilakins]

My go-to comfort stew is beef (you could use meatballs), potatoes, carrots, peas, any other vegetables that take your fancy (I like capsicums / bell peppers) all slow-cooked, then added dumplings steamed on the top.

Or cornbread tamale pie which is very yummy and made with mince. I use the recipe off the local corn meal bag, but I don't have one right now. Basically lots of spicy mince, beans, vegetables topped with cornbread.

[kindkit]

Mmm, dumplings. Dumplings are the best. And I like the idea of a meatball stew topped with dumplings. Thanks for the ideas!

[st_aurafina]

I have to confess that tripe makes me shudder - I thought you were being very adventurous.

I'd suggest split pea soup? You could use a ham hock to flavour it, or if you were feeling down on meat flavours, boost it up with frozen peas and a mint-yohgurt drizzle for garnish. I make it either way depending on how I'm feeling.

[kindkit]

I've had tripe before and liked it okay, and the cookbook I was using makes tripe sound so good--there are literally seven or eight recipes in it for stews with tripe, which is about eight more tripe recipes than one finds in the average cookbook. Perhaps the problem was that the recipe called for veal tripe, and I used beef tripe, due to its being vastly easier to find and no doubt vastly cheaper (though not all that cheap, since I live in an area where people actually eat tripe a lot). As I said to lilacsigil, probably I should stick to ordering tripe in restaurants where it's cooked by people who know what they're doing.

I love split pea soup, and I always make it with ham. Weirdly I'm not bothered by meat flavors, just, increasingly, by the texture, which is why I'm okay with sausages and meatballs and things. And ham, too, because ham stays firm even in a stew.

I've never tried the frozen-peas thing, though. It sounds like a great soup for a chilly spring day, when you want both heartiness and freshness.

[halotolerant]

I too thought you were very brave to be attempting tripe in the first place. Definitely better to call it as a non-starter early, although I can see that would be frustrating.

I don't have any recipes myself, but I know my North of England friends would want me to say that no stew is true stew without suet dumplings. Although iirc suet is hard to buy in the USA?

[kindkit]

I have a tendency to want to try weird organ meats on principle. (*points to icon and laughs*) I've liked tripe before when I've eaten it, but I'm not sure I'll try to cook it again. Perhaps calf's liver will be the next experiment.

I've never seen suet for human consumption in a market here, just the kind that people put out to feed the birds. You can order human-edible suet online, though. I'm intrigued by the idea of suet dumplings now!

[genarti]

I've never had tripe, and it's one of those things that I'd like to try and like out of general desire for adventurousness but have always suspected I'd end up wasting food and money if I did. Maybe someday. (I'm also mostly vegetarian, to be fair, which is more reason it may or may not ever happen.) Anyway, it definitely sounds best to get rid of it before you throw the chickpeas and sausage in too, if you aren't going to like the result!

Anyway, my current go-to recipe is a very simple tomato-chickpea stew. I do it with canned goods, but one could certainly do it from dry. Saute a little bit of chopped onion (ideally in lemon-infused olive oil, but whatever you like), then toss in a fair amount of minced garlic. Add a can of chickpeas and a can of diced tomatoes, and maybe a squirt of lemon juice, and enough water or broth to make a good soup of it. Simmer for at least two hours. Optional: add some rice during the last half hour or so. Optional: toss in some chopped spinach towards the end. Salt and pepper to taste, but I usually find using canned tomatoes and chickpeas adds enough salt on its own.

IMO, best when topped with lemon olive oil and parmesan, and possibly cilantro if you like it and have fresh on hand.

[kindkit]

Thanks for the recipe! Chickpeas are great, aren't they? They go with so many flavors. Your mention of lemon oil made me imagine a chickpea soup in the style of avgolemono, where the broth is thickened/flavored at the end with eggs and lemon juice. I'll have to try that too one of these days.