Farmers market is seasonal, and livestock needs time to grow. Availability varies, that's what makes it fun - no need to use exact same things; every week is a different stew! I steam all hard veggies like kabocha, butternut squash, and potatoes first so they are easier to cut, and take less boiling time to get soft/creamy.
Carnivores:
Use about one pound of meat/sausage/seafood of your choice. No vegetable or cooking oil needed. Ground pork or belly/fatty cuts tend to be quite oily. I cook ground or fatty meats in the pot first, scoop out about 1/2 to 2/3 of the oil for other use (keep about 2-tablespoon of the oil in the pot) before adding water.
If sausage is used instead of meat, I bake the sausage first, then slice, and add the pieces and juice from baking to the stew. Go easy on adding extra salt.
If sausage is used instead of meat, I bake the sausage first, then slice, and add the pieces and juice from baking to the stew. Go easy on adding extra salt.
Vegetarian:
Try the food combinations on this page without the meat or seafood. I recommend adding 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of avocado, or almond oil, or whatever combination you like or just 2 tablespoon of an oil of your choice while stew is simmering. Only need to simmer veggies for about 30-40 minutes most of the time.
Steps for most stews unless otherwise noted:
- Add about 4-5 cups of water to pot (or roughly a quarter of a medium size pot) and boil, and while boiling,
- Add meat first (if seafood, add at T-5 minutes, clams T-15/cook until open) and then vegetables to pot. I add as I chop. Cover and lower heat to simmer for 1-1.5 hours (longer more creamy) shorter if I steamed potatoes, butternut squash, etc first. Ok if you don’t cut the meat because after simmering long time, the meat is soft, easy to break apart.
- For seafood stew, only need to boil vegetables for about 30-40 minutes, longer if hard/starchy vegetables used. Add more water if needed to loosely cover the vegetables and let boil before adding seafood.
- Add spices last 5-10 minutes. Stew can be whatever consistency you like. If too watery, scoop out the liquid and drink as soup.
Chicken Fennel Tomato Stew
Because of its sweet and sour taste, this stew is my new favorite! Until the following week. Then I fall in love with another stew.
Ingredients: Fennel, tomatoes, onion, daikon or radish, butternut squash, chicken (~1 lb, or other meat of your choice,) optional yam and chili pepper
Seasoning: Salt
Steps:
Similar to the general steps, I boil meat and all veggies in the pot for 30 minutes first before adding steamed butternut squash and yam. Then continue simmering for another 30 minutes. If you didn't steam the butternut squash or yam, then they need to be added to the pot in the beginning. Salt at T-5 minutes.
Can simplify the ingredients even more like below - Fennel, tomatoes, kabocha (I used half of the squash,) and chili pepper (optional.) Pork spareribs in this combination. Easy and delicious.
Variation with Pork: Two Eats
Stew and Pork Slices with Garlic Soy Sauce
I used pork jowl but the belly cut is the best for making the pork slices. Stew ingredients are similar to the above with additions of potatoes and Japanese sweet potato. I stir fried the radish leaves the week before otherwise I would add them to the stew.
Steps:
The difference with this stew is that I boiled 1/3 pot of water (~5 cups) and simmered the pork for one hour first without veggies. To test, if a chopstick can go through the meat then it's ready. Remove pork from pot and boil the vegetables with the pork broth. Let simmer for one hour as before and then add the seasoning. Slice the pork.
Sauce for the pork slices: Minced garlic and soy sauce
Tip for peeling garlic: Smash the cloves with a meat cleaver or a hammer on the chopping board, the skin will come right off.
When I don't feel like fetching heavy duty tools for a small job, I grab my sturdy mug with a flat bottom. I don't recommend using glass.
This boiled pork dish over rice is very popular in Taiwan. The meat is tender, but if you feel it's too fatty, you can dry fry them to make lard (see Roast page -> Pork Roast) or fried rice (second example on Weekend Brunch page.)
Seasoning for the Stew: Salt and chili flakes
Lamb Squash Stew
Ingredients: ~1-lb lamb ribs or riblets, different kinds of squash (Kabocha, delicata, zucchini,) cucumber, potatoes, onion, and celery (I used 4 sticks.)
Seasoning: Salt
Steps: Follow the general steps. I cut the ribs, steamed hard squash and potatoes first. Can use both celery stems and leaves.
Seafood Stew
Ingredients: Branzino, shrimps (~1/3 lb,) eggplants (purple and white,) carrots, cabbage (some of it,) onion, green onions, sweet pepper, and ginger.
Seasoning: Salt, pepper, and paprika
Steps:
Season the fish with some salt and let sit for 30 minutes (longer ok.) Following the general steps, boil/simmer the carrots, cabbage, onion, ginger, and the top half/white part of the green onions for 30 minutes first. Then mix in eggplants and sweet pepper. Add more water if needed so the vegetables are loosely immersed in the pot. Let simmer for another 30 minutes. Cut fish to smaller pieces. Add fish and shrimp, turn up the heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes. Season to taste and mix in the remaining green onions.
Butterfly Stew (Header Picture)
Ingredients: 0.6-lb Halibut, 1-lb clams, carnival squash, parsnip, cucumber, 1/2 cup dried garbanzo beans, onion, radish flowers (radish works too.)
Seasoning: Salt
Steps:
To clean clams (tip from my friend Uri, otherwise this dish would be named Sandy Stew): Immerse in salt water (salty like the sea) for at least 5 hours for clams to spit out sand. Place in a section of the fridge that's not too cold. I cleaned twice (2 x 5-hrs) starting the night before.
I pre-soaked garbanzo beans overnight and steamed the carnival squash. The skin of the squash is very hard even after steaming - scoop out the inside for the stew, discard the seeds. Can put finished stew, pasta, or fried rice in the beautiful casing, but I tossed it before I thought of it. Next time!
Seasoning: Salt
Steps:
To clean clams (tip from my friend Uri, otherwise this dish would be named Sandy Stew): Immerse in salt water (salty like the sea) for at least 5 hours for clams to spit out sand. Place in a section of the fridge that's not too cold. I cleaned twice (2 x 5-hrs) starting the night before.
I pre-soaked garbanzo beans overnight and steamed the carnival squash. The skin of the squash is very hard even after steaming - scoop out the inside for the stew, discard the seeds. Can put finished stew, pasta, or fried rice in the beautiful casing, but I tossed it before I thought of it. Next time!
General steps + if radish is used instead of flower greens, add it to the pot in the beginning. Simmer vegetables except radish flowers for 1 hour. I did mine for about an hour and half, might have been longer because I lost track of time/too busy with other dishes, just means stew is creamier/less chunks. Then add the flowers including the stems (remove the really tough parts,) salt, clams, and turn up the heat to medium to cook for another 15 minutes or until the shells open. Halibut T-5 minutes.
I picked up more carnival squash from the farmer's market the other day. The flesh went into a stew, and the shell for a simple dish. Portobello mushrooms and garlic chives stir-fried with 2 strips of bacon.
Pork Acorn Squash Mustard Green Stew
Made this for my Australian visitors.
Ingredients: 1-lb pork ribs, mustard green vegetable, acorn squash, tomatoes, potatoes, sunchoke (Jerusalem artichoke - looks like ginger, potato texture, artichoke flavor,) onion, turnip, napa cabbage (I threw in the little bit I had left from another stew,) and ginger.
Seasoning: Salt
Steps: Follow the general steps. I cut the ribs, steamed acorn, potatoes, and sunchoke first.
Chicken and Prawn Stew
Ingredients: 1-lb chicken wings (can use a different cut) , 1/3 lb prawns, mushroom medley, gold beet leaves (I saved the beets for a different stew the week after,) eggplant, potatoes, zucchini, ginger, onion, and tomato.
Seasoning: salt
Steps:
Same as the general steps. Boil water, add chicken and the chopped vegetables (I added mushrooms later, but you can add it in the beginning too if you want to toss everything in.) For this stew, I boiled it for about 1 hour and 10 minutes, mixed in the mushrooms, boil for a few minutes, added salt to taste, then the prawns and cooked for anther 5 minutes. Serve with rice or noodles/pasta.
Fun Stew
How else would you describe an adventure?
This is what happens when I see things I haven't had - I add it to the pot!
Ingredients: 1-lb meat (I used pork neck bones,) a bunch of sorrel, a bunch of rapini flowers, onion greens, potatoes, zucchini, cucumber, sweet potato, carrot, and salsify.
Sorrel - has lemon taste.
Rapini flowers - tastes like broccoli.
Salsify (the brown long root) - mild flavor, potato texture. With the skin.
The combination gave this stew a Southern collard greens flavor.
Seasoning: Salt
Steps: Follow the general steps. I steamed potatoes, carrot, and sweet potato first. I added one more cup of water for this one and simmered everything for 1.5 hrs. Sorrel and rapini flowers went in the last 5 minutes.
Eggplant Stew
No water added
Ingredients: tomatoes, eggplants, onion or green onion
Spice: salt, pepper, curry powder
Optional: one pound of meat of your choice, I used ground pork. Squash blossoms (add last 5 minutes)
I cook ground pork in the pot first to get some juice/oil over medium heat, scoop out about 1/2 to 2/3 of the oil, then add the top half (white) part of the green onions, tomatoes, mix and cover, let it cook to make sauce (no heat reduction,) about 20 minutes. Add eggplants and continue to cook until soft. Mix in the bottom half of the green onions and squash blossoms if you have it. Lower heat and add spices. Cook for a few minutes and serve with rice or pasta.
Bolognese Simplified
I almost never buy beef at farmer's markets because cows produce a lot of methane, so I try to keep my pollution contribution to dining out. But when I tasted my New Zealand brother's Bolognese spaghetti, I made an exception. Here is my simplified version, done in a similar fashion as the eggplant stew.
Ingredients: Ground beef (~1 lb,) tomatoes, onion, garlic, and basil. Optional: Squash blossoms (they don't change the taste of the dish in any way. I can't resist buying them every time I see them, so beautiful. And edible!)
Spice: Salt
Steps:
Cook ground beef in the pot over medium heat. The first image shows all the oil that came out, scoop out about 1/2 of the amount (save those for stir-frying veggies,) then add the onion to the pot, cook it for about a minute before adding garlic and tomatoes. Mix, cover, and let cook to make sauce (no heat reduction,) about 20 minutes. Add the flowers if you have it, mix, then basil. Lower heat, season with salt, and let cook for a few minutes. Serve with rice or pasta. Spinach fettuccine in the picture.
Chicken and Fish Stew
Ingredients: onion or green onion, mixed potatoes, carrots, ginger, cabbage, butternut squash.
Spice: salt and pepper
Optional: one pound of meat of your choice, I used chicken leg and fish (a small piece of shark in this case, flavor is very mild and cubed and added to the stew in the last 5 minutes.)
