Back ‘O th’ Cupboard Stew

Knowing that I was going to the food bank again in a day, I was eager to make sure that I used up the fresh vegetables, especially the ones that had been in the refrigerator the longest prior to getting more.

I’m sure you’ve come to realize that I love making stews. They are great to make because you can put almost anything in them, using a variety of seasonings and come up with a variety of flavors. Plus, put them over rice, and you have a very filling meal. Here are the ingredients of this one.

· 3 pieces of turkey neck bone

· 3-4 cups of frozen pureed carrots

· 3-4 cups of water

· 1 box of Swanson’s chicken broth

· ½ large carrot, sliced

· 3-5 red skinned potatoes quartered

· 1 head of lettuce (romaine or escarole)

· 1-2 cups of French string beans

· ½ of a large pk of miniature tomatoes

· 1 full clove of garlic

· ½ large onion, diced

· 1 canned of Red beans

· 1 Tbsp. of Thyme

· 2 Tbsp. of Curry Powder

· 1 Tbsp. of Soy Sauce

· 5 Capers

· 2 Tbsp. of Badia

· 1 cup of duck sauce

· ½ cup of oyster sauce

Now, let me say that these measurements are rough guesses, because I rarely measure stuff except when I’m following a recipe. Since I was experimenting, I just pour stuff in and taste it to see how it tastes, and continue from that point, so these measurements are give or take a bit, and you can measure by your own taste buds.

I started with the turkey which I cleaned and rinsed in vinegar. I seasoned with the Badia, and put some oil in the bottom of my pressure cooker and began to brown them.

I added in the diced onions and cut up about have of the entire clove of garlic, dicing that part into the pot. I was stirring this up as I cut up the lettuce and threw it in.

Now, I don’t know about anyone else, but when I juice fruit or vegetables, depending on which one, I will often strain off the pulp and freeze it to possibly use in baking breads and the like. This is where the frozen pureed carrot came from. In fact, if you want to know how much it was, it filled a large soup container from the Chinese restaurant. I estimate that it’s about 3-4 cups.

I added the water, added the beans, the sliced carrots and added the soy sauce, Thyme and duck sauce. After stirring that around for a while, I sampled the liquid and decided to throw in the capers. I also added a bit of oyster sauce, probably half of the amount listed above.

Then I realized that I had a large pack of French string beans, and used about half the pack. I blended up the tomatoes with a bit of the liquid from the pot and poured that in.

I kept thinking I wanted potatoes, but I was thinking that the pot was already starting to get full, and I had been considering putting some pasta noodles in it. But the potatoes called to me, so I washed and quartered them, and threw them in.

Lastly, I threw in the Curry powder and was looking for parsley, but found none, so I added the last bit of oyster sauce, and sealed the pot to cook. Unlike the last time, where I just let it cook ten minutes, I cooked it on a medium flame until the steamer whistle on the pot started blowing.

Once again, I was surprised at the flavor. The pressure cooker was the missing element in all my previous attempts at stew that my son turned his nose up at. Not only was the flavor nice, but the turkey meat was easy to pull off the bones and mix into the stew. Pour over rice and enjoy.

Sandra M Urquhart

Massage Therapist/Writer

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