Cold Weather, Soups and Stews

With the cold winter weather we have been making a pot of soup or stew each weekend which also helps make for some easy lunches during the first part of the week. The latest was an Italian Zucchini and Rice soup with sausage. Starts with a sofrito of onion, celery, garlic and carrot. Then add zucchini till tender, tomatoes, broth, pre-cooked sausage and rice. Very hearty!:hungry3:

What are other forum member favorites for the cold weather?.......

Kimchi stew is almost a weekly visitor to our table, and we also have all kinds of bean stew/soup every week. Latest was black beans with some spices, very simple but we typically have fabada, red kidney beans stew with hard vegetables and an assortment of meats, lentils, chickpeas etc... I have the beens precooked in th PC by the time I get home and then prepare the meats, veggies and spices and dump the beans in the dutch oven to cook in low heat for 1h-1:30h. We eat the beans with fresh sourdough baguette or white rice.

I like smoking some pork and or chicken and then using leftovers to make Posole. Son put up a recipe here that I typically use for a framework.

Like chili but different.

Not necessarily a 'cold weather' thing. But I found making stew from soup-chicken (essentially, old egg-laying chicken) to be quite doable. Either simmer whole and pluck the meat, or seperate raw, make stock from all the bones & crap and then stew the meat in it. Works well with...well pretty much anything that chicken works well with. Mushrooms are always a hit.

I guess goulash is my most wintery stew. It's pretty much beef, red peppers, carrots, onion, potato, spices & herbs, paprika powder, wine, etc.

Another extremely lazy but somewhat interesting way is to just make this kind of.... everlasting stew. Start with some kind of nice soupy base and add new food (meat, veggies) every day. So you can throw in chicken...meatballs...anything you have. Any veggies you have, just throw them in and mix it up (as long as the flavour matches at least somewhat). It's sort of the medieval inn food concept but it can actually be really nice. After you have it going for a few days the taste becomes really rich.
Great for students or lazy uninspired cooks.

A bit hot here for stews at the moment. Some of my family's favourites (in winter) are osso bucco, Moroccan inspired lamb shanks and Guinness beef cheek and potato stew. Beef cheeks will test the toothy sharpness of your blade

+1 to prepping dried beans in PC.

I do the same. One soup a week all winter.
I made a great 5 mushroom soup last week.
2 weeks ago I did an heirloom 15 bean and turkey chili

I love a good ham & potato soup. Chicken soup with creme fraiche dumplings is also up there. Tomato bisque as well.

Oden.

ecchef said:

Oden.

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I was expecting that to be something Norse.

Split pea soup with ham.

TheCaptain said:

Split pea soup with ham.

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Which Nakiri do you use for splitting those peas? :cool2::cool2::cool2:

Chicken, chorizo, chickpea stew with mt.tam cheese:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/f...zo-and-chicken-stew-with-mt-tam-cheese-230761

valgard said:

Kimchi stew is almost a weekly visitor to our table, and we also have all kinds of bean stew/soup every week. Latest was black beans with some spices, very simple but we typically have fabada, red kidney beans stew with hard vegetables and an assortment of meats, lentils, chickpeas etc... I have the beens precooked in th PC by the time I get home and then prepare the meats, veggies and spices and dump the beans in the dutch oven to cook in low heat for 1h-1:30h. We eat the beans with fresh sourdough baguette or white rice.

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This sounds lovely. I've got to start using my PC and dried beans more...

foody518 said:

This sounds lovely. I've got to start using my PC and dried beans more...

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I highly recommend it, beans are cheap, nutritious, delicious and very comfy. Plus it's easy with a PC and you have endless variations. I stock 7-8 different types of beans so my rotation is pretty varied. Although there are some favourites of course.

Soon du bu jigae. Nothing better than a boiling bowl of tofu soup

Danzo said:

Soon du bu jigae. Nothing better than a boiling bowl of tofu soup

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I hate tofu.

Always a lot of Brunswick Stew for us here in the South over the winter. I smoke the chicken and pork on the green egg and make a large batch or two every year.

BorkWoodNC said:

Always a lot of Brunswick Stew for us here in the South over the winter. I smoke the chicken and pork on the green egg and make a large batch or two every year.

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Don't forget the squirrel. That's what makes it good!

I made leek and potato soup with smoked pork sausages for dinner. Pretty good when the ground is white outside.

Green Chile Stew; browned pork cubes, deglaze with chicken stock, oregano, potatoes, tomatoes and of course green chile.

Mucho Bocho said:

Don't forget the squirrel. That's what makes it good!

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Haha, caught this one in a crab trap the other day!