Simply Stews: More Than 100 Savory One-Pot Meals

Organized my major ingredient, Wyler's "Simply Stews" offers 100 one-pot meals with international flair. There are variations on traditional fare - Beef Stew with Coffee and Buttermilk Dumplings, Corned Beef and Cabbage with recipes for herbed mustard sauce and creamy horseradish sauce, Spicy Chicken Creole. And there are more exotic dishes - quick cooking Indonesian Chicken in Coconut Milk with Lemongrass and Vegetables, Korean Braised Short Ribs, Ragout of Mussels, Grilled Corn and Tomatillo Stew, Vegetable Stew with Spicy Peanut Sauce. Each recipe includes, storing, reheating and freezing tips.

This is the ultimate stew book to have. So far, every recipe I tried was wonderful. I particularly like the Coq au Vin and the Venison with Prunes. I also like how each dish has freezing guidelines. Interestingly, some of these dishes are even better after having been frozen.

I find myself pulling this book off the shelf again and again. My family really enjoys the Old-Fashioned Beef Stew with Coffee which is easy to make. The Curried Vegetables with Chick-Peas & Raisins is also good. This week I'm trying Shrimp Curry with Mango and Pineapple. If you're looking for some new ways to make one-pot or crockpot meals, this is the book. Can't say I'll ever make Venison Stew with Armagnac & Prunes, but you might have a call to do so.

I checked this book out of the library (because I have bookshelves of cookbooks, several on stews) intending to look at a few recipes for adaptation for a Community Education Class and was so captivated by it that I used it for 4 months before deciding that it was unfair not to buy it. The Tangy Cabernet Beef with Bacon and Onions is magic--beefy without the need for homemade stock--and the barbecued country ribs stew with sweet potatoes and black-eyed peas lifted deep winter depression. It is uneven, though; the first recipe I tried was a chicken and apple cider stew, which ended up tasting like hot apple cider with bits of chicken floating in it. The other recipes that I tested were at worst unremarkable, and at best, definitely worth the price of the book--lots of interesting combinations that I hadn't found elsewhere, or thought of on my own: beef stew with lots of coffee and buttermilk dumplings or barbecued beef stew with cheddared corn pudding baked on top. So far, they also make good leftovers, and can be done with little or no attention on low heat over the course of an afternoon--useful for Cub Scout meetings or other distractions. No ingredients are particularly challenging to find in rural America, also a plus for those of us away from metropolitan areas.