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Veggie stew
I started a vegetable stew in the slow cooker today and will see how it comes out tomorrow. I didn’t use a proper recipe and just threw a bunch of stuff into the pot before starting. I think I didn’t add enough water, which may be a bit of a throwback to making stew in the pressure cooker so many times. I have remedied the liquid now so hopefully this will make the cooking process a bit better. It probably isn’t ideal blindly throwing stuff together but I am sure it will come out fine in the end.
I’m not quite sure it’s cold enough for stew right now but it has cooled off just a bit from what it was a couple days ago. Tonight is certainly chillier than last night but still not really cold.
Meanwhile, I am still working on day five of my holiday. I ended up going ahead and doing all the photos for the previous day. They are now uploaded but I still have some details to add to them before releasing them to the public. I also just discovered I had a $5 note from New Zealand still hidden in my wallet from my trip. I thought I’d cleared that out long ago but had gone looking for some cash a couple days ago and found that instead. Not that it is much use now. I will add it to my mug holding bits and pieces of foreign cash. I have US, Canadian and New Zealand dollars plus various change in there, waiting to be used next time I travel to whichever place.
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Kale
I seem to be leaving my updates so late that I’m too tired to write the past day or two. This is how long periods pass before I post again so I am making an effort tonight/this morning just for effort’s sake.
A couple days ago I bought some kale for the first time ever. I’ve heard a lot of good about it but had never prepared it and I thought I hadn’t eaten it. The Scientist thinks I have had it before and that’s possible if his mum made a Sri Lankan vegetable dish with it called mallung (not sure of spelling but I think this is it). I’ve read this is commonly used in the US south but I’m pretty sure I never ate it there. I did have collard greens a few times but never liked them. I suspect that may have to more to do with preparation than the vegetable itself. I don’t think collards are sold around here but will keep an eye out to give it another chance. :)
Once I got the kale, there was the question of how to prepare it. I found many recipes online, with several suggesting that it’s good to blanch it as it can be a tough vegetable. I didn’t do this but I did get inspiration from a recipe I found for fritatta with kale and mushrooms. I didn’t make a fritatta but I did saute the kale with some swiss mushrooms, onions, Â fresh yellow and green bell peppers and some grape tomatoes that were a bit past it to be used fresh. I served this with some scrambled eggs, which didn’t come out all that well. But they were acceptable and together with the veggies provided a very hearty meal that made me feel overfull.
During my recipe search I saw something about a stew that had chorizo and kale and thought that might be good and the carnivorous members of the family agreed. I bought more kale today and made a stew with some adaptations and it was okay but not so nice as yesterday. First of all, it’s getting a bit warm for soups and stews. Also, I tried to adapt some spices from a North African kale stew that was on a vegan blog for this and don’t think it was a great success. I also overdid the chilli flakes so that it bordered the threshold of being too hot for the palate. Not sure if I will revisit the kale in a stew any time soon although it might be better if done in the pressure cooker. But I do plan to make another saute version soon and even bought two bundles of it today so there may be another kale dish in my diet tomorrow. :D