Ever since my lady got pregnant, cooking at home has slightly changed. I can no longer add a lot of anything (for example, I can’t add a lot of parsley to a soup), moreover I can’t add some ingredients at all (bay leaves, cumin, rosemary). That’s not really a problem, after all limitations can sometimes create interesting things. Interesting and tasty was also the veal stew I made yesterday.
I used veal meat that had already been cut. Rump. It’s not the best part for a stew but this is what I found. Next to the meat you can see some chopped smoked meat.
I thoroughly washed the vegetables: zucchini, carrots, garlic, red onion. I simply rinsed the mushrooms with a jet of water. For flavoring I used basil and thyme.
I cut the carrots into thin slices.
I diced a bell pepper because it’s good and colored.
I cut the zucchini in ½ centimeter thick slices. I marinated them with salt, pepper, thyme, basil, olive oil and lime juice.
I put the smoked meat in the pot, together with the aromatic herbs and a teaspoon of olive oil.
At the first sizzle, I added the vegetables to the pot (except the mushrooms).
I also added the meat, a bit of salt and a tablespoon of peppercorn. Don’t worry, only they are hot and you can leave them out when you eat. I poured a sip of wine (Fetească Neagră – a Romanian variety of wine) and I placed the lid on the pot. Every now and then I took off the lid to give the content of the pot a good stir. I didn’t add water.
To finish this dish, after two hours of simmering on low heat, I added two tablespoons of diced bell peppers, four tablespoons of pureed tomatoes, a teaspoon of brown sugar and a few basil leaves. I mixed them with two tablespoons of sauce from the pot and then I poured the mixture over the food and let it simmer under the lid for another ten minutes.
Near the end I added the mushrooms.
During the five minutes in which the mushrooms integrated in the stew, I roasted the zucchini slices.
They were our side dish yesterday.
It was a good stew.
We opened a bottle of wine next to it.
This wine, to be more precise. I know, tradition says you should have the wine you added to the food. But the tradition doesn’t know that I added the last drop of Fetească Neagră nor that this was the last bottle of wine left in the house. We happened to like it.
Stay healthy.
Special thanks to
Oana Bodnariuc, Authorized Translator
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