A Taste of Tuesday

So, I was horrified on Saturday to find that my life has been a lie, and nothing is as it seems!

Growing up, my mom made insanely tasty beef stew with lots of turnip in it. I think it was the cold weather, but I had a hankering for beef stew and ran down to the fresh market with the intention of getting me some turnip! David said he didn't think he'd ever had turnip before, so I explained to him that it's basically a bowling ball covered with wax, but once you cut it and peel it, if you can avoid slicing off any appendages, it is very very yummy.

So, I'm walking around Fresh Market, and have these little wimpy whitish-purple thingies that they have labeled as "Turnip". I said to the produce boy, "Those aren't turnip, I'm looking for wax-covered bowling balls." And the little boy said to me, "Those ARE turnips, you are looking for RUTABAGAS, which we don't sell."

I said "No! I'm from up north, they are turnips and they..." but it was a lost cause, he insisted that the little whitish-purple thingies were turnip. So, I bought them. They were NOT the turnip that I had up north. I guess they had their positives:

• They were WAY easier to peel than the wax-covered bowling balls
• They starred in Gone With The Wind. To my knowledge, Rutabagas have never had a starring role in a movie. 

But on the negative side, they have a much mellower flavor, I prefer the more pungent taste of the wax-covered bowling balls.  But I digress. I did make the beef stew, and although it's not my mom's recipe, it came out really good. So without further ado, I give you:

Beef Stew

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Ingredients:

• Carrots
• Turnip or Rutabaga
• Onion (a vidalia if you can get it!)
• Stew Beef (I used 2 packages to up the protein amount)
• 1 can beef broth
• Ketchup (I used the organic stuff with no HFCS)
• Flour
• Spices (I used black, white, and red pepper but you can use whatever you like)

1) Mix about 1/2 to 1 cup flour and the spices in a flat dish. 

2) Roll the stew beef in the flour mixture, then stir fry till browned.

3)  Place the beef into a crock pot. 

4) Chop up the carrots, turnip/rutabega and onion, and put into the crock pot.

5) Pour in the beef broth. 

6) Turn on crock pot and cook for 6-8 hours. Cooking time and temp depends on your crock pot. I had mine on low for the first few hours, then turned it up to high for the last few.  Once the veggies cook down a bit, stir up the beef from the bottom so everything gets a chance at being in the warm cozy bottom of the pot. Do this a few times during cooking.

7) About 1/2 hour before you want to eat, mix some water, some flour or corn starch and some ketchup in either a gravy shaker or a blender till smooth.  I have no idea how much flour and ketchup I used, you will have to experiment. I used ketchup to taste, probably about 1/2-3/4 cup.

8) Pour the flour/ketchup/water mixture to crock put and stir until it thickens.

If you aren't dieting, serve with really good bread. If you are dieting, serve with really good bread and run a few extra miles.