A Wintery Stew

The start of something beautiful!

      One day back in the fall,  I decided to clear out the refrigerator and cupboard shelves of odds and ends that were just kind of languishing.  None of them were* really enough for a meal for the six of us, but I thought that together they might be enough.  I started with:

A few pounds of leftover rump roast (it was already cooked, although in the recipe I made this week and took pictures of, I used raw meat--so you can use either raw or cooked meat, whichever you have on hand.)
1 orange
1 turnip
10 dates, kind of dried out and tough
2 potatoes
some thawed beef broth


Hum.  What to make?  I decided a STEW would make use of all of these tasty tidbits, so I came up with this absolutely delicious (if I do say so myself) recipe:

Beef Stew a l'Orange


Melt 1/4 c. butter in Dutch oven. 

Add 2-4 lbs. (depending on the appetite of your diners) of chunked up beef, cooked or raw
If the beef is raw, you might brown it a minute before adding:
1 chunked up turnip
1 chunked up onion
2-3 chunked up potatoes
2-3 large slices of orange peel
6-10 dried dates

Pour over all:
3-4 c. beef broth
1 8-oz. can tomato sauce
1 tsp. fish sauce (this is the secret ingredient, but if you don't have it, just use a little extra salt and, if you have it on hand, some anchovy paste)


Sprinkle with:
salt
pepper
rosemary (about 1-2 tsp)
thyme (about 1-2 tsp)
1 bay leaf (just set this on top...no sprinkling!)

Bake at 350^o for 1-1/2 hours OR at 275^o for 3-4 hours (the long, slow cook is better).  You could also make this in a crockpot and cook 1 hour on high and then about 4-5 on low.

I would post a picture of the finished stew, but evidently we were all in such a rush to eat it that I forgot to take a picture of the final product!  I'm not a very savvy blogger, am I?  I did get a lot of enjoyment out of my stew, though, and the whole family loved it. Hope you do, too!

*From the GrammarBook.com blog  :"None were" vs. "None was"
Rule: With words that indicate portions—some, all, none, percent, fraction, part, majority, remainder, and so forth —look at the noun in your of phrase (object of the preposition) to determine whether to use a singular or plural verb. If the object of the preposition is singular, use a singular verb. If the object of the preposition is plural, use a plural verb.

Just in case you were wondering, too!