Snow Day Stew

Snowy days in Aberdeen

The snow before it got bad

,

The snow

Sitting now with a foot of snow at least outside and having a gas leak, so now we were left without heating or hot water on the coldest night of the year so far. Not impressed and being all on my own as Alan was at work it was a cold night in bed, I had my microwave booties and teddy, so I was needing to cook to at least warm the kitchen up so I wouldn’t freeze to death. 

The snow now!

So only using what I had in the freezer and cupboard I made snow day stew. I know that I am ok with these things but again just omit the things you can’t have. To make this a low salicylate recipe omit the paprika, cayenne, cumin, cranberries and apricots and just use the same quantities of apples it tastes just as good.

 Snow Day Stew Recipe

500g Diced Shoulder Pork (from frozen)

750g Stew Pack (frozen mine contained Onions, Celery and Carrots)

1tbsp Olive Oil

3 tbsp Smoked Paprika

1 tbsp Cumin

½ tsp Cayenne pepper

50g Cranberries

50g Apricots

2 Apples cored and chopped

Big handful of chives chopped

1 litre Chicken Stock

100ml Apple Juice

1.Brown the diced shoulder in the casserole dish on the hob with the olive oil, I did this straight from frozen just do it on a low heat,

2.Add the paprika to coat the meat, then add in the chopped fruit and vegetables,

3.Add 500ml stock, the apple juice and chopped chives

4.Cook on high for about an hour, and reduce to a simmer for another hours adding in the rest of the stock as needed as the level reduces.

5.Cook until the meat is tender

You can eat it like this. So yummy!

I made dumplings again as they fill Alan up. The Recipe is similar to before just added in more cheese, 2 cloves garlic chopped and used chives for the delicate flavour.

Remember if you are adding dumplings your need to add more stock as the dumplings absorb so much liquid so the level needs to be about here. 

Stock at this level before the dumplings 

Just popped the dumplings in

       

Also this is great served with toasted bread with parmesan butter 

Parmesan Butter Recipe

100g parmesan grated then mashed into

50g butter

Then  spread on toast. Very rustic but delicious.

This did not taste as I expected it to. It tasted far nicer and warmed me right up and the kitchen too.