Description:
Jenna Holst is persuasive about the virtues of stews. She points out that they take little effort to prepare and need little tending once the ingredients are in the pot. Their flavor improves when they are reheated, whether you warm a batch of frozen Creamy Dijon Tarragon Chicken in the oven or slip a container of Meatless Spicy Red Beans into the microwave at work. To ensure that you enjoy the stews you make, Holst explains the best methods for reheating them, as well as advising on the best pots to cook them in. She also encourages taking a relaxed approach to her recipes, so you enjoy cooking as well as consuming the results. Holst casts such a wide net in assembling her highly flavored, mostly ethnic recipes that you are almost certain to discover new ideas in this globe-circling collection. Cape Town Mayfrew, chicken spiced with ginger, curry powder, and fennel seeds; Mediterranean Lamb Stew with Lentils, flavored with red wine and thyme; and BBQ Pork, boldly reinforced with coffee and molasses, give an idea of the range of choices in Stews. There is a good selection of vegetable- and-legume-based recipes, and an unexpected variety of poultry stews, from African Chicken Peanut Stew to Mexican Turkey Mole, which can be made with leftover cooked turkey. Add Onion Flat Bread, a desert of pineapple gently stewed in coconut milk, or other accompaniments for which Holst provides recipes, and you can turn any stew in this book into a complete meal. --Dana Jacobi
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