As I alluded to in my first post, a major facet of my personal aesthetic is the relationship between, and combination of, the practical with the pleasant. Purely practical things tend to be more than a little unpleasant, such as Soviet-era Russian buildings. Purely pleasant things tend to be less than practical, such as heroin use. The same principles carry over to food. On the one hand you have things like diet shakes that are meant to replace entire meals. I've tasted them. They are nasty. On the other you have candy and marshmallows and other sweets which taste very good but have little to no nutritional value.
Of all the foods I can think of, stew may represent my aesthetic the best. In many ways it is practical. It is easy enough to make: simply toss any odd veggies and meats you might have hiding in your fridge in a big pot, fill it with water, simmer it for an hour or so, and you're set. It's also nutritionally well rounded. A couple bowls will cover servings of meat, veggies, and carbs. Just down a glass of orange juice and you're set for the day. It's also great for getting warm in the cold, to the point that I almost always sweat when I eat it in the Summer. And it's cheap! A pot of stew will be dinner for a week. I might eat the amount of meat that goes into it in a single serving if it were prepared in another way (e.g., a steak, hamburger, or chicken breast). It is also freaking delicious if you have any idea what you're doing whatsoever.
One of the first things I learned how to make for myself when I moved into my own apartment in 2008 was krupnik, a kind of vegetable-barley stew. Really, it would be better to say that it's a barley-potato stew. Krupnik has a utilitarian history, you see. It was a favorite (if you can permissibly use that word in this context) of those living in the ghettos of 19th century Russia and Poland. The original krupnik was a sparser thing compared to what I make, but they keys that link the dish to my unfortunate Jewish ancestors are the barley and the potatoes, which were always available and relatively cheap. The relative cheapness is something that hasn't changed. I purchased most of the ingredients for this krupnik the day I made it at Bloomingfoods, a local organic grocery/co-op thing (note that this sort of establishment is not known for being inexpensive). The ingredients I purchased were:
-Organic Pearl Barley $7.99 ($2.69/lb)
-Four organic white onions $3.27 ($1.89/lb)
-Organic baby carrots $2.99 for a bag
-Organic celery $1.08 ($0.99/lb)
-Locally raised stew beef $6.17/pack (I bought three, so that's $18.51)
-Russet Potatoes $6.99/bag (I bought one, so that's $6.99!)
-Crushed, fire roasted tomatoes $2.49/can (I bought three, so that's $7.47)
-I also used some other ingredients that I had left over, but I'll get to those later.
That's a total of $48.30, which is like 5 Wendy's triple stack value meals. Those value meals will feed you for five nights. Those ingredients will make at least 3 batches of krupnik (you'll have barley, potatoes, and an onion left over), each of which will last me a week, and I have a big appetite. That's about $2.30 a meal! And I bought the expensive stuff. Of course I mentioned that there are one or two components I didn't need to buy this time around, which makes this figure a little inaccurate. But, combined, these omitted ingredients make up maybe $5 or $6. And there are various ways of cutting costs which I'll get into later.
Now, lets get to the actual recipe, starting with the ingredients!
-2 russet potatoes, peeled and cut into roughly 1 inch cubes.
-2 cups of pearl barley.
-1 yellow onion, diced or cut however you like.
-4 cloves of garlic, crushed and or diced.
-3 stalks of celery, cut into little pieces (it is my personal philosophy that celery is best when you don't notice it.
-2 or 3 handfuls of baby carrots, chopped into ½ inch pieces. Alternately, you can just use three normal carrots, cut the same way.
-1 16 ounce can of Blue Runner Creole Cream Style Red Beans
-1 14.5 ounce can of crushed, fire roasted tomatoes.
-1 pound of stew beef.
-A liberal shaking of Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning. If you live in an area this isn't available, just salt and pepper to taste or use your favorite seasoning!
-1 bottle of Abita Amber, or your favorite lighter ale. I'd use something relatively inexpensive, with a simple flavor (optional/I left it out this time).
Now, here are some options for cutting costs:
-Substitute the fire roasted tomatoes with cheaper cans of stewed tomatoes.
-Substitute the stew beef with ground beef. It won't look as pretty, but it tastes good enough. Alternatively, you can just leave out the meat altogether. The red beans and the barley actually form a complete protein, like beans and rice, so you won't be sacrificing (as much) nutrition (as you think).
-Leave out the celery. I actually didn't start including it until recently.
-Use less barley per batch. The original recipe I used only called for ¼ cup, but I like mine super thick!
-Shop at a major mundane grocery chain, like Winn-Dixie or Kroger. Their prices will be slightly cheaper (in price and quality).
-Lay off the beer.
So, here's the big secret to making krupnik: you dump all the ingredients but the potatoes into a big stew pot, fill it with water until it's covering your food-pile by about two inches, then you cook it for an hour and a half. If you use beer, add it before the water. After that you toss in the potatoes and cook it for another thirty minutes. That's it. Time consuming, but easy as sin. The catch is that when you make it as thick as I do you have to stir it constantly. More often than every five minutes. Or it can, and will, burn. This isn't as much of a problem if you use less barley.
Other alternatives to the recipe include:
-The addition of common mushrooms. Slice them down to whatever side you like and add them in to the potatoes. I generally use 1/3 to ½ of a carton in one batch of stew. I tend to leave them out because mushrooms don't keep well in my experience, and I don't often eat them in other contexts.
-If you want to make this a vegan dish but don't want to lose an ingredient, I suppose you could switch the stew beef for portabella mushrooms, cut into 1 inch cubes. Being a veritable omnivore, I've never tried this. If I ever do, I'll let you know how it goes!
-If you're gross, want to add some extra nutrients, or want to make a richer stew, you can add a couple handfuls of chicken liver to the recipe. If you do this I advise either freezing your leftovers or eating it all within a week as it doesn't keep very well. I've tried this once on a whim and it was actually pretty good!
-Another option to make a richer stew is to use chicken stock instead of water. I didn't do it this time around, but I highly recommend it!
-You can use chicken or turkey instead of beef. It tastes a little different, but it's just as good.
And now it's picture time!
Here we are at the first leg of the cooking. I put my electric stove on a little past medium heat for the first 30 to 40 minutes, then panicked and turned it waaaay down after it started burning. It's been awhile since I made this dish as thick as I like, so I'd forgotten how easy it was to do that.
This is just after I put the potatoes in. Notice the dark flecks? That's burned stew. There's my daily serving of carbon. Yum!
Here's how it looks when it's all done. Notice how it's super-thick and hearty? You wish you were that super-thick and hearty!
And dinner is served! This was my first meal of the day, so I used my trusty, extra-big noodle-bowl instead of a conventional soup bowl. Guess what the drink in that glass is? Give up? It's a Sazerac! The first I've made myself, actually. Sadly, I don't have the proper glass to serve it in... and I made a mistake at the grocery and got limes (it's supposed to be garnished with a lemon peel). Oh well.
How was it you ask? Now, before I answer in full I have to tell you something: this is the first time I've made krupnik using organic ingredients. When I made it at my old apartment in New Orleans, I always did my shopping at Winn-Dixie. I immediately noticed the difference in quality when I was preparing the stew. The onions smelled more onion-y. The tomatoes had a smokey-sweet spice to them. The stew meat was already the size I liked it (I usually cut it smaller than it's packaged). Even with this foreknowledge, the end result shocked me. The result was a krupnik to rule all krupniks: smoother and creamier than I've ever tasted. Hearty, but not harsh at all. Even the little burnt bits, which usually are less than appetizing, had a smokey smoothness to them that was surprisingly delightful (even so, I picked the larger burnt bits out when I Tupperwared the leftovers for the fridge).
Oh, and one final thing I should add about krupnik: it tastes even better the next day! Just stick it in a pot, add a little water, and heat it to boiling.
When next I post I'll have a prologue to mead making!
