Thursday, June 5, 2008

Gypsy Den Cafe's Adobe Stew

Every once in a while, my man and I crave hippie food. I have days where I wonder how I'm gonna get by without a good hummus and pita snack. Maybe with some cucumber slices and a bit of lemon juice squeezed on? Mmm! When we were living in California, we'd often indulge our hippie cravings at a little place called the Gypsy Den Cafe. They had a great vegetarian soup there called Adobe Stew, and I'd get a cup of that with a half turkey sandwich (on some sort of nutty bread with cucumber and alfalfa sprouts, natch) and be set.

Now that we're in a place that's a little bit more scarce on hippie food (unless you want to drive downtown every time you want some sprouts), we've taken to having a home-cooked vegetarian night every Wednesday to stave off the hippie food desire. While I often go for a stir-fry or a tofu dish, I decided this week that I wanted to try my hand at that delicious stew the Gypsy Den Cafe served me. Thanks to them for the inspiration - I'd still be going to your restaurant if it wasn't however many hundreds of miles away from me now.

Adobe Stew

Serves: A whole mess of people - 8-10 servings, probably.
Active Cook time: ~30 minutes*
Inactive Cook time: ~1 hour +
Difficulty: Super Easy
*This can vary - your active cook time can be as little as 10-15 minutes if you prepare some of the vegetables in advance.

Hardware
-Large Stock Pot (or similarly big pot. Basically the biggest one you have.)
-Large Stirring Spoon
-Chef's Knife and Cutting Board

Foodstuffs
-1 large onion
-4 stalks celery
-4 carrots
-4 oz sliced mushrooms (1/2 of a package of sliced mushrooms)
-1/2 to 3/4lb red potatoes, diced into 1/2 inch cubes
-1 yellow zucchini squash
-1 green zucchini squash
-1/4 lb green beans
-2 (15 oz) cans diced tomatoes
-1 (15 oz) can garbanzo beans (aka chick peas)
-1 (15 oz) can kidney beans
-1 (15 oz) can black beans
-1 (15 oz) can yellow corn
-2 quarts vegetable stock
-1 mini bottle red wine -or- 3/4 cup red wine. (I use a mini bottle of Merlot)
-1 tablespoon minced garlic
-1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
-1/2 teaspoon dried basil
-2 bay leaves
-2 tablespoons olive oil
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1 teaspoon pepper
-additional salt/pepper to taste

Ack, I know that's an intimidating list of ingredients. Don't worry, it's really very easy to throw together.

All of the following steps can be done ahead of time: Chop your onion into small pieces. Chop up the celery stalk as well. Slice the carrot into small rounds - if your carrots get wide enough at the top that you think one piece is too big for your mouth, cut the pieces there in half. If your mushrooms are too large, cut those into smaller pieces as well. Dice the potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes. With the zucchinis, slice them into 1/4 inch slices, then quarter each slice. This ensures no piece is too big for your mouth. Cut off the ends of the green beans and cut into pieces no bigger than 1 inch.

If you decide to chop up your vegetables ahead of time, you can package the onions, celery and carrots together. Make sure to leave the mushrooms by themselves. You can also package the potatoes, zucchinis and green beans together. Refrigerate them in tightly sealed containers until ready to cook. I do not recommend cutting up your vegetables any longer than 24 hours before you're going to make the stew in order to keep your veggies fresh.

Heat up the olive oil in your pot over medium heat. Add onions, celery, carrots and garlic along with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir occasionally to sweat out the delicious juices stored within these veggies. After about 3 minutes, add the mushrooms. Allow to cook 2-3 minutes, then add the wine. Let the alcohol cook out of the wine, approximately 5 minutes.

Open, drain and rinse the corn and the garbanzo, kidney and black beans. Add the vegetable stock and diced tomatoes (with tomato juice in the can) along with the Italian seasoning, basil, bay leaves and pepper to the pot. Stir. Add the beans, corn, potatoes, zucchinis, and green beans. Stir to combine.

Bring to a low boil, then cover and let simmer, reducing heat to low. Let stew for at least 30 minutes. I recommend at that point that you turn the heat off or super low but leave the pot on the burner in order to keep the stew warm but prevent overcooked icky veggies. You can leave it on the stew for a few hours, allowing the flavors to commingle and become super delicious. The Gypsy Den Cafe served the stew with a healthy helping of cheddar cheese grated into it, but I prefer it without. This stew is great as a meal on its own, or can be a side dish for another meal.

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