Laura Ingalls Wilder writes of playing “Bean porridge hot” with her sister in The Little House on the Prairie. She says that the song was true. “No supper was so good as the thick bean porridge, flavored with a small bit of salt pork, that Ma dipped onto the tin plates when Pa had come home cold and tired from his hunting. Laura liked it hot, and she liked it cold, and it was always good as long as it lasted. But it never really lasted nine days. They ate it up before that.”
Soups are like that, I find, which is one of the reasons I love soup so much. A good soup or stew recipe is good the first time, and good the second time, and stays good all the way to the last drop.
I’ve recently found a winner in the Better Homes and Gardens New Flavors from your Crockery Cooker Cookbook.
This Beef Cider Stew was good when I tasted it the day I made it, good when I had a bowl a day later, and is still good on the fifth day. I doubt I’ll make it to 9 days. Give this fantastic recipe a try!
Beef Cider Stew
Ingredients:
- 1 lb beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil
- 4 carrots or parsnips, sliced
- 2 medium red-skinned potatoes, cut into chunks
- 2 onions, halved and sliced
- 2 apples, cored and cut into chunks
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 2 Tbsp cook cooking tapioca
- 1 cup apple cider
- 1 cup water
- 2 tsp instant beef bouillon
- ¼ tsp dried thyme
- ¼ tsp pepper
Instructions:
- Brown meat in hot oil.
- Place all vegetables in crockpot. Sprinkle tapioca over top. Add meat. Combine cider, water, and spices and pour over meat.
- Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-5 hours.
For my own part, I rearranged the instructions a bit. I prepped all my vegetables in the crockpot the night before and moved my precut stew meat from the freezer to the fridge. That way, all I had to do before I left for work in the morning was brown the meat and dump it and the cider/water/spice mix over the top of the veggies (and turn the crockpot on, of course). Easy as pie–and just about as delicious!
What about you? Do you have a favorite soup or stew recipe that you can eat hot, cold, or many days old?