As sometimes happens, D appears to have developed a sinus infection
after her trip to Houston.
So I made her a modom stew. We have some strange roasts in the
freezer, the product of buying a quarter steer and suffering a bunch
of Mennonites or whatever to do the butchering at our supplier's
suggestion. D hauled one out last night to begin thawing with the
idea of making a beef and vegetable soup for dinner tonight. But her
malaise got her winded enough at cooking time that she deferred to me.
Here's what I did.
I carefully trimmed the meat, removing the bone, the fat and the
connective tissue as I could. (Note: another nick of a nuckle
occured, but no real trouble. I need to work on my knife skills.) I
cubed the trimmed stuff (a bit more than half of the original, fatty,
gristly cut of meat) and set it into a stew pot where I'd already
caramelized a roughtly chopped onion and a half in oil. I added about
1 1/2 Tblsp minced fresh ginger and turned the heat up and got it all
a bit brown. Then I added about a teaspoon or so of Thai red curry
paste, some fish sauce, and a quart of store-bought beef stock and
enough water to cover the meat. Brought it to a simmer, added more
ginger -- powdered this time because I was out of fresh. I dumped in
a lot of ginger.
This simmered, covered, for about an hour and a half till the meat
was tender. At the end of cooking I added a drained can of straw
mushrooms to heat through in the juice.
When it was about done, I boiled two servings of soba noodles and
drained and rinsed them.
I set the noodles in large soup bowls and spooned on the stew. I set
a kaffir lime leaf in each bowl and some minced basil and squeezed
half a lime on each.
Wowsa! I liked it, and D did too. The heat from the curry paste was
noticeable, but not formidable. And it seemed to offer some
symptomatic relief for her as well.
modom