It was quite cold and rainy in San Francisco last winter, and on a rainy Saturday afternoon we got together with our dear friends the Shahs for an evening of cooking, drinking and eating. Beef bourguignon is that quintessential comfort stew that hits the spot on a day like that. And in reviewing my photo…
Category: stew
Rabbit Cacciatore
Rabbit Cacciatore or Italian hunter’s stew is another recipe that I originally found in the Williams Sonoma catalog more than 20 yrs ago. And I have been making it ever since.
Algerian lamb stew
This is a recipe that I have been cooking for 20 yrs. There is nothing better on a cold winter day than a hearty stew cooked in the Bulgarian earthen pot.
Romano bean and potato curry
This dish can pass for Indian cuisine although the inspiration behind it purely Bulgarian: I just substituted the sweet paprika in the original Bulgarian recipes for curry. This is the kind of vegetarian stew that I grew up on. Beans, lentils, potatoes, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, okra, Romano beans, were cooked in endless combinations and variations, commonly known as gyuvech (гювеч).
Whole fish “La Rosetta”
This dish is my attempt to reverse engineer a recipe from the La Rosetta restaurant in Rome. Saal and I went there for the first time in 2008 on a recommendation from my friend Luben Dimcheff, and it was one of those meals you remember. We went back with Luben and my parents in September…
Mushroom Stew
This mushroom stew is very much the vegetarian equivalent of beef bourguignon. Gather whatever medley of mushrooms you can find + a bottle of cheap red wine = delicious dinner. I served it over creamy polenta (found in the Squab glazed with port reduction with creamy polenta recipe)
Coq au vin
Slowly braised stews are my favorite kind of dish, and fall / winter is the season for them. Coq au vin is a French bistro classic. It is both homey and comforting, and at the same time sophisticated. Stews are best a day old. If serving at a dinner party – you can cook it…
Osso bucco Milanese
Slow braised meats are my favorite type of dish, and the osso bucco is a classic comfort dish – particularly good for the cold winter nights. I first learned my osso bucco from the Terra cookbook and I recently had a “refresher” at the Culinary Institute of America bootcamp.
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Sea bass, potatoes and mushrooms stew
Comfort food tends to be fried and/or relatively heavy. This is a great comfort dish that’s perfect for a cold winter night and won’t leave you feeling stuffed or guilty.
