Veggie Porn and a Recipe, "Spicy Vegetable Stew"

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I've started harvesting my tomatillos, and I'm so excited! They are just gorgeous!



Also, tonight I made a vegetable stew inspired by a recipe I found at food_porn. I would post a link, but the post is locked to members only. The stew was delicious, and a big hit in my house!

Here's a spread of some of the veggies harvested from the garden. I used most of these (minus the tomatillos) in the stew I made tonight.

The recipe I found at food_porn that inspired this stew used butter instead of olive oil and a different collection of spices than the ones I selected. It's a pretty basic recipe, and not too complicated for anyone who'd like to try it. Here's a list of the ingredients I used:

Mexican Spicy Veggie Stew

• 2 Large yellow squash
  
• 2 zucchini (I only had one, but two would be best.)
  
• 1 large onion
  
• Several garlic cloves (depending on your love for garlic)
  
• 3-4 large bell peppers (different colors look pretty)
  
• 4-5 small red chili peppers
  
• 3-4 medium or 5-6 small tomatoes
  
• 2 cans garbanzo beans (if you don't like garbanzos, white cannelini beans would be nice.)
  
• 1-2 cups vegetable broth/stock (chicken broth/stock or water would also work)
  
• 1/4 cup olive oil
  
• 1 cup sour cream
  
• Coriander, cumin, oregano, salt & pepper (sorry, I kinda eye my spices instead of measuring them! Use as much spice as you like; I tend to prefer more.)
  
• Tortilla chips and cheese (cheddar, monteray jack, colby, etc.) to garnish
  

Coursely chop the onions and smash the garlic cloves, and saute them in a medium/large stock pot in the olive oil. Chop up the peppers, squash, and tomatoes into large-ish pieces. (I like my stew chunky.) Chop up the chili peppers and remove most of the seeds if you don't like hot spicy. Once the onion and garlic has started to soften, add the bell peppers and the chili peppers. You have to kinda guess with the chili peppers; the ones I used are from my garden, and they pack quite a wallop, so I only used about six of them. Taste your peppers and decide how many you want to used based on the level of heat you want. (I love hot and spicy, but I was making this for my parents, and my mom is a heat wimp.)

The spices I used for this recipe (the cumin and coriander) were whole seeds I bought from a place down in Eastern Market in Detroit. If you're using whole spices, while the onion and pepper mixture is cooking, roast your spices in a dry pan over the stove. They're done when they smoke ever so slightly and become really fragrant.

Once my spices were roasted and cooled, I crushed them up in my mortar and pestle. I love this thing! I bought it a year ago when I was planning on drying my own coriander seed. Unfortunately, bugs got into the seeds and I was unable to use that batch.

Of course, using pre-ground cumin and coriander is totally fine. (As is substituting whatever other spices you might prefer instead.) Once the peppers have started to soften, add the cumin and coriander and cook for a minute or so until the spices release their oils. Once the onions and peppers are cooked, add the tomatoes, squashes, and garbanzo beans to the pot. Add the vegetable stock (or other liquid); it doesn't need to cover the veggies, as they'll cook down and release their own water.

Bring the pot to a boil and simmer the veggies for 20-25 minutes, until the squash is soft and the tomatoes break down.

Season to taste with salt and pepper, and then add your chopped oregano. Cook for about a minute, then stir in the sour cream. Cook for another minute longer, then it's ready to serve!

Add crushed tortilla chips and shredded cheese on top. Delicious! And if you want a beverage suggestion, it paired really well with my Bass ale. (A pale ale.)