Soup, Stew and Broth, Oh My!

With the colder weather settling the desire for a nice bowel of hot stew while watching the leaves fall keeps growing. Today, Ronnie and I decided to put our spoon to the pot and try making a stew, this however into also making a soup and a "bone" broth.

The Stew

(serves 8+)

The stew is a conglomeration of a couple different recipes plus a little of our own.

The spices/marinade step 1. 

Ingredients:

3-4 cups water- "FREE" (add as needed)
3 beef ramen packets- Ronnie doesn't use the packets when he eats the ramen.
1 Cup red wine- $4 for the bottle (cheap wine is great for cooking with, if not the best for drinking)
1 Tbsp minced garlic- had
1/2 tsp each of oregano, basil, parsley, thyme, and chili powder-had

With the spices you can really use any that you have, or you can just use an Italian spice.)

Attempting to cut the meat from the bones

1.5 lb lamb for stew- $3.08 (we got the lamb because it was cheaper than the beef. However I will not do this again, the bones were a pain to cut the meat off of.)

2 Tbsp soy sauce- had (we used this instead a worcheshire sauce)

salt to taste

Veggies- as much as you want

We added a potato and apple mixed from a previous recipe, 1.5 Cups celery, 6 carrots,

1/4 onion, 2 tomatoes, 1/2 green peppers. All of these were used in other recipes so we had them around the house already. This seemed like a good way of using them before they went bad.

Ashley cutting the tomatoes for the Stew. 

Procedure:

1.) Mixed 2C water, ramen packets, wine, spices, and soy sauce together. Add meat, you can let the meat marinate in this mixture to allow for more flavor in the meat.

2.) Add previous mixture, veggies, and cover with water in a crock pot. Mix well so that all the flavors mix together.

3.) Let cook on either high for 5-6 hrs or on low for 8-10 depending on how much is in the crock pot. Stir and add water through out cooking.

The soup simmering.

The Soup

FYI this recipe may not sound appealing but it really is good

1 can cream of celery soup-$1

1 can cream of mushroom soup-$1

1 potato cubed-had

2-3 cups apple cider- $4 for a gallon

left over lamb bones and meat

1.) cook the lamb in the apple cider for about 10-20 minutes to get the flavor of the lamb into the cider and vice versa.

The potatoes covered in the canned soups before adding the
liquid mixture. 

2.) In a large bowel drain the liquid from the meat and bone, make sure to set the bone to side.

3.) Add the 2 soups and potatoes to the liquid ad season to taste. Let cook until potatoes are soft. You can add a little flour to thicken, if you want. Also brown beans would be a good addition.

WARNING: This soup will smell good and if you decided to taste it make sure it is cool or you will burn you tongue. It HURTS. :)

The (Bone) Broth

trust me I know it sounds gross.

In a small pot put the lamb/meat from the previous recipes and cover with water. Add 1 Tbsp of vinegar, we used apple cider vinegar, add salt and pepper(be careful using other seasoning as some spices do not like long cook times). Let sit on low heat for 12 hrs for best results.

You can use the broth in other recipes, such as glazes in the future.

For more info on bone broth check out mom's traditional bone broth.

What things have you used in a multitude of recipes like we did with the lamb?

What is your favorite soup or stew?