Purple Rice and Beef-ish Stew

I know what you’re thinking: holy moly this woman makes a lot of beef stew. You don’t know the half of it. But each one is different, because I make them up as I go along. So I hope in posting as many of them as occur to me to photograph, you can draw some inspiration for flavour combinations!

It started with this package of frozen stewing meat I inherited from Atlas’ freezer. It likely came from her parents’ organic hobby farm in BC, or from one of the people with whom her dad has a trade deal. And, given the nature of some of the other things I’ve inherited from Atlas, it could very well be goat, and not beef. In fact it’s probably goat. So I tried to adjust the spices such that it would work for goat, or beef. But what do I know.

I grabbed my big stock pot and chopped up an onion, which I chucked in the pot with some butter and olive oil and sautéed until it was soft and smelled amazing.

Then I pitched in the beef/goat/mystery meat, together with some salt and pepper, and cooked that until it was browned on all the edges.

While that was going on I prepped everything else. Seeing as I had some on hand from my recent Krupnikas-fest, I decided to grate some fresh turmeric into the mix, to give the broth a nice earth-flavour. If you like the earth flavour, then you could probably add some fresh beets to the stew. They’ll definitely give the stew some colour.

In fact, the turmeric would, under normal circumstances, have dyed my stew a lovely yellow colour, save that I’m putting purple rice in it, and purple rice dyes everything, too. The turmeric did, however, dye my fingers yellow.

And some of the counter. I miss our all-black counter from Elizabeth.

Fact, though: if you spray bleach on a turmeric stain, like this one:

It will turn from yellow to orange, and then just wipe away.

I added some freshly grated ginger to the pile as well, because I had a whole bunch of it in the fridge.

Then I chopped up a medium-sized rutabaga. While not as absorbent as potatoes in stew, rutabagas and turnips hold their shape well while also providing some of the mushiness you expect from other root vegetables and tubers.

And a giant (GIANT) carrot.

And some cauliflower.

And my purple rice. It’s kind of obscene how purple it makes everything else, but I love it.

And a head of roasted garlic. Because everything is better with garlic. I popped the cloves out and roughly chopped them.

I chucked all that in the pot, together with some concentrated vegetable and beef broth and a whole lot of water. Remember when you’re putting uncooked rice or pasta into a soup or stew to add extra water as it will be absorbed.

I also sprinkled in some ground cumin and yellow curry powder.

Bring that whole thing to simmer for about an hour, until the meat is cooked through and the vegetables are squishable with a spoon.

Serve hot (because it’s a stew, silly). Sooooo satisfying and purple!