Etsiz Turlu Rich Vegetable Stew

We've got slightly colder nights now and that, combined with a surprising lack of enthusiasm for cooking this past week had me turning to this stew from 'Vegetarian Dishes from Across the Middle East".

I've made it before so know how simple yet flavoursome and satisfying it is. Just a couple of spices and some butter serve to enrich, not suffocate, the flavours of the vegetables which, especially if they're organic, develop nicely with simmering. I didn't use the water he suggests in this recipe as I thought the tomatoes and zucchini provided sufficient liquid.


Etsiz Turlu Rich Vegetable Stew

The vegetables vary with the seasons and also with your own preferences. In this stew anything goes! It makes a filling meal on a cold winter's day when served with a pilaff of your choice.
This recipe makes a lot but I use it more as a reminder of the types of vegetables that suit stewing and the spices he suggests. I just looked in the fridge for what we had - a nice selection of seasonal veges from our organic delivery - apparently blue carrots are in season so this and lots of our recipes are a bit on the purplish-side at the moment. I made an easy pilaf in our rice cooker while this was simmering. Recipe for that below.



Serves 6-8.

2 large eggplants
1/2 c (4 oz) butter
1 green pepper, seeded and cut into 8 pieces
2 zucchini, sliced into 1 1/2 inch pieces crosswise
2 large potatoes, peeled and each cut into 8 pieces
2 large tomatoes, blanched, peeled and quartered.
2 large onions, quartered
4 oz okra, stems trimmed
4 oz french beans, trimmed and halved
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 T coarsely chopped fresh parsley
2 turnips, peeled and quartered
2 sticks of celery, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 bay leaves
1/4 t dried basil
1/4 t dried dill weed
1/2 t sumac (optional)
1/4 t ground cumin
1/2 t cayenne pepper
1 1/2 t salt
1/2 t or more of black pepper
2 T butter

Slice the eggplants crosswise, arrange on a large plate, sprinkle with salt and leave for 30 minutes.Meanwhile, prepare all the other vegetables as suggested.

Melt the butter in a very large saucepan or casserole, add all the vegetables apart from the eggplants, and stir well for a minute or two until coated with the butter. Add about 3 3/4 cups of water, the bay leaves and the remaining herbs and spices and stir thoroughly.

Rinse the eggplants under cold running water and dry on water towels.

In a frying pan, melt the 2 T butter, add the eggplant slices and fry for a few minutes, turning occasionally. Add them to the other vegetables, bring to a boil, cover the saucepan tightly and simmer about an hour - carefully turning the vegetables a few times - or until the vegetables are tender.



Rose's pilaf
Serves 4

In a rice cooker, melt 1-2 T butter and add 1-2 finely chopped spring onions. Saute, with a pinch of saffron threads. Thoroughly wash 1 c rice, add this into the rice cooker and stir to coat with butter and spring onion. Let this heat a little while you grind the spices: In a mortar and pestle/spice grinder, smash 4 cardamom pods to open. Shake seeds in mortar bowl and discard shells. Add 3 or 4 allspice nuts and 1 whole clove. Grind these three spices together and add to rice mix. Cover with water to about 1 inch above level of top of rice. Put lid back on rice cooker and go do something else while stew and rice cook! Even if you leave this a bit too long the rice cooker will have switched to 'keep warm' and if you leave it on that for a while the bottom can go a nice golden brown and a bit crispy - I love that!

Rose's Winter Stew

Serves 4, Vegan (unless you add cheese at the end)

Last night I was all set to make some chilli when Luc said he wanted to eat some bocconcini. We didn't have any fresh tomatoes or basil as he usually likes it, so I made up this (un-chilli) puy lentil stew with ingredients we DID have. And I'll make it again - it was pretty yummy!

2 x 1 T olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 bulb fennel, chopped
1-2 T apple juice concentrate (or another healthy sweetener to take off sharp edges)
2 c good vegetable stock (mine included potato which made this stew quite thick)
1 x 400g tin whole peeled tomatoes
1 x 140g pottle tomato paste (about 3 heaped T)
1 c dried puy lentils (I didn't pre-soak)
8 shitake or other solid mushrooms, chopped into large chunks
1 x 180g jar of roasted pepper (capsicum) strips
extra water as needed, to reach the consistency you like

This is a rather slow-cooked meal so use a med-low heat so it doesn't burn.
In a large pot, heat 1 T of the oil and saute the onion and garlic. Then add the fennel and the other 1 T olive oil. Saute, adding the apple juice concentrate to partially caramelise the onion/fennel mixture.
Pour in the vegetable stock and the whole can of tomatoes, including liquid. Either break the tomatoes in you (clean) hands as you pour them in, or break them up with your spoon in the pot (hands is easier). Add the tomato paste and mix altogether.
Stir in the lentils, cover pot with a lid and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring just occasionally. Add the mushrooms and pepper strips and continue to cook. The puy lentils will take a while (30 minutes?) to cook but the good thing is they don't over-cook and go all slushy and dahl-like. You can do other things in the kitchen / nearby while this is cooking. Jamie Oliver would have whipped up a couple of side dishes, a drink and a dessert, but we were good. Just give it a stir now and then to make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan and add more water if needed.
When the lentils are soft enough (still firm but nice to eat) and it's looking good and stew-y, well, should be done!
I served ours with really bad homemade bread (hence no recipe) which the stew revived, and the boccocini. It doesn't need cheese at all, but the cheese needed to be eaten! If you want salt and pepper you can let people add their own at the table. Luc adds it automatically so better not to add it while cooking or he'd get twice as much; I didn't think it needed ANY.

*I just had a jar of these peppers (cheap at the Re store, Perth people) but if you don't you could leave them out, or, even better, if you have real peppers/capsicums, you could chop and add them with the fennel, or, best of all, you could roast or grill them till blackened, leave to cool in a plastic bag or container (the trapped steam helps loosen the skin from the flesh), peel off the skin, core, and chop up the flesh into chunks or strips - voila, your own roast peppers! You just need a bit more time for this.
Likewise, you could use chopped fresh tomatoes instead of tinned and reduce down your own homemade tomato paste but that takes a lot more time and work and besides, it's not tomato season.


I made a quick entree while the stew cooked. It was using fruit in season - persimmon and tamarillo, and avocado which is still in the markets and affordable right now. I love, love, love persimmons which, besides being delicious, have a beautiful star design when sliced across. When I did a homestay in Seoul, my host, the lovely Mrs Kim, used to bring her boys and I snacks of fresh fruit, peeled and sliced. It was amazing how the simple and elegant presentation made me see fruit in a whole new light - a dish in its own right. Thank you Kim family and Korea for sharing the gift of persimmon appreciation!