Stews: 200 Earthy, Delicious Recipes [Paperback]

Jenna Holst (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 14, 1998

Stews are one-pot wonders for anyone in search of a satisfying meal. Here is the best collection of healthy, simple and delicious stew recipes. This book also brings together marvelous stews with recipes for accompaniments--breads, salads and dessert fruit stews--as well as easy-to-follow menu suggestions. Everyone knows that stew is the perfect winter fare, but now Jenna Holst will have you craving this satisfying food year-round. Recipes run the gamut from hearty favorites Kentucky Burgoo and Flemish Farmer's Carbonades to lighter dishes such as Trout with Rice Wine and Vegetable Julienne and Indonesian Peanut Pork. The recipes reflect a variety of influences from American, European, Indian, African and Indonesian cooking. An ideal food for modern kitchens, stews are easy to make and store well for reheating and freezing. Best of all, they are satisfying like nothing else.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Jenna Holst is persuasive about the virtues of stews. She points out that they take little effort to prepare and need little tending once the ingredients are in the pot. Their flavor improves when they are reheated, whether you warm a batch of frozen Creamy Dijon Tarragon Chicken in the oven or slip a container of Meatless Spicy Red Beans into the microwave at work. To ensure that you enjoy the stews you make, Holst explains the best methods for reheating them, as well as advising on the best pots to cook them in. She also encourages taking a relaxed approach to her recipes, so you enjoy cooking as well as consuming the results.

Holst casts such a wide net in assembling her highly flavored, mostly ethnic recipes that you are almost certain to discover new ideas in this globe-circling collection. Cape Town Mayfrew, chicken spiced with ginger, curry powder, and fennel seeds; Mediterranean Lamb Stew with Lentils, flavored with red wine and thyme; and BBQ Pork, boldly reinforced with coffee and molasses, give an idea of the range of choices in Stews. There is a good selection of vegetable- and-legume-based recipes, and an unexpected variety of poultry stews, from African Chicken Peanut Stew to Mexican Turkey Mole, which can be made with leftover cooked turkey. Add Onion Flat Bread, a desert of pineapple gently stewed in coconut milk, or other accompaniments for which Holst provides recipes, and you can turn any stew in this book into a complete meal. --Dana Jacobi

About the Author

Jenna Holst is the author of Stews (Macmillan, 1998). Her work has been featured in many national magazines including Food & Wine, Family Circle, Weight Watchers, and Redbook. She has worked for many years as a food writer, culinary instructor, and consultant. Her clients have included several book publishers as well as PBS and cable television programs. Formerly a resident of New Jersey, she currently lives in South Africa.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons; 1 edition (September 14, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0028618483
• ISBN-13: 978-0028618487
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,368,647 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have for stew fans, April 7, 2001

By 

Chemical Emma (Medford, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stews: 200 Earthy, Delicious Recipes (Paperback)

I have a number of cookbooks, and I must say that this is my favourite; it's the one that gets me through chilly New England winters. Many of the recipes are easily converted for crockpot cooking, which is a definite plus for busy cooks. Many of the recipes have a definite ethnic edge, and while her curries are second-to-none - I could live off Cape Town Mafrew and Cape Malay Chicken Curry - the other recipes are also delicious. Beef, pork, poultry, shellfish, or vegetarian, spicy or just exquisitely seasoned, there's something here to please everyone. If you love stews, you need this book. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Cookbook, September 26, 2001

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Stews: 200 Earthy, Delicious Recipes (Paperback)

This is a great cookbook! I've been cooking for many, many years. My family is spoiled rotten and expects only the best for dinner. We have not been disappointed with any of the recipes from this book. The stews are almost international in scope, are easy to make, and banish the "I've been making dinner for the last 25 years" cooking doldrums. Most of them are based on standard kitchen cupboard material. Most of them are healthy (occasional sour cream is the worst offender).
None of recipes depend on large quanties of cheese for flavor. I don't believe a can of condensed soup is ever called for and I have found that for many of them you can omit browning the meat -which is the part I hate when making stew.
This is a fun, exciting, interesting and successful cookbook. I don't believe it's been off my kitchen counter since I got it (two months ago) and I just ordered two more for gifts.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars YUM YUM!!!, June 1, 2001

By 

C. Parks "mom-n-kid-booksellers" (WA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Stews: 200 Earthy, Delicious Recipes (Paperback)

I love cookbooks...I have a zillion! This is one of my favorites. The recipes are fantastic and fairly easy to pull off, even for a Mom of two young kids. Buy it, you'll love it.