With a twist!! The cold of winter partners perfectly with hot, robust, earthy stews. Served with crunchy bread, and different varieties of cheeses, when the thermometer plunges near the -20º mark, for a hearty dinner … nothing beats it!! I’ve been making stews for years now, using my trusty Rival™ crock-pot, mine is an old school model, the deep well, round shape type, unlike the newer versions which are oval, and more shallow. Plus they now come with digital readouts, programmable timers, etc.. Mine doesn’t have anything but a single knob with three choices: off, #1, and #2 … that’s fucking it. Basically my stews have remained similar throughout the years, the two main ingredients being stewing beef and potatoes. Oh, before I proceed, a note about stewing beef. It is essential, crucial in fact to season the meat with salt and pepper (optional: floured too) and sear in an oiled heavy bottom skillet (not overcrowding the pieces, so they don’t steam), to the point of blackening … deep dark brown at the very least. Then deglazing the pan with red wine, not wasting these precious bits of rich flavour. Not taking this important step, just dumping the beef straight from the package into the crock-pot to cook is blasphemous!! I also put carrots, Italian flavoured stewing tomatoes, a can of tomato soup, beef broth as needed, and another key ingredient … Del Monte seasoned french style green beans. This has been the recipe, very rustic, very simple, very good. Early in the morning before I leave, I dump all the ingredients into the pot, turn the sucker on, and when I come home 8-10 hours later, my dinner awaits. For the past couple of years, I’ve been adding turnips in addition to the potatoes, adding another dimension to the stew. A few days ago, while shopping for my ingredients, I came across this vegetable … a root vegetable like the potatoes and turnips, I’ve never seen before, hadn’t heard of it either … am pretty sure you haven’t either!! It is called Malanga … I picked it up, and was very intrigued, and I guess feeling somewhat adventurous, bought some … trying to expand and explore my culinary pursuits, not that I’ve done all that much exploring, lol!! Here’s a picture I took … verdict to follow!!