Chickens In The Pen And Stew On The Wood Stove

   It is raining and sometimes raining hard, but the snow is still hanging on although there are some bare patches here and there. The snow mostly melted away in the chicken pen and I think that has something to do with all the pine I laid down in there. Maybe air can circulate under the pine and that's why the snow melted? The hens were happy this morning to get some cooked egg and some lettuce for treats.  We are supposed to get a few hours of a break in the rain and some sun tomorrow, so I hope I can let the chickens and Morgan out to run around and have some fun in the woods.

     I love my wood stove and thought I would take a few more photos of some wood stove stew. I am always learning every time I cook something on it and tonight I learned that if I cook my stew in the chicken fryer it turns out better than in the dutch oven. It must have something to do with how tight the lid fits. These are the steps I took to make the stew tonight:

1st- I cooked (not browned) chopped up onions in the chicken fryer with the lid on, 2nd- then I added cut up beef to the onions and cooked them together until the meat was not red, 3rd- I added cut up celery and carrots, mixed it all up and added water just to cover. Put the lid back on and let it cook slowly on the wood stove on a trivet. I kept checking and added more water when needed, season to taste. This time the stew cooked with very little liquid left. I would have added potatoes to the stew, but I didn't have any, so I made rice on the cook top and put it on the upper shelf of the wood stove to keep warm. I steamed veggies on the wood stove then moved them up to keep warm too.

   My camera didn't capture the rice at all, but it was really in the green pot. There is something so neat about being able to cook on the wood stove. I cooked hamburgers on it last night in my iron skillet and they really do taste better. They even look better. Next time I'm going to try cooking the hamburger patties in the chicken fryer with the lid on and see how they turn out. When I cook chicken in the chicken fryer with the lid on the chicken turns out beautifully golden and delicious. I promised Kristine fried chicken this week.

   I did a bad thing tonight. I smelled a burned smell and found out that I had melted the lid on my tea kettle. First the whistle melted a while back because the kettle was put on the wood stove. Too hot. And now because there was no whistle and I didn't hear the timer I set... I killed my tea kettle. I want a new kettle that I can put on the wood stove and that has a loud whistle. I want to go shopping.

[3 eggs today]

Nice present from the chickens on a cold day.

Peek at the Past
(January 26, 2009)

~:>

Smiles

My Easy Wood Stove Stew

I added this photo

to make sure it is

clear that the pot

needs a lid and the

stew needs to be covered!

I call this a dutch oven,

but my other dutch oven

doesn't have a handle and

it has a wire bale handle for hanging over a fire. I would

Imagine that this dutch oven has another name. 

But it is the same size as the other one, in fact the lids

fit either one. I checked and it is called a

cast iron chicken fryer. 

Here is a wiki page about dutch ovens. My other dutch oven is a modern one with a smooth bottom (like this one) and it has a glass lid. I would rather use the metal lid on the wood stove.

I have used this dutch oven inside the wood stove on some wood coals and put foil over the metal lid and piled coals on top and cooked biscuits. It worked fine. I really should invest in a flat top metal lid or perhaps another dutch oven with a metal flat lid.

                       [12 eggs today!]

Here is the finished stew!

Click on the photos.

The fire in the wood stove

is hot but not blazing. There are

three or four pieces of wood in there.

 These are the             

ingredients that

I used this time.

Sometimes I use garlic. I use olive oil and a little salt for seasoning. Look, can you believe... 12 eggs and there was one hen still setting on a nest when I left. So, maybe 13 eggs? It was raining today so the hens had to stay in their coop and I got all the eggs. No laying eggs in the leaves today.

First thing I do is heat the skillet. Then cut the stew meat into bite size pieces, add some olive oil to the dutch oven, and the stew meat. Don't over heat the pan. I don't want the oil to smoke.

While the meat is doing its thing... not really browning because a lot of meat juices come out in the pan. I salt the meat a little.

I wash the vegetables

and prepare them.

Add seasoning to your taste.

When my girls were little

I would add other

vegetables to the stew

I remember once I added

turnips. I am not a turnip

lover, but they were OK.

You can add whatever

vegetables you like.

After I get everything

cut up and the meat has

changed color I start

adding:

first the onions

and then I move the pan

onto the wood stove

and put the spatter

cover over it so 

steam can escape

and it keeps the stove

from getting more messed

up than it already is.

I do stir the meat and onions

as they are cooking every

now and then (as they are

cooking and browning.)

Be sure to click on the

photos so you can get a

better idea of how the

wood stove browns the

stew.

Don't go away and leave the stew.

I let the meat and onions

cook until they are browned.

Then I stir in the celery.

Then the carrots...

and then I layer the potatoes on top without mixing them in

with the rest.

Then I pour in 2 cups of water. 

(or broth or other liquid)

And salt the potatoes a little.

And put on the lid and check back in 15 minutes.

The time depends on how hot the stove is. Don't leave the stew and do be sure to keep checking or you can easily end up with burned stew if all the liquid steams away.

Sometimes I do flour the meat and brown it in the pan and then take the meat out and add the onions and brown them. But, it is a matter of taste. I like the way this stew turns out with all the vegetables retaining their flavor and it is easier and faster to prepare the stew this way. And I use way less oil this way! If you add more water you can end up with more of a stew soup. Add whatever you like. Make the stew your own. Enjoy!

While the stew is cooking

I make some rice.

Tomorrow I will show

my stove top rice

making.

I think it works because I lucked out by having a pot and lid that let the rice cook without burning. I got the pot from my family and the lid from a garage sale.  How neat is that!

Smiles