Joe wanted to have some sort of meat that we don’t eat regularly a few days ago, so I suggested lamb. We decided to try a lamb stew, since it was a stew sort of day (aka a bit chilly). I also wanted to throw in some barley, because I like the texture it brings to stew. I eventually stumbled upon this Basque Lamb Stew recipe on Simply Recipes. I have to apologize in advance for no good stew photos. We didn’t eat until later in the evening and by that point the light was poor.
Well, I had to go out to buy the lamb and a few other things. While I was at the Co-op, I happened upon some celeriac (or celery root), a root vegetable that I had just seen Lidia using over the weekend. I decided to try it out as it seemed like a good stew ingredient.

Which reminds me, I love the Syracuse Real Food Co-op and I’m glad I’m able to help them out by re-working their website (not ready yet!). Every time I go I seem to have a good conversation with someone. When I bought the celeriac, a woman behind me in line asked about it (maybe she will happen across this and find out it was good!)… I bought a bunch of beans the other day and was introduced to Sally White, whose photographs we’ll be using on the site. She asked me about how I cook my beans. Anyway, there are always friendly faces there and, hey, if you see me there, you can learn about celeriac and cooking beans! And you should definitely go to the potluck coming up on the 22nd!

Anyway, about that stew. It came out great and I really think the additions of barley and celeriac enhanced the flavor and texture well. If you’ve never had celeriac, it has the texture of potato and the flavor of celery. It’s a bit ugly-looking unpeeled, but after you get that out of the way, it’s easily cut up into chunks.

The other item I purchased at the co-op was a loaf of Pasta’s Daily Bread. Their Stretch Italian bread is truly a wonderful thing and it is the perfect bread to eat with a stew of this sort. It also happens to be a perfect bread for toasting and spreading certain chocolate/hazelnut mixtures upon.

To sum up, please try out this stew recipe and maybe incorporate some barley and celeriac into the mix? And definitely pick up some Pasta’s Stretch Italian bread next time you’re in town!

(silly page detailing the origin of the title quote - make sure your sound is turned up)