Tough Times Food - Potato Stew

Times are tough. Eating out might not be part of your budget - for the time being. Well look at it from a positive side; if you stay home, and cook food for a nickel, you save money, and you can even enjoy a cigarette with your coffee after your meal.

Have a look at the ingredients to your right. Would you believe that a few sandy potatoes, an onion, a big tomato, garlic, green peas, red pepper and green pepper corn could turn into a mouthwatering delicious meal?

Well you better believe it!

Besides from being tasty theres is a lot of good things to be said about the potato. A few I can mention on the go is that it is cheap and healthy. (Read more in the link capsule below).

To think that you become fat by eating potatoes is a misconception. You become fat from eating high-in-fat-and-cholesterol French fries. So dont blame the potato; blame the frying fat.

This is what you need:

• Potatoes (6 big ones)
• Onions (1-2)
• Tomatoes (1 Big one)
• Garlic (4 cloves)
• Green Peas
• 1 Red Pepper
• Green Pepper Corn (2spoons)
• A handful or two of flour

1. Peel potatoes and cut into slices (not too thin and not too thick). Boil for approx. 15 minutes
2. Pour the potato slices in a colander and let the potato water drip into a pot (Save the potato water - it is both healthy and useful)
3. Peel onions and chop them into small pieces
4. Peel the garlic cloves
5. Cut red pepper and tomatoes into smal pieces

You don’t need to prepare the green peas and the green pepper corn - they are ready to go, when it’s their turn.

Grab yourself a suiteable sized pot - a cast iron pot is a lovely tool for cooking a stew, and I guess this is a meatless potato-stew .

Green Peppercorn are known for adding sumptuous aroma to the dish being cooked, and this meal is no exception. Decide on whether to fry the onions and the crushed garlic cloves in butter or oliveoil, and when you get that going, add a couple of spoonfulls of green peppercorn and and be prepared to have your sense of smell seduced. (If you happen to have a little cream in the fridge - a few spoonfuls do wonders for the flavor.).

When the onions are soft, but still white, sprinkle the sliced potatoes with black pepper and add to the pan little by little so they are all easily done.

Once the potatoes have been turned over a few times, add tomatoes and red pepper and finally the peas. Turn it all together and sprinkle a few handfuls of flour over the mixture.

By now you need to add the boiled water from the potatoes - little by little. Stir it so everything is mixed well and does not burn.

Simmer until potatoes are easy to poke with a fork.

Bon appetit!