Moving Stew

I might as well break the news to anyone who is interested, the Mr. Dave clan is on the verge of a move. Yes, it is true, we shall be leaving Guilderland! Now don't get too worried, we are staying well within the confines of my beloved Albany County where my kith and kin have lived for generations. We are just moving a little south, actually, a little closer to downtown Albany (yet still in the icy embrace of the suburbs). Exciting, no?

As I contemplated the packing up process of my kitchen, I realized that I have (as I am sure many avid home cooks have) an excess of certain types of products, mostly canned. I don't think I can justify packing them up and moving them from one place to another by saying, "you never know when you are going to need those 5 cans of Goya garbanzo beans (although I am prone to nasty hummus joneses)." So, an idea was born- "Moving Stew." This will be the amalgam of many of the excess canned foods in my possession (mostly legumes and sauces), as well as excess frozen meat from my freezer.

I started with the meat group. I emptied my freezer of all non-essential portions of frozen meat, stuff that has been languishing there for a while. Also represented are some canned items.



Here we have some beef short ribs, ground chuck, ground pork shoulder, Italian sausage, a can of spam, as well as two cans of Armour Mac and Beef (I guess these count as meat group). I began by browning the lot in a giant pot (I didn't even bother to defrost, this is not a fussy stew). Revel in the pink beauty of the cubed spam.



Next we have the other canned products.



We have chickpeas, canned tomatoes, black beans, white beans, pinto beans, other unnamed beans, El Pato sauces, Heinz Vegetarian Beans, and who knows what else. For good measure I also threw in a half jar of Hemboldt's hot dog sauce. Probably am forgetting some stuff, but oh well. I kind of threw things in the pot as I found them like some sort of meth addled magician.



At this point the additions necessitated a pot change. I ended up having to use my giant 5 gallon brew kettle. Something tells me that the next couple batches of home brew are going to taste a little odd.



This all bubbled and stewed for many hours over low heat. At the end I was left with a rich, meaty, stew that was vaguely chili-esque. It was sweet, spicey, salty, and very meaty tasting, but not bad at all. All of the random ingredients came together and formed a very rich, but mellow flavored, amalgam. I had a bowl, and then threw the rest into containers and froze it. I am planning on having a moving party where I shall serve this to my lucky friends along with a bounty of the rices, daals, and pulses that I also have acquired in excess. It should be a good (and gassy) time, but I have a sneaking suspicion that many people will be scared (unjustifiably so) of the moving stew. Trust me, it really is pretty tasty!