Butterbean, Caramelised Red Onion & Carrot Stew

7 February 2025 (Friday)

It’s grey, and is going to be so all day AND getting wet later so I’m glad that we got to Kew yesterday.  I get on with some work work, which I try to keep off from doing on Friday's, though sometimes when the weather's not playing ball the best thing to do is work work at my desk and get ahead for the following day or, in this case, week.

Tonight’s meal will be easy, as it’s the leftovers of two of last night’s meal items, Butterbean, Caramelised Red Onion & Carrot Stew and also the Braised Red Cabbage.  Instead of baked potatoes though we'll be having wholemeal couscous (the wholemeal couscous being an absolute favourite of Richard).

Now, this meal actually came together, or rather sort of did not come together two days ago, on Wednesday afternoon.  I'd spent time at the plot and got back intending to cook the stew and the braised cabbage for our evening meal... though, basically, nothing went to plan!  It happens sometimes, and I always think that inexperienced cooks might just give up, bin whatever's in the pan and reach for a phone to dial a meal to their door... however a meal's a meal and it's very unlikely that something delicious and edible won't come from a disaster of a cooking day!

Butterbean, Caramelised Red Onion & Carrot Stew

I’d already soaked the dried butter beans (250g) for a day, changing the water three times.  As I was back from the plot later than I'd expected, I thought I'd speed up the cooking by giving the butter beans a quick pre-cook in the Instant Pot (High Pressure for 20 minutes).  I could then add them to the caramelised onions and carrots and pop in the oven to finish off for an hour... best laid plans, etc.

Whilst the butter beans were having a pre-cook I sauteed red onion slowly in the casserole on the stovetop in a tablespoon of olive oil.  Once they'd began to soften and brown, I added six carrots that had been cut into hefty slices, and a few tablespoons of apple juice from a measure of 500ml (two cups).  I gave all a good stir, brought to a bubble and then popped the lid on… at this point forgetting to turn the heat down to a low simmer!

About fifteen minutes later, as I sat in the middle room engrossed in my book, a delicious smell of onions, sweet apple, carrots and a background of butter beans was wafting through the air.  Yum!  As Cal McGill was fending off the calls of journalists (The Sea Detective - very much worth a read!) my nose picked up another smell... a slight burning smell…  definitely NOT yum!!

Jumping quickly from my chair, I immediately realised I'd lost track of time AND not set any timer and, on lifting the lid, saw the mixture had dried out rather a lot as I’d also left it on too high a heat by mistake.  The result was the red onion was WELL caramelised… as were quite a few chunks of the carrots.  However, not to be beaten I took the pan off the heat, added the rest of the apple juice and popped the lid on immediately.  Now, adding the apple juice would deglaze the pan, though to what extent all would be burnt I’d have to wait and see.

After five minutes, I lifted the lid, gave all a stir, and saw that this was not a lost cause... it very rarely is.

I added two level teaspoons of mixed herbs, took the butter beans out of the Instant Pot with a slotted spoon and popped them into the casserole, and then added two tablespoons of miso, carefully stirring it thoroughly until the paste was fully dispersed.  Then I added about another 500ml of the cooking liquid from the Instant Pot to the casserole, stirred through then popped the lid on and then into the oven at 160c for an hour or so.

With all the delays and the kerfuffle of me having a bad cooking day, I changed Wednesday’s meal to something simple, and we had the casserole on Thursday and Friday night instead.

So, back to today and I put the oven on to reheat the casserole - again about 160° - and as the oven was going to be on for another hour or so, I popped two proper baking potatoes in the to have with the stew, and wanted another veg too, so I did a Braised Red Cabbage in the Instant Pot.

Braised Red Cabbage (Instant Pot / Pressure Cooker version)

This is a delicious spiced braised red cabbage.

Ingredients

1 red onion (225g), chopped
1 lb red cabbage (450g), core removed, quartered and each quarter sliced thinly
75g sultanas (optional)
1/2 cup apple juice
4 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbs liquid aminos or soy sauce
Salt & Pepper if needed and as desired

Method

Put the ingredients into the Instant Pot cooking bowl in the order listed.

Lock the lid, turn the steam vent to 'sealing' and set the cook time to 5 minutes at High Pressure.  After it has come to heat and pressure, and after it has cooked for the requisite time, manually release the pressure with a wooden spoon.  You could cook on high pressure for 3 minutes and then let it do a natural release instead.

If you wanted to cook this on a hob instead of a pressure cooker I would expect it to take 30 minutes on a lowish heat (make sure you bring it to a bubble first), stirring every five minutes, and with a lid on.

Weather:  Grey, getting rather wet.  Around 5°.

Breakfast:  Bran Sticks, yogurt, oat milk, a few freeze-dried strawberries
Lunch:  A soup of a small portion of curry from the freezer, defrosted and mashed and mixed with soften red lentils, homemade hummus, pitta, carrot batons and cucumber slices
Supper:  Butterbean, Caramelised Red Onion & Carrot Stew, Couscous, Braised Red Cabbage - apart from the coucous leftovers from yesterday.

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