Serves: 5

Stews and soups are soul-satisfying dishes that can be main-course hearty or a light beginning to a meal. Stews tend to be chunky concoctions of meat, poultry, fish and vegetables or a medley of vegetables alone. Made on top of the stove or in the oven, stews are stick-to-your-ribs meals. Soups, on the other hand, can be clear or creamy, hot or cold, quickly cooked or slowly simmered, a perfect beginning or a hearty main course. One thing stews and soups have in common: Both are savored in just about every culture and cuisine around the world.

Tips for Stews and Soups

-Be sure to use the size of pan specified in the recipe. A too-small pan can lead to spillovers or let the mixture heat so slowly that some vegetables and meats overcook.
-Timesaving tip: But fresh or frozen cut-up or chopped vegetables from the produce or frozen food section or the deli of your supermarket.
-Use a sharp chef's knife or food processor to chop raw vegetables.
-Using a food processor or blender makes quick work of blending and pureeing cream soups.
-Don't skimp on cooking time. All that simmering over low heat allows the full flavor from the ingredients to develop.
-When thickening stews and soups with a flour mixture, keep lumps from forming by mixing the flour throughly in a little cod water with a wire whisk before adding it to the liquid you want to thicken.
-To avoid a starchy undercooked taste and uneven consistency, heat the thickened liquid to boiling, and boil for the time specified in the recipe.
-Heat soups made with dairy products slowly. If you let creamy or cheesy soups come to a boil, the ingredients may separate and curdle, but it won't effect the taste.
-To remove fat easily from stews, soups or broths, chill it for several hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Any fat will rise to the surface and solidify. Skim off the fat and toss.
-You don't have to thicken only with flour. Her are some great ways to make a thicker, creamier soup.
-In a blender or food processor, puree one or more of the cooked vegetables from the recipe with a little of the stew or soup liquid. Stir the thick puree back into the stew or soup.
-Stir unseasoned, dry mashed potato mix into the stew or soup to thicken it.

Tips for Slow Cookers

-For easy cleanup, spray the inside of the slow cooker with cooking spray before adding the food. Let your slow cooker cook before washing otherwise the liner could crack.
-Fill your slow cooker one-half to three-fourths full of food to ensure that the liquid doesn't simmer away during the long hours of cooking and to keep the food moist and tender.
-Vegetables such as carrots and potatoes often take longer than meat to cook. So cut them into bite-size pieces, and put them in the bottom of the cooker (which gets hotter) with the meat on top. Add tender vegetables such as fresh mushrooms, tomatoes and zucchini during the last 30 to 45 minutes to prevent overcooking.
-Slow cooking makes economical sense because you can use less-expensive cuts of meat. The moist heat and slow cooking is perfect fro tenderizing the meat as it cooks.
-Use dried leaf herbs rather than ground because they keep their flavor better over the long cooking time. Or stir in fresh herbs during the last hour of cooking.
-Allow enough cooking time. Remember, most soups, stews and one-dish meals take 8 to 10 hours to cook on the low heat setting.
-A slow cooker that's opened doesn't cook, so don't peek! Removing the cover adds 15 to 20 minutes of cooking unless a recipe states otherwise.
-Milk, sour cream and cheese may break down during the long cooking time. Wait to add these ingredients until the last 30 minutes of cooking unless the recipe states otherwise.
-Fish and seafood can fall apart of get tough if they're slow cooked too long. Add these ingredients in the last hour of cooking.
-Pasta and rice will be at their best if you cook them according to package directions first, and then add them to the slow cooker just before serving.
-Be a safe slow cooker. The long cooking times at low temperatures can be a boon for harmful bacteria unless you:
-Remove leftovers from the slow cooker and transfer them to the refrigerator or freezer as soon as you've finished eating. Do not let cooked food stand at room temperature longer than 1 hour.
-Cook and drain ground meats to destroy harmful bacteria before adding them to the slow cooker.
-Add only thawed foods to your slow cooker - no frozen meats or vegetables.
-Do not cook whole poultry, such as a whole chicken or Rock Cornish hens, in a slow cooker because safe cooking temperatures cannot be reached quickly enough near the bone.

Storing and Reheating Stews and Soups

In most cases, the flavors in stews and soups mellow and meld with age. So make them ahead of time, cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days. (But store those made with fish or shellfish no longer than 1 day).

Stews thickened with flour or cornstarch may separate after freezing. If you plan to freeze one of these stews, save the thickening step until you reheat it.

Soups freeze very well, so it's easy to double the recipe and freeze half of it so you'll always have a meal on hand when you need it. Just pour the soup into freezer containers, leaving 1/4 to 1/2 inch headspace (it expands as it freezes). Freeze broth in freezer containers or in ice-cube trays. Once the broth is frozen, transfer the "broth cubes" to a heavy plastic freezer bag. Soups and broths can be kept frozen for 2 to 3 months.

Freezing may affect the flavor and texture of some soups:

-The flavor of green bell pepper intensifies, and onion gradually loses its flavor. So you may need to adjust the seasoning to taste during reheating.
-Freezing makes potatoes soft and grainy. So wait to add the cooked potatoes until it's time to reheat.
-Thick soups tend to become thicker during storage. Add a little broth, milk or half-and-half while reheating, until the soup reaches the desired consistency.

Thaw soups in the refrigerator once they've thawed, use them right away. Heat broth-based soups over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until hot. You can also reheat these soups in the microwave. Reheat thick purees or soups containing milk, cream, eggs or cheese over low heat, stirring frequently. Don't let them boil, or the ingredients may separate.

From "Betty Crocker's Complete Cookbook, Everything You Need to Know to Cook Today, 9th Edition." Text Copyright 2000 General Mills, Inc. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

More Recipes from the Betty Crocker's Cookbook, 9th Edition Cookbook:
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Beef Burritos
Beef Stew
Beef and Broth
Beer-Cheese Soup
Borscht
Burgundy Beef Stew
CHOWDER CHAT
Calzone
Chicken Noodle Soup
Chicken Salad Sandwiches
Chicken Tacos
Chicken and Broth
Chicken, Artichoke and Red Onion Pizza
Chili
Corn Chowder
Cream of Broccoli Soup
Cream of Mushroom Soup
Cuban Black Bean Soup
Easy Cioppino
Everyday Cassoulet
Fish Broth
French Onion Soup
Garden Vegetable Wraps
Gazpacho
Gyros
Hearty Tomato Soup
Hungarian Goulash
Manhattan Clam
Montana Panini
New England Clam Chowder
Oyster Stew
PREPARING SPLIT PEAS
Pizza
Pizza Crust
QUICK HOMEMADE SOUP
Quick Jambalaya
Reuben Sandwiches
SANDWICH BASICS
STEWS AND SOUPS BASICS
Senate Bean Soup
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TIPS FOR BROTHS
Vegetable Broth
Vegetable-Beef Soup
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Wild Rice Soup
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