New recipes, January 7, 2012

Curried Beef Stew and Long Bean, Cucumber and Tomato Salad, from the January 2012 Bon Appétit. These were both tasty, and are amazingly nearly fat free.

What we would do different: blanch the long beans for a little more tenderness, and increase the temp of the stew above a simmer to tenderize the beef more. The stew could use another tablespoon of Thai chili. There was a lot of broth-more vegetables would also be nice.

The wine was Bleasdale The Broad Side Langhorne Creek 2008 Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec. As we hoped, the rich fruitiness from the Shiraz, which is the primary grape, was a nice match with the spiciness of both dishes, as well as the lime in the salad.