We're prepping our
ingredients for Gardiane La Camargue, French beef stew in the style of the cowboys Francais in the
Camargue, south of Arles. The dish is from Patricia Wells' Bistro
Cooking.
Whoops! A few hours have passed since we cut the meat into 3- or 4-ounce pieces. Sorry about that, the baby that was getting into the cat food last time, I realized he'd better have some human food. Oh well, such is life. Now it's time to prep the carrots, onions and garlic. The instructions just say "garlic cloves," not "minced" or "peeled" or "unpeeled."
Hmmm. I decided to just peel them and crush just a bit in the process (I smack
them with the wide edge of my knife to loosen the skins). My cloves look a little small... so I use eight or nine. I
love garlic. I decide to toss it all in. A little extra garlic never hurt anyone. Right?
My carrots are gigantic, so I only bought two. They're supposed to be cut up into
one-inch pieces. I peel them with my favorite peeler, and as they're especially fat, I let the slices get skinnier as I
progress up the carrot.
Now, for the onions. My instructions say "cut into rounds." What are
"rounds"? Are they "slices," or does that just mean to take apart the slices into little rings? Or
does that mean, don't take apart the slices? I can't figure it out, so I just do what makes sense: I cut them into
1/2-inch-or-so slices, then separate the rings.
Now, all I have to do is to put this all together.
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