There is a simple seasonal-culinary formula for this time of year.
Winter = stew.
When days are cold and nights are long, there is nothing more warming and satisfying than a steaming hot bowl of stew. Or two. It makes everything seem right with the world.
I feel sorry for our friends in warmer climes. They don’t get to enjoy the glories of stew. Oh, they may cook up some fish or a couple of clams simmered in a sauce and call it stew, but that isn’t really the same thing.
Stew is hearty. Stew is filling. Stew gratifies your soul.
On the other hand, it also drains your pocketbook. Stew used to be inexpensive. That was sort of the point — it was a good way to use the cheapest cuts of meat. Even the toughest of meats becomes meltingly tender when it is slowly simmered in a sauce for at least a couple of hours.
But the price of even the cheapest, most fibrous cuts of meat has soared in recent years. Stew was originally a peasant food, but if there were any peasants anymore they couldn’t afford it.