Category Archives: cooking

Usually when I have a day off during the week I want to take advantage of the lunch specials at Downtown Raleigh restaurants. The prices are usually about half of the usual dinner cost and its sunny and warm today so I could walk around downtown, visit Father and Son or other downtown stores.

Of course, I began my day at Cup A Joe coffee shop and on my way back stopped by Logan’s Garden center.

I decide I have enough leftovers at home to pull something together and I rather save my money to go out to eat with friends.

I have half a loaf of French bread left over from the weekend. I had purchased it from La Farm Bakery at The NC Farmers market but by now it was becoming stale. I had always known you could us bread to thicken soups and stews so I decided to use as a base, otherwise, it would go in the compost bin or out for the birds to peck!

1) Heat oil in a Dutch oven and add a medium onion cut in small pieces. cook until they have soften. I also added one minced clove of garlic. Stir often and cook until the onion softened.

2) Add three potatoes cut in small cubes. A tablespoon of turmeric. Stir to coat vegetables and cook about 5 minutes.

3) Add about two cups of stock. I used two cups of water and a vegetable bullion cube because that was on hand. Turn heat up to high.

4) Once it began to boil I added a piece of fresh ginger, a tablespoon of curry powder, a teaspoon of paprika, salt and pepper.

5) After tasting, I decided it was missing some ZING! There are no chillis in the garden, yet. Hmmm. Sriracha? Tobasco? Ok. Four. Make that six shakes of Tobasco! Bring it back to a boil on medium high.

6) After boiling for about 15 minutes the potatoes were about done, I added the stale bread and enough water to cover. Put the lid on the Dutch oven and allow it boil until the bread falls apart. I added some leftover cherry tomatoes.

7) Once the bread has absorbed enough liquid and begins to fall apart you may need to add more liquid and stir vigorously so the bread comes apart and thickens the liquid.

It was warm and filling!

Of course, Gus enjoyed the warm Spring day.

He always hams it up!