Three-Pepper Soup

     Dinner tonight: three-pepper soup de jour of the day! Take a fair-sized stewpot and cook a half-slice of bacon, a half-pound of stew beef (salted and peppered), a (large) chorizo sausage snipped into rounds, half a red onion, a little bit of fennel root (I'm pretty sure that was what it was; raw, it tastes mildly of liquorice), browned/sauteed together in that order. Yes, the meat gets a bit of a head start -- I got it going, then cut up the vegetables, and the timing worked out. When the meat looks good, add enough water to cover and a whole container of beef stock, and cover while you cut a big potato into 3/8" cubes (do not measure!) and add to the pot. Liquid should cover the contents. If it doesn't, add more.

      Heat up a very little oil or butter in a non-stick skillet -- you really only need enough to pretend -- while you dice the rest of the onion and an Anahiem pepper and add to the skillet. Cut carrots in the pan (I used baby carrots and kitchen shears. I cheat), saute until the onion goes translucent. Let it cool a bit, the add to the stewpot. Cover, let it simmer, go do something else for at least ten minutes.

      Dice at least half a bell pepper -- I used a red one. Whatever -- and a poblano pepper. start up your saute pan, throw in the red pepper, push it around some. Then add the poblano. --You have to be nice to poblanos. They should not be overcooked. The trick is that it will start to smell really good, and the second it does, take the pan off the heat, let it cool a bit, and add the contents to the simmering stewpot. Let it simmer at least ten more minutes or until the potato is soft. Add salt (etc.) to taste at the table.

     The end result is a kind of red-brown broth stew or soup. In general, the longer this simmers, the better it will be. You can add hotter peppers for more of a bite. You can add a can of diced tomatoes (or you can add them and various other canned veggies the next day). If you let it sit in the fridge overnight, some fat will come to the surface, depending on how fatty the bacon and chorizo were, and it can be skimmed.

     With dark bread, crusty rolls or crackers, it's a warming meal on a cold night.