Paella and jambalaya are both dry stews with the rice cooked right in the pot along with smoked sausage and/or ham, chicken and shellfish.

Lamb and barley are a classic. Avoid the more expensive cuts; lamb shanks and even lamb neck bones flavor and thicken the stew.

Polish kielbasa sausage is traditionally prepared in a sauerkraut stew called kapusta.   Our steps work perfectly.

When there’s nothing in the house to make; make this.

Hunter stew, tomato sauce or gravy?

Grandma was Sicilian and made a thin, soupy sauce. Like most Americans, I like mine thick. A very liquidly stew is a soup; a stew poured over a starch is a gravy or sauce. Stretching one ingredient and pulling back on another creates a different dish, but why bother with a different recipe?

A  quick, adaptable Asian stew.

A stirfry is the quickest “stew”.  It needs nearly constant attention, so some veggie prep moved to step 1.

Seafood stews from around the world have distinct ingredients but the similarities are clear.