Preheat oven to 300 degrees (you can also use stove top or crock-pot). Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add stew meat and onion then cook for about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds before adding tomatoes, seasonings and beef broth. Cover and cook in the oven for at least 3-4 hours, checking occasionally to make sure there is enough liquid. Remove pot from oven place on stove top over medium low heat.

Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, and celery; sauté for 5-6 minutes. Add the garlic, cook for an additional 60 seconds, stirring constantly.

Season the cooked vegetables with oregano, thyme, chicken bouillon granules, sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste. Add 5 1/2 cups of chicken broth and potatoes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer partially covered, 45 minutes or until the potato is tender.

Combine the cornstarch with the remaining 1/2 cup of chicken broth and mix thoroughly. Add cornstarch mixture, chicken, milk and egg noodles to the broth, and cook for 10 minutes or until the noodles are tender. Taste and re-season if needed. Enjoy.

Chinese Hot and Sour Soup

With the really cold weather setting in I was in the mood for a nice warming soup and as luck would have it I had a lot of the Asian style chicken broth leftover from when I made the Hainanese chicken rice. (The Asian style chicken broth is basically the broth leftover from poaching a chicken along with some garlic, ginger and green onions. You can then simmer the chicken bones in the broth to give it an even stronger flavor.) Whenever I eat out at Chinese restaurants one of the things that I like to order is the hot and sour soup and I had been wanting to try making it at home. I figured that the Asian chicken broth would work well in Chinese hot and sour soup and that the hot and spicy soup would be perfect for the deep freeze that we were in.
http://world-supper-recipes.blogspot.com/
I found a bunch of recipes for hot and sour soup and used what I liked from each of them to come up with this one. I tried to keep the recipe as authentic as I could and that meant that there were a few ingredients that I was not familiar with including the tree ear mushrooms and the lily buds. Luckily it was easy enough to find them at a local Chinese grocery store. (I had previously used the black mushrooms and the Chinese black vinegar and I had found them at the same grocery store.)

Although the soup required a bit of prep work it was pretty easy and straight forward to make. As it was cooking I immediately recognized the smell and I was looking forward to the enjoying the soup. Chinese hot and sour soup is supposed to rely on the white pepper for the heat but when I taste tested it near the end I was not satisfied with the level of spiciness so I added a bit more heat in the form of some chili oil and chili sauce (already listed in the recipe below). With the additional seasoning the Chinese hot and sour soup ended up tasting just as good as it smelled! There was a nice balance of heat and sourness and the soup just tasted great! I really like the way the eggs were used in this soup and I will have to keep it in mind when making soups in the future. Luckily there are a lot of leftovers and they will help me through the next few really cold days.

Note: You could easily omit the pork and use an Asian flavored vegetable broth to make a vegetarian friendly version.