The key to good cooking is knowing what you like

So tonight I have made my first attempt at cooking a stew. Notice the word attempt. I succeeded in making a watery yet very tasty soup. In order to make it a stew I need to have the broth be quite a bit creamier and thicker. If I've read the recipes correctly, the way to do that is to make sure I use fresh mushrooms as opposed to the tinned mushrooms.

Ironically, the inspiration for attempting to make a stew was finding tins of butter beans and mushrooms in the same aisle at a supermarket. Butter beans are my favourite kind of bean, and I always enjoy them in my Mum's stews. Or in Whetherspoon's Five Bean Chili. But I think I prefer them in my Mum's stews.

As for mushrooms...they are not the most obvious ingredient to cook with for me. I like them, but only if they're cooked correctly, so I can never outright say whether I like or hate mushrooms. Usually it's the former. I like mushrooms covered in garlic butter and breadcrumbs. I like mushrooms stirred in a stir-fry. I like them properly sliced and grilled. I like them covered in batter ala. the Japanese tempura. I don't like them boiled on their own and then served. And I don't like them when the cook didn't take care of them, because in those cases they taste rubbery and slippery.

I'll write up the recipe for my soup attempting to be a stew tomorrow, I'll just have to label it as a work-in-progress, like my strawberry turnovers.