I think it's beautiful! Anyone familiar with the character of Daisy Bowman will probably notice the female model's hair is a little too light, but the art department is going to darken it to the right shade of brown. Thankfully, it fit the bill here too, calling for escarole and chickpeas to braise briefly in a brick-hued broth infused with canned tomatoes and chile flakes.I thought it might be fun to show you the stepback art for the last Wallflower book, Scandal In Spring. I always keep my friend Thea Baumann‘s Chickpea And Escarole Soup With Crispy Bread Crumbs in rotation because it’s so simple and healthy. Carrots, potatoes and zucchini act as sponges for the tangy spiced broth as well.

While a beef stew might sound heavy, this one is cooked in broth flavored with fresh ginger, dried limes and chiles de árbol. That iteration of Dunsmoor’s stew reminded me of Anissa Helou’s Tharid, an Arabian meat and vegetable stew served over crispy regag bread.

It then, of course, kicked off a round of other stews I wanted to make that fit that same vibe. I enjoyed the lightness of the stew so much, I never got bored with it. One day I had it plain, the next over a bowl of warm rice, and a third meal with the prescribed flour tortillas and some green hot sauce. I also tossed in some halved market cherry tomatoes at the very end, in lieu of the larger tomatoes, to add extra acidity to the stew. While Dunsmoor’s stew may more be a showcase for pork and green chiles, I cooked the stew one more time after I was done testing it, swapping out its regular yellow onions for spring onion bulbs that I bought at the market a few days prior. It reminded me of those barigoule-cooking days, which coincided appropriately with spring while I was in school, and how it felt like all I wanted to eat at that time. In it, chef-owner Brian Dunsmoor recounts how he and his cooks will brown the meat and vegetables for the stew less and not reduce the liquid so much when he wants a lighter, brighter-tasting stew for warmer months. I was thinking of that barigoule while testing Dunsmoor’s Pork And Green Chile Stew for my recent profile of the dish. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

Scandal in spring