Stews and casseroles are among the most comforting of winter foods and the most forgiving; once you've done the preliminary preparation, they'll happily cook by themselves. Most of them also freeze well so you can cook a big batch at one time and know that, after a quick defrost in the microwave, you'll have a delicious warming dinner waiting for you when you get home. Seafood stews and vegetable stews feature here along with the more traditional beef, lamb, veal, pork, chicken and duck recipes.