simple beef stew

[majorcatfish]

here at the house we are still dealing with the flu bug, so dinners have been broth and soft as well easy.
so while surfing the net this morning this sounded good to everyone..
the only thing changed was added parsnip and used all beef broth.


http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/beef-stew-recipe3/index.html

 

[ninnymary]

Major, I've been wanting to find a good stew recipe. Mine is just not that great. So, how was it? Was it thick?

Mary

 

[digitS']

I don't have much luck "dredging" meat that's going in hot oil. Maybe the meat just needs to be completely dry. Do I need a blow dryer? The flour often just slides off - globs of dough in with the stew.

This recipe just says to "scatter the flour over the vegetable and beef mixture."

I recently found that I can "scatter" flour over the onions after they have gotten a start and been stirred several times. It isn't really a "roux," I don't think. The onions are hot and hold the flour off the bottom of the pan so it doesn't scorch but it cooks quickly. Then . . . everything else can be added! Or, the flour/onions can be pulled off and added later as other ingredients have finished cooking. It all blends well.

Steve

 

[majorcatfish]

Major, I've been wanting to find a good stew recipe. Mine is just not that great. So, how was it? Was it thick?

Mary

mary it was delicious it could have been a little thicker. the recipe called for 7 canned tomatoes, but all we had was quarts of tomatoes from last summer's harvest so the whole jar went in
so with all that extra liquid it thinned out the broth a bit. next time we make it going to add a jar of green bean<drained>s into the stew at the end.
for a thicker stew you might want to look at stews that do not call for tomatoes just tomato paste.
we did ours in a 2 gallon stock pot on the stove...

one of most important things to consider is the meat you can go to the market and pick up packages of "stew meat" but who knows what's in it. it's just scraps of meat that the butcher
had left over and tossed into that package and slapped a label on it. plus it's has a lot of fat in it as well. and you pay more per pound.
buy yourself a large roast<chuck roast>look for one that does not have a excess of fat you want it to be lean. and break it down at home, that way you can trim off the fat and remove the silver skin<connective tissue> between the meat
chuck is made up of a couple different muscles.nothing worse than eating a stew and biting down on a piece of meat finding that and politely placing it into your napkin.


steve since there is butter in the pot and you are adding flour to it yes it's a roux of sorts and yes you are right if you do not keep stirring it, the coating<roux will burn. like the recipe says lightly roasted so yes you are lightly burning the roux <brown roux>, which will add a nutty tone to the stew or any recipe calling for roux...

you mentioned holding off add ingredients that's a good point, since you are cooking with different types of veggies.. root/ tuber/soft veggies <celery/tomato>
if you tossed them in all at once the soft veggies would be mush.
since root veggies are the hardest add them first
halfway through add the tubers
the last 30 mins add you soft veggies .....celery/ green beans/tomatoes<if canned> if the recipe calls for tomatoes early in the cooking process of course add them.
doing this you will have soft yet firm veggies in your meal..

not to get off track to far....
talked earlier about buying large/whole cuts of meat and butchering it up at home the most important reason is that it will cost you less, reasoning behind this?
the more any type of meat is handled<processed/butchered> the more you will pay, somebody has to pay their wage!!!!
and secondly more that piece of meat is handled the greater chance of contamination of some type... you will hear about meat recalls a couple times a year...

the best reason to buy whole meats you get to keep those scraps.!!!! once done cutting it up don't even think about throwing that away. freeze them and once you have enough pull them out and make some wonderful stocks with them...

just looked on-line whole chuck roasts are 2.99 a pound stew<mystery>meat 3.99 a pound