Cooking At Home: The basics of making beef stew

Do you know what I love about stew? It's a really great way to practice what you've already learned in the kitchen, AND, you can get really creative with what goes in it.

Stew is basically, a meat and a whole bunch of vegetables that are, yes, stewed together. Generally, a very simple concept. I think timing is what really makes it difficult. Certain vegetables requires less cooking than others, if you add softer vegetables in too early they disintegrate into nothing (which probably still tastes great) but then you've got no actual vegetables to bite into.

So, here are the BASICS of making a stew. Learn it here, and then apply in your kitchen using the ingredients that suit you. I will put my recipe down below should you wish to use it. 

Making a meat stew can be broken down into three sections, each section is important. 

1. Prepping the meat.

Picking the meat for the stew. Generally, something with fat on it is going to taste best. I've used lamb before, which is absolutely delicious, but most of the time I'm using different cuts of beef that have some (or a lot) of fat.

Make the sure the meat is thoroughly dry before you begin cooking with it. This will help you TONS with browning — less splatter and less time.

Before browning, generously season the meat with salt and pepper.

Don't crowd the meat! Don't be the fool. 

2. Making the base (which carries the bulk of the flavor)

If the base has the flavor of the stew then flavor we must have – extraction is crucial here. The question is, how does one extract flavor? The answer is, you cook it. Lets see... what happens when you cook sliced onions on a skillet for a long period of time? It becomes browned and then caramelized, when you taste it the onion is full of warmth and sweet. Applying heat to your ingredients will allow flavors to come out. So when we're using the small diced carrots, onions, garlic, and celery, you want to make sure you're cooking them, allow them to soften or come to an almost-soft state. The longer you cook them the more flavor you'll get, but sometimes we're not looking for baby-food, and a softened state, or, just-softened state, will do just fine.

We're focused on flavor here, so ask yourself what flavors you want in your stew? I think of hearty and robust, so I'll reach for the bay leaves, salt and pepper, tomato paste. But, today I was feeling a little wild, so I went for strips of lemon zest to brighten it up, I added fennel and cumin seeds for a little je ne sais quoi. And, because I didn't use broth as my liquid (which would have easily added flavor to the base) and went with water instead, I substituted the loss of flavor by adding more tomato paste than I normally would.

3. Stewing.

Your meat is browned. Your base is made. Now all you've got to do is add the meat back into the pot, along with all the other larger cut veg, and leave it alone to stew (which basically means it's going to be simmering for a while). There are two things about this "stew" part of cooking: 1. We're cooking the meat slowly until it begins to break down (we definitely don't want chewy tough meat in our stew and cooking it low and slow means nice soft meat). And, 2. We're giving the flavors to meld while at the same time giving the liquid time to evaporate (which will leave us with robust flavor, and also so we end up with well, stew, and not soup).

Stew takes time. Cover the pot and allow it to simmer for more than 1 hour. I go for 1-1.5 hours covered, then another 30 min - 1 hour, partially covered (partially covered in order to evaporate the liquid because once again, as I've said before, we want stew, not soup). Don't worry if there's still too much liquid in your pot, simply keep it on the heat with the pot uncovered until the liquid is where you want it to be (*keep in mind the soup thickens as it sits even when not cooking, so compensate for this). It's nice to know cooking almost always isn't an exact science.

At some point during this time, about 30 minutes before I turn off the heat and declare the stew done, I add my chunks of russet potato. I do this last because I don't like potato disintegrating in my stew.

What you serve on top of your stew and what you serve under your stew is up to you. What do you prefer? Rice? Mashed potatoes? Wide egg noodles?

Will you top it with tons of herbs? A dollop of sour cream? Sliced jalapeños?

It's all good.

BELOW IS THE RECIPE. USE IT IF YOU WISH

INGREDIENTS:

2-2.5 lbs any kind of stew meat. For this recipe I used three beef short-rib, and less than a pound of precut beef stew meat. (I mixed two types of cut today because the butcher didn't have the amount of stew meat I needed). SPOILER ALERT: it still turned out great.

2 Celery stalk, chopped

1 Large red bell pepper, seeded and cut into large chunks.

4 Carrots divided. Half small diced. Half cut into larger chunks.

1 Whole yellow onion, divided. Half small diced. Half cut into larger chunks.

 

6 Cloves of garlic, peeled and rough chopped.

3 Roma tomatoes, cut into large chunks.

1 Small container of mushrooms, halved with the stems on.

4 Small-medium russet potatoes, cut into large chunks.

2 tsp Cumin seeds

1 tsp Fennel seeds.

2 Dried bay leaves

4 Strips of lemon zest.

2-3 Tablespoons of tomato paste

2 Cups water, or, broth.

Lastly, any and all the fresh herbs you want to top it with when serving. (I used a combination of parsley, dill, and  cilantro).

INSTRUCTIONS:

PREP THE MEAT

1. Brown the meat in batches. Come on now, you know what to do. Just remember, take your time, enjoy the process, let the meat really brown, REALLY. A couple of tips to achieving this: heat up the pot or dutch oven (whichever you are using) really hot on high heat. Add a splash of oil and then add the meat in the there (DONT CROWD THEM else it’ll just steam, which is not browning). Once the meat is in there — don’t touch it. You’ll know when to turn them when they come off easily from the bottom of the pot.

MAKE THE BASE (which carries the bulk of the flavor)

2. Once the meat is all browned set them aside on a plate and turn off the heat but leave the pot where it is because into the same pot still sizzling hot with beef fat, add cumin and fennel seeds. These are going to sizzle and sputter, stir them for just a few seconds and before they can burn add in roma tomatoes. Mix together. Turn the heat back onto med-high. Take a wooden spoon and scrape the bottom and sides of the pot (the acid from the tomatoes will help taking off that sticky yummy meaty goo off the sides). Once you’re done scraping add the tomato paste and stir into tomatoes until the paste has softened and the tomatoes are nicely coated with it.

3. Add the onions and garlic. Mix it all up. We’re still on med-high heat here, and we’re going to allow the onions and garlic to cook through a bit. The goal is to extract flavor from the onions and garlic — at the very least cook until onions are beginning to become translucent and the tomatoes are large chunks that look fairly gooey.

4. Then, into the pot add diced carrots (Not the large chunky carrots), celery, and mushrooms. Mix it all together. Let this cook down a bit because, once again, we’re trying to extract flavor from the vegetables for the base. Once it’s been cooking about 5 minutes or so, add a few large pinches of salt — taste as you add. Keep in mind that you’re salting for the whole pot, so look for a flavor that’s just a tad bit salty, if you’re uncomfortable doing this you can always add salt later, so don’t fret.

MAKE THE STEW

5. Once the medley of vegetables are cooked to your liking (look into your pot. What do you see? Is everything mush? Most likely not. Do they look fresh and hard? Probably not. Do they look they want to start softening? Yes. Add the large chunks of carrots and large chunks of bell peppers, snuggle the meat back into the vegetables (don’t forget the meat juices — that’s all good stuff, don’t waste it), lay down the bay leaves and lemon zest, then add about 2 cups of water (or, broth if you’re using). You want the liquid to come up right below the meat). Allow all of this to come to a boil, then lower the heat so the pot is simmering. Cover the pot. Walk away for 1 hour.

6.    After 1 hour, come back and give it a good stir. Put the lid back on and simmer for another 30 minutes.

7.   After 30 minutes, come back, give it another good stir. Cover the pot partially and keep simmering for another 30 minutes. After which point you can taste and add more salt if you need. Then, add large chunks of potato. Keep cooking with the pot partially covered. Make sure to cook the potatoes all the way through. You're done stewing when the liquid is where you want it to be (I say, where you want it to be, because some like their stew a little more soupy than others - so really, it's all up to you.) But, keep in mind while the stew sits off heat it will thicken — compensate for this.

Serve it on top of whatever you have, rice, pasta, mashed potatoes. And, top it with your favorite herbs! 

Bon appetite!