We've got long and active threads about smoking meat, curing meat, and grilling meat, and probably doing other things with meat that I haven't mentioned. Those are certainly fine things to do, but what about that tried and true method passed from generation to generation even in families of humble culinary ability: stew. My mother made stew. Your mother made stew. Her mother made stew too. It's time we honored our mothers with a thread dedicated to this humble but delicious way of cooking meat, and I suggest that we do so by posting our favorite recipes here. With pictures, of course - because if stewing your meat isn't really sexy, pictures of your meat most certainly are.
You can stew poultry or pig or game, but to me when it comes to stew, cow is choice number one. There's nothing like transforming a humble piece of tough, tissue-ey cut into tender, luscious beefiness and taking in the wonderful aromas as the transformation happens. I'm particular about my beef in that I don’t like a lot of "stuff" with it. You can keep your trendy overtopped hamburgers and your roulades with 7 layers of vegetables distracting me from my meat. Lettuce and tomatoes don't belong anywhere near my burgers and - similarly - vegetables are not allowed in my stew. Celery, carrots, turnips? Those are side dishes. My beef stew is a BEEF stew. Modeled after a classic Provencal daube, I use just a few things to complement the flavor of the meat, and that's it.
Chuck, marinating:
I buy a cheap chuck steak and hack it into even pieces, then marinate the pieces in red wine and garlic for about 3 hours. Some daube recipes say to do this overnight oor longer, but I think they're wrong. By that point the meat denatures enough and takes on enough wine flavor that I almost don't recognize it as cow. I like cow. A lot.
Other ingredients:
That's anchovy, olives, orange peel, garlic and thyme. All flavors that bring out the meat's natural flavors. No carrots. No celery. And no - God forbid - potatoes. I don’t know when potatoes became such a common part of stews. You can serve me stew over some mashed or boiled potatoes, but you cannot put potatoes in my stew.
Fond after giving the chuck some serious browning:
If you're like me, it doesn't take too much for your meat to be ready for action, but you can't just throw it in there and expect it to excite anyone. No, you have to do this simple step first. I brown my meat hard after seasoning it, creating a flavorful crust and a nice fond in the pot. Then garlic and anchovy goes into that fond and it's deglazed with the red wine marinade, which is the only liquid I use in my daube.
Let it go:
Once the pan is deglazed, I put the meat back in along with everything else, cover it, and let it lovingly go in a 275 degree oven for 3-4 hours. I take off the lid only once to make sure the house fills with that intoxicating aroma and the neighbors get jealous. Once it's done, I remove the meat and keep it warm while I reduce the liquid. This thickens it a bit, but the main reason I do it is for flavor. I want intense, beefy wine sauce. Note that for this reason it's important not to oversalt your braising liquid - if it tastes right when you start the stew, it's going to be unpalatably salty once you reduce the liquid.
Serve:
over egg noodles with a fork, a spoon, and a good, crust baguette.
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...defended from strong temptations to social ambition by a still stronger taste for tripe and onions." Screwtape in
The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis
Fuckerberg on Food
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