I have always been a fan of stew. Maybe it is that whole one pot meal thing, but I like the variety of flavors all melding into one. Anytime I make it, the whole house smells fantastic.
I don’t know that I make it regularly, but maybe semi-regularly. But I think I got out of the habit, until I recently read Cooked by Michael Pollan. He details four cooking methods and shares recipes, and experiences from each method. And the section on cooking with water re-inspired me to want to cook stew again.
The stew fixins
Now, there are a couple of different ways to cook stew and since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and you are already going to be spending a large portion of the day cooking, I figured I’d share both. You are welcome to try either. Both have their merits.
Don’t worry, both are still tasty, but you can certainly save some time with the first.
Slow Cooker Beef Stew:
Ingredients:
Want your stew to be a little thicker? Add a tablespoon of tapioca starch or coat the beef in flour before sauteing.
Method 1:
Throw it all in the pot and let it mingle for a while.
Throw everything in a slow cooker and pour in enough water to just about cover your ingredients.
The cooking will release the liquid in the veggies, and the potatoes will soak some of it up to even the whole thing out.
Cook on high for 4 to 6 hours.
Serve with some good crusty bread and enjoy.
Note: This will be better the next day.
Method 2:
This is a little more involved, but you will like it.
Creating some real flavor
In a saute pan, heat a little oil and sear the beef well on all sides.
Do this in batches, as you need space for the beef to breathe, otherwise it will steam and turn into grey lumps.
Once your beef is done move it all to your slow cooker.
Saute the onions, garlic and celery before adding to the slow cooker.
In the same saute pan, saute the onions, garlic and celery until fragrant.
Deglaze the pan with a little red wine, or dark beer.
Move it all to the slow cooker and add the rest of the ingredients.
Add enough water to just about cover your ingredients.
Cook for 4 to 6 hours.
Again, serve with that good crusty bread, and enjoy.
You can’t eat stew without some good bread
Ideally you would throw this together the day before. It will taste great today, but really, tomorrow it is going to be fantastic.
Greg
Ingredients
- 2 lbs beef chuck, cut into 1 inch squares
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 onion, chopped
- 3 potatoes, chopped
- 4 carrots, chopped
- 3 - 4 stalks celery, chopped
- salt & pepper to taste
- 1 tsp Hungarian paprika
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 bay leaf
- 1 tsp cumin
- and of course, since I like a little heat, 1/4 tsp cayenne
Method
- Method 1:
- Throw everything in a slow cooker and pour in enough water to just about cover your ingredients.
- The cooking will release the liquid in the veggies, and the potatoes will soak some of it up to even the whole thing out.
- Cook on high for 4 to 6 hours.
- Serve with some good crusty bread and enjoy.
- Method 2:
- In a saute pan, heat a little oil and sear the beef well on all sides.
- Do this in batches, as you need space for the beef to breathe, otherwise it will steam and turn into grey lumps.
- Once your beef is done move it all to your slow cooker.
- In the same saute pan, saute the onions, garlic and celery until fragrant.
- Deglaze the pan with a little red wine, or dark beer.
- Move it all to the slow cooker and add the rest of the ingredients.
- Add enough water to just about cover your ingredients.
- Cook for 4 to 6 hours.
- Again, serve with that good crusty bread, and enjoy.
Greg you’ve inspired me to put something into the slow cooker for dinner tonight. I don’t have stew beef on hand so I’ll probably do spaghetti sauce since I have Italian sweet sausage. You can bet I’ll be picking up some stew beef when I get to the market next and use your recipe to make some stew. Thanks for the reminder about not crowding the meat as it browns!
Glad to inspire!