Perfect stew..help please
Discussion
You lot have made me hungry reading all this stuff....normally stick to biker banter but just out of hospital and bored. Since i have time on my hands please help me impress the girlfriend and help me make the perfect stew. Tried packet stuff and it sucks big time. I've never been able to make a good one, think it's cos I don't really have the time during the week and always seem to end up in the pub at the weekend. So, I'm off work till next January - plenty time to perfect this cooking thing !
Any advice/recipies for the perfect stew would be welcomed !!!
Thanks in advance
Barry.
What meat?
I do a pretty mean beef stew (If I do say so myself
)
Start with a big pan...
Cook a chopped onion til it's golden, then chuck in a couple of chopped/crushed cloves of garlic and cook for a minute or so.
Take the onion out of the pan, turn up the heat and chuck in some floured and seasoned stewing steak, stirring that until it's brown before putting the onion back in and pouring in enough red wine to cover the meat. Scrape all the tasty bits off the pan as you bring it up to a simmer.
Then add a stock cube, chopped mushrooms (preferably the big field shrooms), a couple of teaspoons of smooth french mustard and a couple of teaspoons of thyme and a teaspoon of rosemary (Dried is fine). If you have it a good slosh of mushroom ketchup will help.
Then cook it gently for a good couple of hours, and if you can then leave it to sit over night so much the better.
It should be thick, almost black and very tasty
(If I have any pastry kicking about I've been known to serve it with pastry cow shapes
)
I do a pretty mean beef stew (If I do say so myself
)Start with a big pan...
Cook a chopped onion til it's golden, then chuck in a couple of chopped/crushed cloves of garlic and cook for a minute or so.
Take the onion out of the pan, turn up the heat and chuck in some floured and seasoned stewing steak, stirring that until it's brown before putting the onion back in and pouring in enough red wine to cover the meat. Scrape all the tasty bits off the pan as you bring it up to a simmer.
Then add a stock cube, chopped mushrooms (preferably the big field shrooms), a couple of teaspoons of smooth french mustard and a couple of teaspoons of thyme and a teaspoon of rosemary (Dried is fine). If you have it a good slosh of mushroom ketchup will help.
Then cook it gently for a good couple of hours, and if you can then leave it to sit over night so much the better.
It should be thick, almost black and very tasty
(If I have any pastry kicking about I've been known to serve it with pastry cow shapes
)Another one to try...
Take mechsympathy's strategy - adding/deleting some veg as you prefer - except brown off an Oxtail. Oxtail is really, really tasty and very cheap. Cook as before but not two hours - more like five, very slowly (i.e. the odd bubble rises to the surface) until the meat is falling off the bone.
Allow to cool in the fridge overnight.
Spoon off the excess fat that will have solidified on the surface - you don't need to be eating that.
Then fish out the oxtail and with your hands pull all the meat off the bone (should be super easy) and put it back in the stew. Continue until the stew is boneless.
Reheat and serve with crusty bread.
For more detailed instructions buy Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's MEAT book.
Take mechsympathy's strategy - adding/deleting some veg as you prefer - except brown off an Oxtail. Oxtail is really, really tasty and very cheap. Cook as before but not two hours - more like five, very slowly (i.e. the odd bubble rises to the surface) until the meat is falling off the bone.
Allow to cool in the fridge overnight.
Spoon off the excess fat that will have solidified on the surface - you don't need to be eating that.
Then fish out the oxtail and with your hands pull all the meat off the bone (should be super easy) and put it back in the stew. Continue until the stew is boneless.
Reheat and serve with crusty bread.
For more detailed instructions buy Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's MEAT book.
Craphouserat said:
Probably try beef - can you add lots of carrots n stuff? She hates mushrooms, can't understand it myself.
Thanks for that though - im no Gordon Ramsay - but I'll try that one.
Carrots are good but can make it over sweet if you use loads, otherwise pretty much any root veg will work.Thanks for that though - im no Gordon Ramsay - but I'll try that one.
No shrooms though
After the disappointment of the Hatton fight and trying to stave off tiredness I made a stew at 7am this morning !! Left it cooking for hours....didnt manage to get the oxtail, but took a little bit out of all the advice given and I managed it !! Great stew..even managed to make a couple of cracking dumplings..thanks to the bbc food site. So with my belly full and my g/f suitably impressed I'm off for an early nite. (no she wasn't that impressed I've just not slept for quite a while !!) Thanks to all for the advice given !!
Barry.
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