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Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Beef, root and mushroom stew

The recipe below is the baseline or basic recipe.  As with all stews ingredients, cooking times, etc will affect outcome in many ways.  Enjoy!

Things you will need:

  • Knife and cutting board
  • Medium or large strainer
  • 2-3 mixing/prep bowls
  • Large stock pot and lid
  • Oven @ 275 F once you start prepping
Ingredients:
  • 3-4 medium or 2-3 large onions, peeled and diced
  • 2-3 lbs cubed stew meat (beef or bison; I use chuck, but you can use any cut you like really)
  • 2-3 large carrots, rinsed and cut into bite sized sections
  • 1 large or 2 medium parsnips, rinsed and cut into bite sized sections
  • 4-5 cups of mushrooms: I suggest getting a variety, but if nothing else is available use portobello 
  • 1 bottle of good red wine (cabernet, pinot noir, etc)
  • 2-3 cups of a good beef stock (make your own to maximize flavor)
  • 2-3 tablespoons oil (avocado or olive)
  • 3-4 tablespoons salt
  • 3-4 tablespoons pepper
  • 4-6 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
The process:

  • Prep the garlic, onions and roots keeping them separate
  • Heat the stock pot on the stove top over medium heat, then add and heat the oil
  • In a prep bowl toss the cubed meat with 1-2 tablespoons salt and pepper and 1 tbs oil
  • Place enough meat to cover the bottom of the stock pot.  You want to get color onto a few sides of the meat.  This takes 2-3 minutes per "side", it does not need to be perfect, just get some color on the meat and the stock pot bottom.
  • Place the seared or browned meat into a separate prep bowl, cover and continue until all meat is browned.
  • Add the onions to the stock pot and stir.  Add a bit of stock to get all of the brown stuff off of the bottom of the pot.  Cook the onions for 3-4 minutes
  • Add the garlic and about 1/4 cup of the stock as well as 1-2 tablespoons of salt and pepper, stir together and cook for another 3-4 minutes
  • Add the roots and meat into the pot
  • Add enough wine and stock to cover the items in the pot and stir
  • Prep and cut the mushrooms into bite sized sections and add to the pot
  • Adjust fluid level with either wine or stock so that everything is nearly submerged after you stir in the mushrooms
  • Cover with the lid and place in the oven, cooking for 2-3 hours.
  • After first time check, uncover and stir.  If you need to add any fluid (you can clearly see too many things out of the fluid after you stir) add it by the 1/4 cup until everything is nearly submerged.  this would also be a good time to taste the broth and add salt or pepper to taste
  • Cover again after any adjustments are made, place in the oven and cook for another 2 hours
At this point it should be "close".  Optimally you let the entire dish rest overnight, then gently reheat in the oven; however, sometimes you do need to taste it to make sure it is ready!

Variations are vast: swap out the meats, add some hearty greens near the end or use any number of herbs to vary the spice and acidity.

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