Stew stew stew

It's winter tiem and that means one thing to me: stew, a new sketchbook, stew, cookies, stew, liberal amounts of alcohol, and stew, of course. So, here's how to stew.

Vegetable oil (or any light colored flavorless oil will do I'm sure)

*Flour

1 1/4 pounds stew beef, cut into 1-inch pieces

6 large garlic cloves, minced

8 cups beef stock or canned beef broth 2 cartons beef stock plus

half a pint of beer(it's not Miller time)

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 tablespoon sugar(might need more sugar depending on how bitter

your beer is)

1 tablespoon dried thyme

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

*1 tbs brown mustard

2 bay leaves

*Scant teaspoon hickory liquid smoke

• Butter
• 3 pounds russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 7 cups)
• *Instead of carrots and potatoes only, I gathered parsnips, a turnip, and some yukon golds(russet would be better in stew, though, methinks, but what ever pratties you have kicking about. Little fingerlings whole would be niiiice).
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 cups 1/2-inch pieces peeled carrots 
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

The recipe I used as my skeleton is from Epicurious which is a site I haven't explored much, but they appear to have a bomb ass app for smart phones and since my girl has an android, I imagine I'll be referencing them more in future. I 1 1/2ed the recipe because I had 2 3/4 pounds of stew beef chunks. 

Coat your beef(or pork or lamb or a combination of any of the above) with flour. It'll pro'lly take half a cup, but fuck measuring. Coat the meat with the flour and let it sit for a minute to ensure it sticks, but don't let it sit for too long or it'll get all gummy and nasty. Pour a couple tablespoons of oil in the bottom of the pot you plan to make your stew in and heat until it's shimmering. Add the floury meats, 


BUT 

only add one layer and brown them on every side. Don't cook them for very long, you're only browning them. Take them out after they're browned nicely, set them on a plate, and season them(while they're still hot) while your oil comes back up to temperature for batch two. This would be an excellent time to add more oil if need be btw. Repeat until you run out of chunks and have a pile of browned meat that your brother tries to jack pieces of, but is then rewarded by a mostly raw interior. That's what you get bitch.

This much beer.

Pour the dried thyme in your hand and rub it between your fingey bones to get it's oils flowin' before adding it to the hot oil to bloom it. Then add the garlic, saute for a minute (your nose will know) and add the tomato paste. Then dump in the beer and stir, scraping the bottom of the pot(a whisk or wooden spoon is good). This deglazes the pan making the usage of the stew pot for browning the meat an important step. You're missing out on a fatty layer of flavor and the thickening power of a roux if you skip  that step. So don't. Or I'll cut you. Next add the sugar, mustard, and worchestershiredickinmyass sauce and then add the meat. You can also pour in  a little more beer to just barely cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. Simmering the meat in the spice-y, tomato-y, beer not only infuses the flavors into the meat, but it breaks down the beef making the meat unbelievably tender. Like melt on your tongue tender. 

It is now time to add the stock. Pour it in and add the liquid smoke and bay leaves. Stir everybody up(make sure you scrape the bottom of the pot to make sure no tomato paste or flour is hiding under the meat) and taste it. Does it need salt or pepper? Pro'lly. Add them to taste, cover, and bring up to a boil. Then the cut the heat down to a simmer and fuck off for an hour.

Or, if you for some reason are lacking a sous chef to peel and chop your roots/onions now would be a good time. Melt butter in a large saute pan and add the potatoes, turnips, parsnips(which are treated like carrots) and onions in one layer increments in the pan until the sides are all browned and caramelized(like the beef :O). I ended up being able to fit the potatoes and turnips together and the parsnips and the onions together. Add extra butter as needed and I even sprinkled a little sugar on the onions to encourage caramelization. This step adds a welcome layer of delicious and speeds up the cooking of the veg in the stew. When everything is done browning add it at once to the stew and simmer uncovered until the potatoes are fork tender.

Taste for seasoning again, it pro'lly needs more salt and pepper. Ladle into bowls, sprinkle chopped fresh parsley on top, and nom heartily.