[Sca-cooks] OOP - help my stews!

[Gretchen Beck]

Kiri's recipe has the two things I was thinking "hmm, it's missing x" -- 
wine, and a little tomato paste -- which is to say acid and a little bit of 
sugar.

Also, I find that a couple of bay leaves makes a big difference in almost 
any stewed beef dish (hides, or mixes with a bitter flavor and rounds it 
out to something yummy).

toodles, margaret

--On Sunday, November 14, 2010 12:19 PM -0500 Elaine Koogler 
<kiridono at gmail.com> wrote:

> I do a beef stew in the crockpot, one that I adapted from a Williams
> Sonoma recipe...adapted in the sense that the original wasn't for a
> crockpot...and it used potatoes which I need to avoid where possible (I
> used turnips and parsnips instead, along with carrots, onion and celery).
> I seared the meat cubes in olive oil,after dredging them in a
> flour/salt/pepper mixture.  Then, after removing the meat to the
> crockpot, I deglazed the pan with red wine and added that to the
> crockpot, along with the veggies, a little tomato paste, water and a
> couple of sprigs of thyme.  We usually eat some of it for dinner, then
> the rest gets frozen for dinners at a later time.
>
> I've never had any problem with it.  The gravy is a little thin but, if
> wanted you can remove the meat and veggies (and the thyme sprigs) and
> reduce the remaining gravy to the thickness desired.
>
> I do think that searing the beef does help with the flavor and
> texture...and deglazing the pan brings any fats, and any browned floury
> bits to the mix.
>
> Kiri
>
> On Sun, Nov 14, 2010 at 9:16 AM, Ginny Beatty <ginbeatty at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Funny, I just did a beef stew yesterday.
>> Dredged the beef cubes in flour and dry spices, then seared them to
>> achieve the Maillard reaction.
>> Added to the crock pot, with beer, tomato juice and veggies. Cooked on
>> low for 3 hours. If I were using fresh herbs, I would put them in
>> towards the end of the cooking time to get the aromatics.
>> GwynethB
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>
>
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