Favorite stew recipe?

[OwnedByTheCow]

Pretty self explanatory. What's your favorite?

 

[Jogeephus]

Have you ever heard the old folk tale about the soup rock? If not, its an old tale about a beggar who comes through town without a penny to his name but he has a kettle and a rock. When no one is willing to give him food he goes to the creek and builds a fire, fills his kettle with water and puts his rock in it. The locals are curious and ask him what he is doing and he tells them he is making stew with his magic rock and offers to share it with them when its done. Intrigued, they agree and as he cooks he tells them its much better with a few other ingredients which they willingly provide and before long everyone is eating stew.

This is how I view stew. I don't have a recipe only a procedure and the procedure makes use of whatever is on hand. With this cold weather we have a pot of venison stew served with cornbread.

 

[1982vett]

Kinda the same here....start with chuck roast. Sometimes roast it first, other times chunk it up, dust it with flour and sear it in a cast iron pan.
Sweat some vege's - garlic, onion, peppers, carrots, celery, mushrooms, corn, green beans. Add them to a pot of beef or chicken stock and bring to a simmer then add the seared meat to the pot. Add a can or two of rotel tomatoes and simmer till you can't wait any more....preferably let the potatoes and chuck get tender...

 

[bbirder]

As most of you know us Cajuns have a different cuisine. My favorite stew is a crab stew made with the small to med blue crabs. First, you make a roux, or buy a jar of ready made roux (dark). Sweat off a bag of trinity veggies then add approx 5-6 heaping tablespoons of roux on a low fire. As the roux softens slowly add water or chix stock or seafood stock. using a wisk make sure the roux is completely blended with liquid. I would estimate about 2 qts of liquid. Cook on low boil for 45 min to cook the flour out. The result should not be to thin and should coat the spoon.Start seasoning to taste.
Add the cleaned crab bodies and claws to stew and boil on low for 15-20 minutes. I season my crabs before adding them. Add a couple of pounds of cleaned shrimp and cook for another 10 min. Turn fire as low as it will go and add onion tops and parsley. After 15-20 minutes or whenever you can serve stew on top of white rice and serve up some seafood with that.
We like to suck the juice out of the crab bodies and eat the shrimp with the rice. You can then open the bodies like you would a boiled or steamed crab and finish the meat inside. I shouldn't have to tell you that our seasoning is not on the mild side. We like spicy.
Very simple dish. Don't complicate it by adding other ingredients. You want the seafood to stand on it's own.
And lastly, don't expect this in New Orleans. They can screw up a good cajun recipe catering to the tourists.
If down here and you want to sample, head west on I-10 or Hwy 90 to Cajun country. Lafayette and vicinity. I'm partial to south of Lafayette about 20 miles for original Cajun Cuisine. Bon Appetit!

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

Take a pound and a half beef cut into 1 1/2" chunks roll 'em in flour salt and pepper brown in skillet with chopped up onion scrape into crock pot

Add celery, carrots, and potato

Bouillon Cube or2 , bay leaf cover with water

Simmer til tender, good luck!

And get some good bread!! :lol:

 

[Redgully]

I feel hungry after reading through that.

 

[greybeard]

Take a pound and a half beef cut into 1 1/2" chunks roll 'em in flour salt and pepper brown in skillet with chopped up onion scrape into crock pot

Add celery, carrots, and potato

Bouillon Cube or2 , bay leaf cover with water

Simmer til tender, good luck!

And get some good bread!! :lol:

Does this one thicken pretty good?
I've eaten some beef 'stew' in the past that was a lot more like a soup than it was a rich thick stew.
(I prefer stew with cornbread on the side..that's pretty good bread)

 

[greybeard]

Have you ever heard the old folk tale about the soup rock? If not, its an old tale about a beggar who comes through town without a penny to his name but he has a kettle and a rock. When no one is willing to give him food he goes to the creek and builds a fire, fills his kettle with water and puts his rock in it. The locals are curious and ask him what he is doing and he tells them he is making stew with his magic rock and offers to share it with them when its done. Intrigued, they agree and as he cooks he tells them its much better with a few other ingredients which they willingly provide and before long everyone is eating stew.

This is how I view stew. I don't have a recipe only a procedure and the procedure makes use of whatever is on hand. With this cold weather we have a pot of venison stew served with cornbread.

There is an old Bobby Bare song about the soup stone....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZNi7k27kPc

 

[wbvs58]

Grab the 223, walk out the back door over to some rocks, pick out a nice big buck kangaroo out of about 50 feasting on my ryegrass, drop him, cut the tail off and skin it, bring back to the house and cut it into sections, put in the slow cooker with materials that are to hand and cook overnight, thicken with cornflower and ready for dinner the next night. The very sinewy tail falls to pieces to a very tender meat.

Ken

 

[Cross-7]

Take a pound and a half beef cut into 1 1/2" chunks roll 'em in flour salt and pepper brown in skillet with chopped up onion scrape into crock pot

Add celery, carrots, and potato

Bouillon Cube or2 , bay leaf cover with water

Simmer til tender, good luck!

And get some good bread!! :lol:

Does this one thicken pretty good?
I've eaten some beef 'stew' in the past that was a lot more like a soup than it was a rich thick stew.
(I prefer stew with cornbread on the side..that's pretty good bread)

Me too GB
I like it thick and not watery
Mine is very similar.
I use cut up NY strip steak and pan sear it first then add a little beef stock and simmer and deglaze the skillet.
Pour beef stock in slow cooker and add steak and liquid from skillet.
I let it cook a as long as I can before adding veggies.
Potatoes and carrots go in next.
After they soften I make a mushroom gravy mix. A little pkg cost .79 and makes about a cup of gravy.
Then add it to thicken it up
Then add in whole green beans and whatever else I'm in the mood for at the time

 

[Redgully]

Grab the 223, walk out the back door over to some rocks, pick out a nice big buck kangaroo out of about 50 feasting on my ryegrass, drop him, cut the tail off and skin it, bring back to the house and cut it into sections, put in the slow cooker with materials that are to hand and cook overnight, thicken with cornflower and ready for dinner the next night. The very sinewy tail falls to pieces to a very tender meat.

Ken

Red or grey. I tried eating a grey once and it wasn't pleasant but the reds aren't bad.

 

[slick4591]

Like Jo, my recipe is more technique as ingredients can be whatever you like. I usually take an arm roast and dust each side with garlic powder, black pepper and a small amount of flour. In a hot oiled cast iron skillet I sear each side to golden. Place in a deep sided oven safe dish at 400F and into the oven for an hour and a half to two. Remove, reserve liquid and cut roast in bite size chunks. In a large stock pot and enough water to cover I dump the cubes and reserved liquid. I'll add salt and more black pepper then bring it to a slow boil. When the boil is reached I add beef base to taste. I believe the base has a more concentrated flavor over stock or bullion. When meat chunks start to become tender add cubed up fresh potatoes and lower heat to a simmer. I'll then add a couple of cans of drained stewed tomatoes (frozen is better if you can find them) and bags of the frozen vegetables I decide on. When everything is tender and ready to eat I let it cool and keep cold overnight. The next day I'll remove the grease that has collected on top. If I want to thicken it for stew I'll add that after it's back to a boil and just before it's ready to serve. For soup it's ready as is.

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

Take a pound and a half beef cut into 1 1/2" chunks roll 'em in flour salt and pepper brown in skillet with chopped up onion scrape into crock pot

Add celery, carrots, and potato

Bouillon Cube or2 , bay leaf cover with water

Simmer til tender, good luck!

And get some good bread!! :lol:

Does this one thicken pretty good?
I've eaten some beef 'stew' in the past that was a lot more like a soup than it was a rich thick stew.
(I prefer stew with cornbread on the side..that's pretty good bread)

it thickens up, I put all the flour scrapings from the skillet in. I don't want it like soup.

 

[Jogeephus]

As most of you know us Cajuns have a different cuisine. My favorite stew is a crab stew made with the small to med blue crabs. First, you make a roux, or buy a jar of ready made roux (dark). Sweat off a bag of trinity veggies then add approx 5-6 heaping tablespoons of roux on a low fire. As the roux softens slowly add water or chix stock or seafood stock. using a wisk make sure the roux is completely blended with liquid. I would estimate about 2 qts of liquid. Cook on low boil for 45 min to cook the flour out. The result should not be to thin and should coat the spoon.Start seasoning to taste.
Add the cleaned crab bodies and claws to stew and boil on low for 15-20 minutes. I season my crabs before adding them. Add a couple of pounds of cleaned shrimp and cook for another 10 min. Turn fire as low as it will go and add onion tops and parsley. After 15-20 minutes or whenever you can serve stew on top of white rice and serve up some seafood with that.
We like to suck the juice out of the crab bodies and eat the shrimp with the rice. You can then open the bodies like you would a boiled or steamed crab and finish the meat inside. I shouldn't have to tell you that our seasoning is not on the mild side. We like spicy.
Very simple dish. Don't complicate it by adding other ingredients. You want the seafood to stand on it's own.
And lastly, don't expect this in New Orleans. They can screw up a good cajun recipe catering to the tourists.
If down here and you want to sample, head west on I-10 or Hwy 90 to Cajun country. Lafayette and vicinity. I'm partial to south of Lafayette about 20 miles for original Cajun Cuisine. Bon Appetit!

I love cajun and creole cooking. One can learn a lot by learning how to cook cajun dishes. The process and principles used can be applied to other things like beef stew. And like you say, you can screw it up because there are reasons you do things the way you do when preparing a cajun dish. One of the most important things I feel is to season each ingredient as it is added since builds flavors. You wouldn't think this matters but it does.

 

[Cross-7]

Learned a lot.
Keep it going

 

[wbvs58]

Grab the 223, walk out the back door over to some rocks, pick out a nice big buck kangaroo out of about 50 feasting on my ryegrass, drop him, cut the tail off and skin it, bring back to the house and cut it into sections, put in the slow cooker with materials that are to hand and cook overnight, thicken with cornflower and ready for dinner the next night. The very sinewy tail falls to pieces to a very tender meat.

Ken

Red or grey. I tried eating a grey once and it wasn't pleasant but the reds aren't bad.

Wallaroo.

Ken

 

[Redgully]

Grab the 223, walk out the back door over to some rocks, pick out a nice big buck kangaroo out of about 50 feasting on my ryegrass, drop him, cut the tail off and skin it, bring back to the house and cut it into sections, put in the slow cooker with materials that are to hand and cook overnight, thicken with cornflower and ready for dinner the next night. The very sinewy tail falls to pieces to a very tender meat.

Ken

Red or grey. I tried eating a grey once and it wasn't pleasant but the reds aren't bad.

Wallaroo.

Ken

Heard they're the best, must try it sometime, plenty around here too!