Stewing Beef Recipe's

[Lifter]

Hello All

We are going to be making "stew" on Sunday, if only that I can be on the Road for a couple days!

Here's where I'm starting this off...

2 lbs+ of beef sirloin cubes...

these are presently marinating in a Stainless bowl, with an accompianment of a bunch of garlic chips, a some Lipton marinade (both the "herb and garlic" and the "smokey" kinds, a splash of dill, a shot of onion powder, a couple ounces each of lemon juice, seasoned rice wine inegar, basalmic vinegar, in the fridge, just to get the meat a bit more tenderised...

There's carrots, celery, pot barley, beef stock, mini-cooking onions, merlot wine, and about a quart of "beef stock"...

Ideas and contributions are welcomed!

Lifter

 

[lyndalou]

Gosh, Lifter, I don't know how you can do better than that. About the only thing I would add is something green, maybe frozen peas at the end of cooking. I am salivating just thinking about that wonderful stew.

 

[mudbug]

Probably a little late in responding this afternoon, Lifter. Bet you got that pot of stew on the stove already.

Agree w/lyndalou that peas would be a nice "late" addition. I like a bit of thyme in mine, but after reading your list of ingredients it sounds fine the way it is. Hope you are browning the beef in a bit of flour first to get the fond started. That's my favorite part of beef stew.

 

[Lifter]

Yes "'Bug", it was a "done deed" by noon, and yes, I did flour and panfry my sirloin bits...its was a bit watery, so thickened it up with a couple spoons of veloutine...

Thought Lyndalou was right about the peas, but at the crucial moment, found I was "out", so used green beans and corn (both frozen) instead, and that came out "different" but nice all the same...

Smashed white potato's on the side, and some OUTSTANDING CFL football happening...the RoughRiders are winning over the hated Eskimos as the snow falls... as the Western Conference is up for grabs...and remember, I come from Saskatchewan!!!!

Back to the stew, I got it just a bit salty, and while I thought the marinade put some extra flavour in, my wife thought I hit the rice vinegar a bit too hard...

Lifter

 

[tancowgirl2000]

We had a freak snow storm yesterday....ok not really but you couldnt see and the roads were all ice. Had the notion of making stew them but by the time I got home from my sons hockey game it was rather late to try to get the stew together in time.....anyways, that's my mission today, and was actually coming to get ideas of "extras" I can through in. I was thinking about the corn thing but wasnt sure...might as well try it can do no harm.....I always add Thyme, Rosemary, a touch of love and ALWAYS a whole bay leaf! Stew is just not stew with out it......Lifter you have mashed taters on the side? I always throw mine in the crock with the rest of it....hmmm, wonder what huhbby would think of that.....thanks

 

[Lifter]

Tanis, you hit the magic cooking button!

An "ounce" of Love...

Two "minutes" of "passion"...

And "dinner" indeed comes out the "BEST"...

Because its whjat you are trying to do....

Lifter

 

[tancowgirl2000]

I like finding, then pushing buttons

 

[Konditor]

One of the nourishing dark stews I commonly prepare during cold weather months:

1½ lb. blade steak
flour to coat
¼ cup clarified butter
Black peppercorns & coarse salt
2 carrots
1 large onion
1 medium parsnip
2¼ cups rich beef stock
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs thyme
2 stalks parsley
1 clove garlic
2 Tbsp arrowroot as thickener
parsley for garnish

 

[jennyema]

Interested to know why sirloin and why you marinate it.

Must depend on cooking time. Is this a quick stew?

 

[middie]

add some dumplings to it for me.

 

[marmalady]

Interested to know why sirloin and why you marinate it.

Must depend on cooking time. Is this a quick stew?

Me too! Inquiring minds want to know!

 

[Lifter]

Why sirloin?



Oh. crap, you were asking me!!!

A number of reasons: Sirloin is a very flavourable cut, and is also quite tender, compared with (neck) stewing beef; because sirloin tip was on sale last week, and so it was cheap...I probably paid a $2.00 premium to get a meat more tender and more flavourable...so why not?

Why do I marinate meat? To accentuate flavour(s), to tenderise it further, because I like fooling around with food to see "what happens when you..."

(Another reason you don't want me flying a space shuttle!)...or I'm another "button-pusher", like tancowgirl...

An no it wasn't a "quick" stew, I started around 1130, and fed at 1800...on the other hand, it was probably "edible" a lot earlier, after the pot barley set up ready...

Lifter

 

[marmalady]

Well - here's my take - marinating doesn't tenderize, just imparts some flavor; which is also imparted through the melange of ingredients added to the stew. Look at traditional stew recipes from all over the world - they all have these basic components -

-inexpensive cuts of meat
- a flavorful 'bouquet' of savory vegetables and herbs
- a long, low and slow cooking time, which both tenderizes the meat and imparts a wondeful flavor.

I guess I'm just wondering if you're trying to reinvent the wheel, and also emptying your pocketbook when you don't really need to. There's lots of other things I'd use sirloin for besides stew!

 

[Lifter]

I would "gently suggest" you are wrong on the marinades, in regards tenderising...there have been a number of posts on marinades of lactic acid rich buttermilks tenderising various cuts, and, of course, lemon product and or vinegars will certainly soften (if not, indeed, "cook" meats)...but I digress...

I will cheerfully grant that "stewing" meats will impart flavours from meat to veggies and backwards from that, but did you add the "bay leaf"?

Can it be done "better"? If it can, why not do so?

If it costs two bucks CDN$, this gets pretty cheap...

If you can get sirloin tip for an unrealistically low price, is this not the "window" to try some different things in cooking?

Admittedly, I do not cook to the "Zellar's Rule" of "The Lowest Price is the LAW", but we kind of like it...

While we are a bit short of "rich", if a $2 investment into two dinners will "break" us, its about time to quit, and fry up some bologna as a complement to the generic version of KD...

On that note for $1.95 or less, you can add some beef kidney, chopped up...or redo it in mutton/lamb, adding their kidneys, and the results will be spectacular, if you care to invest the "nickle"...

And give your head a "shake" on marinades..."brining" is a "marinade" and God knows there are enough of us crowing over how well it works!

Okay, I could go on, but suggest you read other posts on adding "weird and wonderful" ingredients to the improvement ...if this is "re-inventing the wheel" so be it! This is how in some cases, recipes and methods "move forward"

With the fullest feelings of respects to your cooking, and my Mom's (Dad's does NOT bear mention!) and grandparent's and so on...

Lifter

 

[Psiguyy]

I prefer my beef stew made with boneless chuck. It has a good balance of fat and connective tissue. It's the connective tissue that gives the stew that great mouth feel like you get from a stock made from bones.

Next time you make a stew, give boneless chuck a try. I think you'll like it.

 

[jennyema]

Here's Shirley explaining marinades: http://www.taunton.com/finecooking/pages/c00157.asp

Brining isn't marinating, just for the record. It works in an entirely different way.

I'd buy sirloin too if it were that cheap. But I'd probably not stew it. And would probably not mask its flavor with too much other stuff. If beef tenderloin were the same price as a piece of round, I'd still not make pot roast from it.

But there are some recipes out there for "quick" stews (an oxymoron, IMO) that call for sirloin. RR's "beef burgandy" is one.

And, come to think of it, when you make real Beef Bourguignon, you traditionally marinade the beef in the wine at least overnight to flavor it.

Experimentation is good!