Fit for the gods Oven Braised Beef Stew

 

We've had some really cold days this past week or so, with heavy frosts on the ground in the morning and the days haven't warmed up too much either.  Before things get a chance to warm up the sun is setting and things are chilling up again! Wintry, cold, damp  . . .  these days call for proper comfort food. 

  

 

There is nothing we enjoy better on a cold damp night than a hot bowl of soup or stew.  Todd's very favourite is a stew.  Stews are lovely. You can make them with beef, or lamb, pork, chicken . . . venison.  Almost any kind of meat is good in a stew. Today I used beef.

 

My vegetables that I use for stew are pretty simple.  Onions, garlic, carrots, parsnips, swede (rutabaga)  . . .  humble vegetables, comfort vegetables . . . winter vegetables.  I like to cut them into a pretty uniform size.  I find there is something really mindful standing at the counter peeling and chopping. My mind is usually everywhere else and I am channelling my mom, nan, great nan, etc.  I also add potatoes, but I cut those into larger chunks so that they don't disintegrate in the long oven braising time.

 

One secret to a really good stew is to brown your meat really well. You will want to do this in batches. If you add too much to the pan at a time, it won't brown really well. There is a lot of flavour in the browning . . .  so do it in small batches and . . .

 

brown it really well.  Once you have it all browned you can add it back to the pan and add the aromatics . . .  (I use a flame proof oven roasting/braising tin with a lid for this.)

 

By aromatics I mean onions, celery, leek . . .  just bung them into the pan with the meat and cook and stir until the oven has softened . . .

 

I have a few secret ingredients . . .  you can see them above. Nothing too out of the ordinary, but they add fab flavours!  The Balsamic adds a hint of red wine  and sweet . . .  the Worcestershire is a bit sharp and the Ketchup a bit of tomato and spice . . . back home I would add a splash of vinegar from a jar of sweet mixed pickles, but we don't get them over here in the UK.

 

I add the potatoes and some herbs and cover everything with beef stock/bullion, just to barely cover and I show a broken bay leaf right down into the mess.  Did you know that breaking a bay leaf helps to release its flavours?  Now you do  . . .

 

And that's it pretty much, cover it tightly and bang it into the oven to oven braise for  2 or 3 hours. I check it every now and then to make sure its not boiling dry. You can add a little bit more of stock if it is.  The stews done when the beef and vegetables are tender.

 

The gravy will be nice and thick and beautifully flavoured with all of those browned meat juices and aromatics, herbs, etc.

 

The vegetables add lots of flavour also  . . .  yummy.

 

I like to serve it with plenty of crusty bread to help sop up all of those delicious juices  . . . .

  

If you wanted to you could add a cup of frozen peas to the stew about half an hour before it's finished for colour.    Its delicious either way.

Beef Stew

Yield: 6

Author: Marie Rayner

A satifisfying dish on a cool and wet and wintery evening.  Long slow cooking ensures that the meat is melt in the mouth tender.

ingredients:

• 3 TBS olive oil
• 2 onions, peeled and chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
• 1 leek, trimmed, washed and sliced
• 1 stick celery, trimmed and chopped
• 2 large carrots, peeled, sliced in half and then cut into half moon chunks
• 2 parsnips, peeled, quartered and sliced into 2 inch long bits
• 1/4 of a small swede, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes (rutabaga)
• 6 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters
• 2 1/2 pounds good quality beef stew meat, cut into cubes
• 2 TBS plain flour
• 2 pints  beef stock (5 cups, or to cover)
• 1 TBS Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 TBS Worcestershire Sauce
• 2 TBS tomato ketchup
• 1 bay leaf, broken
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp dried marjoram
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 1 TBS chopped fresh flat leaf parsley to garnish at the end

instructions:

How to cook Beef Stew

1. Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.
2. Heat 1 TBS of the oil in a large  flame proof casserole.  Add the beef cubes, working in batches.  Try not to overcrowd the pan.  Brown well on all sides.  Scoop out to a bowl and continue to brown the meat until all is browned.  Add the onions and celery.  Cook, stirring until the onion has turned translucent.  Stir in the garlic and cook for about a minute and then  the herbs, seasoning and flour.  Stir to combine.  Cook for about a minute and then add the remaining vegetables and the stock.  Stir in the Worcestershire sauce, Ketchup and Balsamic vinegar.  Add the bay leaf and cover tightly.  Pop into the preheated oven and oven braise for 2 to 2 1/2 hours at which time the vegetables and meat should all be tender.  Remove and discard the bay leaf.  Spoon the stew into heated bowls to serve.  Crusty bread goes very well!

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I confess one thing I have always loved to do with stew, since I was a child is to mashe the potatoes up in that stew gravy . . .  and if I am feeling a bit indulgent I will dot  a bit of butter on top so it melts down into everything.  Yes, I AM naughty like that sometimes!

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Tagine of Chicken with Apricots & Mint

  

If you are a regular reader of my page you will remember that a few months back I went with a friend to a Moroccan restaurant for lunch one day and fell totally in love with Moroccan food  . . .  exotic North African food which is big on flavour, aroma and spice. 

 

A Tagine is a type of a Moroccan stew which has been named after the clay pot it is traditionally cooked in. Wide and round at the base with a lid that is tall and tapered at the top with a small circular opening which is designed to return  a lot of the condensation to the bottom of the dish, resulting in a stew which is rich, moist and luscious.  You can of course replicate this effect by adding a paper cartouche to an ordinary flame proof casserole dish with a lid.  

  

A cartouche is merely a circle of crumpled grease paper with a hole cut out of the centre.  It works just as beautifully.  Today I used my Le Creuset casserole dish with a cartouche.

 

Some of the flavours traditionally used in Moroccan food would be things like cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, ginger, coriander, saffron, mace, nutmeg, cloves, fennel, anise, cayenne, fenugreek, caraway, black pepper and sesame seed . . .  so think warm spices, sweet spices, fragrant spices  . . . 

 

Their food can also be characterised by the use of dried fruits and citrus, which when combined with meat, fish or poultry, and the warm fragrant spices makes for a wonderful combination . . . 

 

You will also find sauces which are frequently thickened by using ground nuts.  Wholesome and again  . . .  flavourful.

 

This dish today uses chicken thighs . . .  traditionally you would use bone in and skin on thighs, but all I had was the boneless, skinless ones, because we try to eat as lean as we can.  They worked fine.

 

Along with the chicken thighs . . .  I have used ground cumin, cinnamon, ginger and paprika . . .  along with salt and black pepper  . . .  very aromatic.

 

The sauce also contains finely chopped onion and ground almonds  . . .

 

Whole dried apricots provide a sweetness that goes very well with the chicken and other flavours  . . . 

 

I always buy the natural ones for the most part, which haven't been treated with sulphur  They are not as bright orange and jewel-like as the other ones, but they are filled with untainted flavour  . . .

 

Just use what you have  . . .  I am thinking a handful of prunes would also go very well.

 

A handful of chopped mint goes in along with the apricots . . .  adding a lovely flavour as well . . .  mint is a really under-used herb.  Its quite common to serve it with lamb, but it goes very well in this dish.

 

Our house smelled lovely while this was cooking . . . 

   

I served it with some cooked brown basmati rice, but couscous would be much more traditional.

Tagine of Chicken with Apricots & Mint

Yield: 4

Author: Marie Rayner

A delicious Moroccan stew of chicken thighs and apricots.  You can either cook it in a heavy flame proof casserole dish or a clay tagine pot.

ingredients:

• 3 1/2 TBS butter
• 6 X free range or organic chicken thighs
• 1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp sweet paprika
• freshly ground sea salt and black pepper to taste
• 100g ground almonds (1 generous cup)
• the juice and finely grated zest of one large orange
• 600ml light chicken stock (2 1/2 cups)
• 175g of soft dried apricots (I use the ones cured without sulphur, scant 1 cup)
• 3 TBS chopped fresh mint, plus more to garnish

instructions:

How to cook Tagine of Chicken with Apricots & Mint

1. Preheat the oven to 160*C/325*F/ gas mark 3.
2. Melt the butter in the bottom of a large heavy casserole dish.  Add the chicken, 3 pieces at a time, and brown until golden brown all over, removing to a plate as you go along, and repeating until all the chicken has been browned.  Add the onions to the drippings, along with the spices, and cook, stirring, until the onions have begun to soften and the whole mixture is very fragrant.  Stir in the ground almonds, orange zest and orange juice.  Nestle in the browned chicken thighs and pour the stock over all, giving it a good stir.
3. Cover with a cartouche.  A cartouche is a circle of crumpled baking paper with a hole cut from the centre.  Cover with the lid of the casserole dish and place into the preheated oven.  Roast for half an hour.
4. Remove from the oven.  Discard the cartouche.  Stir in the dried apricots and the chopped mint.  Return to the oven and roast for a further 20 minutes, uncovered.  at this point the meat should be tender and falling from the bones.  The apricots should be lovely and plump and the sauce thickened.
5. Taste and adjust seasoning as required. Sprinkle with a bit more mint and serve.  Couscous or rice go very well with this.

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If you are a family that usually opts for a Chinese or an Indian meal on Saturday nights, I challenge you to try Moroccan for a change!  I think you will be pleasantly surprised! A flat bread would be nice with this to help sop up all of that delicious gravy! 

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Small Batch Irish Stew

 

With Saint Patrick's Day being on Sunday I thought it would be fun to make a smaller batch of Irish Stew for the smaller family.  This recipe will serve 3, or 2 people generously.  Or two people on the day and one with the leftovers the day after. 

  

Its a simple and yet attractive stew, using simple methods and simple ingredients, because lets face it . . .  the Irish were basically a very poor people, a humble people, without artifice, and many did not have stoves or ovens, but cooked over an open fire on the hearth.

 

This is a recipe I adapted from one I found in this book.  It is originally meant to feed four people generously.  This is a great book by the way.  I have had it for a few years now and every recipe tried has been a real winner. Its from the Love Food people.

 

All you need for it is some stewing lamb  . . .  you could use neck fillets if you wanted to, I just used cubed stewing lamb I got at the shops.  British or Welsh lamb is not quite in season yet, so suspect this was NZ lamb.

 

There is no browning or faffing about with the meat, which also lessens the fat calories.  You just season and dust the cubed lamb with flour and lay it in the bottom of a heavy casserole dish. (I used my medium sized Le Creuset.)

 

Once the lamb is in the bottom, you layer on diced onion and sliced carrots.  I like to lightly season each layer. 

 

Once you have those layered in, you cover the top with wedges of potato.  I used two medium/large potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges.  I got kind of fanciful when I layered them on top. I thought it looked quite pretty. 

 

Finally you just pour over a mix of hot stock and dried thyme. The recipe called for beef stock.  If I do it again, I will use chicken stock. I thought some of the integrity of the lamb was lost by using beef, but that may just be me.

 

After that you just cover it up tightly and let the oven do the work.  Go read a book, do some knitting, housework, whatever  . . .

 

The recipe didn't call for it, but about 15 minutes before it was done, I took it out of the oven and brushed the potatoes with some butter, then popped it back into the oven at a higher temperature. It browned the potatoes up a bit, which I thought was a nice touch. 

 

This was a really lovely stew.  I am thinking if you didn't have lamb, you could do beef or pork in the same way, probably even chicken would be good done this way. 

  

This is something I have done with stew since I was a child.  I like to mash the potatoes up a bit and dab some butter on them. (Don't judge me.)  Its really good that way.  I also love sweet pickles with stew, but those don't exist over here, so I just think about how good they used to be and settle for what I have.

Yield: 3Author: Marie Rayner

Small Batch Irish Stew

prep time: 15 minscook time: 2 hour and 30 minstotal time: 2 hours and 45 mins

A small batch Irish Stew for the smaller family.  Simple and delicious. This will give you a hearty meal on the day.

ingredients:

• 2 TBS plain flour
• 1 pound stewing lamb
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• 3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
• 2 largish potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
• 1/4 tsp dried thyme
• salt and black pepper
• 600ml hot beef stock (2 1/2 cups)
• small knob of butter
• parsley flakes to garnish

instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 165*C/325*F/ gas mark 3. 
2. Season the meat and roll it in the flour, shaking off any excess.  Lay it in a single layer in the bottom of a casserole dish.  Top with the chopped onion, then the sliced carrot, and finally the potato wedges.  Season each layer lightly as you go.  Whisk together the stock and thyme.  Pour into the casserole dish.  Cover tightly.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 2 1/2 hours.  About  15 minutes before it is done, remove the cover and brush the top of the potatoes with the knob of butter and return to the oven.  Increase the oven temperature to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5. Let the potatoes brown a bit.  Sprinkle some parsley flakes on top and serve.

calories
302.37

fat (grams)
10.34

sat. fat (grams)
5.09

carbs (grams)
38.40

net carbs
33.63

protein (grams)
15.31

sugar (grams)
5.56

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Todd had the leftovers today for his dinner and he said it tasted even better than it had the other day when I made it.  That is often the way with stews. They seem to taste better upon "ripening" overnight.  Yum!  I think the Irish would approve!

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Lancashire Hot Pot for Two

 

One of my favourite television shows, long before I even dreamt of moving over to the UK was a British soap opera called Coronation Street.  I started watching it when I was still at school and had no idea that I would one day be living in the North West of England in a brick terraced house.  Funny how life turns out!

 

It was a show my Aunt Freda loved as well.  One of its charms for me was the gritty reality of it.  Not very many people on it were wealthy  . . . no were they drop dead gorgeous, like in the American soaps.  Plus they had jobs that they worked hard at . . .  for the most part they were ordinary working class folk.  I believe it is the longest running soap on television in the world. 

 

A lot of the social life in the show centred around the Rover's Return Pub, which also let out rooms as a B&B on occasion.  True to life there.  Most communities over here have their own "local" as a pub is lovingly known as, and they are truly gathering places and the heart of the community in most cases.

 

As a pub/local the Rovers Return also served some simple food.  Mostly sandwiches, potato chips, nuts and salty snacks,  in addition to the drinks  . . .  but also one of the most famous and popular things on their menu was Betty's Hot Pot.

 

Betty Turpin was a barmaid in the Rover's Return and Betty's Hot Pot was her signature dish.

  

Hotpot is a very regional Lancashire dish consisting essentially of meat, onion and potatoes left to bake in the oven all day in a heavy pot and on a low heat. Originating in the days of heavy industrialisation in Lancashire in the north west of England, it requires a minimum of effort to prepare. 

 

There are many regional variations, and it is frequently found listed amongst the usual pub grub dishes in various hostelries around Britain. The basic recipe consists of a mix made up of meat and vegetables (carrot, turnip, potatoes, onions or leek) which are then covered with a buttery thatch of sliced potato or pastry. Don't you just love the idea of a "thatched" roof of potato covering the top?

 

The type of meat to be used in a true Lancashire hotpot is a matter of some controversy, with many being of the opinion that it should be lamb (with optional lamb kidneys) and some thinking it should be beef. As much food can be added as will fit in the pot, so it is very easy to increase the quantities to serve more people as desired.

 

We like it with lamb, and today I actually decreased the amounts to create a dish perfectly sized for two people. It worked out very well.

 

I had posted it originally here,  some ten years ago, but thought it would be a good idea to update the recipe with North American measurements, and with nicer photos.  I believe it was one of the first recipes I posted on here, so an update was long overdue!

 

One thing remains true and constant about this dish and that is this . . .  it is simply delicious.  Humble, yet  . . . it almost tastes gourmet . . .

  

It is culinary proof and a testimony to the fact that it really is the simple things in life which bring us the most pleasure!

Yield: 2Author: Marie Rayner

Lancashire Hot Pot

prep time: 15 minscook time: 2 hour and 30 minstotal time: 2 hours and 45 mins

A scaled down version of my original recipe.  A deliciously humble dish which originated in Lancashire. There is no way to rush a hot pot. Long and slow cooking is its secret to tender tastiness.

ingredients:

• 1/2 olive oil
• 350g diced lamb (3/4 pound)
• 1 onion, peeled and sliced
• 1 carrots, peeled and grated
• 1/4 medium swede (rutabaga) peeled and grated
• 3000ml lamb stock (1 1/4 cup) (can use chicken stock)
• 1/2 TBS Worcestershire sauce
• 1 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 350g of potatoes, peeled and cut into thin slices (3/4 pound)
• softened butter
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

instructions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 165*C/325*F/ gas mark 3. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the meat in batches and fry it until browned on all sides. Remove with a slotted spoon to a large casserole dish (one with a lid) as it browns. Set aside.
2. Once all the meat it browned and removed from the skillet add the vegetables to the pan. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring them occasionally. Return the lamb to the skillet and pour over the stock. Add the Worcestershire sauce and season to taste with salt and pepper. Mix it all in well and then carefully pour the mixture back into the casserole dish. Tuck the thyme into the mixture, burying it.
3. Cover the top of the mixture with a layer of half of the sliced potatoes. Season with salt and pepper and then dot with butter. Finish layering with the remaining potatoes and adding a final dusting of salt and pepper and dot once again with some butter. Put the lid on.
4. Bake in the heated oven for 1 1/2 hours. Remove the lid and bake for a further hour until the meat is very tender and the "thatch" is nicely browned in places and tender as well. Serve hot spooned out onto hot plates along with seasonal green vegetables on the side and plenty of crusty bread and butter to mop up the delicious juices.

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This is comfort food in it's most basic, purest form.  I like to serve it with a green vegetable on the side, but many serve it with red cabbage, which is quite traditional, as is some crusty bread to mop up all the juices!  Bon Appetit!

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