80: Will's Beef Stew

I don’t know why, but I had a serious craving for beef stew. Maybe I just wanted to do more slow cooking in December. It wasn’t cold, but I was determined to warm the house with delicious smells.

This stew is the ultimate winter season stew. I don’t use any flour or potatoes in the stew, so the sauce stays on the lighter side. I think the exclusion of flour and potatoes lets the natural flavors stand out. The addition of parsnips and fennel create a unique flavor base that is not typically found in traditional beef stew. The parsnips add a subtle sweetness, while the fennel adds that irresistible star anise flavor. I oven roasted sweet potato and green beans to go with this, but you could serve it with rice, or add potatoes to the stew for a more hearty profile.

Ingredients and Directions:

-1 pound stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes

-1 cup onion, diced

-1 cup celery, diced

-1 cup parsnips, peeled and cubed

-1 cup fennel, diced

-1 cup carrots, diced

-1 cup dry red wine

-2 1/2 cups beef stock

-generous portion of chopped rosemary, thyme, and sage

-3 cloves garlic, minced

-1 sweet potato, peeled and sliced thin

-good handful of green beans

-olive oil

-salt + pepper

The Stew: Heat olive oil over medium high heat in a Dutch oven. When it begins to smoke slightly, about 5 minutes, add the beef and brown very well. Add salt and pepper as you brown the meat. Remove the beef with a slotted spoon once the meat is browned.

Lower heat to medium, and add the onions, carrots, celery, fennel, and garlic with a good bit of salt and pepper. Saute for 10 minutes, stirring often. Add the wine to deglaze bottom, and simmer mixture for about 5 minutes. Now add the beef, the beef stock, and herbs. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 60 minutes. Add the parsnips, and simmer for another 20-30 minutes.

Veggies: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Arrange sweet potato and green beans on a dish, and toss with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Roast them in oven for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!!

69: Tuscan-Style Veal Stew Braised in Red Wine & Herbs

Amber's best friend, Mindy, was in town, and she asked me to cook for them. It’s been on the cooler side lately, so I thought this was another good excuse – not that I really need excuse because I just love it – to do some slow cooking. After a day of doing some sightseeing on The National Mall, including the new MLK Memorial, I headed home to prepare dinner while the ladies continued on to museums.

This dinner is a hybrid of sorts. I’ve cooked this Tuscan-style stew a couple times before, but I wanted to incorporate my Holy Trinity to add to an already flavor-packed stew. Additionally, I substituted veal for the pork. The result was mouthwatering, if I do say so myself.

I’ve been sitting on this 2002 Benotto Monferrato Nebbiolo for over two years. I thought this would be a good occasion to drink it, and it matched up well with the acidity provided by the tomatoes. The wine had nice hints of dark fruit and a balanced dry finish with pleasant tannins.

Ingredients and Directions:

2lbs veal shoulder, cut into 1.5 inch cubes

Will’s Holy Trinity

-1 cup leeks, thinly sliced

-1 cup carrots, diced

-1 cup fennel, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup fresh parsley leaves

1.5 cups hearty red wine

28 oz can whole peeled tomatoes (chop tomatoes, reserve liquid)

2 branches fresh rosemary

12 fresh sage leaves

1 garlic clove, peeled and halved

Olive Oil

Salt + pepper

Day old baguette cut in half

Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese for garnish

Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a 6 quart dutch oven. Sauté the Holy Trinity with minced garlic and salt and pepper for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Now add the veal cubes with a little more salt and pepper, stir, and cook until it has taken on a slight golden edge, about 5-8 minutes. Stir in the red wine with parsley next, stir well, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 25 minutes. The wine should have reduced by half at this point.

Slowly add the tomatoes and its juices to the pan, and stir well to mix everything together. Then add the rosemary and sage, ensuring you push the herbs down into the tomato juices. Bring to a boil once more, reduce heat as low as you can, cover and cook for 2 hours. The end result should be incredibly tender veal and a somewhat thick sauce. Cook a little longer if need be.

Preheat the broiler. While the stew finishes cooking, rub bread with halved garlic cloves. Toast the bread under the broiler, but be sure to keep a close eye on it as you will only need a couple minutes on each side to crisp it up nice enough. Remove the bread and coarsely chop. Serve the stew over the bread crumbs and garnish with cheese.

Enjoy!!

27: Curry Goat Stew

I love goat meat. I picked up some goat meat cut for stews from my farm club, Arganica. Goat meat is very popular in Africa, Jamaica, and the Caribbean. It’s similar to lamb, and it’s a little stringier in texture. Goat is also lower in fat than chicken and higher in protein than beef. In other words, start eating more goat!

This recipe draws on some West African influence in my quest to cook more outside my box of New American cuisine. I served it over rice, but you could probably find some nice roti bread to go with this. Ask your butcher to cut the goat meat into cubes for a stew.

Ingredients and Directions:

1 lb goat meat

1 lemon

2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced

1 medium onion, diced

Curry powder

Cayenne pepper (or paprika)

Allspice

1.5 cups beef stock (I used a bouillon cube)

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

Rice

Season the meat with a healthy amount of curry powder, juice of one lemon, and salt and pepper. Let it marinade for at least one hour. In a sauce pot, lightly brown the meat with olive oil. Now add in the carrots and onions, and cook until onions are wilted. Pour in the stock, more curry powder, and a healthy pinch of cayenne pepper and allspice. How much curry powder you add to the sauce will determine how spicy you want the dish to be. Bring dish to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to simmer for 90 minutes. Cook rice according to package.

Serve and enjoy!

21: Venison Stew Slow Cooked for 8 Hours / Rice

Yes, you want to make this recipe. Simple and delicious. This was the perfect recipe for today. I got up, prepped the ingredients, and then tossed everything in the crock pot on the low setting. You don't have to brown the meat or saute the veggies ahead of time. I then went on to have a very productive day, cleaning my room top to bottom, and going through all my random clutter in the living room and dining room. Needless to say, I was ready to eat.

Venison is a lean meat, low in fat, and incredibly tasty. Normally, I would make a venison steak with a five spice rub, seared to rare perfection, but I have this undying penchant for slow cooking meats during the winter. The subtle black licorice flavor of fennel, mild taste of leeks, and rich taste of portobello mushroom make this dish complete.

We paired this wine with a blend we made at a Winemaker for a Day Event at Sunset Hills Vineyard in Virginia. I must admit I am not the biggest fan of Virginia wines, but this was a really cool and enjoyable event. The vineyard brought us their 2009 grapes in bottles, although unfinished, so we could experiment with blending wine for a finished product much like they do at vineyards. After trying a few different combinations, we settled on this classic bordeaux mix: 65% cab franc, 10% merlot, 10% cab sauv, 10% petite verdot, and finished the wine out with 5% tannat. In other words, a perfect medium-bodied wine to complement a stew with complex and subtle flavors. Even the vineyard's owner was impressed with our blend.

Ingredients and Directions:

-1 lb ground venison

-4 to 6 small red potatoes, diced

-1 medium fennel bulb, sliced

-1 large portobello cap, destemmed, gills removed, and diced

-2 large leeks, sliced

-3 medium garlic cloves, sliced

-bouquet garni

-1 can creamy portobello mushroom soup (Yes, I cheated here.)

-1 cup water

-rice

-salt and pepper to taste

-minced parsley for garnish

Combine all ingredients, except bouquet garni, in a large bowl. Be sure to break down the meat because you do not want large chunks. You will have to break the meat down once or twice while it's cooking as well. Once ingredients are combined, add to crock pot with soup, water, bouquet garni, and salt and pepper. Set the crock pot to low, stirring every couple hours, and find something to do for eight hours. Cook rice as suggested on package to be completed at the same time as the 8 hour slow cooked stew.

Serve, garnish, and enjoy!