Slow Cooker Beef Stew

 Ok, I know this photo doesn’t exactly look appetising, but it’s a photo of what was a truly delicious meal.

The meal is Slow Cooker Beef Stew, made from this recipe on the BBC website.

Onions, garlic and celery are fried up with carrots, bay, thyme, Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste and water.  

The stewing steak is browned and added with the vegetable mix to the slow cooker, then two beef stock cubes are crumbled on top, and everything is seasoned with salt and pepper. I also added frozen peas.

The slow cooker then does its work (8-10 hours on low or 4 hours on high). 

If you want to thicken the sauce, two tablespoons of cornflour made into a paste with water are added to the slow cooker and is left to cook for another half an hour.

Once cooked, the stew is served on mashed potato.

This stew has a deep, rich flavour and is very satisfying. And of course, the slow cooker makes it very low maintenance cooking.

If you like stew, then I recommend giving this recipe a go.

My Mother’s “Hotch Potch” - Beef Stew

 

It’s cold here and definitely a good time for stews and hearty meals. One of my favourite stews is my mother’s hotch potch, pictured.

There is no set recipe for this - it’s about using what you have. In rough terms, to a large casserole dish, I added 500g cubed chuck steak that had been tossed in a mixture of salt and plain flour (I did this in a freezer bag for easy clean up), 500g peeled and chopped potatoes, and whatever other veg you have to hand (I used carrots and beans, but mixed frozen veg works a treat). Take a generous heaped metal tablespoon (the big spoon not a baking measure) full of plain flour and mix it with just enough water to make a paste - put that in the casserole dish with the meat and veg, and shake in some Worcestershire sauce and tomato sauce to taste. Crumble in a beef stock cube, season with salt and pepper to taste, then add enough water to the pot to just cover the meat and veg.

Cook in a preheated 180 degree Celsius oven for around 2 hours, and that’s it.

The crucial step is using enough flour to make the sauce thicken, otherwise you end up with tasteless watery stew (which I have done a number of times). 

A perfect dish served with crusty bread to soak up all of that  yummy sauce.

A Warming Stew - Cholent

I am a big fan of stews in the winter.  They are hearty and filling, making them a perfect shield against the bitter cold.  Even better is a stew that can be made in the slow cooker - a dish involving minimal preparation and a "set and forget" mentality.

In this vein of thought, I came across a recipe for Cholent in Allyson Gofton's Slow - Mouth Watering Recipes for the Slow Cooker and Crock Pot.    Cholent is a beef brisket stew, chock full of vegetables and hearty pearl barley.  Browning the beef before putting it in the slow cooker is optional,  so of course I skipped that step.

The resulting stew is thick and warm and comforting - just the thing to lift the soul on a dark, cold winter evening.

 If you would like to try making Cholent, you will need:

1 x 400g tin butter beans
1.5kg beef brisket
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2-3 crushed cloves of garlic
1/2 cup pearl barley
4-5 medium white potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 turnip,  peeled and sliced
1 crushed bay leaf
2 tablespoons plain flour
1 teaspoon paprika
1/3 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
5 cups beef stock

Drain the beans and scatter over the bottom of your slow cooker.  Scatter the pearl barley,  onion and garlic over the beans, then place the beef on top.  Add the potatoes, carrot turnip and bay leaf.

In a small bowl, mix together the flour, paprika, pepper, ginger and cinnamon, add to the stock, then pour over the ingredients in the cooker.  Cover the cooker with a lid and cook on high for 5-6 hours.

Serve and enjoy.

Moroccan Tagine

The chilly weather in Melbourne continues, with blasts of icy cold winds and sunny but warmthless skies.

It is truly soup and stew weather, so I was pleased when the latest newsletter from my physiotherapist linked to both a soup and a stew recipe. Naturally, I made them both.

The  stew recipe is a Moroccan Tagine from Taste.com.au. It is full of flavour and suitably hearty for cold nights.

To make it, you will need:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 750g gravy beef, trimmed, cut into 3cm cubes
• 1 large brown onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 medium carrots, peeled, halved, sliced
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 tablespoons plain flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Moroccan seasoning
• 2 dried bay leaves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 cups Massel beef stock
• 400g can diced tomatoes
• 400g can chickpeas, drained, rinsed
• Brown rice, to serve
• Cooked green beans, to serve
• 
  

Preheat your oven to 180°C.

Heat half the oil in a large flameproof casserole dish. Brown the beef in batches, then transfer to a plate.  

Heat the remaining oil in the casserole dish. Add the onion, garlic, carrot and celery. Cook, stirring, until onion has softened. Return the beef to the dish. Add the  flour and seasoning, and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the bay leaves and cinnamon.

Stir in the stock and tomatoes. Bring the mixture to the boil. TCover the casserole dish and transfer to the preheated oven. Bake for 1 and a half hours.

Remove the stew from the oven and stir in the chickpeas. Return the stew to the oven and bake for a further 30 minutes or until the beef is tender. Take the stew out of the oven and discard the cinnamon and bay leaves.

Serve with rice and beans. 

 

Brunswick Stew - FDR's Favourite

Currently, I am reading Franklin and Eleanor by Hazel Rowley.  I am enjoying it, not only because I didn't know that much about the Roosevelts (which means "field of roses") before, but also because they were such extraordinary people.  The Roosevelts were definitely ahead of their time in their thinking about many social issues, and also in their relationship with each other and their extended "family", which would even be regarded as unusual today.

Being a foodie, I immediately seized on a throw-away sentence that stated that one of Franklin's favourite meals was Brunswick Stew, a Georgian speciality.  FDR spent a lot of time in Warm Springs, Georgia, to undertake therapeutic swimming for his polio-stricken lower limbs, and it was there that he discovered Brunswick Stew.  In Franklin and Eleanor, Brunswick Stew is described as a "chicken and pork dish".  Accordingly, in honour of FDR, I decided to make a version of Brunswick Stew containing chicken and pork.

I made half of this recipe for Brunswick Stew taken from a Daring Cooks challenge, but substituted the rabbit for pork chops.  Despite only making half, I still ended up with a lot of stew, so thank goodness I like it!  I used cannellini beans instead of butterbeans, and substituted pancetta for bacon, but otherwise followed the recipe. (My carrots have black skins because I froze them - don't ask, and please don't try it at home.)

Although the end product is delicious and a meal in itself, I liked even better how the dish tasted at the half way point, before you fish out the celery and bacon, and before adding the vinegar and cooking it some more.  When Penny says in her post that it tastes like the best chicken soup ever at that mid-stage, she is absolutely right - if I made this stew again, I think I'd leave it right there, because it is salty and rich and wonderful at that stage.  The addition of vinegar and lemon adds an acidity which takes away from the simple saltiness, and although the end product still tastes good, I like the mid-point better.

You could easily get away with quartering this recipe, but to give myself an easy life, I just halved it.  I also recommend setting aside a lazy Sunday afternoon like I did to make it, as there are numerous steps and cooking times, which are rather time consuming.

If you have a historical interest in what FDR liked for dinner or are curious as to what Brunswick stew is, give this recipe a burl - you won't be disappointed.

FFwD - My Go To Beef Daube

I do love comfort foods. There is nothing like a hearty stew on a cold night to make the world seem a brighter place, as it warms you from the inside out. My Mum used to make a beef stew she called Hotch Potch. I have tried many times to make hotch potch just like Mum's, but it is never the same. Mine tends to be a watery, less flavoursome imitation of the real thing.

Although it is summer here, my pick for this week's French Fridays With Dorie was My Go to Beef Daube - a type of rich beef stew with root vegetables, bacon and red wine. Although it was not perhaps what I'd normally make in summer, it was a delicious, rich dish which I nonetheless enjoyed.


The lighting gods were not smiling on me when I finally completed My Go To Beef Daube for this week's French Fridays With Dorie - so unfortunately, the best photo that I have of he finished product is the one that you see at the top of this post.

However, so that you get a feel for what this stew is like, I took some step by step shots when the lighting was much better.

First you dice the beef - Dorie used chuck, I used blade:



You also dice up a few slices of bacon:


and some carrots, parsnips and onion (I just threw in some garlic cloves as I didn't have a full bulb of garlic):


You then brown the bacon in the pan:


then the beef:


After setting aside the meat, you fry up the finely sliced onion:


followed by the rest of the veges, then the whole lot goes back into the pot with the red wine (or in my case, a mixture of red wine and water because I didn't have enough wine):


The daube then cooks for 2 1/2 hours all up in the oven. Voila! You have beef daube (and a kitchen that smells like cooking meat).

The long cooking time for this stew leaves the meat soft and tender, while the red wine adds a richness of flavour and smell.

This is a beautiful stew, which I will certainly make again - in the winter.

To see what the other FFwD members made this week, visit the LYL section for this week at the FFwD website.

Ethiopian Experience - Doro Wot (Chicken Stew)

In this week's Foodalogue adventure, Joan is taking us on a culinary tour of Ethiopia. Again, this is a pretty exciting destination, because I know as much about Ethiopian cuisine as I did about Romanian food - that is, nothing.

Accordingly, I had to do some research again to accompany Joan on this trip. Surprisingly, it is easier to find Ethiopian recipes than it is to find Romanian recipes. One dish which kept coming up in my searches is Doro Wot, a spicy chicken stew with a soupy sauce, traditionally containing boiled eggs and eaten with flat bread (to mop up the sauce, of course!) and vegetables. Accordingly, this is the dish that I settled on making.

Now to be perfectly honest, I would never have made Doro Wot if left to my own devices. It didn't sound appealing enough for me to have bothered, and the thought of boiled eggs in a stew kind of left me cold. However, in the spirit of taking this culinary tour, I went ahead and made Doro Wot - and I loved it!!!

I tweaked Dorinda Hafner's recipe and Fearless Kitchen's recipe to come up with my own version of Doro Wot which combined the best of both. It is the kind of recipe that you could easily up the ante on or dampen down certain ingredients, according to personal taste, and this is what I did. However, don't be afraid of trying the boiled eggs in this stew - they taste surprisingly good.

To make my version of Doro Wot, you will need:

30g ghee
2 diced brown onions
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 whole cloves
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 teaspoon chilli powder
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 chicken cut into 8 pieces, reserving the wings, or 6 chicken pieces, skin on
6 shelled hard boiled eggs (I only used two just to try them)
1/4 cup red wine
juice of one lime

Place the onions and half of the ghee with a pinch of salt into a large oiled saucepan or wok, and cook the onions over low heat until golden (~15 minutes).

Add the rest of the ghee, cardamom, pepper, cloves, garlic, ginger and chilli powder, and continue to cook the onions until soft (~10 minutes).

Prick the chicken pieces and eggs with a fork. Add 2 cups of the stock with the chicken pieces and eggs to the pan, bring to a steady simmer, and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.

Add the remaining half a cup of stock and the red wine to the pan, and continue to simmer while covered for 30 minutes.

Add the lime juice to the pan and simmer for a further five minutes, before removing the pan from the heat. Serves 3-6 (depending on whether you want one piece of chicken or two - I had one piece of chicken and one egg, and that was plenty for me when served with vegetables).

I didn't have any flat bread, but I served my Doro Wot with roasted sweet potato, pumpkin, parsnips, zucchini and asparagus sprayed with oil and coated in salt, pepper and mixed herbs (figuring that you could easily roast vegetables in a camp fire or primitive oven, so although the varieties of veges may not be authentic, the cooking method could be):

Verdict - absolutely and surprisingly delicious!! I'd make this again.

Do visit Foodalogue after 25 February to see the roundup of great Ethiopian recipes. Next stop is Russia (March 2) - hope to see you there!

On a different note, my lovely friend Ivy has given me with the Sweetheart Award:

Thanks Ivy! I wish to share this award with the following sweethearts:

The Blonde Duck of A Duck in Her Pond

Tammy of Wee Treats By Tammy

Arfi of Homemades

Sara of Sara's Kitchen

Dee of Choos and Chews

Thanks to these gals for brightening my day.

Tried, Tested and True - Hotch Potch

Giz and Psychgrad from Equal Opportunity Kitchen are hosting a blogging event with a theme of Tried, Tested and True. As the name suggests, this event features a roundup of recipes from around the blogosphere which are "tried, tested and true", and always get good results.

For my entry, I am contributing my mother's stew recipe, which she calls "Hotch Potch". Basically, it is one of those great dishes where you can toss in almost any type of vegetables, sauces and flavourings that you have on hand in with some diced beef, stew for a couple of hours and hey presto - you get a thick, rich, satisfying stew.

My mother often made this dish when I was a child, and I adored it - still do. My brother, on the other hand, is a perennial picky eater, so Mum would have to cook his beef separately from everyone else's as he doesn't like the hearty sauciness of hotch potch. This stew is great served with thick, crusty bread to mop up the gravy.

Mum always makes this stew better than me, because her sauce is always richer and thicker than mine. She is also not the world's most patient person, so she has never given me an exact recipe for this (even though it is definitely tried, tested and true). However, my approximation of a "recipe" for hotch potch is as follows:

500g diced stewing steak
2 tablespoons plain flour + 1 beef stock cube dissolved in 1/2 cup boiling water
mixed peeled and diced vegetables (eg potatoes, carrots, peas)
1 tablespoon promite or vegemite
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
cold water

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Place all the ingredients other than the cold water in a casserole dish, then fill the dish with just enough cold water to cover the meat and vegetables. Put the lid on the casserole dish and cook in the oven for around 2 hours.

This stew is brilliant on a frosty night, as it warms you inside and out.

Thanks to Giz and Psychgrad for hosting this event, and I look forward to the roundup.

Braised lamb

Braised lamb II
Originally uploaded by Cakelaw

I love the September 2007 edition of Cuisine, which is full of delicious citrus recipes. A savoury dish which caught my eye is Braised Lamb with Preserved Lemon and Lemon Coriander Jam on page 70.

I didn't have preserved lemons, and wasn't going to make the lemon coriander jam. However, the braised lamb itself was delicious, like a thick, rich stew made on the stove top.

The dish comprises lamb, onion, celery, carrot, garlic, ginger, lemon peel, potatoes and spinach leaves, flavoured with turmeric, coriander and beef stock. I substituted diced lamb shoulder for lamb stir fry, preserved lemon peel with fresh lemon zest, coriander seeds with fresh coriander, and spinach leaves with baby spinach leaves. Despite these substitutions, made on the pragmatic basis of what I had in the cupboard, I was very happy with the result.

This dish was served with boiled rice, and made a very satisfying winter meal.