Calling all stew-ards - stew recipe chefs required

In light of a recent thread regarding pork preparations it has dawned on me and others that a good recipe for a meat stew is needed, preferably with dumplings.


I have tried many from cook books and messed it up almost evey time, the times it went well were not easily repeatable.


So i put it to you, good ATS members, if you have a decent recipe and technique for a good meat based dumpling stew with some veg, please come forth and share your secrets!!!!

EDIT: i do own a slow cooker, but so far its wasted on me and my tragic attempts.

a reply to: Biigs

My girlfriend always makes me Mexican Caldo soup. I love it, but it depends on what flavors you like.

Here is a similar recipe:

Ingredients

12 cups water
2 lbs beef shanks with bone
1 bulb of garlic (head of garlic)
2 bay leaves
2 to 3 tablespoons salt
4 white potatoes, chopped into 1 inch cuts
3 Serrano chiles, roughly chopped
1 small white onion, diced
4 carrots, sliced thick
3 ears of corn, cut into 9 pieces
4 cups green cabbage, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
16 corn tortillas, if desired
1 large lime, cut into wedges, if desired

She doesn't put the peppers or bay leaves and uses Knorr beef bouillon instead of salt.

This is for the slow cooker:

Black Bean Soup:

2 cans black beans, drained
4 c chicken broth (or if you have ready made chicken stock)
1 28 oz crushed tomatoes
1 lb chopped Andouille sausage (make sure it's good quality, you can also use plain smoked sausage for less spice)
1 c diced onion
1 c diced celery
1 c diced carrots
2 tsp cumin
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper

In a Crock-Pot, combine beans, broth, tomatoes, sausage, onion, celery, carrots, cumin, bay leaves, and 1/2 each salt and pepper. Mix well. Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours or on HIGH for 3 to 4 hours. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (This is for a large slow cooker; cut recipe in half for smaller ones.)


Ham and Bean Soup (use that ham bone and leftover ham!)

1 lb. dried navy beans
2 md onions
2 tsps. oil (veg. or olive)
2 celery ribs
10 c water
4 c cubed, cooked ham
1 c mashed potatoes (w/o added milk and butter, although we do to use up leftovers)
1/2 c shredded carrot
2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp pepper
2 bay leaves
1 meaty ham bone or 2 smoked hocks ( or both!)
1/4 c minced fresh parsley

Place beans in a Dutch oven or soup kettle; add water to cover by 2". Bring to a boil; boil for 2 min. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 1 hour. Drain and rinse beans, discarding liquid. In the same pan, sauté the onions in oil for 2 minutes. Add celery; cook until tender. Stir in the beans, water, ham, potatoes, carrot, Worcestershire sauce, salt, thyme, pepper and by leaves. Add the ham bone and/or hocks. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours or until beans are tender. Remove ham bone and/or hocks. When cool enough to handle, remove ham from bone and/or hocks and cut into cubes. Return to soup. Discard bone and bay leaves. Garnish soup with parsley.

a reply to: Biigs


Marinate the meat over night.
Add worcestershire sauce,olive oil,pepper,seasoning salt,garlic salt and toss it into a bag of flour.
The next day,brown the meat before adding it to the veggies,which ever ones you choose.
Add some water and your spices and simmer.
The floured marinaded meat thickens things up and adds flavor.

My veggie list is potato,onion,carrots,celery,turnip and sweet potatoes.


Since cooking time is different with the different veggies,add them at the appropriate times.

a reply to: DrumsRfun

That looks a little like what we do with a beef heart. Cube it, brown it, cook it slow simmer with different root veggies.

Husband keeps pitcher of beef stock to add if it starts to look like it's cooking down too far, and we add some pearl barley in the last 20 minutes or so along with some lima beans or legume of choice.

The only reason I didn't add it is because it sort of ends up as an unattractive grayish glob ... but very filling and the beef heart is reasonably tender instead of tough.

a reply to: Biigs

I don't really use recipes or books. I make it up as I go along, mostly.

Two pounds of stewing beef, chopped into whatever size you'd like. I do about an inch and a half strips. Brown the meat in some olive oil, set aside in a bowl. Make sure to save the juices, so they can be put back in! Cook in small batches (to prevent crowding the pot) in the pot you plan on making the stew.
Cook some onion (I use yellow cooking and vidalia) and crushed garlic in the same oil until translucent.
Add the beef back in, making sure to get all the juices in.
Add in eight to twelve cups of beef broth. Add in a can of beer (the cheaper the better) for every four ounces of broth.
Add in some paprika, some whole pepper corns, plus whatever other seasonings sound good to you.
Bring to a boil, cover and turn heat down to a sinmer for a few hours.
Half hour before you to eat it, add in chopped potatoes, carrots, celery, and whatever other vegetables sounds good. I use leeks and parsnips on occasion.

At the same time, remove a couple cups of broth and being to a boil in a separate pot. Whisk together equal parts corn starch with cold water. Usually four to six tablespoons worth of each is good. Mix corn starch mixture with boiling broth, stir frequently and reduce to a simmer for a tasty gravy.

Also, make some drop biscuits. Or buy a tube of ready to bake biscuits. That always goes great with stew.

This is probably the easiest stew you will ever make.

1 large can of v8 juice
1 pound of ground beef
1 can of corn
1 can of peas
1 can of whole potatoes
1 can of sliced carrots
1 medium onion
Your favorite seasonings

Brown the hamburger with your favorite seasonings and drain the grease. Cut the onion into chunks as big or small as you like. Drain the water off of all the vegetables. You might want to cut the potatoes into chunks. Throw everything in your crockpot and let it cook. Add seasoning to the stew as needed.

If you want dumplings, get a tube of Pillsbury biscuits. Separate them and drop them into the soup

Interesting ideas guys.

I dont attempt to make stew very often, this is probably the biggest mistake, some new tips here to try so i'll have a couple of goes in the next few weeks and see how it turns out

thanks!

I love my slow cooker so im going to give you a recipe forthat so you can get your out they are so awesome!

This is one of my favourites best served with crusty bread and maybe mashed potato

Beef & Red Wine Casserole

700g of your choice of beef cut, cheaper cuts work well in the slow cooker and come out very tender like chuck, blade, topside, shin (gravy beef) etc - cut in to bite sized cubes

1 400g tin of crushed tomatoes

2 carrots sliced in too medallions

1/2 cup of peas

Half a red capsicum ( red pepper) diced

2 tablespoons of tomatoe paste

Clove of crushed garlic

Fresh rosemary & thyme - 1 tablespoon of each

2 Bay leaf

1 cup of red wine

2 tablespoon worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons sugar

Salt & pepper


Step 1: cut vegetables and meat and place in slow cooker

Step 2: then mix all other ingredients & pour over the top, and mix it all once again, cover & cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-6.

This is a versatile dish and you can add whatever you like to it, pumpkin, beans, pasta etc .. if you don't want the mashed potatoes on the side then you can add the potatoes in too it just dice them and they will make it more hearty too.. Couscous is another good side that goes well with it .. Freezes well also!

a reply to: Biigs

My approach to stew is a very basic one, but one that results in tastiness! lol

A stew meat can be just about anything...beef with a bit of marbling, but little fat, or pork, same description, or even chicken breasts.

Chop into 1" cubes trimming fat as you go (a little is good...a lot is not).

I heat up my stew pot to medium heat and when ready toss in butter. You can flour the meat, or not...normally I do not.
I cook the meat till browned on the outside (not being done in the middle is ok) and remove to drain.

After all the meat is cooked, I will add a bit of wine (like 1/4 cup) to loosen the tasty bits on the bottom. I will reduce that a bit (doesnt take much) and then I add in chopped onion and garlic. Not a lot of onion, since I will be adding larger chunks later. Saute' those for a minute or 3 until translucent.

I then add all my chopped carrots, celery and some finely chopped red bell pepper (we dont really care for large chunks of pepper) and then add plenty of beef stock, enough to cover the veggies with at least an inch or 2 to spare.

I bring the stock to boil, adding a bit of thyme, a couple of bay leaves, freshly cracked pepper and I hold off on the salt (the stock will be slightly salty, and my wife has bp issues, so I seldom add much salt when cooking, if at all).
Add the beef back into the pot as well, reduce to simmer and cover. Let this simmer for a couple of hours and
then check the beef for tenderness. Chances are you will need to simmer longer, but depending on the cut of beef (I prefer sirloin for the flavor, but takes a bit longer to get tender). Stir periodically to make sure stuff doesn't stick to the bottom and burn.
Add water as necessary to maintain enough liquid to cover all.

Once tender I add the potatoes, a cup of water with 2 or 3 tablespoons of flour to thicken and more chopped red pepper and likely more garlic as well. Cook until the potatoes are tender.

Once the taters are done and the stew is at the proper thickness, serve

An option for leftovers is to add curry to the stew and serve over rice or noodles. You will need to add a fair amount, but do it a tablespoon at a time and taste. My wife prefers a bit less curry than I would. You can also add coconut milk to it along with the curry.

a reply to: Biigs

Ill have to come back to post it....but I posted a recipe for chicken paprikash recently. That is the dumplings you want, if you want dumplings.

In my family we tend to go more towards barley for the starch. Maybe hominey if its a pork based stew.

But i have a great stew recipe using beef short ribs that Ill post after i get out from under this pile of monday morning paperwork.

I have a southern-style chicken and dumpling one. It makes all our homemade chicken broth, but since you wanted vegetables, it doesn't qualify.

I used to make a poor mans corn chowder that was good for the cold months.

Brown up sausage links - a package or two - and a chopped up onion.
Cut up some potatos and put in the pot ... add water to cover and cook it up.
When the potatos are done then add two cans of white corn and one of creamed corn.
Add a carton of heavy creme. Let simmer. Add salt and pepper.

It isn't fancy but it's warm on a cold day.

You could maybe do this without the sausage and see how it goes.
ETA .. on second thought I don't think it would taste good without the sausage.

When he was in college, my husband would do a Starving College Student Stew: He'd brown up some beef for stew, take a package of Ramen Noodles (beef or chicken), cook the noodles along with the browned beef and either a can or two of whatever vegetable you wanted or the equivalent frozen veggies, and add the flavor packet.

Hardly haute cuisine, but hot and filling and fit most budgets.

Here you go....my best beef stew recipe (subbing roast in place of short ribs):

2lb Chuck Roast, cut into 1/2" cubes
1/2c flour
2tsp salt
2 tsp pepper

Toss the roast pieces in the flour/salt/pepper mixture. Just to put a dusting over them. Heat a couple of pans with 2 tbl oil in each. Then sear off in small batches (too much will make it a soupy mess). Set aside

In the bottom of the largest of the pots you used to sear the meat, add in 1 large onion chopped, 10 cloves minced garlic, and 5 stalks celery chopped. Let this go until the onions are translucent then add in 6 medium potatoes (chopped), a box/large can of beef broth/stock, and 2 cans stewed tomatoes. Cover and bring to a simmer. Once simmering drop in 2 bay leaves, about 8 sprigs fresh thyme, and the beef, cover again and continue simmering.

Once it has simmered for about 45 minutes, you will want to put the dumplings in. The recipe follows:


If you make chicken and dumplings, you should scrap your current dumpling recipe and use this one instead. Much more "bite" to it. I used 6 eggs in my dish last night, but the ratio is generally 2.5 cups of flour for every 2 eggs used.

6 eggs
8 cups flour
1/2c fresh chopped parsely
3 tbl salt
3 tsp baking powder

Mix all the ingredients together. It takes a bit of work, as it gets very stiff and sticky. Just work it. Use your bare hands towards the end if need be (just dust your hands with flour first). Once the dough is made, drop spoonful size chunks into the stew.

Simmer for about 10 minutes, then put in a bag of frozen corn and a bag of frozen green beans. Im not a cooked carrot fan, so i omit these. Don't forget to fish out the thyme stems and bay leaves.

Simmer for another 5-10 minutes to finish off the veggies. I also like to drop in a couple of jalapenos.

Serve with jalapeno cornbread.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Do the dumplings rise at all? or are they the flattish kind. I like both. My mom used to make the ones that rise, but I have lived in the south most my life and the south loves the non-rise kind

a reply to: bbracken677

they rise and float.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Oo been a while since I had some of dem dam dumplin! Going to try out your recipe this weekend

and...doh! I didn't notice the baking powder first run through...I should have known! Oh well...I will give it a try and sigh in delight as I nibble those delectably light pillows of goodness!

a reply to: bbracken677

they are a fairly dense dumpling. I like them because they hold their own in the soup. If you do smaller ones they will be more soft.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Been a while since I had the pillowy soft ones. Thanks for the recipe and the tip