Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

You are here: Home / Food & Recipes / Cooking / Friday Recipe Exchange: Let’s Talk Stews

Friday Recipe Exchange: Let’s Talk Stews

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tamara beef stew

From our Food Goddess, TaMara:

Phew, almost forgot about the recipe exchange – was out house hunting and lost track of time.

I am just not sure how it got to November 1st already. I am not ready for the holiday season to begin. I am thinking about Christmas Eve dinner menu, though, because I am hosting again this year. Suppose to visit family for Thanksgiving, but that may not happen, so I might have to begin to think about that menu, as well.

BTW, in case you missed it – and if you visited the blog anytime in the last week, how could you have – my beloved Boston Red Sox are World Series Champions.

I decided it was stew weather. When things get chilly and busy, stew is one of those things I love to have slow cooking when I get home in the evening. In my mind, stew is best when it’s simple: meat, potatoes, carrots, turnips or rutabaga, onions, salt, pepper and a bay leaf. But I understand that there are as many stews as there are families who enjoy them. With that in mind I have a few recipes and the featured recipe will be a simple one that you can add anything to that suits your fancy.

Let’s start with the Dinner Menu this week, which is Spicy Chicken Stew and Sweet Potatoes with Apples (click here).

Tes at Home had a Beef Stew with Apples, link here.

I have a Beef Stew in Wine with both pressure cooker and slow-cooker instructions here.

And finally JeffreyW does a Guinness Lamb Stew, pictured above and recipe here.

What’s on the menu for the weekend? How do you dress up your stew recipes? Hit the comments and share your tips.

Now for the featured recipe with bonus biscuits:

Beef Stew

1 lb chuck, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 tbsp oil
1 small onion, quartered
4-6 small potatoes, quartered
2 small turnips or rutabaga, peeled and quartered
8 oz baby carrots, halved
pinch of rosemary
2 bay leaves (remove before serving)
½ tsp ea. salt & pepper
7 cups water
2 tbsp flour
slow-cooker, skillet

Heat oil in skillet and brown beef (you can do this the night before and refrigerate with all the pan drippings). Place meat, onion, turnip or rutabaga, potatoes, carrots & spices in the slow-cooker, add 6 cups water and cook according to slow-cooker directions, (usually 8 to 10 hours on low). Before serving, turn heat to high, mix 1 cup water and flour completely, add to stew, stirring constantly, and cook additional 10-15 minutes.

Wheat Biscuits

1-1/2 cups white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup shortening
3/4 cup milk
large bowl and baking sheet

Mix dry ingredients together, cut in shortening, add milk. Stir quickly with a fork until completely moistened, don’t over mix. Knead gently on floured surface for 10-12 strokes. Roll out to ½ inch thick, cut into biscuits. Place on baking sheet and bake at 450° for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown.

Reader Interactions

59Comments

  1. 1.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    I’m having a Caesar Salad and a margarita for dinner. I’m going to see the Capitol Steps tomorrow night so I’m practicing my droll, I-am-not-amused face. Serious question, are the Blog Gods trying to kill this fucking blog? It’s turned into one long commercial for Obamacare, punctuated by an occasional plea for mental help from DougJ.

  2. 2.

    Mnemosyne

    I stumbled across this Beef Tagine with Butternut Squash recipe on MyRecipes.com and, damn, it was tasty! You do need to cut your meat pretty small in order to have it get tender enough with the prescribed cooking time, though — I ended up with some large, chewy pieces. Next time, I’ll make it in the crockpot as was recommended by some of the reviews.

  3. 3.

    Jack Canuck

    Hey, a recipe thread that I can actually contribute to! Here’s a delicious recipe for Beef Guinness stew that I got off a friend years ago. We’re heading into the hot weather down here in Oz, but it’s perfect timing for you northern hemisphere types:

    Beef Guinness Stew
    1 can/796ml pureed tomatoes
    1 can/440ml Guinness
    1lb stewing beef, extra lean (or trim all visible fat) (NB: Any other red meat works too; I’ve made it with lamb and with kangaroo instead of beef)
    1/2 head garlic, finely diced
    4 small onions, chopped coarsely
    3 medium sized Yukon gold potatoes, cubed
    5 sticks celery, cut into small slices (NB: I usually skip this and do more carrots and whatever other veggies are around instead)
    3 medium sized carrots, cubed
    salt to taste – start with 1.5tsp
    2 sprigs rosemary
    1/2tsp oregano
    black pepper
    ground sage
    2 bay leaves

    Saute beef with garlic at high temperature until browned on outside. Put beef into large pot. Saute onion until browned and translucent. Put potatoes in pot with beef and turn heat to medium high. Pour can of Guinness into pot and bring to boil. Put all other ingredients except tomatoes into pot and turn down to medium. Bring to boil, watching pot, and stirring occasionally. Turn to to simmer and continue until vegetables are tender. Add can of tomatoes and turn down to low. Keep at low simmer for two hours. Salt to taste; serve with heated sourdough or french bread.

  4. 4.

    schrodinger's cat

    I have a bad cold and may be coming down with a fever and am down in the dumps. I am planning to make special Diwali snacks tomorrow, after a short hike in the morning. If feel better.

  6. 6.

    Steeplejack

    @Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader:

    I have a slightly negative reaction to the Capitol Steps because I used to have a friend who would want to put on one of his Capitol Steps CDs at every fucking party—even ones not at his place. Big buzz kill when everyone’s getting their groove thing on and then suddenly it’s all “Let’s listen to some pointed political humor—set to music!”

    But I guess it’s okay, since you are entering into this voluntarily (I assume).

  7. 7.

    Mnemosyne

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Super spicy Diwali snacks may help your cold (or at least clear your sinuses a little).

    I’m still wary of Indian food because my Indian-American friends thought it was really funny to secretly give me spicy foods and see how many shades of red I turned. :-( I’m very pale to begin with, so apparently I turned many different entertaining shades, like a chameleon.

    ETA: This was in junior high and high school, when friend torture is pretty much par for the course.

  10. 10.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    @Steeplejack: Mrs. Fuckhead won tickets somehow. I’m not particularly excited to go but I feel obligated to since I’m usually at the nexus of politics and comedy.

  11. 11.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Mnemosyne: I am lucky that way. My parents had a good sized circle of friends from SE Asia when I was really young. I got introduced to hot foods very early and developed a good tolerance. If I go to a restaurant and order something hot, I need to specify as Indonesian/Laotian/etc. hot, not American hot, in order to get what I want. I then need to promise that I won’t bitch when they do as I ask.

  12. 12.

    Mnemosyne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I seem to have a few characteristics of being a supertaster, which tends to include less tolerance for spicy foods, so even that might not have helped. But I did have the standard Midwestern diet up until then (where you can call something made with marshmallows and Jello a “salad”), so that didn’t help.

  15. 15.

    Violet

    @schrodinger’s cat: Start mainlining Vitamin C. Seriously. I’ve successfully warded off two colds doing that. If you get to the point where your digestive tract is irritated by the Vitamin C, you’re at your tolerance level and have enough for the time being. Take a break and start again. It’s astonishing how much Vitamin C your body can absorb if you’re getting sick without your stomach being bothered, though. The powdered form is easiest to take at high levels–just mix it in a drink.

    I hope you feel better. Sucks being sick.

  18. 18.

    Mike in NC

    Everywhere we went in central Europe, they offered some fantastic beef goulash dishes. Been collecting some recipes online.

  20. 20.

    cckids

    I just made a fabulous Guinness and Beef stew last night; it is a Halloween favorite here. No potatoes in mine, though, I serve it with mashed potatoes on the side – I’ve always hated the texture potatoes get in stew, especially with the Guinness. It’s a pretty standard stew: the differences seem to be; start the day before, cube the beef & sprinkle it with kosher salt, pepper & ground cloves; before you sear the beef, saute some chopped bacon & leave it in; Guinness & beef broth in a 2:1 ratio. I add onions, garlic, carrots & mushrooms, my sister throws in some parsnips. It is always amazing.

  21. 21.

    Litlebritdiftrnt

    One of the things I am looking forward to when I go home next week is a huge plateful of my mother’s stew. It consists of everything in the fridge and then some. As a child I remember her buying a pound of ground beef (mince as we call it in the UK) at the beginning of the week, it became Mince and tatties (minced beef and boiled potatoes), on Tuesday it became a curry with rice, on Wednesday it became a stew, on Thursday it became a pie, and on Friday it became a soup with a few bits of ground beef floating around in it.

  28. 28.

    raven

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yea, some folks don’t like it but there are plenty of gumbo’s made without it. Some traditions say you thicken with okra or file but not both.

  30. 30.

    Santa Fe

    Stews are the only dish at which I excel. And I couldn’t begin to give you a recipe for the life of me. Good stews can be made from anything, and can be prepared for either vegetarians or meat eaters, out of whatever you might have on hand. Still, there are a few essentials for my typical meat stew, always spiced to taste. Garlic really needs to be the foundation of a good stew. Thickeners might be necessary, depending on your ingredients. Personally, I like nutritional yeast as a thickener. Generous amounts of worcestershire sauce, and at least a smattering of soy sauce, good vinegar, and/or lemon juice. Again, depending on ingredients. Frozen vegetables can really come through, if you don’t have time for fresh. A secret ingredient I often rely on: miso. If you don’t use the combination spice called Spike, stews are great for experimenting with it as well.

  31. 31.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Santa Fe: Wine.. I find that any stew I make is improved by adding wine. Drinking wine not cooking wine. Then, if you choose, have the same wine with the meal.

  32. 32.

    maeve

    Since I’m of 50% Irish ancestery (both my paternal grandparents were born in Ireland) I am often asked about “Irish Stew”

    I haven’t a clue what “Irish Stew” is – my Mom (of predominantly German, Austrian ancestery with a mix of French, Swiss, English etc ancestory indicating some of her ancestors have been in this continent since the 17th century) cooked a really great stew.

    Among her ingredients were (besides beef, onions, carrots, potatoes, celery, etc etc) –

    coffee – back in the day when everyone drank Folgers – Tasters Choice was the first “freeze dried” coffee and one of her ingredients was a tsp or two (all her recipes are approximate) of freeze dried coffee

    Frozen peas – throw in the frozen peas at the end – thawing and warming up is all they need.

    Also we were told that finding a bay leaf in your serving (of soup or stew) was a good luck and as kids we were thrilled when we got one.

    I still love big chunks of carrots roasted or slow cooked as one of my favorite things.

  33. 33.

    Yatsuno

    @Omnes Omnibus: Always always ALWAYS cook with a wine you would drink. That flavour is what will perfume your dish, and you want that extra flavour to be complementary.

  36. 36.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    @Yatsuno: “Cooking” wine is heavy in salt. If you use “cooking” wine, just dial back the salt.

    As I am a saltaholic, I use “cooking” wine AND double the salt.

  39. 39.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    @tybee:

    iffen it ain’t got okra, it ain’t gumbo.

    That’s because gumbo is the creole word for okra.

  40. 40.

    Heliopause

    [putting on my curmudgeon hat]

    There shouldn’t be any such thing as a recipe for stew. Stew is some chunks of meat thrown together with whatever you have in your vegetable crisper and that bag of potatoes under your sink. Recipes are for p*****s.

    [curmudgeon hat removed]

  43. 43.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Mnemosyne: I am not into super spicy. Spice should be subtle not overpowering. For the sugar, I am making karanjis, baked tiny turnovers with coconut, golden raisins, unrefined sugar and slivered almonds with a dash of nutmeg and cardamom and for the spice, chivda, a trail mix with beaten rice cereal and nuts.

    My favorite is Diwali snack ischakli, I neither have the equipment or the skill set to make it..

  46. 46.

    JoyousMN

    My favorite trick is to roast eggplant (either in the oven or sliced and grilled) and the freeze them. When I make soups, stews, curries, even chili, I thaw and puree the eggplant and add it to the sauce. It gives a wonderful body to the liquid, and picks up all the flavors from the other ingredients; if I’ve grilled them it adds a complex and lovely smokiness too.

    Nobody ever guesses my secret ingredient. I use it a lot as a replacement for tomatoes.

  47. 47.

    Yatsuno

    @Ash Can: It’ll roll until someone gets a bloody nose. Then there will be a banning incident and sternly worded e-mails in all caps to JC. Next comes the epic blogowner rant that will have us rolling for days. Then Steve pics for apologies and the blog rolls along. Patterns, we haz them.

  48. 48.

    RSA

    We had a daube of beef with whole garlic and root vegetables, which someone has put the recipe for online (I came across it in what I think was called The Garlic Cookbook). The preparation isn’t purely traditional, from what I’ve read, but it’s probably my favorite beef stew.

  51. 51.

    StringOnAStick

    OT, but interesting I suppose. My BIL has been induced by the sucky Midwestern economy to become a prison guard; he says the prisoners are much easier to deal with than the other guards. For example, one of guards is convinced that President Obama is going to “set off a small nuclear device in South Carolina”, FFS, in between harping about what an upstanding Christian he is. A good number of them have emptied their 401k accounts to buy snowmobiles, ATV’s, boats, jumped up pickup trucks, etc., and the current best example is a guy who has done so in order to buy Microsoft’s wrist device. Even more interesting: the older guards, who will be retiring with full medical and a nice pension (new hires don’t get this now), aren’t doing so because they live pay check to pay check in order to pay for all the expensive toys required to be a member of reneckistan and/or alimony. Bitter and angry, plus broke from too much consumerist crap, and hate radio wingers with no apparent ability to detect BS from rich liars like Limbaugh and Beck.

  52. 52.

    andy

    got a beef roast (almost picked up buffalo hump- too expensive) at the co-op, gonna try to do a pot-au-feu this weekend.

  53. 53.

    Ruckus

    @JoyousMN:
    Used to make a eggplant dish with ground meat, garlic, onions, wine, and cheese, mozzarella, parmesan. More of a casserole than a stew, seasoned with basil, thyme, bay leaf, salt, pepper. Grill the eggplant, brown the meat, garlic, onions throw everything in a pan, bake for a bit. Has a different almost nutty flavor. Haven’t made this in years, now I want some.

  54. 54.

    raven

    @Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: Neither one of you has a clue”

    Scholars and chefs have offered various explanations for the etymology of the word “gumbo”. The dish was likely named after one of its two main ingredients, okra or filé. In the Bantu language spoken by many of the slaves from West Africa, the vegetable okra was known as ki ngombo or quingombo; the word is akin to the Umbundu ochinggômbo and the Tshiluba chinggômbô “okra”. In the language of the native Choctaw people, filé, or ground sassafras leaves, was called kombo

  57. 57.

    rachel

    I made Hungarian beef stew today, and it was really good with a baguette. Recipe serves 4

    Preheat your oven to 325°
    1 1/2 to 2 lb. chuck roast cut into 1 inch cubes (I used blade steaks)
    1/2 tsp salt

    Sprinkle the beef cubes with the salt and let sit.

    3 tbsp good paprika
    6~7 oz. roasted red peppers
    1 tbsp tomato paste
    1 tsp. white vinegar (I use sherry vinegar)

    Blend into a smooth paste.

    2 large onions, chopped small
    1 tbsp vegetable oil
    1/2 tsp salt

    Stirring occasionally, cook the onions in a covered Dutch oven over a medium flame (about 10 minutes) until the onions just begin to brown. Stir in the paprika paste and cook a couple minutes more. Stir in the beef and:

    1 large carrot cut into 1/2 inch chunks
    1 small bay leaf

    Cover the pot and put it in the oven. Cook 2 ~ 2 1/2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes add some good beef broth if the stew starts to dry out too much. Add

    1 tsp vinegar
    2 tbsp sour cream

    before serving.

    I also like this stew with penne or mashed potatoes.

  58. 58.

    shepherdwong

    Chili first.

    Though tonight it’s a crab feed at a local hotel. Back east that was in the Summer (usually outside w/big tables spread with newspaper) with bushels of Blue Crabs steamed with tons of Old Bay. In the west, it’s in the Fall with Dungeness Crabs, often with drawn butter. Less work but I miss the Old Bay stinging my crab shell lacerated fingers.

  59. 59.

    moh

    I make a beef stew influenced by Cooks Illustrated, which recommends adding anchovy paste and tomato paste to up the beefiness factor. I also start with a bottle of red wine (minus one wine glass for the cook) and add chicken broth as needed. I don’t use water. Beef, lots of onions, garlic, celery, potaotoes (Yukon gold or red), baby carrots, turnips for a little bit of texture difference, mushrooms, lots of herbs (bay leaf, dried parsley, basil, etc.). Yum

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