Please diagnose my stew failure
Jun. 11th, 2008 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fivemackDo not follow this recipe, it makes a bland and insipid stew
Acquire a quantity of beef bones from the butcher. Roast them in the oven for about half an hour, then stick them in a large saucepan with 2pts water, one onion quartered, one carrot roughly chopped. Ignore on low heat for four hours, turn off and leave overnight. Discard the bones, strain the stock.
Take one pack of Asda casserole beef; roll the bits in seasoned flour (flour + two sprinkles mixed herbs + a bit of ground pepper) and fry them in olive oil until brown on both sides. Put them in a casserole.
Chop five medium boiling-potatoes into bits about the size of the beef bits, chop four normal carrots into bits which are carrot-cylindrical and as long as they are wide. Put them in the casserole
Chop one onion into small bits, fry them in the pan you fried the beef in until well-fried. Deglaze the pan with a bottle of beer (I used Hobgoblin), transfer the beef-with-onion-in to the casserole. Add about half the stock.
Stick in the oven at 180C for an hour and a half, notice that the liquid is still very watery, add two tablespoons of cornflour mixed up with water, stick in the oven for 45 more minutes. Eat with peas and complain about the bland insiptitude. The texture's good, the meat lumps look right, but the flavour has escaped the meat and somehow not ended up in the gravy.
Acquire a quantity of beef bones from the butcher. Roast them in the oven for about half an hour, then stick them in a large saucepan with 2pts water, one onion quartered, one carrot roughly chopped. Ignore on low heat for four hours, turn off and leave overnight. Discard the bones, strain the stock.
Take one pack of Asda casserole beef; roll the bits in seasoned flour (flour + two sprinkles mixed herbs + a bit of ground pepper) and fry them in olive oil until brown on both sides. Put them in a casserole.
Chop five medium boiling-potatoes into bits about the size of the beef bits, chop four normal carrots into bits which are carrot-cylindrical and as long as they are wide. Put them in the casserole
Chop one onion into small bits, fry them in the pan you fried the beef in until well-fried. Deglaze the pan with a bottle of beer (I used Hobgoblin), transfer the beef-with-onion-in to the casserole. Add about half the stock.
Stick in the oven at 180C for an hour and a half, notice that the liquid is still very watery, add two tablespoons of cornflour mixed up with water, stick in the oven for 45 more minutes. Eat with peas and complain about the bland insiptitude. The texture's good, the meat lumps look right, but the flavour has escaped the meat and somehow not ended up in the gravy.
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Date: 2008-06-12 04:10 pm (UTC)I would tend to add a little salt (but only a little) unless using supermarket-type stock (which has lots of salt in anyway). I'd also tend to cook the potatoes separately, unless they're a very strongly flavoured variety (you don't say), because they can suck the strength out of things to a surprising extent.
Finally, I'm strongly inclined to join the crowd crying "but supermarket meat doesn't taste of anything", at least with respect to most vacuum-packed stuff. And good over-the-counter meat is cheaper from a proper butcher, so....
Actually, that's a reasonable point - you don't mention whether the meat was lean/fatty/tendony/whatever. But supermarket 'stewing' packs, in my experience, are often very lean trimmed meat, whereas what you want for a good flavoursome stew is actually stuff with lots of tendon and connective tissue, and a reasonable amount of fat - because those are the things that give the gravy the meat flavour (and tendon that's been stewed for several hours is soft and tasty, rather than impossible to eat:).