For me, a slow-simmered stew stirs up delicious childhood memories. The scent of rough-cut vegetables, meat, and broth set at a gentle, slow-tempo bubble, is alluring as well as a lesson in patience. A rich, cold weather stewed concoction remains a favorite.
Later, my culinary training would teach me new names for stews. Fricassees, stews bound with creamy sauces. Blanquettes, white stews enriched with cream or egg yolks. Etouffees, stewy mixtures served over rice whose name is derived from the French word for smothered.
They’re fancy names for comfort food that uses common slow-cooking processes producing scrumptious tidbits surrounded with sauce. The sauce, a velvety broth, is a mixture of natural juices and stewing ingredients, sometimes thickened with flour. It bathes each morsel of meat and vegetable in enticing flavor.
To produce an authentic stew, first sear the meat on all sides, to a rich brown. One of the tricks to doing this properly is leaving space between the pieces of meat in the pan. Resist the temptation to jam them all in at once. Instead, brown in two or three small batches, adding more oil if the pan goes dry.
They are great make-ahead dishes. Prepare them a day in advance and the flavors develop even more. Here are three stew recipes. Surprise, only one requires a substantial amount of beef; one requires only 12 ounces of beef to yield about 6 servings, and one showcases chicken rather than beef.
Ina’s Ultimate Beef Stew
Ina Garten’s Beef Stew is irresistible. The broth is delicious, but it isn’t thick because she doesn’t use flour. Instead, this recipe spikes the broth with delicious add-ins; pancetta, Cognac, and red wine, plus chopped fresh fennel and plenty of chopped onion. And instead of the traditional chuck, she uses boneless short ribs cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks. If made ahead, reheat over medium-low heat, adding more beef broth and a slash of red wine.
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 ounces small-diced pancetta
3 pounds boneless short ribs; see cook’s notes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup Cognac or brandy
1 cup hearty red wine, such as Cotes du Rhone or Chianti, divided use
2 cups chopped yellow onion
2 cups chopped fresh fennel, trimmed and cored (1 large bulb)
2 tablespoons minced garlic (6 cloves)
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, including the juices
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 cups beef broth
1 pound carrots, peeled and cut 1/2 inch thick diagonally
1 pound Baby Dutch Yellow potatoes, scrubbed, cut into quarters, or Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1-inch dice
10 ounces frozen peas
Cook’s notes: I often buy boneless short ribs at Costco because they are nicely trimmed, cut into long strips, about 7- or 8-inches long and about 2-inches wide. They are perfect for quickly cutting into chunks.
DIRECTIONS
1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Heat oil in a large (11- to 12-inch) ovenproof Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the pancetta and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until browned. With a slotted spoon, transfer the pancetta to a plate lined with a paper towel and set aside.
3. Meanwhile, season the short ribs all over with 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Brown half of the meat in the Dutch oven over medium heat, turning occasionally, for 5 to 7 minutes, until browned on all sides. Transfer the meat to a bowl and brown the second batch. (Don’t cook them all in one batch or they won’t brown properly.) Transfer the second batch to the bowl and set aside.
4. Off the heat, add the Cognac and 1/3 cup of wine to the pot, scraping up any browned bits, then simmer over medium heat for one minute. Add the onions and fennel and sauté, stirring occasionally, cooking for 7 to 8 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Add garlic and cook for one minute.
5. Stir in tomatoes and tomato paste into the vegetables. Add remaining 2/3 cup of wine, the beef broth, the seared meat (and juices), 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Bring to a simmer, cover, and bake for 1 1/4 hours, checking occasionally to be sure the liquid is simmering.
6. Degrease the stew, if necessary. Stir in the carrots and potatoes, cover, and bake for one hour longer, until the vegetables and meat are very tender when tested with a fork. Just before serving, stir in the peas and pancetta, taste for seasonings, and serve hot in large, shallow bowls.
Source: “Modern Comfort Food” by Ina Garten (Clarkson Potter)
Almost Beefless Beef Stew
The chefs at America’s Test Kitchen tested out several cuts of beef for this Almost Beefless Beef Stew, before arriving with a choice they were happy with. They agreed that 6-ounce blade steaks worked the best because they were easy to buy in small amounts and consistently became tender in the stew. Use potatoes that are extra small, only 1-inch in diameter, such as small red potatoes or small Yukon Gold potatoes. You can substitute slightly larger potatoes with a 1- to 2-inch diameter, such as Baby Dutch Yellow potatoes, just be sure to cut them in half before they are added.
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
INGREDIENTS
2 (6- to 8-ounce) blade steaks, 3/4 to 1 inch thick, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided use
1 pound cremini mushrooms, trimmed and halved if small, quartered if large or medium
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
6 anchovy fillets, minced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons red wine, divided use
2 1/2 cups chicken or beef broth
1 pound extra-small potatoes, scrubbed
4 carrots, peeled and sliced 1/4-inch thick diagonally
1 1/2 cups frozen pearl onions, thawed
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
1 teaspoon ground pepper
DIRECTIONS
1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 325 degrees. Pat beef dry with paper towels. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in ovenproof Dutch oven over medium-high heat until just barely smoking. Add beef and cook until well browned on all sides, 5 to 8 minutes; transfer to bowl.
2. Add mushrooms, 1 tablespoon oil and 1/4 teaspoon salt to fat left in pot and cook, covered, over medium-high heat until mushrooms have released their liquid, 3 to 5 minutes. Uncover and cook until mushrooms are well browned, 7 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer mushrooms to bowl with beef.
3. Add onion, remaining 1 tablespoon oil, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt to now-empty pot and cook until golden brown, 7 to 10 minutes. Add garlic, tomato paste, and anchovies and cook, stirring constantly, until tomato paste is slightly darkened, about 2 minutes. Stir in flour and cook until no dry flour remains, about 30 seconds.
4. Slowly add 1 cup wine, scraping up any browned bits. Stir in broth, potatoes, and beef-mushroom mixture and any accumulated juices. Bring it to a simmer, cover, and transfer it to oven. Cook for 1 hour.
5. Remove pot from oven. Stir in carrots and pearl onions and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally and scraping bottom of pot, until carrots are tender, 8 to 12 minutes.
6. Stir in peas and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes. Stir in pepper and remaining 2 tablespoons of wine and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve and cool and refrigerate for up to two days. Reheat on medium heat, stirring occasionally.
Source: “Mostly Meatless” by America’s Test Kitchen
One-Pot Chicken Grand-mere
My decades as a food writer have given me so many delicious memories. A long-ago lunch with New York’s famed chef-restaurateur Daniel Boulud, gave me a chance to find out about his favorite cold weather fireside dinner. It’s a stew centered on his grandmother’s irresistible chicken fricassee, a dish that he told me that he joyfully ate every two weeks as a child. Oui, Chicken Grand-mere Francine.
Yield: 4 servings
INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 (3-to 4-pound) chicken, cut into 8 serving pieces
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
12 frozen pearl onions (thawed), or cipollini onions, peeled and trimmed
4 shallots, peeled and trimmed
2 heads garlic, cloves separated but not peeled
3 sprigs thyme
8 to 10 Baby Dutch Yellow potatoes, or 4 small Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks
2 celery roots, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks
2 ounces slab bacon or thick-cut bacon, cut into short, thin strips
12 small cremini or oyster mushrooms, trimmed and cleaned
2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
Optional: 1/4 cup chopped fresh tarragon
Garnish: 1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
For serving: crusty bread
DIRECTIONS
1. Position oven rack in lower-middle position; preheat oven to 375 degrees. Working over medium-high heat, warm olive oil in large oven-proof skillet (choose one with high sides and cover) or Dutch oven. Season chicken pieces all over with salt and pepper, slip them into pan skin-side down and cook until well-browned on all sides, about 10 to 15 minutes. Take your time, you want nice, deep color and partly cooked chicken. When chicken is deeply golden, transfer to platter and keep warm, covered, while you work on vegetables.
2. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of fat from pan. Lower heat to medium; add butter, onions, shallots, garlic and thyme. Cook and stir until vegetables start to color, about 3 minutes. Add potatoes, celery roots and bacon, and cook 1 to 2 minutes, to start rendering bacon fat. Cover pan and cook 10 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes.
3. Add mushrooms, season with salt and pepper, and return chicken to pan. Add chicken broth, bring to boil and place in oven.
4. Bake, uncovered, in preheated oven 20-25 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Stir in tarragon if using and cover pan; let sit 2 to 3 minutes. Remove lid and spoon everything onto warm serving platter or into attractive casserole.
5. Sprinkle with fresh parsley. Bring chicken to table with plenty of crusty bread to sop up sauce and spread with soft, sweet, caramelized garlic from the chicken’s sauce, easily squeezed out of its skin.
Source: “Cafe Boulud Cookbook” by Chef-Restauranteur Daniel Boulud and Dorie Greenspan (Scribner)