Beef Stew and Dumplings | Simon Howie Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What to add to beef stew to make it amazing? ›

Vegetables: small chopped carrots, celery, and onion or shallot practically melt into the sauce. Mushrooms: button mushrooms are a nod to the quartered mushrooms many classic beef stew recipes call for, but are thinly sliced instead of being left in bigger pieces. Garlic: minced garlic brings lots of cozy flavor.

For most types of stew, it takes time to develop great flavor. Stew uses collagen-rich, tough cuts of meat, which need at least two hours to break down. If you try to rush it and boil the stew, the muscle fibers will shrink and become tough. So give yourself a few hours to let it do its thing.

Forgetting the Acid. The paradox of beef stew is that all that braised goodness can be a little bit heavy on the palate. It's easy to forget to add some sort of wine, vinegar, or yes, even lemon juice, to brighten things up. Adding some fresh thyme in the last 30 minutes of cooking can help brighten things up as well.

You should never throw your raw cubes of beef into the stew pot. You must sear the cubes first in a pan to brown them and begin building that rich flavor. It's important not to brown them too lightly—sear them until there's a dark crust on each side of the meat cubes.

Aromatics. Like rosemary, thyme, and bay leaves. The base of the stew also uses onion and garlic for the best depth of flavor. I prefer to use fresh herbs when I can (though I haven't been able to find a fresh bay leaf in years), but include notes in the recipe to substitute dried herbs.

Add spices such as turmeric, coriander and cumin at the early stage of cooking, when you are frying onions and garlic, to enhance the taste of the beef stew. Fresh herbs like coriander and bay leaves also contribute a distinct flavour without making the dish too spicy for the younger members of the family.

A bit of tomato paste amps up the flavor of beef stew, giving it a richness and a punch of umami that makes the stew truly memorable.

Simmering and Boiling

In the event that your goal is to keep moisture in—like when your pot of soup, stew, or sauce is already at the right consistency, but you want to keep cooking the vegetables and melding the flavors—leave the lid on to keep any more liquid from evaporating.

In the original version, celery, carrots and onion are added to the meat. Usually just one onion, a celery rib and three carrots – enough to give a good amount of sweetness to the sauce. Make sure all these are sliced thin, so that they can brown well in a little bit of olive oil.

More even cooking: Second, oven-baked stews heat from all sides rather than just from the bottom, which results in faster, more even cooking.

What is the secret to tender beef stew? ›

The most important key to making stew meat tender is being sure to cook it for a long time. If you want super tender beef, you'll need to cook it on a low heat in a Dutch oven on the stove or a slow cooker for at least a few hours.

Since stewed foods will cook for a long time and become soft, vigorous stirring could damage the integrity of their shape or cause them to become stringy or mushy. Again, though specific recipes may vary slightly, most call for gentle, rhythmic motions.

I used potatoes, carrots, and onions to make my canned beef stew. Other vegetables that you can use are celery, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, green beans, peas, parsnips, and corn. Sea salt and ground pepper– to taste. I used simple seasoning to let the natural flavors shine through.

Beef tastes great when seasoned with oregano, rosemary, sage, garlic or a combination of these seasonings. Poultry gets an added burst of flavor with spices like paprika, lemongrass and saffron. Fish can be made more flavorful with dry mustard powder, thyme and turmeric.

Go for the chuck

The most common beef used for stew is chuck steak, also known as gravy beef or braising steak. Beef chuck comes from the forequarter of the animal consisting of parts of the neck, shoulder blade and upper arm.