Here’s my beef stew recipe, which is full of flavor and goodness and is exactly the way I make it for myself, secrets and all.
Here’s what you’ll need:
Craig’s Satisfying Beef Stew
- 5 lbs. of beef chuck roast (or round roast), koshered
- 1/4-lb. stick of real sweet cream butter
- 1 full 8 oz. jar of Better Than Bullion Beef Base
- 1 pint heavy cream
- 3 bundles of green onions
- 2 large white onions
- 1 leek
- 3-4 whole cloves of garlic
- 2 lbs. baby red potatoes
- 2 lbs. yukon gold potatoes
- 3 lbs. russet potatoes
- 3 large red peppers
- 2 small red jalapeno peppers
- 4 lbs. Roma tomatoes
- 2 lbs. greenhouse/hydroponic tomatoes
- 1-2 bags of really good, fresh green celery
- 1 package of aromatic cooking herbs and spices (rosemary, basil and sage)
- 1-2 tbsp. paprika
- 3 1-lb. bags of Alberto extra-wide egg noodles
Okay, here’s how to make it.
First, get a huge soup kettle… the largest one you can find because we’re cooking large. Fill it only about half-way with water. Get it on the stove and start heating it up… but only just above simmer. Put the entire jar of Better Than Bullion in there and stir occasionally so it doesn’t clump up and burn to the bottom of the kettle.
At the same time, ready a cast-iron skillet, also very large… large enough to hold your five pounds or so of beef. Again, put it on a low heat.
Toss the stick of butter into the skillet to get it melting. Then start chopping the aromatic spices. I’m not talking dried stuff; I’m talking the fresh, green, leafy stuff you can find in the produce section. Chop ‘em up, preferably by hand, and toss ‘em in the melting butter.
Now get to work on chopping up the other aromatics; the green onions, white onions, leek and garlic. Get them all in the butter as soon as you can. The good smells are on the way.
Now start cubing your beef. Make sure to trim most of the fat away… personally, I like my beef lean; some people may prefer to keep a little fat in to help flavor the soup, but with my recipe, you don’t need to.
As you cut it down, toss the cubes in the skillet and get it to browning in that butter among all those aromatics. You won’t need to marinade this beef, because the butter and aromatics will do that for you. Once you’ve cubed all the beef, keep an eye on it and keep mixing and turning the beef so nothing burns. Remember, a SLOW simmer… this isn’t a race.
Oh, and with those green onions, chop them up most of the way up the green stalks… those are your scallions, and they add tons of flavor. Don’t do that as much with the leek, though.
Once your skillet is full, now it’s time to turn your attention to the kettle again. Time to start on the celery, which should go in first. Cut off the leafy parts on top, as well as the thick white base. Toss those parts and chop the rest of the celery up as you like. I prefer my celery smaller, so I cut it up pretty good.
Now get to work on the potatoes, which take a long time to cook right, also. I wash them all thoroughly, but I prefer to keep the skin on the Yukon Gold and the Baby Reds. Dice ‘em to your preferred size and get them in the water with that celery. Don’t forget to stir the beef on occasion.
With the Russets, remove the skin and dig out the root-pits and then dice ‘em up. Add ‘em into the kettle now, too.
Next up are the peppers. On the red peppers, I prefer to remove the white core and the green stem. Then I slice them up into nice squares. With the red jalapenos, I cut the tops off, cut in half and slice ‘em into somewhat narrow ribbons. Put the peppers in the kettle with the potatoes and celery.
On to the tomatoes. I like to deal with the hydroponic/greenhouse tomatoes first, because they’re bigger but trickier to cube. Messier, too. Then cube up the lovely Roma tomatoes, which are so much firmer and nicer. Get it all in the kettle.
By now your kitchen should smell good enough to eat! And the beef and aromatics should be ready, fully browned.
The first tricky part is to drain off the excess butter and fat. Then move all the aromatics and beef into the kettle. Get it all cooking together now. Bring up the heat on the kettle a bit, to just below boiling. If you’re in a hurry, you can cut some time off by putting it on a slow boil, but you’ll need to stir more often because you have something like twenty pounds of food in there and it’ll start burning to the bottom if you get careless cooking it on a higher heat or open flame.
Last step for now is to add in that pint of heavy cream and stir one more time. If you’re into rabbinic kosher, you can leave the heavy cream out… but it really makes the broth so if you’re like me and only concerned with clean and unclean, use the cream! Oh, and if you’re into rabbinic kosher, you can substitute Extra Virgin Olive Oil for the butter when browning the meat, also.
Then put the cover on the kettle and let it slow cook. If you’re cooking at a slow boil, you might have it ready in about two to three hours. At a nicer, leisurely pace, just below boiling, we’re talking about letting it simmer for more like five or six hours. Make sense?
Stir the contents about every 20-30 minutes. A bit more often if you’re cooking at a higher heat.
A couple hours in, go ahead and add in the paprika powder to your own personal taste preferences. I use a bit more than some people, but I like a little kick to my stew.
At the same time, add in all those lovely noodles. They’ll help soak up the extra broth and keep it from being a soup. And there will be plenty of flavor cooked into the potatoes and noodles. If it’s Passover season, substitute matza balls or matza-meal noodles instead.
Let it cook at least another hour… minimum of three hours cooking time total, even at a slow boil. Then start tasting the broth and the trying a potato cube or celery slice. When they’re nice and firm, but no longer crunchy, you’re pretty much ready to start serving. I like my potatoes and celery a little softer, but definitely keep cooking until all the crunch is gone, because nothing ruins a good stew like half-cooked potatoes or celery. I hate “raw spots” in my veggies!
This should be enough to serve at least 20-30 people, or to make many, many meals. Anything you’re not going to eat in the first couple days should be stored in Glad bowls and frozen… it’s still great even weeks later, once you thaw it and reheat on the stove. Don’t microwave if you can avoid it.
And that’s it! It’ll be the best, richest stew you’ve ever had. Mazel tov!
NOTE: I hate carrots, and that’s why there are none in this recipe. With all the peppers, you shouldn’t miss them. However, if you can’t live without carrots, go ahead and add in about a pound of them, sliced or cubed… but don’t blame me if you don’t like how the stew tastes after adding them. Yuck!
Fewer commentaries means more time to write
Monday, October 5th, 2009
Some people might expect me to be disappointed. After a year of doing a commentary every week, soon I’ll be writing one only every three weeks or so.
I’m thrilled. Not only are the other guys in the rotation good friends and part of my men’s Torah study, but more time away from writing commentaries means I’ll have more time for my other writing.
Maybe I’ll finally get some real progress made on that novel of mine. Hey, stranger things have happened!
Tags: commentaries, writing
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