Stewing over stew: beef stew with root vegetables for Johnny D

She's a tease, isn't she?  Annalena keeps on promising you her cranberry cobbler recipe.  But, as the song goes "you just have to wait."  See, when there is late breaking news, or new ideas, Annalena has to share them with you.  It is her obligation. 
Last week, Annalena made a beef stew from a recipe she concocted on the spot.  As she prepared the dish, she realized that, really,  all stews are built on a simple template.  We can complicate them, but we don't need to.  And a stew is something that everyone could use this time of year.  Yes, they take a while.   This one too 2.5 hours of cooking.  But, the yield is wonderful, the work involved is minimal, the product is delicious, the cost is de minimis, and anyone can make it.  And if you make it, you can eat it for at least a few days, simply changing what goes with it.  Think of it as another basic black dress of the cooking world.

As we go through this recipe, Annalena will be telling you where you can make your own choices.  OK?  Good.

So, it's beef stew.  That means you need... duh... BEEF.  But what cut?  When you are going to cook something for a long time, you want the part of the animal that works.  Muscles take a long time to break down (and they make damn tasty food).  So for this, Annalena used chuck.  It's very lean, and it takes a while to cook.  You could use shoulder, or you could use other cuts.  Try to avoid what is called "stew meat," as you never know what it is.  Get a roast, and cut it into chunks yourself.  If you have a knife, you can do it.  And you can cut it to the size you like.

Don't want to do beef? Ok, substitute lamb.  Or pork.  Honestly, ragazzi, you could use duck, but you would want to use the duck legs, rather than the breast, because in the avian camp, it is the legs which do the work.  That's why it's dark meat. Even in duck, which is ALL dark meat, you will find the breast to be blazing crimson, and the legs, a dark brown. 

 Pat the meat dry, and then salt it., whatever you choose (by the way, if you choose duck legs, there is no reason to cut the meat into small pieces unless you really want to.  It's fun to eat a whole duck leg after it has been stewed.  Sometimes, we call that cassoulet if everything else that goes into the stew is the right thing).    Put a good amount of oil in a pan - a WIDE one.  Enough to coat it.  And wait until it gets hot.  Again, you want the "ripple" or the smell of the oil to meet your nose.  When  you have that, put in as much meat as the pan will hold, in one layer, and LEAVE IT ALONE.  You are cooking to create a nice sear.  Listen to your pan.  It will tell you when it's time to flip the meat.  The sizzle will drop from fast and furious, to slow and lazy.  Now brown the other side.

If you need to do this in two batches, do so.  (Note we haven't used any flour.  We won't).    Store this meat in a bowl, because you don't want to lose the juices.  And when it's all browned, you don't need the fat anymore.  Out it goes.

Put the meat in a big pot.  Here, it doesn't need, and in fact shouldn't, be one layer deep.  So pile it in, and then add some liquid.  What liquid?  Well, for beef stew, Annalena uses beef stock, and red wine: zinfandel is always good, but anything with some body , where you don't have enough to drink, can be used.   You want to cover the meat just to the point where the liquid comes 3/4 to 4/5 up the sides.  Use a cup of stock, then half a cup of wine, and keep varying until you have the mark.  Now, Annalena would use red wine for lamb, but change the stock to chicken.  For pork, she would use chicken, and a spicier white wine, like gewurztraminer.  For duck, chicken stock and zinfandel. Your choice ragazzi. 

Cover the pot, and put it on the LOWEST heat your burner can handle.  Leave it for an hour, and then come back and turn the meat, so that the stuff on the top is on the bottom.  And let it go for another 45 minutes.

During that 45 minutes, prepare your vegetables.  Again, here you can use what you like, but you are going to cook them for at least another 45 minutes, so keep that in mind.  Annalena used parsley root, carrots, and a big Korean yam.  Big chunks - about the size of your meat.  And at least half the volume of the meat, up to the same amount.  Put the veggies in with the meat, stir everything together, and let it go for forty five  minutes.

Taste it.  Is the meat tender enough for you?  Are the vegetables tender? Is the salt right?  Would you perhaps like a spicy element?  Do it now, and let it sit for another fifteen minutes or so.  This is also the time to add the quicker cooking vegetables you might want, like peas, or  artichoke pieces, or something like that.    Again, construct it the way you like it.

Try not to eat it the first day.  It gets better on sitting.  It really does.  And on refrigeration, any fat in the meat will come to the top, and you can scrape it off  before you reheat it.

Polenta, rice, pureed cauliflower, noodles, mashed potatoes, are ALL good with this.  And they cook quickly enough.

So, ragazzi, go stew on this.  You'll be really happy you did.

The cobbler is coming.  Promise