Stewing over it: beef stew.

It's cold, ragazzi, isn't it?  No, it's brutally cold.  And most of us just want to be warm:  toasty warm.  We want simple, delicious, warming food.  Which means, of course, one of us has to get up, buck the inertia, and make something.

So, why don't we make something that really isn't a lot of work, makes a lot, keeps us warm, and is just pretty darn good:  how about some stew?

Interested?  Well, let's get to "work" if you can call it that.    This is a beef stew recipe, ragazzi, but if you would prefer to use pork, or lamb, or even chicken,  go for it.  Careful with chicken though.  Annalena will lead you through the process.

First, when you make a stew, you have to choose the proper cut of meat.  It cannot be too "fine" because, duh, the meat is going to "stew."  Hence, you need something that has a bit of body to it:  what the professionals call a "worked muscle."  Annalena bonded with a butcher over this.  She saw nothing that looked "good," and spoke to the butcher (which is something you should ALL learn to do, once you find a good one).  She said , "I wanted to make beef stew and I was thinking..."  In unison , she and the butcher said "chuck."  Annalena knew she had a friend.  And yes, she and Pablo have become buds of a sort.  

For the stew Annalena made, which made about 16 cups (trust her, you won't be sorry), you need three pounds of beef chuck, cut into cubes.  (Incidentally, ragazzi, unless you REALLY trust the butcher, do NOT buy "stew meat."  It's nasty.  If you are using lamb, or pork, ask for shoulder, and pay the dollar to have the butcher cube it for you, unless you feel ambitious.  If you are using chicken,  anything skinless will do.  If you use breasts, use the whole breast, and cut the pieces into bigger chunks.  Thighs can stay as they are.  You can even keep the bone in. 

The hardest thing we are going to do here, is brown the meat.  You know how to do that, don't you?  Get the pot in which you will be making the stew, and cover it with olive oil.  When the oil begins to smoke, add cubes of salted meat, patted dry, and leave them be, for at least 3 minutes.  Then turn them.  Get as much color as you can.  Keep on doing this,  and while the meat browns, first check your oven racks, and adjust them so that your pot will fit in the oven, and then turn the temperature to 250  (not a misprint, amici:  250:  a low temperature).  

When all of your meat is browned, pour off the fat, and turn off the heat.  Add a half cup of red wine, so that you can get all of the brown bits dissolved.

As you have time, start cutting up root vegetables.  You can use what you like.  Annalena's stew featured carrots (the bigger ones), potatoes, peeled, celery root, a large turnip, a parsley root, and yellow beets.  Yellow ones, because the red ones might give an unpleasant color to the stew, but if you are not visually concerned, used red ones.  Vary these vegetables as you see fit.  You want a volume of veggies that is about 2-3 times that of the meat.  Toss them with a tablespoon of salt.   You'll have a full pan:

Add a couple of cups of chicken stock to this, and then,  cover it, and put it in your oven.  You're going to cook this - for four hours.  Yes, four hours.  And if, like Annalena, you need a life, you will be fascinated by how it develops.  For the first hour, you will see... NOTHING.   Nonetheless, put some gloves on your hands, and stir it.  After two hours, you will begin to see the liquid develop.   Stirring just got easier.    At three hours.... YOU HAVE STEW!   But that fourth hour brings it all together.  That's when the meat begins to fall apart, the hardier roots begin to give up enough to thicken the liquid, and it all comes together.    If you want, at this point, you add a couple of cups of peas that you acquired from the farmers market in warmer weather, and froze....

It would really be better to eat this the NEXT day, because stew is always better after a sit and reheat, but if you must, you must.  Annalena and the Guyman ate this with brown and white rice, which is not traditional, but it sure was good.  Polenta sounds good to Annalena here.   So does pasta, but pasta ALWAYS sounds good to Annalena.

You can freeze this stuff, or even better,  you can share it with your friends.  Remember, someone else is cold, so do it, ragazzi, have a good meal together.  Nothing better than that.