Beef Stew

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I have made beef stew several times in the past and this recipe is the first time I have used a cornstarch slurry to thicken it rather than a flour based mixture. The biggest difference is the color. Same great flavor, but the cornstarch turns the liquid a nice rich brown color rather than the blondish brown achieved with flour. I discovered the magic of cornstarch with a turkey stew that I made over Thanksgiving weekend and couldn't wait to put the technique to use with a stew like this.

Making the liquid a beautiful color is important to me because it should look as good as it tastes. The key to any great stew is the gravy that binds it all together. The beefy flavor enhanced by vegetables and a long simmer is downright drinkable when made right. It’s so exciting to have this new trick up my sleeve for thickening soups – after 20 years of cooking, I’m still a student and will be forever.

BEHIND THIS BITE

Beef Stew

Whenever I make stew I think about my Dad. When I was 11 or 12 he made breakfast for us one Saturday that consisted of a huge plate of fried potatoes smothered in a giant scoop of beef stew. It was a stick-to-your-ribs breakfast that I will never forget. I felt like a lumberjack as I gobbled it down, and thought it might be time for my first shave once I was finished. It was a man meal, fit to be served in a man cave before walking out the door to kill something.

I don’t know why I perceived it that way, but to this day I can’t see a couple of women getting together for breakfast and deciding to smother fried potatoes with a huge heap of beef stew. Not that it can’t or doesn’t happen, it just seems as though a breakfast of potatoes smothered in meat and gravy would have been the choice of a man going out to plow under a corn field or chop a cord of wood. I guess it’s just one of those things that struck me as a kid and I have yet to see something else that would prove the insight wrong.

Eat well, cook often ...

BEHIND THIS BITE

Beef Stew

Serves 6; 2 1/2 hours
2 lbs Stew beef
4 C Beef broth
1 C Onion, diced
1/2 C Celery, diced
1/2 C Carrot, diced
1/2 C Green pepper, diced
1 Tbs Garlic, minced
2 Russet potatoes, cubed
2 C Water
1 tsp Italian seasoning
2 Tbs Cornstarch
2 Tbs Water

Cook beef
In a soup pot over medium high heat, sear beef in batches on all sides until just cook through, salt and pepper to taste. Return beef to pan and add broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Sauté vegetables
In a fry pan over medium heat sauté onion, celery, carrot and green pepper until soft, 4 to 6 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Add garlic, cook 1 minute more or until fragrant.

Make stew, thicken
Add sautéd vegetables, water, potatoes and Italian seasonings to pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through. In a separate bowl, whisk together cornstarch and water to make a slurry. Once potatoes are tender stir slurry into pot and simmer 10 minutes more or until mixture thickens. Spoon into bowls and serve.

Black and Red Chili

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I love to make chili. When I first started cooking on a regular basis, it seemed like I was making up an experimental batch every weekend. I would throw anything in the pot if I thought it might taste good - mushrooms, black olives, egg plant – you name it. Through making numerous chili variations I realized that one simple item could ruin an entire pot of food!

I still make chili on a regular basis but my recipes have been refined and continue to evolve. This fall I have made chili numerous times and lately when I have beef as the main ingredient I simmer the entire pot for a couple hours uncovered, which concentrates the flavors and thickens it up. Also, I have been using a fair amount of garlic and onion in the base which opens up the taste buds and amplifies the other flavors in the pot. For sweetness, I add red peppers, and for a fuller bite, black beans have been thrown into the pool. These two additions have inspired the name for my current creation: Black and Red Chili.

BEHIND THIS BITE

Black and Red Chili

Like I said in the introduction, I love to make chili and this recipe is one of my favorites. I used to make most of my chili quick, in 30 minutes or less, but I never used any water or broth, the only liquid came from crushed tomatoes. The end result was a thick chili with lots of different flavors in each bite.

Over the last couple of years I have started to change my tactics and part of that is adding lots of liquid and reducing it during a long simmer. This creates the thick chili that I like, but the end result is consistent flavor with every spoonful. The long simmer not only thickens the chili by evaporating the liquid, but it allows all of the flavors to concentrate and harmoniously mingle. Each bites contains the rich and meaty flavors of the beef and broth with lots of depth from the spices and base vegetables.

This chili recipe might be ready for competition.

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE

Black and Red Chili

Serves 12 to 15; 3 hours
5 lbs Ground beef
2 C Red onion, diced
2 C Red pepper, diced
1/2 C Jalapéno, seeded, diced
1/4 C Garlic minced
6 C Beef broth
2 Cans Black beans (15 oz)
1 Can Crushed tomatoes (28 oz)
1/4 C Chili powder
2 Tbs Cumin
1 Tbs Mexican oregano

Brown ground beef
In a large soup pot over medium-high heat cook ground beef until brown and fat has rendered, 6 to 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove to a bowl and discard all but 2 tablespoons of the liquid.

Make chili
In drippings left in pan, sauté onion, red pepper and jalapéno until soft 3 to 4 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Stir in garlic and cook 2 minutes more. Add reserved beef, broth, black beans, crushed tomato, chili powder, cumin and Mexican oregano. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours allowing mixture to reduce by a quarter. Remove from heat and serve.

Pork and Beans

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This recipe started with an impulse-buy. I was looking in the meat case at the local super market when I noticed smoked pork shank on sale. Which is basically the back thigh of a pig just underneath its butt, or the more delectably named ham. I had never worked with shank but I thought I could make a great soup with it, because I knew a long simmer would extract some of the yummy goodness locked up in the cut.

I proceeded to the produce section and picked up what I didn’t already have in my pantry for a mirepoix, headed through the checkout and was on my way home. As I pulled out of the parking lot I had an epiphany and thought I should make pork and beans with it. So I made another stop a mile down the road at another grocery store to pick up some dried cannellini beans.

That's how many of these recipes develop though.

I have an idea of what to make and as I think more and more about it, the whole dish changes by the time I get home. Luckily, with this one there was another grocery store between the new idea and getting home.

Pork and Beans

The final dish was really tasty, the smoked shank provided a meaty hickory flavor to the broth and the beans were cooked just perfect. I fed this to my Mom and Dad for dinner and they both enjoyed it. What they didn’t enjoy was being in the same room together a couple hours after eating all the beans. Lets just say lots of air freshener was needed at their house that night.

BEHIND THIS BITE
I have really enjoyed the comfort food now that fall weather has set in here in Northern Indiana. Pork and beans, tomato soup with grilled cheese, and two types of chili are just a few of the things I’ve made in just the last couple of weeks. (some will appear here eventually)

It's hard to believe Halloween is here and next week I will start the annual march toward Thanksgiving. I have to make all my Turkey day dishes ahead so that they are ready to be published before the holiday. This is the fourth time around for me and the food column, so this year I’m planning to go bigger than ever for the annual event. By the time the actual holiday gets here I’m sure I’ll be tired of all the traditional Thanksgiving dishes.

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE

Pork and Beans

Serves 4 to 6; 4 hours
1 lb Cannellini beans
1 C Red onion diced
1/2 C Carrot diced
1/2 C Celery diced
1 Tbs Garlic minced
8 C Chicken broth
2 lbs Smoked pork shank

Quick soak beans
In a pot over high heat cover beans with 1-inch of water and bring to a boil. Cover, remove from heat and let beans soak for at least 1 hour. Drain and rinse beans in a colander then set aside.

Make base, simmer
In a large pot or dutch oven over medium heat sauté onion, celery and carrot in a little olive oil until soft, 4 to 6 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Add garlic and cook one minute more. Add broth, pork shank and beans to pot. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours, or until beans and pork are tender.

Finish
Remove pork from pot and shred, discard bones, Return shredded pork to pot and simmer for 30 minutes more. Remove from heat, spoon into bowls and serve.

Chipotle Mac and Pepper Jack Cheese

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When I was 11, I used to love mac and cheese with sliced hot dogs, to me it was like gourmet sauce and pasta mixed with filet mignon. I could gobble down a bowl and ride my bike for miles through trails in the woods or go play second base in a little league double header.

At that age my palate preferred french fries, breaded chicken and the aforementioned macaroni with cheese sauce made from a packet of neon colored powder.

Then something changed.

Vegetables started to taste better, I began to get nervous around certain girls and some of the clothes Mom wanted me to wear made me feel like a freak at school. Things have just become more complicated ever since. One thing that hasn’t – my love for mac and cheese. I prefer a more sophisticated version these days, but nothing says comfort  on a cold winter day more than a bowl of elbow macaroni smothered in cheese sauce – add some bacon and heat from chilies, and I’m just a kid in a candy store.

BEHIND THIS BITE
This is the second time I have made mac and cheese for the print column. The first time was a more traditional dish, made from scratch of course, but nothing out of the box creativity-wise. This time I went for it. The smoky bacon compliments the chipotle, which along with the pepper jack, provides the fire.

I really liked this dish, and to my surprise, so did my niece. The kids have not warmed up to the idea of spicy food yet. Thankfully she actually tried it, then she kept going back for nibbles - I was pretty excited about that. I’m hoping the kids grow up to be adventurous eaters. She wasn’t adventurous enough to eat one of the whole jalapeño slices that garnish the dish, but the fact that she liked it is a great. It’s a start - Uncle Justin will have her sampling some habanero salsa by the time she can drive.

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE
Serves 6; 1 hour
6 strips Bacon, diced
3 Tbs Flour
2 C Milk
3 C Pepper jack cheese, shredded
2 Tbs Chipotle peppers, minced
1/2 lb Macaroni
2 Jalapeño, sliced
1/4 C Parmesan cheese, fresh grated

Cook macaroni
Bring 2 quarts of salted water to boil in a large pot, add pasta, return to boil. Cook 7 to 9 minutes for al dente. Then drain.

Fry bacon, make roux
After starting the macaroni, In a large oven safe skillet cook bacon over medium heat until crisp, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove to a paper towel lined plate. Sift in flour, wisk with bacon drippings until well incorporated then cook 2 to 3 minutes, stir often.

Make sauce
Add milk, bring to a simmer and let mixture thicken, 4 to 5 minutes, stir occasionally. Once thickened add two tablespoons of cheese, stir constantly until melted. Repeat until cheese is gone and a sauce has formed.

Finish
Stir in macaroni, bacon and chipotle peppers. Top with jalapeño slices and fresh grated parmesan cheese. Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 25 minutes or until bubbly. Remove and serve.

Creamy Beef Stroganoff

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Beef stroganoff originated in Russia in the later part of the 19th century. A similar recipe can be found in a Russian cookbook from the 1870s. There are a number of stories about it’s true inventor though.

One is that it was created for Count Grigory Stroganov, a man said to have loved to entertain, but had no teeth. The dish would be ideal for him to consume if indeed he had no choppers. A chef for Russian diplomat Alexander Stroganov is also credited. Regardless of origin, the recipe bears the family name.

The dish made it’s way to the United States in the late 1940s after World War II. There are countless variations, but most feature beef, noodles, mushrooms and sour cream. For this recipe, I stick with tradition but I change it up a little with the sauce. Instead of sour cream, I use a combination of cream cheese and heavy cream. For extra flavor – onion, garlic and fresh thyme are added, creating a rich and savory sauce.

BEHIND THE BITES
I made this for our family get-together Christmas Eve. I found stew beef at a great price the day before and thought beef stroganoff would be a good dish for the party. Put it with the pulled pork sandwiches my Mom was making and we would have enough for a couple of main dishes to feed the relatively small gathering.

I would usually have made a flour based cream sauce for a dish like this but I saw the heavy cream/cream cheese combination in the Nov/Dec issue of Cuisine at Home and thought I would give it a shot. I really thought the overall dish tasted great. The fresh thyme and mushrooms with the savory beef were dominant flavors and the cream brought everything together.

WHAT A NAME!
This dish is named after the Russian Stroganov family. Modern day High school in America would have been brutal for the Stroganov kids. I bet they wouldn’t set foot on the bus without hearing things like “Is your beef raw after strog an-ov?” or “Do a lot of strog an-ov this weekend?”  Even the most righteous kids would find it hard to resist teasing their peers with a last name like that.

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE
Serves 4; 2 hours, 45 minutes
2 lbs Stew beef
1 lb Mushrooms sliced
1/4 C Onion diced
1 Tbs Garlic minced
1 C Heavy cream
2 oz Cream cheese
1 Tbs Fresh thyme
1/2 lb Egg noodles

Cook beef
Season beef with salt and pepper to taste. Over medium-high heat, brown beef in a large pot. 5 to 7 minutes. Cover beef with water, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 2 hours or until beef is fork tender, then drain.

Start noodles, mushrooms
For noodles see below.
Sauté mushrooms over medium heat until juice is rendered 8 to 10 minutes. Add onion, garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Cook until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes.

Make sauce, add beef, serve
Stir in heavy cream, cream cheese and thyme. Heat sauce until cheese melts and sauce thickens. Add beef and simmer until mixture is heated through. Serve over noodles. 

Beef Stew to Warm the Soul

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There is a lot of stuff about the cold weather that I really don’t like – blizzards, frost bite and having to change my wardrobe to pants instead of cargo shorts. One thing I do like about cold weather is comfort food. To me, slow cooked cuts of meat are as delicious as a tender ribeye off the grill in the summer.

One of my all-time favorite comfort dishes is beef stew. I consider the potatoes and fork tender beef as just the icing on the cake in this dish. Like a great drummer in a rock band, the real star of a good beef stew is the gravy like liquid that brings everything together.

Some stew recipes call for the liquid to be thickened at the end of cooking. I like to thicken it near the beginning - with root vegetables mixed in to imparted their flavors into the beef as it is cooked tender. Also, I add carrot and potato chunks near the end of the process so they aren’t over cooked.

For this recipe, I broke out the cargo shorts and spent a couple hours in my cozy kitchen creating a dish that will warm the soul.

BEHIND THIS BITE
I documented this dish the day before Thanksgiving – six days before it would go to press – and the weather in Fort Wayne was unseasonal to say the least. We have been enjoying a rather warm fall so far. I worried that this recipe would run in the paper and it would still be warm out. The forcast called for a cool down - But you never can tell with the weather.

I grilled a Turkey breast on charcoal for Thanksgiving thanks to the warm weather. The day after, the high temperature was in the lower 60s and I was wearing my cargo shorts while raking leaves and covering stuff up outside – basically using the warm weather to get things ready for winter. Our mild fall allowed this work to occur after Thanksgiving this year rather than after Halloween.

As if on cue though, old-man winter swept through and dumped four inches of snow on us the day before this recipe went to press. Sometimes the stars aline just right and a project comes together. I knew the cold was coming and really wanted to share a favorite comfort dish which is why I chose stew. It would have been odd to publish this recipe when the weather man was calling for highs in the 60s. Instead, when readers got this, the ground was covered with snow here in northern Indiana. Which I hope made it seem even more appetizing.

I really hate to pack away my shorts in the winter, I usually keep a pair out for lounging around the house. In the summer, I will go months wearing shorts – it takes a wedding or a funeral to get me to do otherwise. Well, it's cold and wintery here now, and it will be that way for the next several months – I need a winter home in Florida!

Eat well, cook often ...