Second to soup, stew is one of the pleasures of chilly evenings in fall and winter. Making one is simple. Together with a salad and a nice loaf of bread, it can be a great dinner to serve for guests, or (since it freezes well) something you can pull out of the freezer in the morning so that when you get home from work, you can just microwave yourself something warm and comforting.
This basic recipe can work with beef, lamb, chicken or turkey. You can also make it a vegetarian dish by adding some beans, or just beefing it up with many different vegetables.
What you need:
- A pound of stew meat of whatever kind you choose. You can use boneless skinless chicken thighs, a cheap cut of beef, or some lamb stew meat. The two former you have to cut up yourself.
- About a half cup of flour
- Salt, pepper, and paprika
- Olive oil
- A small onion, chopped
- Two peeled carrots, cut into bite-sized pieces
- A peeled parsnip, cut into bite-sized pieces
- A couple of thin-skinned potatoes: white, red, Yukon Gold, or even purple. Just don’t use baking potatoes.
- Cubed winter squash (optional)
- A can of diced tomatoes – the plain kind, with nothing added (optional)
- A can or two of beans – white or red kidney would be best, but any you like are fine (optional)
- A small pack of frozen peas, or a bag of peas in pod – the kind you can eat both pea and pod
- Red or white wine
- A quart of chicken, beef, or vegetable broth – home made or the low sodium kind. Water will do in a pinch
- Soy sauce
Start by taking about a half a cup of flour and seasoning it with a few grinds of black pepper, about a half teaspoon of salt, and about the same amount of paprika. Mix it well together and put it in a clean plastic bag. Zip top bags work best, but I’ve used veggie bags in a pinch. Add in about a pound of your preferred meat, cubed or cut as close to cube shaped as you can. You don’t want the pieces huge, but not too small either. Once the meat is in the bag, shake it up with the flour mixture.
Heat some olive oil on medium in the bottom of your dutch oven or biggest soup pot. When it’s hot, add in your meat and brown it on all sides. Add in your onion. It might get crusty on the bottom of the pot. Don’t let these crusty bits burn; keep working them off the bottom with a wooden spoon. If you need to, add in some of the broth. When the meat is browned, remove it to a plate. Add in about a half cup of wine – white for chicken if you want, but red will do for anything. Actually, white will do for anything. Remember: if you wouldn’t drink it, don’t cook with it. If you aren’t using wine, add some of the broth or water to the pot and use it to deglaze it, stirring and loosening those tasty brown bits from the bottom. Add in whatever veggies you want – except the peas – and the beans. Put the meat back in and the rest of the broth. If you are using water as your liquid, I highly recommend you add a can of tomatoes to your stew. Add in about two tablespoons of soy sauce.
Bring the pot to a boil. Then turn it down to low. Cook the stew for about an hour. Taste the broth and add salt or pepper as you think needed. Right before you are ready to serve, add in peas – frozen or the whole pods.
You can make the stew your own by adding fresh herbs. I like to add fresh thyme to mine. Oregano is a good choice, particularly with a stew that contains tomatoes. A touch of fresh chopped mint is nice on a lamb stew. Give it a south-of-the-border taste with cumin, chili powder, and cayenne. Put those spices in with your flour for seasoning the meat you choose. Turmeric, cinnamon, and a little cumin give it more of a Middle Eastern flare. Chinese five spice and ground ginger makes it more Chinese. Experiment. If you hate it well, you’ve learned something. And if you love it? You’ve taken a basic dish and put your signature on it.
