Stew: More of a Thick Soup Than a Name, Really

I bought a roast on the weekend with the purpose of making beef stew. I was looking for an excuse to use the slow cooker. We found this one at Coopers for seven dollars. There are a couple of great butchers in the area, but with gas prices being in the $1.40 range, it’s hard to justify travelling all over the city. This, apparently, is a sirloin tip oven roast. A name like that screams “chop me up for stew!”

With the cats hungrily waiting for anything to drop, I chop up the roast and pile it neatly on the cutting board. The cats, thwarted, walk away sadly and perch in the living room window. I toss some flour on a plate and mix in some kosher salt and some freshly ground pepper, then get to the messy job of rolling the meat in the flour mixture. It coats my fingers. I shake my fist at Dave, who suggested the flour in the first place.

As I’m frying the meat, I remember asking my mom what she did for stew, since I couldn’t remember her ever using beef broth. Mom’s trick was to fry the meat and add some water to what was left afterward, then use that for the base. I didn’t get any meat drippings, which I’m going to assume is the fault of the flour. No worries, we have plenty of beef broth in the fridge.

After the first round of beef is fried, I take a moment to sample some. Maybe Dave is on to something with this coat-meat-with-flour-then-fry stuff. After I finish frying all of the beef, I toss it in the slow cooker and add the beef broth.

I’m sure if anyone who knew what they were doing watched my crude, almost prehistoric, method to chopping vegetables, they’d probably have a coronary. I’m not as bad as I once was – Dave has been able to teach me a thing or two. Regardless, I believe my favourite part of this whole endeavour is chopping the onions and smashing the garlic. And once it’s all in the pan, it’s probably my favourite smell too.

I get the onions and garlic in the pot with the beef and tackle the next step: potatoes. Dave has a peeler he uses. It’s faster than using a knife, but I’m not as comfortable with it. I decide to use the peeler anyway. There must be some progress. The last time I used it, I flung no less than three-quarters of the potatoes into the sink trying to peel them. This time, only one of the five hit the sink.

If you study the chopped potatoes closely, you’ll see the sizes vary. I got halfway though and decided I was cutting them too small. I’m sure they’ll all taste fine when we sit down to eat.

After chopping up three stalks of celery, I realised I should have put them in with the garlic and onions. So back to the frying pan, heat ’em up a bit so they’re not as crunchy, and into the pot. Next up, the carrots. Chop one, eat one. Cooking is fun!

I let everything sit in the beef broth for a while before adding some more water, on the off-chance it might give it some more flavour. About 45 minutes later, I add water. Planning on adding barley to the stew, I throw in a little extra. After the water, I toss in some fresh thyme from Dave’s window herbs.

I rifle through the fridge to see what else we can throw in. Zucchini! After that, there’s barley, and now the entire thing is stewing away, waiting for Dave to get home from work.

Advertisements