Stews and Such

So, for me, it's that season. Winter comes and I start looking for excuses to keep the oven or stove running for 4 hours, turning tough hunks of meat into tender succulence.

But I'm looking for recipes, and I couldn't find a thread devoted to 'em, so please, I'd love to hear your favorite stew, braise, or soup.

I'm especially interested in New Mexican and Texan chile recipes, and a great recipe for braised short ribs.

Of course, if someone just recommends a top-notch cookbook for this stuff, I'm happy with that, too.

edited to add in links to some other threads:

Chili thoughts
Cincinatti Chili
Smoke-braised lamb shanks
RheS+LAZ's Index of LTH Recipes

gleam wrote:But I'm looking for recipes, and I couldn't find a thread devoted to 'em, so please, I'd love to hear your favorite stew, braise, or soup.

I'm especially interested in New Mexican and Texan chile recipes, and a great recipe for braised short ribs.

Ed,

Just about none of my recipes show up on the one recipe list, but I've posted a few that would seem to fit what you're looking for...

Zum Beispiel:
Stobhach Glas Mairteoil / Guisado de Res en Salsa Verde
(En memória de los soldados Irlandeses del batallón San Patricio)
http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=68303#68303


Antonius

Links to other recipes and cooking notes by this writer: http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=55649#55649

... These might be of interest as well:
• Chamorros de Cerdo en Chile Colorado y Arroz 'Duque de Sessa' con Fríjoles Colorados
http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=64006#64006




• Guisado de puerco con chiles guajillos, papas al horno estilo Trisastres, y calabacitas y elotes ‘Nuevo Méjico’
http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=64858#64858



Antonius



Links to other recipes and cooking notes by this writer: http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=55649#55649

... Natuurlijk zijn er nog mensen die de Hertog van Alva en die Spaanse schurken niet vergeten hebben... voor ons is er...


• La Carbonade à la Flamande / Stoofvlees op Vlaamse wijze
(Flemish beef stew)
http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=52295#52295



Antonius


Links to other recipes and cooking notes by this writer: http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=55649#55649

Antonius, thanks so much. The carne en chile colorado looks especially tempting.

gleam wrote:Antonius, thanks so much. The carne en chile colorado looks especially tempting.

De nada!

It's a nice dish...

A

I have always enjoyed a relatively simply French-style beef stew recipe I got out of the New York Times a while back. The article with recipe is here, but it's behind the pay archive/Times Select wall.

It appears, however, that the recipe is reprinted (without permission, from what it appears and for what it's worth) here. Look under "Dijon and Cognac Beef Stew."

Yup, definitely stew season.

Last night, I made paprikash for 7 (with enough left over for another two, probably). Sheila Lukin's "All Around the World" has a decent recipe, although I think my paprika was a little weak on last night's version.

Indian curries fit the bill, I don't have any particular links to recipes.

On a chilly Santa Fe evening last summer, some friends made a huge pot of posole with chorizo and other pork sausage in it that was amazing.

My favorite cold weather dish is Champvallon. A lamb and potato casserole/stew. There are a bazillion variations on the basic recipe.

You basically brown cubes of lamb in a few rounds deglazing the pan each time with white wine and chicken stock and pour the liquid over the browned lamb cubes (make enough liquid to cover the lamb cubes). Afer the lamb is browned throw a couple sliced onions in the pan and brown those. Mix all of that together and simmer that for an hour or so. Then line a casserole with potato slices, pour the lamb, onion and sauce into the casserole and cover with more potatoes. Make sure there's enough liquid to just cover everything. Bake until the potatoes are cooked (it varies depending on how thick you slice them). Thyme is the main spice in the traditional version, but you can use rosemary, garlic or whatever spices you like with lamb. I've done some Morrocan style versions that aren't really Champvallon, but they've turned out really well. If I'm going all out I use homemade chicken stock made from a smoked chicken to give it smokey flavor.

This may not be a stew book per se, but it certainly is a WINTER cookbook, and pretty close to the mark.

All About Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking by Molly Stevens

It can be had a bit cheaper than Amazon's price by going to the "78 Used & New Available" link.

Jamie

I have some of this in my freezer as we speak. I made it about a month ago, and need to revisit it.

Flip

I totally second the All About Braising suggestions -- what a fabulous book.

For my money, I don't think you can beat, for classic simplicity and heartiness, Julia Child's classic Boeuf Bourguignonne

I think you can find it in several of her books -- but here's a link to a copy of it on the net...

http://www.goodcooking.com/ckbookrv/jul ... er_rev.htm

gleam wrote: Winter comes and I start looking for excuses to keep the oven or stove running for 4 hours, turning tough hunks of meat into tender succulence.

gleam, you have the perfect excuse to get a pressure cooker or two. I have a small one, which gets used for lentils, pulses and beans and a larger (5L) anodized non-stick aluminum Hawkins Futura that is wonderful for all kinds of stews and such.

gleam wrote:I'm especially interested in New Mexican and Texan chile recipes, and a great recipe for braised short ribs.

I could have sworn there was a thread in which Bruce (IIRC) (re)posted or quoted a short ribs braised in beer (porter I seem to recall). My searches fail me, help!
Pressure cooking or not and oxtails and goat/mutton curries aside, long cooking for me must include making Ragu Bolognese which I tend to think of as Italian chili.
I've also been hankering to make tatterdemalion's haleem* – although, as it has beans and lentils, is a form of chili a tad removed from Texas.
*though I think I'll set aside some meat chunks I can bite into.

see also this thread on dutch ovens

For some reason (pictures?) this thread but not others seems to stretch beyond my screen. Is it just me?

Last night I decided to make use of the 4.5 lb chuck cross roast I had in the fridge and make a "Chipotle Pot Roast". It was a simple conncoction: Brown the roast in cast iron dutch oven, remove and brown 2 sliced onions, 3/4 can of chopped chipotles in adobo, some cumin, chili powder, garlic, then put roast back in with small can of chicken stock and simmer away on stove all night.

Lesson Learned: 3/4 a can of Chipotles makes for a near nuclear dish. It made my feet sweat, and I can handle heat quite well. Can't wait to have leftovers this eve.

BTW: Here is some braising porn!

Jamie

I really love the Daily Soup cookbook; they based it on the soups they made every day in their Manhattan storefront. There are some solid recipes that I use over and over, such as the corn chowder with zucchini and red peppers, and their chili recipes (the pages are now falling out).

Daily Soup.

sazerac wrote:For some reason (pictures?) this thread but not others seems to stretch beyond my screen. Is it just me?

It's the long Amazon links.

Perhaps the original posters or some kind moderators will edit them.

If you have a link longer than, say, 40 characters, you should really code them as {url=http://www.really_long_url_goes_here.html}What you're linking to{/url}.* Then they won't stretch the screen.

*In the example above replace the curly brackets, which I've used for illustration purposes, with square brackets.

LAZ wrote:... It's the long Amazon links. ...

www.tinyurl.com shortens those long links. Quite useful for email too.

sazerac wrote:I could have sworn there was a thread in which Bruce (IIRC) (re)posted or quoted a short ribs braised in beer (porter I seem to recall). My searches fail me, help!

Twasn't me. The only recipes for short ribs I have are from Gorumet Magazine. Neither of which call for beer.

Bruce wrote:

sazerac wrote:I could have sworn there was a thread in which Bruce (IIRC) (re)posted or quoted a short ribs braised in beer (porter I seem to recall). My searches fail me, help!

Twasn't me. The only recipes for short ribs I have are from Gorumet Magazine. Neither of which call for beer.

First pics in the "Braising Porn" link above is for "Short Ribs in Porter Ale with Maple Rosemary infused Glaze" from the Molly Stevens book.

I've been making my own version of Cheryl Jamison's version of Beef Bourguignon. It uses full strength bacon (Nueske's) instead of salt pork or blanched bacon. Instead of Burgundy, it uses a Languedoc. Also a good dose of armagnac really rounds out the flavor. The smell of this stew cooking will drive you crazy. I made a batch today and served it over buttered egg noodles. Not a classic Beef Burgundy, but the best stew I've ever made.

There is the temptation to use lower quality ingredients in such a hearty stew, but it has been my experience that using the best ingredients I can find make a difference. So I use the good-quality bacon, beef, homemade chicken stock, etc. Perhaps the homemade egg noodles were over the top, but you guys should know me by now.

Bill/SFNM

Jamieson22 wrote:

Bruce wrote:

sazerac wrote:I could have sworn there was a thread in which Bruce (IIRC) (re)posted or quoted a short ribs braised in beer (porter I seem to recall). My searches fail me, help!

Twasn't me. The only recipes for short ribs I have are from Gorumet Magazine. Neither of which call for beer.

First pics in the "Braising Porn" link above is for "Short Ribs in Porter Ale with Maple Rosemary infused Glaze" from the Molly Stevens book.

You're right - I think I saw that egullet thread recently through a link in some other LTH thread.
But... oh oh! Bruce, now I know there is a recipe (IIRC you quoted) and that I need - I just don't know which or where. Help! *

LAZ, it can't be the amazon links - text will get wrapped I think. Besides the link was posted after my post.

Bill, your post inspires a Beef a la Bourguignonne this weekend - it's a dish I adore and haven't had since last year. I use Rene Verdon's version, but with fantastic bacon (and ends) I get here and the armagnac sounds great (though I think I only have cognac, maybe salignac). I'm assuming this goes in when deglacing.

-----
* edited in to avoid further hijack of this thread

Bruce wrote:LAZ has a link to recipes that have been posted on LTH. The one you want is probably in here.

Been there, scoured that. No such luck. It was a recipe you "quoted" from whatever source (maybe BBQ related). Maybe it wasn't even you. Aaaarrrggh! Please check every post of your in the past three months, I'm a little busy putting up white padding on my walls...

sazerac wrote:But... oh oh! Bruce, now I know there is a recipe (IIRC you quoted) and that I need - I just don't know which or where. Help!

There is a recipe in the Zuni cookbook for "short ribs braised in Chimay ale." I think it might have been mentioned here before. Anyway, it's a great recipe that I'd be glad to paraphrase in a PM if you'd like.

Kristen

sazerac wrote:
Bill, your post inspires a Beef a la Bourguignonne this weekend - it's a dish I adore and haven't had since last year. I use Rene Verdon's version, but with fantastic bacon (and ends) I get here and the armagnac sounds great (though I think I only have cognac, maybe salignac). I'm assuming this goes in when deglacing.

The Armagnac is used for deglazing, but at the very end, a big splash of the wine and a few tablespoons of Armagnac are mixed in - really gives a boost!

Bill/SFNM

sazerac wrote:But... oh oh! Bruce, now I know there is a recipe (IIRC you quoted) and that I need - I just don't know which or where. Help!

LAZ has a link to recipes that have been posted on LTH. The one you want is probably in here.

sazerac wrote:LAZ, it can't be the amazon links - text will get wrapped I think. Besides the link was posted after my post.

Jamieson22 had a long Amazon link but edited it after I posted. However, messycook's post is still stretching the topic. If messycook or a moderator edits the link in that one too, the problem will go away.

I fixed it although oddly the Amazon link broke automatically in my browser so it didn't affect it for me.

Thanks, Mike. That fixed it for me. Long links don't wrap with Mozilla.

Sazerac, check out this recipe.

Digging up an oldish thread that has the topic I want (even if I'm not able to fulfill the author's initial preferences - sorry gleam!).

Last Sunday brought us Stockholm's first real blustery autumn storm. I was alone with the kids and what better way to "celebrate" the weather than get a full-on stew bubbling. I didn't use any real recipe although I suppose I had Beef a la Bourguignonne in my thoughts as well as a need to rid the freezer/fridge of a thing or two.

The ingredients:



That's (from upper left) small onions, about 3 pounds of chuck, butter, small mushrooms, a chunk of beef heart, 1/2 of a strolghini sausage, a few cloves of garlic, bay leaves, thyme, a glass of red wine, rich beef stock, an onion and a carrot. I also ended up using about a tablespoon of tomato paste.

I was inspired (once again!) to use the beef heart in the stew after reading a tip from Geo a while back. The sausage is a post in itself really although I don't have any photos. I bought it on a whim when I saw one at my nearest grocery store. Internet searches don't seem to reveal too much about them (although I've probably got the spelling wrong). The first half was made into a tasty faux Spaghetti all'Amatriciana which I probably would have deemed incredible if I wasn't so spoiled with access to truly remarkable guanciale.

Anyhoo...

I prepared the meats by cubing the chuck, slicing the heart and dicing the sausage. I finely diced the garlic, carrot and onion.



Next, I browned the chuck and heart in plenty of oil and in a very hot pot.



I then poured out the used oil (being careful to not disturb the browned bits!), reduced the heat and added the diced sausage and vegetables as well about a tablespoon of butter.



As the vegetables softened, I added about a tablespoon of tomato paste.



After the vegetables had softened and the tomato paste had cooked, I returned the meats to the pot and added the stock and wine...





... as well as the spices:



Everything was brought up to a simmer, the pot was covered and left alone for about the next 3 hours.

Later, I prepared the onions and mushrooms.

Peel the onions and gently saute them in butter.



Add about a cup of stock and cook covered for about 10 minutes.



Remove the lid and let the stock reduce for until thick and syrupy:



Add the mushrooms. Shake and stir often and keep the heat low(ish) to keep the thickened stock from burning.



Set aside until serving.

After about 3 hours, the meat was tender. I removed it before turning the heat up to reduce the cooking liquids. Eventually, I pureed the cooking liquids:



For serving, add the meat as well as the vegetables back to the pot. If desired, thicken with a little beurre manière.



I served with boiled vegetables (the only ones the kids eat...) as well as homemade egg noodles (child labor works wonders with an ancient pasta machine!).



In the end, the stew did actually make the arrival of autumn a little easier to stomach!

For the recipe index (although there really isn't too much original here...):

Ingredients:
1 cup small onions
about 3 pounds of chuck
2 tbls butter
1 cup small mushrooms
a pound of beef heart (optional)
1/2 of a strolghini sausage (optional)
3 cloves of garlic
2 bay leaves
1 tsp thyme
1 cup of red wine
1 quart + 1 cup rich beef stock
1 onion
1 carrot
1 tablespoon of tomato paste

Prepare the meats by cubing the chuck, slicing the heart and dicing the sausage. Finely dice the garlic, carrot and onion.

Next, brown the chuck and heart in plenty of oil and in a very hot pot.

Discard the used oil (being careful to not disturb the browned bits!) and reduce the heat. Add the diced sausage and vegetables as well about a tablespoon of butter. As the vegetables soften, add about a tablespoon of tomato paste.

After the vegetables soften and the tomato paste cooks (about 5 minutes), return the meats to the pot and add the stock and wine as well as the spices.

Bring everything up to a simmer, cover and leave alone for about 3 hours (or until the meat is tender).

Meanwhile, prepare the onions and mushrooms. Start by peeling the onions and gently sauteing them in butter. When lightly browned, add about a cup of stock and cook covered for about 10 minutes. When the onions have softened, remove the lid and let the stock reduce until thick and syrupy. Add the mushrooms and shake and stir often to keep the thickened stock from burning. Set aside until serving.

After about 3 hours, remove the meat from the pot before turning the heat up to reduce the cooking liquids. Optionally, you may puree the cooking liquids.

For serving, add the meat as well as the vegetables back to the pot. If desired, thicken with a little beurre manière.

Serve with vegetable and starch of choice (egg noodles seem perfect).