Friday, November 22, 2002

 

Beef Stew

I took advantage of some off-time yesterday and made some good, hearty beef stew. Yeah, yeah, I used the McCormick Beef Stew mix. Not my personal choice, but Mom and Dad wanted it that way. The siblings refuse to eat most anything beyond taco salad, chicken fingers, and fast food anymore, so I don't even bother with them.

Anyway, the main lesson learned here was to never, ever, ever underestimate seasoning. It was pretty bland (particularly the veggies) until I threw some more pepper and salt into my bowl. Another lesson learned here was that Kosher salt doesn't really work all that well with soups / stews. Regular old table salt worked like magic. I'm starting to think that Kosher salt is for pre-seasoning, while table salt is for post-cooking seasoning. That would tend to make sense, no?

At any rate, I took advantage of the Maillard reaction and browned the beef pretty well before any water became involved in the cooking process. Browning is good. The veggies, however ... well, the carrots were OK (man, my new knife cuts through them like no tomorrow), the corn and peas were standard, but the potatoes were anything but good. They were somewhat green beneath the peel (not good), and I probably should have given them a hefty doese of seasoning before I added them to the liquid.

My main concern here is how to create a good stew from scratch. Would I want to use beef stock or broth? What sort of herbs / spices would I throw into the liquid to generate a good effect? Salt and pepper, for certain, but perhaps paprika? A shred or two of the cookie spices? Parsely, sage, rosemary, thyme? Simon & Garfunkel?

Experimentation may be in order ... until then ...

posted by Eric 4:31 PM