Stew Recipes

Next to soup, stew is a comfort dish in the cold of winter and rainy days. Best served steaming hot in a bowl, the stew is a long, slow simmered dish that nourishes both soul and stomach. Mothers and grandmothers make it as a main dish for lunch or dinner, their stews sometimes never needing a written recipe for its filed away in their culinary memories and produced out of ingredients on hand. A pot of stew simmering away and enveloping the kitchen with its savory, meaty vapors makes the home a delicious place to come home to.

A stew is “a dish of meat and vegetables cooked slowly in liquid in a closed dish or pan,” as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary. Cooks since the ancient times have been making various kinds of stew. In “A History of Stew” in the Food Reference website, various recipes had been published in old cookbooks—from the Roman Apicius’ cookery book to the French chef Taillevent and Herodotus. The making of cooking pots eased the making of stews.

To the French, the stew is called ragout derived from the word ragoûter, which means "to revive the taste,” as described by its Wikipedia entry. Stews vary according to the meat used and its accompanying ingredients. Examples listed by the Food Reference website include the paprika-inflected Hungarian goulash, the coq au vin, beef stroganoff, and Boeuf Bourguignonne, the stew that chef and author Julia Child popularized in her book and show.

The elements of stew involve the meat, vegetables and cooking liquid. Some of the meat cuts used in stewing includes round steak, chuck, chuck roast, bottom round roast, top round, pot roast and those labelled “stew meat.” You can buy the meats already pre-cut into cubes or you can do the slicing yourself.

Beef Stew With Peas Recipe

Ingredients

28 3/4 oz. beef stew meat
5/6 cup cold water
1 large chopped onion
4 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 slice carrot
1 small turnip, sliced
2 medium potatoes
2 cups split peas

Preparation Instructions:

1 Season the chopped beef meat with salt and pepper. Set aside.

2 In a saucepan, heat the oil. Dredge the beef in some flour. Add the beef to the pan, cooking every side until browned. Add the water and cook for 2-3 hours.

3 Fill a separate saucepan with water, add the peas, and cover. Bring to a boil.

4 Keep the meat covered with water and, when half-done, add the vegetables, cut fine, and the seasonings. Remove the meat and place in a serving platter.

5 Rub the peas through a puree strainer and, after removing the fat from the meat liquid, add the peas to the latter. Serve hot.