IN the chilly final years of the last ice age, hunting communities in Japan may have served up warm fish stews of salmon and shellfish for dinner, experts say, from proof of charred scrapings from clay pots dating back to the Jomon period 15,000 years ago.
Tender, juicy, and flavourful stew is something that tastes like home. Usually made to share with family, something magical happens when simple ingredients are given the time to slowly come alive into a hearty, warming dish.
That’s why unfussy, reliable recipes like stews are worth mastering. Once you understand the sequence and the golden rule of going low and slow, you’ll have the perfect foundation to build your own recipes on.
The meat of the stew
The secret to a good beef stew? Buying cheap cuts of meat! When it comes to beef stew, tender cuts will turn out chewy and tough after slow-cooking for a long time, but tougher, less-expensive cuts like the chuck make better meat for stew.
That’s because tougher cuts are well-worked muscles with lots of collagen-rich connective tissue. Connective tissues melt into the meat and release gelatin, giving everything a moister, nicer body, and a rich mouthfeel.
Besides beef, you can also use lamb, poultry, sausages, and seafood. Recommended cuts of lamb include scrag ends, neck of lamb, and shoulder, while thighs are recommended for poultry-based stews. In a luscious seafood stew, calamari is cooked slowly until it becomes super tender, and the fish, shrimp, and mussels are added towards the end of the cooking session to not overcook them.
Cooking under the influence
When used properly, alcohol improves your food because it bonds with both the fat and water molecules, which allows it to carry aromas and flavour. Using alcohol in your stew can generate new aromas and a greater depth of flavour.
In terms of the types of alcohol to use, feel free to use the cheaper red wines or white wines. Pinot Grigio is a classic light and refreshing white wine that is a good all-purpose cooking wine because it has the perfect amount of sweetness and acidity, lending an excellent layer of aroma and flavour to the dishes.
For red wine, it gives off a meaty, dark, strong flavour when cooked, but since red wines have a lot more tannins, they can get bitter and astringent when you cook them too much, so just be careful with that.
If you don’t have any wine at home, beer will do too as they can add a rich, earthy flavour to stews. Stout and wheat beers will do, but India pale ales can be too bitter for cooking.
The method
When choosing a pot to cook the stew in, choose a heavy-bottomed pot with a lid. A heavy bottom allows heat to accumulate in the metal, making it hold the temperature after the food is added and it also makes for even browning.
To start, always season your meat and vegetables before sauteing them until they are browned. Browning is a cooking method where food is partially cooked on high heat until the surface of the ingredient gets cooked. It also removes excess fat that meat might have and gives helps create a thick flavourful crust to form on all sides of the ingredient.
Before sauteing the ingredients, make sure they are relatively dry. You can do that by towel drying them, or dredging them lightly in flour. The flour will also help to thicken a stew as it cooks. When browning the ingredients, make sure not to crowd the pan. Try to have a single layer of ingredients in the pan, even if it means sauteing two batches.
The basic vegetables typically used in stews include onions, celery, potatoes, and carrots. Add them and brown them first, then you’ll want to add your garlic, herbs, spices, and tomato paste a little after so they don’t burn. Common herbs and spices used are parsley, thyme, and bay leaf.
To deglaze, add your liquid of choice to the pot. Deglazing is the act of adding liquid to a hot pan, which allows all of the caramelized brown bits stuck to the bottom to release.
You can use water, stock, canned tomatoes, wine, cider, stout or beer, or a combination of a couple of those liquids, and that creates a sauce base. Gently scrape the bottom of the pot as this will help prevent burning the bottom and gives you the extra flavour.
After that, all you need to do is let time do its magic. When the liquid starts to boil, turn down the heat, cover it, and let it simmer very gently on the stove until you can slip a sharp knife into the centre of each ingredient without any resistance.
The timing of different stews varies according to the amount of meat and types of meat you use. Truth is, cooking is an art and there aren’t always hard and fast rules to it. Once you’ve mastered the technique and idea of making a stew, feel free to experiment and see what type of flavours excite and warm your heart the most.