Young people often ask me what they should make for a big family function, and I tell
them, "Some kind of beef stew, like beef bourguignon, with mashed potatoes." Why? Because both things
are easy and cheap to make in huge quantities, you can do all the work way ahead of time,
and both finished dishes can just sit around for hours until people are ready to eat and
nothing will degrade in quality. It doesn't matter if somebody is late, you don't have
to rush people to the table at just the right minute. People can eat whenever they want,
they can serve themselves, and everybody loves it — at least everybody who eats beef.
This particular recipe does a few unorthodox things designed to make your life even easier
if you are cooking for a big occasion. And I think the result tastes way more difficult
and expensive than it is. Start on either the day before or the morning of your feast.
First thing, I'll put a big, deep roasting pan in my oven and turn on the broiler/grill
— the top element. If you don't have a broiler, just turn your oven on full blast and let
the pan get real hot while you cut up your meat.
If you can get it, may favorite beef stew cut is boneless short rib. This must be a
byproduct of some other cut my grocery store does because they're not very expensive and
it braises better than any other cut I know. Tons of fat marbling, tons of flavor. I won't
cut those up at all — those are perfect-sized chunks as it.
But considerably cheaper and far more common is a big, thick beef chuck roast. Shoulder
meat — the classic beef stew cut.
For an easy stew, I think you want to start by trimming out the inter-muscular fat — the
thick bands of solid white fat running between the four or five distinct muscles that make
up this cut. I just try to follow the fat with my knife, separate those different muscles,
trimming out the fat as I go. Sometimes you can literally just pull the muscles apart
along the seam and then you just shave off the fat and gristle on either side.
If you take a little time now to trim out the big fat hunks, the pieces themselves will
be more palatable and you won't have to skim fat off the sauce later. It's easier to get
it out now. The intramuscular fat, we want to keep — the fine white flecks inside the
muscles. That's delicious and it won't all melt out into the sauce. As you can see, I'm
cutting this into huge chunks. I want big, hearty chunks in the end — the meat will
shrink in half, at least, over the course of the cooking.
Post-trimming, I've got about four pounds of meat there — a little less than two kilos.
That should feed at least eight people, with all the vegetables and potatoes. And I will
season it with salt and pepper and then coat the pieces lightly in oil. According to my
experiments it makes no difference whether you season the meat now or season the braising
liquid later. The meat will absorb the salt no matter what over the hours in which it
is braising.
However, this is going to be a huge stew and I have trouble eyeballing my seasoning with
quantities that big. Therefore, I am simply using the raw, dry beef chunks as a visual
guide. It's just gonna help me eyeball how much seasoning I need. When it doubt, be conservative,
because we can always add more to the sauce at the end when we can taste it.
At the oven, my roasting pan is rocket hot and I will simply dump in my meat. It should
sizzle on contact, and I will try to spread the chunks into an even layer. The oil will
help it brown from the bottom and from the top under the heat of the broiler.
In my tests, the broiler has done a better job of browning meat quickly than your normal
roasting or baking settings. I don't think any oven setting browns meat as well as you
can by frying it off on the stovetop. But if we do it in the oven we can do it all in
one batch, the splatter and the smell is more contained, and we only have to heat up one
appliance, not two. Plus we're gonna brown this some more at the very end — you'll
see.
Here we are after 10 minutes, and I don't want to take much longer browning these. If
I give these high heat for too long, the inside of the meat will cook and go gray. I want
it to stay pink to the end. So now, for flavor and thickening, I'm stirring in enough flour
to coat all the meat. It ended up being about half a cup of flour. Mixed with the rendered
fat in there, this is a crude but effective way of making a roux. And for flavor I need
to let that flour brown a bit, so back the pan goes under the broiler.
Five minutes later I can see and smell that flour browning. So I'll reach in and squeeze
on some tomato paste. I want that to brown a little too, for flavor and color. But it
tends to burn real fast, so three minutes later, I'm calling that good enough. At this
point I can turn my broiler off. I'm done with it.
I'm not calling this beef bourguignon because I don't want any trouble with the people who
gate-keep that term, but I am using red wine, about a third of the way up the side of the
meat. I'll braise beef in straight white wine, but I think red wine tends to be too strong
and bitter in the end if you don't cut it with water or stock. Water or stock until
there's liquid coming two-thirds of the way up the side of the meat. By the time the beef
and vegetables release their water, we'll have just enough liquid in there for a thick
stew.
I think this is optional, but any source of concentrated umami could give you a boost.
I'm throwing in some Worcestershire but you could use some soy sauce or even fish sauce,
MSG, a handful of dried mushrooms, whatever. You could also just throw in a stock cube
or two. Don't forget these are very salty, but by the time we add in our vegetables it
shouldn't be too much salt.
I'll just stir all that up. I think the quantity of meat you cook with this recipe is determined
by the size of your roasting pan. You can cook as many very large chunks as you can
get to lie in a single layer in your pan. This is a 9x13-inch pan, 23-33 cm, but you
could do even more beef with a bigger pan. I will cover it in foil, tightly, to trap
steam, and in it goes to the oven at 275ºF/135ºC. According my experiments, that is the highest
temperature you can use while still being sure your that meat will be very pink inside
at the end.
You can simply forget about this now for at least four hours. It will need no babysitting.
Between the low temperature and the foil, hardly any water will evaporate and that will
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Oh hey, this is very optional, but as soon as I've got my beef braising I'll grab a whole
head of garlic and slice off the tippy top of each clove — I want to open up a little
escape hatch for each clove. Then I'll coat this in oil, wrap it in foil and throw it
in the oven to slow-roast. That's gonna be for my potatoes, and at such low temperature
it should take as long as the beef takes.
While my beef is braising I can prep my vegetables at a leisurely pace. I've got a pound of carrots.
I like to peel them but you don't have to. And one advantage of not peeling them is that
if they get overcooked, the peel kinda holds the piece together. So there's pros and cons
either way. But I'd suggest big hearty pieces because they look cool, especially when you
cut them at an angle, plus big pieces are less likely to go mushy.
I'ma do a couple stalks of celery today. Celery is controversial in my house but I love it,
and it's particularly good for the flavor that it contributes to the sauce. If you want
that flavor without the chunks of celery, just use some celery seed. I've also got a
handful of garlic here that I will smash and peel. Lately I've been putting smashed whole
cloves into my stews. They're super sweet by the time you're done cooking them and they're
good to eat whole.
Alright, my beef has been in for four hours and it's almost as soft as I want it. I can
poke it easily with a fork. Now is a very safe time to put in the vegetables. There's
really no danger that I'll reach a point where my vegetables are tender but the meat still
needs way more time.
You could throw in any kind of onion but today I'm reaching for a frozen bag of pre-peeled
pearl onions. These are classic in beef stew for a reason. They hold their shape and make
delicious little juicy morsels when coated in sauce. No need to thaw them first. I'm
just gently patting those in because I don't want to risk breaking up my beef chunks. And
if it seems like now there isn't enough liquid in here, that is good, because tons of water
is gonna come pouring out of this veg as it cooks. I'll just cover that up, and throw
it back in for an hour or two until the veg is tender as I want it.
Meanwhile I can do my potatoes. I've got about five pounds of potatoes, a little bit more
than two kilos. And for mash I often like a mixture of waxy potatoes and mealy/floury
potatoes. More often they're called baking potatoes here in the States, and their skins
are disgusting when boiled — like wet paper bag. I will definitely peel these before cutting
into big chunks for even and rapid cooking. These red, waxy potatoes I will not peel.
Their skins are much thinner — the texture is unobtrusive in the mash and I think they
make it look real pretty.
In that goes to a big pot, cover with water, bring to a boil and cook until you can very
easily pierce the pieces with a fork. It's also a good sign if you see the skins starting
to peel off by themselves. These took 20 minutes, and I'll just drain them through the pot lid.
Colanders take up way too much space in the dishwasher.
You could just hold these as-is for awhile, or finish up the mash now by throwing in just
enough butter to make you feel shame. Yes, that's a whole pound, 454g, but you could
use less. And I'll throw in a little splash of milk to start with. I can always add more
but I can't take it out. Same deal with the salt — just one big pinch for now, especially
considering that's salted butter I've got in there. A bunch of pepper, and I'll just
cover this for a sec while the butter melts in the residual heat. My burner is off.
Now you could mash this however you like. Personally I like whipped potatoes and this
is an especially easy method when you're making a very large quantity of potatoes.
Give that a taste. Needs more salt. And here is my head of garlic that's been slow-roasting
in the oven all day. Since I snipped off the tops of the cloves, I can just squeeze this
like toothpaste in there and now I've got this insanely strong, sweet flavor permeating
my mash. Optional but very nice. If you want your mash to be thinner, loosen it up with
a little more milk. Keep in mind it'll be a little stiffer when it cools to eating temperature.
And now that's done. Personally I prefer egg noodles with beef stew, but cooked noodles
get mushy if they sit around for too long. That mash will remain perfect all day. Just
turn the burner on low underneath it to warm it up.
Ok, I'm going to use an additional thickener in my beef stew and that will be unflavored
gelatin. This replicates the sticky, glossy sauce texture they get in a French restaurant
by using demi-glacé, which is traditionally made by simmering roasted veal bones all day.
This stuff is made from lord-knows-what animals, maybe pigs. If that bothers you, look for
kosher or halal gelatin. I've got two quarter-ounce packets in there, 14g. And I will bloom those
in just enough cold water to get it dissolved.
You can skip this step. I often just scatter gelatin right into hot sauce. It'll clump
in hot liquid, and you can stir the clumps until they dissolve. But my beef is so soft,
I do not want to risk breaking it up as I stir in my gelatin, hence why I bloomed it
first. This now will not clump and will require hardly any stirring.
My stew has been cooking for about six hours total. I can taste my veg and it's perfectly
tender to my liking, but if you want it softer, cook it some more. I'll taste the sauce, because
this is my last chance to make any adjustments. I will never stir this again. A ton of pepper,
some more salt. Remember the sauce needs to be salty enough to season all these vegetables,
so I want the sauce a little too salty on its own. I think it could use some brightening
and maybe some sweetening — both can be provided by a little balsamic vinegar. If
you don't want to use any wine at all, just use water or stock and maybe double this amount
of balsamic at the end. You'll get a similar effect. Balsamic is basically wine concentrate,
as far as cooking is concerned.
Lastly I'll just deposit my bloomed gelatin in dollops so that I don't have to stir it
very much to get it evenly distributed. The beef chunks are jelly-soft at this point,
which is delicious, but if you smash them around they're gonna shred into string. So
rather than stirring, I'm kinda folding or turning this. I find a big spatula is the
best tool for sliding under the pieces and gently turning them over. Just get the gelatin
and all the veg and everything evenly worked through the sauce.
You might ask why not put the gelatin in at the beginning? Well, because gelatin breaks
down in heat over time. A few minutes of boiling does not matter, but a whole day of cooking
could make a difference. It might loose some of its thickening power.
And because we were conservative about the amount of liquid we introduced in here, we
do not have to fish all the beef out so we can reduce down the sauce. It's already reduced
and concentrated. And since we trimmed the fat out of the meat at the beginning, we don't
have to skim grease off of this sauce or run it through a gravy separator. Though you could
now throw this in the refrigerator until tomorrow, just to hold it. And then you could pick off
any solid bits of cold fat that settle on the top.
Regardless, whenever you're about ready to eat, you can do the final step, which is to
turn the broiler back on — that top element. This will reheat the stew and brown the top.
This gets you outrageous flavor and a nice crispy texture on some of the meat and veg
surface that will contrast beautifully with the soft texture of everything that's below
the waterline — heterogeneity!
Keep an eye on it so nothing burns — I took mine out after about 15 minutes. Let it cook
to eating temperature and the sauce will thicken up even more. Hey, that's a two-pan dinner.
If either dish gets too cold before you actually eat, just turn the burners on low underneath
them. It'll be like a chaffing dish on a buffet line. You could serve this buffet style.
People can just spoon on some mash, take whatever chunks they like. If they hate celery, they
can leave it behind. Make sure to give them a serving spoon that is not slotted, so they
can spoon over some extra sauce. And I'd give them some fresh herbs to scatter on. Any herbs
could work but I'm reaching for the leaves from the celery I used — it's one of my
favorite finishing herbs.
And there you go. It's a day of work, but it's easy work. Most of the cooking is totally
passive. You've got a ton of very fancy food for very little money, and very little stress
because serving this is not time sensitive. You're not hustling people to the table, being
like, "You must eat NOW before the crepes go mushy (or whatever) and then you won't
be IMPRESSED by me," because everybody knows that's the real goal, not — like — making
other people happy, or something.
If you want a stew that's a little fancier and more chefy, might I suggest the beef bourguignon
recipe recently posted by Brian Lagerstrom. It's linked in the description. I don't usually
watch other food YouTubers because it just psychs me out, but I watch Brian sometimes
and his bourguignon recipe inspired me to come up with this stew. I wanted to see if
I could make something similar but even easier. His stew is pretty easy too. Make his or mine
and treat you friends and family to the kind of feast they actually want.