Add hearty stew to fall cookbook

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By Will Wright

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With changing leaves and falling temperatures come comfort foods and crock pots. It’s the season for pot pies, stews and hearty vegetable soups.

This stew recipe, courtesy of a Kernel editor’s mother, will fill your kitchen with aromas to make your mouth water. It’s easy, cheap, and will feed you and your roommates for a week.

The best part: cooks can their own flare to make this stew their own. Use this recipe as a guide, but cooking is all about creativity. Add your favorite vegetables, spices and meats to make this recipe something special. Don’t be afraid to try new things.

Classic Stew

Ingredients:

1 – 2 pounds meat, cubed

Salt, black pepper

Vegetable or olive oil

Beer or red wine (optional)

1/2 – 1 Onion (depending upon how much meat you have)

1 – 2 cloves garlic, minced

1 can diced tomatoes or equivalent amount of fresh tomatoes.

1 – 2 boxes of beef stock

3 cups cut up potatoes or parsnips

3 – 4 medium carrots cut in chunks

Frozen or canned corn, peas or green beans

2 Tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce

Stove top directions:

Heat about 2 tablespoons of vegetable or olive oil in pan to medium high heat.

In large, deep pot, brown meat on all sides for about 5 minutes. You can put flour on the meat before you put it in the pan so that the flour incorporates and will allow thickening.

Add onions and sauté for about three minutes so onions soften.

Add garlic and cook for about 30 seconds to 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Add beef stock and tomatoes, vegetables and Worcestershire sauce.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for about an hour.  Thicken with flour or cornstarch. When you add flour or cornstarch, stir constantly to avoid lumps.

Crock pot directions:

Some people like to have the meat browned before it goes into the crock pot. If you do that, then take the meat out of the pan and deglaze the pan with a little bit of stock so that you get the browned bits from the bottom of the pan and put them into the crockpot.

Put all ingredients in crock pot, put on high for four hours or on low for eight hours.

Adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Thicken with flour or cornstarch.