Beef Stew staples

A_Sober_Paddy

So with it being winter, I wanna try a beef stew, without using alcohol...

In my head I have

Beef
Oil
Carrots
Onions
Celery
Parsnips
Potatoes
Stock
Bay leaf
Rosemary
Thyme

Is that all that's needed

In the back of my head I'm thinking
Balsamic vinegar
Worcestershire sauce
Too are used...

Its being cooked in a slow cooker, with stewing beef

Any help feedback would be great

Carawaystick

Salt/pepper/seasoning
Flour for browning the meat
Some barley

refusetolose

use plenty thyme

A_Sober_Paddy

Is rosemary correct with beef tho?

refusetolose

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

Is rosemary correct with beef tho?

id leave it out

less is more

you've way too much ingredients imo

The Hill Billy

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

Is rosemary correct with beef tho?

That'd be a matter of personal taste really. I wouldn't use it in a beef stew myself. Likewise, I only use barley in chicken stews & I don't fancy parsnips in any stews. But that's just me.

Maglight

A tin of tomatoes adds nice depth to the sauce. I can take or leave Rosemary. Why no alcohol out of interest? The alcohol cooks off, so it's just the flavor it imparts.

A_Sober_Paddy

Maglight wrote: »

A tin of tomatoes adds nice depth to the sauce. I can take or leave Rosemary. Why no alcohol out of interest? The alcohol cooks off, so it's just the flavor it imparts.

Alcohol cooking off is a myth, your'd have to have the stew on the verge of boiling for 10 hours or something to boil off the alcohol in a typical stew... The lad who told me has a masters in chemistry. Also no alcohol allowed in the gaff at the momemt for numerous reasons

Any feedback on balsamic vinegar and/or Worcestershire sauce?

duploelabs

Maglight wrote: »

A tin of tomatoes adds nice depth to the sauce. I can take or leave Rosemary. Why no alcohol out of interest? The alcohol cooks off, so it's just the flavor it imparts.

It's a myth that alcohol cooks off. Brown the meat off in small batches, otherwise if you out it all in the pan together it will lower the temp of the saucepan and you will not get a nice browning on the meat. +1 to the tin off tomatoes, also add a star anise (fish it out before serving), the flavour of it won't to tasted but the aniseed will be an accent flavour to enhance to beefyness of the stew

duploelabs

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

Alcohol cooking off is a myth, your'd have to have the stew on the verge of boiling for 10 hours or something to boil off the alcohol in a typical stew... The lad who told me has a masters in chemistry. Also no alcohol allowed in the gaff at the momemt for numerous reasons

Any feedback on balsamic vinegar and/or Worcestershire sauce?

A bit of Worcestershire sauce will be lovely, a touch of fish sauce too will be good. Watch out for the balsamic as it might make it too acidic

kylith

I'd chuck a bay leaf in too

A_Sober_Paddy

kylith wrote: »

I'd chuck a bay leaf in too

Already included in my original list

Poco90

I add a good squeeze of ketchup and a small bit of English mustard at the very end of cooking. Sounds strange but it really rounds it off.

L1011

I use tomato puree and balsamic vinegar whereas my partner would use ketchup to replace both. Find it very odd without some tomato element and the vinegar feels needed too.

Mystery Egg

If I was making a beef stew without red wine or beer I would do the following:

Fry off a packet of smoked lardons. Set the bacon aside and in the remaining fat, fry off some finely diced carrot, onion and celery. Set aside.

Coat some stewing beef (shin is nice if you can get it) in flour with salt and pepper added. Fry in butter until browned.

Add back in the bacon and veg, and add any other chunky stew veg that you'd like at this point - carrots, parsnips etc.

Make up some beef stock, at least a pint and more if you want plenty of gravy. Add to the meat and veg, and stir in a tablespoon or two of tomato puree, crumble in two bay leaves, season with salt, pepper and a 1/4 teaspoon of thyme. At this point you can also add some worcestershire sauce too if you fancy.

Stir well and leave in the oven or on low on the hob for 2.5 hours or until the meat is very tender.

In a separate pan, fry off a packet or two of mushrooms, and stir these in a few minutes before serving.

Serve with mash, green veg and some crusty bread.

mahamageehad

No garlic? I've also added a spoon of mustard on occasion.

Mystery Egg

mahamageehad wrote: »

No garlic? I've also added a spoon of mustard on occasion.

Good catch. I would usually throw in some garlic at the 'simmer' stage too.

Lissavane

Mystery Egg wrote: »

If I was making a beef stew without red wine or beer I would do the following:

Fry off a packet of smoked lardons. Set the bacon aside and in the remaining fat, fry off some finely diced carrot, onion and celery. Set aside.

Coat some stewing beef (shin is nice if you can get it) in flour with salt and pepper added. Fry in butter until browned.

Add back in the bacon and veg, and add any other chunky stew veg that you'd like at this point - carrots, parsnips etc.

Make up some beef stock, at least a pint and more if you want plenty of gravy. Add to the meat and veg, and stir in a tablespoon or two of tomato puree, crumble in two bay leaves, season with salt, pepper and a 1/4 teaspoon of thyme. At this point you can also add some worcestershire sauce too if you fancy.

Stir well and leave in the oven or on low on the hob for 2.5 hours or until the meat is very tender.

In a separate pan, fry off a packet or two of mushrooms, and stir these in a few minutes before serving.

Serve with mash, green veg and some crusty bread.

OP wants to use a slow cooker. I'd have thought there might be too much liquid in this recipe but then, you don't specify quantities for main ingredients other than stock.

Dizzyblonde

In the slow cooker I use a pint of stock, and add a handful of barley. This gives a nice thick gravy. If you like your stew thinner then I'd advise using one and a half pints of stock.

littlemsbland

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

So with it being winter, I wanna try a beef stew, without using alcohol...

In my head I have

Beef
Oil
Carrots
Onions
Celery
Parsnips
Potatoes
Stock
Bay leaf
Rosemary
Thyme

Is that all that's needed

In the back of my head I'm thinking
Balsamic vinegar
Worcestershire sauce
Too are used...

Its being cooked in a slow cooker, with stewing beef

Any help feedback would be great

I made a gorgeous stew the other day with just beef (chuck steak), onions, a whole punnet of mushrooms and beer. But it would have been gorgeous without the beer. Stock would have done. I just halved the mushrooms, even leaving the smaller ones whole, and they took on the gorgeous meatiness of the sauce. 14 hours in the slow cooker...

Marcusm

Burn the hell out of the meat, use Worcestershire sauce. Add a dessert spoon of tomato purée. Don't but some random "stewing steak", ensure that there is plenty of connective tissue - not simply fat but connective tissue, tendons, ligaments etc.

Tarzana2

A bit of red wine is lovely. Add it to the sweated veg and reduce a bit before adding the stock. Worcestershire sauce added at the end is luverly too.

I'd never add tomato in any form to beef stew. Tomato touches so many of my dishes that this is one I'm happy to do without.

This may be controversial but I find very little benefit to browning the meat before stewing. I used to always, with or without flour, but once I was feeling lazy and didn't bother and added it to the sweated veg at the stock-adding stage. The meat was just as flavoursome and tender and succulent. If anything, the meat was more tender than if I'd browned it. Now I never bother. The extra step of browning doesn't pay off enough in flavour to be
worth the hassle, IMO, so I've excised it from my stew prep.

Marcusm wrote: »

Burn the hell out of the meat, use Worcestershire sauce. Add a dessert spoon of tomato purée. Don't but some random "stewing steak", ensure that there is plenty of connective tissue - not simply fat but connective tissue, tendons, ligaments etc.

+1, once I used stewing steak that once cooked, was tender for sure but also had a highly unpleasant cardboardy, papery texture. Yuck.