Happy New Year! In light of the fact that my first two blog posts were fairly specific to Saranac Lake, I wanted to write a post that could be useful to friends outside of the Blue Line as well. So I figured that a quick recipe would suffice. By the way, I am glad to give anyone who would like it, recipe help and tips for success in your meal preparation. So feel free to send me your requests, and we will address them here.
Since it is the middle of winter here in the 'Dacks, I figured that a recipe for a crock pot stew would be perfect. For those of you who want to get an early start to enjoying the great outdoors, this recipe will let you come home to a hearty satisfying meal at the end of the day. Pick up a crusty bread on the way home, and you are all set.
I enjoy lamb or goat meat in this recipe, but you can substitute venison or beef if you wish.
Hearty meat stew
Serves 6
Ingredients:
2 lbs cubed stew meat of choice
1/2 stick butter
6 small onions
6-8 carrots
1 rutabega
3 stalks celery
1 medium can whole tomatoes in juice
4 cloves garlic
8 small potatoes
1 gallon water
1 cup flour
sea salt and black pepper to taste
Preparation:
- In a cast iron skillet or thick bottom fry pan, brown the meat cubes on medium heat in the butter.
- When browned on all sides, put the meat into a large crock pot or stock pot.
- Peel the vegetables and cut into large pieces.
- Put the vegetables in the crock pot, with the garlic(minced) and tomatoes.
- Pour the water into the pan that you browned the meat in, and bring to a simmer, scraping the browned bits loose that are stuck to the bottom of the pan.
- Pour the liquid into the crock pot and cover. Turn on the crock pot to the lowest setting.
- Go out and have a great day, knowing that in about 6-8 hours your stew will be done.
- When you get home, you will be greeted with a house that smells incredible!
- To finish, mix a slurry of the flour and cold water to the consistency of smooth heavy cream.
- Pour this slurry into the hot stew and stir to thicken. Let the stew cook an additional 15 minutes and serve in a bowl with crusty bread. Don't forget to season with salt and pepper to taste before serving!
Looks like a great winter rib-warming recipe! I am wondering if beef heart could be used in a stew like this. We have had a beef heart in the freezer for over a year and have no clue what to do with it! Does it make good stew or do you have any other suggestions?
ReplyDeleteJosh in SL
Beef heart would work very nicely. Just be sure to cook it long enough to achieve tenderness. Also, if you marinate the cubed heart
ReplyDeletein red wine overnight, it will be a bit richer. Let me know your results Josh!
So it turns out one of our friends had a meat grinder attachment for his Kitchenaid, so we decided to make heart burgers instead! Yes I know, not very wintery, but we couldn't resist. The first round we added a chunk of side pork to the mix because the heart was very lean - almost no fat whatsoever. These burgers held up pretty well being pan fried, but we had to cook them a little longer than we would have liked to keep them from falling apart. The second round we added the sidepork, but also cracked an egg in there and a few breadcrumbs as well. The burgers were about halfway to meatloaf but delicious! File under "summer recipes"...
ReplyDelete