All mums need to know how to make a basic stew, and to dress it up or dress it down according to the ingredients at hand. Freeze to have ready meals on tap. A stew is one of the easiest ways to include veggies in our diet. Just about any vegetable may be added into a stew recipe.
Serves 4 – 6
Ingredients:
- 1 kg boneless lamb, beef or pork, cut into 25 mm cubes
- 30 ml cooking oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 7 ml salt
- Freshly-ground black pepper to taste
- 30 ml cake flour
- 400 – 500 ml hot meat stock
Method:
- Brown the meat in batches in heated cooking oil over a moderately high the temperature on the hob.
- Remove the meat from the saucepan once browned, and repeat with the next batch. Be careful not to overload the saucepan, otherwise, the grey liquid will seep out of the meat and it will not brown; it will simply stew.
- Add the onion to the saucepan and sauté until translucent.
- Return the meat cubes to the pan; add salt, pepper and flour. Stir to coat well.
- Pour in the heated meat stock, and stir to combine.
- Cover the saucepan with a lid, and allow to simmer gently until tender. Do checkfrom time to time that the liquid has not evaporated. If needed, add more heated water, not stock.
- Lamb and beef will take approximately 1½ – 2 hours; pork will take approximately 45 minutes – 1 hour.
Variations:
• Add vegetables such as green beans, mushrooms, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, celery, cauliflower, baby marrows, patty pans, leeks, tomatoes, green or red peppers, asparagus, broccoli, brinjals or spinach. These are all fairly quick-cooking vegetables, so should be added about 20 minutes before
the end of the cooking process. Cut into neat pieces; not too small. Allow 200 – 250 ml of vegetables per person. You may need to increase the liquid in the stew; do not add more stock. This will make it too salty and concentrated; rather add hot water.
Basic Stew Recipe
• Other vegetables, such as fresh or frozen peas, carrots, butternut or pumpkin, beetroot,
add 30 minutes before the end of the cooking process.
• Dried fruit gives an interesting flavour to stews; 120 g will be enough for 4 portions. Add in 5 ml ground cinnamon or 2 cinnamon sticks, 1 ml ground cloves and 30 ml wine vinegar.
• Add dumplings for extra depth of flavour, and to bulk up a recipe.
• A bouquet garni of fresh parsley, basil, rosemary, origanum and bay leaves, will convert a basic stew into something special.
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