Mod R: They want recipes for everything.
Me: O_o.
Beer Stew
The key to beer stew is, well, beer. I found that Mexican lagers and Belgian ales tend to work well. I made my last batch with Corona Extra. Don’t put IPA into this. It’s way too bitter, and the stew will be inedible. Just a good beer that you actually like to drink. Some people like Guinness, although that is not our preferred beer brand.
This makes a big pot of stew. You will be eating it for 3 days. I’m going to write out the full fancy recipe and then show you the shortcuts you can take.
- 1 chuck roast cut up (usually cheaper than precut stew meat)
- 2-3 pounds of potatoes. I usually grab whatever young potatoes I can, like this bag from Sams. I used about half of it
- Mushrooms, 16 ounces
- 1 bottle of beer
- 1 can of corn or 1 cup of frozen corn
- 1 medium onion
- 2 large carrots
- 2 stalks of celery
- 2-3 bay leaves
- Worcestershire to taste
- Soy sauce to taste
- Italian Seasoning
- 1 packet of Au Jus
- Montreal steak seasoning. If you are in Texas, it’s apparently Texas steak seasoning. This seasoning contains dehydrated onion, garlic, salt, and a lot of pepper.
Wash and cut up mushrooms. We prefer large chunks of mushrooms, so small mushrooms go in whole and larger mushrooms get cut in 2 or 3 chunks. If you prefer tiny slivers of mushrooms, you could just buy cut up ones and save yourself the chopping.
If you like vegetables in your stew, cut carrots and celery into bite size pieces. Peel onion. We are going to cook it whole and then toss it. If you love onion, you can cut it up in there, but none of us do.
Gordon hates mushy carrots, so when I cook it, everything goes in whole and then is removed and thrown out before the potatoes are added. Technically, you don’t need the vegetables. You can go to dry spices and add onion powder and garlic powder instead. You can also buy vegetable broth and add some of that in there. It will be equally delicious.
This is great in a Dutch oven, but any large pot suitable for searing meat will do.
Heat your pot on the stove, add half of the meat, and let it sear. It needs to brown up. Stir, sear on the other side. Remove to a bowl. Add the second half of meat. Repeat.
Put the meat back in and liberally season with steak seasoning. Stir and let cook for a minute or two. Dump a bottle of beer into the pot. It will foam up and deglaze the bottom.
Add Italian herbs. Stir.
Throw in the mushrooms. Stir.
Throw in the vegetables. Stir.
Add bay leaf.
Stir the contents of the Au Jus packet with a cup of cold water. Pour that in.
Add enough water to cover the ingredients with about an inch of liquid. Pour a bit of soy sauce in, about 2 tablespoons or so and about the same amount of Worcestershire. Soy sauce adds salt and Worcestershire adds acid. If you are unsure, hold off on this step until after the potatoes are done.
Cover and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down. We’re going to simmer this for 1 hour. More is better. While it’s simmering, we are going to cut our potatoes into bite-sized pieces. The rule is, it must fit into a spoon comfortably. Store cut up potatoes in a pot of water until ready to use so they don’t oxidize.
After 1 hour, we are going to open the pot. If you are keeping the veggies, skip the next step. If you are not a fan of soggy celery, etc, fish all of that out and throw away. We are going to add a can of corn (drained) and our cut up potatoes (drained.) Stir. Cover and cook for another 30-45 minutes.
Now we are going to taste the broth. If it needs a touch more acid, add a bit of Worcestershire. If it needs a bit of salt, you can go with a bit of soy sauce or just plain salt.
Once you are satisfied with the taste, you have two options. You can allow the stew to cook down by turning the heat up and letting it boil uncovered until it thickens, which will reduce liquid volume, or you can use corn starch. I am a fan of corn starch. I know that there are stew purists out there who cook it all day, etc., but my husband grew up with Southern cooking, so corn starch it is. You’re going to put a quarter cup of corn starch into a mixing cup, add about 1/2 cup of water, stir, and then pour that slurry into your stew, while stirring it. If you don’t stir the stew as you pour, you will get one big clump. Bring to boil.
If you have too much water and want more thick broth, add more corn starch.
Okay, phew. Done.
Stew is an individual kind of dish. Make it your own. Add parsnips. Skip the soy sauce. Add bone broth. Have fun with it.
Can this be made in a slow cooker?
Yes. Put everything in except for corn starch, cook for as long as you can stand it, so I would say 6 hours on low. Thicken with corn starch at the end if needed.
Can this be made in a pressure cooker?
Yes, but it doesn’t taste great. I’ve done it, and the pressure cooker makes great pot roast, but the stew just doesn’t taste right.
Bread
I know you guys wanted the semolina recipe, but I didn’t like it. How about a simple rustic bread for bread machine instead?
- 1 1/4 cup water
- 1 Tablespoon butter, softened
- 3 cups bread flour (you can get away with all-purpose)
- 2 tablespoons gluten
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast.
Throw everything in according to your bread machine instructions or in order of listed ingredients. Hit the French Bread cycle. Walk away until done. This is a simple, no sugar bread, and it goes great with stew.
If you are short on time, as an alternative, you could do popovers. People don’t make them anymore that often, but if you only have 30 minutes for some kind of bread, these are a winner.
This is a great recipe. I made it and it was delicious.
Desert
- 1 large Granny Smith apple
- 1 Pink Lady Apple
- Cinnamon and Sugar
- 1 sheet of puff pastry
- 1 egg
This is super simple. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Core and peel the apples. Cut them into bite size pieces, throw them into a small bowl, and toss with sugar and cinnamon. You don’t need too much sugar here, just enough to sprinkle.
We are going to take out sheet of puff pastry and roll it out, so we can get a rough rectangle. We will cut that rectangle across and then twice vertically, so we end up with 6 squares.
Place a bit of apple in the center of the pastry, brush the edges with egg and fold the corners in. Repeat for all six, brush everything with egg, slap it on a cookie sheet – I line mine with parchment paper just in case, and bake for 20 minutes.
Here is a very similar recipe with a video.
Thank you for the recipes and for sharing your prefered brands
Yummy! Thank you!
Is because it was a cold day and the idea of sitting in front of the fire just screams hearty food?
The cold front hit last night and the wind is whipping through the neighborhood this morning knocking over all the garage bins.
It’s so cold here too and the storm clouds are gathering. I woke up with an ear ache too (who says ear infections are just for children 😜) and staying in cosy with stew and apple pastries sound amazing!
As someone who, at age 38, has been in and out of hospital for the last two months with ear infection complications… only people who don’t know better say that!
I have a lamb, chorizo, pearl barley and red wine stew I’m going to need to break out very *very* soon methinks!
Hope Storm Ciaran didn’t cause too much damage.
“Sitting in front of the fire”.
Do you have those moments you just know the sentence that is in your head is absolutely the one you just wrote and you hit submit and then only do you notice you have words missing?
Fixed 🙂
Thank you for the fix. While autumn is my favorite time of year, all the wind is whipping up all the dust, pollen, and mold which unfortunately I am allergic to. I am so grateful to the person or persons who invented the paper tissue. I live on “Puffs” infused wit aloe vera this time of year. Can’t wait for later when I can get “Puffs” infused with Vick vapor rub. Breathing is so important.
I’ve recently added a regimen of Vick’s Sinex Children’s Saline Nasal Mist every 3-4 hrs. It has really helped my sinuses and eustatian tubes clear up faster and reduced my tissue usage significantly. Now I don’t feel like I’m under water.
Hope you feel better soon!
You are a good cook, but for my taste, stew needs chunks of carrot and onion. Yes, I read the recipe, and you clearly said if your taste runs that way, leave them in.
I do agree about the beer, though – I cannot wait till IPA goes out of fashion. It’s not bad beer, but it is almost impossible sometimes to find anything else.
It’s down to personal preference. For me, cooked onion makes me gag. Green onion – no problem. Cooked white onion, I will 100% have to run away from the table to the bathroom. Not sure why this is a thing. Maybe too much borscht as a child. 😀
I’ve never been a fan of onion, though I lived on garlic back in the day. Adding some chopped chives late in the process is enough onion flavor for me. And now that my stomach wants to retire, garlic chives sub for garlic. Bonus: gorgeous white garlic chive flowers in the fall, when not much is in bloom.
Red onion works for me, white onion gives me a dicky tummy every time!
Then I can entirely understand why you don’t want onion in your food.
I’m not quite that bad about avocado.
That’s why Kate doesn’t like Borscht and cooked onions 😂
I don’t put beer in my stew, but beer in my beans is a must! Love the taste it gives. I ordered from HEB on Sunday, and they were out of packaged stew meat. I think everyone in South Texas decided Monday was a stew day.
I make risotto with beer instead of wine! Sort-of-risotto anyway, I’m too afraid of the Italians to call it by that name 😁.
I experimented once with farro instead of the usual risotto rice, and the nuttier taste begged for the maltiness of beer. Especially when we want mushroom risotto, it’s a delicious combo!
Ooh! Recipe? lol
Not-Quite-Risotto
Farro is a grain that was used a lot in Ancient Rome, according to a food history documentary I once saw, which made me want to hunt it down and try the taste. It’s nuttier and heartier than rice, so this dish is absolutely a rib-sticker! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farro
1 1/2 cup farro
4 cups chicken, veggie or mushroom stock (if you use dried mushrooms, the liquid you rehydrate them in works here too)
1 beer- the maltier, the better (we like a Peroncino or Mad Goose because we have access to Euro beers. I tried Guinness, it’s too musty and cave-like for us and overpowers everything)
350 grams of mushrooms- preferable wild mushrooms, we’re going for a taste of the ancients here, but chestnut or porcini work just fine
1 chopped medium onion
3 tablespoons of butter
1 cup of Parmigiano Reggiano, no skipping or dieting here
Seasoning: salt, pepper. Then, depending on your mood, thyme, parsley, lemon rind – all or choice of one for a stronger note, up to you. Umami will already be there from the mushrooms and parmesan; then the chewy nuttiness of the farro and heartiness of beer. I know we’re in the era of overloading on seasoning, but I like to let the ingredients speak for themselves sometimes.
Add the chopped mushrooms to a dry pan on medium to high heat, salt them and stir until the start to release their liquid. Cooking that out will ensure you don’t have slimy mushrooms in the finished dish, but these lovely meaty pieces. After the water has evaporated, add the butter and chopped onion and sauté together until translucent. Add the farro and toast it for 1-2 minutes.
Add half the beer, stir until it’s soaked up (it will happen almost immediately), then the rest.
After this it becomes the usual risotto recipe: 1 ladle of the stock at a time, stirring as it gets absorbed. When you’re almost happy with the texture, kill the heat, add your last ladle of stock, the parmesan, seasonings, stir and slam a tight lid on it and allow it to rest and thicken and cream up on its own for at least 5 minutes.
Then make like the Ancient Romans and eat it! 🤗
Thank you! I printed and am excited to try!
Wow! a recipe extravaganza! ::rubs hands together:: Must go shopping…
Posole and menudo (Hispanic dishes) are originally made with a broth from pig bones (usually the feet/leg bones, minus the hooves). Well, it isn’t easy to find that all the time so I learned long ago to sub in beer to get a rounded out flavor. Beer is actually really good as a base for broccoli cheese soup as well. I would agree that you need to be a bit careful on your choice of beers. The darker the beer, the less you need and I cannot imagine using a Guinness. That might be too rich. I usually use a lager. Of the commercial beers, Heineken is a good choice, but Husband drinks local beer so we have some good choices to pick from. Avoid flavored beers (like chili beer or cherry beers) although some of those aren’t bad in a soup either! It’s SOUP season!!! I can eat soup all winter long!
Thank you for sharing! I make a similar stew (the recipe is in my brain, nowhere else), but I’ll swipe a bottle of my husband’s Corona Extra next time and add. As for the bread, I LOVE bread (my waistline, not so much) and will have to try this. Southern cook here, so my stew usually gets low and slow on the stove for a couple of hours and the carrots get minced – hubby doesn’t like carrots, I do, so the compromise is sending them through a food processor until they are in tiny pieces, which add flavor and color. UGH to soggy veggies (ugh to most veggies).
yummy! TYVM for sharing ❤️❤️❤️
Thanks for sharing! I’m inspired. Those popovers look amazing!
Re: tossing the vegetables. My daughter would not eat vegetables so, in a recipe like this, I would remove them, puree and add back. They thicken and flavor the stew wonderfully and everybody gets more veggies – win/win.
+1
Dusting of snow overnight here in Connecticut. Stew sounds perfect!
Just in case someone isn’t familiar with using corn starch, don’t blend it with warm or hot liquid. Use cold. I made the mistake of using a warm-ish one once (I thought it was cool enough to be ok) and it was not good. Tap cold is fine, but save yourself my headache and keep it cool.
I love using corn starch to thicken things though! So quick and it helps avoid the potential floury taste from when I rush the roux. 😄
You can also use room temperature broth or beer to dissolve the corn starch. I find that if you use the liquid you are using in the recipe to dissolve the starch, the overall dish tastes better.
That was what caused the problem! 🤣 I would normally agree with you, but left my broth too close to the stove and it got too warm (it didn’t even really feel warm!). 🤦♀️ That’s why I now go with cold tap or from the fridge. 😄
The stew sounds delicious. I would probably add red beans and cabbage.
would/will
Cabbage in stew is so yummy. I used to use it only for corned beef, but now I look for excuses to put it in with other things.
My mom would make cream of cabbage soup, but it’s not a thick soup, though you could add cornstarch or flour if you wanted. In your soup pot, brown some bacon bits, add onions (optional), saute until translucent, add a whole or half chopped cabbage, depending on how much you want to make, and put in just enough water or stock to barely cover the cabbage, salt to taste. Cook until cabbage is just done, add 3 or 4 cups of half and half or whole milk, as much as you need to make the quantity you want, heat til hot but not boiling, add a few drops of tobasco. Top off with pats of butter.
I make this with a Belgian Triple beer and the equivalent of 8 cups of onions, no other veg, and served over broad noodles. I think the recipe was called Beef & Beer Stew in an old issue of of Cooks Illustrated (America’s Test Kitchen). It’s so good as leftovers and smells divine when cooking. I have a dedicated Dutch oven for it since the onion permeated my cast iron!
Oooh that sounds good! Will try it but probably just for me. My pod is not as onion happy as myself.
I like this stew. I have tried it with Guinness but prefer a good red wine. I’ll have to try it with Modelo, a Mexican beer which my kids prefer.
I truly think we need a weekly “cooking with Ilona” video. I NEED to watch her make all things related to tacos. Please and thank you.
I made a big pot of bean soup today (the 15 bean kind). Will freeze some, but it’s mighty fine as the artic air whistles by the deck.
Oooooooh, these recipes sound amazing! Thank you for always sharing your recipes: they’re always so delicious and I appreciate the hints you share too!
My family LOVES stew! Since I don’t eat meat I make it in two pots, one with beef, one without (same ingredients otherwise.)
For the protein in mine, I add more mushrooms. Did you know mushrooms contain a lot of protein? I’ve been cooking 50 years, LOVE mushrooms, and only found this out a month ago! 😂
Your recipes sound so good, I am inspired to make the first stew and homemade bread dinner of the season. My family thanks you! 😋
I love portobello mushrooms in stews. Or just mushroom soup, saute mushrooms in butter, add half and half or milk, chicken stock if you have some, maybe a dash of sherry.
What is called a popover here looks a lot like Yorkshire pudding from my part of the world. Perhaps with the exception of adding some beef broth to the bottom of each muffin tin. I’m American, but married a Canadian from northern Ontario and learning to make Yorkshire pudding was apparently a marital requirement according to our (lighthearted) pre-nuptial agreement. I worked and worked on getting just the right recipe so they would have those luscious pockets.
Then I found out his mother used Bisquick to make hers. Eek.
There has been this newly married couple. She really loved cooking and proudly served her husband dinner. Evening for evening. Every time he loved it and told his wife so, with the addendum that it had not his mother’s special flavor. One evening the wife let the dish burn and served it anyway. And the husband told that now it had the special flavor of his mum’s cooking 😂
Why not add carrots and celery when you add the corn? They probably wouldn’t be too mushy during that last point of cooking?
Nice! The only thing I do differently is to sear my meat with minced onion and garlic. And I love the sweetness of cooked onion, so chopped onion goes in with the potatoes at the end. And if for some reason I’m in a hurry, I do tend to thicken with flour. My mom just preferred that taste to corn starch, but I’ve used both and really can’t say which I prefer myself.
I’ve not made bread in years but I’ve been thinking about it. Went so far as to buy fresh yeast! Does that count? Maybe I should consider a bread machine hmmmmm
Thanks! I love recipes so this was a fun read!
All I have to say is…Yum!!! 😄
I told my hubby this morning that I would make us a pot of beef stew and now I have a new recipe to try. Thanks so much!
Thank you for sharing! It’s super cool to see a view into relatable human experiences, and your cooking tips/tricks always make my list.
Def trying these popovers – the thought of bread items always intimidates me, but I can probably manage a 30 min recipe.
i make a huge pot of French Onion Soup. The next day i take the left overs and add mini meatballs, cook them of course and add them to the soup and bake in the oven for 2 hours or so. you could live on this combination. Add Mushrooms if you wish.
Oh does that ever sound like a winner!
I make a cheaters French onion with sautéed onions & mushrooms (in butter and soy sauce), beef broth (sometimes with a splash of beer) and about a half lb of sliced beef deli meat. I sautéed up the mushrooms and onions with butter and soy sauce, deglaze with beer, add beef broth and bring up to a quick boil, I take the deli meat that I’ve sliced into short spoon sized strips and stir them in. I serve with bread and cheese to dip. 🙂 Takes next to no time and all 5 of my kids go nuts over it.
Onion to mushroom ratio is three thinly sliced sweet onions to two handfuls of chopped mushrooms. Salt pepper and any spices or Worcester sauce to taste. Makes around 8-10 cups. Infinitely scalable.
Two suggestions. WHen I make stew, I buy the chuck roast and I brown it before cubing it. Browning it well will create enough rich flavor and takes so much less time then does browning the cubes, where you feel compelled to brown all sides. ANd you have lovely fond to scrape up as you deglaze. Secondly, to thicken stews and many soups, I like to add plain instant potato flakes. Cornstarch can start to break down, the potato won’t. I buy the cheapest ones, usually at Aldi. I also add 1/4 to 1/2 cup to bread recipe – it help the bread retain moisture so it doesn’t go stale immediately.
I use left over mashed potatoes in my bread. And if I have it the water from cooking the potatoes. Really gives a starting kick to the yeast.
Thank you for the recipes! Popovers are my favorite and now I have more than one beer recipe to try 🙂
Previously I’ve only done a few beer breads, looking for a recipe as good as Huber’s (Portland, OR restaurant) version. No luck so far, though HalfBaked Harvest’s is pretty good on it’s own.
Thank you! I have a food related question for quite some time now. In Magic Shifts, when Dali shows up and stays for breakfast, it is written that Kate reaches for a potato. Breakfast was otherwise ready for the others, so I assume she meant to prepare something quick. So what did Kate want to cook with the potato?
Quite possibly just frying potatoes. Dali is vegetarian.
my dad would slice raw potatoes and fry them in the iron frying pan. Some people add chopped onion. He used bacon grease so not vegetarian though
The colder weather always makes me want to cook more.
It never occurred to me to throw out veggies! Interesting, will perhaps give it a try.
I have been making no knead bread. Mix the ingredients, let it rise 10-12 hrs, stir and shape/put in pan and voila, great bread. There’s a faster shortcut version called ‘turbo’ no knead bread, only takes a couple of hours. Lots of recipes on youtube. Enjoy!
completely unrelated, just wanted to give you a laugh 🙂
my husband & I have a large lego collection. we’re cleaning & sorting sets that we no longer want to display. my husband has been seeing up a sorting station, with labeled bowls, bins, and boxes so I know where things go. I sat down to help sort yesterday & noticed a box labeled “MISHMAR”. I knew exactly what went in that one (sets that need to be disassembled). apparently, hubby has been eavesdropping on my audio books 😛
I love popovers and that’s a particularly good recipe for it. I’m still trying to figure out the Dina’s egg salad thing – pictures or instructions for the chemo brained would b3 gratefully appreciated.
I was just trying to think of something warm and hearty to make for dinner, this is perfect! Very excited to make this right now, thank you.
I’d like to suggest an alternative to throwing your stew veges out, if you don’t like soft veges.
Dig the veges out of the stew. Put them in a separate bowl and mash them to a fine pulp, either with a hand masher or a blender. Add them back to the stew to thicken it.
Hey presto, more flavour in the stew 🙂
+1 I used to do this when my kids were little and vegetables were still scary. Thickens beautifully. I swear by a stick blender and do it in the pot.
This is what I use for thickener in my soups and stews, too, NZReb. Yummy. I am one who likes the veggie chunks, so have been known to add more.
Love it all, thanks for letting us share the ride, Illona & Gordon.
finished off my pot roast last week, but now I have to find a use for the leftover Garlic Harvester Sauce. Thinking of getting a tri-tip to dry roast.
Never much liked puff pastry but I really like short crust pastry. Not sure what it is about puff pastry. Maybe it’s so flaky, it doesn’t even taste like food to me? Or maybe I’m just weird. Anyway speaking of that sort of thing, I got to talking with my brother about pies and he told me it doesn’t matter if you let the butter melt a bit. I asked him whether they didn’t lose their flakiness and get all hard. He said he likes them like that. So basically his pies are like day-old biscuits with jam? Basically greasy balls of sadness? I don’t get it. Clearly we’re all a little different.
Thank you for the apple turnover recipe!!! My family love it.
oooh, these all sound amazing! i need to go make something for dinner, been snacking on my satsuma oranges from the yard that finally ripened enough to eat today.
This all looks yummy. I haven’t made beef stew in forever. I am excited to try the apple recipe too. Loved all the comments. It was a mood lifter that I needed.
Can I just come eat yours so much simpler
Mmmm!! Popovers and Yorkshire pudding!
Popovers with butter and homemade strawberry jam.
Yorkshire pudding – the star of Christmas dinner.
I miss my mother’s cooking. (I burn water….)
thank you for sharing.. i think one of the best things about fall when it gets cold and blustery is stews and breads and just hiding in the house for a day or two smelling that stew and eating it and being soooo glad you are alive to do it. slow – simple – wonderful.
ok break over lol
I have found my favorite beer to cook with is Irish Red Ale. Makes really good chili.
Dear Ilona, please don’t wash your mushrooms. They soak the water and not the stew broth. Just brush them a little bit. Paper towels work fine.
I haven’t cooked in years (Hubby does the cooking, I do the cleaning up. Works for us and I don’t have to commit spous-i-cide because my husband is worse than Orro when it comes to using his kitchen.) but I am totally saving this list of recipes.
I love that you sear the meat before you do the stewing. My step-mom used to do that, but my mom is clueless when it comes to cooking and hubby doesn’t think its important.
You were tired or spell check played fast and loose with your bread recipe. Flowers would be a different taste than flour. But you guys have some wonderful recipes so I never should judge. Could be yummy.
I am exhausted to the point of not being able to talk in complete sentences.
I have a super random question here! Are the Anansi pearls based off of the African stories of Anansi the spider? I was reading ancient history of Africa to my son & came across their stories of Anansi & Turtle.
I like a pilsner for recipes with beer. One quick beer bread is:
1 12-oz bottle beer
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 cups self-rising flour
Mix together. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees F in a standard loaf pan. Brush top with butter. Bake another 10 minutes. Cool before slicing.
I want to try the popover recipe.