Stews, breads, and pastries

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.

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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.