A stew is a one-pot, one-stop cooking method that is so versatile it can help any home cook feed a huge household and use up an assortment of leftovers. There are some fundamentals to stew making and a few qualifications that differentiate a stew from other foods, like its cousin, soup.
Stews use a flavored liquid that compliments the main protein. Chicken goes with chicken stock and beef with beef stock. Stews also use a thickener to ensure the liquid encompasses all the chunky morsels. If a stew isn’t think enough it can be misinterpreted as a soup. If thick enough, stews can be eaten on a plate accompanied with complimentary sides.
Finally stews should be balanced and considered a meal in itself. Hearty stews contain a mixture of meat and vegetables and have been given time to slowly simmer so that every bite–whether it be a piece of carrot or a bite of beef– is soft and tender.
Stews are ideal cold weather meals because they maintain their heat very well, warming the body from the inside. Come by Rendezvous on the Plaza and enjoy this week’s beef stew.
To make enough for church this is 50# onions and 25# celery small diced
Here is 40# Turnips, 40# Parsnips, and 25# Carrots. The vegetable crew.
Dicing the 100# Angus Beef Chuck
All diced up.
The meat gets seared in the pan for flavor.
The fond is deglazed by the onions and celery when they are sweated down.
The meat, beef stock and vegetables are added altogether and allowed to simmer on the stove top for hours until tender.
hospitalityatfirstpresberkeley 