Beef Stew

There are infinite recipes for beef stew. If you just did a Google search, it would come back with over half a million hits! This is one that I really like to make. I use some red wine for depth of flavor and homemade chicken or turkey stock. Sometimes making a beef stew with wine and beef stock makes it almost too rich. Using a lighter stock is a good compromise.

To learn more about stewing, check out my How To Make A Great Stew Recipe. It gives you cooking techniques, tips and ideas for stewing beef, chicken, fish and vegetables.

Ingredients

2 pounds beef suitable for stewing - chuck is nice for this - cut up into 2” cubes
5 pieces of bacon, cut into pieces
About 1 cup of all purpose flour, well seasoned with salt and pepper.
2 tablespoons canola oil (or other neutral oil)
1 medium onion, chopped
4 oz. fresh sliced mushrooms, try crimini or button
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon tomato paste
½ teaspoon red pepper flake (more or less, to taste)
1 shallot, minced (you could use garlic, if you prefer)
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning, or herb blend of your choice
½ bottle dry red wine
Enough chicken stock or turkey stock to just cover the meat
4 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed, (peel them if you want to) cut into large chunks
4 medium carrots, scrubbed, (peel them if you want to) cut into 1 ½” chunks
1 can of pearl onions, drained (or, about 2 cups fresh pearl onions, skins removed)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (optional)

How to Make Beef Stew at Home

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees, F.

Dredge the beef chunks in the well-seasoned flour. Knock off the excess.

Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat for 3 - 4 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons of the canola oil and heat the oil until the oil shimmers in the pan. Brown the meat in batches but don’t crowd the pan. Sear on all sides until a deep brown.

In the same pan, fry the bacon for a couple of minutes. You don’t have to get it crispy, you just want to render out some of the fat. Pour off some of the fat, leaving about 2 tablespoons in the pan.

Sauté the onions, mushrooms, carrots and celery in the same pan along with the bacon and a heavy pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add the tomato paste and dried herbs. Saute for another minute or two. Watch your heat and turn it up or down, as needed to keep a good “sizzle” going without any smoking. Deglaze the pan with the wine. Reduce the wine by half.

Add the meat back into the pan, and add the chicken or turkey stock to barely cover the meat. Heat on the stovetop until simmering. Cover the Dutch oven tightly, and put it on a rack in the lower third of the oven. Stew for about 2 ½ hours.

Take the stew out of the oven. Working quickly, carefully remove the meat to a platter and cover tightly with foil. Strain the cooking liquid and skim off the fat. Pour the strained and de-fatted cooking liquid back in the Dutch oven. Add back about half of the spent vegetables, leaving the bacon. With a stick blender, puree the liquid.

Put the meat and the liquid in a large container. Cool it down quickly. I put float ice packs in gallon-sized zipper bags in the stew to chill it quickly. Cover, and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, pull off any additional solidified fat from the top of the stew. Put the stew back into a Dutch oven and add the cut up potatoes, carrots and the pearl onions. Bring up to a simmer and simmer on low heat, covered, until the vegetables are tender.

Stir in the olive oil—I always do as a nod to my heart, but you are welcome to leave it out. Serve in bowls with some hearty bread and a salad.

This might be a two-day project, but it is worth it. Enjoy!

Christmas Standing Rib Roast

Thanksgiving is a holiday in which turkey really shines. Many of you would rather not deal with another turkey just four weeks after Thanksgiving. Some of you might still have some frozen leftovers. The Christmas meal is a celebratory meal, and as such, celebration food is a natural at the Christmas dinner table. Enter, the standing rib roast.

Unsurprisingly, the standing rib roast is cut from the rib section of the animal. More specifically, it comprises 7 ribs - ribs 6-12. If you were to cut the meat apart into steaks, you would have rib-eye steak. You can purchase rib roast in sizes ranging from two ribs up to all seven, although for more even roasting, you’ll want to purchase at least a three to four bone roast.

When deciding how large a roast you’ll need (how many ribs), figure on 1 rib per every two to three people. For example, if you’ll be serving eight people, you will want to purchase a 4-rib roast to ensure generous servings. If you will be serving other meats at the dinner, you could purchase a 3-rib roast.

Meat Grades

Get the best piece of meat you can find and afford. Prime is the most expensive but will have the most marbling and therefore flavor. Marbled meat has the thin lines of intramuscular fat running throughout the meat. This may turn some people off, but this fat gives the beef extra flavor. Only 2% of all beef produced in the US is grated prime so it is hard to find and like I said, very expensive.

Your next choice is Choice. Most of your higher end supermarkets and places like Costco sell Choice but be sure to look on the label to be sure. I recommend you avoid Select grade.

Dry Aged Beef

If you can find dry-aged meat and want to spend the bucks, you may want to give it a try. It has a distinctive taste that not everyone enjoys so I would recommend you try dry-aged beef for the first time on a small cut of beef and decide for yourself. Since some bacterial action has started to break down the tissues, the meat will be very tender. The flavor will also be concentrated because some water will have evaporated from the meat.

Prepping the Roast

Do not do much, if any, extra trimming to the roast. You’ll want at least 1/4 to 1/2 fat cap covering the top of the meat. The idea is that the sear will happen to the fat and bone, leaving nothing but luscious, juicy medium-rare meat inside. Too much trimming will result in well-done meat near the surface, and you may as well have bought a less expensive piece of meat.

Roasting Standing Rib Roast

There are many schools of thought when it comes to roasting a standing rib roast. Some people like to start low and finish high. Some like to start high and finish low. Still others will instruct you to roast at an extremely low temperature for an extremely long period of time. You choose the method that works for you. I like the British method of starting in a relatively high oven and finishing at a relatively low temperature.

A standing rib roast has a wonderful flavor all its own. It certainly doesn’t need a lot of heavy spicing or marinades. Your roast will benefit from just a simple rub with salt and pepper to enhance, not hide, the flavor of the meat.

Standing Rib Roast

Ingredients

1 bone-in rib roast
Canola oil
Sea salt
Freshly ground pepper

Take the meat out of the refrigerator at least one hour -two would be better - before roasting.

Position the oven rack in the bottom third of the oven. Preheat oven to 425° F.

Rub the meat all over, including the bones, with a thin coating of canola or other neutral oil. Liberally coat the meat - fat, bones and all - with kosher salt and black pepper. Insert a probe thermometer into the thickest part of the meat, making sure it is not touching the bone.

Place the meat, fat side up, on an oiled rack in a shallow roasting pan. Roast at 425° F for 20 minutes. Without removing the roast, reduce the oven temperature to 325° F.

Continue roasting until the internal temperature of the roast reaches 120° F. Remove the roast from the oven, loosely tent it with foil, and let the meat rest for at least 15 minutes. The temperature will continue to rise, and the final temperature will be about 130° F. This will result in a nice medium-rare roast.

If you like your meat more towards medium, remove the roast when it reaches an internal temperature of 130-135° F. Again, let the meat rest for at least 15 minutes. This allows for carryover cooking and the redistribution of the juices and will result in a moist roast.

The larger your roast, the more carryover cooking will occur. In a smaller roast, the temperature may only rise 5 degrees. With a larger roast, you could get as much as 10-15 degrees in carryover cooking, so plan accordingly when setting your target temperatures.

My wife likes to serve a standing rib roast with Yorkshire Pudding. I’ll post a recipe for it tomorrow.

Chateaubriand Recipe For Two

Chateaubriand. The name is synonymous with luxury and haute cuisine. But, what is Chateaubriand, exactly? Contrary to popular belief Chateaubriand is not a cut of meat. Rather, it is a method of preparation, or a recipe. Apocryphally, the dish, like so many other famous dish Quiche Lorraine, Pavlova, Peach Melba, Crepes Suzette was named in honor of the vicomte Francois-Ren de Chateaubriand, a politician, ambassador and the founder of Romanticism in French literature.

Chateaubriand is traditionally made from a thick center cut of beef tenderloin. The cut weighs about 12 oz, and it is generally intended to serve two. This makes it a perfect, albeit expensive, meal to share at an intimate New Year’s dinner for two. Originally, the two ends of the tenderloin were cut off the main portion and roasted in the oven along with the Chateaubriand, to protect the thicker cut from burning. The two end pieces would burn and were discarded, leaving the Chateaubriand a perfectly medium-rare. And people wonder why the peasants revolted!

As with most recipes, there are many variations on Chateaubriand preparation. When I think of Chateaubriand, I think of a lovely, thick piece of tenderloin roasted to a perfect medium rare and served with a demi-glace enriched wine sauce. You can certainly vary this to suit your taste.

When you go to your butcher, you most likely will not be able to find a Chateaubriand roast waiting for you in the display case. You will have to ask to have one cut for you. You can consider purchasing a whole, vacuum-packed tenderloin, but this is quite the investment. Tell your butcher that you want to serve Chateaubriand, and ask for a large, 1-pound thick steak (or small roast) cut from the center of the tenderloin. For your ease of preparation at home, ask him to remove the chain meat and the silver skin from the roast.

For those of you who are do it yourselves-types, you can purchase the roast untrimmed and trim it yourself. If you have a sharp knife, the silver skin is fairly easy to remove, as is the attached chain meat. You can save the chain meat for making Beef Stroganoff or a stir-fry. You might even grind it up in a food processor and make a tasty hamburger.

Chateaubriand for Two

1 thick, center cut tenderloin steak, approximately 1 pound
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 shallot, minced
4 oz. full-bodied red wine
4 oz. demi glace
1-tablespoon butter, softened
2 t. minced fresh tarragon
Whole tarragon leaves, for garnish

How to Make at Home

Preheat your oven to 375º F.

Liberally sprinkle salt and pepper on the steak.

Preheat an oven-safe heavy skillet or saute pan over medium-high heat. Depending on your stove, this could take 4 or 5 minutes. I set a timer to make sure I’m not rushing.

Add the butter and oil to the pan. When the butter stops foaming, sear the meat on all sides until well browned. Place the meat in the hot pan, and do not move it for at least 2 minutes. With tongs, turn the meat and continue searing. If the meat sticks to the pan, leave it for another few seconds. When the sear is complete, the meat will release on its own, so be gentle and patient. Keep an eye on the heat, you may need to adjust it up or down to maintain a good “sizzle ‘ without burning the meat.

Remove the meat from the pan, and place an oven-safe rack in the cooking pan. Put the meat on the rack and roast in the oven until the meat has reached an internal temperature of 125º F. Use a probe thermometer so you don’t have to keep opening the oven. Alternately, check the internal temperature with an instant read thermometer after ten or twelve minutes. Remove from the oven. Put the meat on a warmed platter to rest for about 15 minutes. The temperature will continue to rise, and your meat will be a perfect medium rare.

While the meat is resting, prepare the sauce. You should have plenty of oil/butter left in the cooking pan. Place the pan over medium heat - careful, it has been in the oven. Make sure you have an oven mitt, because the handle can burn you. Add the minced shallot and saute until translucent, but not browned.

Add the red wine. Turn the heat up to medium high and reduce by half. Add the demi-glace to the pan and reduce for a couple of minutes until the mixture is somewhat syrupy. Taste for seasonings, and add salt and pepper if necessary. Stir in the minced tarragon and remove from the heat. Swirl in the softened butter right before serving. This will help to further thicken the sauce and impart a lovely sheen.

For a classic presentation, slice your Chateaubriand in half diagonally and serve on warmed plates with the sauce spooned over. Garnish with some fresh tarragon leaves. The traditional accompaniment to Chateaubriand is Chateau potatoes, but you may serve it with any side dishes you like. Steamed or sauted vegetables make a light and colorful foil to the rich main dish.