In my home school culinary education of fixing every recipe in a huge cookbook, something that will probably take the entire year or more, I have found meals we all like. Two days ago I decided to try a beef stew recipe. For some reason I had it in my mind that this cookbook was one of those 30 minute recipe books. It was not. I pulled the stew meat out of the refrigerator and opened the cookbook. I scanned the recipe and saw that I was to preheat the oven, and to brown the meat in a pot on the stove. Once the meat chunks were browned I would remove them to a bowl and cook the veggies, add the liquid and the meat back, and simmer for an hour. I looked at the clock and decided to fix something else and do the stew the next day.
Next day arrived and I pulled the meat out again, and opened the cookbook. This time I had an hour to fix the meal and still eat at a decent time. I turned on the oven to preheat, and pulled out the pot for the stove. Then I scanned the directions again. I poured the oil into the pot and started browning the meat. Then I began to wonder, why was I told to turn the oven on? I looked over the directions again. It turns out I simmer the stew for an hour on the top of the stove, and then bake it for an hour in the oven. Once again, I did not have time for this.
I remembered that I wanted to make a beef barley soup and had bought the ingredients before but not the meat. The recipe called for blade steak, and every time I had searched for blade steak in the store, I couldn’t find any such thing. So, last night I made barley soup with stew meat, whatever cut that might be. It turned out very good, and will be repeated again. The only problem I had was the meat wasn’t as tender as we like. It was good, just not as tender as expected for soup.
I cooked the stew meat, added carrots and onions, garlic and thyme, and banana ketchup instead of tomato paste. This is my usual substitution since my husband is allergic to tomatoes. I added two cups of beef broth, two cups of chicken broth and four tablespoons of soy sauce. When the meat and veggies were cooked I added the barley, which looked like oatmeal to me. We all three enjoyed the soup. The cookbook says that this meal isn’t good as leftovers because the barley reheated turns mushy. We won’t know as we ate it all.
I have since learned what a blade steak is. This is a flavorful cut of the shoulder section of beef. This cut has a thick piece of cartilage running through the middle, and if the cartilage is removed it is called a flat iron steak. The flat iron is full of flavor but more expensive, so if you can find the blade steak and cut away the chewy cartilage yourself, you have a good cut of meat. The beef sold already cut for stewing is usually chuck, and it is tougher and needs to be cooked for a longer time. I have never known much about steaks, cuts of meat or how to cook them, but I hope to be more educated as I go through this homeschool cooking school working through a single book exercise.
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