your advice on hearty stew type meals, please...

You cut up a bunch of cheap casserole beef (chuck steak et al) into cubes, and peel a load of little baby onions (or shallots would work too). I fry off the whole peeled onions first to darken them... then remove them and throw the meat onto the smoky hot oil so it really seals and browns (and thus wont stew right away. Pour on a buttload of good red wine, boil it off a little, add the onions back in.

Then I pour in a large amt of boiling beef stock with tomato paste stirred in. Simmer that for some time - maybe at least an hour - on a very low simmer (or in an oven).

Then for the last half hour or 40 mins add some large chunks of carrot, and some browned mushrooms thickly sliced.

Sometimes it needs thickening up with cornflour at the end, depends on the liquid left.

Goes SO NICE with mashed taters, or potato bake. And some greens. YUM.

Drinking red wine and eating fish raises your HDL, as do onions (raw apparently) and olive oil, so balance your tom kha meal with those.

Fry the pieces plus bacon, onion, celery, carrots, garlic, thyme, bay, white wine or dry cider. Into the oven for about an hour. Pearl barley is indeed a good addition.

Tame rabbits tend to be imported from China: they cost more, taste worse & are probably inhumanely raised - avoid.

Well, either it wasn't clean or somebody had stuffed the back of it with three beans which had since gone off. And turned into rabbit shit.

aldo - ewww, mind you, ever bought pigs ears and had to clean the wax out? even I went a bit funny at that one

Beef stew getting made up this afternoon, with crimini, carrots, parsnips, and pearl onions. I have to make enough so there's plenty leftover for pot pies in two days time.

And whoa, there's definitely plenty. 6 quarts is a lot of stew. Also, v.v. tasty.

anybody here ever make Feijoada? what cuts of pork did you use??

I'd never heard of it and looked it up and now WANT SOME! Seems like a cassoulet, made with black beans and various smoked and fresh pork cuts and sausages? Sounds very delicious.

it is delicious, i've only had it a couple of times but seek it out

today the leftover stew transforms into potpies!

Have to say it - I made some damn fine crust for those pot pies :~)

I'm feeling veg-deficient so I'm going to make a stew thing with aubergines, chickpeas, courgettes, mushrooms and chickpeas tonight. I may also try to finish off the quinoa that's been on my top shelf for the last year.

Argh, I meant aubergines, chickpeas, courgettes, mushrooms and tomatoes.

we had quinoa last night, as part of a sweet potato salad. i like the nuttiness, and it's apparently very good for you - full of amino acids and minerals.

I think that might be what's putting me off - too worthy.

Split pea soup done up today with a nice meaty ham hock, not stew but so thick and hearty. To food mill/immersion blenderize or not?

This is totally how I eat now, I just start throwing things into a pot. Italian sausage/pork goes with tomato-based things, white wine and sage and thyme go into chicken stock-based things, garlic and onions go in everything, and the rest is subject to change without notice. White beans, red beans, lentils, curry, bacon, pasta...I've never tried an immersion blender though.

shorthand stew recipe in the grauniad:

There's a casserole recipe that you can do with pretty much any meat, but it's perfect with venison. Marinade your meat in red wine for at least 12 hours, long enough to colour the meat. Remove the red wine and reduce it to a glaze. Dice the meat into 2cm cubes, roll it in flour and sauté it in a red-hot pan and remove. Add a selection of diced root vegetables to the pan - onions, carrots, celery, anything you want really. Add a dash of tomato puree, a sprig of thyme and put the meat back in with the veg. Finally, add your red wine reduction, cover with stock and simmer for two to three hours.

I really like this way of thinking about recipes--there are basic techniques to make stew/soup/insert your dinner here, and you can sub in/out ingredients depending on your taste/what looks good at the market/what's available. A lot like this book, which I flipped through last month at my brother's place.

Also, surely the verb is "marinate".

And I'd question the necessity of reducing that red wine separately if you're just gonna put it back in the pot and cook for 2 or 3 hours.

These stews are all severely missing the addition of DUMPLINGS!

Two parts SR flour to one part suet, add a dash of salt/pepper/herbs if desired, add water and make into a sticky dough, shape into inch-wide balls and add to the stew for the final 20 mins.

^^^also, you can substitute oil or butter for suet

but you wouldn't want to.

http://www.elishasessions.com/pumpkin/content/main-dishes/porkslap-brasato

These stews are all severely missing the addition of DUMPLINGS!

^^^ OTMFM
Also, bigos bigos bigos bigos bigos...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigos

I love to make stoverij, a typical belgian stew (with meat but also MEATAH BALLS). Takes forever to make and about five minutes to eat but it's definitely worth it. haven't included the dark beer yet though. My husband says I shouldn't so I don't... for now.