I’ve been wanting to post about this for a while and finally, today found the time and the willpower. This time I decided to photograph it instead of eating it before I could grab my camera. Beef stews are quite possibly my all-time favorite thing to cook/eat/stare-at during cold days and I’m documenting this recipe just in time before the hot weather returns to California and ruins one of the greatest winters this state has ever seen. The whole ritual is extremely relaxing and the outcome well… as you know… who doesn’t love a good beef stew. I thought about a sous vide version… but nah… I wanted the comfort factor pretty high.
Ingredients (makes enough for 6-8 people):
2-3 pounds of chuck, brisket, short ribs, something tough. Cubed 1 inch.
1 pint of extra stout Guinness beer
1 can of tomatoes. Crush them with your wooden spoon.
4 celery stalks medium dice
1 whole white onion small dice
2-3 medium carrots medium dice
6-8 garlic cloves, crushed then small dice
3 bay leafs
Rosemary sprig.
AP flour to coat and brown the meat.
Salt and pepper t taste.
Tossing meat chunks in flour.
First, prepare the meat. In a bowl with flour, toss the meat and make sure the cubes are fully coated. Heat up a pan with plenty of vegetable oil. When it reaches about 380F start adding the cubes in batches. Allow frying for about 2 mins. You don’t have to brown each cube evenly but that would be ideal. I basically deep fried mine. The flour won’t brown much but the meat will and that’s what we want. You could add a little baking soda to help the flour brown more and develop a more nutty flavor. Remove the cubes from the oil and allow to rest. They will bleed a bit. Don’t discard anything. Everything is going in the pot. Beef blood is gold.
Giving the veggies the special treatment.
In a bottom heavy pan with some vegetable oil, cook the tomatoes over medium heat until nice a dark brown. I added some onions and allowed them to burn a bit. Then deglazed the pan with some stout and scraped off everything. Add the veggies, including the garlic. Add some salt at this point. And sauté for about 10 minutes over medium heat.
Meat and veggie party.
Add the seared cubes and the rest of the stout, now bay leaves and rosemary go in. Bring to a simmer. Cook for 3 hours with no lid. Season as you go. Keep an eye on it and stir every now and then making sure nothing sticking at the bottom. Simmering temperature ranges from 160F at the to around 200F at the bottom. Really low heat. It will reduce to a perfect consistency. The flour gives it that velvety finish. Yeah, that flour you used to coat the meat chunks in the beginning.
What about that mash?
Ok, here we go again… I need to make a mash potato post that I can reference but until then… 4-6 Yukon gold or russet potatoes. Peeled. Cut into cubes. Place in cold water with some salt. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Cook potatoes until fork tender. Strain. Save the cooking liquid. Mash the taters using a potato ricer or potato masher (never ever use a blender, trust me). Add a few cubes of butter, some heavy cream, salt…etc. Season with salt until happy. Oh yeah… that potato water I mentioned before… if you want a lighter potato mash, you can use some of this starchy water instead of so much cream/butter. Up to you. You could also reduce the starchy water to concentrate the potato flavor before using. Anyways, you get the idea and I need some sleep.
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![Another one of those recipes that almost got left behind. I took the photos weeks ago and I even uploaded them to my site but never got around to write about it which is weird.. guess was distracted by trying not to destroy my blog while making changes to it. It's happened. I love pork chops but they can go wrong pretty easily. They overcook really quick. And you know what that's like.. yeah... rubber soles. Totally unattractive. If you have the time and the equipment go sous vide. No doubt about that. If you don't then sear them in a really hot pan a couple of minutes per side. Obviously we're dealing with pork and we need to make sure it is safe to eat. Trichinosis is a concern and pork should be cooked throughly. Cooking meat throughly doesn't mean overcooking it though. The parasite in question actually dies at fairly low temperatures which is great news. This excerpt from a USDA document is interesting: Cooking - Commercial preparation of pork products by cooking requires that meat be heated to internal temperatures which have been shown to inactivate trichinae. For example, Trichinella spiralis is killed in 47 minutes at 52° C (125.6° F), in 6 minutes at 55° C (131° F), and in < 1 minute at 60° C (140° F). It should be noted that these times and temperatures apply only when the product reaches and maintains temperatures evenly distributed throughout the meat. Alternative methods of heating, particularly the use of microwaves, have been shown to give different results, with parasites not completely inactivated when product was heated to reach a prescribed end-point temperature. The U.S. Code of Federal Regulations for processed pork products reflects experimental data, and requires pork to be cooked for 2 hours at 52.2° C (126° F), for 15 minutes at 55.6° C (132° F), and for 1 minute at 60° C (140° F). But how can one translate this into a recipe? If you're cooking the meat sous vide... it's a no brainer. Set the water bath to 125.6F and cook the meat until the core has spent 47 minutes at this temperature for example. Of course. bare in mind that depending on the thickness of the chop, the total cooking time will need to be calculated. It's usually a few hours for individual chops just like the paragraph above suggests. Now, if you're cooking the chops in a skillet... things get a bit trickier and experience plays a big role in getting the meat cooked through but not overcooked. The thicker the chop, the trickier it gets. The leaner the chop, the quicker it cooks... all these catches. I personally observe a few things while pan searing pork chops at home: Thickness... I stay at about a inch or less other wise, sous vide, grill or roast. I bring the meat to room temperature. I salt the meat way ahead of time. If I have time I brine the chops instead I use a thermometer. I sear the chops in a really hot skillet a couple of minutes per side. I check internal temperature at various points. I finish in the oven if needed otherwise... I cover the pan with a lid and remove from the heat until cooked through. This might take several minutes so I check with a thermometer periodically. Sounds like a pain in the ass and it is but some repetition helps. Done a few times it becomes second nature. To my advantage it's really hard not to kill this parasite. If I work above 130F for the internal temperature it's pretty safe and the chop should be pretty juicy still. Anyways, don't take my word for it. I'm not an expert in the field that's the sort of thing I keep in mind when I'm cooking pork. Same with game meats. So moving on! Here is the recipe: [yumprint-recipe id='9'] enjoy!](https://thatothercookingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/img_6621-1200x1200.jpg)
5 comments
Absolutely gorgeous. May I please ask a sous vide question? I bought a whole strip loin, cut it in half, froze one half. Sous vided it at 126 degrees for 12 hours and it was tough and chewy. I only reason I cooked it that way (which Stefan says is problematic in any case) is that I’d sous vided a whole top loin the same way and it was like butter/buttah. I’ve tried to research both of these “roasts” and the info is so contradictory and most people just sous vide individual strip steaks. Stefan recommends 131 degrees for 12 hours. Oh, and it’s grass-fed beef. I want to sous vide the other half but would really love to do it properly. Have you any experience with top sirloin? Thanks.
Thanks Mimi! I’ve been looking at your question and doing some thinking/reading. In my experience, there’s no reason why your approach should have failed. Strip loin is a tender cut, not as tender as the top sirloin but still no reason why it should have ended up chewy/tough. Unless the cut itself was problematic to begin with. I usually cook tender cuts to core temperature and not worry too much about pasteurizing to core which means quicker cooking and 12 hours seems a bit long but if you’re trying to adjust texture then totally makes sense.
I’ve dealt with some cuts that were supposed to be tender and ended up being a little tougher, it’s all good. If you have time, you could try stefan’s suggestion with a single steak and see if the texture improves. It should definitely be noticeable. But I gotta say I would have sous vide’ed it the same way you originally did though. 126F or even a little lower. Curious to see what you find out!
Jeezz I meant to say strip loin, not top sirloin. You can tell my meat knowledge is limited. To make things worse, I’ve yet to spot another whole top loin at the grocery store again. I’d talk to the “butchers” but they’re all just people who could as easily be selling vacuum cleaners. If I could get one regularly, I would. It was amazing. So now I still have this other half of a whole strip loin, from D’Artagnan. It’s already vacuum sealed even though it would be smart to cook one steak cut from it. I just had higher expectations, even though we don’t typically eat strip steaks. Especially with the sous vide’ing part. Well thank you. It’s not all straight forward!
hahahah the “butchers” 🙂 Wait, you got your strip loin from that store and it didn’t cook well huh? that’s even more mysterious. Not that I get stuff from them frequently but I’d think they are a good butcher online shop, no? I don’t want you getting discouraged about sous vide… I have had very few issues cooking this way and I’ve been doing it for so long. To me seems like you’re dealing with meat that isn’t what it should be. Maybe the age of the animal, the diet and exercise regime, so many variables.