The Quest for Mom’s Beef Stew

July 14th, 2006 | View Comments

It’s an oft-told story.

My mom is an excellent cook. A cook who rarely cooks by the book or the measuring spoon. When I moved out, I asked her to teach me to make several of my favorite dishes. And despite receiving written instructions and having seen many, many demonstrations and making several “Mooom, why does it look like this?” phone calls, the dishes never come out quite the same unless Mom is behind the stove.

But I am getting very, very close with the beef stew.

Ingredients: (measurements are approximate, as I’ve inherited my mom’s distaste for measuring devices)

1.5-2 lbs beef brisket, cut into approx. 2″ chunks
2 T. cooking oil
1/2 large onion, cut into approx. 1″ pieces
2 large stalks green onions, cut into approx. 1″ pieces
1/2 lb baby carrots
2 potatoes, cut into large chunks
1 tomato, cut into wedges
2 large cloves garlic
2 or 3 1/8″ slices of ginger
4 thingies of star anise
1 mysterious Asian spice pouch that contains cinnamon, anise, fennel, clove, and xanthoxylum, whatever that is
2 T. granulated sugar
1/2 cup brandy or red wine
1/4 cup soy sauce
salt to taste

Boil the cubed beef until some nasty foam forms on the top. Skim off foam and discard. I’m not quite sure what this step does, but my mom insists it’s necessary.

Brown beef in cooking oil and set aside.

Saute onions and half the green onions for a few minutes. Add garlic, ginger, star anise, and spice pouch and saute for a few more minutes. Return beef to the pot and add tomato, red wine, soy sauce, sugar, and salt. Stir.

Add potatoes and carrots. Add water until it just covers everything. I just use the water I originally boiled the beef in, after the foam has been skimmed off. Stir. Taste. Adjust seasonings as needed. Let it come to a boil.

Turn off heat, stir in remaining green onions, and throw the whole thing into the crock pot until the beef is soft and is easily mashed with a spoon.

Makes enough for one woman to eat for three days.

———————–

The flavor of the stew is pretty darn close to the flavor of my mom’s stew. She doesn’t always use garlic or tomato, but I like having them in there. The main difference is in the texture. Mom’s stew has so much gelatin in it that it turns solid after being refrigerated. This latest attempt did sport some solid bits after refrigerating, but is still runnier than my mom’s stew.

Not sure what I should do. More meat? Fattier meat? Beef stock instead of water? Mom just uses regular water though. Anyone? Bueller?

Yvonne posted this on July 14th, 2006 @ 1:59pm in Food/Cooking | Permalink to "The Quest for Mom’s Beef Stew"

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1. Jane » July 21st, 2006 at 3:45 pm

Um… add gelatin powder or cornstarch? But don’t listen to me, I’m dangerous in the kitchen. A couple of days ago I went to the grocery store, bought $7 worth of vegetables, chopped them all up, put them all in a pot, put in some beef stew mix I got from an Asian grocery store, added water, covered the pot, then let it heat to boil for 30 minutes. It was edible, which was good enough for me. Cass said it was “OK” by regular people standards and “very good!” by my cooking standards