Ginger and Tomato Beef Stew
Aug. 17th, 2008 05:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calzephyrAnother homage to my crockpot. It is by far the most faithful of kitchen companions and definitely my most loved! If it ever quits on me, I don't know what I'll do, although maybe it could be repurposed as a planter.
Today's recipe comes adapted from the 2005 Canadian Living Slow Cooker special. It's full of great recipes, but I haven't really made anything from it yet. That's the trouble with cookbooks sometimes.
500-600 g of beef stewing cubes
1 tbsp vegetable oil, or a few sprays of Pam
1 onion, diced (the original recipe said two)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp grated ginger or 1 tsp ground ginger
Pinch of hot pepper flakes
4 carrots, peeled and sliced (or a 1.5 cups of peeled baby carrots)
4 white turnips, peeled and quartered (I used three purple topped ones)
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes (I used Eden organic crushed tomatoes - made a great difference!)
1/2 cup beef stock
1/3 cup soy sauce (I used less, see below)
2 tbsp tomato paste (skipped this, didn't have it)
4 tsp fennel seeds
2 tsp whole cloves (skipped this, didn't have it)
2 tsp black peppercorns (used ground peppercorns)
1 stick cinnamon, broken into pieces (used 2ml ground cinnamon)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour (skipped this)
2 green onions (skipped this, didn't have it)
The stew did not suffer for a lack of the ingredients I skipped. I made a big deal about trying to find reduced sodium beef stock, and then when I got home and read the recipe again, I realized it was all for naught, given the soy sauce!
1. Spray frying pan with vegetable oil. Brown beef cubes until all sides are covered. Set aside.
2. Fry onions, garlic, ginger and hot pepper flakes until onions are softened, about 5 minutes. Scrape into slow cooker (I just sauteed the onions and added the spices by themselves to the crockpot)
3. Add carrots, turnips, tomatoes, beef stock, soy sauce and tomato paste to crockpot.
4. Tie fennel seeds, cloves, peppercorns and cinnamon in cheesecloth (I didn't, I tossed the spices in and gave the mixture a good stir).
5. Add beef.
6. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours (on high for 3-4 hours) or until meat is tender. Skim off fat. (Mine took 3 hours on high - and there wasn't much fat to skim because I had browned it a lot).
7. In bowl, stir flour with butter; stir into liquid in crockpot. Cover and cook on high until thickened, about 15 minutes. Sprinkled with green onions (skipped this step).
Makes 6-8 servings.
All the ingredients barely fit into my 2.5 quart crockpot. Doubling up on the recipe would make great lunches and dinners to freeze. We got one lunch out of it, plus all the leftover tomato sauce was great on pasta two days later. We liked the spiciness a lot - mild, subtle and tasty. I really preferred the taste of the turnips to potatoes too!
Today's recipe comes adapted from the 2005 Canadian Living Slow Cooker special. It's full of great recipes, but I haven't really made anything from it yet. That's the trouble with cookbooks sometimes.
500-600 g of beef stewing cubes
1 tbsp vegetable oil, or a few sprays of Pam
1 onion, diced (the original recipe said two)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp grated ginger or 1 tsp ground ginger
Pinch of hot pepper flakes
4 carrots, peeled and sliced (or a 1.5 cups of peeled baby carrots)
4 white turnips, peeled and quartered (I used three purple topped ones)
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes (I used Eden organic crushed tomatoes - made a great difference!)
1/2 cup beef stock
1/3 cup soy sauce (I used less, see below)
2 tbsp tomato paste (skipped this, didn't have it)
4 tsp fennel seeds
2 tsp whole cloves (skipped this, didn't have it)
2 tsp black peppercorns (used ground peppercorns)
1 stick cinnamon, broken into pieces (used 2ml ground cinnamon)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour (skipped this)
2 green onions (skipped this, didn't have it)
The stew did not suffer for a lack of the ingredients I skipped. I made a big deal about trying to find reduced sodium beef stock, and then when I got home and read the recipe again, I realized it was all for naught, given the soy sauce!
1. Spray frying pan with vegetable oil. Brown beef cubes until all sides are covered. Set aside.
2. Fry onions, garlic, ginger and hot pepper flakes until onions are softened, about 5 minutes. Scrape into slow cooker (I just sauteed the onions and added the spices by themselves to the crockpot)
3. Add carrots, turnips, tomatoes, beef stock, soy sauce and tomato paste to crockpot.
4. Tie fennel seeds, cloves, peppercorns and cinnamon in cheesecloth (I didn't, I tossed the spices in and gave the mixture a good stir).
5. Add beef.
6. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours (on high for 3-4 hours) or until meat is tender. Skim off fat. (Mine took 3 hours on high - and there wasn't much fat to skim because I had browned it a lot).
7. In bowl, stir flour with butter; stir into liquid in crockpot. Cover and cook on high until thickened, about 15 minutes. Sprinkled with green onions (skipped this step).
Makes 6-8 servings.
All the ingredients barely fit into my 2.5 quart crockpot. Doubling up on the recipe would make great lunches and dinners to freeze. We got one lunch out of it, plus all the leftover tomato sauce was great on pasta two days later. We liked the spiciness a lot - mild, subtle and tasty. I really preferred the taste of the turnips to potatoes too!
