Friday, February 27, 2009

How to Make the Best Tasting Stew Recipes

By KC Kudra

Stews are very popular, especially when the weather is cool, and you want something warming and tasty. A stew is a combination of solid foods, usually meat, or fish with vegetables that have been simmered or cooked slowly in a liquid sauce to allow the flavors to combine well. The sauce is served as well as its contents.

Popular ingredients to use in stew recipes include chicken, seafood, meat, potatoes, fish, beans, fruit, and carrots. You can use bouillon, water, beer, or wine in the stew liquid and seasonings give the dish more flavor.

What is the Difference between Stew and Soup?

Stewing is often used for cheap, tough meat cuts because stewing is the only way to make them tender. A stew has larger pieces of meat, fish, or vegetables than a soup and there is more of those and less liquid than you would get in a soup.

Soup can contain small chunky or be a pureed liquid with no bits in. It is served as an appetizer whereas a stew is a main dish. Soups are served in deep bowls whereas a chunky stew can be served on a plate.

Making Your Stew Rich and Flavorful

There is a limit to how flavorful a combination of meat, vegetables and water can be, which is why it is useful to know how to make your stew recipes flavorful.

You can use different combinations of meat; fish, herbs, vegetables, and spices in stew recipes because the dish is so versatile. It is a good idea to season the meat with salt and pepper and sear it in a hot pan before adding it to the liquid.

You can roll the raw meat in flour too for a thicker stew. Make sure the meat chunks are browned all over before adding them to the stew liquid, so they retain their juices. This applies to chicken stew as well as beef stew or any other kind of meat you are going to use.

The next step in making an exciting stew is to saut some vegetables in the pan, then add water, wine, juice, broth or whichever liquid you are using and scrape the bottom of the pan to incorporate any stuck on bits into the liquid. Put the meat back into the pan and cook slowly.

You should check the stew now and then to see if it needs more liquid, more seasoning, or a stir. When it is cooked, you can add some parsley, crumbled bacon, cider, or lemon juice to liven up the flavor. You can serve it with some warm bread on the side for mopping up the tasty juices.

Stew is a lot of fun to make and it is also very easy. Whether you want to make a green chile chicken stew or an authentic Irish stew, as long as you bear the above tips in mind your stew should come out great.

About the Author:

No comments: