Cooking Catch-up

[tuftears]

So, I probably forgot to mention it, but last week I picked up a crock pot and embarked on my first ever effort with it: beef curry stew!

"But Tufty, why a crock pot, and why beef curry stew?"

I've attempted to make stew in the past, but with both the wrong meat (chicken breasts just don't do it) and I can't seem to get the hang of 'simmering' the meat so it becomes properly tender. Since my mom is getting on in her years, and no longer finds hard-to-chew food interesting, it seemed like a good idea for me to start learning to make really tender, yet delicious food.

As for beef curry stew - well, I'd just made ground turkey chili the previous week, which was very well received, so I didn't want to just make chili again. (that's for this weekend) I wanted a strong flavoring that wouldn't also necessitate a high-sodium content... So, I figured that curry might do the trick.

How did it come out? Pretty well, really, once I got past the shock of food that takes a minimum of six hours to cook. (I tasted my first bowl of this at about midnight) The beef indeed came out melt-in-your-mouth-ishly and made three jars of stew, which we ate over the week. Best served with rice but also works to eat it with ramen noodles.

Recipe? Meh! I didn't follow any one beef curry stew recipe exactly. I did sautee the onions, then brown the meat, then set the meat aside, and layered the food, potatoes and onions at the bottom, beef on top of that, other veggies (like chopped up lettuce, we had to get rid of that stuff). It's kind of like fried rice, you can throw in whatever you've got sitting around.

Comments

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, good stew meat is wonderfully tender after cooking a long, long time. the slow gentle heat melts down all the fat and connective tissue, and suffuses it into the rest of the meat. Mmmm.

Sounds great... except for the cooked lettuce, which I still cannot dig despite assurances. ;)

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

It's practically invisible in the final dish!

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

Crock pots are great! just chop everything the night before, then in the morning toss everything in the pot and come home to dinner.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Well, in my case, chopping everything up the night before and cooking it overnight to have chili in the morning. };9

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

I'm actually making a pot roast with some Japanese curry tomorrow. Mmm!

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

A pot roast with curry flavoring? Or with a Japanese curry on the side?

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

I will throw the curry bricks into the crockpot with the roast. Like this!

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

I see! Do you have to break the curry up and mix it into the water first then? I can't imagine that working too well if it's just a big block of curry powder.

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

I will probably mix the curry blocks with water first, then dump the sludge all over everything. :D

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

I can see this now.

"Hey Shawn, I put CURRY SLUDGE in our dinner!"

"Yay, SLUDGE!"

[stryck.livejournal.com]

I must learn how to make curry! I love the taste, but haven't picked it up yet.

Glad the crockpot is working out!

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

My guess is that you'll want to pick up curry powder and coconut milk. };) Other than that it seems pretty similar to a regular stew.