Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Tips for Making Delicious Stew Recipes

By KC Kudra

When the weather is cold and your family is craving something thick and warming, how about making a delicious stew? A stew is a mixture of solid foods such as meat or fish and vegetables, which have been cooked slowly or simmered in liquid to combine the flavors well. The liquid is served as well as the chunky bits.

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 is usually served as an appetizer and stew is served as a main course. Stew always contains chunky ingredients and more solids than liquid. Soup is mostly liquid and is served in a bowl or deep dish. Chunky stews can be served on a plate.

How to Add Flavor to a Stew

Meat, water, and vegetables cooked together will produce a stew but a very bland one, so it is helpful to know how to liven up your stew recipes and make them more delicious.

Stew is a very versatile dish and can work well with many different combinations of meat, vegetables, liquids, herbs, and spices. It is a good idea to season your stew meat with plenty of salt and pepper before searing them in a hot pan.

You might want to roll the meat in flour to thicken up the stew. Meat chunks should be browned all over before you add them to the liquid. This means they will not dry out. This applies whichever type of meat you are using - chicken, beef, pork, or something else.

The next thing to do is saut your vegetables before adding wine, water, broth, juice, or another liquid. You need to scrape the bottom of the pan to get any stuck on bits off and mix them into the liquid. This adds lots of flavor. Put the meat back into the pan with the vegetables and liquid and cook it slowly until the flavors are well combined and everything is tender.

It is a good idea to check your stew every fifteen minutes or so to see if it needs more seasoning or more liquid. When it is ready, you might like to add some lemon juice, parsley, crispy crumbled bacon or cider at the very end to brighten up the flavor. It is also a good idea to serve your stew with some warm bread to mop up the delicious juices.

It is fun to make stew and extremely simple too. Whether you want to make a traditional Irish stew or a Moroccan chicken stew, as long as you follow the above tips your stew should be very nice. - 15275

About the Author: