I love stewing beef, lamb and pork. My favorites are ox tail, pork tail, pork trotters, and pork spare ribs. Here are my issues:
After browning the meat, I put in garlic and onions. No celery or bell peppers or green onions. You see, I want vegies besides onon and garlic to be slightly fresh and not tired out. But why do most recipes put in the celery and other green condiments in, before simmering for nearly 2 hours?
My standard for carrots is 20 minutes cooking time, while for potatoes it’s 15 minutes. Our mother, and practically every kitchen I hand I know follows this rule (we’re Filipinos.) Recipes call for a longer boil: 30 minutes to an hour. Doesn’t that “kill” your veggies?
I put in celery last, just when I’m about to turn off the heat. I go for the aroma and the crunch. Green leaves like cabbage or boc choi I cook for only a few minutes. Green onions I put only during plating.
Onions, carrots and celery are the ingredients of the French mirepoix, which is usually a finely chopped mixture of the 3 (don’t know the ratios off hand) used to add aromatics to a great many dishes and sauces.
So I imagine that people put the 3 of them into something like say… pot roast with the same intent. Not everyone eats the super-cooked vegetables, and I’ve seen recipes where the drippings and vegetables are pureed and used as a sauce.
Yeah, I use the trinity for almost everything and it does make an excellent base.
I don’t understand adding garlic with the onions at the beginning of a cooking process, but I’ve never been able to cook them together without burning the garlic.
If I’m doing a braise, then the garlic won’t burn, it will caramelize and melt into delicious sweet garlic goo.
Sauteed? Oh, yes. Garlic must be added just at the last second, preferably just before something with more volume goes into the pan, like a deglazing or simmering liquid.
For pot roasts and the such, I will often remove the “spent” vegetables and replace them with fresher ones 20-30 minutes before the dish is done. I’ve tried pureeing them into a sauce, and the celery just overwhelms everything. For a food with very little flavor when raw, celery is quite the powerhouse when cooked to mush.
If I have bones I’ll put bake them along with carrots, onion, garlic, celery, and sometimes tomato for about 45 minutes at 350F in a heavy pan. I deglaze the pan to start the sauce for to simmer the meat. I’ll put potatoes in right away and turnips in right away. All other vegetables get sliced thin and add near the end of cooking.
For simple stews I just brown everything and cover it.
Thanks gents. I like the reply that carrots and ‘trinity’ are really boiled down into a purée. Well, that’s what I get if I keep reheating stew from the fridge. It just gets better. Right now, I’m trying to master Spanish puchero, which is sweet stew. Do the browning, soutee, deglaze, simmer. But add tomato sauce. At the end, sweeten further with ripe plantain or even milk chocolate.
