First you start with a stone. Then you beg some water. Put the stone in the water and simmer it. Say it’s good, but needs a little salt. After adding the salt, and before you let anyone taste it, suggest it would be better if it had some carrots or potatos in it… 
Leeks? Do you hate leeks as well? I’ve stewed with leeks and they do the trick, too. Almost better than onions, sometimes. Also, I like a bit of celery root and parsnip in my stew (maybe studded with a couple cloves.) Like the posters above had said, stews are fairly forgiving and fun to experiment with. I definitely agree with the addition of thyme or paprika, but I wouldn’t combine both. If you’re gonna use the paprika, it’s okay to throw in some caraway seeds, as well. I occassionally use tomatoes in stews, but as northern piper mentioned, it can overpower a stew. I personally add one small tomato. Oh yeah, and parsely. Has everyone forgotten parsley?
Stung by his cold and snaky eye,
I roused myself at length
To say, “At least I do defy
The veriest sceptic to deny
That union is strength!”
“That’s true enough,” said he, “yet stay–”
I listened in all meekness–
“Union is strength, I’m bound to say;
In fact, the thing’s as clear as day;
But onions are a weakness!”
– from Lewis Carroll; Phantasmagoria
From the preceding replies, it sounds as if you will have a wonderful stew for dinner. Now, the only thing you need to make it perfect is to top it off with nice fluffy dumplings.
Great. I’m starving after reading this thread, and the only thing available at 2am is instant ramen from the convenience store. Still, this has inspired me to cook up a stew tomorrow and surprise (for better or worse) Subgirl when she comes home from work.
The stews I’ve done in the past have been mainly beef or sausages cooked with potatoes, cabbage, carrots, onions, mushrooms and red wine (plus lots of garlic, herbs and spices), and simmered until most of the liquid is gone. I’ve never tried flour, though, so this should be something new.
I have one question, though, and I’m afraid I’m going to get flamed by the purists for it, but here goes: beef stock isn’t that common in Japanese grocery stores, so I’ve been using beef boullion cubes in water. Is there that much of a difference in taste? If there is, I’ll head down to the gaijin-chow store and splurge on some beef stock.
–sublight.
I’m going to have to make a big pot of beef stew now! I put my onions in whole so I get lots of flavor and no danger of having to actually bite into one. For people that like onions, it works out great because they can have the whole thing!
I want to take issue with one point made by several people above, including a couple of posters whose culinary prowess I’ve come to respect.
Don’t flour the meat before you brown it, especially if you are going to have to brown it in batches, as you will probably have to do. Not only is it difficult to control how much flour enters the finished product, which can result in a pasty, overly thick (we’re talking pudding-like) consistency upon re-heating, but if you’re browning the meat in batches you will end up with some burned flour in your stew, which will impart a scorched flavor.
Instead, here’s an alternative method that’s a tiny bit more work but gives you an unbelievable stew. Brown the meat, un-floured, in a bit of butter or oil. Proceed with the assembly of the stew (veggies - I use potatoes, carrots, onion, and mushrooms; beef stock - not water - perhaps a cup of sweetish red wine, salt, pepper, and a bit of thyme) Once it’s all put together, heat it to boiling. Meantime, melt 4 tablespoons of butter and 4 tablespoons of olive oil in a saucepan over high heat. When it’s napalm-hot, add 6 tablespoons or so of flour and whisk frantically, never stopping and watching as the roux darkens. when it’s a nice tawny medium brown, remove it from the heat and scrape it into the bubbling stew, stirring until it’s incorporated.
The results will speak for themselves.
Darn it, I forgot to add that once the roux is incorporated, you lower the heat to low and cook it for several hours. VERY important to do that.
Geeze…how to answer? The difference between homemade beef stock, the canned or boxed (low sodium) broth, and boullion cubes is pretty close to the difference between fantastically good sex with a beloved partner, masturbation, and a proctology exam…with a clumsy doctor who doesn’t warm the lubricant first.
Fenris
Hm. First I’m thinking MPSIMS, then IMHO, then I come to this:
[[Onions are the Devil’s vegetable.]]
and I’m thinking the Pit.
You people are hopeless!
Add a splash of red wine.
Jill
I guess it goes to IMHO next for more cooks…
[Edited by JillGat on 04-26-2001 at 11:03 PM]
Well, never mind. I found the right recipe.
-Toad, that under cold stone days and nights hast thirty-one sweltered venom sleeping got
-Fillet of a fenny snake
-Eye of newt
-Toe of frog
-Wool of bat
-Tongue of dog
-Adder’s fork
-Blindworm’s sting
-Lizard’s leg
-Owlet’s wing
-Scale of dragon
-Tooth of wolf
-Witches’ mummy
-Maw and gulf of the ravined salt-sea shark
-Root of hemlock digged in the dark
-Liver of blaspheming Jew
-Gall of goat
-Slips of yew slivered in the moon’s eclipse
-Nose of Turk
-Tartar’s lips
-Finger of birth-strangled babe ditch-delivered by a drab
-Tiger’s chaudron
-Baboon’s blood
Unfortunately, I don’t know any Tartars, and my roommate Moishe describes his liver as “in use”, the wuss. So I guess I’ll just have to improvise.