I'd like your experience with crock pot beef stew. Not only Your favorite recipe, but your strategy for potatoes, carrots, etc.
I want vegetables with some texture. Bite.
If I put them in at the beginning, they're mushy. But, when would be a good time to add them later? I don't want to lift the lid, but some instructions call for adding them in the last stages of cooking.
I tend to add carrots at the start but in big chunks, though wouldn't cook them for longer than 3 hours unless I wanted them to dissolve.
Potatoes 30 to 40 minutes before the end.
A nice way to keep texture on the potatoes is with a Lancashire Hotpot where you slice them and layer them on top of the stew. (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandst...)
Ya know, I had to laugh at myself when It occurred to me that I never considered using a waxy potato instead of a russet. Maybe I'll go that route. I want them to absorb flavor, but also maintain a certain structural integrity.
That Lancashire Hotpot is for the oven, but maybe roast some potatoes and crisp them up before throwing them in the crock later in the cooking process?
For stew, we put the vegetables in at the start but in big enough pieces that they retain a little texture (we don't want too much texture). Potatoes are a rare occurance for us with stew, preferring suet dumplings. An exception would be Lancashire Hotpot (as mentioned by Tom) - but that's a very regional dish that is not a stew (not even Irish Stew). My Lancastrian mother would turn in her grave to hear it described as one.
I'm not a fan of crock pots, instant pots etc. I'd leave the veggies out at least through the first half of the cooking process. Depending on the size of the dice on the pots and veggies, maybe add in for that last third of cooking.
Nothing worse than totally tasteless hammered veggies.
This has been my go-to recipe for beef stew since it appeared in the magazine years ago. The veggies cook in a hobo pack on top of the meat so they don't get overcooked ... genius. Once I tried it this way, I'd never go back to cooking it all together.
I tend to make a form of BB. Matchstick vegetables are sweated with lardons of bacon to which cubes of chuck, floured and browned, are added. Herbs, ground pepper, garlic, and a little tomato paste come next with a little brandy. Sometimes the herbs are only thyme, and sometimes it is a mixture like herbs de Provence. Then come broth and wine. As it nears the end I add browned mushrooms and glazed pearl onions. It all goes over steamed new potatoes and is topped with chopped parsley. Unfortunately it is not a great recipe for a crockpot.
"I don't want to lift the lid, . . . ."
completely un-needed fretting.
take the lid off, add the potatoes, put the lid back on.
in terms of "hours of cooking," a seconds long "lid off event" is not a factor.
You have to lift the lid. I like to put an onion in at the start, with the meat, so it will cook completely. I cook the meat for quite a while before I add carrots. Then later still for potatoes and maybe more onion. I like to use small whole potatoes. Celery last.
You're the cook so it's up to you to decide how you want your veggies. And then cook them accordingly.
Potatoes need a certain amount of time to cook, so plan ahead. If you have new good quality potatoes I'd suggest the tim irvine approach above. Otherwise cook them separately until just done and add them 10 minutes before your stew is done.
Carrots, onions and celery are a bit different as they are also flavour makers. I often add these at the start of a stew to create a good flavour base. They will then give off their flavours to the stew and lose their texture, at which point I often decide to mix them into the sauce, e.g. using a food mill. If you still want nice carrots on your plate for example with some bite, just cook some new ones. Either serve them cooked apart (tim's method), or cook them until they're just done and add them again at the last minute to the your stew.
One of my favourite beef stews comes from fairly close to damiano's region. I know it, in Dutch, as rundsstoverij (or Flemish beef stew) and is always on my eating agenda when I visit Northern Belgium (usually the town of Ieper). It's a very rich beef stew, in my experience, with only onions being cooked with the meat. Potatoes are served separately and are always chips (that's British chips, not North American chips).
Chowhound is always such a kind and generous place to come for advice.
Thanks to everyone!
Since slow cookers heat so slowly, adding a bunch of cool potatoes will crash the temperature quite a bit, probably extending cooking time.. If you have enough excess liquid in your stew to cook your potatoes, you could borrow some of that and use it to cook your potatoes in a separate pot, then add them back together at the end.
I cook the stew with chopped up veg for flavor. I pull out the meat, skim the fat (or refridge it over night and pull off the fat layer when hardened)..and I will stick blend the gravy to thicken it.
in the meantime I roast some veggies separately and dump them in. not the peas if using..those go in frozen and get warmed thru. pearl onions are great with a tiny bit of oven char.
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