Beef stew

Beef Stew with Fresh Casserole Herbs

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Once in a while you crave for tender, flavorful beef and kaldereta is not what you want. If that’s the case I suggest you try this recipe. I bought beef parts without any particular dish in mind. Beef bones make flavorful broth and tendons are delicious, delectable chews. Got a handful of mixed fresh herbs plus I grow fresh parsley and concocted this flavorful beef stew. Again, not claiming this is my original recipe but all I did was to trust my judgement on which herbs go well together and what my family likes. It’s a process that includes trying out one herb at a time as well as occasional dining out. You’ve got to know what ingredient makes each dish shine.

I’ve come to understand that parsley is more than just a garnish; it is definitely edible and it enhances the individual flavor of a dish. Thyme is always good with almost anything, be it soup, roast or sauces. Rosemary… ahh this is different. Once I grilled lamb with rosemary and honey, quite exquisite taste but not to my family’s liking. It is just too strong a flavor for us. So for this recipe, I added just a sprig and let its flavor sink into the stew just enough and discard it immediately.

This stew… love it. A and the kiddo love it. I feel good and I do think I’m getting more and more experimental nowadays. Going out of my comfort zone and feeding my family with new delectable dishes you normally get from expensive restaurants. I’m excited to share all these ideas and recipes especially to busy, working pinoy moms out there like me.

Ingredients:
Olive oil
Meaty beef bone parts
Beef tendons
1 large onion, peeled
1 large garlic clove, pealed and crushed
3-5 large tomatoes, chopped
2 potatoes, cut into chunks
1 to 2 carrots, cut into chunks
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme
1 rosemary sprig (optional)
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 bay leaf
About 10 pieces of peppercorns
Salt
Pepper (optional)

Blanch beef tendons and rinse. Then add both tendons and meaty bone parts in a pot of boiling water. Remove scum that rises to the top. Add peppercorns and onion and simmer for an hour or until meat can be separated from bones. Scoop out all beef parts and reserve beef broth. Carefully take out meat from bones and cut into chunks. Slice tendons the same size. Discard bones.

In a non-stick deep casserole, fry garlic in oil until aromatic. Add beef parts and, with frequent stirring, cook until browned. Add tomatoes and saut?� for a minute. Using a fine mesh strainer, pour reserved broth into the casserole, keeping your broth clean and pure. Bring to boil. Add fresh thyme and bay leaf, and season with salt and pepper. Simmer until you think tendons are almost melt-in-your-mouth tender, adding cups of water when necessary.

Add potatoes and carrots, and continue to simmer until vegetables are cooked, stirring constantly. Add rosemary sprig and simmer for another couple of minutes. Discard rosemary. Remove pot from your cook top and stir in half of chopped parsley into the stew. Serve topped with the remaining chopped parsley.

Quite late but this is still for Food Friday.
Food Friday

Aside from fresh herbs (home-grown) I have used 100% New Zealand beef. That means the meat came from cows born and raised on NZ farms, produced according to the country’s animal welfare codes, low in food miles and free from added growth hormones. Vegetables from farmer’s market. Yet I’m not sure if good enough for Anna’s low-carbon cooking, I mean, with the amount of time (and electricity) I spent to cook it hahaha! I also tried the carbon footprint calculator and found out if everyone lived like me, we’d need 1.6 planet Earths to provide enough resource!

Tonight at 8:30pm, Saturday 28 March, let’s unite and switch off our lights for an hour. Earth Hour.

Earth Hour recap here.

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Iska
I am not a professional cook. My only claim to having a culinary background is a short stint as my dad’s teen ‘sous chef’ in his carinderia ages ago. Dad ran small eateries since I was a young kid - serving standard ‘turo-turo’ food ranging from the likes of menudo, adobo, pritong isda, dinuguan, binagoongan, bopis, munggo, pinakbet and giniling to merienda fares like goto, ginataan, pancit bihon, halu-halo and saging con yelo.

My father, a farmer in his hometown before working his way to becoming an accountant, definitely influenced my cooking in a lot of ways than I thought. My siblings and I were raised in a backyard full of fruit trees and vegetable garden. We spent weekends and the summer breaks running around with ducks, chickens, goats and pigs. I had wonderful memories of gathering eggs, butchering chickens, selling vegetables and the sweet aroma of preserved fruits. But my love for art led me to a degree in Architecture. Just few months after getting my license, I went abroad and lived independently at age 23. Definitely no maid, no cook, and a totally different food culture. Along the way I met lots of friends and spent what seemed a lifetime learning new tricks and recipes.

Now living in Auckland, I am a work-from-home mum who juggles time between work, fun and family - in pursuit of work-life balance. No matter how busy I am, I love the idea of cooking for my family. My blog chronicles home cooking greatly influenced by life outside my home country from Southeast Asia to Beijing and Auckland. And most of the time, being busy also means easy (sometimes quick), affordable meals.

10 thoughts on “Beef Stew with Fresh Casserole Herbs

  1. oh my … that looks sooooo good! my son doesn’t like much the taste of rosemary, too.

    thanks for playing, and for sharing the recipe, Iska
    will try this one of these days … :)

    happy weekend!
    ps. almost 8:30pm here … my family and i are joining. :)

    maiylah´s last blog post..Food Friday

    1. nyahaha! sister, sa Pak-N-Save sa Botany ko yan nabili. usually dun
      lang ako nakakakita nyan din.

      yung buto-buto masarap din pang-laga o kaldereta. meron din dun goat
      meat, masarap. walang anggo.

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