Today’s recipe for a meat main course: beef stew, or mature beef, tender slow-cooked.
I suggest you prepare a nice loaf of bread to dip into the sauce, because here, mopping up the sauce is a must, you can make it at home and make it semi-wholemeal with biga or make a semolina bread, it’s your choice.
Veal stew is a classic of Italian country cooking, often enriched with potatoes or peas and a nice dose of tomato sauce to create a delicious gravy. I usually prepare it as my mom taught me and as I also prepare the Scottona bites, but this time I chose to cook it in the oven very slowly to obtain tender meat that can easily be cut with a fork, like butter! It will take some time, but the result will be exceptional, and while it cooks, you can do other things as you don’t have to keep checking or turning it.
The stew is part of the family of ‘braises’ and thus requires a good sauce in which to cook the chunks of meat that should not be too lean, otherwise our dish will be dry and stringy. The ideal cut of meat is the chuck and the neck, and more generally, a cut that is not too lean.
Let’s see together, step by step, how to make this recipe.
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- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Slow-Cooking, Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients for the Stew
- 1.76 lbs beef (chuck, stew)
- 1 carrot
- 1/2 onion
- 1/4 leek
- 1/2 cup tomato sauce
- 2 tbsp rice flour
- 1.4 oz olive oil
Tools
- 1 Pan
- 1 Cutting Board
- 1 Knife
- 1 Baking Dish
Let’s Prepare the Veal Stew Together
Take the mature beef chuck and cut it into pieces about 1.2 inches by 1.2, usually my butcher cuts them large, and I always resize them, try to make pieces roughly the same size for even cooking. In a non-stick pan, pour half of the oil, let it heat up, and add half of the meat.
Create a small crust on all sides, then remove the meat from the pan and place it in the baking dish. Seal the remaining pieces of meat in the same pan and then add them to the baking dish.
Meanwhile, clean and cut the onion, carrot, and leek. Remove the skins and cut them into pieces. Slice the leek into rounds and leave it in a bowl with water for a while to remove any sand.
In the same pan where you seared the meat, pour the remaining oil and add the carrot, onion, and leek, then let them roast, salting lightly. Toast well, then add the rice flour and a ladle of hot water, let it thicken for a minute, and turn off the heat.
cooking vegetables beef stew
thickener rice flour beef stew
Salt the meat in the baking dish, add the just-cooked vegetables and the tomato sauce, mix, and cover with foil.
Bake in a preheated oven at a temperature of 340°F for a couple of hours, the meat will release its juices, creating a delicious sauce. Then take it out of the oven and enjoy this very tender meat.
Take a photo of your slow-cooked tender beef stew and post it on social media tagging me (a curly-haired mess instagram and facebook) and let me know what side dish you prepared. I made a delicious mashed potato.
A Curly-Haired Mess Recommends
You can accompany your beef or mature beef stew with mashed potatoes or cauliflower or with soft polenta. Veal stew keeps well in the fridge for a couple of days in an airtight container.
FAQ (Questions and Answers)
What can I add to the beef stew?
If you like, you can add peas, potatoes, or diced pumpkin to the stew but you will need to add them later. They can be added when there is about half an hour of cooking left.
What cut of meat is best for stew?
To make an excellent stew, it is recommended to use the less noble parts of the animal, specifically, I recommend using the chuck or neck which has a lot of connective tissue and is therefore ideal for slow cooking, and it is certainly the most used cut for making stew, or the round, also known as chuck or shoulder round.
