Beef stew * how to clean and use turnips and parsnips

Beef Stew

1 or 2 lbs beef, cut up

about ½ c flour

salt and pepper

thyme

1 onion, diced

carrots, sliced

potatoes, peeled and cut up

turnips, diced (optional)

celery, sliced (optional)

stock or water

In a small bowl, mix the flour with some salt and pepper and use it to dredge the meat. Put some oil in a large pot and brown the meat along with the diced onion. When the meat is browned and the onions mostly translucent, add 4-6 cups of stock, broth, or water. Add the chopped vegetables, bring to a boil, turn heat down to low, and simmer. Add more salt and dried thyme.

Simmer, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender. To thicken, mix about a teaspoon of corn starch or flour with a cup of the stew’s broth and return it to the pot. Stir it well, bring back to a boil, and turn heat off. Stew will thicken as it cools.

Welcome to the Real Life Cooking Podcast. I’m Kate Shaw and this week we’re going to learn how to make beef stew.

I don’t eat a lot of beef these days. It’s too expensive, for one thing, it’s not that good for you, and cattle ranches contribute to a lot of environmental issues like deforestation of the Amazon and other areas. But occasionally I just really want to make beef stew, because it’s one of my favorite recipes and one of the first ones I ever made.

When I was in high school, specifically tenth grade, a friend of my mom’s hired me to pet sit for a week in the summer. She had a cat and a tiny dog which was actually smaller than the cat, and they were good friends. I would go over and spend hours every day in the fenced yard, letting the animals play together while I read in the shade. And mostly what I read was my mom’s friend’s cookbooks. When I found a recipe I wanted to try, I would copy it carefully into a spiral notebook. The only recipe I specifically remember is this one. Except that it wasn’t beef stew, it was lamb stew, with beef suggested as an option if lamb wasn’t available. So if you can get your hands on a good cut of lamb, it should work great instead of beef. I love lamb and mutton but it’s really hard to find where I live.

Anyway, you’ll need a small bowl and a big pot for this recipe. How big a pot is up to you, but like all stews and soups this recipe is really flexible and you can make as much as your pot will hold. You also don’t have to have a lot of meat. I found a half-pound package of stew beef and used it in an enormous pot, and it’s still rich and tasty.

By the way, you don’t actually have to buy meat labeled as stew beef. Any cut of beef will do. I mean, don’t use ground hamburger, but you can certainly use a little piece of chuck roast or anything else. You cut it up yourself and it’s easy. I’ll go over that in a minute.

The vegetables you use in this recipe are flexible too. I always use lots of carrots and potatoes, but I really like to add a turnip or two if I can get them. Turnips and parsnips are criminally under-utilized in my part of the United States—that would be the southeast—so they’re expensive here and can be hard to find, just like lamb. But both are great in this recipe. Celery is good in it, of course you’ll need onions, and if you just want to use up some bits and pieces of leftover veggies, toss them in.

The first thing you’ll want to do is dice your onion. Then pour a little oil into your pot and add the diced onion, but don’t turn the heat on just yet. Take the small bowl and mix flour, salt, and pepper to make seasoned flour. You’ll dredge your meat in this just like we talked about in the chicken and dumplings episode.

Now, get your beef out. If you bought stew beef that’s already cut up, you’re still going to want to cut it up smaller and trim off any gristle. If you bought a piece of beef t