Beef Stew = Beef Stew

Let me first say that I love traditionally made beef stew.  A nice piece of cornbread sitting in the bottom of a bowl with a heaping pile of stew covering it like it was going to be a surprise when I got to the end.   Before I get into the rest of this post let me say that a recipe or a dish should be a starting point for what you like.  What my taste buds tell me may not be what your taste buds tell you.  Don’t ever be afraid to take a recipe and make it yours,  you’ll love it more in the end.  Back to the post at hand.  The first of two issues I had was it took to long to make.  If I didn’t plan to eat stew days in advance then I didn’t happen.  The other issue was that while it was delicious it basically had one continuous flavor.  The carrots tasted like the beef and the potatoes tasted like the beef broth.  I set out to try to create a stew that was just as comforting but was quicker and allowed the individual pieces to shine on their own but still be a cohesive dish.

How do I cook carrots, potatoes, onions, and peas that are individuals and still keep that comforting taste.  The answer was to cook them as separate pieces but allow them to caramelized while cooking.  What this allowed was the pieces to cook without getting to soft but create that deep rich taste as if they had cooked all day.

From blog

The onion is cooked the longest and slowest.  I wanted to get that caramelization you get by cooking them over a mid grade heat and stirring often.  Then I would put the carrots and potatoes in separate pans and cook them over mid-high heat.  The potatoes are bite size pieces, and the carrots are bite size baby carrots.  These two are allowed to cook for a good amount of time before turning them.  The key here is to allow the caramelization happen.  If you stir to often or to early you are not going to get that color you want.  To check progress just turn one piece over. 
The Grocery store that I went to seemed to be in some sort of funk because they didn’t have much for me to use in my stew.  I ended up buying a bag of frozen peas to heat and add to the stew.  This is one big area for you to make this yours.  The combination to use for the stew is endless.  It would be best to buy local if possible and buy in season.  Since it is fall add some hard squash or pumpkin.  When these items are done throw them into a bowl.

For the beef, since we are not cooking this for hours we can buy a nicer cut of beef.  I decided to buy a couple of strip steaks that I found on sale.  With a high heat quickly fry your cubes of steak the add your garlic, beef broth, red wine, and balsamic.  let this reduce by a third and then add all the ingredients to the pan.  cook this final stage for about ten min.

In the end what you will have is a dish that is quicker, tastier,and  more flexible.  Just remember the key here is to cook the pieces separate and caramelize them.  And make your own.

What I did:
2 onions caramelized with a little salt, pepper and oil

2 bags of baby carrots with a little salt, pepper and oil

5 med potatoes with as you guessed a little salt pepper and oil

1 bag of frozen peas cooked by directions on bag

1 pound of strip steak cooked with salt and pepper

Sauce :

3 garlic cloves

3/4 c. beef broth

1/2 c. red wine

2 tbl balsamic

1 tbl stone ground mustard

make it the way your family likes it.  My family loves carrots so we add twice as much as you would probably need.  It’s a family meal make it for your family.

Happy Halloween

Having a little morning fun!

Digital Eats + Pumpkin = Pilgram

When I thought of pumpkin pies at thanksgiving I am reminded of the fact that by the time the pie is ready to be eaten most of the family is doing there own thing by then.  Dad and uncles are watching the game, mom and aunt are doing mom and aunt things.  Im running around the house doing this or that.  Another thing was that the dishes were done by then and to get a slice of pie you had to dirty another dish.  What I then wanted to create was a piece of pumpkin pie that was easily accessable and that it didn’t need to dirty a lot of new dishes.

What I decided upon was little one or two bite “pies” that are either open faced (traditional) or closed.  Here at Digital Eats we do all we can from scratch.  We will first roast fresh pumpkin, make cream cheese pie dough, make a pumpkin pie filling and finally a dipping sauce.

The first step is to roast the pumpkin.  I found a small sugar pumpkin grown here in Texas, sugar pumpkins are smaller, sweeter and better tasting then the jack o lantern kind.  What I like to do is cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out all the seeds, save the seed in a seperate bowl, place the pumpkin face down on the baking sheet.  For this recipe I poured half a bottle of Young’s chocolate stout beer on the pan around the pumpkin.  This is baked at 325 degrees for about an hour, its done when its fork tender.  After the pumpkin is cool scoop out the flesh and reserve it in a bowl.

While the pumpkin is cooking I make the cream cheese pie dough.  Mix cream cheese, butter, sugar and salt till creamy.  slowly add in flour and baking powder till it comes together.  I don’t use water when making my pie doughs because I don’t want to develop any more gluten in the flour than I have to.  Once the dough is done wrap it in plastic and place it in the fridge.

To make the pie filling take all the ingredients except the eggs and place them in a blender and puree them till the are smooth.  add the eggs and give it a quick spin to blend.

To assemble, roll out dough and cut it to fit into the pan you have decided to use.  I am using a small square silicon pan. If you deciede to make them open faced i would suggest to par bake the shells a little before filling them up.  If you are going to make them closed then place dough in pan trim to fit then fill with the pumpkin filling.  You will need to roll out a second sheet and cut smaller pieces to fit on top.  Once cut, egg wash the pieces and place them egg wash down on the bottom pieces, trim again and egg wash the top. Cut a small slit in top to let steam out.  Bake the pies at 325 degrees for about 10-15 min.  Cool and pull from pan.

Finally make the sauce.  Boil the cream,left over beer, and sugar then pour it over the chocolate.  Stir till smooth and pour into bowl. 

Cream Cheese Pie Dough

8 oz    Cream Cheese

8 oz     butter

1/2 c   sugar

3/4 tsp  salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

3 c    AP flour

Pumpkin Pie Filling

1 1/2 c    pumpkin puree

1 c     heavy cream

1/2 c   brown sugar

1/4  c  sugar

1/2 tsp    salt

1  tsp cinnamon

1/2  tsp  ginger

1/4  tsp nutmeg

1/4 c pure maple sugar

1  tsp vanilla

3   eggs

Dipping sauce

3 oz left over beer from roasting

3oz   cream

2  tbl  brown sugar

3  oz   dark chocolate