In news:rec.food.cooking, "cybercat" > posted on Fri,
9 Apr 2010 03:04:07 -0400 the following:

> I made a batch of beef stew the old way, dredging beef cubes in flour
> seasoned with salt and pepper, then browning a few pieces at a time in
> olive oil, adding water, bringing to a boil and reducing to a slow
> simmer until the meat is tender. As we have discussed before, after
> braising the liquid is properly thickened, but after adding carrots,
> potatoes, etc. water thins it down.

That's the old way? I guess it's old, but it's still the way I do it...to
a point. I don't normally make stew, but just beef tips and gravy for
ladling over rice. After giving the beef tips or stew meat a some
browning time in a hot, oily iron skillet, I put them in a crock pot with
some beef broth, chicken broth, and a can of pureed cream of mushroom (or
if I have the stuff, freshly-made creamy mushroom soup), along with
garlic, onion juice, salt, and pepper. I let the meat simmer until
tender. Then I make a roux and use some of the liquid from the crock pot
to make a gravy, and i have to say, using liquid that's been slowly
simmering away for about eight hours, it's so good I'd almost like to put
it in a cup and sip it like coffee or hot chocolate. And hell, why not?
lol

> This time around I used the fat I skimmed from the stew, put some in a
> small sauce pan, added an appropriate amount of flour, browned it nicely
> into a kind of roux, then added this to the stew after the vegetables
> were done. It turned out perfect.

Yes. I've never done that with carrots and potatoes. I actually hate
potatoes in soups because they eventually turn to mushy lumps, and I don't
like carrots in there because they taste so wonderful raw that the cooked
version is just nasty. I do, however, like corn, english peas, string
beans, and kidney beans in soups with or without a tomato base, along with
coarsely-ground hamburger meat.

Damaeus
--
"Marijuana leads to homosexuality ... and therefore to AIDS."
White House Drug Czar Carlton Turner 1986