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Monday, April 13, 2015

How I Cook My Simple Beef Stew

So..my dad was asking me how I manage to make food taste so good…very humbling.

Number 1, quality ingredients. You can’t make a vitz perform like a ferrari, you just can’t. I always go an extra mile to source the best ingredients I can get. In this case, the beef I got from our local cleanshelf supermarket who have very tasty beef, well marbled and also well priced, about Ksh 400 a KG. Most leading supermarkets generally have good quality meats, especially uchumi, their lamb and pork is heavenly divine. They also have well refrigerated meats, very important if I am going to eat my steak medium-rare. Though when I am stewing beef I prefer prime rib or rib eye, on bone for flavor and nutrients as well.

Also having a good friendly relationship with your butcher and mama mboga will help in getting you discounts and more importantly, getting the good fresh stuff.

Simplicity

Second things I always do is simplicity. When you have great ingredients, you need not do much to them, just a little natural Himalayan salt, black pepper, freshly ground of course, cayenne pepper, unrefined demerara sugar and some cumin to make a quick cure for the meat, rub it in and refrigerate at from 8 hours to 48 hours ideally.

Then I temper it by removing it from the fridge like 1 hour before cooking for a better crust and even cooking, say for a steak.

To cook it I first sear the meat on coconut oil and a little brown butter (heating the butter gently until it turns brown – adds so much flavor), each side about 7 minutes on medium-low heat. I set that aside then add the crushed garlic & ginger, chopped cherry tomatoes, dania/cilantro stalks, onion, celery, potato, fresh chilies (seeded and finely chopped) and leek. Sweet that on even lower heat for about 8 minutes, nice and slow.

beef stew recipe

Next I Deglaze with water (if you have stock the better), bring to a simmer and cook it for about 20 minutes. Lastly I garnish with the dania/cilantro leaves and leave it to rest for about 10 minutes.






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