The Spanish have a reputation for it, la comida de cuchara, “spoon meals,” that style of consolation meals that’s soupy, stewy, saucy, slow-cooked deliciousness. It’s heart-warming meals that additionally warms up the kitchen. These embrace potajes and cocidos, pots of legumes plus veggies plus meat, but in addition estofados and guisos, two phrases for stews, these normally with out legumes.
Whereas slow-cooked stews are excellent for chill February days, hints of spring (almond bushes in bloom, daffodils poking up by means of damp soil) counsel a swap to new-season greens—artichokes and peas go into this beef stew.
This stew is totally different from the old style one my mom made. The gravy is thickened with floor almonds as a substitute of flour. The almond sauce, generally generally known as pepitoria or ajopollo, is equally good with meatballs, with vegetarian dishes similar to potatoes, with hen and fish.
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| A heart-warming beef stew for February. Artichokes and peas give a touch of spring. |
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| Serve crimson wine with this stew. |
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| Spoon meals! With bread, in fact. |
I used cabezal de lomo, a lower of beef from the highest of the loin. Chuck is the most effective equal. Additionally good are brisket, beef cheeks or shanks. They’ve sufficient collagen and fats to maintain the braised meat juicy. Lean beef cooks up dry. Pork or lamb stew meat may be cooked utilizing the identical recipe. For a vegetarian model, use mushrooms as a substitute of beef, vegetable inventory, and add quartered hard-boiled eggs to the completed stew.
Beef Stew with Artichokes
Guiso de Ternera con Alcachofas
If utilizing entire spices, crush them in a mortar then add them to the bread and almonds within the blender. Add floor spices on to the blender.
Serves 4.
1 ½ kilos stewing beef
Salt
Freshly floor black pepper
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves peeled garlic
1/3 cup blanched and skinned almonds
1 slice bread, crusts eliminated
Parsley
½ cup white wine
Pinch of saffron threads
½ teaspoon coarse salt
¼ teaspoon black peppercorns
1 clove
1 crimson onion, julienned
2 ½ cup meat or hen inventory
1 bay leaf
2-inch cinnamon stick
2 massive artichokes (1 ¼ kilos)
3 carrots, lower in 1-inch items
Lemon juice
1 cup shelled peas, recent or frozen
Reduce the meat into spoon-size (1-inch) chunks. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Let the meat come to room temperature.
Warmth 3 tablespoons of the oil in a stew pan or deep skillet. Add the garlics. Once they start to sizzle add the almonds and slice of bread. Fry them, turning, till they’re golden. Skim them out and place in a blender. Add a sprig of parsley and the wine. Let these components soak till the bread softens.
Add remaining 1 tablespoon of oil to the stew pan. On medium warmth sauté the onions till they start to brown, 8 minutes. Flip up the warmth and add the cubes of beef. Let the meat brown on one aspect. Flip it and proceed browning. Add 2 cups of the inventory, the bay leaf and cinnamon stick. Simmer, lined, half-hour.
Whereas beef is cooking, place the saffron in a mortar with the coarse salt, peppercorns and clove. Crush the spices and add them to the blender with the fried bread. Mix to make a clean paste. Set it apart.
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| Scoop out choke. |
Add the carrots to the pan with the meat. Strip the artichokes of outer leaves, lower off and discard the highest 2/3 of the leaves, leaving the bottoms solely. Reduce the bottoms into quarters. Use a melon ball cutter to scoop out the fuzzy chokes. Drop the artichoke items into water with lemon juice.
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| Simmer till beef is tender. |
After the meat has simmered half-hour, add the carrots and artichokes to the pan. Stir within the paste of almonds, garlic, and fried bread. Add remaining ½ cup of inventory. Prepare dinner, uncovered, till the alcohol cooks off, 2 minutes. Style for salt and add extra if wanted. Cowl the pan and simmer till beef may be very tender, 30 to 60 minutes extra. Add the peas 2 minutes earlier than eradicating the pan from the warmth. Discard the bay leaf and cinnamon stick. Let the stew settle 5 minutes earlier than serving. Garnish with chopped parsley.
Extra stews:
