I am posting this recipe by request after I made it for a potluck this last Friday. I am very glad for the chance to post it because it gives me the chance to educate you guys on proper stew-making! Sorry there’s no pic; It was all eaten up before I could take one! I know the instructions look long; that’s only because I’ve taken time to extensively explain the fine points of a perfect stew. It’s actually really easy: cube and brown the meat, add the other ingredients, simmer into oblivion. Traditional recipes for stew usually call for thickening the stew with some sort of starch; I found this to be unnecessary for two reasons: 1) potatoes, rice and noodles aren’t paleo so we don’t need a gravy-like consistency because we’re not ladling it over anything, and 2) The stew is amazing without it! This recipe really is delicious and I hope you all enjoy it!
- beef rump roast – 3 pounds
- fat of choice – 3 tablespoons
- onion – 2 cups diced
- celery – 2 cups diced
- carrot – 2 cups diced
- canned tomatoes – 28 oz., undrained
- water – 4 cups
- dry red wine – 1/4 cup
- garlic – 3 cloves, minced
- salt – 1/2 teaspoon
- First, cube the meat. A rump roast is a natural choice for this stew because it has very little marbling, but ample collagen/connective tissue, which melts during the low-and-slow cooking time and results in tender, succulent meat. You’ll want to use a newly-sharpened chef’s knife and a plastic (not wood, which soaks up the raw meat juices and becomes unsanitary) cutting board for this process. Make sure your roast is completely thawed, although 20 minutes in the freezer right before cutting can make this task easier. Rinse your cut of meat and dry it with paper towels,and trim off any fat/membranes. Now figure out the direction of the grain of the meat. The grain is the way the strands of meat are layed out. You want to start cutting 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch slices perpendicular to the grain of the meat with a nice, smooth sawing motion. You might have to cut the roast diagonally in order to cut against the grain. Once you have finished this step, your meat should like a lot of little steaks. Now cut the meat into cubes. Do this by cutting each little “steak-like” piece of meat lengthwise into two strips, then cutting the strips into cubes. Now, you can make the stew. The key to an amazing stew is to brown the meat cubes well before adding other ingredients. So get a big pot nice and hot and add 1/2 the fat of choice. Let it melt and add 1/2 your cubed meat. Make sure your pan is real hot before adding any meat. The reason we do this is batches is so that the meat gets a chance to get a nice sear without being crowded in the pan. Once you add your beef, don’t touch it. It will stick to the bottom of the pan for a couple minutes because the heat causes the meat fibers to contract. The fibers will soon relax and the meat will release from the pan. When this happens, give it a stir and let it get browned on all sides. Remember: you are browning the meat, not graying it. So you want a nice brown crustiness on the beef and on the bottom of the pan. It know it sounds weird, but that’s where the flavor comes from. After you’ve browned your first batch of meat, remove it to a plate, pour off any juices from the pan, add the 2nd Tbsp. butter and brown the other 1/2 of the meat just like the first. You should have a nice ugly brown crust on the bottom of your pan and and beautiful crust on the meat. Now add your meat back to the pot along with the onion and perhaps a little water. Let that simmer for about 10 minutes, or until the onion is tender. Now you can stir in all the rest of the ingredients. Cover and let simmer for a nice long time; preferably 1-3 hours. Just simmer; not a boil. You want a nice low, slow, consistent heat to get that meat meltingly tender. Taste and add additional salt before serving if you wish. I tend to go light on salt at first; that’s why this recipe only calls for 1/2 tsp. There should be some salt in the tomatoes, too. I found that these amounts yielded a perfectly seasoned stew that did not need additional salting before serving.
