Beef Stews Around the World

[Jaymes]

So a recent thread about beef stew got me to thinking.

Seems like every country that eats beef has a locally-influenced version of beef stew, from good ol' everyday American to France's Bourguignon. Even Steak & Kidney Pie is basically a beef stew in a crust.

In our house, we're partial to chili, either red or green, the Flemish beer and onion carbonnades, and the spiced Greek stew, Stifado.

But I think I've really never met a beef stew that I didn't love.

What are your favorites?

Edited February 5, 2011 by Jaymes (log)

[Chris Hennes]

Gotta agree with you on chili and carbonnade. I also liked the beef daube Dorie Greenspan's recent book.

[nakji]

Fuchsia Dunlop has a good stew for beef with potatoes and anise in Sichuan cuisine - a take on red-cooked pork. I think there are Dong Bei (Manchurian) style beef stews, although I've not had one.

[Angela Knipple]

I love good carbonnades. We seem to make it at least once a month in the winter.

Mexican beef stew - calde de res - is one of my favorites, and it's one of those stews that's never the same in any two places. I thicken my version with a walnut and spice paste. And Haitian queue de boeuf with fresh habanero sauce is so good on a cold day, and it makes the house smell wonderful while it's in the oven. Brazilian feijoada isn't strictly a beef stew - it's more of an everything stew, but it's really popular at our house. There's also an Italian beef and lentil stew that we make and some of the variations of South American locro de papas add beef.

[Mjx]

There's the Tuscan peposo, which is one of those recipes that looks as though it shouldn't work: you cube the beef, mince some garlic, put in a pot with crushed or chopped tomato and a couple of teaspoons of ground pepper, add enough water to cover the meat and tomatoes, simmer a couple of hours, add a glass of wine, simmer another hour. Usually, making a stew with unbrowned meat smells like wet dog, but this always comes out delicious; this may be due to some reaction between the met and the acid of the tomatoes/wine, but I'm guessing. I often do brown the meat, since it adds another level of flavour.

[Doodad]

As I mentioned in another thread, the Ethiopian beef stew, Siga Wot, is my hands down favorite. The spice combinations used in the sauce are incredible.

[Jaymes]

As I mentioned in another thread, the Ethiopian beef stew, Siga Wot, is my hands down favorite. The spice combinations used in the sauce are incredible.

I had never heard of this one. There are a couple of Ethiopian restaurants in Houston, where I live, but hadn't noticed it on the menu. Or if I did, wasn't smart enough to order it.

I did a little googling, and saw lots of recipes. Would you mind sharing yours?

[FrogPrincesse]

Boeuf bourguignon would have to be my favorite. With carrots, lardons, and pearl onions. My mom used to make it often when I was little, so it's comfort food for me.

My favorite version is Anne Willan's from The Country Cooking of France.

For a quicker version I use the one from Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles, but make sure to add diced bacon.

A close second is pot au feu, with slow-cooked beef tongue, carrots, potatoes, turnips, and leeks, served with the broth on the side and coarse salt, whole-grain mustard and cornichons as accompaniments to the meat.

[mgaretz]

I don't think I've met a beef stew (style) that I didn't like. For about a year now guests (and family) have been requesting my Carbonnade a la Flamande so I have finally posted it on my blog. There's also some versions of Chile Colorado.

I've taken to using London Broil (top round) in my stews (and soups) since they are all slow cooked. (The exception would be my Carbonnade where I use boneless short ribs.) London Broil is often on sale for less than $2 per pound and has virtually no fat that needs to be trimmed away, so prep is faster and the value is great. When it goes on sale I but a lot and vacuum seal and freeze it.

[brucesw]

As I mentioned in another thread, the Ethiopian beef stew, Siga Wot, is my hands down favorite. The spice combinations used in the sauce are incredible.

I had never heard of this one. There are a couple of Ethiopian restaurants in Houston, where I live, but hadn't noticed it on the menu. Or if I did, wasn't smart enough to order it.

Nazareth Cafe on Chimney Rock has it on the menu; I had never noticed it either. I can't wholeheartedly recommend the place; it was my first Ethiopian experience and it blew me away. The vegetable combo included 11 or 12 wots instead of the usual 5 or 6 and they do have dishes on the menu that the other places don't. But I revisited a couple of months later after visiting both Sheba and Blue Nile with great expectations and I thought the place had gone downhill a great deal. Maybe I just caught them on a bad day or the cook was sick and someone else was filling in?

It is also definitely the least appealing of the 3 physically.

[Doodad]

It is all about the berbere sauce. Find a recipe that sounds good to you and make that first. Probably the day before to allow the flavors to mingle. Then is it very straight forward.

A ton (ok 4-5 cups) of onions slow cooked in ghee with some cardamom, cloves, turmeric and nutmeg so that they melt, but don't carmelize. Add the berbere (about a half cup to a cup), same amount of red wine, same amount of water, then garlic cayenne and ginger. The beef, about 2-3 pounds or so of stew meat should be already cubed and browned. Add it to the pot and cover and cook until very tender like any beef stew.

The stew is served on a plate covered in injera bread which acts as your plate, spoon and napkin. Each person gets a boiled egg as well as a sort of "garnish."

Usually there are accompanying vegetables as well since this is really all about the beef and sauce.

[Doodad]

As I mentioned in another thread, the Ethiopian beef stew, Siga Wot, is my hands down favorite. The spice combinations used in the sauce are incredible.

I had never heard of this one. There are a couple of Ethiopian restaurants in Houston, where I live, but hadn't noticed it on the menu. Or if I did, wasn't smart enough to order it.

I did a little googling, and saw lots of recipes. Would you mind sharing yours?

I have seen it under other names as well. Can't remember, but they seem to all be the same dish.

[Pierogi]

Beef paprikash with egg noodles is always a good winter time warmer-upper. A little sour cream in with the stewing liquid....what could be bad?

[kayb]

Jaymes -- I saved your stifado recipe to try. What kind of vinegar do you use?

[Jaymes]

Jaymes -- I saved your stifado recipe to try. What kind of vinegar do you use?

I just use whatever I have on hand - usually the cheap apple or white vinegar available at supermarkets. I've used wine vinegar, too, but haven't noticed an appreciable difference in flavor, so think it doesn't really matter. The only caveat I'd give is that I wouldn't use something like a rice vinegar, or any other vinegar that's less strong.

[Katie Meadow]

Today's NYT magazine has a Sam Sifton recipe for Jamaican oxtail stew. It sounds awfully good. In New Mexico we usually made green chile stew (bowl o' green) with beef and potatoes. A bowl o' red most often was pork.

[brucesw]

I have seen it under other names as well. Can't remember, but they seem to all be the same dish.

Okay - Beef Wat at Sheba, 'sauteed prime beef simmered in Kay wat and seasoned with special Ethiopian spices.'

And I looked right at Yessiga Wat on the menu at Blue Nile and it didn't register.

So we're all fixed up here. I've got to check these out.

Edited February 7, 2011 by brucesw (log)

[djyee100]

Years ago I cooked a Catalan beef stew with sherry, cocoa, and cinnamon. Delicious and distinctive. It was similar to Colman Andrews' recipe (beef stew #1) in his Catalan Cuisine book, except the recipe I used substituted cocoa for the grated chocolate and omitted the sausage.

On Googlebooks:

http://books.google.com/books?id=-K_ekX6BVXsC&pg=PA233&lpg=PA233&dq=catalan+beef+stew+colman+andrews&source=bl&ots=EPVif0Haex&sig=vGd2EJzllOXbSR16yTyx71JbQvQ&hl=en&ei=HbdPTdrLNILWtQPhk8WnCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

[Foodietopo]

There is the Japanese nikujaga which is meat, potatoes, onions, carrots, konnyaku all stewed in soy sauce, mirin, sugar and saké.

It's a very old recipe and it's quite popular home dish. I was surprised the first time somebody served it since you don't expect beef and potatoes in Japan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikujaga

It's a very easy and quick recipe.

[Jaymes]

There is the Japanese nikujaga which is meat, potatoes, onions, carrots, konnyaku all stewed in soy sauce, mirin, sugar and saké.

It's a very old recipe and it's quite popular home dish. I was surprised the first time somebody served it since you don't expect beef and potatoes in Japan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikujaga

Wow, interesting history. Seems like most of the stories of its invention lead back to the Japanese navy and an effort to create a beef stew similar to the ones prepared by British navy cooks.

[Foodietopo]

Japanese curry share this history since it was also introduced by the British Navy. I believe both are still offered on a regular basis at the Etajima Naval Academy near the city of Kure not too far from Hiroshima.

While both nikujaga and curry are delicious, I don't really like ketchup rice or ketchup pasta.

There is the Japanese nikujaga which is meat, potatoes, onions, carrots, konnyaku all stewed in soy sauce, mirin, sugar and saké.

It's a very old recipe and it's quite popular home dish. I was surprised the first time somebody served it since you don't expect beef and potatoes in Japan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikujaga

Wow, interesting history. Seems like most of the stories of its invention lead back to the Japanese navy and an effort to create a beef stew similar to the ones prepared by British navy cooks.

[MikeHartnett]

the Flemish beer and onion carbonnades

Honestly never heard of these. Tell me more!

[Jaymes]

the Flemish beer and onion carbonnades

Honestly never heard of these. Tell me more!

It's really one of the world's great dishes. When I was a child, we lived in Europe, so I can't actually remember the fist time I had it. It's something I remember always having.

But the first time I made it, several decades back, I followed the recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking. St. Julia's recipe is still a wonderful one to follow. Also a good recipe in Craig Clairborne's NYT International Cookbook, but a quick google should bring up about a thousand more.

We discussed it at more length in this current thread about beef stews:

Beef Stew Beginner

[Nayan Gowda]

Would a beef rendang count as a stew? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendang

One of my favourite dishes to seek out when I'm over that side of the globe.

[MikeHartnett]

It's really one of the world's great dishes. When I was a child, we lived in Europe, so I can't actually remember the fist time I had it. It's something I remember always having.

But the first time I made it, several decades back, I followed the recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking. St. Julia's recipe is still a wonderful one to follow. Also a good recipe in Craig Clairborne's NYT International Cookbook, but a quick google should bring up about a thousand more.

We discussed it at more length in this current thread about beef stews:

Beef Stew Beginner

Thanks! I'll have to read up on these more.