Comfort for a winter’s day
By jody Stump
On winter days so bright my eyes ache, when temperatures skirt the high 80s and thick strands of beach-cruising automobiles bring the highway to a halt, my heart often yearns for a respite from Paradise. On days like these, I long for another day, one chilly gray and drizzly. A real winter’s day, one made for warming toes at a hearth fire and curling up with close friends and a bottle of brandy.
If the brandy’s Armagnac, I spent just such a day one March in Paris. Few cities exhibit as many mood swings as the City of Lights. It can be gay as its famed cabarets or melancholy as a beatnik poet. In the rain, streets glisten and the sounds of urban life are muffled as murmurs. Parisiennes seek shelter in centuries-old bistros where the same hearty farm dishes have been served ever since Napoleon swaggered down the boulevards. Always-featured winter fare includes onion soup, scalloped potatoes and some variant on stew, its form and contents, a feature of the cook’s derivation.
If he or she hails from the west, wine and mushrooms transform a simple stew into Boeuf Bourguignon; if from the south, adding tomatoes and peppers make it a hunter’s stew. Normans from the northern dairy land use lots of cream and brandy for a luscious artery-clogging blanquette, but my personal favorite is the version from the Flemish lowlands made with dark beer and prunes. In Carbonnade Flamande, aromas of rich and complex spices mingle with the dark scent of caramel at the very edge of burning-a fragrance at once as comfortable as home and exotic as a trip to faraway lands.
Winter is coming, our forecasters insist, and when it does, be ready with a robust stew to warm you and your family, wherever you are from or dream of going. Whether your winter reveries hail from Iowa or Carcassone, a good beef stew follows the same culinary principles and warms the soul as well as the stomach. Here is a basic recipe, easy as A, B, C.
The A, B, Cs of great beef stew
Serves 6 – 8
3 pounds beef chuck, cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
3 tbs. vegetable oil
2 onions, sliced or cut in chunks
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 tbs. flour
1 tbs. butter
1 cup beef or chicken broth
2 bay leaves
2 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 cup minced parsley
(A)MERICAN BEEF STEW (B)OUEF BOURGUIGNON (C)ARBONNADE
4 boiling potatoes, cubed (A)
1 cup frozen peas (A)
1 cup chunked carrots (A) (B)
4 ounces bacon, browned (B)
3 cups Pinot Noir (B)
8 ounces wild mushrooms (B)
2 tbs. tomato paste (B)
2 cups pearl onions, peeled (B)
1 cup chopped pitted prunes (C)
3 cups dark beer (C)
6 cloves (C)
1 cup red wine (A, optional)
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Dry the meat and toss with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a deep ovenproof kettle and sear the beef over high heat in batches. Remove and set aside.
3. Brown the onions in the empty kettle for 5 or 6 minutes. Add garlic and cook another minute. Stir in the flour and butter until the flour begins to color, and then slowly add the stock, stirring constantly.
4. Add herbs and bring to a simmer.
If A, add 3 cups of water.
If B, add tomato paste, chopped bacon and wine.
If C, add cloves and beer.
5. Return beef to the pot and bake for an hour.
6. Regional variations:
For A, add potatoes and carrots.
For B, separately saut mushrooms, onions and carrots until they begin to brown. Add to the kettle.
For C, add prunes.
8. Bake another hour until the meat is fork tender, stirring occasionally so the stew does not burn.
For A, add peas in the last 15 minutes.