Weekend Plans Post: Beef Stew and a Knife you Need

For Christmas, I got a new knife for the kitchen. It’s a style I’d never used before. The Chinese Cleaver. The one on Amazon isn’t exactly like mine, but it’s very close.

Holy cow, it’s replaced every knife in my kitchen. Well, except for the bread knife I use to cut baguettes. Hasn’t replaced that. But it’s replaced all of the other ones.

It showed up in my pictures where I was making my Thai-Style Coconut Chicken Soup and I used it again yesterday when I was making an *AMAZING* beef stew. Wait. Let’s get that recipe out of the way. It’s from this book, again.

This time we made the “Traditional Beef Stew”.

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 pound beef or pork stew meat, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
2 tablespoons cooking oil
2 1/2 cups cubed potatoes
1 cup frozen cut green beans
1 cup frozen whole kernel corn
1 cup sliced carrot
1 medium onion, cut into thin wedges
2 teaspoons instant beef bouillon granules
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram or basil, crushed
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 bay leaf
2 1/2 cups vegetable juice or hot-style vegetable juice

1. Place flour in a plastic bag. Add meat cubes and shake until meat is coated with flour. In a Dutch oven, brown half of the meat in 1 tablespoon of hot oil, turning to brown evenly. Brown remaining meat in remaining oil. Drain off fat.

2. In a 3 1/2 to 4-quart slow cooker, layer potatoes, green beans, corn, carrot, and onion. Add meat. Add bouillon granules, Worcestershire sauce, oregano, marjoram, pepper, and bay leaf. Pour vegetable juice over all.

3. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 10 to 12 hours or on high-heat setting for 5 to 6 hours or until meat and vegetables are tender. Discard bay leaf. Ladle into bowls.

First off, that’s not how I did it. Maribou asked me “Don’t use onions or pepper” so, of course, we excluded the onions and pepper. “Oh, and get the low-sodium V8.” So, for the vegetable juice, I got the low-sodium V8. And instead of frozen green beans, frozen kernel corn, and frozen carrot, I just bought a couple of bags of frozen veggies. Oh, and instead of the beef bouillon granules, we used the Beef Better Than Bouillion.

I fried up the beef in my giant Circulon instead of using a Dutch oven. Seriously, who has the time?

I also did “and” instead of “or” for the marjoram/basil question.

But, other than that, I followed the recipe pretty much.

When it came to cubing the potatoes, I used the Chinese Chopping knife and, holy cow, cutting them was not only easy but I didn’t worry about cutting myself (compared to using a dividing knife and always having to think about it before applying pressure).

And as for the stew itself? This is the first time I’ve ever used V8 instead of water or broth and HOLY COW LEMME TELL YA THIS STEW WAS AMAZING. I couldn’t believe it.

It felt like I had unlocked a cheat code.

Next time you make stew in your crock pot, consider using (low-sodium) V8 instead of water/broth. Just try it once. Seriously, it’s amazing.

Anyway, when doing the initial prep for the stew, I used the chopping knife to quickly cut the potatoes in half and they cubed like butter. A couple of weeks ago when I made my Coconut Chicken Soup, I used the chopper on the chicken and it was amazing, then, after a wash and a new cutting board, I used it on the bell peppers and cilantro the next day and, holy cow, it cuts veggies perfectly and is now the knife that does the best rolling chop out of anything in my kitchen.

If you don’t have one of these knives yet, check it out. You might find yourself saying “I don’t use my other knives anymore.”

Well, except for the breadknife for when you cut baguettes. You’ll still use that.

This weekend will be the first gaming weekend where everybody shows up since… jeez. Thanksgiving? So it’ll be good to go back and sit down and pick up a Dwarven Cleric and ask “how in the heck do you use one of these, again?” and otherwise delighting in getting back on the horse.

So… what’s on your docket?

(Featured image is my new knife that does a great job of cubing potatoes, chopping chicken thighs, cutting bell peppers, and doing a rolling chop on cilantro.)