My housemate's mother is visiting and she's been doing a bit of cooking. Today she made beef stew.
She cubed up about 4lbs of tri-tip and dumped it all in my stew pot with some olive oil where it promptly steamed and smoked, then she dumped in some beef broth, a handful of sliced carrots and celery, a couple diced potatoes, slapped the lid on and boiled everything for about an hour.
The result is remarkable in it's similarity to canned beef stew. She'll be out later today and I'm hoping that I might be able to salvage the stew somewhat. Does anyone have any advice for how I might go about this?
Right now I'm thinking of draining the whole mess and making a new gravy but if there's a way to salvage what's already there I'd try it.
Best Answer
Before you pitch it, I'd consider cooking it even longer -- we're aiming for 'ragoût' (cooked to rags), not just your typical stew. We want the vegetables to completely disintigrate, until they're more a thickener for the stew, rather than indentifiable on their own.
You can then serve it over pasta, rice, or a baked potato.
If you'd prefer adding back in some vegetables for texture without further cooking of the meat ... I'd actually suggest roasting them in the oven, then mixing them in. Proper selection of vegetables can also be important -- a waxy potato (like a red potato) won't break down like a starchy (aka. flourly) potato (like a russet) will. If you're going to cook them in the stewing liquid, add tomatoes or a shot of vinegar into the liquid to prevent onions and potatoes from softening too much. Frozen peas or corn can add some quick texture (canned are typically mush, and might add to the metallic flavor).
As for the blandness issues, it's hard to say. If your basic salt and pepper aren't working, reach for other herbs & spices. You could try going heavy on the paprika and thyme to make it more like a goulish, or a blend of 'italian' spices to make it more like a ragù but beware of oregano which can have a metallic quality in large amounts. Sometimes alcohol can help, like a shot of sherry towards the end, or some wine, hard cider or beer earlier in the cooking process.
For both the blandness and metallic issues, vinegar or other acidic (eg, tomatoes but not canned) or sour (eg, serving with sour cream) notes might help.
... so, to summarize :