Jeremy Vincent’s tips for great stews, beef and potato combo recipe

This dish — spiced up with ginger, ground coriander and cumin — is perfect for winter. Plus all the tricks to nail your favourite stews.

Winter fave: Jeremy Vincent’s beef and potato stew. Picture: Dannika Bonser

WINTER has truly arrived, along with our cravings for warm, wonderful soups, stews and casseroles. I don’t know what we love more — the fact that they are warm and satisfying, or that we throw them into one pot or dish for a convenient meal. Either way, it’s a win-win situation.

In many ways you can vary the ingredients in a casserole or stew according to what you have in the fridge. A vegetable casserole can be a wonderful dish to enjoy sitting by the fire on a chilly afternoon, or a meaty dish can include dumplings or be accompanied by lots of crusty bread to soak up the gravy.

I love this simple meat, carrot and potato combination. It’s a true winter dish, spiced up with a kick of ginger and a generous amount of ground coriander and cumin. It’s great served with a dish of quick-fried baby spinach. If you have some swede or turnip on hand, it wouldn’t be out of place in this dish, too.

BEEF & POTATO STEW

Serves 4

1½ kg waxy potatoes

500g peeled carrots

Salt, to taste

3 tbsp peanut oil

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 tbsp coarsely ground celery seed

3 spring onions, cut into 2cm pieces

500g chuck steak, cut into 3cm pieces

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

55g unsalted butter

2 tsp peeled, finely chopped fresh ginger

½ tbsp ground coriander

½ tbsp ground cumin

Place the potatoes and carrots in a large saucepan with 5 cups cold water. Season with salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium, and simmer, covered, until potatoes are cooked. Strain, reserving the cooking liquid. Once cool, remove the skins from the potatoes and cut them into 3cm chunks. Cut the carrots into 2cm lengths. Set aside.

Return the saucepan to medium-high heat and add the oil. When it is hot, add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the celery seed and spring onions. Carefully pour in half a cup of water and cook until the spring onions are crisp-tender, about a minute.

Add the beef, season with salt and pepper, reduce heat to medium, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add the reserved cooking liquid, potatoes and carrots along with the butter, ginger, coriander and cumin. Bring to a boil, reduce to medium-low and simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionally, until the beef is tender and the sauce has thickened, 30–35 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper and serve, if you like, with steamed white rice and stir-fried greens.

Jeremy Vincent’s soup, casserole and stew recipes for winter

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TIPS FOR GREAT STEWS

A PURELY vegetable stew takes only about 20 to 35 minutes to cook. Check such a stew constantly because, unlike meat stew, it’s easy to overcook vegetable stew.

CHICKEN stews take about an hour to cook, lamb and veal stews about 90 minutes, and beef stews up to three hours. This is all depending on the size of your meat pieces and the intensity of your heat. Slow and low is often better. Check how done the meat is by removing a piece and tasting it — it should be tender, not mushy.

TOUGHER cuts make the best stew meat, because the slow cooking tenderises the meat, while long stewing will actually make tender cuts tougher. If using beef, cubed chuck steak makes the best stew.

POTATOES are indispensable in most stews. The trick is to add them after the stew has simmered for a while so that they don’t overcook and disintegrate. Potatoes cut in quarters or large cubes should be added when there’s about 40 minutes of cooking time remaining.

IF YOU prefer a thicker stew, you can add a roux. Heat 2 tablespoons oil and 4 tablespoons plain flour together, stirring constantly, until the mixture turns light brown. Whisk this into the stew just before the end of the cooking time and simmer for about 15 minutes.

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