00:00Hello, this is Chef John from Foodwishes.com with Hawaiian-style beef stew.
00:08That's right, I thought I knew about all the beef stews there were to do.
00:13But then I found out about this and realized that wasn't true.
00:17So I gave it a try and it was incredible.
00:19And now I'm going to show you how to do what might actually be the best beef stew.
00:24And to get started, let's go over the most important tip in this entire video,
00:28which is not to buy pre-cut stew meat, but rather get a nice piece of beef chuck and cut it up yourself.
00:36And not just because it's going to be cheaper and it's super easy to do,
00:40but because you can pick out the piece of meat you want in the butcher case,
00:43so you're able to get something beautifully marbled like this.
00:47And since a beef stew is only going to be as good as the beef that goes in it,
00:50I cannot stress the importance of this enough.
00:53And what we'll do is cut that into about one and a half inch pieces,
00:56although a little smaller or a little bigger will work, right?
01:00The key is to try to get them relatively uniform so these pieces of meat get tender at the same time.
01:05And once we do have our beef prepped,
01:08I'm going to season it right on the board by sprinkling over some kosher salt,
01:12followed by half the amount of the flour called for.
01:15And what we'll do is give that a thorough tossing until those pieces of meat are evenly coated.
01:20And you know what the salt does, but what this flour is going to do is dry the surface,
01:25which is going to help us get a beautiful brown crust on the meat when we brown it up in the next step.
01:31And for that, we will heat up some vegetable oil in our stew pot, set over high heat,
01:36and we will transfer those freshly floured pieces of meat into the pot.
01:41And then we'll proceed to brown those very well on at least two sides.
01:44All right, that's the minimum.
01:47And if you have the time and patience, you could do four sides,
01:50or even all six if you want.
01:52But I think two very well brown sides is probably enough for this.
01:56And yes, to ensure better browning, you want to do this in two batches probably.
02:01So even though I won't show you the second batch, that's exactly what I did.
02:05But anyway, once that meat's been transferred into a bowl,
02:08we'll set that aside for now,
02:09and we'll reduce our heat to medium-high,
02:12and we will transfer in our roughly chopped up onion,
02:15and we'll cook that stirring for a couple minutes,
02:17or until it just starts to turn translucent,
02:20at which point we'll transfer in about three tablespoons of tomato paste,
02:24which ended up being way more exciting than I thought it was going to be.
02:28But anyway, once that gets transferred in,
02:31we'll cook this stirring for about three or four minutes,
02:33or until that tomato paste starts to kind of brown onto the edges of the onions.
02:37And while this is sort of an optional step,
02:40I think the depth of flavor you get if you do this
02:42makes the couple extra minutes this takes more than worthwhile.
02:46And that's it.
02:47Once we've toasted that tomato paste a little bit,
02:49we'll sprinkle in the rest of our flour,
02:51and we'll cook that stirring for a few minutes
02:54to take off that raw pasty edge.
02:57And once we feel like that's happened,
02:59we will dump in our second tomato product,
03:01which is just going to be some plain tomato sauce,
03:03or tomato puree,
03:05or crushed tomatoes,
03:07or really any kind of tomato product will work.
03:10And then we'll follow that with some beef broth,
03:13or if things are going well for you,
03:14some beef bone broth.
03:16And we'll go ahead and stir that in and raise our heat to high.
03:20And we'll wait for this to come to a boil.
03:22And while it does,
03:23we can add the other two key ingredients,
03:25which is going to be some Worcestershire sauce,
03:27as well as a whole bunch of soy sauce.
03:31And in case you're wondering,
03:32the things that make a regular beef stew,
03:34a Hawaiian-style beef stew,
03:36would be the additions of the tomato,
03:38as well as the soy sauce,
03:39and possibly the Worcestershire sauce.
03:41All right, the tomato and soy for sure.
03:44And even though not all the recipes call for the Worcestershire,
03:47to my taste,
03:47I think it's an important addition.
03:50And then once things do come up to a boil,
03:52we'll transfer in our browned beef,
03:54along with any and all accumulated juices.
03:58And we'll give that a stir,
03:59and reduce our heat to low,
04:01or whatever heating setting gets you a nice gentle simmer.
04:05And what we'll do is cover this tightly,
04:07and we will let it simmer for one hour,
04:10to give it a nice head start,
04:11before we add the rest of the ingredients.
04:14And after about 60 minutes,
04:15this is what mine look like.
04:18And what we'll do at this point,
04:19is go ahead and add our black pepper,
04:21plus a few shakes of cayenne,
04:23so people know this is our recipe.
04:26And by the way,
04:26we could have added that earlier.
04:28And I would have,
04:29but I forgot.
04:31And that's it.
04:31We'll also add in our stew veggies,
04:33which will be some celery and carrots,
04:36as well as some potatoes, of course.
04:39And I'm using some nice big Yukon gold,
04:41which I peeled and cut into some nice big pieces.
04:44Okay, I usually don't like to cut the potatoes too small,
04:47since we don't want those totally falling apart,
04:49while this cooks.
04:49And then we'll cover this back up,
04:52and we'll let it simmer gently on low for another hour,
04:55at which point our meat's probably not going to be done yet.
04:58But what we'll do is uncover this,
05:01and give it a nice stir,
05:02and then we'll continue cooking without the cover on,
05:05for another hour or so,
05:07stirring occasionally.
05:09And we'll do that until our meat is very, very tender.
05:11And as usual, as is Simmers,
05:14if you want to skim some of the fat off the top, feel free.
05:18I mean, you guys are after all the Grandpa C's,
05:20of whether you should degrease.
05:23And by the way, the Grandpa C I just referred to,
05:25is Grandpa Clarence,
05:27whose recipe I adapted this one from.
05:29So a big thanks to him.
05:32And by finishing this uncovered,
05:33our sauce will reduce down a little bit,
05:36which is going to thicken things up.
05:38And at this point,
05:39any of that fat that wasn't skimmed off,
05:41is basically going to get emulsified in,
05:43which not only adds some flavor,
05:45but it also gives our stew a lovely shine.
05:48But anyway, like I said,
05:49we'll simply continue simmering uncovered,
05:52until our meat is nice and tender.
05:54And since this meat seemed to be just about perfect,
05:57I was down to one last task,
05:59which is of course, tasting for seasoning,
06:01and maybe sneaking in another pinch of salt,
06:04or a little splash of soy.
06:05But that was tasting really good as is.
06:09And once it is, we can grab a ladle,
06:11and serve up.
06:12And by the way, if you don't want it quite this thick,
06:15and you want something a little brothier,
06:17just simply reduce the amount of flour by half,
06:19and you'll end up with something a little bit thinner in texture.
06:22But either way,
06:23I recommend we serve this with rice.
06:26And then I finished up with a little bit of freshly ground black pepper,
06:30plus a scattering of green onions.
06:31And then I grabbed a fork and a spoon,
06:34and went in for the official taste.
06:37And that, my friends,
06:38as I mentioned in the intro,
06:40just might be the best version of beef stew.
06:43And the umami level,
06:44which is what us foodies call something that's super savory,
06:47is just off the charts.
06:49In fact, it's so flavorful,
06:51it could actually break your mouth.
06:53I mean, not literally,
06:55but metaphorically, oh yeah.
06:58So I really did love everything about this,
07:01and I really do hope you give it a try soon.
07:04So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts,
07:07a printable written recipe,
07:09and much more info as usual.
07:11And as always,
07:14enjoy.
07:15Enjoy.
07:15Enjoy.
07:15Enjoy.
07:16Enjoy.
07:17Enjoy.
07:17Enjoy.
07:23Enjoy.
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