Lean and lovin' it: Switching up a classic stew recipe with chuck cut a size above the norm
The picture of the founding editor of The New York Times' "Cooking," Sam Sifton's Picadillo, a Cuban "comfort food" stew using ground beef, looked sooooo good I just had to download the recipe and save it; knowing I'd make it sometime soon.
That "time" rolled around last weekend when the weather was less than pleasant, and I just happened to have a 3-plus pound boneless beef chuck blade "sale" roast sitting in my refrigerator. I'd bought that roast to cut it up and make a standard American stew.
Playing with Sifton's Picadillo, a classic Cuban/Latin American stew, by using beef chuck chunks instead of ground beef could be considered heretical, from the if-it's-not-broken-don't-fix-it school of thought. But my high-quality chuck roast and solid quality hothouse tomatoes begged to be turned into something special, like a Picadillo.
I'm not a store-bought beef "stew" meat fan. Stew meat's usually too lean and cut into ¾-inch (sometimes smaller) pieces, which is not a bad size when it's raw; once cooked, however, they shrink down. Its leanness means I also have to be v-e-r-y careful about how hot and how long I cook my stew or I'll end up with dry, tough and chewy meat. Ugh.
Ever since savoring a restaurant-made beef stew with large, luscious beef chunks, I headed down a different path when it came to my homemade stews.
Years ago I started buying hefty 7-bone chuck roasts from which I made my stews. A four-pound roast, with most of the fat and the bone removed, worked perfectly. I cut that chuck into 1½-inch pieces and used those to make my stew. My beef stew turned out great that first time and they have ever since.
Over the years I've played with my basic stew recipe and sometimes use a whole bottle of red wine as the liquid. A decent beer, like Newcastle Brown Ale, works well, too. For my new Picadillo stew, I let the tomato's juice produce the necessary stewing liquid.
Yes, the liquid is important, no doubt, but the key to a truly terrific stew is slowly simmering it at a very low heat (225-degrees). Since I don't use a crock pot, my oven is my controlled-heat substitute. Also, once my stew goes in the oven, I don't open the oven door, nor do I uncover the pot to stir it; tempting as that may be.
What's unusual about a Picadillo, no matter how it's made, is the seasoning. Sifton's recipe called for one tablespoon ground cinnamon, along with smaller levels of ground cumin, bay leaves, ground cloves and ground nutmeg. If I were a cinnamon lover that wouldn't be an issue, but a tablespoon of cinnamon for this stew seemed heavy-handed, so I went with a teaspoon; assuming if it just didn't have the flavor intensity it could be added later.
Sifton's recipe didn't call for any added salt, and after running the nutritional analysis for my stew now I know why: high-sodium olives and fresh chorizo provided, for me, sufficient sodium.
My Picadillo went together fairly easily, although chopping five tomatoes took a bit of time. As my stew simmered in the oven, the aroma had my mouth watering. I couldn't wait to taste it.
The chuck chunks were fall-apart tender and the flavors, almost exotic. For me the cinnamon was perfect, and I loved the contrast of the salty olives against the sweet raisins. Terrific!
Give it a try.
• Don Mauer welcomes questions, comments and recipe makeover requests. Write to him at don@ theleanwizard.com.