_warden Stew Recipes

BEST EVER ONE POT BEEF STEW

Steps:

• Preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Place a large Dutch Oven pot over medium-high heat and warm the olive oil in it.
• Season the beef with salt and pepper and add to the hot pot, just so the beef covers the bottom of the pot (Don't overcrowd as this will prevent the browning process. Brown the beef in batches if necessary.).
• Brown the beef pieces on each side just until they're beautifully caramelized, sprinkling the flour over the beef as it browns, about 1 teaspoon at a time.
• Remove the beef from the pot to a plate after it has browned (don't worry about cooking it through at this point!) and add the thyme, smoked paprika, onions, garlic, carrots and celery to the pot.
• Stir the vegetables around to catch all the drippings left in the pot from the meat and add the beef back into the pot after the onions are almost translucent.
• Add the red wine, the Worcestershire Sauce, and the tomato paste. Give everything a good stir and let the liquid cook down (it's important to let the wine cook off for a good 4-5 minutes before adding the other liquid).
• Once the wine liquid has reduced for several minutes and it has thickened, add the tomato sauce, the beef stock and the potatoes.
• Give everything a good stir, scraping any bits off the bottom of the pot.
• Make sure the potatoes are nicely nestled into the liquid and add the lid to the pot. Place the pot in the oven at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for about 3 to 3 and a half hours.
• Every hour or so, lift the lid of the pot and give everything a quick stir.
• If you'd like to add the frozen green beans (they're totally optional and I only add them about 50% of the times I make this dish), stir them in during the last 30 minutes of cooking so they don't get soggy.
• You'll know the stew is done after the allotted time has passed and the beef pieces fall apart when you touch them with a fork.
• Serve in deep bowls with a piece of crusty bread for dipping, and a sprinkling of fresh parsley for garnish (if desired).

BEST EVER BEEF STEW

Steps:

• Heat olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Season steak with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Working in batches, add steak to the stockpot and cook, stirring occasionally, until evenly browned, about 6-8 minutes; set aside. Add onion, carrots and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 3-4 minutes. Add garlic and mushrooms, and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender and browned, about 3-4 minutes. Whisk in flour and tomato paste until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Stir in wine, scraping any browned bits from the bottom of the stockpot. Stir in beef stock, thyme, bay leaves and steak. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until beef is very tender, about 30 minutes. Stir in potato; simmer until potatoes are just tender and stew has thickened, about 20 minutes. Remove and discard thyme sprigs and bay leaves. Stir in parsley; season with salt and pepper, to taste.* Serve immediately.

ULTIMATE BEEF STEW

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 300˚ F.
• Heat the oil in a large (11- to 12-inch) Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the pancetta and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, until browned. With a slotted spoon, transfer the pancetta to a plate lined with a paper towel and set aside.
• Meanwhile, season the short ribs all over with 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Brown half the meat in the Dutch oven over medium heat, turning occasionally, for 5 to 7 minutes, until browned on all sides. Transfer the meat to a bowl and brown the second batch. (Don't cook them all in one batch or they won't brown!) Transfer the second batch to the bowl and set aside.
• Off the heat, add the Cognac and 1/3 cup of the wine to the pot, scraping up any browned bits, then simmer over medium heat for one minute. Add the onions and fennel and sauté, stirring occasionally, for 7 to 8 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Add the garlic and cook for one minute.
• Stir the tomatoes and tomato paste into the vegetables. Add the remaining 2/3 cup of wine, the beef broth, the seared meat (and juices), 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Bring to a simmer, cover and bake for 1 1/4 hours, checking occasionally to be sure the liquid is simmering.
• Degrease the stew, if necessary. Stir in the carrots and potatoes, cover and bake for one hour longer, until the vegetables and meat are very tender when tested with a fork. Just before serving, stir in the peas and pancetta, taste for seasonings and serve hot in large, shallow bowls.

_STEW

Steps:

• My pocket dictionary defines stew as "to boil slowly" or "a dish of stewed meat and vegetables served in gravy". So even for those folks whose cooking talents are stretched by just trying to boil water, they only have to add some meat and veggies to make a stew. In other words, beginning Dutch oven cooks and stews were made for each other. Someone with a new Dutch oven, wanting to cook something, is just like a student pilot landing an airplane. Any landing you walk away from is good, some are just better than others! For first time Dutch oven cooks, that translates to if your dinner guests do not leave the supper table in search of immediate medical attention, it must've been okay! As with flying and many other things for that matter, the results usually improve with a little practice.You can make a stew as simple as Tony Latham's "Warden Stew" or create a masterpiece containing exotic vegetables and spices. If you're bored with just plain old cooking and you want to try "ethnic cooking" there is no better place to start than with a stew. For example, take your Great-great-great Grandmother's stew recipe which she brought West in a covered wagon and add some oriental vegetables and seasoning to create a stew with a distinctive, new taste.Most of us who hunt big game, when rummaging around our freezers, leave those packages of meat labeled "stew" until everything else has been used. At least the way I cut up my animals, the amount of stew meat always exceeds what I'd call prime cuts.Though you can't cut chunks of elk shank with a fork when fried in butter, to me it's no reason to leave it till last. Cooked slow in a Dutch oven with your favorite veggies and spices, an old elk shank will produce as many oh's and ah's as tenderloin sauteed in butter and garlic! A good mathematician could fill a fair sized room with nothing but stew recipes by calculating all the combinations and permutations of possible ingredients for stew. So if you fancy your self a creative person, take your new Dutch oven and a "Stew" recipe and create a master piece! Around my house or camp, stew tends to end up as a "kitchen sink" dish. i.e. everything except the kitchen sink is likely to be thrown in the pot. As a result no two are the same. Besides being easy to make, nothing tastes better when one comes in from the cold than a steaming bowl of stew and a chunk of homemade bread. On more than one occasion the last night in camp, dinner consisted of some leftover meat and everything else left in the bottom of the camp box with some baking powder biscuits to soak up the juices. What ever the occasion, whether at home or in camp, A Dutch oven stew will fill'em up and keep'em smilin'A Back Country Guide to Outdoor Cooking Spiced with Tall Tales - Camp Chili, Stews, Soups and Sauces

OLD-FASHIONED BEEF STEW

Steps:

• Combine the flour and pepper in a bowl, add the beef and toss to coat well. Heat 3 teaspoons of the oil in a large pot. Add the beef a few pieces at a time; do not overcrowd. Cook, turning the pieces until beef is browned on all sides, about 5 minutes per batch; add more oil as needed between batches.
• Remove the beef from the pot and add the vinegar and wine. Cook over medium-high heat, scraping the pan with a wooden spoon to loosen any browned bits. Add the beef, beef broth and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a slow simmer.
• Cover and cook, skimming broth from time to time, until the beef is tender, about 1 1/2 hours. Add the onions and carrots and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Add the potatoes and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes more. Add broth or water if the stew is dry. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Ladle among 4 bowls and serve.

_HOW TO COOK A COOT

Steps:

• If you're not a duck hunter or married to a duck hunter, just skip this recipe. Personally, I've never tried to cook a coot, primarily because I've never even shot at an "Ivory Billed Mallard". Remember, this is the guy who will eat every thing except grits and green lima beans. In this modern age, it seems to me, too many people blame events in their childhood for the mistakes or failures they make as adults. Some rightly so, but I can't help but feel a lot of it is over done!So where is all this leading, you ask yourself? Yup! you guessed it, my childhood. Since my dad first took me duck hunting at age three, the list of things I've done in life longer than I've duck hunted is fairly short. Memories of those first duck hunts are still vivid. Back in that distant past, I learned that the preferred duck of those who wait at home while others duck hunt, to be mallards. Those of the green headed variety! My dad, being a pretty fair hand with a shotgun, seldom got skunked in those days. He'd been there before, but it was a new experience for me, just four years old. About the only thing flying in the marsh that day were coots, which Dad had several different adjectives to describe. I didn't understand why dad didn't shoot them as they patterned by. At that time I obviously thought-ducks are ducks! Wrong! How long I pestered Dad to shoot them, I can't remember. What I do remember is him saying, "Mother didn't like any kind of ducks except those with green heads" and it wouldn't be very smart to take something home she didn't like. Though I was just four years old, that part I understood! I'm sure Dad first passed this recipe on that day. Over the years, Dad repeated this recipe so many times I've memorized it without ever having cooked it.A Back Country Guide to Outdoor Cooking Spiced with Tall Tales - Fowl & Fish

_WARDEN STEW

Steps:

• This camp cookbook tends to focus on "sagebrush gourmet", or in more civilized circles what's referred to as fancy cookin'! Yet, there comes a time when it's "hold the garnish, hold the special herbs, hold the time spent slicing and dicing, and hold digging through all the horse packs for a measuring spoon, let's just get something on the fire so we can eat and hit the sack"! Tony Latham, an Idaho Game Warden, aka the "Laser" who has spent more time kicking around the Central Idaho wilderness areas than most, wanted to pass on his favorite "Wilderness Fast Food" recipe. To those outside the wildlife law enforcement fraternity, let me preface this recipe with a little of my own experience. Here in Idaho, the typical game warden has in excess of a thousand square miles to patrol. Obviously, some patrol areas are larger than others, with back country patrol areas up to three times the average. During the fall big game seasons, it's an understatement to say one can get spread "purty thin" tryin' to effectively patrol areas of such size! It reminded me of an old warden buddy of mine, who used to tell of trying to feed a whole troop of boy scouts with two little dinky hatchery trout and a bag of stale hamburger buns! Kinda tough to get enough to go around without divine intervention. It doesn't matter if you're jerking a string of horses in the back country, trying to float an extra mile before darkness sets in, pulling one's truck off on an old log road at midnite, or getting home in the wee hours, "Lasers Warden Stew" sure beats the hell out of dreaming about over priced, foreign sounding dishes at restaurants four hours by plane away!A Back Country Guide to Outdoor Cooking Spiced with Tall Tales - Camp Chili, Stews, Soups and Sauces

SOUTHWEST GARDEN STEW

Steps:

• Cook beef in a large pot over medium heat until browned on all sides. Stir in onion, garlic, zucchini, squash, and tomatoes. Cook, stirring, for 3 to 5 minutes.
• Stir in chili powder, cumin, oregano, Italian seasoning, and red pepper flakes. Stir in chicken, broth, and cream. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 2 hours.
• Stir in corn. Cover, and increase heat to medium low. Simmer for 45 minutes. If the stew becomes too thick, stir in a little water to reach the desired consistency.