Before I made the decision that I wanted to be a vegetarian, I made the decision that I wanted to give up beef. This is where it all started. It’s been pretty difficult, because beef, I have to admit, is tasty, and a lot of my favorite foods were made out of it.
One of the dishes that I least liked the idea of giving up was homemade beef stew. The funny thing is, it was also one of the easiest to give up. This is because my husband doesn’t like it much, and my kid, well, she could care less as long as she still gets to eat chocolate and drink milk. So, I just don’t make it, and I’m not tempted to eat it.
Still, it was more out of pride than anything else that I didn’t want to stop making it. It took me a long time and many tries before I was successful. I don’t have a crockpot or a pressure cooker, so for me to make a great stew I had to master browning the beef in batches without burning the fat in the pan, how much liquid to add, how to keep it at a simmer for however many hours it took without it boiling too hard or not hard enough. Once I had it down pat, I go and decide I’m going to stop eating the main ingredient. Clearly, I am insane.
The recipe I linked to at the beginning of the post is the one that I finally used to make one hell of a stew. Of course, I had to change some things. I always made it without onions — are you surprised? It doesn’t need them as long as you use broth, but if you use water you probably want them in there. Also, I’m not a huge fan of rosemary so I left that out too. And even though sometimes I would add potatoes like the recipe calls for, I would just as often leave them out, and serve it with rice or pasta instead.
If you’re going to eat meat, you might as well do yourself a favor and make this stew, at least once. I think you’ll agree, it’s just about the best stew ever. There is no way I would ever even consider trying to attempt some vegetarian version of this, because I know it would just disappoint me. I’d much rather just forget it ever existed.
Clacked by Cate Cropp
on May 20, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
