Helen I did not know you were a professional cook. That is fantastic. See, we learn new things all the time. I'm sure this dish is delicious but I can make no promises of when I might make it as I do very little cooking anymore. It is hard to cook for just one person and when I do cook it's something fast and easy, like last night I cooked baked catfish in my toaster oven and steamed some broccoli and cauliflower in my vegetable steamer. I am also trying to go to a gluten free diet since my sister has made so much progress on one and some of my problems sound a lot like hers which were caused by a gluten allergy so I figure what have I got to lose and maybe I'll even lose some more weight. I talked with someone today who's life changed for the better after she got off gluten and even her thyroid medication that she had taken for over 30 years and since low thyroid is the only thing I take medication for, I figure it is worth a try. :) Quote:
Hello Kathleen and Evelyn and everyone else
I am going to give you the best stew recipe you have ever tasted. I really
should make you pay me for posting this, it is that good. This is my own creation.
I call it Gourmet Stew. 'Gourmet' because it will be a bit more expensive.
Don't ask me for amounts because I don't think I ever measured or kept
track of amounts. Keep in mind that I am a professional cook having
cooked in logging camps and on the boats in the Arctic. Yes, I saw Eskimos.
Ingredients:
Quality Sirloin steak or roast of beef (2/3 of the meat will be beef)
Quality pork loin (about 1/3 of the meat is pork)
Cooking Oil (not Canola, Corn or Soy)
Salt and Pepper
Powdered or fresh garlic, crushed or finely diced
1 large onion, diced
Fresh sliced or canned mushrooms (fresh is best)
1/2 cup white flour
water
Cut the beef and pork into strips and cut the strips in half ...to the size you desire.
In a soup pot or a dutch oven, pour 2 or 3 Tbsps of oil and heat it as for frying.
Throw the meat into the hot oil and saute it until it is nicely browned and the
juices from the meat are evaporating and some are sticking to the bottom of
the pot. Do not burn the meat or the juices. Let them get nice and brown. Turn
the heat down and let the meat fry (cook) at a simmer for 20 minutes or so. If
anything is starting to burn to black, take it off the stove.
In a separate frying pan, saute the mushrooms. Throw the mushrooms in with
the meat. Then saute the onions and garlic until they start to brown around
the edges. Then throw onions into the meat with the mushrooms.
Add Salt and Pepper.
Add water to almost the top of the ingredients. Bring it to almost a boil, then
turn the heat down and cook slowly.
Just before serving you will want to thicken the water/stew. In a large mayo
jar or a 1 quart glass or plastic jar, put about 1/2 cup of white flour and fill the
jar with water to at least half full and shake it hard. You want lots of room in
the jar for shaking. A small jar would not allow for adequate shaking and is
sure to give you lumpy stew. After shaking, let the jar settle and sit for a few
minutes while foam forms at the top. Then pour some of this flour concoction
slowly into the stew while stirring the hot stew. Notice that the foam does
not pour off but recedes when you pour slowly. Also you could have spooned the
foam off before you began pouring, if you wish. When the stew is the thickness
you want, stop pouring the flour/water. Throw out any flour/water that is left.
Do not ruin this stew by putting any other vegetables to cook in it.
Serve the stew with cooked potatoes ..mashed or boiled, and other vegetables.
The vegetables must be cooked in separate pots ...not in the stew as it will ruin
the taste of the stew. If you want vegetables in the stew, cook them first and
add them just before serving the stew.
People will rave about the taste of this stew if you do it right. It tastes even
better if you serve it the following day. This stew is good for freezing as well.
The reason I use a soup pot or dutch oven to make this stew is because when
the meat is frying, it does not splatter all over the stove. Most of the time we
saute the meat in a frying pan which we then transfer it to a pot. This way
we eliminate the frying pan.
Let me know what you think after you have served this stew. I want to
see if you did it right :))
Helen
Quote:
Hi Mary Evelyn, My mom's ghoulash was: wide noodles, large lumps of ground beef, and cans of whole stewed tomatoes, and chopped onions. I don't remember if there were potatoes in that. She ALSO made another meal called Hamburger Stew which was very similar, and that had potatoes in it, I think it didn't have the tomatoes, it was more watery than the ghoulash, both of those meals gave me anxiety all afternoon if I knew she was making that for supper, also navy bean stew, because she'd soak the beans overnight. I don't consider myself a picky eater, but most of my brothers & sisters didn't consider our mom a good cook either. I made ghoulash a couple times in my adulthood because my exhusband wanted to try it and he LIKED it, I can't stand the smell of it when it's cooking. I made it with narrower noodles and a can of finely chopped tomatoes & peppers (not whole stewed tomatoes!) I also tried it with ground turkey in smaller lumps, I also like using pearl onions, so if anyone doesn't like onions, they can easily find them and pick them out. My mom's cooking was always large chunks of food, made for my Dad who was probably very hungry after work. They both enjoyed making baseball-size meatballs and boiled potatoes that looked like the potato was only cut into fourths, definitely not the size for picky little kids.
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