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Tips

Slow Cooking

As the nights chill down and at every turn we read of the necessity of financial belt tightening it turns our mind at Feast to the art of slow cooking and the magic that can be achieved through slow braising of cheaper cuts with your own special mixes of spicing.

Diced beef to die for but make sure you remember to add some bones to really make it special.

Like much meat cooking the art of the slow cook sounds simple but is often botched by not following the basic rules religiously. Sure when it comes to seasonings and spices you can go wild but it is imperative that you follow good technique in the basic process. Our basic rules include

The FLAVOURS – to get a rich and luxurious stew or slow cooked meal it is important that you first brown your meat. This can be done with or without flour but the meat must be browned – genuinely char grilled. Having achieved this you simply must deglaze (with wine, verjuice or whatever takes your fancy) the pan to release those wonderful flavours back into your stew.  For your veg you can choose anything you wish but we have rarely found a stew that cannot be improved with the addition of onion.

The SIMMER – let’s be clear we are talking about slow cooking here not simmer saucing or other stir-fry wannabe’s. Time to simmer is imperative. You do not have to watch every second of this process if it is done right but you do need AT LEAST two hours for the simmer to work. And how you simmer is also important it should be nearly imperceptible and your stew should merely shimmer rather than actively boil. If you cannot get your cook top to heat this low then this step can be done in the oven

The OOMPH – stews made with cuts that include the bone such as shanks, osso buco, trotters, hocks, wings , forequarters,  meaty bones  and the like have an extra special body to them. The bones have higher levels of collagen and albumen which act as solidifiers as well as imparting a special flavour to any stew they grace.

The DAY AFTER – simple really any stew, curry, goulash etc is better the day after you make it. The flavours meld through the whole mix and while the meat cools it absorbs the delicious sauce that surrounds it. Important to making this step work at its best is that the reheating is done gently

As for everything else as to what type of meat, veg, spices, bulking agent like pasta pulses and potatoes - well really anything goes