british isles beef stew with pearl barley
british isles beef stew with pearl barley
If you look at the photo, you may notice some pea pods.
There are no pea pods in the recipe.
And there, my friends, is one of the beautiful things about stew. Have another vegetable you’d like to add? Go for it! I happened to have these in the fridge, I wanted to use them up, and since I had no salad to serve with the stew (bad planning on my part), it was a great way to add some green to my meal. It turns out, they added a nice flavor.
Beef Stew is a popular dish in the British Isles, at home or in the pub, and especially on a cold winter’s day. How the stew is made and what ingredients go into the pot depends upon whether your stew hails from England, Scotland, or Ireland. Each of them has special components that make it differ from the others.
And, as is true of most dishes that have a long history of being made by everyone’s grandmother, every cook has their own twist that makes their family swear their version is the best.
So I thought, why not take all the good things that make each one special, and toss them into the pot together?
Let’s just call this British Isles Beef Stew with Pearl Barley.
Here are some tips to bring this stew from good to fabulous—
If you wander the internet looking for a recipe for beef stew, you’ll find the terms stew and soup are often used interchangeably. To me, they are very different dishes. The ingredients are similar but the method is different, and the whole vibe of them is different.
If I’m making beef and barley soup, a Jewish classic, I want my ingredients to be cut small so that I get a bit of this and a bit of that in every spoonful of broth.
But this is not soup; it’s stew—braised meat and vegetables in a delicious gravy—and it’s meant to be eaten with a knife and fork, not a spoon.
We’re going to cut everything into big, two bite, fork & knife chunks.
Choose meat that has some fat on it. It will be tastier and tender-er (not a word). If your beef is very lean, it won’t be juicy after a long and slow braise … which is what we’re doing. (It’s also cheaper.) You can always skim excess fat off the top before serving if needed.
Although it’s not entirely necessary, I like to peel the celery to remove the tough stringy part.
Rather than adding all the ingredients at once, I like to cook the meat until it’s fork tender before adding the vegetables. I want the vegetables soft, but not disintegrating. So, I let the meat cook with the aromatics and herbs for 1-1 1/2 hours. Then I add the carrots, potatoes, and turnips and cook the whole lot for another hour or so, until everything is perfectly tender but not mushy.
The luscious gravy can be sopped up with mashed potatoes, egg noodles, or chunks of crusty bread (or challah). Because of the barley in the stew, I don’t think I’d serve it with rice.
And speaking of gravy, I like to cook the barley separately so that it doesn’t steal the gravy from the stew. If you cook the barley in beef stock rather than water, it will be more flavorful.
Browning the meat and the mushrooms adds another layer of flavor to the stew. And I’m all about layers of flavor.
I like making this in an enameled cast iron Dutch Oven, of which Le Creuset is the gold standard. They’re pretty enough for you to bring your stew to the table right in the pot in which it cooked. They’re not cheap, but having one will be an excellent addition to your kitchen arsenal, and it will last a lifetime … or several lifetimes … so be sure to choose a color that your grandchildren will like. Of course, you can use any pot you have on hand, as long as it’s big enough.
This recipe will serve 6-8.
While the stew is cooking, prepare the pearl onions and the barley:
Make the pearl onions—I recommend using frozen, because it saves a tedious step and is really almost as good here.
If you’re using fresh ones, trim them top and bottom and make an X at the root end with a paring knife. Then toss them into boiling water for 3 minutes, quickly remove them from the pot, and peel off the skins when they’re cool enough to handle.
Ingredients:
1 bag frozen pearl onions, about 14 ounces, or an equal amount of fresh ones
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt and pepper
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Method:
Warm some oil in a skillet. Add the onions and sauté them with a sprinkle of kosher salt, tossing from time to time so that they cook evenly, for about 15 minutes.
Then add the light brown sugar and stir until they’re well coated.
Add the balsamic vinegar and 3 tablespoons water, cover the pan, and cook for another 15 minutes over low heat. If it looks as if they’re getting too dry, add another tablespoon or two of water. When the onions are done, set them aside.
Make the barley: While the stew is cooking, cook the barley separately according to package directions. You can make it with water, or with additional beef stock for more flavor
For the British Isles Beef Stew
Ingredients:
3 pounds beef stew meat, cut into “two-bite” cubes, about 2 inches (roughly 6 cups)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Kosher salt & pepper as needed
2 tablespoons olive oil, more if needed
1 large onion, diced small
6-8 ounces white or cremini mushrooms, halved or quartered
3 stalks celery, peeled and cut into ½ inch pieces
3 cloves garlic, chopped (not traditional in the British Isles, but so good!)
A few springs fresh thyme, plus a few extra sprigs for garnish
A few sprigs of fresh rosemary, plus a few extra sprigs for garnish
1 bay leaf
You can tie up the herbs in cheesecloth to make it easier to remove them later, if you’d like)
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 15 ounce can of Guinness stout
6 cups beef stock
¼ cup red currant jelly, cranberry sauce, or 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
3-4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into “two bite” pieces
A few small turnips (swedes), peeled and quartered (small ones are sweet, big ones … not so much) or parsnips
3-4 medium white potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks (about the same size as the carrots and the turnips)
½ cup pearled barley
pearl onions (recipe below)
Optional: malt vinegar, for serving
Note—I make this on the stovetop, but once everything is added to the pot, you can slide it into a 325° oven (make sure it’s oven-safe) if you prefer. Cooking time is about the same.
Method:
Start by cutting up the vegetables. You want them all to be roughly the same size. Think, two bites. Do peel the potatoes. I like them in their skins in other applications, but not here.
Season the flour with a bit of salt and pepper and dredge the beef cubes in the flour. Although it’s not very British, you can add a little garlic powder to the flour if you want, to amp up the garlicky-ness of the meat (also not a word). The flour will thicken the stew and help the meat develop a nice brown crust.
Warm the oil in a Dutch oven.
Add the dredged meat to the pot and sear it on all sides over medium-high heat. Don’t overcrowd the pot or the meat will steam rather than sear. Depending upon the pot you use, you may need to do this in batches, adding a bit more oil as needed. Once the meat is nicely browned, remove it from the pot and set it aside.
Add the chopped onion to the pot—with a little more oil if necessary—and let it cook until translucent and soft, then add the mushrooms, the celery, and the garlic. Continue to cook until the mushrooms start to brown.
Add the Guinness, the stock, the tomato paste, the Worcestershire sauce, the currant jelly, the bay leaf, a few grinds of the pepper mill, and the herb sprigs, and cook, stirring, until it’s all nicely combined.
Add the meat and any juices that have accumulated into the pot. Then cover the pot and simmer the stew for about an hour to an hour and a half, over low heat.
After the allotted time, check the meat with a fork. It should be soft enough for the fork to slip in easily.
Add the carrots, potatoes, and turnips. Continue to cook the stew, uncovered for another hour, giving it a stir every now and again so that it doesn’t stick on the bottom. The meat should be very tender. If you notice it’s cooking out too much, add a little more stock.
Remove the bay leaf and the herb sprigs. Then stir in the barley and the pearl onions.
Taste the gravy and adjust the flavors to your liking. More salt? Pepper? Jelly? Garlic? Worcestershire? The amount of salt you need will depend upon the saltiness of your stock. Your kitchen will smell amazing by now.
If the stew looks too thick, add a little more stock. If it’s too thin, cook it further, uncovered, to reduce and thicken. You can also make a slurry of about a tablespoon of cornstarch dissolved in just enough water or gravy from the pot to make a flowing paste. Pour it into the simmering stew, stirring all the while so that it doesn’t clump up. Use a little at a time; you may not need all of it.
You can make this stew a day or two in advance. In fact, it’s better that way. Once refrigerated, if there’s a lot of fat it will rise to the surface and become hard. Remove the excess before re-heating the stew.
Sprinkle the stew with some chopped parsley before serving. You can strew a few sprigs of herbs over the top, just for frills.