31 October 2006 (Tuesday)
you think you know a guy...
What did I discover tonight, after four years of marriage and another four years of dating prior to that? That my husband doesn't like stew. The foodstuff, I mean: the liquidy dish with meat and potatoes and vegetables. Not to be confused with any persons by the name of "Stewart," who, in my experience, at least, tend to be nice guys with whom Julian gets along just fine. No, I mean the food. Which happened to be dinner tonight.
He was gracious enough to compliment the seasoning in general, and said that it was a good stew, as stews go, just...not his thing. This is a problem, because I have three more blocks of pre-cut stew meat in the freezer, each weighing in at about five pounds. The intent was to defrost one every few weeks, use about half for a cholent that Shabbat, and use the remainder for dinner several days later. And the general expectation is that it would be in stew form, because what else do you use such meat for? I suppose I could still make the stew anyway, and have it only for myself for lunches, but that seems a little excessive. You can't really freeze stew, because it has potatoes in it, and you aren't supposed to refreeze raw meat that's been frozen and defrosted once already. So, I need suggestions. Anyone?
Well, here's a suggestion: we're free for dinner this shabbas... :-)
According to Home Comforts (given to me by none other than Mr. T__ himself) you can indeed refreeze meat once it's been cooked. So you could make your stew or whatever, pack it in single-serving Tupperwares, and freeze those.
hmm.. i remember my mom would take the less than nice cuts of meat and cubed the cooked bits and put them on toast and top it all over with (brown) gravy. for me that was a treat ... it was different than stew..
maybe a stir fry?
pre-made then frozen stews for you sound quite good..
we don't eat much meat .. sorry!
skewers!!!!!!!!
Can you expand your definition of stew? You could probably use the same cuts of meat for some equally stew-like but differently flavored meals? I know it's a veg cookbook, but Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker might have some tweak-able suggestions...
Ah, Miriam, the problem (for Julian) is not the flavors but rather the texture/consistency. So no matter what "stew-like" recipe I come up with, he won't like it.
Avi, you do realize that "stew meat" is usually the tough, low-quality bits of meat that are not suitable for grilling, right? Never mind that I don't have a grill...
But he eats cholent, right? Or was that just a nod to Shabbos and he puts up with it? Because you could do more of a cholenty consistency. Or pick a random recipe that calls for steak and it just won't be nearly as good with the stew meat, but "better" than actual stew consistency? (I'm thinking swiss steak, for some reason.)
We're about to give up on stew meat even in the cholent, I think, because we've been mixing it with ground beef and pretty much everyone prefers the ground beef. Takes the flavors better, easier to eat, etc. But I think my husband would actually eat stew on a weekday if I tried to use up what we have that way, although the kids would all turn up their little noses and refuse to go near it.
Oh, dear, the texture problem. Much harder to deal with than the taste. It doesn't solve the problem in the long term, but would take care of the meat you've already got: what about grinding it yourself? Is he ok with ground beef?
if you marinate them an then ear the outside on a pan you should get some good results with the juices locked in by the searing.
Wait...
He doesn't like stew, but he likes cholent?
I'm confused.
that meat is great for pepper steak - just brown it in a frying pan with the veggies and seasoning.
Re-freezing cooked meat is fine, food-safety wise. The high temperatures will kill off bacteria and other bad things, making subsequent (immediate) freezing perfectly safe. You're probably thinking of re-freezing thawed (to room temperature or fridge temperature) meat, which is the food safety no-no.
Granted, I don't generally eat meat, but I come from a long line of women who are fastidious, if not compulsive, about food safety. I promise I'm not making this up.
Again: yes, I know I can freeze cooked meat. I was talking about refreezing raw meat that's been defrosted, when I wrote: you aren't supposed to refreeze raw meat that's been frozen and defrosted once already.
