Jerry, Thanks for the recipe. There are a few techniques you can use to probably increase the flavor and tenderness:
1) Use a covered Dutch oven to both sear the meat and cook the stew. 2) Increase the salt to one level teaspoon *Kosher coarse salt* per pound of meat, and don't add pepper until the end of cooking. Note that one teaspoon of coarse Kosher is the same as a half teaspoon of that iodized granulated crap, so they measure very differently. 3) Sear the dusted meat quickly in small batches (Err on the side of less searing), and use more fat to make a better contact with the heat and more coverage of the fry surface. You will of course drain excess fat after all searing is done. You actually end up with less fat in the finished food this way. If you use bacon fat rendered from minced raw bacon instead of oil the dish will gain an additional layer of flavor. Save the cooked bits for later. 4) Once the meat is seared, pour off the excess fat and sauté the carrots in the film of fat that remains. 5) After a couple of minutes, add two or three tablespoons of good quality tomato paste (Rega rocks the freakin' house!), forget the catsup, and cook for a couple more minutes to coat the carrots and potatoes with tomato paste. 6) Deglaze the Dutch oven using a bottle of dark beer (perhaps a fortified Belgian dark beer) and a flat-edged wooden spatula. Carefully scrape-up the fond (browned bits of cooked meat juices stuck to the Dutch oven) and let it dissolve in the dark beer as you add your bay leaves and a good-sized pinch of dried whole thyme crumbled hard between your fingers. 7) Add the meat and previously-cooked onions to the Dutch oven, add raw washed unpeeled small red new potatoes (rather than quartered fist-sized white potatoes), add the cooked bacon bits (if you used bacon fat), and stir gently to mix. 8) Cover the Dutch oven and place in a 275F for an hour, then stir gently to redistribute (but dig all the way across the bottom), re-cover, and back in the oven. Check once each hour for the desire texture of the meat. About three hours in, taste the cooking liquid for seasoning and adjust only if it's considerably off, and then only season lightly because the liquid will highly concentrate during the last hours of cooking. Cooking may take anywhere from four hours to as many as seven or eight depending upon the cut and quality of the meat and the alcohol content of the dark beer. 9) You don't need to pre-cook the onions very much because of the long cooking time they will enjoy in the Dutch oven, and adding a little color to them by quickly cooking over high heat should add a pleasing note of onion flavor. 10) Ditch the soft rolls in favor of a thickly-crusted artisan loaf with a highly elastic crumb, like a good French boule, and serve a little dollop of quality Dijon mustard on the side of each plate. The mustard provides a cut through the richness of the dish and a pleasing contrast in flavors, and the back note of dark beer and hint of bacon should play perfectly against it. Try these tips and tell me how it turns out. You should see a marked increase in flavor and a better texture on everything, if my instincts are correct. PS-- Rather than a boneless chicken breast recipe, I would much rather give you my recipe for the perfect roast chicken, flavored with fresh rosemary and garlic, and served with its own jus. Are you interested in such things, or do you insist on the boneless route? Either way I'll be happy to help out. Respectfully, Adam Phillip Churvis President Productivity Enhancement > -----Original Message----- > From: Jerry Johnson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2008 4:18 PM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Favorite recipes - what do you have to share? > > Here is the "official" recipe from the family index-card box. > http://anaudienceofone.wordpress.com/2008/01/02/judys-french-stew/ > > To reciprocate, I'd love some suggestions on what to do with boneless > chicken breasts, hot peppers (whole bowl of fresh green and red > jalepenos, pablanos, italian frying, thai, green and orange and red > bell), onions, and molasses. Other than a mexican inspired paella > (which is where I am leaning now) > > (Cooking suggestions you perverts!) > > =) > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:249493 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
