Beef stew & dumplings

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cookswithlove

Assistant Cook
Joined
Jun 23, 2016
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13
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Los Angeles
I was looking for a beef stew and dumplings recipe when I came across this recipe for St. Patty's day. I have a few questions:
  1. What exactly is bouquet garni?
  2. Is it normal to use chicken stock for a beef dish?
  3. Why use two types of onions instead of just one?
 
A bouquet garni is a bundle of herbs tied together. Usually parsley, thyme, bay leaves and rosemary. I use a teaball instead of tying them together. I don't know about the other two questions.
 
I was looking for a beef stew and dumplings recipe when I came across this recipe for St. Patty's day. I have a few questions:
  1. What exactly is bouquet garni?
  2. Is it normal to use chicken stock for a beef dish?
  3. Why use two types of onions instead of just one?

1. A bouquet of herbs used for flavoring soups, stews and stock. It usually includes parsley stems (save the leaves for finishing the recipe), thyme and bay leaf, but different recipes call for different ones.

2. Yes. It's a personal choice, though. Chicken stock is easier to make and in general, less expensive.

3. They have different flavors. Sometimes you add them at different points in the recipe, and aromatics (onions, garlic, etc.) taste different depending on how long they're cooked. The longer they're cooked, the sweeter they become, so if you add green onions, for example, toward the end of cooking, they'll have a sharper flavor than the onions added at the beginning.
 
Last edited:
1. A bouquet of herbs used for flavoring soups, stews and stock. It usually includes parsley stems (save the leaves for finishing the recipe), thyme and bay leaf, but different recipes call for different ones.

2. Yes. It's a personal choice, though. Chicken stock is easier to make and in general, less expensive.

3. They have different flavors. Sometimes you add them at different points in the recipe, and aromatics (onions, garlic, etc.) taste different depending on how long they're cooked. The longer they're cooked, the sweeter they become, so if you add green onions, for example, toward the end of cooking, they'll have a sharper flavor than the onions added at the beginning.

Thank you so much!! This was very helpful!
 
Chicken stock is used almost everywhere because you can buy decent chicken stock. The FDA requirements for beef stock require it only to be brown, and manufacturers are happy to oblige; keep away from it. Good, homemade stock is what separates real cooks from wannabees, but in the meantime invest in a few jars of Better 'n Bullion. It is an honest product, exactly what it says it is, and it comes in chicken, beef, ham, seafood, mushroom styles.

Onions are another fundamental flavour-group. My suggestion is to just play with them, find out what you like. Green onions are best as an almost-raw garnish, while standard yellow onions can do astonishing things like turn into candy when you caramelize them, which only takes a slow cooker, a lump of butter, a dash of salt, and a couple of hours.

A perfect (and fun) example of treating onions differently comes from Keith Richard's autobiography, Life. Given the fact that he doesn't sleep like normal folks and therefore has to cook for himself, he came up with his own version of Shepherd's Pie. His big gimmick is to use browned onions AND raw onions when assembling the pie, and the result is fantastic.
 
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