Your Beef Stew Needs Ketchup
I’ve never made a stew twice the same way. I’ll add more herbs or some soy sauce, or replace the potatoes. But the only thing that is always in my stew – besides meat, potatoes and carrots – is ketchup, bought at the store .
I understand that this sounds childish. Who hasn’t watched in horror as a child (or adult child) covers a meal with bright red seasoning, hiding the subtler flavor of the dish? But if you can put those bad memories out of your head and really think about what ketchup is — tomato paste, sugar, and vinegar — you’ll find it actually fits perfectly in a dish of beef and vegetable stew.
I first learned this trick from my stepfather, who ate well, but nothing more. His stew was very simple. He tossed a piece of meat with carrots and potatoes into the multicooker, covered it with ketchup, and let the moisture from the meat mix with the ketchup to form the liquid part of the stew. It was a little monotonous, but still not bad, which was surprising to me the first couple of times. Mine is a little more complicated, but the ketchup remains.
In addition to ketchup, I like to add whole burnt onions, some fish sauce, and a lot of raw, mashed garlic. Charred onion chunks balance the pungent sweetness of the ketchup and add a deep roasted flavor that sometimes gets lost in humid cooking environments. I also use young carrots because they are the perfect size for a stew and I am very lazy. As for the potatoes, I love that mine is about to fall apart, so I use a reddish brown, but feel free to use harder potatoes like Yukon golds. I also love to mine mine in pressure cookers – aka my Instant Pot – as I discovered it makes meats more tender.
On the liquid side, I find I don’t need to add much, especially since there is no real evaporation when cooking instant stew in a solution, and I like very thick stews. If you like something a little more soup-like, you can add a cup of beef broth. You can add ketchup to any stew recipe, just aim for half a cup for every pound of beef, or you can use my complete recipe that I give you now.
Beef stew
Ingredients:
- 2 onions
- 2 teaspoons of divided salt
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 lb. diced stew
- 3/4 cup red wine
- 2 reddish brown potatoes or 4 small Yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 1 pound young carrots
- 1 cup ketchup, preferably Heinz
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 cup beef broth (optional)
- 1 cup frozen peas
Instructions:
Prepare the onion by cutting it in half vertically and then slicing each half into thin semicircles with a sharp knife or mandolin. Set aside one onion for later and season the other with one teaspoon of salt and stir to coat. Heat one tablespoon of oil over high heat in a large stainless steel skillet and, as soon as it begins to shimmer, add the salted onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until each chunk of onion is completely browned around the edges. Transfer the onions to a tall cup, bowl, or blender.
The skillet will likely have a good layer of fondant and will want to add more oil. Do not. Instead, add another teaspoon of salt to the chicken, then sauté each side in a hot skillet until well browned. Pour the sautéed meat into your instant insert, along with the rest of the onions, potatoes, and carrots. You can also use a slow cooker if you like, although I won’t take the blame for tough meat. (Why not fry the meat in the Instant Pot itself? I’ve found that the Instant Pot just doesn’t heat up enough for a quick fry. Between that and the small amount of scorched area in the insert, it’s much faster to just do it in a regular skillet, damn very dirty plate. )
Deglaze 3/4 cup red wine in the pan and scrape off the browned pieces with a wooden spoon or spatula. Pour wine into a cup or bowl of onions, then add ketchup, garlic, fish and soy sauce. Using a hand blender or tabletop blender, blend everything together until smooth, then pour over the meat and vegetables along with a cup of broth if you are using it. Stir everything, then close the instant pot and cook under high pressure for 35 minutes.
Allow to release pressure naturally for 10 minutes and then release any remaining pressure by moving the valve to the bleed position. Open a saucepan, add the peas and stir for a minute or two until hot. Serve right away but be happy with leftovers, I’ve found the stew is always better on the second day.