Simple beef stew recipe

Delicious and very simple beef stew recipe so you will be able to enjoy tender meat with very little work, only cutting 1 onion and only 1 pot for dishes.

Indian Beef Stew : 2 times onion (Beef Stew : "do piaz" or in Afghanistan or Pakistan "do piaza")

Makes 2 servings in 1 hour 30 minutes (can be longer e.g. 2 hours, depending on the type of beef meat you buy: ask your butcher for advice), originally posted by Ssussi on 30th November 2005 (Beef / Beef Stew / Asian (India) / Main Dish / Gas or electric stove/ No marination).

Stewing meat is simple and straight forward:

• sprinkle pepper and salt on your meat
• brown the meat on all sides in a non stick pan/pot, make sure the meat doesn’t burn
• add enough boiling liquid
• scrape (with wooden spatula) what sticks on the bottom back into the pot
• simmer until ready (1 hour for pork, less for chicken, more for beef).

Anything extra is fancy to bring extra taste in the stew, typically:

• something sour (red wine, brown – not bitter – beer, some dashes of vinegar, yogurt, mustard)
• something sweet (brown sugar, plums, raisins, apple, carrot, turnip, onion)
• and extra aromatics (typically beef needs something extra, pork can be simple stewed on its own)

In today’s recipe the main extra aroma comes from the onions. ‘Do piaz‘
translates to ‘2 onions‘. Do Piaz is an Indian cooking style for a slowly braised dish combining both cooked and raw onions:

1. The main stew ingredient, usually meat, is gently cooked with half the onions until the meat is very tender.
2. Then a second batch of raw onions is stirred in towards the end of cooking, to give extra texture and taste.

In traditional beef do piaz recipes : the amount of onions used is 2 times the amount of meat… remember that we mentioned above that beef needs some extra aromas when stewed..

When you have a crockpot or slow cooker: first fry your ingredients, then simmer in the slow cooker or crockpot.

We do advice you to use more meat as mentioned below, so you have more servings: stews only become better overnight!

If you are really into onions, you could take the meat out of the pan after browning (keep warm under aluminum foil), then fry extra onions into the pan and use them to garnish your dish: more work (less simple), but surely more taste and more cheap fibers: so very healthy.

Beef do piaz – simple beef stew recipe ingredients

• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 inch (2.5 cm) ginger, chopped
• 1 tablespoon fresh coriander leafs, chopped
• 4 teaspoons paprika powder
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 to 3 teaspoons ground cumin
• 3 tablespoons ground coriander
• 5 cardamom pods
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 5 oz (150 gr) (1 little pot) yogurt
• 7 oz (220gr) tender topside beef, cut in 1 inch (2.5 cm) cubes
• oil to fry

How to make beef stew do piaza

1. Put one onion, garlic, ginger, paprika, chili powder, cumin, coriander, yogurt and salt in the food-processor. Process until mixture is smooth.
2. Heat oil in a large pan. Fry the remaining onion until just soft. Add the meat and fry until it is well coated and starts to brown.
3. Add cardamom pods and yogurt mixture and simmer, covered, for 1 hour or until the meat is tender.
4. Garnish with fresh coriander.