Tell me the secret of stew!

LittleBrownFrog

Why does my stew always taste like leftovers, when other people's stew tastes like dinner? Today's question relates specifically to stew made from the leftovers of our three-bird-roast, but I'm stew-challenged generally.
Please can someone talk me through exactly what to do to make leftover meat into a yummy stew?
(Today's 'stew' was rescued by a lot of curry paste, so all is not lost - but stew would have gone better with the leftover mash from yesterday:rotfl: )

tia

Paulie'sGirl

Hi

I would follow MrBadExamples stew thread. He was culinarily challenged, and coached by the OldStylers here went on to many, many successes!

PGxx

NJW69

I've never made a stew from left overs as I think the idea is that the meat slow cooks (or stews) in the sauce and therefore takes on the flavours. If the meat is already cooked it may not do this. I have just made a turkey curry with the left over turkey but wouldn't classs this as a stew. You could make a pie instead.

thriftlady_2

If you use leftovers to make stew then it will taste like leftovers (not necessarily a bad thing). I always make stew from raw meat. The point of stew is that it is cooked for a long time in order for the meat to become tender- unecessary if the meat has already been cooked.

Topher

After many mistakes of my own, I wish NJW69 had been around with that advice years ago. If you do want a stew to feature an already cooked meat, I'd do all the frying off of onions, other veg, addition of stock (plus a sneaky slosh of Brown sauce) adding of pulses if required (and cooked up to correct time), potatoes only for last 20 mins then sling in chopped cooked meat last of all for a 5 - 10 min warm up, depending on how long its been around. Before the meat, check the stock/gravy has some thickness, if not, use any of a variety of methods (usually removing some to thicken then add back in... don't just throw in flour or potato starch, unless you enjoy biting into lumps of same)
T

LittleBrownFrog

Thanks for the stew thread link - off to have a proper read through now.
I can make good stew from fresh meat usually - my in-laws can make fabulous stew from leftovers - in fact they brought down beef-stew-from-leftovers for Christmas eve dinner, and it was yumptious! ... hmm - should probably ask them for the secrets.