Horn of Plenty Beef Stew
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Horn of Plenty Beef Stew is the ultimate autumn comfort food. Black chanterelles, tender meat and red wine are perfect for cold days to enjoy for week dinner or holidays!
It is the season to enjoy fresh mushrooms. Today, our choice is this beef stew with dried and powdered horn of plenty mushrooms aka black chanterelles.
Horns of plenty really look like a horn or trumpet and the taste is the easiest one to define: they are known to be poor man’s truffle mushroom. So, the taste is quite similar to the expensive version.
Now, when mentioning truffles, do you know why are they so expensive?
The reason behind such high costs is the scarcity of the produce, truffles are seasonal, extremely difficult to grow, and take many years to cultivate. They also have a short shelf life. Truffles require a very specific climate to grow and require lots of oak trees, that’s why they’re often found in woodland.
In spite of truffles, horns of plenty aka trumpets of death grow in hardwood forests, right at the base of trees, in dark and damp places, and are easy to find.
Here is the photo of freshly picked horns of plenty:
And here is how they look like 6 days after I dry them at room temperature:
I simply cover a baking sheet with kitchen towel and leave the mushrooms to dry. Then I crumble them using my hands to get powder alike mushrooms and store them in dark jar to sprinkle them in stew, goulash, savoury pie, scrambled eggs or pasta. Today, I added some to polenta together with chopped sun-dried tomatoes.
There are many ways to enhance the flavour of beef stew:
You can go a couple of ways. For more umami, we prefer mushrooms, crumbled, but you can also use anchovy fillets or parmesan rind. If you do that you’ll get Ribollita Toscana .
For some herbal notes, you can try thyme, basil or even tarragon. Beef stew can be heavy, so some fragrant herbs can fill out the flavor profile.
What is another (fancy) name for beef stew?
Boeuf bourguignon : beef soup; pot-au-feu: pot on the fire; loboscouse : thick Scandinavian stew made of meat and potatoes.
However you name it, it makes great comforting meal for chilly winter days!
What is a historical recipe for peasants’ soup from Medieval Europe?
I you are interested in Medieval stew recipe please look here .
Here are some other comforting stews made by 2pots:
Oxtail Stew (Coda alla Vaccinara)
Horn of Plenty Beef Stew
Horn of Plenty Beef Stew is the ultimate autumn comfort food. Black chanterelles, tender meat and red wine are perfect for cold days to enjoy for week dinner or holidays!
Ingredients
- Ingredients for stew:
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 pound flank steak cubes, bite size
- 1 medium sized onion, finely chopped
- 1 medium sized carrot, finely chopped
- 1 small parsley root, finely chopped
- Celery root to taste, finely chopped
- 1 cauliflower floret, chopped
- Salt and ground black pepper to taste
- ½ tsp coriander seeds
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 Tbsp tomato paste
- Smoked paprika to taste
- 1 Tbsp dried horn of plenty
- ½ cup red wine
- Water as required
- Chopped fresh parsley leaves to taste
- Ingredients for polenta:
- 2 cups water
- Salt to taste
- 9 Tbsp polenta
- 1 ½ Tbsp chopped sun dried tomatoes
- 1 ½ Tbsp dried horn of plenty
Instructions
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Fry beef with olive oil and add onion and vegetables. Let it all cook gently on medium heat.
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Once all liquid evaporates, add coriander, bay leaf, tomato paste, smoked paprika, horn of plenty, and red wine. Let all slowly boil on low heat.
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Add water to cover all the ingredients and let the stew boil on low heat. Making your stew should take one up to two hours until it is ready to serve. During that time,flank steak gets soft and tasty.
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Take care to add water when necessary so your stew does not burn. I added ½ cup several times during the process and it showed to result with great and soft meat.
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Oil your 5 x 7.5 pan and leave aside.
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While your stews gently boiling, prepare polenta: combine water, salt and polenta and boil for 3 minutes on medium heat. Make sure you stir it constantly.
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When almost done,add chopped sun dried tomato cubes and dried black chanterelles ( horn of plenty ).
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Pour your hot polenta into prepared oiled pan and leave aside to cool to cut the slices easily.
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Serve stew with polenta and enjoy.
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