Fife Miner’s Stew
For bookclub this last weekend, I had picked 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith since I had thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Edinburgh as well as Scotland and wanted to read something based in that area. You may know him for his No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series which was made into an HBO show.
I obviously chose Scottish and English food for the theme. I knew that I was going to make my shortbread fingers as well as serve some ginger and whisky malt preserves that I had picked up in Marks & Spencer over some good soft cheese. But I needed an entrée. I searched for ideas and but only found haggis as the quintessential Scotch food.
First, I wasn’t confident that I would even find any haggis if I looked for it and it is a rather maligned food (though I found it evocative of Philadelphia’s scrapple.) I dug deeper and focused on googling "Scottish/Scotch entrée" and found Fife Miners’ Stew. Since Fife, the council area, is across the Forth from Edinburgh, I felt that I struck culinary gold with this beef stew and it would a good fit for dinner.
It was a success, bookclub ate it up. (Yes, the pun was intended.) Even Brian, who never thought that he has a parsnip before, thought that the stew was delicious. The house smelled so good after cooking the dish. I enjoyed it so much - and it is the perfect cold winter day food - that I needed to make it again and soon. This time, however, I thought that I should adapt it for the slow cooker.
For bookclub, I cooked the stew following the UKTV recipe listing to a tee. However for today’s stew, I took the suggestion of adding sherry since the stew is reminiscent Bookbinder’s Snapper Soup and used an entire can of tomato purée.
Fife Miner’s Stew, based on the Fife Miners’ Stew recipe from UKTV network channel, Good Food.
Ingredients:
1 Tbsp. butter
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
2 Tbsp. plain flour, seasoned to taste with salt and pepper
2 to 2¼ lbs. stewing steak, diced
4 large carrots, peeled and sliced
4 large parsnips, peeled and sliced
1 small orange, zest only
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 6oz can tomato purée
1 cp. red wine
1½ cps beef stock
¼ cp cream sherry
Directions:
1. Sauté the onion and garlic in butter until the onions are soft and translucent; place in the slow cooker.
2. Shake the beef cubes in seasoned flour until well covered; add the beef and flour into the slow cooker, followed by the vegetables, orange peel, salt and pepper.
3. Stir the purée into the stock to dissolve it; add the wine and stock to the slow cooker.
4. Cook on Low for 8 hours.
5. Stir in the sherry before serving.
I obviously chose Scottish and English food for the theme. I knew that I was going to make my shortbread fingers as well as serve some ginger and whisky malt preserves that I had picked up in Marks & Spencer over some good soft cheese. But I needed an entrée. I searched for ideas and but only found haggis as the quintessential Scotch food.
First, I wasn’t confident that I would even find any haggis if I looked for it and it is a rather maligned food (though I found it evocative of Philadelphia’s scrapple.) I dug deeper and focused on googling "Scottish/Scotch entrée" and found Fife Miners’ Stew. Since Fife, the council area, is across the Forth from Edinburgh, I felt that I struck culinary gold with this beef stew and it would a good fit for dinner.
It was a success, bookclub ate it up. (Yes, the pun was intended.) Even Brian, who never thought that he has a parsnip before, thought that the stew was delicious. The house smelled so good after cooking the dish. I enjoyed it so much - and it is the perfect cold winter day food - that I needed to make it again and soon. This time, however, I thought that I should adapt it for the slow cooker.
For bookclub, I cooked the stew following the UKTV recipe listing to a tee. However for today’s stew, I took the suggestion of adding sherry since the stew is reminiscent Bookbinder’s Snapper Soup and used an entire can of tomato purée.
Fife Miner’s Stew, based on the Fife Miners’ Stew recipe from UKTV network channel, Good Food.
 |
| The finished stew (non-slow cooker version) |
1 Tbsp. butter
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
2 Tbsp. plain flour, seasoned to taste with salt and pepper
2 to 2¼ lbs. stewing steak, diced
4 large carrots, peeled and sliced
4 large parsnips, peeled and sliced
1 small orange, zest only
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 6oz can tomato purée
1 cp. red wine
1½ cps beef stock
¼ cp cream sherry
Directions:
1. Sauté the onion and garlic in butter until the onions are soft and translucent; place in the slow cooker.
2. Shake the beef cubes in seasoned flour until well covered; add the beef and flour into the slow cooker, followed by the vegetables, orange peel, salt and pepper.
3. Stir the purée into the stock to dissolve it; add the wine and stock to the slow cooker.
4. Cook on Low for 8 hours.
5. Stir in the sherry before serving.
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