Heather, my daughter, has a real problem with gluten. As from her comment she is looking for ways to brown a stew without the flour.
I think that the temperature that the meat is browned is more important than the flour. The flour is used for thickening later in the process, but careful reduction on the stove can easily accomplish this thing.
I think that you need to be careful with the timing of the veggies in the liquid you don't overcook the veggies. Pull them out after they have been blanched and a little longer. Then reduce the stock without the meat. This will allow the stock to reduce and get that flavor. Then put the meat back in and add s little liquid to let it continue to cook. The veggies go back in last again (old Chinese way).
The main thing is to let the meat brown against some real metal instead of Teflon. Then deglaze it so that you have browning and liquid. The flour just saves some time at the end. Also separating the meat cooking from the veggie cooking is important. The both can me cooked in the same pot but not necssarily for the same amount of time or in the same cumulative order.
After a glass and half of a good red wine it won't matter if you used flour or not.
: ) Pat
I think you can brown the meat with onion and something brown like worsteshire sauce. Later you can make the stew thick with cornstarch (or rice starch... or really cook the potatoes)
ReplyDeleteI just read an article about how bad teflon is when it is heated above a certain heat (I think in the current Good Housekeeping). Thanks to an indulgent brother, I have been using those wonderful non-teflon pans for _years_!