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Stoofvlees Marinade
I have a confession to make: I love eating beef stew with French fries. Just French fries. Skip the salad or greens, just give me the meat and fries and I’m a happy Dutch girl. It’s my favorite kind of ‘junk food’. We call it “stoofvlees” here.
There are tons of different ways to make stoofvlees. It even depends on what part of the Netherlands you live in—in the South they use lots of vinegar for it. I never really cared for the acidic stew version, so I always make mine this way. Even though it’s a basic stew, it’s quite fragrant and there’s a great balance between lots of subtle flavors that all come together in the end. I even gave it a little American twist! Normally I’d add a few drops of beer as well, but I don’t cook with alcohol when my son eats along.
I marinade my beef for 24 hours, so I’ll give you the marinade recipe first.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 pound stew meat
1 small red onion
3 garlic cloves
2 rosemary sprigs
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp coarse mustard
3 tbsp oil
pepper
salt
Directions:
1 1/2 pound stew meat. Leave the fat on; it’ll add flavor. Cut the beef in tiny cubes. I got my friend Suzanne to cut it for me since I had important photography to do :)
Put the beef cubes in a large ziploc bag.
Peel and cut a small red onion in half, and thinly slice it.
If you like garlic cloves in your beef stew, feel free to chop or grate them so you can leave them in. I want some of the flavor, but not all of it so I’m removing them later on. Right now I’ll just bash them up a bit.
Beautiful fresh green rosemary. It’s almost too pretty! Let’s fix that.
Smack it a few times. This will release some of the oils and take the prettiness level down a nudge or two. Beauty is overrated anyway!
Pour 3 to 4 tbsp oil in a bowl.
Add 2 tbsp red wine vinegar.
Also add a slightly heaping tbsp coarse mustard, a good pinch of salt & pepper and stir well.
Throw the onions, garlic cloves and rosemary in with the beef cubes.
Pour in the marinade.
Start squeezing the bag until everything is properly combined and evenly distributed. Place the bag in the fridge and let the beef cubes marinade overnight (preferably for 24 hours).
Stoofvlees part II can be found right here.
15 Comments »
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mmm…looks good already.
Really love your website and recipes.
Where did you find the Ziploc bags in NL!? LOL, I always enjoy things I miss from the U.S.
Looking forward to the rest of this recipe, I never have enough beef recipes (that we all like) so I usually make chicken, fish and it’s getting BORING! :D
Elizabeth, the AH here sells them. Three different sizes, I believe.
Looks really delicious! Something my husband would love!
Oh! One quick question about your site…Did you change some settings? I used to get your recipes and beautiful photos right in my reader but now I only get a short paragraph about what you are making and I need to come to your blog to see the photos and remaining post.
Melanie, no I haven’t changed any settings. Since my latest update wordpress seems to be acting up. In IE reader it’s even worse; you get half the postings in full and the other half in a short paragraph. Contacted wordpress but haven’t received an answer yet. Could be the RSS plugin not being fully compattible with the latest WP version. No clue what it is.
I will have to keep this marinade in mind, sounds yummy. I will be back for part 2.:D
I just want to make something called Stoofvlees. Anything. I love beef stew and french fries are an inspired accompaniment.
I love sauces and condiments on everything. This looks like another winner! Thanks for the recipe!
I can’t wait for the sequel!
The meat marinade looks packed with delicious flavor. I am waiting excitedly for the second part of this series!
I’m thinking that I could throw this together and then freeze it for a meal later…hmmm. Looks yummy!!
My meat has been marinading for hours. I can’t wait until tomorrow night. I had to substitute coarse mustard with colemans. That’s what I had on hand. It smells great.
This an Excellent write up, I will be sure to save this post in my StumbleUpon account. Have a good evening.
I forgot to buy rosemary and used thyme instead: it gives a softer flavour and my husband insists I use thyme ever since :)
Thank you so much for the recipe, I now make a better stew than my mom!
Kay,
First off, just wanted to say that I’m in love with your site. I have about 30 different things bookmarked for when I find time to start cooking after the holidays. Second, I made this for my family about a year ago and they are still raging about how awesome it was! But the real reason I’m here… you mentioned in the beginning that you might put some beer in the marinade. What would you suggest? Something dark, since it’s such a hearty recipe? Are we talking an ale, a stout, wheat, etc? I’m just starting out with this so I’m curious.
Thanks so much!!!