Reduce heat and continue cooking and stirring for 3 to 4 minutes, until peas are heated through. Although we usually think of stew as a comfort food suitable for a blustery winter day, it's certainly a nutritious dinner entree for any season. Besides, with a little advance effort, you can let it simmer in a slow-cooking pot and come home to a great meal. Stew is a universal dish with many different names and a variety of ingredients. You might ask for a bowl of ragout in France, stufato in Italy, sukiyaki in Japan or curry in India.
Stews also vary in terms of what cooks use for thickening.
In Czechoslovakia, stew might be thickened with pumpernickel crumbs, while in Argentina, potato water might be used. Stews are a one-dish meal, and they vary in their nutritional value depending on the ingredients used and the cut of meat chosen. Less tender cuts of meat such as round steak can be used because the long cooking time and moist heat involved in the stewing process soften the collagen and tenderize the meat. Some people aspire to cut meat out their diets, pointing to fat or cholesterol content as reasons, but actually animals today are bred to be much leaner. When cooking meat, use low-fat cooking methods such as broiling, baking or grilling.