I think of November as comfort food month, so I thought I’d kick things off by making some beef stew. It’s easy, healthy and relatively affordable. What more could you want?
Time-saving tips:
Buy beef cubes pre-cut
Buy baby carrots and throw them in whole
Buy little red potatoes and just slice them in half
Ingredients
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 lbs Beef Chuck cut into 1 inch pieces (you can buy it that way at the store)
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 large onion, chopped
1/4 cup flour
2 cups beef stock
1 cup red wine
1 Bay leaf
2 tsp dried thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
1 can (14.5 oz) ready-cut diced tomatoes
3 cups baby red potatoes, cut in half
1 bag (16 oz) frozen peas, thawed
1. Heat olive oil in dutch oven over medium heat. Add garlic and sautée for 1 minute.
2. Season beef with salt and pepper. Coat beef with light dusting of flour. Add beef to the pan.
Don’t overcrowd the beef. I overcrowded it and you can see, it started to steam as it released its moisture. For the beef to brown properly, you should add it in several batches so that each piece has room around it.
3. Remove the beef and set aside. Add the butter to the pan (it will deglaze the yummy brown bits) and then add the onion.
Sautée the onions until they are soft, about 8 minutes.
4. Let the onions start to brown and caramelize. Then add the flour and stir continuously for 2 minutes, blending it with the butter and onions completely and letting it brown. This will help the sauce thicken properly later.
5. Add the red wine and scrape the brown bits off the side of the pan. Add the beef stock, Bay leaf, and thyme and bring to a simmer. Add the meat back into the pan and bring to a simmer again.
6. Add the tomatoes.
7. Reduce the heat, cover partially and simmer 2 hours will make the meat nice and tender.
8. Add the carrots and bring back to a simmer.
9. Add the potatoes and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.
10. You don’t want the peas to get mushy, so add these about 5 minutes before you’re ready to remove the stew from the heat.
11. You can remove from the heat up to 10 minutes before you’re ready to serve it.
Serve with good, crunchy bread.
