Last night was one of the first really cold wintery nights and it was wonderful to have a big pot of beef stew bubbling away on the stove. The house finally smelled like home. I’ve tried lots of recipes for beef stew. It wasn’t something my mom made when I was growing up so I had to find my way around it. I’ve found that when I just wing it together – no measuring – using what’s at hand – not timing the cooking – it always seems to come out best.
I threw what I had in the house – beef – veggies – stock & wine into my grandmother’s cast iron stew pot, covered it and left it alone on the stove to make it’s magic. A couple hours later when we had finished bringing in the Christmas tree and putting on the lights, we sat down to a really hearty and soul satisfying bowl of stew. Nothing more needed really just some nice crusty bread and a glass of red wine.
Here’s last night’s recipe but feel free to improvise with what ever you have in the pantry!
Ingredients
2 ½ lbs. stew beef
Olive oil
1 large onion -peeled & cut into large chunks
4 cloves garlic – peeled and smashed
2 russet potatoes – peeled & cut into large chunks
2 large carrots – peeled & cut into large chunks again
1 medium sized bulb celeriac (celery root) – once more, peeled & cut into large chunks
1 large box of mushrooms – small ones left whole and large ones cut in half
3 bay leaves
2 tsp. rosemary – crushed if using dried and minced if using fresh
½ bottle of a full bodied red wine – last night I used a 2002 Le Grange Clinet
2 – 4 cups stock – you can use a good low sodium beef stock but I use mushroom stock
1 – 2 tsp. of tomato paste
2 – 4 Tbs. flour
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Method
1) Sear the meat in a little olive oil in the pot so it gets nice and caramelized and remove it.
2) Add the onions and garlic to the same olive oil and sauté till they get a little color.
3) Add the meat back in with all the veggies the bay leaves, rosemary, wine and stock. The whole wine /stock thing is this – you want to fill the pot with enough liquid to cover everything. It’s not an exact measurement here. You can use more stock then wine or vice versa.
4) Cover and bring to a full boil and then reduce the heat and let it simmer at least an hour. I let it go for about three hours last night.
5) Season with salt and pepper to taste
6) About 5 – 10 minutes before you’re ready to eat mix the flour and the tomato paste together in a small bowl and ladle in some of the hot broth. Whisk this together till there are no lumps and the consistency is more liquidy then dry. Pour this mixture back into the stew and stir till it starts to thicken. Again, the best way to figure this out is to start with a little of this mixture and keep adding more till the stew is the consistency you like. Be patient. The flour is cooked by mixing it with the hot liquid before you add it to the stew pot, so make sure you do it this way. If you add raw flour directly to the pot it will taste nasty.
Hope you give this a try. It’s great to do on the weekend when you have a bit more time to putter in the kitchen and it only gets better with age!
Photo courtesy of Martha Stewart Living
Cat Morris
Baby It’s Cold Outside!
