I use one of my all time favorite kitchen items for this recipe, my Creuset dutch oven. Get some really nice brown color on a couple pounds of stew meat, I like chuck. Set aside. If the pan has a lot of brown crust in the bottom then throw in ½ a cup of red wine in the hot pan and quickly scrape so that they release. Pour it in the same dish as the meat that you set aside. In oil in the pan let 2 sliced onions slowly brown along with a couple chopped up carrots and a few crushed cloves of garlic. Add one sprig of thyme and one of rosemary while this is going on. When things seem about ready add 2 tablespoons of tomato paste. Cook a couple more minutes. Add a cup or so of red wine (or ½ a cup if you already used some to get the pan clean after cooking the meat) and stir around to release anything stuck to the bottom. Put the meat and juices back in the pan with the veggies. Pour in just enough chicken stock(or water if you don't have any around) for the top of the meat to be sticking out of the liquid. In other words, make sure everything is not totally submerged. Bring back to a low boil. Cover the pot and put it in a 350 degree oven for 1 ½ -2 hours. Stir it around a couple times during this time. Technically this is braising since I’ve told you to cover it and put it in an oven but I find this so much easier than worrying about something sitting on the stove.
If you want to thicken the sauce you can pull out the veg and meat pieces. Stir a couple tablespoons of flour into cold water. Drizzle the flour/water mix in the simmering sauce while whisking briskly. Do this slowly so you can judge as to when it is thick enough for you. Once it's all incorporated be sure to let the sauce simmer on the stove top for at least 5 minutes as this is what cooks out the flour flavor. If you are going to use the mustard(see below *) you will probably not need this step as the mustard acts as a thickener.
You can make this into Beef Bourguignon by cooking chopped bacon in the pan before browning the beef and setting aside and place back in when you put the meat back to stew. At the end sauté some mushrooms so they’re nice a crusty brown and throw them in. To get mushrooms nicely browned you basically use the same instructions I gave for browning meat except that I really recommend using straight butter. I would skip the thickening part if doing this one, but that's just me.
*My favorite trick with a beef stew is to add a big tablespoon of dijon mustard stirred in at the very end. It should not taste of mustard but instead simply taste more intense and complex. When I do that version I always throw in some frozen peas too.
Remember what I always say about salt! You need to be seasoning your food every step of the way. If you add salt to a dish at the very end you will end up with food that tastes “salty” instead of well seasoned.
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I like to serve these stews over mashed potatoes or egg noodles.
3 comments:
I've always yearned for one of those Le Creuset Dutch ovens . . . what size would be most practical for stew fit for a family of 5 . . . and what of oval vs round?? They get their price - is there a less expensive option that I'd be handing down to my grandchildren??
I can't say if there is a less expensive one that matches up, but I do know people who have found them at yard sales and went on to use them for years so they definitely hold up. I know it is an investment but it is one of the most awesome tools I've ever had. It does amazing work on roasts, stew, etc and then cleans up like it was teflon. I don't know how they do it. I've seen shops for Le Creuset in discount malls and also in Williams Sonoma outlets so maybe you can check that out. As for size, I say you should take a look at them. I think we have a 5qt round and I would think that would easily cover 5 people.
I found one at a tag sale this summer (a yard sale) and I was trying not to flip out!
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