March 2nd, 2020:
Beef Stew has become our winter Sunday Dinner recently. Mostly because I can prep it and stick it in the oven after (our usually late) breakfast and forget about it until dinner time. I remember that your traditional Sunday Dinner was pizza, which is a good tradition too! During one summer’s past, we had a period of having steamed shrimp with onions and old bay for Sunday Dinner. These things go in phases, I guess.
I never make beef stew, or anything for that matter, the same way every time because it depends what I have on hand. The essential ingredients in my mind are the beef cubes, flour, onions and some liquid. Everything else is gravy, so to speak, and varies from Sunday to Sunday. So here goes, this is how I made the beef stew last night:
(Oh, and you also need a cast iron dutch oven with a lid, like a Le Creuset. Something to retain the heat)
The first thing I do is turn on the oven to 550 and put the lid into the oven to heat up. While the oven is heating up, I begin prepping everything.
First, I season the 2+ lbs (you want to have leftovers as the re-heating just makes it better) of beef cubes however you like. I used salt and pepper, garlic powder and paprika last night. After seasoning, I add a heaping spoonful of flour and stir the cubes to coat. Then I set that aside to marinade while I prep the veggies: chopped onion(s), carrot(s), celery, mushrooms and strained diced canned tomatoes.
Next I put the dutch oven on the stove at high heat. Once hot, olive oil was added and the cubes were browned in batches on all sides. The cubes were removed to a plate to be added back later, along with all of the juices.
The first three veggies, salt and pepper, dried oregano, and some red wine were put into the hot dutch oven and with a flat topped wood spoon, I mixed up the veggies and scraped all of the brown bits off the bottom and sides of the dutch oven. After the pan is de-glazed, I added back in the meat and juices and also the mushrooms and tomatoes. If I have tomato paste, I would add it now, last night I just used some bbq sauce.
All ingredients well mixed, I placed the lidded (from the hot oven) dutch oven into the hot oven and closed the door. Then I clean the cutting board, utensils, counter, etc. Once everything was cleaned, I turned the oven off. The stew then slow cooked the rest of the afternoon.
I served the Beef Stew with some buttered egg noodles, but rice or mashed potatoes or crusty bread would work too. I usually make a salad so you do not feel so bad about having seconds!
Let me know how it turns out!
