Dutch Oven Beef Stew

 More Dutch oven.  Why not? It's absolutely delightful and so easy.

First of all, this calls for "stew meat." What is stew meat? Google says round steak or chuck steak. Take your pick.

We tried this 3 ways over the course of the winter. First we added the potatoes into the stew as the recipe suggests. That was fine. Unremarkable but fine. Then we skipped the potatoes in the stew, made a separate bowl of mashed potatoes, and served the stew over those. Oh yes, this is how it was intended to be. The pure definition of warm comfort food. Last, we put the stew over white rice made separately. That was Jeff's favorite.

Ultimately, my suggestion is to skip the potatoes in the stew and make whatever starch you want for your bowl, whether it's mashed potatoes or rice.

Beef Stew
Adapted from here

1 tbsp butter
2lbs stew meat, diced
1/2 cup flour
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder
Paprika
Thyme
1 cup dry red wine
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 small can tomato paste (about 2-3 tablespoons)
2 bay leaves
2 1/2 cups beef broth
2 large onions, diced
1 cup carrots, diced
1 cup celery, diced
3 russet potatoes, diced (OPTIONAL)
  1. In a gallon bag, dump the flour, some salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, and thyme. Add in the stew meat and seal. Shake the bag, coating the stew meat in the flour mixture completely.
  2. In the Dutch oven, melt butter. Dump in the meat, trying not to dump in all of the flour from the bag. Discard extra flour. Brown the meat on all sides, about 5 minutes.
  3. Remove meat from pot. Pour in wine and vinegar. Using a wooden spoon, scrape the bottom of the pan, stirring the wine to incorporate all the browned bits.
  4. Add meat back to the pot, as well as the vegetables (NOT the potatoes, if you are using them). Mix in tomato paste and all of the seasonings again. Pour in the beef broth and add in the 2 bay leaves. 
  5. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover. Cook for about 2 hours or until meat is tender. If you are cooking the potatoes in the stew, add them in about 30 minutes before you intend to serve.
  6. Discard bay leaves and add more broth to thin if desired.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chili Soy Pork

 This particular recipe started as a chicken thigh recipe. However we were making something with chicken already that week and wanted to change it up. I suggested pork, and Jeff immediately decided on pork shoulder. Now, I can't imagine it any other way. Chili Soy Pork Adapted from  here 2lbs pork shoulder, cut into bite sized pieces 1/4 cup soy sauce 2 tablespoons gochujang 2 tablespoons spicy chili sauce 1/4 cup oyster sauce 1 tablespoon garlic powder 1 cup scallions, diced Cut the pork into bite sized pieces and place in a ziplock bag or a bowl Combine soy sauce, gochujang, chili sauce, oyster sauce, garlic and scallions. Whisk together and pour over pork, coating well. Marinate at minimum 1 hour, recommend overnight. Preheat the oven to 425F. Add oil to a hot pan and sear each side of the pork for 1-2 minutes, or until browned. Remove from pan onto a cookie sheet. Cook in the oven for about 20 minutes. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve over rice with veggies of your choice.
Read more

Oatmeal Bake

Image
Last year for Jeff's first father's day, he sent me this recipe with the caption "All I want for Father's Day."  It's a generic recipe for oatmeal, and you can add whatever you want to it to make it delicious.  I was a little hesitant because oatmeal isn't my favorite breakfast food.  I mean, I'll eat it, but it's not my first choice. Then we had it for breakfast and I was sold.  This is now our go-to breakfast on a Sunday morning, and (for now) we have enough leftover to eat throughout the week.  The best part is, everyone loves it! Oatmeal Bake 3 cups quick oats or old fashioned oats 1 cup brown sugar 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp clove 1/2 tsp all spice 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 cup vegetable oil 2 eggs, beaten 1 cup milk 1 tsp vanilla *1 can of chopped peaches (NOT drained) *1-1/2 cup dried cranberries Grease 9x13 pan.  Preheat oven to 350*. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Bake for 30-35 minutes or
Read more

Chicken Burrito Bowl

Image
So it's been a long time!  My Pinterest-ing this year has mostly been wedding related and staring at all the delicious food on Pinterest certainly doesn't mesh with that.  But today, Jeff suggested I browse for dinner options, and the one I stumbled on required ingredients we always keep on hand, such as chicken, rice, black beans, and chicken broth.  However, the original author states (and I agree) that you can make this with whatever veggies you have on hand.  So feel free to take a little creative license with this! The burrito bowl originally requires chicken, but we both said it would be easy to make it with ground beef.  If you do, brown the ground beef in a separate pan, drain it, then add it to the sauteed onions.  It was quite delicious with chicken, and probably would be good without any meat, though you'd need to add many more veggies.  I also added some seasoning to the raw chicken, then a little more to the uncooked rice, and then about 3 tablespoons to th
Read more