A cold winter day craves the delicious and delightful dish “beef stew”. The magic ingredient in a good beef stew is allowing the dish the time to develop the flavors and turning your meat into a succulent bite of goodness. I’ve seen it before to bypass the time people try to cook at a high temp and what they do is stress the meat out, not allow the flavors to develop, and quite often cause the fibers in the meat to act like rubber bands.
- To Make the stew you need
- Beef such as London broil or top round ( 2#)
- Onions- 1 ea. Diced
- Carrots -3-4 chopped
- Celery – 3-4 stalks chopped
- Red potatoes – approx 10-15 ea. Whole or halved
- Garlic Cloves – approx 6 minced
- Crushed tomatoes -1 can
- Tomato Paste – 4 oz can
- Fresh Herbs like sage, basil, rosemary, oregano, and thyme- to taste
- Beef Broth or Beef Stock- 1 box
- Salt – to taste
- Pepper – to taste
- Paprika – to taste
- Cumin – to taste
- Chili powder
- Flour – to coat meat
The measurements of your ingredients don’t need to be specific amounts. The thing you want to do is taste your food and adjust as you go. The great thing about cooking a recipe like beef stew is to let taste be your guide.
- Coat meat in flour seasoned with salt, pepper, paprika, cumin, and chili powder. Be generous
- Sear the meat using a little oil in your pot. After it’s been at room temperature for about an hour.
- Remove the meat and let sit
- Saute vegetables
- Add tomato paste
- Add beef stock and simmer
- Add crushed tomatoes
- Add meat back
- Add herbs
- Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer
- Cook for several hours on a low simmer
- Adjust seasoning
- Remove meat and dice. Cut against the grain.
- Serve with rice or mashed potatoes.
A good accompaniment to the beef stew is a nice crusty bread to soak up the delicious stew gravy. Nice focaccia is a good choice too. For this beef stew, I made a quick herb cheese flat bread.
To make the flat bread.
- 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
- 3/4 cup self rising flour
- Use a dough hook or mix by hand until the dough comes together.
- on a floured surface roll dough into a ball.
- Brush with olive oil
- Cover and let rest 20 minutes
- Roll out dough
- Top with ingredients – for this I used olive oil, mozzarella cheese, Italian herbs
- Bake in preheated 400-450 degree oven for 12-18 minutes
Imbuepalate.com 