Beef Stew!

I’ve never hated beef stew, but I’ve never loved it either. It’s something my parents always made while I was growing up, and I tend to give it a shot each winter. My parents have always stuck with a traditional recipe, while I am prone to experimenting a little bit. And when I say experiment, I mean things like trying to flavor it with Guinness or dark chocolate.

I could tell you a story about the time my grandmother added Spaghettios and cut up hot dogs to beef stew (and not at different times, these both went into the same pot). But I love my grandmother, and I don’t want to sully her memory. But since we’re on the subject, let me just assure you that I am neither making this up nor exaggerating. Ask my brother. He didn’t believe me at first either. Then he ate it!

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve gone out to lunch a few times and ordered beef stew twice. Both times it was served with mashed potatoes in the bowl. This intrigued me. Since two very different restaurants did this, I gather it’s not a new or uncommon idea. But I had never seen it before. And I love mashed potatoes (and roasted potatoes, and French fried potatoes, and baked potatoes…).

So this past Sunday – a cold, raw one in New England – it was time for another run at beef stew. Even though I have a pretty good recipe for Guinness Beef Stew, I opted for a variation on the America’s Test Kitchen recipe. I will say that I chose this recipe because it called for red wine and I thought B would like it better, but truth be told, I didn’t have any Guinness and didn’t feel like buying any.

The recipe is below. I’ve indicated what I changed from the Test Kitchen’s recipe. And make sure you check out the money shot of the stew itself...

Beef Stew – serves 6 to 8

Ingredients

• 1 3lb. boneless beef chuck roast, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2” cubes
• Salt and pepper
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 medium onions, minced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flower
• 1 cup dry red wine
• 2 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 1/2 pounds red potatoes (about 5 medium), scrubbed and cut into 1 1/2” chunks
• 4 carrots, peeled and sliced thin
• 1 cup frozen peas

Wannabe Foodie Notes and Substitutions

1. I chose to buy 1 1/2 lbs of pre-cut stew beef from the service meat counter at the grocery store. I got certified Angus, and was about a pound short of what the recipe calls for (the 3 lb roast should yield 2 1/2 lbs of cut up meat), but I didn’t feel like the finished stew was low on meat.
2. I used Kendall Jackson Pinot Noir for the red wine.
3. Instead of chicken broth, I used beef stock. Apparently, finding genuine beef stock or broth is pretty hard to do. My grocery store only carried beef flavored stock and broth. I opted for an organic offering. Interestingly enough, the first ingredient was “organic beef flavored stock.” Your guess is as good as mine as to what I actually ate. But at least it was organic. I just didn’t want to use chicken broth in beef stew. It felt too wrong.
4. I used dried thyme. I will always say that fresh herbs are better, but there are fewer things I hate to do more than get those tiny little leaves of thyme off the stems.
5. Since I was serving the stew around a mound of mashed potatoes, I almost entirely eliminated the potatoes from the recipe. That is until I told my father I was going to do this and he nearly had a heart attack. So I used two medium russet potatoes instead of the red ones, cut into 1 1/2” chunks.
6. I added an 8 or 12 ounce package of white button mushrooms, cut into quarters. Just because I love mushrooms.
7. I also chose to chop some fresh parsley to use as a garnish.

Method

1. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 300 degrees. Dry the beef with paper towels, then season with salt and pepper. Heat one tablespoon of the oil in a large dutch oven over medium-high heat until just smoking. Brown half of the meat, about 10 minutes, then transfer to a plate. Return the pot to medium-high heat and repeat with one more tablespoon of the oil and the remaining beef.
2. Add the remaining tablespoon oil to the empty pot and return to medium heat until shimmering. Add the onions and cook until softened, about five minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and garlic, and cook for 30 seconds. Add the flour and cook for one minute. Slowly stir in the wine, scraping up any browned bits. Stir in the broth, thyme, bay leaves, and browned beef along with any accumulated juices. Bring to a simmer, cover and transfer the pot to the oven. Cook for one hour.
3. Stir in the potatoes and carrots (and mushrooms if you choose to use them). Cover and continue to cook in the oven until the beef is tender, about one hour.
4. Remove the pot from the oven and discard the bay leaves. Stir in the peas and let stand off the heat for five minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste before serving.

Wannabe Foodie Notes

1. During the last half hour or so, prepare the mashed potatoes using whatever recipe you prefer (I boiled four medium potatoes with a tablespoon of kosher salt for 20 minutes, then whipped them with some skim milk and butter using a hand mixer).
2. My stew finished cooking before the potatoes. So I lowered the oven temperature to 200 degrees, and left the stew in there to stay warm. If you need to do this, DO NOT add the peas until five minutes before you serve the stew. They were perfect before I had to put the stew back in the oven. Then they lost some of their vibrant green color (which looked spectacular in the dish) and took on a slight grayish hue. And the stew was still plenty hot when it hit the table.
3. To serve, I scooped a generous portion of mashed potatoes in the center of a soup or pasta bowl. Then I ladled the stew around the potatoes and sprinkled with the chopped parsley.

If I may brag a little, the stew was delicious. The mashed potatoes were the perfect companion and added some really nice texture to the plate. As I mentioned above, the plate didn’t feel like there wasn’t enough beef and it was still a very thick, rich stew. And it keeps well – B brought a container of leftovers to work the next day.

And now, the money shot:

(My plating skills are to be desired, but still... Aren't you hungry??)