Old Fashion Beef Stew
Serves 4 to 6
Here is what you need:
4 cups chicken, beef or vegetable broth (low sodium)
3 TBS tomato paste
2 TBS corn starch
1 TBS Asian fish sauce*
1 TBS soy sauce
1 TBS Worcestershire sauce
3 pounds whole boneless beef chuck roast
3 TBS all-purpose flour
1 10 ounce package of button mushrooms
3 cloves garlic
4 carrots
2 celery stalks
8 ounces of frozen pearl onions, thawed (can use fresh peeled if you want)
1 yellow onion
1 cup red wine (cabernet, merlot)
4 sprigs fresh thyme or 1 tsp ground thyme
1 pound Yukon gold potatoes
1 cup frozen peas
vegetable oil
Kosher salt and black pepper
* If you don’t have Asian fish sauce you can substitute with another TBS of soy sauce, just watch the salt level.
Also if you don’t have a Dutch oven you could try this stove top in a large pot with a lid.
Here is what you need to do:
Prep your ingredients. Slice your beef into 4 even steaks and leave on counter to come to room temp. Wipe your mushrooms clean with a damp paper towel, trim the stem and quarter. Peel 2 carrots and cut into 1 inch chunks. Cut the other two carrots in half. Cut the celery in half. Slice the onion in half and peel it. Peel the garlic but keep it in tact. Peel the potatoes and cut into bite size cubes.
Have oven rack on it’s lowest position and preheat oven to 300.
In a bowl or a blender combine the stock, fish sauce, soy sauce, corn starch, Worcestershire and tomato paste. Blend well.
In a large Dutch oven heat about 2 TBS of vegetable oil over medium –high heat. Season beef well with salt and pepper. Brown beef on 2 sides, should take about 4 to 5 minutes per side. It will still be rare in the middle you just want to get a nice brown crust on the beef. Remove the beef and set on a rimmed baking sheet. Let rest on the counter.
Lower the temperature on the stove and put the mushrooms into the Dutch oven and stir them around letting them brown, takes about 5 minutes. Next add in your cut carrots and pearl onions. You may need to add a bit more oil, and season with some salt and pepper. Let them get a little brown then remove them from the Dutch oven and set them aside.
Place your onion, cut sides down into the Dutch oven along with the carrots garlic and celery.Move them around a bit and let brown for a few minutes. Pour the wine into the pot and scrape up any brown bits from the bottom. Let wine reduce for about 3 minutes then add in the broth mixture.Bring it to a simmer then take the pot off the heat.
Place your beef on a cutting board and slice it into chunks, about 1 ½ inches. You may have some very fatty pieces, put them in anyway, it’s flavor. Just fish them out before you serve it or warn diners that they are in there! If there is any juice on the cutting board, add that to the pot.
Place the cut beef back on your baking sheet.Sprinkle with flour and coat the pieces. Put the beef into the pot along with the thyme. Put it back on the heat and bring to a simmer then place the Dutch oven into your 300 degree oven. Partially cover the Dutch Oven with the lid. The stew should have a low simmer in your oven, so check on it after about 5 minutes. If it’s not simmering you may have to turn up your oven, that happened to me. I turned the oven up to 325 for about 10 minutes then put it back to 300. It will simmer in the oven for 1 ½ hours.
Take stew out of the oven and remove the carrots, celery, onion, thyme (if using sprigs) and garlic and toss them out. (Honestly I can never find the garlic and we love garlic so I leave it in!) Add the potatoes, pearl onions, mushrooms and carrots to the stew and put back in the oven again partially covered for 45 minutes.
Take pot out of oven. If the broth is not thick enough to your liking you can simmer it on the stove for a few minutes, uncovered. Add in the peas and give them a good stir. Give it a taste and season as necessary. It only takes a couple of minutes for the peas to thaw in the stew.
You can enjoy right away or store in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Let’s Eat!!