Saturday, November 6, 2010

Homestyle Beef Stew

With summer officially over and fall making way toward the colder months of winter, I am really excited to start cooking some hearty fall meals. One of my all-time favorites is beef stew. This one-pot meal is a great Sunday night dinner because the longer you allow the meat to cook, the more tender it is.

While this isn't a quick meal, it's definitely worth the wait. Plus, the smells that fill your house are warm, comforting, and make you look forward to dinner (and leftovers!)


Homestyle Beef Stew

2 lbs. lean beef (round steak is a good choice here)
4 tsp. salt, divided
3 tsp. pepper, divided
2 tsp. vegetable oil
1 lg. can tomato sauce
2 C. water
3 bay leaves
1/2 C. good quality red wine (use anything that you'd drink by the glass - and pour yourself a glass while you're at it!)
4-6 potatoes (I like Yukon gold or baby red potatoes - no need to peel these!), cubed
2 Carrots, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 package of frozen peas

Heat oil in a large dutch oven or other heavy bottomed pot. Sprinkle meat with 1 tsp. pepper and 2 tsp. salt. Brown the meat until well seared. Add the red wine to deglaze the pan, scraping up any brown bits as you stir. Add the tomato sauce, water, salt and pepper, and bay leaves. Cover and simmer 1 hour.

Add the potatoes, carrots, and onion. Cook on low until the potatoes and carrots are cooked through. Add the frozen peas and turn off the stew. Find and remove the bay leaves. Serve with beer bread or cornbread. Enjoy!

*Note - if you feel like your stew is too thin, or you don't have enough time to properly simmer the stew to thicken it, you can mix 2 Tb. of cornstarch with water and add the the stew. This will thicken it without altering the taste or texture.

1 comment:

  1. came across your blog and i'm really excited to try this today! do you remember how many oz. the can of tomato sauce is?

    ReplyDelete

 
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