THE PIONEER WOMAN'S BEEF STEW
Average beef stew is, well, average. But good beef stew is out of this world, as evidenced by the joy you'll experience while chowing down on this dang delicious version.
Ingredients:
3 T olive oil
1 T butter
2 pounds beef stew meat
1 medium onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
4 cups beef broth
1 T Worcestershire sauce
2 T tomato paste
1/2 t paprika
1 1/2 t. sugar
1/2 t. kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
4 new potatoes, quartered
4 carrots, unpeeled, roughly sliced
2 T all-purpose flour
minced parsley, for garnish (optional)
crusty bread, for serving
Directions:
- Start by heating the olive oil and butter in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Throw in the stew meat and quickly brown it on all sides, about 5 minutes. Remove the meat to a clean plate and set aside.
- Throw the onion into the pot, then reduce the heat to low. Stir the onion around to cook until softened, about 3 minutes. Then throw in the garlic and stir it around to cook for a minute. Pour in all the beef broth, add the Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, paprika, sugar, salt and pepper.
- Finally, return the meat to the pot, cover it, and simmer the stew over very low heat for 1.5 - 2 hours, or until the meat is very tender. If the liquid level gets too low, add 1-2 cups hot water as needed.
- Add the potatoes and carrots to the pot. Stir them in and continue simmering for 30 minutes more or until the vegetables are tender.
- To thicken the stew, remove 1 cup of the cooking liquid and whisk in the flour. Pour the flour mixture into the pot and simmer for an additional 1- minutes, or until the stew is very thick. Add parsley at the end if desired.
- Dish it up and serve it with crusty bread and a very, very hearty appetite.
Slight short-cut: This was my FIRST time making this stew (and it's a keeper!). I didn't read through the recipe closely enough. I didn't realize the meat had to simmer for 1.5+ hours, BEFORE I add the potatoes. Once I figured that out I finished dicing my potatoes, then put them in a bowl, covered them in cold water and put them in the fridge. I added then in @ Step 4. Magically, they only took about 20 minutes to cook and I didn't have to thicken the stew at all; adding the potatoes took care of it. Pretty nice! I think I'll do that same thing next time too. :) Beef stew may not LOOK very pretty, but MAN is it delicious!
Note: Stew freezes beautifully.
