Clay's Kitchen : Stew Recipes

Stew Recipes

Beef Stew

Recipe from: Joe Ouellette
Servings: 6

This is a base for any stew. Substitute the wine for your favorite ale or stout. A lager will be too sweet and light.

2 pounds beef stew meat, the fattiest knarliest you can get from chuck, shoulder or bottom round
1 Knorr vegetable bullion, chopped up
4 sprigs thyme
1 branch rosemary
canola oil (I always use this for cooking because it has a high smoke point, so it's hard to burn, and no flavor.)
¼ cup Wondra flour
1 quart red wine like a Burgundy(I hope I don't have to say from France)
1 8 ounce container of Demi Glace, from D'Artagnan — Get a bunch and keep it in the freezer. I can't cook without it!
½ half can tomatoes form a 28 ounce can San Marzano crushed plum
tomatoes
sea salt
Tellicherry black pepper from a mill

Heat your oven to 325°F with the rack at the lowest position. Dry the beef well with paper towels. (We don't salt small pieces of meat at this point because it will pull out surface moisture and hinder caramelizing) Put a heavy, thick 6 quart pot and a 12 inch frying pan over a high heat. When the pans are hot add enough oil to barely coat the bottoms. Divide the beef equally into each pot or pan. When the oil is almost smoking, brown the beef really well on all sides. Add the beef from the pan to the pot and sprinkle in the Wondra flour and stir to combine well. Add the beer or wine, demi-glace, vegetable bullion, herbs, tomatoes. Bring to a hard simmer then put it in your oven. Taste for salt and pepper, then taste again and adjust again! Cook for 1 ½ hours stirring occasionally. The secret to all stews, is to make them a day in advance so it can get solid cold allowing the flavors to return to the meat which were lost while cooking. A votre santi, Joe

Search for Recipes, Search using Google, or Return to Cookbook Index