Beef Stew

Beef Stew

I realized the other day that I don't yet have a recipe for beef stew on this site. So weird. Today's stew that you see here is actually an experiment that went well, so now it will become my beef stew post here. 

I basically modified my recipe for Swiss steak by adding stew meat instead of steak, and I added more liquid and carrots. I suppose I could have cubed some potatoes and added them when I added the carrots, but serving the stew over mashed potatoes sounded more cozy and comforting today, so that's what we've got here.

This made so much that I was able to send a bunch home with my son, take some to my in-laws, and have leftovers for my husband and myself as well. I think it would probably freeze pretty well too, but I distributed it well enough that I didn't get the chance to check that assumption. 

At any rate, I think this is a solid, delicious beef stew that I will definitely be making again. 

Beef Stew

Ingredients:

• 4 pounds beef stew meat (preferably large chunks)
  
• 2 (approx) teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 (approx) teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2/3 cup flour (I used Better Batter Gluten Free AP Flour)
• vegetable oil for browning meat
• 2 large onions, thinly sliced
• 4 celery stalks, thinly sliced
• 4 medium garlic cloves, minced
• 3 teaspoons paprika
• 2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 5 cups beef broth (I used 5 teaspoons beef base in 5 cups warm water) 
• 2-3 cups sliced carrots
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped curly parsley
• 1-2 batches of mashed potatoes (here's a garlic mashed potatoes recipe if you need one)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

Prepare the onions, celery and garlic. Set aside.

Place a portion of the meat on a cutting board and sprinkle each with a little kosher salt and pepper.

Then using a meat tenderizing mallet pound each piece to about 1/2 an inch thickness. Be sure to pound on both sides of each piece of meat. If you have some exceptionally large pieces (bigger than 2 inches), you can cut them in half. If you have stew meat that is cut into small pieces, you can skip this step.

Place the flour in a medium bowl and toss each piece of tenderized met in the flour. You can toss several pieces at once, making sure to shake off any excess flour. Do this with all of the meat and set aside until ready to brown the meat.

Heat about 3 tablespoons of oil in a Dutch oven over medium high heat. When oil is hot, carefully place steak into the pan taking care not to crowd. You will need to brown the meat in many batches, adding oil between batches. When each piece of meat is browned on each side, move to a large bowl to wait.

When all meat has been browned, add the onions, celery and garlic to the Dutch oven. Stir veggies and cook just long enough until they start to wilt. Add paprika and oregano and stir. Pour in the beef broth and stir. Add the meat back into the Dutch oven, making sure you cover the meat with the veggies and liquid.

Place cover on Dutch oven and place in the oven. Bake at 325 degrees for about 1 1/2 hours and then stir in the carrots. Bake another hour or so, or until meat is very tender. Stir in the chopped parsley.

Taste for salt level and add more salt, if needed.

Serve over mashed potatoes and sprinkle with a little more parsley, if desired.

Makes about 8 to 12  servings

You can see the mashed potatoes a little better in this pic.