I feel like Beef Stew is always one of those dishes that is…meh, just okay. Inspired from French cooking, using fresh ingredients and technique, I have put together a recipe that is filled with deep, rich flavours and no mushy veggies.
With fall lingering in the air, I think we need this! Enjoy.
WHAT YOU NEED:
- Avocado Oil: 1 tbsp, or your favorite cooking oil
- Blue Ridge Farms Belly Bacon: 8 oz, diced
- Blue Ridge Farms Beef Stew Meat: 2 packs or 2.5 lbs
- Kosher Salt: to taste
- Fresh Ground Pepper: to taste
- Carrots: 1 lb, sliced into 1-inch chunks
- Yellow Onion: 2, sliced
- Garlic: 2 large cloves, chopped
- Cognac or Brandy: 1/2 Cup
- Red Wine: 1 bottle (750 ml), dry
- Beef Bone Broth: 2.5 Cups
- Tomato Paste: 1 tbsp
- Thyme Leaves: 1 tsp, fresh
- Flour: 3 tbsp, all purpose
- Butter: 4 tbsp, room temp.
- Mushrooms: 1 lb, fresh, caps only, chopped
Serve with:
- Sour Dough Bread: toasted and buttered
- Parsley: 1/2 Cup, chopped
DIRECTIONS:
- Set oven to 250*
- In a large Dutch oven, add oil and cook bacon over medium heat, stirring occasionally until bacon is brown and slightly crispy. Once cooked, remove bacon to a large plate. Leave the remaining fat for cooking.
- Pat Beef Stew meat dry with paper towel and then sprinkle with Salt and Pepper. In 2 or 3 batches, add beef to Dutch oven and sear for ~4 minutes, turning to brown each side. Add seared beef to bacon plate and set aside.
- Add carrots, onions, kosher salt (1 tbsp) and pepper (2 tsp) to bacon fat in Dutch oven. Cook for 10 minutes until onions are slightly browned. Add garlic to carrot mixture and cook for 1 minute.
- *Here’s the fun part. Add Cognac (stand back), and light with a BBQ lighter. This burns the alcohol off. After, add the bacon and beef back to the Dutch oven with any juices left on the plate.
- Add red wine and enough beef broth to nearly cover the meat (I used an $8 bottle of red, Sawmill Creek – Shiraz).
- Add tomato paste and fresh thyme. Bring to a boil, put pot lid on and place it in the oven for 2 hours at 250*. Then turn the temperature down to 170* and cook for another 2-5 hours depending on when you want to eat. (I love the cooking ease of this recipe, make it early in the day, set and forget!)
- Remove pot from oven and combine 2 tbsp of the butter with the flour using a fork, mix into stew.
- In a pan, saute mushrooms in remaining butter over medium heat for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Add mushrooms to stew.
- Bring stew to a boil then lower the heat and simmer (lid off) for 15 minutes.
- Serve with buttered bread and sprinkle with parsley. Season to taste if needed.
Recipe modified from the cookbook, Barefoot in Paris. Thank you!
NOTES:
- Don’t wash mushrooms under water, just brush them clean.
- To meal prep, cook stew and refrigerate. When ready to serve, just simmer over low heat and serve away.
Enjoy!
Jillian