Friday, October 18, 2013

Red Wine and Herb Beef Stew

Red Wine and Herb Beef Stew

Chilly evenings, big bowl of warm stew.  You don't need any explanations for that, right?  Sure enough, first sign of cooler weather and I'm buying stew meat.  But I was also craving some of the flavors in my Pot Roast a la Giada with its sweet red wine notes and fragrant herbs.  So I just updated my long-time, tried and true stew recipe to include those flavors.  One pot, inexpensive but with all those rich, earthy flavors.  Now this stew is in regular rotation until spring.  Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 lb.  Beef round cubes
1/4 Cup all purpose flour
2 Tablespoons olive or canola oil
1 Onion, peeled and diced
3 Carrots, peeled and sliced
4 Cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 Tablespoon chopped rosemary
2 Tablespoons chopped thyme
1 Tablespoon tomato paste
4 Cups beef stock
1/2 Cup red wine
Salt & pepper to taste

Red Wine and Herb Beef Stew
Place the flour in a large bowl and add the beef cubes.  Roll them around to coat.  Pour 1 tablespoon of the oil into a large Dutch oven or other oven safe stew pot.  Add half the beef cubes (it's important not to overcrowd the beef if you want it to brown instead of boil) and sear on medium high heat for a couple of minutes, rotating the cubes to get the sear on all sides.  Remove the beef from the pot, add the remaining tablespoon of oil and repeat with the remainder of the beef.

Red Wine and Herb Beef Stew
When seared, remove all the beef and whisk in 1 cup of stock.  Scrape up all the bits on the bottom of the pot and whisk them into the stock.  Return the beef to the pot and add the onions, carrots, garlic, rosemary, thyme, remaining beef stock and red wine.  Stir in the tomato paste and season.  Cover and cook in a 350 degree oven for 3 hours.  Serve over potatoes, egg noodles or rice.  Makes approximately 4 servings but the recipe can easily be doubled.

10 comments:

  1. I looooove beef stew!!!! I am also amazed that you got yours to look so pretty. Brown food is always the best, but for me I never can make it look as pretty as this!

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  2. Love beef stew and love how yours looks so awesome and delicious. Thanks for sharing. Hope mine will look so good.

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  3. I just love stew and yours looks delicious!

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  4. This is a gorgeous stew! I love adding red wine to stews too, it adds such great flavor!

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  5. The sauce alone has my attention. Just give me some bread to sop it up!

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  6. YUM!!! I love these kinds of stews, so yummy and comforting!

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  7. Looks delicious!! Would it work with gluten free flour?

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    1. Hi, Lisa - I would think so but I don't have any experience with gluten free flours. However, you can thicken the sauce without any flour altogether. Simple scoop out a few carrot and potato chunks along with a couple of ladles of sauce and puree them in a blender. When you add it back to the stock pot, you will have thickened sauce without the flour. Let me know how it works out for you.

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  8. I made this beef stew for my wife and I and it was absolutely fantastic! I am getting ready to make this dish again.... we can't wait!

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  9. For thickening stew without flour you can mash some leftover potato and add or even throw in a tablespoon or two of instant mashed potato. I usually have a potato in my beef stew anyway. I like to add some quartered button mushrooms, too.

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