Foodie Friday-Harvest Beef Stew

     I'm participating in my first Foodie Friday. Please visit Michael at Designs by Gollum to see all the delicious dishes.


     When the weather gets cold, I tend to want to create “homey” meals. Generally that means a lot of soups, chili and stews. We don’t eat a lot of red meat at our house, but my husband really loves beef. So, I decided to put together a fall meal that I could pop in the oven and have ready a few hours later. This actually could be done completely on top of the stove, and be done in a shorter period of time. I happen to like that slow cooked flavor and the smell of the spices in my house.

Ingredients:

2 pounds stew meat or chuck roast cut into chunks
2 T. olive oil
Season salt or grill seasoning
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup carrots sliced (I prefer regular carrots, baby carrots would work)
1 cup chopped onion (optional-I don’t cook with onions, but most people like them)
1 large potato cut into chunks
1 small sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks
½ tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. thyme
½ tsp. rosemary
½ tsp. basil
2 T. tomato paste (you can freeze the rest of the can in a container for later use)
2 ½-3 cups of beef broth (I always use low sodium)
2 bay leaves
2 tsp. sugar
2 T. balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper
1 cup frozen peas
2 T. cornstarch.


     Sprinkle the meat with a small amount of season salt or grill seasoning. In an oven safe pan (Dutch oven) on the stove, heat the oil and stir in the beef chunks. Stir until browned on all sides, remove from pan.

     To the pan juices add celery, carrots, onion, potato, sweet potato and stir. Cover and cook about 2 minutes, just to slightly soften the vegetables. Put the meat back in with the vegetables. Add garlic powder, oregano, thyme, rosemary, basil, tomato paste, beef broth, sugar, vinegar, a pinch of salt and pepper and stir. Add bay leaves.

    Put in oven at 350 degrees for 2 hours. Remove from oven, meat and vegetables should be very tender. Put pan back on stove burner and turn to medium high heat. Mix cornstarch with a 2 T. water and stir into stew. When the stew is thickened, add frozen peas and stir. It only takes about a minute for the peas to cook. If the stew is too thick, you can thin it with a little beef broth or water. Don’t forget to remove the bay leaves before serving.

I served ours with crusty bread and a fruit salad. The house smelled wonderful. Enjoy.