I decided today that I should really go back to my old favorite recipes and repost them with pictures, and perhaps make a printable version of the recipe (pdf) .. we’ll see if I make it to that. Anyways, beef stew is a favorite of our family during cold snaps .. and this stew seriously rocks. It does take some effort though, but its soo worth it.

You’ll need a nice big pot, something with a heavy bottom. A dutch oven would also work well .. I mean .. that’s what the recipe origanially calls for, but until I win one of these from Pioneer Woman, I’ll be using this plain old pot.

Coat the bottom with veggie oil and get the pan screaming hot as Rachel Ray would say. We’re going to brown the outside of the meat. This is the hardest part of the whole stew .. but you’ll be rewarded with very tasty beef if you take your time and do it right. As for what kind of beef? I look for beef round cubes. Stew beef is pretty easy to find, its marbled with alot more fat then I like .. but in the end it all tastes the same anyways. So this time I used 2 lbs of round beef and 1 lb of stew beef, that way I get a little of both.

Put your beef cubes in a single layer in the pot. And let them sit .. for at least a minute, probably 2 or 3. DO NOT MOVE THEM. Resist the temptation to wiggle them so they’re easier to move. You’re trying to brown them up, get a crust and get some good pan drippings for the rest of the stew.

When you think you’ve got some brown goodness going on, go ahead and flip them to another side. Sometimes if they’re really big cubes I’ll brown up 3 or even 4 sides .. if I feel up to it. But at least get 2 sides brown. Also .. you’re not trying to cook them all the way through, just the outside. They’ll be boiling away for 2.5 more hours .. they’re going to cook in there.

When you get the meat nice and brown, move it to a plate and put in another batch.

While you’re browning up your beef in batches, go ahead and peel & chop up 2 medium sized onions.

Sometimes after a batch there’s a ton of liquid in the pot. This stuff will prevent your cubes from making contact with the bottom of the pot, and therefore it wont brown up. So in between batches, you might have to wait a bit and let this fatty juicy stuff cook down.

It doesn’t take long, and the next batch of meat will pick up all those delicious brown bits!

Once all your meat is browned, take it all out of the pot and throw in the onions. Let them get nice and soft

Then add the meat back to the pot and add in your liquid. You could use 4 cups of water & 2 boullion cubes but I prefer to use a box of beef broth.

And a cup of red wine. I use the little bottle because I just dont drink that much wine. However, 1 bottle is just under a cup, so I had to open two .. but that means there’s just enough wine left for me to have a glass with dinner

Next throw in the garlic, parsley, thyme, salt, pepper and a big bay leaf (I only had little ones so I used 2). I didn’t get a shot of the pepper, but that’s because I don’t use a tripod to take these pictures, and its really impossible to grind pepper and take a picture at the same time

Cover and let that simmer for an hour and a half!

Meanwhile you can prep the veggies. I used yukon gold potatoes here .. 2 of them I cut in half and 3 I left whole .. basically just try to get them all the same size.

Cut your celery into approx. 3 in sections. I use baby carrots, so I eliminate peeling and chopping carrots, just made a pile of them the same size of the celery.

These are boiler onions, or small white onions. Just chop off the top & bottoms and peel them.

After an hour and a half, throw your veggies into the pot.

When the 1.5 hours is up, dump the veggies into the stew.

Next chop up the peppers and mushrooms.

And run a knife through the can of tomatoes to try to break them up a bit.

After 40 minutes, add the peppers, mushrooms and tomatoes + juice into the pot.

Bring that back up to a boil. If you need to add more liquid, nows the time. You want your dumplings to float.

Drop the dough by big spoonfuls into the boiling stew. Reduce heat and cook for 10 minutes uncovered.

Then cook for another 10 minutes, covered.

To serve, I remove the dumplings to a separate plate.

Which leaves you plenty of room to hunt out your favorite parts of the stew Enjoy!

Mom’s Beef Stew

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp oil (I use canola)
• 1.5 – 2 lb beef chuck, round or rump, cut in  1.5 inch cubes
• 2 medium onions coarsely chopped
• 1 cup red wine
• 4 cups beef broth
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp dried parsley
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/8 tsp dried thyme
• 1-2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 3 medium potatoes
• 3 carrots (12 baby carrots)
• 3 celery stalks
• 10 small white onions or 3 medium onions, quartered
• 2 medium green peppers
• 8 oz white mushrooms, thickly sliced
• 14.5 can whole tomatoes, cut up a bit, undrained

For dumplings

• 2 cups Bisquick mix
• 2/3 cup milk

Instructions

1. Over medium heat, slowly heat oil in heavy bottom stew pot. In it brown meat cubes well, turning on all sides. Remove, and set aside.
2. In same pot, sauté onions until tender.
3. Return meat to pan; add 4 cups beef broth, the wine, garlic, parsley, bay leaf, thyme, salt and pepper, Cover; simmer 1.5 hours or until just tender.
4. Meanwhile, prepare veggies: Peel potatoes and carrots; halve. Peel onions. Cut celery in 3-inch sections. Remove seeds and ribs from peppers; cut in chunks. Slice mushrooms. Cut canned tomatoes.
5. When meat has cooked 1.5 hours, add potatoes, carrots, onions, and celery. Cook 1 hour. Or until meat and veggies are tender.
6. Twenty minutes before end of cooking time add peppers and tomatoes.
7. Bring the stew back to a boil. While waiting mix the milk & Bisquick to make the dumplings
8. When stew returns to boil, drop dough by spoonfuls all over top of stew. Reduce heat, cook uncovered for 10 minutes.
9. Cover and cook for 10 more minutes, and enjoy!

Download recipe [here]