It snew, and snew rhymes with stew. 

The temperature dropped, and you know what that means; stew season is upon us. I love bundling up when it’s cold and gross outside and making a huge pot of soup or stew, so that’s exactly what I did. I also had so many carrots and so many sticks of celery from CSA that I needed to use up. I followed this recipe from NYT Cooking with slight changes. The result made me feel like I’m singing with the angels, and like all my worries are insignificant and everything’s gonna be okay.

Ingredients:

  • 1.3 lb beef stewing meat (chuck), trimmed and cubed
  • about 1.5 cups red wine (I used a random cabernet sauvignon)
  • about 4 cups beef broth
  • 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2.5 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • 1.5 medium onions, chopped
  • 6-7 small/medium carrots, cut into rounds
  • a lot of celery, chopped
  • 2 big potatoes, cut into vaguely cube-shaped pieces
  • 2 bay leaves
  • some olive oil
  • salt, pepper, garlic powder, Trader Joe’s everyday seasoning, smoked paprika

Note that the NYT recipe calls for the carrots and potatoes to be peeled. I didn’t, because I don’t have a peeler.

Instructions:

  1. Mix the flour with some pepper in a bowl, and toss the beef to coat it.
  2. Heat up some olive oil in the biggest pot you own and cook the beef a few pieces at a time, working in batches so you don’t overcrowd the pan.
  3. Remove the beef from the pot. Add the wine and red wine vinegar. I started with 1 cup of wine and added more throughout the cooking process. Stir with a wooden (or plastic probably works? just not metal) spoon, scraping the bottom of the pot for beef residue.
  4. Add the beef, beef broth, and bay leaves. Cover, bring to a boil, then let it simmer for about an hour and a half, skimming the broth occasionally for the gunk that rises to the top. I skimmed once when it boiled over and found that I didn’t need to skim it again. (Note: beef chuck becomes more tender the longer you let it stew, but your vegetables can disintegrate if you cook them for too long, so you need to be patient during this step and make sure the beef is pretty tender before you add the vegetables.)
  5. When the beef is tender, add the carrots, onions, and celery. Let cook for 10-15 minutes, and add the potatoes. Let simmer for at least 30 minutes more, until the vegetables are fork-tender. I added more wine here to cover the vegetables completely.
  6. Season with whatever you want; I found my mix of seasonings to be quite successful. If I had herbes de Provence I would have added some, but a jar of it was like $6 at Trader Joe’s and I would have never used it again, so I didn’t buy any.
  7. Enjoy!! I ate it with baguette, toasted and buttered generously, and it was really good.

Beef stew via Youngweon Lee