Beef Stew with Red Wine

(Comfort food for Mr. Britt. His pickup hit a patch of ice on this snowy, cold January day and took out two mailboxes, slid all over the road, broke a wheel and banged-up its side. Thankfully, no one popped over the hill and both Mr. Britt and pickup will be fine—with Skinny’s help, of course. Skinny asked him why he didn’t do that last August when Skinny needed work. Mr. Britt told him he would have, but couldn’t find any ice last August.)

Back to the Beef Stew…

This is from Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove Cookbook.

I like her novels because they are an “easy-read”, just right for relaxing and often include a knitting pattern.

The Knit Along with Debbie Macomber pattern books encourage Charity Knitting and she even donates all her proceeds from sales of her Leisure Arts Knit Along books to children’s charities. See debbiemacomber.com .

In fact, the Prayer Shawl that I am making is from her Friendship Shawls book—more about that another time!

Ok, here’s the Beef Stew with Red Wine…

• 3  1/2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1 1/2 –inch cubes.

• Salt and pepper, to taste

• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 5 tablespoons vegetable or light olive oil

• 1 ¼ C dry red wine, divided

• 1 large onion, chopped

• 1 14 1/2 ounce can reduced-sodium beef broth

• 1 28-ounce can whole plum tomatoes

• ( I used a can of tomato sauce b/c that is what I had)

• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme

• 1 bay leaf

• 5 carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped

• 1 10 ounce package white button mushrooms, stemmed and quartered

• 1 Cup water

1. Using paper towel, blot beef dry. In large bowl, toss beef with salt, pepper and flour.

2. Warm 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large pot or Dutch oven, over medium-high heat. Add meat in a single layer; cook 6 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Remove from pot and transfer to a bowl. Add ½ cup of the wine to pot and stir with a wooden spoon, scraping up loose bits on the bottom of the pot. Wine will thicken and combine with pot bits to make a thick sauce. Lift pot off heat and scrape this sauce onto the browned beef. (Repeat process with remaining beef adding another ½ C wine; deglazing* pot as above and transfer to browned beef.

3. Warm remaining 1 tablespoon oil in same pot over medium. Add onion; cook 5 minutes, until softened, stirring often. Add remaining ¼ cup wine, stirring until wine boils off. Return beef and juices in bowl to pot. Add broth, tomatoes, thyme and bay leaf. Bring to a simmer; reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 1 ½ hours, stirring occasionally and adding water to desired consistency.

4. Stir in carrots, mushrooms and 1 cup water; cover and cook until meat and vegetables are tender. Do not let stew boil; keep at a low simmer. Season with salt and pepper.

*TIP – The key to rich beef flavor is *deglazing the pan using wine. This process scrapes up all the browned bits left from cooking the beef and incorporates them into the sauce. The alcohol is cooked off in the process.

I served this over creamy mashed potatoes and it just warmed the soul and soothed the aches and pains!

(Using beef stew meat is a money-saver. Cooking it low and slow like this assures it is tender and juicy!)