Tried and True: Beef Stew

I took Ina’s Beef Bourguignon recipe and her Company Pot Roast recipe and combined them to make this beef stew.  I wanted to make Company Post Roast, but you see, we recently bought half a cow and split it with our neighbors.  And my downstairs freezer is full of stew beef, ground beef, and steaks.  But somehow I didn’t come away with any roasting meat.  So rather than go out and purchase a cut of meat that I didn’t have on hand, I decided to make the pot roast recipe with stew beef.  So here’s what I did.

I gathered my ingredients.

What you see there is flour for coating the meat, salt and pepper, lard (yes ma’am, I did say lard), chicken stock, beef cubes, onion, garlic, leeks, carrots, and celery.  Mmm.  Mm.  What I forgot to include in the photo was a can of plum tomatoes and fresh thyme.

I cut up my veggies and set them aside.

Next I took each piece of stew meat and dried it and sprinkled it with salt and pepper.  It’s a laborious task, but it really does make the meat brown up nicely.  Ever since I saw them do it on Julie & Julia, I’ve been making sure to take this extra step when I brown beef.

Then I floured it up real good.

Then it was time to brown the meat.  Now folks, this here is lard.

I am not afraid of lard.  My great-grandmother’s recipes all call for lard, and she lived well into her 90s.  They say her heart wouldn’t stop beating.  Now Crisco, that’s what you need to be afraid of.  That stuff’ll kill ya.

I melted the lard in a large stock pot and started browning the beef.  I like to work in batches so each piece gets browned on all sides.  If you try to fill the pan too full, it won’t brown properly.  And this photo doesn’t really represent properly browned meat.  I think I turned those first pieces too soon, and then I never got another shot.  Oh well, you get the idea.

Once the meat was browned and removed from the pan, I added some olive oil and the veggies.  And salt and pepper, of course.  You want to season each step of the way to get the most flavor from your food.

I sauteed those up till they were nice and tender.  Then I added some red wine — something else I forgot to grab when I was assembling my ingredients.  The wine helps deglaze the pan and get all those yummy browned bits of meat and veggies off the bottom and into your stew.

Next I added homemade chicken stock, a can of plum tomatoes, and more salt and pepper.

I grabbed some fresh thyme off my deck.  Unfortunately I didn’t have any fresh rosemary, so I used dried.  I didn’t bother to tie them in a bundle.  I just pulled the stems out when I served the stew.

Once that was combined, I added the stew meat back into the pot, along with any drippings and juices remaining on the plate.

Stir it up, bring it to a boil, then cover it and put it into a 250-degree oven for an hour and 15 minutes or so.

And then?  Dinner!

It was delicious, but the next time I make this dish, I think I’ll add some diced potatoes for depth.  I also skipped the step where she adds the butter/flour mixture to thicken it.  I thought it was plenty thick already, with the flour from browning the beef mixed with the lard.

The nice thing about this dish is that it makes great leftovers for school lunch boxes or a quick dinner.

Click here for a printable version of Beef Stew.

I’m submitting this post to the following carnivals:  Tasty Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday, and Fight Back Fridays.  I’ll add links as the carnivals go live.