Fall is my favorite season of the year. I love everything about fall – the cooler weather, seasonal fruits and vegetables, spiced lattes, football and warm, comforting food. Just last week, the temperature dropped to the fifties. When the weather gets cooler, I like to stay in and cook all day long. One of the dishes I like to make is beef stew, a staple in our household during the cooler days. A couple of weeks ago, I started to unpack my favorite baking dishes and cooking pots. Summer hasn’t even ended yet, but I was already anticipating the start of fall. One of my most used cooking pots is my Dutch oven pot. I like to cook beef stew in it and serve it directly out of the pot. Beef stew is very simple to make. You just combine your favorite vegetables in the pot along with the beef and let it cook until your desired doneness. Kevin is a huge fan of beef stew. Actually, he is a huge fan of meat in general, but he especially loves beef stew. This weekend, I made some beef stew in a Dutch oven pot for brunch on Sunday. It was supposed to be for lunch, but once Kevin saw the beef stew cooking on the stove, he insisted on helping himself to a serving of beef stew for brunch. We ended up having both beef stew and a quiche for brunch. The best part about this dish is everything is cooked in the pot and served in the pot and at the end of the meal, there is only one pot to wash.
Beef Stew
· ½ tablespoon vegetable oil
· 1 large piece of beef chuck steak, cut into large chunks
· 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter
· 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
· 1 medium onion, quartered
· 4 carrots, cut into about ½ inch pieces
· 4 stalks celery, cut into about ¼ inch pieces
· ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
· ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
· 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon powder
· 1-1½ cups pinot noir or red wine of your choice
· ½ cup frozen green peas
Directions:
1) Heat a Dutch oven pot on medium heat. Add the vegetable oil. Let the vegetable oil heat up before adding the beef. Brown the beef on all sides. Remove the beef to a plate. Set aside.
2) Add the butter to the Dutch oven pot. Add the flour. Cook the butter and flour for two minutes until bubbles start to form. Add the onion, carrot, celery, salt, pepper, and bouillon powder to the pot. Cook for five to ten minutes.
3) Add the wine to the pot. Return the beef back to the pot and continue to cook for an additional fifteen to twenty minutes. Add the green peas during the last two minutes of cooking time. Let the beef stew rest for a couple minutes before serving.
Takeaways: I used chicken bouillon powder since it was all I had. The chicken bouillon powder added a nice savory flavor to the beef stew. You can also swap in concentrated beef stock or vegetable stock in place of the chicken bouillon powder.