Hearty Beef Stew

Hey there!

Even though it's the end of June, today was a nasty, ugly day. It's cold and rainy and just plain sad looking outside. Jake worked a full day outside in this weather and I thought, what better dish to come home to and enjoy other than a nice piping hot bowl of some hearty beef stew? Nothing! It's the perfect weather for it! So I trenched out in the rain to the grocery store and picked up some stuff that I needed. Then I came home and got to work. Here ya go!

Hearty Beef Stew

Ingredients:

- 3/4 Beef Sirloin Steaks (depending on how much stew you're making. Make sure it has a lot of fat marbling through out it).

- 2 large yellow onions

- Celery

- Baby carrots

- Petite yellow potatoes

- McCormicks hearty beef stew seasoning packing

- Minced Garlic

- Worcestershire sauce 

- Beef Stock

- Salt

- Pepper

- Garlic powder

- Steak seasoning

- Flour

- Canola Oil / Olive Oil / Extra Virgin Olive Oil (whichever you prefer). 

Steps:

First thing I always do if I'm cooking with veggies is to prep them. I wash them (if needed) and dry them. Then I cut them up. The onions I cut into good sized slices, the baby carrots I cut in half, I sliced celery and only used a little since I'm the only one in our family that likes celery, and I quarter the potatoes. 

Next, I cut up the beef into good one inch or bite sized pieces. Be sure to have a sharp filet knife! 

Now I got my dry mixture together in a seperate bowl. I used flour, garlic powder, steak seasoning, salt, and pepper together and made sure it was mixed together well.

This mixture is what you use to coat your meat. You want every piece of your meat coated. It will give it good flavoring and the flour will work as a natural thickener later on. 

Next, your going to get a pretty big pot (I use my extra large pot from my stainless steel Tupperware cookware series). If you have non-stick then perfect! Mine isn't non-stick but I never have any issues with food sticking too bad. Now you're going to want to coat the bottom of the pan with oil. You want a good level of oil in the bottom, around 1/3 of an inch. And turn your heat up, mine was set to around 6, so that the oil heats through and you start to see little oil bubbles form. You really want your oil good and heated and ready before you put your meat in. I usually sprinkle a few drops of water in to see if it sizzles. Once it sizzles, you're ready. 

Once your oil is ready, carefully use tongs to scatter the meat in the pan. Be sure not to over-fill the pan! It might take you a couple batches. This time, it took me four different batches. Patience is a virtue at this point! 

Let it brown for a couple minutes then flip over. 

The meat should be browned. It will not be fully cooked through but that's okay because it will continue to cook later on. Remove pieces to a separate bowl when they're done and continue on with the same technique until all of your meat is browned and in a separate bowl. Now you should be left with a pot that has lots of little brown bits in the bottom. Don't wash them out! That's the best part! Those little bits are full of flavor! Now pour all but one cup of the beef stock into the pot, leaving the heat on, and use a good wooden spoon to scrap the pieces off of the bottom of the pan. Be sure to use some "elbow grease" and really get those seasonings off the bottom! 

Now take that one cup of stock and put it into a bowl with the McCormicks packet. Mix it up really well and set aside. 

Now pour your veggies into the pot. 

Add a good scoop of minced garlic and a couple good splashes of the Worcestershire sauce. 

Mix that up well. Add your beef and the sauce mixture to the pot and turn it on high heat, stirring until it comes to a bowl. 

Once the pot is at a roaring boil, put a lid on it and turn it down to medium heat. Cook for an hour, checking it and stirring it every ten minutes to make sure things are sticking to the bottom. You will notice the sauce start to thicken to make a nice gravy. After an hour, turn it down to low and let it cook for another half hour to an hour, stirring frequently. 

This stew is packed with everything you need; meat, potatoes, veggies! You can certainly eat it all on its own. I personally like to serve mine with a starch and some good bread. Sometimes I serve it over egg noodles, but today I went with white rice. Yes, I use Minute rice. It's quick and easy and almost impossible to mess up. I also browned some Hawaiian Sweet Rolls in the oven and served those with it. I wanted to get a picture but I completely forgot. 

Hope you guys enjoy!

- Christine