beef stew.

i wanted something hearty and warm last week when 30 degree weather was still the norm. it's since thawed out with the thermometer crushing it into the mid 40s, hello heat wave! now it's time for bbqs again right? actually, i love to grill out when it's really cold outside, hamburgers and potato salad with some iced tea on a crisp january night would probably make me totally excited for summer. perhaps even adding a summer dress as mere and i did on our "summer dress" night over nye's weekend. jeff where are those nye weekend photos of hot tub heaven yo? anyway, when i made beef stew it was cold and i convinced myself that i loved beef stew and therefore was willing to put 3 plus hours into making it.

start off by trying to find "stew meat." i swear this is what numerous recipes i consulted referred to as the star. i was a bit apprehensive when i headed into giant, wondering what i would find, how gross it would look and if i would be able to even stomach looking at it. what if it looked like a stomach? ewww right? anyway, i'm apparently a major idiot, because stew meat looks like chunks of beef. duh squared.

so warm up a big soup pop with about 1 tablespoon of canola oil and add about 1 pound of stew meat.

cook on medium to medium-high heat until all sides are browned, about 10 minutes. remove from pan.

add to pan 2/3 of an onion, sliced very thin, a small shallot, 1/2 teaspoon of minced garlic and a small can of tomato paste on medium heat.
cook together about 15 minutes, stirring frequently.
add in 2.5 cups of beef broth, 1 cup of water and the cooked meat.
now add some spices. 1/2 teaspoon rosemary, thyme and basil. plus 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flake. and of course salt and pepper to taste (unpictured).
give the soup pot a good stir to incorporate everything well, crank up the heat till it boils then knock it back to a simmer. cover and let it simmer some smore (check out that forced alliteration) for about 2 hours.

now chop up 3 potatoes into quarters along with about 1 cup of carrots.

when the two hours of simmering is over, add the potatoes and carrots and let the stew simmer again for another 45 minutes. time intensive right? you can't be hungry when you start making beef stew people.

ok after the 45 minutes is up, add in 1 package of sliced mushrooms, 1/2 cup of peas and 1/2 cup of green beans. most of the recipes really wanted all peas but well we only had 1/2 bag left in the deep freeze so i improvised.
let the soup simmer once again, but this time only about 15 minutes and you should be ready to eat. pour yourself a bowl, adding a nice crusty slice of bread of course.

this was a rather teeny bowl and a rather large slice of bread. the boys weren't home yet and well my hunger got the better of me again so i had to sample. however this cutesy bowl ended up being what i used all night as i went back for at least 2 more bowls. the verdict on this? well in all honesty, i'm not sure i'm a huge beef stew fan. this was well made, relatively healthy and tasted as it should; i just think in my one dish idea of heaven this wouldn't make it into the good old top 5. still worth making and worth eating, but doesn't hold a candle to tomato bisque and chicken noodle soup.