Best Ever Beef Stew

About this Recipe

True to its name this easy dinner idea is the best beef stew recipe you'll try. This is a family-friendly meal idea you will want to make again and again. Beef stew is the ultimate comfort food and family-friendly meal idea when the weather gets a bit colder out. For this best beef stew recipe very lean sirloin steak was used but you can also use boneless beef chuck that is well-marbled. We prefer to buy beef that is grass fed. Evidence suggests that grass-fed beef tends to be lower in overall fat content, have a more nutritionally optimum Omega 6: Omega 3 ratio, and grass-fed beef is also higher in precursors for Vitamin A and E and cancer fighting antioxidants such as GT and SOD activity as compared to grain-fed contemporaries.(1)

Grandmother's Tips for Best Ever Beef Stew:

1. If you have a local butcher, buy your meat there. They are often very accommodating to requests such a cutting off too much fat, and cutting into the bite sizes you prefer.

2. Chuck meat is the common choice for stew.

3. Sear the meat. This is going to make a huge difference in how your stew turns out.

4. Don't put the vegetables in too soon or they will just be so soft and mushy.

5. To get the most tender meat braise for at least 2 hours, as this recipe suggests.

References: (1) Cynthia A Daley, Amber Abbott,1 Patrick S Doyle,1 Glenn A Nader,2 and Stephanie Larson2. A review of fatty acid profiles and antioxidant content in grass-fed and grain-fed beef. Nutr J. 2010; 9: 10. Published online 2010 Mar 10. doi: 10.1186/1475-2891-9-10

Keeping your kitchen clean can be easy if you try out a few good household cleaning tips. Learning how to clean kitchen countertops properly will help you to not only keep your kitchen cleaner, but it will also help you eliminate bacteria and germs that could cause contamination in food. One thing to remember is that whenever you’re working with meat of any kind, it’s important to know how to clean kitchen countertops properly because raw meat can leave behind harmful bacteria that can lead to illness. You don’t have to use harsh chemical cleaners to clean your counters and cutting boards either, you can just use natural kitchen cleaners if you want too.

Vinegar is a great antibacterial cleaner that is all natural and very gentle to use on countertops when diluted with water. Another great natural kitchen cleaner that will fight germs is lemon juice or lemon essential oil diluted in water. It’s also important to wash your countertops with hot water and dish soap and to wash any knives and cutting boards you used with hot water and dish soap and disinfect them with vinegar or lemon juice.


Ingredients

(Print)

Serves: 6-8

3 pounds beef - we used very lean sirloin steak, bu you can use boneless beef chuck that is well-marbled (cut into 1 1/2 inch bite sized pieces) Our local butcher cuts the meat for us.

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

3 Tablespoons olive oil

2 medium yellow onion, cut into quarters

5 cloves garlic, we used Russian red (peeled and smashed)

2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 1/2 Tablespoons tomato paste

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 cup dry red wine

3 cups beef broth (or you can use 4 cups beef broth and eliminate the wine)

2 cups water

2 bay leafs

1 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar

6-8 carrots, depending on their size (cut into 1 1/2 inch chunks, cut diagonally for a nice appearance)

6-8 medium size russet potatoes, peeled, washed and cut into quarters (so they are not too small)

Directions

1. Place the oven rack in the middle position and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

2. Prepare your the onions and cut into quarters being sure to cut off the ends so the onions will fall apart when cooking. Peel the garlic and smash it and set aside.

3. Put the beef into a large bowl and pat dry with clean paper towels.Season with salt and pepper.

4. Using a Dutch oven or a heavy soup pot, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat until it is hot and simmering. With 3 pounds of meat it will take 3 individual batches to sear nicely.

5. Once the oil is hot add a third of the meat and cook until nice and brown, turn over with tongs or a flipper. Don’t crowd the meat as it will not develop a nice brown crust unless it has room in the pan.Transfer the seared meat into a plate nearby and sear the next two batches. At the start of each batch you will add one tablespoon of olive oil to the pot.When all the meat is cooked you will see the bottom of the pot has a dark brown color from searing the meat which will add to the flavor of the stew. Shut the pan off for a few minutes and take off heat while you prepare the onions and garlic so you don’t burn the bottom of the pot.

6. Now put the onions and garlic into the Dutch oven and turn back on to medium high heat. Stir with a wooden spoon scraping the brown bits from the bottom of the pot and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook one more minute.

7. Toss the beef back into the pot and sprinkle on the flour. It is quite a bit of flour to work in so just do it a little bit at a time, stirring with the wooden spoon to coat the meat. This flour will thicken when the stew is baking and becomes the thickener for the gravy that forms from the liquids. Add the wine, broth, water, bay leaves and sugar. Stir with the wooden spoon and be sure to break up any bits from the bottom of the pot. Bring to a boil. Once it has come to a boil, shut off, put the lid on and transfer into the preheated oven.Braise for 2 hours.

9. Remove from the oven and add the potatoes and carrots. Stir together, put the lid back on and put back into the oven.

10. Raise the temperature of the oven to 375 degrees F. and cook for 30-40 minutes.

11. Do a poke test on the potatoes and carrots, if they are not done, raise the oven temperature to 425 degrees F. and bake another 20 minutes or until vegetables are cooked through. Serve.

ENJOY!

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As you’re shopping for ingredients for this recipe, make sure you check all of the vegetables you’re going to use as ingredients for mold. Using fresh ingredients is so important if you want all of the nutrients from the food you’re eating. To check food for mold hold it up in good lighting and look over it carefully looking for any black or white spots that could be mold starting to grow. If you happen to see any of these spots, grab another one and keep checking until you find a piece of fruit or a vegetable that is clean with no mold on it. While you can learn how to remove mold from food, it’s usually a better idea to buy food fresh with no mold on it. In order to keep your food mold free, it’s a good idea to keep a clean kitchen and to throw away food that has mold growing on it.

Having cows roam the grasslands is good for the environment too, as grazing cows help to keep invasive annual weeds under control by munching on the seed heads. The cows also help to keep perennial native grasses coming back by exposing the growth points to sunlight. This controlled grazing helps to fertilize the land and protect natural resources. Grass-fed cows also help to save energy as you don't have to grow and ship grain to feedlots.

With all that said, you might wonder how grass-fed beef affects the taste of your steak. Grass-fed beef tends to be leaner and less fatty than that of grain-fed beef. That is the reason why ranchers usually switch their cows to grain because it gives the beef all that marbling. A grass-fed steak, if it is cooked properly, will be just as juicy as a grain fed steak and it will also have better flavor because of the natural diet of the cow. So next time you are shopping for beef from your grocery store of the local butcher, take a look at the different options available.

Other good things to look for when buying beef are things like no added growth hormones and no antibiotics, as it is unlikely that a cow was raised in a feedlot without them. More likely, that cow will have grazed in some fields and then had some grain for added fat.

This easy dinner idea is heavy on the carrots and potatoes, so you want to be sure and use good quality vegetables, it will make a difference in the overall recipe. When possible it's always a good idea to use organic potatoes over conventional potatoes. Some people think that because potatoes are in the ground, they aren't affected by pesticides, but the opposite is true.



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