ISO Beef stew recipe

[FryBoy]

I love stews, or at least good ones. This is my current favorite:

CARBONADE FLAMANDE

Don’t let all the directions scare you — this delicious stew is easy to make, although it takes about an hour to put together and 2½ hours to cook. Serve it with a hearty red wine and a simple vegetable, such as steamed carrots or broccoli; the bread replaces the potatoes usually served with stews.

3 Large Onions

2 Cloves Garlic
3 Tablespoons Butter, Divided
2 Pounds Boneless Stewing Beef
½ Cup Flour, Divided
Salt & Pepper
½ Pint English Brown Ale (Newcastle, Samuel Smith, Bass, Etc.)
1 Teaspoon Red Wine Vinegar
1 14½-Ounce Can Beef Stock
Water as Needed
2 Teaspoons Brown Sugar
¼ Teaspoon Powdered Thyme
4 Thick Slices of French Bread
Dijon Mustard

1. Peel onions, cut in half from end to end, thinly slice, and set aside.

2. Crush or finely chop garlic and set aside (separate from onions).

3. Cut meat across the grain into strips about 1 inch wide, 3 inches long, ½ inch thick, trimming off fat.

4. Melt 1½ Tablespoons of butter in a large skillet or a heavy, deep, pan with tight-fitting lid; if using a skillet, have a 5 to 6 quart covered casserole dish ready.

5. Add onions to butter and cook over medium heat until browned, about 30 minutes.

6. Add garlic and brown sugar when onions are nearly done, stir and cook for two minutes.

7. Remove the onion mixture from pan, put in bowl and set aside (put in casserole dish if using).

8. Reserve 2 Tablespoons of flour, then put the rest in a plastic bag and add a little salt and pepper; put about 1/3 of the beef slices in the bag and shake to coat with flour.

9. Add 1/3 of the remaining butter to pan.

10. Add the floured beef slices to pan and brown on all sides, then remove and add to onions; repeat steps 8, 9, and 10 with remaining flour, meat, and butter until all of the meat has been browned.

11. Return all of the onion mixture and browned meat to the pan.

12. Blend in the reserved 2 Tablespoons of seasoned flour and stir well.

13. Add the ale and vinegar and stir.

14. Add the stock and just enough water to barely cover meat and onions and stir.

15. Add 1 Teaspoon of salt, ½ Teaspoon of pepper, and the fresh herbs or powdered thyme, and stir well, scraping up any brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pan and stirring them into the mixture.

16. Cover pan tightly, or transfer meat mixture to casserole dish and cover it tightly; cook in oven, preheated to 300 degrees, for 2½ hours, stirring every 30 minutes.

17. When meat is nearly done, spread mustard liberally on slices of French bread.

18. Remove lid and lay the bread on top of the meat, mustard side down, and cook uncovered until the bread is brown and crisp.

19. Serve with toasted bread on top of meat, mustard side down.

[Robo410]

tomato puree and a big pinch or marjoram is great. the recipe for carbonade above is a fine Belgian stew. really good. add red wine and thyme , pearl onions and mushrooms for a beef burgundy type stew.

[lindatooo]

Originally Posted by jennyema

I marinate my beef overnight in a bottle of red wine. Well, I use a ziplock ....

I was wondering how you got it into the bottle!

[Queequeg]

I have a awesome beef stew, thats a bit different from your heavy stodegy oven cooked type, better for the warmer months

1 onion (roughly chopped)
1 bay leaf
1 tsp dried oregano
half a sweet squash (peeled and cubed into large chuncks)
1 leek 9cut into rounds 1 cm thick)
2 carrots (cut into rounds 1cm thick)
1 lb of braising steak (chuck or simarliar cut into suitable sized chunks)
Paprika
1 tsp of dried crushed chillies
1 lb of new potatoes
1 corn of the cob (sliced of the cob)
1 pint of chicken stock
handfull of chopped fresh parsley
salt and peper to season

1: Coat the beef heavily in paprika and season with black pepper.
2: Heat a little vegtable oil in a medium sized stewing pot on the hob to a medium-high heat.
3: Seal the meat in small batches at a time, keep turing to make sure the paprika does overly blacken. set the beef aside.
4: Add addtional oil as nessary and soften the onion on a medium heat. Do not caramelise. Strir in the bay leaf and oregano. cook for 5 mins.
5: Add the leaks, corn and carrots cook for a 5 further minutes.
6: Add the stock and return the beef bring to the boil and simmer on a low heat with the lid on for 1hr (longer if possible) Check seasoning at this stage and salt as nesessary.
7:Add the potatoes, chillie and squash and cook for a further 30 mins.
8: check potatoes are cooked, reseason if required, added the parsley and serve

Serves 3-4

[biev]

JMediger, dude I owe you! That has to be the best stew I've ever eaten! I've been eating the leftovers for the past four days and I'm wishing I had made more ;o) I like it because the beef gets very tender while the vegetables keep their flavor. My mom used to make this stew where every piece tasted the same, blech.

I didn't follow the quantities because it looked like it would feed an army. I also added cabbage at the end, only for two minutes (otherwise everything starts to taste like cabbage, and I'm not too big on the smell either). Anyway, thanks for sharing the recipe!

[kimbaby]

I use my cream of mushroom recipe,
which is stew meat
1 large can cream of mushroom soup + 2 cans water
2 envelopes of onion soup mix
carrots/onions/celery/potatoes
dash of wostershire sauce
salt pepper
cook slowly for 3-4 hours

[Brooksy]

Kimbaby,

How much beef do you generally use in your recipe?
and
How big are your Crm of Mush Cans? 13 ozs?

[Restless N8tiv]

Has anyone cooked beef stew using a croc pot? I have one and I'm thinking of using it this time around. I want to try one of the recipe that is listed on this thread but using the croc pot. Any thoughts, ideas, comments, recommendations?

Mahalo for your input.

A hui hou,
Restless

[Andy M.]

A slow cooker will do a fine job on stew.

[Hades]

FryBoy's recipe sure brings back some happy childhood memories As does the boef bourguignon. Both are concidered "belgian" stews here by the way (most of Belgium was under bourgundian rule for a few centuries). In fact red wine vs beer can yield an interesting dinner debate.
Secondly, we obviously do not use English Ale here. We use local dobbel or trippel abbey beer. Though I must admit that a decent ale will do just fine. That's also what we drink with it btw.
Something you might want to try in just about any stew is adding a few stems of celery. Not chopped, just halved across so you can scoop them back out. Gives a nice added flavour. Also, try serving your beefstew with parsnips.