Old-Fashioned Beef Stew with Winter Vegetables

By AngelaJanet

By The Canadian Living Test Kitchen

Ingredients

• 2-1/2 lb lean boneless stewing beef , (chuck recommended)2-1/2 2-1/2lb lblean boneless stewing beef, (chuck recommended)
• 1 tbsp oil 1 1tbsp tbspoil
• 3 tbsp butter 3 3tbsp tbspbutter
• 3/4 cup finely chopped onions 3/4 3/4cup cupfinely chopped oniononions
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 1/4 1/4cup cupall-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt 1 1tsp tspsalt
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper 1/2 1/2tsp tspfreshly ground pepper
• 1 bay leaf 1 1bay leafbay leaves
• 1 tsp crushed thyme 1 1tsp tspcrushed thyme
• 1 tsp crushed marjoram 1 1tsp tspcrushed marjoram
• 4 cups lightly salted beef stock , or water4 4cups cupslightly salted beef stock, or water
• 8 small potatoes 8 8small potatopotatoes
• 8 onions 8 8oniononions
• 8 medium carrots 8 8medium carrotcarrots
• 1/4 medium rutabaga , (yellow turnip)1/4 1/4medium rutabaga, (yellow turnip)
• 3 medium parsnips 3 3medium parsnipparsnips
• 3 canned tomatoes , plus 1/2 cup liquid3 3canned tomatoes, plus 1/2 cup liquid
• 1 cup frozen peas 1 1cup cupfrozen peas
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley 1/2 1/2cup cupchopped fresh parsley

Details

Servings 8
Adapted from canadianliving.com

Preparation

Step 1

Cut beef into 1-1/2-inch (4 cm) cubes; pat dry with paper towel. In heavy saucepan, heat oil and butter; brown meat one layer at a time. (For a rich tasty stew, it's important to brown meat well at this stage.)

When all meat is browned, set aside. Melt more butter in saucepan if necessary and saut?nion until tender and golden. Stir in flour; continue cooking over medium heat until flour is golden.

Return meat to saucepan; add seasonings (pepper, bay leaf, thyme and marjoram) and stock. Using wooden spoon, scrape up all browned bits from bottom of pan. Simmer, partially covered, until beef is tender, about 1-1/2 hours. Either cool and refrigerate overnight to allow flavours to mellow, or proceed with vegetables.

Peel potatoes, onions, carrots, rutabaga and parsnips. Leave potatoes whole; cut a shallow X in root end of each onion. Cut carrots, rutabaga and parsnips into finger-length sticks.

Chop tomatoes coarsely.

Add vegetables to stew and cook, covered, at moderate simmer until all ingredients are tender, about 30 to 40 minutes. Add peas; simmer 5 more minutes. Taste, adding more seasoning or liquid if necessary. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.