Town Drunk Beef Stew

By carvalhohm

Ingredients

• 3 pound stew beef, cut into bite sized pieces
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons olive oil (I try to add some bacon drippings to this)
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 pound fresh baby carrots
• 10 red potatoes, cut into quarters
• 3 cups beef stock
• 2 cups crushed tomatoes (16 ounces – I also add a small can of tomato paste)
• 1 bottle dry red wine
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 1 cup frozen English peas
• Fresh basil leaves, shredded, when available (about 6)
• Fresh rosemary – one sprig
• Fresh thyme
• 1 cup button or other mushrooms, cut into quarters

Details

Adapted from buttermilktrace.com

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 325. Dredge the beef in the flour until covered on all sides, shaking off the excess. Place a large Dutch oven over high heat and add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the meat a few pieces at a time.

Cook, turning several times with tongs, until the meat is crispy and brown on all sides. Remove to a large dish. Repeat until all the meat is cooked and set aside. (*Note, I do this in a separate pan, and when each batch of meat is browned, deglaze the pan with stock and wine, and pour the resulting rue over the well browned meat that I’ve deposited in the Dutch oven).

Reduce heat to medium high. In the same pot you browned the meat, add garlic, carrots, onions and potatoes (and anything else you wanted to add – like the mushrooms I use – and I also add a bit over butter to this process). Saute for 5 minutes. Add the browned meat, stock, tomatoes, 2 cups of wine, bay leaves, herbs, salt and pepper. Cover and place in the oven, bake 1 hour.

Add the remaining wine and bake, covered, 2-3 more hours, until the stew is fork tender. Gently stir in the peas and adjust seasoning if necessary. Remove the bay leaves and discard. Serve hot.