Beef Stew

I really do not intend to sound ungrateful or unappreciative of the effort my dear mother makes every Sunday to prepare a fabulous meal for the family.  However, I am sure when you were growing up there were a few meals that when your mom told you that's what you were having for dinner, you would like nothing better than to run down the street and join the neighbors, regardless of what they were serving.  No matter how appreciative you may be, there are always going to be meals you just don't like, right?  Well, I really do not care for beef stew...ok, I can not stand the sight of beef stew. I know I am in the minority of the people out there, but I can't help it.  Beef stew and Pot Roast, both strike fear in the center of my being at just hearing the sound of the words.  I know my mother is going to kill me when she reads this, not that it's a secret.  Believe me, she knows I don't like it, but you see the weight my opinions have in the family.  

While I have this aversion to beef stew, I am actually fairly fond of Beef Bourguignon,  a bit of a fancier version of a standard beef stew which is a long slow braise of beef in red wine with carrots, mushrooms and onions.

I prefer to purchase a whole cut of meat and portioning it into the desired size in my kitchen, as opposed to buying the precubed stew beef found in most grocery stores. Most times I prefer larger pieces of meat than is available in the supermarket. I also like to see and be in control of the ingredients I use rather trust a package of cubed mystery meat. For this particular occasion, I bought a 1.25 lb beef shoulder roast which I cut into about 2 inch cubes and tossed in a light coating of flour. Heat about 1/4 cup of olive oil in a large dutch oven over medium high heat. Add the floured cubes of meat to the pot and brown on all sides (be sure not to overcrowded the pot to encourage browning and avoid steaming the meat). Remove the beef from the pot and set aside.

To the dutch oven, add 2 minced cloves of garlic, 1 package of sliced cremini mushrooms (white button mushrooms can be substituted), about 5 or 6 carrots cut into 2 inch pieces (if you have small baby carrots, they can certainly be used instead), 1 bag of frozen cippolini or pearl onions and 1 small can of tomato paste. Saute for about 5 to 10 minutes. Next, add about 1/2 bottom of Burgundy wine (hence, the name Beef Bourguignon), or any other red wine you have on hand, and 1 box of beef stock. At this point, I recommend you make a slurry of 1/4 cup of water to 1 heaping tablespoon of cornstarch, mix well and add to the stew in order to thicken the gravy as it cooks in the oven. (Note: I did not add the slurry at this point yesterday, but when the stew came out of the oven, I noticed the gravy was a bit thin. I did add some cornstarch when I was reheating it on the stove just before it was time to eat and it worked perfectly, thickening the gravy just enough.) Return the beef to the pot, season liberally with salt and pepper and about 2 tablespoons of fresh rosemary, if available. Bring it to a boil, cover and finish cooking in a 275 degree oven for about 2 1/2 hours.

You can certainly add potatoes to the stew, which will also add to the thickening of the gravy and simply serve with some good bread. However, I decided to leave the potatoes out of the stew in favor of serving it over fluffy buttermilk mashed potatoes. To make the potatoes, I washed and peeled 6 Yukon gold potatoes, placed them in a saucepan and covered them with cold water. Bring up to a light boil and cook for about 15 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender. Drain the potatoes, add them back to the hot sauce pan and add about 3/4 cup of milk and 2 tablespoons of butter. Mash the potatoes and incorporate well with the milk and butter. Add about 1/2 cup of buttermilk and a liberal seasoning of salt and pepper. Stir to combine and serve hot with the beef Bourguignon.