Tender Beef Stew

There is nothing more comforting than a hot bowl of beef stew on a cold winter day. It seems the entire house is filled with the fragrance and with a hearty loaf of bread, it's all comfort and joy!

Grandma was skilled at making a delicious stew and her secret was taking the time to brown the meat. This is critical even if throwing stew meat in the crock pot! Soaking in liquid and cooking on low all day does not guarantee tender meat. Sometimes it can actually turn out dry and tasteless. This is a wonderful recipe for stew on a weekend or you can prepare the meat for crock pot cooking the night before. Just remember to place the vegetables on top of the meat in the crock pot so they don't get soggy and overdone.

Another nice plus about this stew is its "freeze-ability." If you're fortunate enough to end up with leftovers that aren't spoken for, let them cool and pour into a freezer safe container for a great meal later on!

Don't forget to make (or purchase) a hearty loaf of artisan bread to go with this. Delicious!

Tender Beef Stew

2½ pounds beef stew meat or round steak, cut into cubes

Salt

Pepper

¼ cup flour

Olive oil

1 cup red wine (plus more if additional browning of meat is required)

1 medium onion chopped

1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes

4 whole cloves garlic, peeled

4 carrots, cut into 1 inch chunks

4 potatoes, quartered

Mushrooms or other desired vegetables

Wash meat and pat dry, salt and pepper meat well, then dredge in flour. Heat oil in Dutch oven over medium high heat and add meat to brown thoroughly (about 5 minutes). This may have to be done in batches so all the meat has a browned crust; remove each batch after browning, then continue adding oil, heating it for each batch until all the meat is browned.

After all meat is browned and removed from the pot, pour in ½ cup red wine and deglaze the bottom of the pot by stirring with wooden spoon and scraping up brown bits. Pour liquid into container of browned stew meat.

Heat oil in pot and add in onion and garlic. Cook about 3 minutes until golden. Remove from pot then add in the other ½ cup of red wine and deglaze again. After deglazing, add in stew meat, onions, garlic, diced tomatoes, and additional liquid. Cover, bring to boil stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer for about 1½ hours. Add in carrots, potatoes, mushrooms and any other desired vegetables, cover and cook about 40-50 minutes until vegetables are tender.