Beef Stew

When the weather turns cold I always crave hearty chunky steaming bowls of comfort food. Yesterday, to combat the falling snow, I made a delicious beef stew. Sorry, I forgot to take pictures. I don't think it would have photographed well anyway.  It was brown with chunks of other brown things (meat) and white things (potatoes) and orange things (carrot) and you get the point.  It made the entire house fill with mouthwatering aromas and I couldn't wait to dig in when it was done.

To prepare the stew, I used a pound of beef stew meat seasoned well with salt and pepper. I browned the meat in a large sauce pan for about 8 minutes. Then I removed the meat and added butter to the meaty juice in the pan and put in peeled pearl onions. After cooking the onions for several minutes I added minced garlic a bit more butter, then potatoes, celery, carrots and cherry tomatoes. I should have peeled the toms first because their little skins were floating in the stew at the end. I added a touch of salt, more black pepper plus red pepper flakes. Once the vegetables were seasoned and in the buttery meaty sauce I sprinkled flour over the top of everything, I had also added a bit more butter. I stirred the mixture to combine and check its thickness then I poured in beef stock and let the whole mess come to a boil. Once the concoction boiled, the burner was turned down so the stew could simmer for an hour or so until the veggies are soft.

When Kevin got home I toasted some sourdough jalapeno slices to serve with the soup. The stew was delicious and had enough spice. Kevin didn't need to doctor it up, but it wasn't too spicy for me. I'm having the left overs for lunch and I know it will taste even better today. Like so many other things I love, soups only get better with age.