A long time ago my mom used to cook the shit out of pork and beef roasts. Truth be known I was in a recent session with Vikram Vij and he also advised his mom would cook the shit out of things to, so I blame him for my potty mouth. The only way I could choke down her roasts was to smother them in HP Sauce – more truths. This continued mistreatment of roasts while I was a child led me to have trust relationships with roast beef. I do enjoy beef, like I really really enjoy steak, satay, stir-fry. We also enjoy roasts on a regular basis as a family, however I still am not a huge fan of roast beef. But I will eat it.
This leads us to stew, another cut I have a strange relationship with. Possibly for the same reasons – it was made regularly and slightly over cooked. My family enjoys stew so it’s made flavourful and moist in this house. Mostly.
In my quest to love stew, I added some sauteed mushrooms, chopped chives and broken chunks of double cream brie. And a few hot pepper flakes. Go big or go home right? Guess what? I LOVED it! We get a flavour punch from adding leftover frozen beef broth from our last Teriyaki Beef Fondue. What you’ve never had a beef broth fondue? You really should. Regular beef broth is also dandy in a handy. Finally some leftover parsnips resembling potatoes went into the stew and nobody was the wiser (winning).
I finished the stew with a few sprinkles of hot pepper flakes cause I like the heat!
Ingredients
- 4 slices thick cut bacon chopped into 1 inch pieces
- 2 lbs beef stew cubs boneless beef chuck cut into 2 inch cubes
- 2 tbsp flour
- 3 carrots chopped
- 2 parsnips peeled and chopped
- 4 yellow potatoes c hopped
- 1 small onion chopped
- 2 celery stalks chopped
- 3 cloves garlic.
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 3 cups beef broth
- 1 tbsp fresh thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- salt and pepper
- 1 lb cremini mushrooms sliced
- 1 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp parsley chopped
- 1 tbsp chives chopped into longer pieces
- 1/4 cup double cream brie tore into smaller pieces
- 1 baguette torn into crusty chunks for dipping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- In a large wide 6-8 quart heavy pot with a lid, fry bacon pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add your beef to pot in smaller batches, add flour and stir until lightly browned. Remove bacon and beef to platter. Toss in carrots, parsnips, potatoes, onion, celery and garlic. Stir occasionally and cook for another 6 minutes.
- Push vegetables aside, making a hole in the middle of pot and add tomato paste. Stir for about one minute then mix in vegetables.
- Pour in beef broth, bay leaves, salt and pepper and thyme. Bring to a boil. Drop in beef and bacon, cover and cook in oven until meat is very tender 1 - 2 hours.
- Season with salt and pepper, remove bay leaves and serve hot with mushrooms, chives, brie, a sprinkle of parsley and crusty bread.
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