Beef Stew

We're having beef stew tonight, but I don't use flour or potatoes in mine. Instead, it's just a very lean beef cut into cubes, 2 large white onions cut into 8ths, an entire head of garlic, and a bunch of baby carrots. Salt, pepper, thyme, butter, balsamic vinegar, bay leaves, and water are the detail ingredients.

Here's what I did...

I melted 2 tablespoons of butter in my Dutch oven. I salted and peppered all of the meat, then I browned the cubes in small batches. It took 3 loads to get them all browned. This is a step that is important for both taste and texture. If you pile all the meat into the pot at once, you'll steam the meat instead of brown it. If you don't brown it, you miss out on that deep wonderful flavor and the texture of the beef chunks gets tough and leather-like. 

While the beef was browning, I peeled and cut my onions. While another batch of meat was browning, I sectioned and peeled my head of garlic. 

I had a large glass bowl next to the stove that I used to hold the browned meat while I browned the next batch. Once all the meat was browned, I placed the last batch into the glass bowl and turned the heat up a little. I mixed hot tap water with some balsamic vinegar. Acid works best for deglazing, which is why alcohol is usually used; be it wine, beer, or sherry. Since I didn't have any cheap red, and didn't want to use the good stuff in the stew, I opted for the balsamic. I stirred it around and scraped up all the tasty bits on the bottom of the pot. 

Then, to the delicious deglazed liquid, I added the beef and the collected juices back into the pot. I then added my onion chunks, the peeled garlic cloves, and the baby carrots.

Then, using the bowl that I used for the browned beef (so I could get every last drip do those juices), I added hot tap water to the top of the ingredients. I added 2 dried bay leaves and a bunch of dried thyme.

I brought it to a boil, covered it, and put it on the back burner to simmer until supper.

Tonight I'll make a batch of whipped cauliflower to go along with it. Depending on the texture, I may add a little corn starch to thicken it. I may also make some cornbread too, but we'll see...

Stay hungry, my sweets, and always remember to play with your food.