Prep Time 40min Cook Time 2h20min
This stew seems like the ideal gift to give yourself this holiday week: a hearty, warming meal with an absence of fuss - one that can simmer away while you wrap or bake, work or shovel or sit by the fire under a blanket, the house filled with the smell of the fact that later there will be a good dinner. It is warmth in a bowl, all comforting deliciousness.
This recipe makes a lot. But you could easily make half as much - just keep an eye on the liquid, and prepare to add more as it cooks. But really - maybe you should make it all so you can eat it for a few days. It only gets better.
by Catherine Newman
What you'll need
- 4 pounds of beef stew meat, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes (I bought a single piece of chuck and cut it myself)
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt (or half as much table salt)
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 large yellow onion, halved and sliced
- 1 cup red wine
- 2 cups plain tomato sauce (I use Hunt's) or tomato puree
- 1 cup broth (I use chicken, though beef might make more sense)
- A sprig of thyme and a bay leaf
- 4 celery stalks, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces, their leaves chopped
- 6 carrots and/or parsnips, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
Notes:
Yields 8 servings
How to make it
- Heat the oven to 325.
- Season the meat very well with salt and pepper, and sprinkle the flour over all of it, tossing the cubes to coat them. It's okay if some cubes are flourier or saltier than others; it will all even out in the pot.
- In a large Dutch oven heat half the oil over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking, then brown the meat well on as many sides as is reasonably possible. This is the only part of this dish that's a bit of a pain, and it just is what it is: you will need to do the meat in batches, adding more oil at some point, because if you crowd it then it will steam instead of browning properly. (I do the meat in 2 1/2 batches: I add the onions to the pan with the final half batch of meat and stir and brown them while the meat is doing its thing alongside. Tongs are good for flipping the meat over, and you can adjust the heat if the meat is either not browning properly or if anything seems to be burning.)
- (Also - and I swear this is the last thing I'm saying about this - I actually deglaze the pan between batches because otherwise the bottom of my pot seems to burn: so after the first batch of meat is done, I pour half the wine into the pot, swirl it around and scrape with a spatula to get up all the nice stuff from the bottom, then pour it into the dish with the already-browned meat and heat more oil for the second batch, which I do the same way. Honestly, you're talking about a twenty-five minute investment in browning for immeasurable stewy pleasure later on. It's totally worth it.)
- Have you already browned the onions by now? If not, add another splash of oil to the pot and brown the onions for 5 or 10 minutes until they are nicely colored. Add the meat and its juices back to the pot, along with whatever wine you haven't used yet, the tomato sauce, the broth, the herbs, and the remaining vegetables. Bring to a simmer over high heat, then press a large piece of parchment down onto the surface of the stew -- the paper should come up far enough that the lid will hold it in place - and cover the pot with a heavy lid. (If you don't have any parchment, skip this step, but expect to add more liquid at some point as more will evaporate).
- Cook the stew in the oven for 2 to 3 hours until the meat is fork tender, checking on it every now and again to make sure that the liquid isn't on the verge of being entirely evaporated; if it is, add more broth or a cup of water. After it's cooked, taste the stew and add salt if it needs it, which it might or might not, depending on your broth. Serve in bowls or with buttered egg noodles or mashed potatoes.
