Recipe Beef Stew

[The Late Night Gourmet]

Beef stew is a highly underrated comfort food in the culinary world. I think this is because the ingredients are usually readily available. This makes it the perfect food for times when you can't (or don't want to) go to specialty stores to assemble an elevated dish. Despite its humble nature, I love the fact that beef stew is basically a steak dinner in a bowl. This also works really well as a hearty vegetable stew if you exclude the beef. NOTE: stewing beef will require a longer cook time to soften than the sirloin I used.

As for why I have these ingredients on hand, there is an interesting story. Farms around here are not able to get their crops distributed to the usual destinations (restaurants and schools), though that is gradually changing. Every week, they make gigantic boxes of carrots, potatoes, celery, onions, cucumbers, apples, and strawberries available for free. In the school district where my wife teaches, she's been picking boxes up and delivering them to families of her students who don't have the means to get there themselves. But, they always have boxes left over, and they keep telling her to take one. As a result, I've made a lot of tzatziki sauce, baked potatoes, and pickled onions. I'm thinking now that I can make dill pickles. The stew does use up bits of each, so that's what I've made.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons bacon grease
24 oz beef sirloin, lean and trimmed, cut into cubes
1 large onion, diced
1 pound carrots, sliced
3 ribs celery, sliced
1 pound potatoes
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried parsley
15 1⁄2 oz canned yellow corn
3 cups beef stock
salt and pepper

Directions

1. Heat a large pot to medium. Add sirloin to the pot and cook quickly on all sides until just browned. Remove steak from pan, leaving the grease.

2. Add onion to the pan and saute until softened, about 10 minutes. Stir in carrots and celery and cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Add potatoes and stir to coat for a few minutes. Stir in parsley and thyme, then add corn.

3. Add stock and stir thoroughly to remove anything stuck to the bottom. Cook for another 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Add beef to the pot. Cook for another 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper and adjust seasoning as needed.

 

[TastyReuben]

You had me at bacon grease.

We love beef stew in our house. More often than not, if I have a chuck roast on hand, that's where it ends up.

That's really cool about the veggie procurement; I wonder if that's going on near me? We have lots of farms, so maybe it is and I just don't know because we don't have any connection to the local schools.

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

You had me at bacon grease.

We love beef stew in our house. More often than not, if I have a chuck roast on hand, that's where it ends up.

That's really cool about the veggie procurement; I wonder if that's going on near me? We have lots of farms, so maybe it is and I just don't know because we don't have any connection to the local schools.

She found out by word-of-mouth, but I did see this:

Food Finder

I'm not sure what the criteria is, but there's contact information for every donation site.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Here's mine with a lot of gravy.

 

[Morning Glory]

That's a great looking stew and the corn looks pretty in it, too.

 

[bryan123]

What's the best liquid medium for slow cooker beef stew? I've tried the grocery store packet and pouch options but I'm not really thrilled with any of them. Also tried various condensed soups and plain tomato sauce. All ok but nothing really wowed me...

Thanks!