Good evening, Kibitzers. It’s stew night here. It has been cold here this past week—cold enough for me to turn on the heat, which in Houston terms means frigid. The whole week, I thought about how much I wanted a nice, hot bowl of beef stew to give me a hug and warm me up. But I didn’t have time to actually make a pot of it until this weekend, and by now, it’s in the mid to upper 70s and I’m running the A/C. Gotta love Houston weather. But I’m making stew anyway!
I’m pretty sure I’ve raved about this particular beef stew recipe here before, but you’re going to have to deal with it again. A while back, I bought Jessica Seinfeld’s (yes, Jerry’s wife) cookbook Food Swings:
The cover drew me in—and then, I opened the book and found this particular beef stew recipe (with accompanying photo), and I decided to buy it. The idea behind the book is that it is divided into two sections: “Virtue” and “Vice.” You know, because some days you’re “on track” (whatever the fuck that means) and eating chicken and broccoli, and some days you want a slice of cake. I thought that sounded quite a bit like my own life. This stew, by the way, is in the “Vice” section, which I strongly disagree with. I guess because it features red meat and saturated fat? It certainly feels decadent, but I wouldn’t consider a bowl of this beef stew particularly unhealthy—but maybe that’s why I’m fat.
This is called “red wine and shallot beef stew,” and the stars of the show are—you guessed it—red wine and shallots. Lots of red wine (not quite a whole bottle, although I’m sure you could just use the whole bottle), and lots of shallots. Other than that, there’s really nothing special about it, but it’s different from any other version I’ve eaten, and probably my favorite beef stew. Here are the ingredients:
2 1/2 pounds boneless chuck roast, cut into 2-inch cubes
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more if necessary
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 cups dry red wine, such as pinot noir or Chianti
1 28-ounce can whole tomatoes
8 shallots
2 dried bay leaves
1 pound medium carrots (about 8), halved crosswise and lengthwise
1 1/2 pounds medium Yukon gold potatoes (about 6), quartered
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
A few notes on ingredients: I always use San Marzano tomatoes for this, since it’s kind of a hoity-toity beef stew anyway, so why not? I doubt it makes much difference—I think San Marzano tomatoes are kind of overhyped in general. As for the shallots, the recipe does not specify size, but I always use pretty large shallots. You should not chop them! All I do is cut the ends off, cut them in half (unless the shallot breaks apart into “cloves,” in which case I leave the cloves whole), and peel them. Part of the magic of this stew is that the shallots will break down just enough so that they meld with the stew, but not so much that you don’t know they’re there.
There’s not much prep, as you can tell. Cut some meat into chunks, peel some whole or halved shallots, cut the carrots and potatoes into four hunks.
The most time-consuming part is browning the meat, since you’ll probably need to do it in batches. First, coat the meat chunks in the salt, pepper, and flour, and brown in the olive oil for about five minutes on each side. (The recipe says to shake off the excess flour, but I stir any excess flour into the stew before it cooks...I like thick stew.) Then, remove the meat to a plate and cook the tomato paste for about 30 seconds before adding the wine (I use Barefoot pinot noir, in case you’re wondering—the cheap but decent stuff that I used to drink, lol), tomatoes, and a cup of water. The recipe says to break up the tomatoes, and I sort of try to, but it’s going to cook for so long that it doesn’t really matter that much. Bring that mixture up to a boil, then add in the meat (with juices), shallots, and bay leaves.
Cover and cook in a 300-degree oven for about two hours.
At this point, add the carrots and potatoes, cover again, and cook for at least another hour. An hour is never enough for me, though—I usually need about an hour and a half before the vegetables are tender. When they are, adjust for seasoning (I usually need to add about four more teaspoons of kosher salt—there are a lot of vegetables in here that need a lot of help) and add the parsley!
Maximum comfort achieved, even though it would have been so much better when it was cold outside. I never eat this with bread because calories and carbs, but if you make this, you totally should. You should also check out the book, because everything I’ve tried from it has been delicious!
What do you want to kibitz about tonight?