Week 6: Season of the Sticks
There’s a quiet tension in that gap between hearing the first case of flu at school and seeing the thermometer flash a fever for your own child. The first fever has arrived, and with it: Lysol, flu meds, and a fresh pot of hearty stew simmering in the crock pot. This stew will lift your spirits and warm your home, its tastes and smells like a crackling fire in the fireplace breathing goodwill and comfort, reminding you of the holiday season ahead, and hinting at the calm that will return once the flu has passed.
🍲Fireside Homestyle Beef Stew
Ingredients
- 1 Lbs beef stew meat cut into chunks
- 4 tbsp oil I used avocado oil or butter
- 4 tbsp flour
- 1 medium sweet onion diced
- 3 carrots peeled + diced
- 3 celery stalks diced
- 4 potatoes peeled + cubed into large chucks
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 4 cups broth I used chicken bone broth today, because that's what I like. It's typical to use beef broth, but there's no rule which mandates beef broth.
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- canned tomato
- 1 tbs date sugar
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce optional but delicious!
- 1 bunch fresh thyme
- 3 fresh, finely chopped sage leaves
- 1 stick fresh, finely chopped rosemary
- 1 tsp paprika
- 3 tbsp butter
- 1 can pickled jalapeno Use juice only. You can fill the jar back up with equal parts vinegar and water to replace the juice.
- Salt + pepper to taste
- Sour cream for serving
- French bread or saltines for serving
Instructions
- Make rough over medium heat by browning flour and oil on stove until rough is a light brown color and smells like popcorn. Stir continuously to prevent burning.
- Sauté in the same pot the onion, carrots, celery, cook 5 minutes or until onions are clear. Push vegetables to one side of the pan to brown beef in same pan.
- Brown the beef by putting beef in pan for 2 minutes on each side. To not touch meat other than to flip after 2 minutes. Stir the vegetables and rough mixture to prevent burning as needed.
- Add beef, rough vegetable mixture, potatoes, tomato paste, Worcestershire, herbs, canned tomatoes, date sugar, paprika, butter, jalapeño juice, broth, salt and pepper to the slow cooker.
- Cover and simmer 2-4 hours on high until beef is very tender and potatoes are soft.
- To thicken: cook more rough and mix with juice from slow cooker until well combined and no chunks are present. Then add to pot.
- To thin out: add more broth
- Serve with sour cream, French bread and/or saltine crackers