Recipe Tag!

Image via Miso Crafty

I have been tagged to play the recipe game by the lovely Kat.

The rules:

• I post a recipe here and tag four people.
• They choose an ingredient from my recipe and post a recipe using that ingredient on their blog, linking back to the previous blog that has posted the recipe.
• They then tag four new people and we'll see how it goes.
• To keep it exciting please post within a week of being tagged

The ingredient that I chose from Kat's recipe is fresh rosemary. If that doesn't count, then beef stock. The recipe that I chose is the Barefoot Contessa's Ina Garten's Parker's Beef Stew. I seriously love stews and soups, and if I could, I'd eat and live off of nothing but that. I have made this particular stew before and it was absolutely spectacular! I was the only one that ate it though, as Brett doesn't eat beef that isn't in hamburger form (don't ask, he's kinda weird that way). Oh well, more for me! At the start if the week the weather had been cold and rainy, all of which made me really crave a bowl of hearty stew. I'm thinking of dragging the Le Creuset out and making a huge batch of this so that I can freeze some for when those dreary days hit...and with fall around the corner, I'm sure that'll be soon.

Anyways, so here's the recipe, which you can also get from the House Beautiful website too.

The goods you'll be needing:

• 2 1/2 pounds good-quality chuck beef, cut into 1 1/4-inch cubes
• 1 (750 ml bottle) good red wine, such as Cabernet Sauvignon
• 3 whole garlic cloves, smashed
• 3 bay leaves
• 6 ounces bacon, cut in 1-inch pieces
• All-purpose flour
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Good olive oil
• 2 cups chopped yellow onions
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic (4 cloves)
• 1 pound carrots, peeled and cut diagonally in 1 1/2-inch chunks
• 1 pound small potatoes, halved or quartered
• 1 (14 1/2 ounce can) beef stock
• 1 large (2 small) branch fresh rosemary
• 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and sliced
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 (10-ounce) package frozen peas (not petits pois)

The deets:

1.  Place the beef, whole garlic, and bay leaves in a bowl with the red wine (I used enough wine to cover the beef completely...whatever was left over went straight into my mouth. Yes, I drank wine straight from the bottle...cause I'm classy like that!). Place in the fridge and marinate overnight.

2. The next day, preheat the oven to 300˚F.

3.  Brown the bacon in a large sauté pan for 5 to 7 minutes, over medium-low heat. With a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a Dutch oven. In a shallow bowl or in a pie plate, combine 2 cups of flour, 1 tablespoon salt, and 1 tablespoon pepper. Lift the beef out of the marinade and discard the bay leaves and garlic, saving the marinade. In batches, dredge the cubes of beef in the flour mixture and then shake off the excess. In the sauté pan, brown half the beef over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes, turning to brown evenly. Place the beef in the Dutch oven with the bacon and continue to brown the remaining beef, placing it all in the Dutch oven.

4. Lower the heat to medium-low, add the onions to the sauté pan and cook for 5 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the carrots and potatoes and cook for 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Place all the veggies in the Dutch ovenf. Add 2 1/2 cups of the reserved marinade (discard the rest - you can't drink it cause of the beef taking a bath in it) to the sauté pan and cook over high heat to deglaze the bottom of the pan, scraping up all the brown bits with a wooden spoon. Add the beef stock, rosemary, sun-dried tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, 1 tablespoon salt, and 2 teaspoons pepper. Pour the sauce over the meat and veggies and bring it to a simmer over medium heat on top of the stove. Cover the pot and place it in the oven for 2 hours, until the meat and vegetables are all tender, stirring once during cooking. If the stew is boiling rather than simmering, lower the heat to 250˚F or 275˚F.

5.  When the stew is done and the meat is tender, whisk 2 tablespoons of flour and 1 cup of the sauce together and pour it back into the stew. Simmer for 3 minutes, until thickened. Stir in the frozen peas, season to taste, and serve hot!

Et voilà!

I know it looks like a lot of work, but trust me...it's sooo worth it! Since Brett and I have discovered and are preferring the tastiness of bison, I'm thinking the next time I make this I'm going to try it with that instead of regular old beef. Mmm...I can taste it now...

Ok, so who to tag? I don't even know if I can tag 4 people, as all my friends have fashion or art related blogs and making a recipe post doesn't seem like their cup of tea. So I might be the party pooper here and only tag Steph. Just gotta remember to tell her that I tagged her...not unless you are reading this Steph...then tag! You are it!

But hey, if you are reading this and you have a blog, by all means, go ahead and play along!