Beef Stew Spectacular

After chunking a batch of beef stock that turned out watery, I looked up a recipe to realize you need 6 lbs of beef +bones to make 2 quarts of stock. Broth will do thank you.

Beef Stew
250 degrees is the perfect temp for spoon-tender stew beef. The flour thickens the broth to a "Campbell's Chunky Soup" consistency which I happen to love.

1.5 lbs stew beef

1 onion

4 carrots

2 celery

2 small turnips

1 russet potato

1 pkg frozen peas

1 tbsp tomato paste

1/4 cup flour

3 cups beef broth (Pacific)

4 sprigs thyme

1 tbsp parsley, finely chopped

1/2 c robust red wine

Chop everything for mix en place during naptime.

Turn on Sesame Street. Pat meat dry, salt and pepper and brown in a dab of oil in a heavy dutch oven on medium high heat. Brown, meaning don't touch it for at least 5-6 min per side. Get it good and caramelized. Remove to plate with tongs. Add diced carrots, celery, and onion. Sweat for 5 min. Stir in tomato paste. Add flour and cook for 5 min to get out raw flour taste. Deglaze with wine. Scrape hard on the brown bits. Add meat back and add enough broth to barely cover meat. Add turnips Throw it in the 250 degree oven for 1 hour. Add potato and return for 1 more hour. Check everything for tenderness. Make kids dinner in microwave.

Pour wine and remove from oven while husband puts kid #2 to bed and add peas and parsley. Salt and pepper. Return to oven for 10 min. Switch off oven if kid fails to get to bed in a timely fashion. Add some french bread to warm in oven.

The low temp keeps the veg from getting mushy while the rest of the house goes to chaos. Case in point: We had to remove a door knob after I locked my son's toys in "time out" earlier in the afternoon because the cats were crying for their dinner which was also locked inside. Uf. But then the stew was lovely.