I love fall so I was super excited to try this new recipe that just sounds like fall! A rich, hearty beef stew from the same place I got the yummy baked penne . Also, I was excited to cook with butternut squash for the first time! But you'll see how that turned out later - ha. This recipe was good, but could've been better with a few modifications for our family. More on that later! But it was perfect for a welcome to fall & perfect with ...cream biscuits!! It was also very good with potatoes that I'll post about later - you don't want to miss those!!
The original recipe called for lamb, but this was another option they suggested. Since beef is easier for this mama to stomach than lamb, we went with the beef version. My husband said he felt like he was eating dinner in England. That has to be a good thing, right??
For this stew, you'll need:
- 2 1/2 lb beef stew meat
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 6 oz. can tomato paste
- 1 14.5 oz can beef broth
- 1 cup chopped celery (about 2 stalks)
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, chopped
Rinse meat, pat dry. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, toss in flour, shake off excess.
Cook half of meat in 2 tbsp hot oil in Dutch Oven until browned. I don't have a Dutch Oven and thought I'd just use my big pan. If you have a Dutch Oven, use it! The yummy brown bits on the bottom would've worked better if I'd had a Dutch Oven :)
Repeat with remaining meat. Here's what my set up ended up looking like.
I returned all meat to pot, then added tomato paste. Cook 1 minute. Add beef broth, stir to loosen particles from bottom of pan (this is where having a Dutch Oven would've come in handy)
Transfer mixture to a 6 qt crockpot. This is where things were getting crazy in my kitchen. I know crockpots are supposed to make our life easier, but I'm not sure I'm on board that bandwagon!! It's just hard for me to get it together early enough to have it cook for X amount of hours. It's easier for me to just cook dinner right before we eat it. At this point, I'm throwing stuff in the crockpot at a fever pace, children are screaming, and I'm thinking, "This better be worth it!!" Sorry, I digress...
Stir in celery, onion, and garlic.
Then came the squash (that's right, it wasn't over yet!! I think I have issues with this recipe...). I cut it open and seeded it with a spoon. This process was easier than peeling the squash. I wasn't quite sure what the best course of action was to peel it, so I just used the same knife that I chopped it up with.
Butternut Squash went right on top (don't stir in).
Cover and cook on LOW 4 1/2 hours or until meat is tender.
Sidenote: it was at this point I noticed my hands were burning. From the squash. I'm allergic to cantaloupe and this squash had a very similar smell to cantaloupe. So that was first red flag. Then once I chopped it up my hands started burning. Second red flag. Then I tried some of the stew, had a giant allergy attack. Had to get out the Benadryl. Good times. Next time I plan to use potatoes instead of squash. But that's just me. Anywho...
It did look super yummy and fall appropriate - especially with the cream biscuits! If only I hadn't had the allergy attack it would've been perfect ;)
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