Beef Stew

Thought I'd drop on a quick recipe while I'm at it. Nothing warms the belly on a cold night like beef stew. With Spring here, I wanted to make up a good stew one last time before Summer hits. The best part of stew is its adaptive nature. A stew is whatever you have on hand to throw in the pot that day. It can also be cooked just as easy in a campfire as it can be on the stove. A cast iron dutch oven can make the trip from one to the other easy. Throw in today's meat, veggies and greens and you're good to go. 


Here's this week's recipe for beef stew. 




1/2 to a whole onion chopped up
Baby carrots (what ever amount you want)
Green beans with ends removed (what ever amount you want)
Mushrooms (handful or whatever)
1 can tomato sauce
1-2 lbs. grass-fed beef (I like london broil for this)

• Put all the veggies in the dutch oven
• Season with basil, oregano, herbs de provence, salt and pepper. 
• Add the tomato sauce
• Cut meat into little cubes. 
• Sear the meat in a cast iron with oil until browned. (Work in batches, don't crowd the skillet).
• Add cooked meat to dutch oven.   
• Add water (or wine) to the cast iron to get brown bits up and add to dutch oven. 

• Cook at 325 for about an hour and a half

I always cook some sweet potatoes in the cast iron skillet while I'm waiting for the stew to finish. Then I throw them on as a last minute topper. You can add them in with the stew, but they tend to liquify in a stew, and i like the texture of the crunchy fried potato on top.

Enjoy!