Winter Beef Stew: Bourguignon Style

Almost anytime I have gone to eat at restaurants in the winter, they will have some sort of heavy meat offering, whether it is a stew, pot pie, or a hunk of beef with root vegetables.  With the onset of the cold weather, one pot meals that are heavy is pretty common.  Local delicious vegetables are no longer available, so meat based dishes like this can fill your belly, but still be delicious.

What is good about a stew like this, you can easily modify this recipe to include or remove vegetables you don’t really like. This dish uses red wine and beef stock to braise and cook the meat and vegetables, so in a way, it is similar to a Beef Bourguignon.  Bourguignon is a very classic French Beef stew with meat braised in red wine.  I took the same approach, but did it the non-classic way, using a slow cooker.

Sadly, this post and meal isn’t really very appealing to the Vegetarian, but, for everyone else, you might try this as it takes very little work and could be done in one pot (or a crock pot, which is my method).  In the coming days I will post a one pot/crock pot dish that still would be great for the cold winter months that is totally vegetarian, so don’t worry!

Ingredients:
Makes about 4-6 servings – you can add more or less meat/veggies to serve more

~2 pounds chuck beef, cut into 1″ cubes (or bought already cut)
3 large carrots, sliced diagonally into 1/2″-1″ pieces
3 stalks celery, sliced into 1/2″-1″ pieces
1 pound potatoes, cubed
~ 1/2 pound pearl/boiling onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-3 cups beef stock (preferably low sodium)
1 bottle red wine
2 bay leaves
2-3 sprigs fresh thyme
2-3 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 cup all purpose flour
Fresh black pepper
1 cup frozen corn (preferably the Trader Joe’s roasted corn)
1 tablespoon oil (vegetable)

Place flour into small bowl. Heat oil in a large skillet or dutch oven over medium-high heat (if you plan to use that method instead of slow cooker). Pat meat dry and then dredge meat in flour and shake off excess. Cook meat, in batches to avoid crowding, in pan on all sides, about 5-7 minutes per batch. Remove from pan and set aside. Deglaze pan with 1/2 cup of wine, scraping up all the bits.

Add carrots, celery, garlic and potatoes to slow cooker and top with meat. Pour in and wine and bits from pan, plus add bay leaves, thyme, rosemary, season generously with pepper. Add beef stock until the liquid in the pot comes up to about the same level of the meat and vegetables. With about 1 hour left, add corn. Cook on low for 6-7 hours, or until beef is fork tender.

*If you don’t have a slow cooker, and prefer the dutch oven method, after you remove the meat from pan, deglaze with wine, add carrots, potatoes, celery, and garlic. Bring to a boil and then reduce to low. Add meat, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, season with pepper. Cook, covered, on a low simmer for 5-6 hours. Again, add corn with about 1 hour remaining.

Serve with crusty bread. Enjoy!