I love beef stew. It's the thick, "stick to yer ribs" kind of stew. The only thing that should accompany a really good beef stew is a loaf of fresh baked bread. The only thing that should garnish the stew, in my world, is a couple of really great turns of your pepper-mill.
In this recipe, I build a foundation of strong flavors that will come through in an amazing chorus once it's been presented in your bowl.
Total time from start to finish was about five hours, with some cheating on the side. 1.) I stewed the dish in a crock-pot set on low. I had three hours and the veggies were still pretty tough. 2.) I moved everything to a large Dutch oven over the cook top and cranked up the heat for about an hour and a half. The result finished just fine, but the next time, I'll just keep everything in the crock-pot, and set it on High next time and leave it for four hours...
Face it; nobody likes cleaning the Dutch oven.
2 - 3 lb beef roast cap (cut in bit sized pieces)
1 1/2 C Teriyaki marinade sauce (I used Melissa's Teriyaki)
1/4 C chili sauce
1 lemon (zested and juiced)
1/2 C flour
2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp paprika
3 12 oz cans Low-Sodium V-8 vegetable juice cocktail
28 oz can extra-chunky tomato sauce
3 cloves garlic finely mince
1 C heaping chopped carrot (peeled and trimmed)
3/4 C celery
1 large sweet onion (chopped in large chunks)
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 C red potatoes (peeled, chunked and set aside)
Marinade:
After you've cut up the roast into bite sized pieces, assemble the marinade. Combine Teriyaki marinade, chili sauce, the lemon zest and juice and wisk it together until well blended. Add the meat pieces, cover and set aside for a minimum of 1 hour. (The longer...the better the flavor of the meat when it's served.)
Clean, rinse, chop all of the vegetables and the minced garlic after the meat has been marinating for a least an hour. In a large bowl, mixed the vegetables and the garlic well and set aside.
In a plastic zip-locked freezer bag, add the flour, salt, pepper and paprika. Heat a large sauce pan and add the canola oil. Using a spider, or a slotted spoon, pull the meat out of the marinade and add it to the freezer bag. Coat the meat with the flour mixture and add the pieces to a plate, adding more meat to the flour, etc. Once the floured meat has been done, add the pieces to the oiled skillet and sear all of the meat pieces. Flour cracklings, excess flour can be removed and thrown away.
While you're cooking the meat, add 1/3 of the raw vegetable mixture to the bottom of your crock-pot. Add some of the browned meat and then more of the vegetable mixture. Once you have three layers of both the meat and vegetable mixture, add the V-8 vegetable juice, the tomato sauce and the Worcestershire sauce.
Set the crock-pot on High and set aside.
After two and half hours, add the potatoes and stir them into the beef stew. Every half hour, stir the entire mixture deeply and smoothly and then leave it to continue to cook for another half hour. Vegetables should be firm but not raw and the meat will be tender and full of great flavor.
Garnish with freshly cracked black pepper. Serve with freshly baked loaf of garlic bread and a glass of chilled dry white wine.
Enjoy!!
