Beef Stew

Cold weather and a hot pot of beef stew. There’s nothing better than comfort food. And what’s better than a one pot main dish? I love to cook and bake. But I hate the clean up afterwards. If it can be made in one pot, you bet I’ll be the first to jump at that recipe. After a day of running around in the cold, a bowl of hearty stew sounded especially good. I happened to have a good assortment of vegetables on hand, but this can be made with just potatoes and carrots if you like. Add or omit vegetables to your taste.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 pounds beef stew meat
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 onion diced
• 2 carrots diced
• 1 stalk celery diced
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1/2 cup sliced yellow squash
• 1/2 cup sliced zucchini
• 2 cups red potatoes diced into 1-2 inch chunks
• 1 can 15 oz tomato sauce
• 1 carton 32 oz beef broth
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 tablespoon anise seed (not star anise cloves)
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning (basil, oregano and thyme mix)
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 cup cold water

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a dutch oven or large pot with lid add olive oil and turn heat to high. When oil ripples, carefully add stew meat to pot and stir until meat is browned, but not cooked through. (About 1 minute)
2. Add onions, carrots, celery and mushrooms and sauté with stew meat for 1 minute.
3. Add tomato sauce, beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, and wine and stir.
4. Add garlic powder, salt, pepper, anise seed and Italian seasoning and stir well.
5. Turn heat to low, cover and simmer for 1 hour.
6. After an hour of simmering, turn heat back up to medium high and add potatoes, stir and let cook for 20 minutes.
7. During the last 5 minutes of potatoes cooking in the stew, add yellow squash and zucchini and stir into stew.
8. Make a slurry in a small bowl using the cornstarch and cold water. Add to stew and stir. The slurry will thicken up the sauce to make it more of a gravy consistency.
9. Once sauce has thickened, your stew is ready. One pot and small bowl to clean. Not a bad deal for the hour plus cooking time you had to wait.

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