Recipe Notes: Hearty Beef and Vegetable Stew

14 April 2019

Recipe from America's Test Kitchen

We like beef stew and recently had slow-cooker beef Burgundy, a very good dish with deep, beefy flavor and a smooth, rich sauce. However, unlike traditional American beef stew, it doesn't have much in the way of vegetables. On a recent episode of America's Test Kitchen I saw a vegetable-rich version that looked good. I made it one Sunday, how would it compare to the beef Burgundy?

I had more beef than the recipe specified so I increased the other ingredients accordingly. Making the stew included several prep sessions alternating with cooking. Ingredients were added at different times so nothing would be overcooked when the stew was done. Most of the 4 hours, 20 minutes total time was hands off. The majority of the prep time, 1 hour 10 minutes, came at the beginning. Boneless beef chuck was trimmed of hard fat, cut into 1½-inch pieces, seasoned, patted dry, and browned in a Dutch oven. The beef was removed and a large portobello mushroom, cut into ½-inch pieces, was cooked then browned in the pot. Vegetable oil and diced onions were cooked until softened then garlic and fresh thyme were added. Next, flour and tomato paste were stirred in and cooked until the flour was lightly browned. Red wine, beef broth, and chicken broth were stirred in. Bay leaves and the beef were added and the Dutch oven was placed in a 300° oven. After an hour, red potatoes, carrots, and parsnips were added and cooked until tender. Chopped kale was then added and cooked about 10 minutes. Finally, chopped parsley and frozen peas were added and cooked for about 10 minutes.

I thought the stew as okay but I missed the deep beefy flavor that I had enjoyed recently with the beef Burgundy. I also dislike kale so that flavor in the stew was not pleasant for me. Diane liked the inclusion of parsnips but thought the beef chunks were too large, something she often notes for ATK stews, as they should be bite size and not need to be cut up to eat. We only have stew like this once or  With the shortcomings, and poor comparison with the excellent beef Burgundy, I will probably not make this again.