Slow Cooker Rosemary Garlic Beef Stew

This is the best beef stew I’ve ever made. Adapted from Budget Bytes.

Prep about 45 minutes. Cook 4 hours. Makes about 10 cups. Serve with a great bread.

Ingredients

  • 1⁄2 lb carrots (4 medium)
  • 1⁄2 sleeve celery (3 or 4 stalks)
  • 1 medium onion
  • 2 lb red potatoes
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 4 cloves garlic (minced)
  • 1.5 lb beef stew meat
  • salt and pepper
  • 1⁄4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups beef broth
  • 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
  • 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1⁄2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1⁄2 tbsp dried rosemary
  • 1⁄2 tsp thyme

Instructions

  1. Dice the onion and slice the carrots and celery. Wash the potatoes well and cut them into one-inch cubes. Place the onion, carrots, celery, and potatoes into a large slow cooker.
  2. Place the stew meat in a large bowl and season liberally with salt and pepper. Add the flour and toss the meat until it is coated. Set the floured meat aside.
  3. Heat the olive oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Saute the garlic in the hot oil for about one minute, or until soft and fragrant. Add the floured meat and all the flour from the bottom of the bowl to the skillet. Let the beef cook without stirring for a few minutes to allow it to brown on one side. Stir and repeat until most or all sides of the beef pieces are browned. Add the browned beef to the slow cooker and stir to combine with the vegetables.
  4. Return the skillet to the burner and turn the heat down to low. Add the beef broth, Dijon, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, rosemary, and thyme to the skillet. Stir to combine the ingredients and dissolve the browned bits from the bottom of the skillet. Once everything is dissolved off the bottom of the skillet, pour the sauce over the ingredients in the slow cooker. The sauce will not cover the contents of the slow cooker, but it’s okay — more moisture will be released as it cooks.
  5. Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook on high for four hours.
  6. After four hours, remove the lid and stir the stew, breaking the beef into smaller pieces as you stir. Taste the stew and adjust the salt if needed. Serve hot as is, or over a bowl of rice or pasta.

Three Layer Cornbread

This was first published in The Tassajara Bread Book in 1970, and I have been making it ever since.

Baker Edward Espe Brown writes, “Discovered quite by accident; one batter makes three layers. The corn meal settles. The bran rises. In the middle an egg-custardy layer. Easy! Glorious! Amazing!” Maybe a bit of hyperbole.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup corn meal (medium or coarse ground)
  • 1⁄2 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1⁄2 cup unbleached white flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1⁄2 tsp salt
  • 1 egg
  • 1⁄4 – 1⁄2 cup brown sugar or honey (I use 1⁄4 cup)
  • 1⁄4 cup canola oil
  • 3 cups milk (soy or almond milk are fine)

Instructions

  1. Combine wet ingredients. Stir in dry ingredients. It will be very watery. Pour into a greased 8×11″ Pyrex pan.
  2. Bake at 350 degrees for 40+ minutes or until it rises and top looks set. Refrigerate any leftovers.

Pan-fried butter beans

Butter beans are a southern classic. By classic I mean 5,000 B.C. and by southern I mean Peru. They’re also one of my mom’s favorites, but I didn’t grow to love them until a few years ago when I snuck into a show and heard Cornbread & Butter Beans. With the song stuck in my head, I began cooking them up the next day.

I’ve since tried them creamed, with tomatoes & peppers, and also plain with a bit of salt & pepper, but my favorite is pan fried. It’s something I can whip up in 20 minutes, and low-maintenance enough to prepare veggies & cornbread at the same time for a quick, complete dinner.

The beans are dry, so if you’re having them with other dry dishes you may want to moisten them up with some diced tomatoes.

You also have to listen to the song when they’re cooking.

I’ve yet to find my ideal cornbread recipe, if you have one, please contribute!

Crinkly crackly beans with simple herbs and spices.

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 can butter beans (15 oz, drained, rinsed and patted dry)
  • 2 cloves garlic (peeled and bruised)
  • 3 sprigs fresh rosemary (or thyme, cilantro, any fresh herb)
  • 2 pinches red pepper flakes
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

Instructions

  1. Heat olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-low heat. Cook and stir beans (be gentle, you don’t want to squish them) into hot oil until the skins are golden and crispy, about 10 minutes.
  2. Stir garlic, rosemary, red pepper flakes, salt, and black pepper into beans; continue cooking until crispy, about 5 minutes.
  3. Drizzle vinegar over the beans and toss.

Notes

  • Recipe found on Food Wishes, by Chef John.
  • As for the health effects of frying in olive oil, I found this post informative but inconclusive.