hi guys I'm Laura Vitale on this episode
of Laura in the kitchen I'm gonna show
you how to make beef stew now I don't
know if you can kind of tell by my voice
but I'm feeling a little under the
weather today I haven't been feeling so
go to the past few days so I needed to
make myself something that was just
comforting I could eat it pretty much
for the next two to three days keep it
in the fridge and just keep reheating it
it's gonna like you know nurse me back
to health so before we get started let's
go over the ingredients you're gonna
need some stirring me and I'm just
choosing to use a chuck roast for this I
think it works best but you can use
whatever you like what I've got here is
an array of vegetables I've got some
carrots onions potatoes celery and it's
a little bit fresh garlic and I just
peel them wash them cut them into large
chunks I like my veggies to be the same
size as my meat but that's up to you
I've got some beef broth some frozen
peas that I have defrosting a little bit
of red wine some tomato paste fresh
thyme fresh rosemary some dried bay
leaves a little all-purpose flour
you don't need olive oil salt and pepper
those are your ingredients now a stew is
very different than to say you know
baking a stew you can do whatever you
want you can pull it everyone in it so
if you don't like to use the wine don't
use the wine put a little bit extra
stock if you don't like as many veggies
as I do put it all the less you know
it's a stupe you know do what you want
you're the boss now what I've got here
is a few tablespoons of olive oil and
I've got this going over high heat now
this is so important because a big big
part of what's going to give us a lot of
flavor is that we are actually going to
caramelize the meat we're going to brown
and really well on all sides and we're
gonna do that by making sure we have
gotten the olive oil really nice and hot
I'm just gonna wait a couple seconds
because I don't think it's hot enough um
I wanted to smoke a little bit
and now really important we're going to
season it with salt and pepper and then
I'm going to let this cook for about
five to seven minutes I want all sides
to be really stark caramelized so do
that cook it for however long it takes
until I go around my meat is nicely
browned and I'm just taking it out of
the pan here I'm gonna leave in all
those remaining meaty juices now if you
want you can drain them and then just
add some fresh olive oil but I don't
want I don't want to do that because
there's so much you didn't want to be a
part of this party
so you flew away oh well see I don't
think that draining that makes sense
because there's so much flavor in there
I'm going to use that so I am so to this
he's going to add in all of my veggies
carefully so they don't go overboard
whoa just like that and then I'm going
to season these with salt and a little
pepper by seasoning every element of the
dish it comes out really well-rounded
give that a nice wait a black pepper I'm
going to let these cook for about five
minutes or so or until they start to
develop some color that's what you're
looking for when it comes to your
veggies now to this you need to add in
some flour because you need to develop a
thickening agent so that your beef stew
is stew and not soup so I'm going to
sprinkle in some flour and then what I'm
going to do is I'm going to stir
constantly for about two minutes or
until I've cooked out that raw flour
taste after that wasn't add in some red
wine and I'm gonna just give this a good
stir scrape off any bottom at the bottom
of any brown bits because that's all
good flavor and then you're just going
to let it reduce for a minute add on
your tomato paste just give that a stir
at this point we're going to put in oops
you're going to put it in your beef
stock and make sure that when you buy
these back at the store you buy one
that's reduced sodium or low sodium
because you don't want any excess you
know a lot of salt
can overpower your dish and then you end
up everything to throw the whole thing
away and then you're going to put in
herbs and for the bay leaves you can use
fresh or dry whatever you've got I
always have dry on hands so I choose to
use the dry and now you're going to just
bring this up to a boil and then we'll
put in the meat just going to slide your
brown meat right back in your disturb
you put your lid on turn it down to low
and let it cook for two and a half hours
and then just cut you know check on it
give it a little TLC but for two and a
half hour you're a free woman my beef
stew cooked for about two and a half
hours covered although now it took the
lid off turn the heat up to about
medium-high now I'm going to add in my
peas that I've been defrosting so
they're nice and tender and they're only
going to need about three minutes just
to warm all the way through and this is
the perfect time for you to taste it and
adjust the seasoning and give it of the
Bailey's because they never get soft so
just let it cook for a couple minutes
and then we'll stir it up it's looking
good
I'm just going to turn it off and that
smells like you would not believe how
good that smells it's amazing it's
really thick got good color
it's what beets do should be and you can
just wait look at that it's perfect I
don't like when beef stews got a lot of
liquid because it's beef soup not beef
stew
I'll give this a taste I made a piece of
the meat and some of the sauce
mm no it's good if that's not gonna risk
me back to health and nothing else can
and like I said you can put this what I
do I mean it's my husband and I and this
is a big part of it so what I do is I
take it and I sir and I put it into like
freezer safe supply bags and I portion
it out for two people put them in the
freezer that way if it's like the middle
of the week and you don't have time to
make dinner or you're craving something
that takes a long time to cook but you
just don't have the time you have it
like in portions are they you can
default it in like minutes that's it I
hope you enjoy spending time with me go
to www.hsn
and I'll see you in the next one bye bye