It’s no secret that my man can cook. He has this little recipe book that he keeps notes in; Jed’s that serious about his fixin’. So, I had to ask special permission to peek into his sacred tome and publish this delicious stew recipe, which we’ve been enjoying for the past two nights…

It’s a fantastic holiday dish, and serves a small dinner party of 4-6 people. Also, stew makes great leftovers because the ingredients “get to know each other” more the longer they sit together.

Stew (Meat + Potato Version)

Prepare this recipe in a dutch oven (we use cast iron). During preheating, put a shallow roasting pan on the bottom rack to catch inevitable drips. The total baking time is 2 hours, though the longer it goes the more tender the beef becomes.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp butter
2 medium onions, chopped
2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
S+P (that’s his shorthand for salt and pepper)
6 potatoes (2 thinly sliced to help thicken stew, 4 halved to add soft bite)
3 cups chicken stock
1/2 tsp Worcestershire
8 medium carrots (sliced diagonally, not too thinly)
1/4 cup pearly Barley (aka pearl barley)
1/4 cup heavy cream
3 lbs cubed stew beef

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F
2. On stove top, melt butter in Dutch Oven.
3. Add onions. Soften but do not brown.
4. Stir in meat, thyme, S+P to taste. Once mixed, continue to next step.
5. Add in 2 potatoes (sliced thin), chicken stock and Worcestershire. Stir, then go on.
6. Add 4 halved potatoes (for soft bite), cover, and bake for 1 hour.
7. Stir in carrots, barley, and cream.
8. Bake until tender; about 1 more hour (can go longer).
9. Serve with hearty bread.

Enjoy! If you want to see other Herzog creations, just visit the Photos page.

Please comment with questions and I’ll ask Jed for the answers.

Tags: holiday meal, recipe, stew recipe

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 at 11:50 am and is filed under family, foodie. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.