Archive for the ‘Spanish Beef Stew’ Category

This recipe originally came from Clarita Garcia, author of Clarita’s Cocina Cookbook.  She was a mentor to us all, truly gifted.  Over the years, I have made a few changes here and there but it still belongs to Clarita!

Ingredients:

Flour

S and P

2 #’s chuck, cut in 1.5 inch cubes (I use a bit more meat)

1/8 cup olive oil

1 large onion chopped (vidalia or spanish or 1 container chopped)

1 medium green pepper chopped (or 1/2 container)

4 garlic cloves pressed

1 large ripe tomato, peeled, seeded and chopped(easiest to peel if dropped in boiling water for a couple of seconds)

1/2 cup finely chopped celery

2 bay leaves

pinch nutmeg

1 teaspoon brown sugar

2 cups beef stock or broth (if you use can and it is condensed then only 1 can)

3 or 4 carrots, peeled and cut in 1/4’s

4 red potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 or 2 pints  fresh mushrooms, sliced (Cook them beforehand in skillet w/ some olive oil spray and remove to plate)

1/2 cup red wine

wash and pat dry meat.  Mix flour with s and p.  Dredge meat in flour.  Heat oil in larger covered skillet and brown meat well. Remove meat and put on plate for now. Add onion to the skillet and saute until clear.  Add the green pepper and garlic and  saute until onion seems soft.  Add the tomato, celery, bay leaf,  and nutmeg.  Cook until all vegetables are soft. (maybe 10 minutes or so)   Add meat back to skillet.  Combine sugar and stock or broth and add to skillet.  Stir to mix well, bring to boil.  Cover, reduce heat to low and cook for about an hour. Check seasoning and add whatever it needs.  Add carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, wine and some water, if necessary and stir, bringing to boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover and cook about 45 minutes, until potatoes and carrots are done.

I will have to say that this recipe is a little more involved than others.  It is easy as it does not require any high levels of culinary training but it’s more time consuming.  This is why I usually add more meat to it.. to get more food out of my time investment.  It is just delicious.  Serve over white rice, a must.  Yum!!!