Beef and Mushroom Stew

It is finally starting to feel like fall here in Connecticut and I couldn't be more excited!!  Fall and spring are my favorite seasons.... and in the past few years fall has really been gaining an edge over spring!  Yesterday it was chilly enough to wear a cardigan (yay!), and sleep cozily under my comforter!  With fall comes some of my favorite things- Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks, Chrysanthemums, pumpkin carving, Halloween!, scary movies (my favorite kind!), cool sweater weather, and all kinds of soups and stews!  I don't make soup and stew as often as I'd like for dinners as my boyfriend is not the biggest fan, but I try to sneak them in occasionally.  I do make them often to bring to work for lunch though, so hopefully I'll be posting some good ones this season!  Recently I was perusing Pioneer Woman's website and I came upon her recipe for beef and mushroom stew- it seemed to me like a simplified recipe for beef bourguignon focusing just on the beef and mushroom aspect of it, and I just had to try it, so I added it to my menu for last week!  It was definitely a wonderful fall meal!

Beef and Mushroom Stew

from The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:

2 pounds beef stew meat

4 tbsp flour, divided

4 tbsp butter

2 tbsp olive oil

2 whole shallots, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

8 ounces mushrooms, cremini or white button, halved

1/2 cup red wine

1/2 can beef consomme (about 5.25 ounces)

5 ounces water

Salt and pepper to taste

2 sprigs fresh thyme

Pasta or rice for serving, or crusty bread (I used egg noodles)

Directions:

1. Sprinkle 2 tbsp of the flour over the meat, and toss to coat.

2. Place a heavy pot (preferably a dutch oven) over medium-high heat and add the butter and olive oil.  When melted, sear the meat in batches. Turning to brown all sides. Once brown, remove to a plate, and continue browning meat until all is seared.

3. Reduce the heat to medium-low, and add the shallots and garlic. Saute for 2 minutes.  Add the mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes.  Add the wine, consomme and water.  Add salt and pepper to taste, and stir together.  Bring the stew to a boil, and then add the meat back in.  

4. Reduce the heat to low.  Add the thyme to the stew. Cover and simmer for 30-45 minutes.

5. Mix the remaining 2 tbsp flour with a little bit of water, and add to the stew.  Cook the stew another 10 minutes to allow it to thicken a bit.

6. Turn off the heat, and allow the the stew to sit for 15 to 20 minutes before serving.

7. While the stew is resting, cook your pasta or rice (if using).

Notes:

• PW's recipe calls for beef stew meat which is what I bought for my stew and it was okay, but a little tough.  She actually says that most stew meat is usually sirloin, but mine was not, so I'd suggest seeking out sirloin and cutting it into chunks yourself if your local store doesn't carry sirloin stew meat.
• In PW's recipe she left the mushrooms whole, but I decided to cut them in half so that there would be more mushrooms per bite!  Cremini mushrooms, since they are meatier, would be best for this recipe, but I used white button mushrooms as they were on sale, and they were delicious as well.

A Memorial Day Meal: Part 1

Finally, the long awaited post on just what I made for Memorial Day- I know you've been desperately awaiting this post :)

Since the grill has finally been put together (it only took about 2 years), I decided that I must cook something on it- something meaty and made for the grill.  I decided on a London Broil, because I figured it's one of the simplest things to make- and simple and delicious it was.  I have a tendency to overcook meat, and so I carefully researched just how much time I needed to cook this piece of meat for medium-rare.  The consensus I got was about 5 minutes per side over a hot fire, or 6-8 minutes per side over a medium fire.  I'm not up on the art of measuring just how hot my grill is yet- more research awaits me- but it seemed pretty hot, so I did 5 minutes on the first side, and 6 on the second, and then let it rest for about 5-10 minutes before slicing, and it turned out perfectly!

I wanted to make some sides to serve with the London Broil as well, so I went with a tomato, feta and cucumber salad that I saw on Annie's Eats recently, and this turned out to be the absolute best tomato salad I have ever had.  I also had 1 russet potato that I wanted to use up, and some heavy cream.  For the potato I ended up cutting it in smallish wedges, adding some spices, and roasting it in the oven, which didn't make a lot, but was enough with the the other sides... and with the cream I decided on some awesome cheddar cheese biscuits, with are probably the best biscuits I have ever made.  It was pretty hard to not wolf down all of them in one sitting- they are very rich though, so that's probably not such a good idea.

The main dish, the London Broil, will star in this post, and part 2 will have the recipes for the sides.

London Broil


Ingredients:
1 pound London Broil
Equal parts lemon juice, soy sauce and honey.  I used about a 1/2 cup of each.

Directions:
1.  Whisk together the lemon juice, soy sauce and honey in a container big enough to hold your meat.  I used an 8"x8" glass baking dish.  Make a few shallow cuts in your meat on each side (about 4-5 per side), and place meat in the dish with the marinade.  Marinate for a while, depending on how long you have.  A few hours is okay, but the longer the better.  I marinated mine for about 24 hours.  Turn at least once while marinating.
2. Grill the meat about 5-6 minutes per side for medium rare over a high fire, or 6-8 minutes over a medium fire.
3. Slice meat thinly and serve.

Notes:

• The marinade that I used is one that my mom and my grandmother have been using for London Broil for as long as I remember.  I actually have no idea where it came from, but if I get a source for the recipe I'll be sure to let you know.  I love this marinade though, it really couldn't be simpler, and is the perfect blend of sweet and sour.