Stew Is a Must

If you missed the adventures we had with hail and the storms, you can read them here. The last few weeks have been pretty crazy weather wise, and we’ve all gotten sick as well. The day I made stew, I didn’t even taste it as I turned sick so fast it was the last thing I even wanted to look at.
 The great thing about stew though is, there’s plenty of leftovers and it’s probably even better the next day! It warmed up so good, it was like heaven when I finally got a bowl of it. Warm, hearty and tasty it warmed up a chilly day and fed this Mom well enough to stay on her feet while the whole house was sick.

That’s the thing about stews or soups, you have everything in one place, your vegetables, your meats, your power packed broth. They say Chicken soup cures colds, no doubt it does it’s magic, but I thing Beef Stew holds it’s own as well.

The other thing about stews I’ve come to learn is there’s really no wrong way to do them. Recipes are the base of any meal of course, same as stews. There’s honestly no right or wrong way to do them  I have no idea how you can screw it up either.

This is Wild Mushroom Beef Stew , cooked in a slow (7qt) cooker for about 6 hrs on high. I’m taking a guess on servings, but we can feed our family of 6 plus have about 5 more servings for left-overs depending on what everyone eats. Either way, adjust it to your own family, use less meat, broth and vegetables for your family size.

2-3lbs Roast trimmed and  cut into cubes (or just use stew meat )
8 small to medium potatoes cubed
1 large onion chopped
3-4 med. stalks of celery chopped
2-3 garlic gloves minced
1lb wild mushrooms
1-2 cups chopped carrots
3-4cups Beef Broth
2 sprigs of Fresh Thyme ,
parsley
1-2 Bay Leaf
Pepper to taste
Butter
Flour
* Corn Starch or Flour for thickening the stew

Place chopped carrots, and potatoes into slow cooker. Take about 2 tablespoons of butter into a hot skillet, add mushrooms and thyme and cook, until golden brown (about 10 minutes) Transfer to slow cooker.  Keeping the skillet hot add garlic (more butter if needed) and onions to cook until slightly tender. Transfer to slow cooker and cook the celery the same way till slightly tender, transfer to slow cooker.

Dip the beef cubes in flour and add to the same hot skillet to just brown on it’s sides. Transfer to slow cooker until all the beef is browned. Turn the skillet off. Add about a cup of the beef broth to the hot skillet and scrap any dripping and pieces off all sides and bottom,  and add to the slow cooker. Add more broth , but don’t add enough to cover everything. While this cooks it’ll make extra juice itself, so just add enough that the tops of everything is still peeks out. Add bay leaf and pepper (to taste)  Cook in slow cooker for 5-6 hours on Med. Depending on your slow cooker adjust the time. 
* About an hour before it was done I wanted it to be a little thicker and added 2-3 tablespoons of corn starch. Just sprinkle and stir it in really well and cover again to finish cooking. You can even add the corn starch or flour to the hot skillet while your scraping the pan with broth if you wanted.

Serve with rice and fresh parsley.

Enjoy!!